Articles

Daniel Merrifield
Email: s106565@students.ntu.edu.au

When I first saw the partial Onslaught spoilerson the net, I knew some cards had to be fake. I mean, not everyone knows what's going to be printed (or reprinted as the case maybe). When reading the first "Official" Onslaught spoiler on www.mtgnews.com, I saw Clone and thought "No Way!" I have gotten over that feeling and have thought of some ideas.

First of all, discussing type 2 notions. Clone being reprinted obviosly means that it will be type 2 once more. Now, putting aside all feeling of anger or sadness, one can think of ideas to use clone.

The first strategy, one may think of is to Clone the biggest and most powerful creature you control. In type 2 decks, cloning a Nantuko Shade or Mystic Enforcer may be the best way to go. This method obviously gets you double the fun and allows you to deal twice as much pain if the opponent is creature-less.

However, a Clone can be used as a weapon against your enemy (especially in control decks!) Cloning your OPPONENTS most powerful and annoying creature can also come in handy (especially if you are creatureless and counterspell-less).

Now for Extended.
Playing Clone in the upcoming format can be a lot more devastating. You should trust me on this, I have had personal experience against clone decks.

For example, Cloning an Avatar of Woe or Serra Avatar can and most likely will lower the opponent's spirits. There are many other creatures and strategies that Clone can be useful for, green/blue "Stroking Elf' - Decks can have 8 Priest of Titania's or Cloning a Tidal Kraken for double the Unblockabilty!

There are many ways to have fun with Clone, just experiment and amuse yourself.

With Clone becoming type 2 again a price of $6 would be fair, for trading and buying.

Just remember, if playing Clone in type 2, DO NOT Clone a 2/2 colorless Morph creature, becuse you won't get to Morph.

Daniel

David Chapman
Email: jedit@dsl.pipex.com

So ... Clone.

The utility of Clone is dependent on exactly one thing: what you can copy with it. This leads to a great many problems with the card, which I'll spell out now.

1) The creature has to remain in play. So forget about Cloning that Anurid Brushhopper, it's not going to happen. One bounce spell, even, can wreck your day by bouncing the only creature worth Cloning.

2) The creature has to be worth copying. That means Clone won't be coming down on turn 4, copying some diddy little thing. It also means that you either have to play creatures worth Cloning yourself *and* get them out, or rely on your opponent playing them.

3) Most creatures worth copying either have colour-dependent abilities or are tribal, so you *have* to be playing the same tribe or colours as your opponent to make it worth Cloning almost anything, with very few exceptions. You also have to bear in mind the casting cost; if Wild Mongrel cost 3G then U/G wouldn't currently be dominating OBC. A 4cc Mongrel just isn't as good.

Summation: Clone is exremely situational and slower in most instances than simply playing the creature you want to copy. Clone has always been the province of players inexperienced enough to think it's cool; it's never really seen serious play. They'll sell for 4-5UKP until everyone who wants them has them, but after that they'll be bargain bucket rares.

David

Danesh Jogia
Email: daneshj@optushome.com.au
Forums Nic: omegaideal

Ahh the nostalgia...
I've not once had to think about the tournament viability of Clone up to now. But I certainly remember him being a staple back in the days of first turn mana vault second turn serra angel decks. Yes, Clone-ing your opponent's Mahamoti Djinn and then Swords to Plowshares-ing the original was quite the frequent play...

Limited: In Odyssey Limited this guy would have been great. There was always some moderate fatty to copy. In Onslaught limited he doesn't seem to be as nuts. Pretty much the only guys worth copying are Beasts and Legends. The whole tribal thing is very important even in limited simply because all of the common guys are so mediocre without tribal considerations factored in. Someone with a good tribal deck will smash someone with a "good stuff" deck because the good stuff is actually fairly bad stuff. So unless you want to be Clone-ing your opponents Grasslands Crusader I don't know that I'd bother. The above applies for drafts (which I've been doing some of lately due to the untimely leak of the Onslaught spoiler being fed into Netdraft). It will be a lot harder to make a tribal deck in sealed so I suppose that Clone will be a bit better there. In fact, blue often cannot go tribal because the good Wizard effects are uncommon and rare. So often blue decks (in draft and sealed) tend to entail a fair bit of flying beatdown in which case Clone is fine.

