Quickie Time!

Since I haven't been keeping the site up-to-date lately sorry about that, legal stuff going on IRL), I figure I'd put up a few quickie reviews today. 

 Guided Strike

Not a bad combat trick, especially with the cantrip. Pretty good for its cost.

Pros: Decent combat trick, cantrip

Cons: Only gives +1/+0

Rating: 3.5/5

Withstand

A bad combat trick, even with the cantrip. Pretty weak for its cost.

Pros: Cantrip, Dawnfluke

Cons: Costs 3

Rating: 0/5

Flight

Does what it says on the package. No bonuses, just flying.

Pros: Gives flying

Cons: Gives no other bonuses

Rating: 2/5

Guard Gomazoa

Pretty boss blocker. Dies too easily to removal, but is still a great chump.

Pros: Amazing blocker

Cons: Fairly removable

Rating: 3/5

Ogre Savant

A wee bit too expensive for a conditional Unsummon on a 3/2 in my opinion. Okay in Limited, but that's about it.

Pros: Unsummon of a dude

Cons: Unsummon is conditional, 3/2 for 5

Rating: 1.5/5

Black Lotus

Pretty good. Bad top deck if you have no cards in hand.

Pros: 3 mana for 0

Cons: Kind of pricey, bad top deck

Rating: 5/5

Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore

We need more Eye creatures. Not that great since it's basically just unblockable, but locks your creatures out from attacking and it's only 3 damage. Fun to Donate.

Pros: Basically unblockable

Cons: Locks your own creatures, 3/6 for 5

Rating: 2/5

More Quickies!

Yeah, so in order to compensate you guys for putting up with my lack of regular reviews, I decided to do a fairly large number of quickies today. Hope this makes up for it!

Crusade

Yup, it's a cheap anthem. Can't really say much else about it except for the fact that it effects all white creatures, not just your own, so it can kind of be a double-edged sword.

Pros: White anthem

Cons: Universal anthem

Rating: 2.5/5

Dwarven Pony

Yay! A way to give Mutavault mountainwalk! Seriously though, there exists a slim number of cards that this works for, so it's really not that good.

Pros: Gives a Dwarf mountainwalk

Cons: Only gives 1 Dwarf mountainwalk until end of turn

Rating: 1/5

Horned Troll

Yup, this is a card. It's decent in drafts, but otherwise "meh".

Pros: Regenerates

Cons: No evasion

Rating: 2.5/5

Divine Transformation

Another "meh" card. +3/+3 on an Aura for 4 isn't terrible for white. Again, good in drafts, lacking elsewhere.

Pros: +3/+3 for 4

Cons: The artwork lies to you

Rating: 2.5/5

Flashfires

Screw you white decks. That's pretty much all I can say about this.

Pros: Hoses white decks

Cons: Only hoses white decks

Rating: 3/5

Balm of Restoration

3 mana for a worse Healing Salve? Uh, no thanks. And, believe it or not, this is a rare. Goes to show how little WotC knew about the game's meta when they first started out (to be fair though, most games start out like that).

Pros: Prevents 2 damage or gains 2 life, colourless

Cons: Thrice the cost of a Healing Salve

Rating: 0/5

Aura Graft

I love the original text of this card! Other than that, it's pretty decent, especially since you not only move the Aura, but you also gain control of it. And, it's Instant speed, which is always nice.

Pros: Steal and move an Aura

Cons: Only moves Auras

Rating: 3/5

Scavenging Ghoul

Interesting mechanic and it's not a terrible card. This is a mechanic that I'd like to see on more creatures in the near future.

Pros: Gets multiple regeneration chances

Cons: Needs a creature to die per regeneration, 2/2 for 4

Rating: 2.5/5

Order of the Sacred Torch

Pretty damn good card. A 2/2 for 3 with a really good ability, especially in white and despite the life requirement. Not bad.

Pros: Counter magic in white

Cons: Only counters black spells, requires life investment

Rating: 4/5

Show of Valor

Save a baby; get s defense buff. This has saved a few of my creatures in draft and sealed games, but otherwise it's not that great. Would have much preferred +4/+2 for 3.

Pros: Sizeable toughness boost at Instant-speed, okay power boost at Instant-speed

Cons: Marginally useful outside of draft/sealed

Rating: 2/5

Fear

Yup, it gives Fear. Not extremely bad on a 2-drop, but not great either. Would have rather seen it on a 1-drop (such as in Gruesome Deformity).

Pros: Gives Fear

Cons: 2-drop, double black

Rating: 1.5/5

Lead Astray

Gets rid of blockers and prevents attacking I guess. Again, another card that's good in drafts, but terrible in constructed.

Pros: Taps two creatures for 2, Instant-speed

Cons: Only taps two creatures, useless outside draft/sealed

Rating: 2.5/5

A few quickies

Today, to make up for my lack of recent posts (yay working 8 days in a row), I'm going to shoot off a bunch of quick, little reviews. Mainly, these will be some of the ones I can't really stretch into a full paragraph.

Steam Blast

It's a Pyroclasm for one more that hits players. Not bad, but I'd prefer to be faster than to hit players, since my creatures won't have many blockers early game with a properly-timed Pyroclasm.

Pros: Hits everything for 2

Cons: Hits caster, not much added value over Pyroclasm

Rating: 2.5/5

Equal Treatment

This can stop things like Blasphemous Act dead in its tracks, but it's really too situational to putting it in a deck. Yeah, it can reduce the damage taken in combat, but a) it reduces the damage your blockers deal too and b) run Fog instead. I guess it could be used with tokens to deal more damage, but there are much, much more effective ways of doing that. In my opinion, run Divine Presence instead in Constructed.

Pros: Stops massive burn spells, card draw

Cons: Fairly situational, double-edged sword

Rating: 1.5/5

Sylvan Yeti

A less vulnerable Maro. Wish this had evasion. Still, not a terrible 4-drop.

Pros: Less vulnerable Maro

Cons: No evasion

Rating: 2/5

Peace Talks

Great card if you can cast it in response to a Time Stretch or on someone else's turn in a multiplayer game. Even if you can't, this can be a really useful card as a last cast in your turn, despite the fact that it may prevent you from dealing with problems that arise on the next turn.

Pros: Protects everything for two turns

Cons: Could prevent you from dealing with problems

Rating: 3.5/5

Pardic Lancer

This isn't bad enough to make fun of, but it's still bad. It's that special kind of bad that makes you sad that it exists.

Pros: Potential to get first strike and +1/+0

Cons: Discard at random for ability, 3/2 for 5

Rating: 0.5/5