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Editor: Yaro Starak. Friday 5 July 2002.
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 Card Review: Spurnmage Advocate
Tap: Return two target cards in an opponent's graveyard to his or her hand. Destroy target attacking creature.
"Our unity humbles our foes."
1/1
Expansion: Judgment
Well, Spurnmage Advocate is probably the advocate with the most Constructed
potential but how much that says is debatable.
Limited: I've never tried using this Advocate in Limited and for that
matter nor have I had it used against me so I can't say for sure how useful
it is. Returning two cards is usually getting to the hard to handle stage
in limited (especially repeated use of); one card ala Shieldmage is not so
bad because they usually have something fairly irrelevant in their
graveyard. Nevertheless a defensive white/blue may see some use to stall the game out long enough to win with their solitary Amugaba
or whatever bomb they happen to have. Then again I've never played with or
against it so don't believe me.
Constructed: Sam K. and I were both playing similar mind numbing G/U decks
at an unsanctioned type 2 with judgment tournament on the weekend and he
suggested that one potential way to beat it is Spurnmage Advocate. I
recall we were in particular thinking about OBC (I hope that there will be
better options in type 2) and I can see that it certainly is a very real
threat for the pilot of a Quiet Speculation deck. Usually they can do 2
useful Speculations and all others after that are a bit sub-par so all you
have to do is weather the initial storm, returning probably two Roars to
kill a Roar token or just returning the Quiet Speculation and something
else (hopefully a Wonder) to kill the violating Roar token. Generally it IS
the Roar tokens that give opponents grief of course. However they do have
the weapons to get around this in both Sylvan Safekeeper (admittedly hard
to take care of in a white deck short of Kill Everything effects) and even
Ground Seal, which is not so hard given that enchantment removal is the
only thing that white has remained any good at over the years. So far its
the best answer that white seems to have against this hateful, hateful
archetype.
Value: Its only uncommon...maybe soon someone will choose a rare to review
and I'll have to think here.
Later cats
Jason Street
In the bad old days of Magic this would have been an apalling card to use -
Giving people cards back is never a good thing. However, the return of the
cards is part of the effect, and people tend to fill their graveyard in any
format, so you really just have to send back something they don't need or
can't hurt you with. It's not very useful for your opponent if you send back
a couple of small creatures you can easily block or otherwise deal with.
Unfortunately if you're not in that situation you're likely in trouble. If
your opponent has been pitching lands and other trivial cards you won't
care, but if everything in the graveyard is bad for your health you'll have
problems. I suggest running a fair whack of protection (on creature or
enchatmentwise) and then just returning cards that can't hit your guys.
Otherwise you have to spend a disproportionate amount of your deckspace on
graveyard sifting.
One situation which would be entertaining is playing the Advocate against an
old fashioned reanimator deck, since they tend to have graveyards full of
things they can't cast anyway....
All in all it comes down to your opponent - do they have things in their
graveyard that are safe to return? If not, it is a 1cc 1/1 white crature,
which gets benefits from Crusade and the like, so it won't be a dead card in
a white weenie deck.
Value? I don't see it being too popular. It's certainly not going to be worth
more than any normal uncommon.
Jason
Spurnmage Advocate is one of the best 1-drops white
has had in a very long time. It's ability to destroy
attacking creatures at will is very powerful despite
it's drawback.
Limited - Spurnmage Advocate fits in a deck that lacks
removal, so probably a G/W or U/W build. A solid draft
pick, he is one of the better uncommons for white but
being a 1/1 is quite fragile. One trick to watch out
for with the advocates is responding to their
activation. For example, you have a Spurnmage Advocate
in play and your activate it to destroy an opposing
attacking creature. You return 2 cards to your
opponent's hand and the ability goes on the stack - in
response your opponent plays Aether Burst, gets his
creature back and 2 cards in hand. Sometimes this sort
of stuff can't be helped but it is useful to know how
these cards interact in these sort of situations.
Constructed - Type 2 - White Weenie may make a
resurgence in this format as Glorious Anthem and
Divine Sacrament are both legal in Type 2 at the
moment. These sort of decks typically don't play
removal maindeck which means the advocate may have to
take a sideboard seat (taking into account that Glory
will be played as creature disruption). The fact the
advocate costs 1 mana is attractive as white weenie
thrives on cheap creatures.
OBC - The biggest problem I can see for white weenie
style decks in this format is mono black. With cards
like Mutilate and Shambling Swarm around the white
player is going to find it difficult. Mass removal has
always been the archilles heel of white weenie since
the early days of magic and nothing has changed. If
you are interested in trying this guy out in this
format here is a standard decklist:-
4 Benevolent Bodyguard
4 Divine Sacrament
22 Plains
The deck is straightforward - play creatures get Glory
in the graveyard, cast Divine Sacramanet win. The
sacrament makes the nomads super blockers and the
Piannas give extra punch. The advocates are quite
defensive but still good fot a few damage in the early
game.
The advocate is only an uncommon so I can't see it
fecthing more than $1 or $2.
Dan
Judgement gave white some removal which it was sorely
needing in the form of chastise and this little guy.
He's at the worst a 1/1 for W, at best he's a fat
monster killing, flying fattie destroying, annoying
unblockable eradicting bad ass white monster killer.
Limited: By the time judgement comes around, you
should know if you are white or not. At a casting
cost of W I wouldn't splash for him unless I am
comletly desperate for removal but if white was one of
my main colours I would definatly pick him pretty
high. At uncommon you may even see him a couple of
times, and white has so many bombs in judgement that
it may be hard to know when to pick him. Lets just
say if you pass him early don't expect to get him back
unless there are NO other white drafters at the table
(in which case you have the best deck there anyway).
White is a defensive colour and the Advocate fits in
nicely. He sits back and says please I'll return the
sac land and the other land and I'll kill you Sengir
Vampire, or Wormfang crab I can't deal with, or how
about your phantom creature that has too many tokens on
it. He's great for thing's like that =)
Constructed: I think he's too easy to play around for
him to be any good. There are so many better 1 CC
white creature out there that I don't think it's worth
having him in there.
Price: Uncommon... not really used.... umm 50c - $1
(more towards 50c). Uncommons aren't as easy to come
by as you think. To get specific ones and especially
in a set of 4, they are at times difficult to find.
Always remember |
Spurnmage Advocate (Uncommon)
Danesh Jogia
Dan Turner
Scott Smith