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Editor: Yaro Starak. Monday 20 May 2002.
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 Card Review: Death Grasp
Death Grasp deals X damage to target creature or player. You gain X life.
Yawgmoth’s greatest joy came from watching one hero defeat another.
Expansion: Apocalypse
Getting hurt by your Phyrexian Arena? Want to do
varying amounts of damage to your opponent? How about
needing a card that has the versatility to not only
kill off an opponent but also one of his annoying
creatures. well then look no further because Death
Grasp is here to the rescue... or at least for a
little while longer.
As Invasion block will be rotating out in a few months
this card will soon be limited to extended formats
where there are better quailty cards that do more.
Limited: When it was in it was a powerhouse. of
course waiting until the 3rd pack to findout that your
r/b deck or u/b deck would now become r/b/w u/b/w was
a little annoying at times, but well worth it. X
damage spells will always be good in limited and why
not, your opponent will finish you off next turn only
to have you top deck one card and crush him like the
insignificant worm he is mwhahahahah.
Constructed: A trademark in any B/W control deck,
this card allows you to take hits, and lose life from
your arena only to get it all back while doing
something nasty to your opponent or his creatures.
This card, as well as B/W control decks in general
have seen a decline in performance of late, due to
Cabal's Coffers enticing B/W mage completly over to
the dark side. Now with corrupts and soul burns there
really is no need for this X spell, because you almost
always get more from the coffers.
PRICE: It still does a lot and while I don't see this
card being any more than $5 or $6, its still worth to
have a few handy in case you need one.
Oh It's True....It's True
The Apocalypse version of Soul Burn etc, notably different in that the life
gain is not restricted by a creatures toughness and so forth.
Limited: Just in case someone somewhere is playing an Invasion block draft,
take it first pick if you have the colours, it's obviously nuts. What
fireball effect isn't...
Constructed
Standard: Definitely a mainstay of B/w control decks, but
these have largely gone out of fashion. They were the "right stuff" with
Phyrexian Arenas and the early beats you tend to take in such decks,
especially against the old Reckless Charge R/G decks. I personally think its
also useable in B/w Braids, even if you only get to Grasp for 3 sometimes
that can do it. Not like you'd play four or anything, just 2 or so. Oh yes,
its also nice as one of the (usually two) kills in a Rice Snacky deck, just
in case they have Meddling Mage on the other one (typically Ghitu Fire)
Extended: Gads, who knows what will go on without dual lands & ice
age/mivilite. I can't really see a fireball effect randomly becoming
popular though; the format should still be rather fast.
Value Wise: Its certainly a fair rare. From what I have heard, it got
printed in one of the Pre-Con decks, not that anyone buys them though, so I
guess that doesn't really change the value at all. But you oughta be able
to get them for $6 from people if you find people with spares.
yarkshamarsh
Jason Street
Death Grasp is a good substitue for Drain Life in a multicolour deck. How
many multicolour decks will love this card? Lets see....
Type 1 is a format where you can generate a lot of mana quickly, as well as
play a wide range of colours. Why use it in Type 1 (or 1.5)? Well, it's easy
- there are some very good effects that cost life. If you are not going for
a quick victory throwing all your life into a Necropotence then you might
use a lot of life up over time, so this could be useful. The best bet is
probably playing it with things that use up your life in controling the game
or setting things up.
The first thing I looked at (after Necropotence) was Lim-Dul's Vault, which
lets you pay life repeatedy to find the cards you want to have on top of
your library. As a setup card it is very powerful, and you can recover the
life later on. The other card I'd love to be able to make up a life loss
from is Unfulfilled Desires, which lets you pay 1 and 1 life to draw a card
and then discard a card, which is very strong, but unfortunately digging for
cards over a long period is painful.
There are other good reasons to gain a heap of life, two being Zur's
Weirding and Wand of Denial. If you have your opponent unable to draw a
useful card then you will win. If you are using these two cards you need
life, and a lot. What better way to get it than taking the life of your
opponent?
A final use for this card would be to simply keep paying upkeep costs. I
love Morinfen, but that cumulative upkeep of 1 life makes him tricky to keep
in play, so much so that you have to play him in a deck that's either mono
black (for Drain Life) or highly aggressive, such as Red/Black. With Death
Grasp you can happily play Morinfen, Infernal Darkness, or whatever else you
like - Benthic Djinn anyone?
A final note: a lot of players might be touchy on the subject of painlands
(if you have no dual lands you use what you have), but with this card you
have a way of recouping the loss of life. Spalshing white or black into a
deck that has the other colour and any of the other three is a little more
viable for people having to resort to painlands now at least.
I'd say that this one is probably worth about $4 or 5, since it's a gold
card but a pretty damn good one for the effect it has on your deck building.
Jason
I always thought this card was an instant - oh well
goes to show how many times I have played with it in a
tournament!!
Constructed
Type 2- This is a good replacement/compliment to Drain
Life/Soul burn in black control decks and even better
because you always gain the life regardless if you
have black mana or not. Corrupt is better because of
Cabal Coffers but if you are splashing white in your
deck this is a card to think about.
Extended - It's hard to say whether this may see play
in the extended format. With the dual lands rotating
out in November this format is going to be shaken up
but I still wouldn't rule out this card in a
black/white control deck. Phyrexian Arena may well
become the black card drawer of choice in extended and
that makes Death Grasp a strong candidate. We can only
wait and see.....
Death Grasp is still a good card and should go for
around $8.
Dan
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Death Grasp (Rare)
Scott Smith
Danesh Jogia
Dan Turner