Card of the Day: Wall of Denial

When I was opening up my packs for the Alara Reborn two headed giant prerelease I happened on this card and was very pleased to see that it fit into the esper deck that I was currently constructing. It is a pretty powerful card because of its relatively low cost and powerful abilities. It is also somewhat abusable though not as much as yesterday's card (Path to Exile). It only has one big drawback: defender. But since it is a 0/8 it really wouldn't be that much better of a card without it. It's also hard to remove because of shroud so unless they counter it when you play it, its most likely not going anywhere.

Strengths
-Low mana cost (CMC=3)
-8 Toughness
-Flying
-Shroud (Doesn't die to path :):):))

Weaknesses
-0 Power
- Defender (though as mentioned before there is little this card could do even if it could shed this ability)

Ways to Abuse:
-Reveillark- This card can be brought back with your lark and it fits with the coloration of most popular Lark decks
-Play early against pretty much any aggro deck in the current meta and they will have a hard time getting past it

Overall a very fun card to play and I'm glad I managed to get it in one of my packs during the prerelase (saved my ass more than once!)

(Picture Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast inc.)

Card of the Day: Path to Exile

So I really didn't get off to a very good start with my daily "Card of the Day" posts but I'm going to attempt to keep up with it better in the future. Anyway, on to today's card: Path to Exile! Arguably one of the most powerful cards in the current standard. For just one white mana you can permanently remove a creature from the game. At instand speed!! In a standard dominated by decks running white as one of their colors I just have one word for this card: Overpowered! While there is the inevitable drawback of letting the creature's controller fetch a basic land and put it into play it is still a rediculously strong card. You can actually use this to your advantage with a card like Knight of the White Orchid. Aggro and control decks are actually having their mana bases altered to include basic lands just because of this one card!

Strengths:

-Low mana cost (W)

-Instant speed

-Creature is removed from game

-White card in a standard dominated by decks running white spells

-Highly Abusable

Weaknesses:

-Gives land advantage to opponent

-Can only run 4 of them per deck :P

Ways to Abuse:

-Knight of the White Orchid: Path their creature and then play the Knight nulling the land advantage of your opponent!

-Tidehollow Sculler: Path your Sculler as it comes into play. It's leaves play ability goes on the stack above its comes into play ability before you even look at your opponents hand. This allows you to permanently remove a non-land card in your opponents hand from the game and get land advantage at the same time!

-Reveillark: Path your own Lark to get it to leave play quickly and gain land advantage at the same time!

(Picture Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast inc.)

Card of the Day: Glassdust Hulk

I've decided to do a post each day that highlights a card that I have either found an interesting use for or just find terribly interesting! After a little deliberation I decided to make the first post about the card featured above: Alara Reborn's Glassdust Hulk. When I first saw the card I noted that if properly abused it has the potential of being extremely powerful and with its cycling ability along with prevalent artifact/graveyard interaction in the current standard it can be an amazing utility card as well!

Strengths:
- 4 Toughness = Doesn't die to most damage-based removal
- 3 Power = When it is unblockable it actually hits pretty hard
- Cycling = Gains card advantage through hybrid cycling ( This also makes it a potential recursion target once it hits the yard)

Weaknesses:
- Dies to Path :P ;)
-Relatively high mana cost (though we will probably never actually pay it)

Ways to Abuse:
- Master Transmuter : Bounce and play artifacts to boost the Hulk and make it unblockable
- Sharuum the Hegemon : Cycle it and then put it into play with Sharuum's ability
-Sanctum Gargoyle : Cycle the Hulk and then return it to your hand to repeat the process. (Even more abusable if coupled with Master Transmuter to bounce the Gargoyle in and out of play)
-Scarecrone: Cycle and then use Scarecrone's ability to put it into play gaining a powerful creature and card advantage for only 5 mana!
-Makeshift Mannequin: Cycle for card advantage and then put the Hulk into play at instant speed!

Overall a very powerful and abusable card that I will enjoy using in my Transmutation deck (see earlier post). I am also excited to see the other ways it can be used and abused that I haven't thought of yet!

(Picture Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast inc.)