Illus. Terese Nelson
©1998 Wizards of the Coast, Inc
they talking about cheap spells with the most available targets.
Most players would choose Disenchant over Divine Offering and
Diabolic Edict over Terror because they can rid more targets.
Another case would be the use of an Incinerate instead of
Thunderbolt. Not to say that Divine Offering is a bad card, but
it is not as effective as Disenchant.
Buyback cards are somewhat effective. There
are some
problems with them: Mana Requirements or Stiff
Life
payments (i.e. 4 life). There
are some exceptions:
(Forbid >=], Shattering Pulse, Capsize,
Mind Games,
Corpse Dance, & Whispers of the Muse).
These cards
give you at least a 1 card advantage (believe
me that
is a good thing. While buyback is great,
sometime it is a nuisance.
Permanants can be better than buyback, but not
always (i.e.
Jayemdae's Tome vs. Whispers).
Enchantmets are great cards, but creature enchantments
(for the
most part) aren't (i.e. Empyral Armor, Giant
Strength, Unholy
Strength, Flikering Ward, etc). If you
decide to use creature
enchantments, use Licid or the enchantment that
you can return
to hand.
While most spells are hard to choose between,
creatures are much
easier to choose. Here is a list to go
by:
| Points | Creatures Stats |
| +1
+1/2 -1/2 +1 +1/2 -1/2 +1/2 +1/4
|
for each pt of POWER >
casting cost
POWER = casting cost & POWER > 1 for each pt of POWER < casting cost for each pt of TOUGHNESS > casting cost TOUGHNESS = casting cost & TOUGHNESS > 1 for each pt of TOUGHNESS < casting cost for each attributes: Flying, First Strike, Flanking, Pumpable, Celerity, Protection from XXX, doesnt tap to attack, etc. Shadow Upkeep CU Non-Tapping Special Ability Tapping Special Ability for each colored mana symbol beyond the first for any other attribute not mentioned |
The more pts, the better the creature.
Now this system (like any other) has its problems.
Trust it about 90% of the time.