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Editor: Audrey C Quan. Friday 27 June 2003.
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Scourge Draft Review Part 5 - Black
Welcome to the final installment of my Scourge draft review.
You can read the rest of the reviews here:
Black hits the jackpot with its commons in Scourge and is by far the most powerful colour in the set. A good combination of strong creatures, like Twisted Abomination, Zombie Cutthroat and Carrion Feeder with decent removal spells such as Lingering Death and Clutch of Undeath put black way ahead of it’s colour compadres. There are also a lot of power cards in the rare/uncommon slot with Decree of Pain and Call to the Grave heading up the rares; Undead Warchief and Putrid Raptor lead the charge in the uncommon department.
After having played with Scourge a lot more I have come to realize a few of my card evalutions were out of whack. I believe that Dragon Scales is the best white common and Dispersal Shield is so good I would run it every time and it is up there just behind Shoreline Ranger in the rankings. I am still sticking to my guns with Frozen Solid over Rush of Knowledge, and my opinion on green hasn’t changed much but I do rate the Fierce Empath over Krosan Drover now. Thanks again for the feedback and I hope that these articles have shed some light on drafting Scourge.
Here are my black picks:-
Twisted Abomination – 5B
This is by far the best landcycler in Scourge. It is also a beating. A massive beating. 5 power and regeneration makes it hard for a lot of decks to stop this barring enchantments and/or mass removal. So many games have been won by playing him on the 6th turn and swinging for 5 – even if he doesn’t get through there will be a long line of chumps willing to dive in front of it. There are also plenty of ways to get this guy back from the grave when he has been cycled – Infernal Caretaker, Cruel Revival and Reaping the Graves to name but a few – and all common. He seems most potent in B/G where he can be tutored for with Fierce Empath and dropped into play earlier thanks to Wirewood Elf and Krosan Drover. A solid first pick and black’s best common.
Lingering Death - 1B
I had to think long and hard about putting this card second on the list as it can sometimes be too late. On the other hand it deals with any creature in the set (apart from White Knight!) and is very cheap. There are plenty of utility creatures in this block that are all first pick material – Timberwatch, Sparksmith, Husk, etc that this enchantment is ideal for, and don’t forget those Pit Fighter Legends. Sure this can be disenchanted and it will happen every once in a while but Lingering Death is a very versatile removal spell which works well in any draft archetype. A first pick.
Clutch of Undeath – 3BB
I ranked this below the death because of it’s 5 casting cost but it is still a quality removal spell. The fact it has 2 uses cements the clutch in the no. 3 spot as it can used both aggressively and defensively. I have won many a game by enchanting a Carrion Feeder/Husk with this and should always be drafted early. A solid removal spell which should be drafted 1st to 3rd.
Zombie Cutthroat – 3BB
The cutthroat can be used by any deck making it a tough draft pick. I would still draft Dragon Scales over this in white, Frozen Solid and Rush of Knowledge in blue but I would probably draft this over any of the green commons and over Torrent of Fire in Red. Black’s commons are so deep that it ends up 4th but this is still first pick material. This is a really good card because it is only 1 of 4 cards that have an alternate morph cost (Raven Guild Initiate, Skirk Volcanist and Putrid Raptor being the others) and can often change tempo in the early game, despite the loss of life. It’s high casting cost combos nicely with Torrent of Fire, Rush of Knowledge and Accelerated Mutation making it extremely playable in Scourge block. An early pick, 1st to 3rd.
Dragon Shadow – 1B
While not as powerful as Dragon Scales, Dragon Shadow is the next best thing as it puts your opponent on a clock and even if they remove the creature there is a chance it will come back to haunt them later on in the game. It is ideally suited to B/G decks where the creatures are big but it also works well on Husks, Twisted Abomination and the Cougar. Still I don’t think this is first pick material but I wouldn’t let this card go around the table either, an early pick, 4th to 6th.
Carrion Feeder - B
I have seen this guy go really late in drafts and he is severely underrated. He can also get big quite quickly if played early and remember to always sacrifice the creature before you put it in the graveyard. Like the Husk, Carrion Feeder combos nicely with Symbiotic creatures but unlike the Husk the feeder can be more efficient in the early game as he often comes out on top of the morph trade-offs. A mid to late range pick, 6th to 9th.
Death’s Head Buzzard – 1BB
For a 2/1 flyer for 3 mana being this low on the list is saying something for the quality of the common run in black. However there is a catch…. I have played with the buzzard several times and even left it out of my deck as I had a lot of 1 toughness creatures. It is too fragile to be played in B/R and B/U and will only make the cut of B/W soldier (maybe cleric) decks and B/G. There are not too many tribal tricks with the buzzard but is good with Carrion Feeder and Nantuko Husk, but can often throw off the maths in combat especially if your opponent has tricks of their own. Definitely a thinking mans card and a midrange pick, 6th to 9th.
Reaping the Graves - 2B
The playables still keep coming... Reaping the Graves is an excellent recursion spell that makes Aphetto Dredging look like a Portal card. Chances are this will be stormed up at least once, netting you some goodies from the graveyard at instant speed. There is plenty of abuse here for some landcycling chicanery as well as recycling old favourites such as Timberwatch Elf and Skinthinner. This will stay in the sideboard from time to time but is handy as the 22nd or 23rd card, making it good filler – a late pick, 8th to 10th.
