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Editor: Yaro Starak. Thursday 25 April 2002.
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 Card Review: Reborn Hero
Attacking doesn't cause Reborn Hero to tap.
2/2
Expansion: Torment
Attacking for two...
In Limited: He's an okay guy in limited. Note that white doesn't exactly
have an excess of reasonable priced guys: things like Aven Trooper are
absolutely awful. So a Gray Ogre with a potentially nuts ability is quite
okay. If you've managed to pick up the Chamber of Manipulation/Animal
Boneyard combo and the opportunity to draft this guy comes along (or you
just got him in the Torment boosters) then you've gotta mise because the
interaction there could be very strong indeed. I doubt I'd use it if I was
using that most awful of colour combinations White/Green because the only
way youre going to be winning there is by attacking with guys bigger than
2/2, and attacking with them often.
In Constructed: A kill condition for W/U control? NO NO NO NO NO. He's too
easy to block. I've had this guy out and been decked before I could kill
the opponent with him. Sure he's great as a random blocker about turn 8 but
when it comes to actually getting through 20 points of damage I'd prefer to
take the millstone strategy, and I very rarely prefer to take the Millstone
strategy. So if not in W/U control, then where?
I must admit I am not cunning to see the use for him, although I'm sure
theres a Tier 2- Tier 1.5 (in the current Standard format) use for him.
Value: $5ish
Yarkshamarsh
Danesh
He looks like an awesome card but when put to the test
he falls decidedly short.
Limited: I like this guy in limited but he has many
weaknesses. If you get him too early then he's wasted
in your hand late in teh game he is just an annoying
2/2 that won't die. Even auramancer without threshold
is the same as this guy and that's not saying a lot.
Late game he's probably too late. He can chump for a
while until your opponents flyers get you, or he can
just sit there staring at the massive walls looking
back at him. If there was a choice between this guy
and say Mystic Zealot, the zealot gets the nod. As he
is probably one of the few white rares I would draft
if I was going white in Torment, I don't know, I think
I would have to look twice between him and Militant
Monk.... its a tough call, he's just not big enough.
Experience: A nice little tail I like to tell about
this guy is this tournament I was in and it was a u/w
on u/w mirror matchup... you know the ones... well it
was late game and he had out The Hero and it wasn't
doing much but it was still a sleight nuisance. So I
cast Cultural Exchange on a couple of his guys (one of
them being the Hero).. he didnt like this so he cast
kirtar's wrath.... much to his char grin he (and I)
found out that I could use the hero's threshold
ability without it going back to my opponent. My guy
couldn't deal with it and thus I won the match. This
is a very specific example but it was a fun way to
win.
Type II: As Dan says this is a quick environment,
and the Hero is just too mana intensive for it to be
of much use. Even now white isn't being played in the
higher levels of competition meaning that the role of
The Hero is delegated to the bench.
Experience: I have tried a few decks with the hero in
it but have fallen short (as I mentioned last time
this is by no means extensive play testing). The
U/W/g control deck just never came through. You
wouldn't want too many of this guy in your deck
because he is almost useless early game, and your
usually spending your most valueable resources keeping him
alive. A tip: don't try to build your deck around
this guy, if you think he would fit into an existing
deck and would make it better then by all means go
right ahead and at least test him, otherwise don't
waste your time.
Extended: Short and to the point. Swords to
Plowshares and Nether Spirit. The environment is full
of the first and the second is 10x better.
Value: ahhh what we all wait for. This guy hasn't
been broken yet, and I think he'll stay like that. I
want someone to prove me wrong but I doubt it'll
happen. Value: $5 (this early in torment's life he's
this much, give ppl a while to try and crack him, if
they're successful you've got another nether spirit,
if not, bloodcurdler =)
Until next time, Ill see you next time
Jason Street
Reborn Hero is a card similar to Ivory Gargoyle, a creature that doesn't go
away. At least that was my initial impression, but then again he has two
drawbacks, you need seven cards in your graveyard and two white mana
untapped. Of course you won't skip your draw phase, so thats a good thing.
What to do with him? Well, any global destruction effect will give you a
happy few turns of smacking your opponent around the head. It's just a
matter of having two plains on top of the cost of the global destruction
card. Jokulhaups, Obliterate and the like will be good choices (But not
Apocalypse, he will be removed along with everything else).
The downside to this strategy? Well, these cards are uniformly expensive. A
deck running white and red has a little bit of a problem with mana, in that
it's not easy to get back on your feet afterwards. In Type 1 and 1.5 you
have the backup of Land Tax just in case your opponent gets going before you
do, and Oath of Leiges is a slower Extended legal card for this. Another
idea would be to use a three coloured deck, primarily green, as green has
the potential to recover quickly as well as get three colours out (think New
Frontiers).
The card also looks like it would be good to abuse in other ways, but the
cost to return it to play is a little steep, making multiple sacrifices in
one turn difficult. There's nothing to say you can't make use of it's
ability once to pump a Fallen Angel, feed it to a Lord of the Pit, turn the
upkeep on Contamination into WW, make Pillar Tombs of Aku into a nastier
card than it already is.... There really is a disgustingly long list of
cards where the sacrifice of a creature every turn is good, both for serious
play and casual. Minion of Leshrac looks particularly enjoyable to me....
....just not anyone else.
Jason
White gets a part time Nether Spirit in the form of
Reborn Hero.
Limited - Since white is quite poor in Torment this
guy might well be a first pick. His ability really
suits decks that hit threshold and would fit nicely in
a u/w staller style deck. He is still a solid three
drop that is good both on the offensive and defensive
who will quite happily take one for the team knowing
he will be back sooner or later.
Type 2 - Control decks are not popular at the moment
as the format really rewards fast decks. I can maybe
see this card being used in a u/w millstone deck in a
similar fashion that Nether Spirit was a year ago.
Reborn Hero has great symmetry with Fact or Fiction
and you could even mill yourself just to obtain
threshold.
OBC - This guy could be viable in a u/w control deck
that plays a lot of cantrip like effects to fill the
graveyard. As this format is still quite new I'm not
sure if this deck would be that good but I have built
a rudimentary deck around him.
4 Aether Burst
24 land
The deck could lose the wraths and life bursts in
favour of more beatdown style creatures if the format
is aggressive. I think that Aquamoeba's and Mystic
Zealot could fill those slots quite nicely.
And what would you expect to pay for this guy - about
$4.
Dan
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Reborn Hero (Rare)
Danesh Jogia
Scott Smith
Dan Turner