Constructed: Right now it is hard to see Clone being useable in Constructed either. Most of the good creatures are very deck specific - Wild Mongrel is really only good with madness/threshold abilities, Nantuko Shade is only good with copious black mana, Psychatog is only good in a Psychatog based deck and then maybe, just maybe, there is the occasional Roar of the Wurm worth copying or something. Even once all the good creatures from Odyssey cycle out, it is looking as though it will be all tribal this tribal that...in which case Clone is pretty suboptimal because it is not too often that you want to have another copy of some random Soldier or whatever your theme is. You usually want to find a particular Soldier to close up the deal for the given match up.

Summary: Wizards currently have a tendency to reprint cards that used to be quite good but are close to unplayable in the current environment - look at Ophidian Infiltrator, Erhnam Djinn, Sengir Vampire. I think that Clone joins this distinguished list.

Value: Average, about $7

Danesh

Jason Street
Email: mastervillain@hotmail.com

Well, it was my turn to pick a card to review and I finally got an excuse to pick something OLD. Well, not old anymore. Get set to violate the 6th Day laws!

Realistically the Clone is not that great for tourney play. Despite there being a good hundred things to Clone you are better off with a real creature. Hell, you're also better off with some creature kill or a Control Magic. So what's the Clone good for?

Fun.

It's quite entertaining having the option of any creature you don't own in your deck - Fancy a Sliver Queen? Go for it. Ooooh look a Verdant Force. Hey wow a Veteran Bodyguard! Note: I accept no responsibility for your match losses if you Clone a Force of Nature.

When you Clone stuff you can get more mileage out of the Clone if you bounce it back to your hand - this turns multiplayers games into a real mess since you can start Capsizing the thing every turn and copying what you need right now. For those who feel they should have options if their opponents have nothing worth Cloning you can always play Tradewind Riders.

I think the coolest thing about the reprint of Clone is the fact that all the really cool things to Clone got reprinted too - I remember the good old days of Cloning Sengir Vampires, Erhnam Djinns, Serra Angels, Shivan Dragons and Mahamoti Djinns (well, up until I got some Mahamoti Djinns). Now everyone else can have the same fun.

As for how many to play - two at the most in a deck that runs them as an interesting thing to do. If you're really determined to play the copy theme then good luck to you - it doesn't work that well but when it does it's entertaining.

Price? $6 - It's not THAT good, but it's a rare and it's fun to play with.

Now Wizards, how about Vesuvan Doppelganger?

Jason

Dan Turner
Email: daimyodan@yahoo.co.uk
Forums Nic: RECOIL

Clone receives a new lease of life in Onslaught but will it follow the same path of the other oldtimers - Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel and Ernham Djinn? Hard to say at this stage but Clone is better than all those cards anyway (it is blue afterall!).

Limited - I have been looking over the spoilers recently and Clone is up there as one of the better creature rares for blue in the set (of what I have seen so far). It's ability to copy the characteristics (except colour) of any non-legend creature for only four mana is huge in limited and is definitely a first pick in booster draft. Clone can be easily splashed in limited decks as it requires just one blue mana, even if it is the only blue card - yes it is that good.

Constructed - Type 2 - I am not sure how Clone will fit in with the post invasion type 2 as the creatures out there at the moment are not "cloneable". Anurid Brushhopper - if you can catch him!, Nantuko Shade - unless you are playing a weird U/B deck with cabal coffers then go for it!, Braids (or any of the new legends in Onslaught) - can't do that either, Psycatog - don't even go there (yawn).

I'm sure when the set rotates in and new deck types emerge Clone will have a use but at the moment things are a little blurry. I can see Clone being used in Extended as there are a plethora of creatures in that format which are good (Morphling, Masticore, Deranged Hermit, etc)

I would say a card of this quality should go for around $10, so dust off your old revised copies because Clone is back.

Keep playing them cards

Dan

[ Email the Author | Discuss this Article ]