Decent for your aggressive draft deck. I like to call it "Get there"
WotC_ErikL
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(13 votes)
Erik's Random card 7/9/2011
When I first designed Master's Edition IV, I had a card from Portal in this slot:
Hand of Death 2B Sorcery Destroy target nonblack creature.
Hand of Death was not available online, while Howl from Beyond was in Seventh Edition. However, I though Howl from beyond had enough going for it to replace Hand of Death.
First of all, Hand of Death isn't that exciting. If it isn't online, a few people will miss it, but not many. Secondly, Master's Edition IV was low on combat tricks. Those are typically instants that change the result of combat. I think they are very important to limited play. Howl from Beyond is a pretty weak combat trick, but that can be OK. Finally, the set needed cards that a Tron drafter could pick up quite late. These cards need to be so weak that they often woudn't make a deck's top 23 spells, but work well with the Tron.
The Tron drafter is going to spend some mid pack picks picking up Tron elements. There need to be some playable spells still in the packs for the later picks to make up for this.
Another way of looking at this is that a typical drafter plays 23 spells, and maybe one non-basic land. That's 24 drafted cards, which means that in essence the drafter is playing picks 1-8 from all three packs. Of course some of those don't work out, and a few later picks are used. Meanwhile, the Tron drafter plays maybe 9 extra non-basic lands. Roughly speaking, that brings it up to 33 cards, which means playing picks 1-11 from each pack, and if a few of those don't make it, some even later picks!
The problem is that while Ebony Rhino isn't amazing, it probably isn't going to be left in the pack 11th pick either. I thought the set needed some cards weaker than that to fill out the Tron deck. Howl from Beyond is a try at that If you actually have the tron, this is 7 or more extra damage, which can quickly end a game. It isn't an amazing card, but I think it helps fill out the spell slots in an exciting way.
Shadoflaam
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
sonorhC
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Way back in the olden days, this had an extra bit of value: Some of the earliest infinite-mana combos worked only during your upkeep, and this was one of only a very few options for making use of that.
Buderus
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
its a creature-fireball in black!! Wohoo, Not like black hasn't any possibilty to make huge amount of mana
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@Wotc_Eric. Removal is removal, and a top pick. Interesting read, but I would have gone with Hand of Death.
Actually, why either of those cards? There are allot better cards to pick from, the only time these things see play is when we are forced to play them in limited.
thesunpaladin
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@TheWrathofShane You seemed to have missed the point.
While a set or block could have had cooler cards that are simply better in constructed, Wizards also wants Draft to be a format. This fills two much-needed holes for draft. So yes, it is only used in limited, but it is something that the set needed for limited.
mrchuckmorris
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Fun to slap on a black EDH Commander. Black is pretty much the least Voltron-y color, but with the ridiculous swamps-tap-for-extra shenanigans it can conjure up, throwing one of these in your deck can be a nicely unexpected win-con. Better yet if you can slap it on Rakdos, Lord of Riots for basically free extra damage if you were planning on casting a creature after combat.
Comments (10)
When I first designed Master's Edition IV, I had a card from Portal in this slot:
Hand of Death
2B
Sorcery
Destroy target nonblack creature.
Hand of Death was not available online, while Howl from Beyond was in Seventh Edition. However, I though Howl from beyond had enough going for it to replace Hand of Death.
First of all, Hand of Death isn't that exciting. If it isn't online, a few people will miss it, but not many. Secondly, Master's Edition IV was low on combat tricks. Those are typically instants that change the result of combat. I think they are very important to limited play. Howl from Beyond is a pretty weak combat trick, but that can be OK. Finally, the set needed cards that a Tron drafter could pick up quite late. These cards need to be so weak that they often woudn't make a deck's top 23 spells, but work well with the Tron.
The Tron drafter is going to spend some mid pack picks picking up Tron elements. There need to be some playable spells still in the packs for the later picks to make up for this.
Another way of looking at this is that a typical drafter plays 23 spells, and maybe one non-basic land. That's 24 drafted cards, which means that in essence the drafter is playing picks 1-8 from all three packs. Of course some of those don't work out, and a few later picks are used. Meanwhile, the Tron drafter plays maybe 9 extra non-basic lands. Roughly speaking, that brings it up to 33 cards, which means playing picks 1-11 from each pack, and if a few of those don't make it, some even later picks!
The problem is that while Ebony Rhino isn't amazing, it probably isn't going to be left in the pack 11th pick either. I thought the set needed some cards weaker than that to fill out the Tron deck. Howl from Beyond is a try at that If you actually have the tron, this is 7 or more extra damage, which can quickly end a game. It isn't an amazing card, but I think it helps fill out the spell slots in an exciting way.
Removal is removal, and a top pick. Interesting read, but I would have gone with Hand of Death.
Actually, why either of those cards? There are allot better cards to pick from, the only time these things see play is when we are forced to play them in limited.
You seemed to have missed the point.
While a set or block could have had cooler cards that are simply better in constructed, Wizards also wants Draft to be a format. This fills two much-needed holes for draft. So yes, it is only used in limited, but it is something that the set needed for limited.