Vengeful Dead – 3B
Vengeful Dead could quite possibly be higher on the list but I haven’t been too impressed with this yet. 4 mana for a 3/2 is steep as it will often get blocked straight away, sure the life loss is good but only if you have a lot of zombies in play and your opponent is on low life. Shepard of Rot and Gempalm Polluter are a lot better in the endgame and Vengeful Dead will often serve as “just another body” most of the time. A filler card (unless you have a lot of tribal tricks) and a late range pick, 8th to 10th.
Unburden – 1BB
This is still a playable card but only if your deck is really needing cards. It is not too bad early on as it can often blunt your opponent’s defence and is handy for getting rid of those high costing cost bombs. The problem is your opponent chooses the cards and if they have been stockpiling land then this does squat. I don’t think I would play this card, a late pick, 10th to 12th.
Skulltap – 1B
I have seen a lot of cards worse than this over the years in the crap common slot – it is even barely playable for God’s sake! Saying that I would never run it, and it looks like the kind of thing you would play in a 2 colour sealed deck so you don’t have to play 3 colours. A quick tip here – if you have a few good cards in another colour (i.e. removal, flyers, etc) you should splash them and play a 3rd colour rather than playing mediocre crap like this. Although your deck may have a better mana base you want to be drawing quality as the games tend to be drawn out in sealed and your chances of winning are higher with better cards! Phew! A late pick, 12th to 15th.
All of the black commons (with the exception of Skulltap) are playable in draft so I would be fairly confident going into the Scourge booster to get the goods. Twisted Abomination is easily the best common as it simply wins games and also can be used to get out of the dreaded 2 land draw. Lingering Death and Clutch of Undeath were tight but the clutch does not stop other zombies or any big creatures. 5 mana is also a lot for a removal spell and you wouldn’t play with lots of them whereas you could play multiple Lingerings quite easily. Zombie Cutthroat was tough to rate because of it’s splashability but like I said black’s common run is deep and he is a first pick, even at no.4 in the rankings. Dragon Shadow on the other hand is not a first pick but I have won so many games with this thing it may as well be. Still because black is so deep Dragon Shadow has to be pegged down a few notches but this is still quality.
I rated the Carrion Feeder a little too highly as I think the buzzard is better all round but that is a personal preference of mine and I’m standing by it. Reaping the Graves is interesting and will see a lot of play but the rest from then on are not that exciting. The depthness continues in the uncommons/rares with most of them being playable including the ludricously powerful Call to the Grave and the deadly Nefashu.
Here is my rundown on some of the uncommons & rares……
Call to the Grave – 4B
This has to be black’s best rare. Back in the old days of magic where Legends was $6 a booster (in my town anyway!) The Abyss cropped up a fair bit in both multiplayer and tournament decks. That card was 1 mana less without the tribal synergy Call to the Grave has. If you have a zombie in play this will never go away and should win you the game in short order. I mean how many decks can keep up with losing a creature a turn in limited? Aside from crazy token generators like Mobilisation and Dragon Roost, none. A good reason for playing main deck enchantment removal.
Consumptive Goo - BB
Decree of Pain and Nefashu are the other heavy hitting rares but I think Consumptive Goo is a sleeper. This ideally should be played in the late game when you have the mana available to use it straight away as 1 toughness creatures like this tend not to last long. Once this has broken the 3 toughness barrier it becomes a real problem, unless your opponent is packing Echo Tracers and/or Cruel Revival type effects. The goo creates real headaches in combat and will often generate some good card advantage. Just don’t play it on the second turn. An early pick, 3rd to 5th.
Undead Warchief – 2BB
The green and black warchiefs are the most powerful in limited play. The amount of beasts and zombies in Onslaught block is staggering and the Undead Warchief makes some of black’s average commons into beatsticks – Wretched Anurid and Severed Legion for example. I can’t think of any other uncommons that are better than this in black, making Undead Warchief a first pick.
Unspeakable Symbol – 1BB
Remember
Souldrinker from Tempest? For those of you who don’t, Souldrinker was a 2/2 for 4 mana that you could give a +1/+1 counter for 3 life. It was playable but often ended up in the sideboard as most players thought it was too risky. Unspeakable Symbol (what kind of name is that?) is better as it is more versatile but the loss of life is still an issue. I would play this in a deck that had a lot of evasion, i.e. B/W, B/U, possibly not B/G and/or B/R but I don’t think it is a power card. A mid range pick as a result, 5th to 7th.
That is my final draft review for Scourge. I didn’t bother with the gold cards/land/artifacts as they are no brainers and quite honestly Proteus Machine is not that exciting. I intend to go into some indepth draft strategy in the future regarding the current archetypes and how things have changed since Scourge has been introduced. I also would like to write an article on 8th edition but will have to see how things pan out. I hope you have enjoyed this 5 part series and I will be doing similar reviews for sets in the future, If anyone else is interested in reviewing the cards with me, let me know as it is always good to have someone elses opinion.
Take care
Until next time
Dan
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