Dunkelste Stunde: Masters Edition IV Draft Set Review

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WHITE

Commons:

Alaborn Musketeer**
Alaborn Troooper**
Divine Offering***
Healing Salve**
Just Fate****
Osai Vultures**
Righteous Charge***
Serra Bestiary****
Spotted Griffin***
Temple Acolyte**
Wild Aesthir***
Wild Griffin***

White is pretty deep in playables and has good threats and amazing answers. Even at the common level, you find fairly efficient, aggressive creatures and high quality removal. I prefer white for rush strategies, but control is possible as well.

The backbone of every white deck is the removal- Serra Bestiary and Just Fate. White decks will also be supported by the different flyers. I value Spotted Griffin and Wild Griffin similar high, but in theory the Wild version seems to be more efficient. The single point of toughness will be rarely relevant, since a lot of creatures have 3 power, but one mana more definitely relevant. Wild Aesthir is a bit behind them as he is a lot less efficient without the double white available, but a potentially 3 power flyer is still pretty good.

Divine Offering will always find a target and the lifegain even might be relevant. Righteous Charge is a pretty interesting card essentially it is Overrun at common. I’d like to value it higher, since it looks like a cornerstone for really fast aggro decks, but I’m not entire sure if they will work out that way. You would need a few 2 drops to make them great, but white itself only offers Osai Vultures and Alaborn Musketeer. Both are okay, but not the kind of cards you want to have multiples of. Temple Acolyte is playable, but kinda disappointing in a format centered around flyers and 3 power. Alaborn Trooper is even worse but can still play a filler role just in case. And of course, Healing Salve is Healing Salve- it will sometimes make the deck but will rarely do anything amazing. It does sound kinda cool to counter the lethal Fireball, though.

Uncommons:

Angelic Voices***
Argivian Blacksmith**
Blaze of Glory*
Dust to Dust***
Martyrs of Korlis***
Savannah Lions**
Serra Angel*****
Serra Aviary***
Swords to Plowshares****
White Knight**

White could have done better with its uncommons. Serra Angel is an obvious bomb, and Swords to Plowshares still as good as removal can get, but after that, something is missing. Angelic Voices and Serra Aviary are both cool and strong build-around cards. You don’t need a mono-white deck to make the Voices work, but I would try to not play more than four non-white, non-artifact creatures in a deck featuring it. Serra Aviary works pretty well with any color but green and helps to elevate cards like Osai Vultures to playable status.

Dust to Dust is an amazing effect when it works but not always better than Divine Offering. You always need to have two targets, and while it is devastating a lot of times, opponents can play around it (especially after they see one in your replays from previous rounds). Martyrs of Korlis look kinda boring, but their big butt is pretty important; it’s also a defense against flying artifacts. Argivian Blacksmith gets better with any artifact creature you draft, but a lot of times he will just sit there and do nothing. Savannah Lions and White Knight are rather unexciting. They can be a pain for slow or black decks, but in most cases they will be outclassed by Turn 2 or 3, respectively. Blaze of Glory is a card that should never see the maindeck; I don’t even know that I would ever board it in!

Rares:

Armageddon***
Balance****
Champion Lancer**
Conversion*
Eye for an Eye**
Harsh Justice**
Island Sanctuary****
Kismet**
Leeches*
Martyrs Cry*
Personal Incarnation***
Steam Catapult****
Veteran Bodyguard***

White has arguably some of the weakest rares in the set. There is no real bomb, but some of the cards are situationally broken. Armageddon is one of them play 2-3 creatures then Geddon for the win. Easy. Downside is, it will often do exactly nothing, and at worst, it brings the risk of a giving your opponent the advantage. But in the correct deck, it has potential to be a bomb. Balance is similar, except that it plays exactly the opposite! You appear to be dead on board? Welcome back to the game! It doesn’t win outright but can change games that you usually would lose to your favor. If the board has reached a stalemate, it doesn’t really help, sadly. All-in-all, it’s still one of the biggest game-breakers; it’s on the Banned & Restricted for a reason.

Champion Lancer is easily one of the worst rares I’ve ever seen. Unlike Wood Elemental, it’s not even funny! If it had protection from creatures, I could understand it as an uncommon. But the way it is, I will take Alaborn Trooper over it and laugh about the guy who plays it against me. I gave it two stars though, since it can at least attack well on an empty board. Wow, some Portal rares really sucked.

Eye for an Eye and Harsh Justice seem to be two brothers from other mothers. They both remind me of Lava Spike, and despite being potentially stronger, I don’t like these kind of cards for Limited. Sometimes they can steal wins, but in most cases, they will sit in my hand, and I’ll be left wishing for a way to influence the board.

Then, we move on to Conversion. I have no idea why cards like Conversion get printed and Power 9 doesn’t… Color hate in Limited is pretty pointless. Sadly, there is a lot of these effects in ME4, and they steal valuable rare slots! But somehow I’m still a bit happy to see them as rares, as cards like these shouldn’t appear in Limited often.

Island Sanctuary is amazing; stall the air, and you will win! There is not one single islandwalker in this set, with no enchantment removal as well, so as long as you don’t lose your airforce, you pretty much can’t lose. I think I hype the card a bit too much, and it will play out less spectacularly, but it’s still a potential game-breaker with an unique effect in a set without enchantment removal…

Kismet is borderline playable. In aggro decks ,it may be a possible addition, but don’t expect too much from it. Sometimes it will slow your opponent down, sometimes you will draw it later in the game and curse the shuffler, your opponent and all that is holy.

Leeches and Martyrs Cry are bad jokes. Leeches was probably added when WotC feared about poison and infect taking down the whole Casual Room. There is not even a single card that gives poison counters in this entire set! For Martyrs Cry, I just don’t see a use- maybe splash it after board against Angelic Voices.dec? But even then, won’t they just draw a bunch of new cards and refill? Even Squire would have made for a better rare- pathetic!

Personal Incarnation is just a generic fatty. The good thing is, it is nearly impossible for it to die in combat. The bad thing is, if it dies, you have to pay. I guess I would play it every time when I’m in white, but I’m not sure how high I would pick it. Wild Griffin just looks better.

Steam Catapult is okay. It’s a bit overcosted for it’s effect but will still always make a deck. It’s funny that this is nowhere as good as Royal Assassin, but the psychological effect it brings with it forces me to rate it a bit higher.

Last but not least, white gets an Alpha kitchen table all-star, Veteran Bodyguard. Like their cousin from Korlis, they do a good job in defending you either against a flying menace or generic ground beaters. I also like how he looks a bit like Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Conclusion: White has some efficient commons and uncommons as well as some good choices to build around. It’s a flexible color that will pair well with any other color but has a lot of situational rares and no real bomb outside of Serra Angel. (The high quality of the commons makes up for that, though.)

Possible Archetypes:

Mono-White Angelic Voices
Wx Serra Aviary
WR Aggro
WU Skies