What Darksteel card deserves the hype?

[Notepad]

This is a thread to vote on and discuss which card in the Darksteel set is the best of the bunch. You've seen all the hype, now which one, in your humble opinion, is the one that lives up to it the most?

There are powerful tournament cards like Arcbound Ravager and casual stompers like Darksteel Colossus. Whatever your reasons for voting, whether they be for tourney power or for casual mayhem, let's find a winner.

Have fun discussing!


(Psst! Next week's vote will go away from this Darksteel expansion stuff and head towards MTGO turf.)

 

[Rooser]

I say Blinkmoth Nexus. It's not the best on the list, but it's the only one that's exactly as good as everyone thinks it is.

 

[Chaos Turtle]

I thought everyone knew it was Skullclamp...

Trinishpere is very interesting though.

 

[Notepad]

Yeah, Skullclamp is pretty dang powerful. But on a casual basis I've always liked saboteur abilities even before I knew they were called that. So, my vote has to go to the Sword of Fire and Ice. Way too fun with a stupid bird deck.

 

[train]

Got a dragon - and know how to abuse it - so the dragon is...

 

[Spiderman]

Once again, not enough Darksteel cards to throw in my opinion

 

[Azreal the Soulmaster]

skullclamp is pretty nuts, but as for things on the list, the ravager is quite insane. Ravager affinity is such a good deck.

 

[GauntletKing]

This is the second vote for the sword.
It's insane in my W/U/R soldier deck. Can you feel the pain with Soltari guerillas and the blue unblockable soldier in the same deck?


AND
I love the flavor. Is anyone else old enough to have seen the movie

Fire and Ice
by Ralph Bakshi?

Awesome animated flick with everything the fantasy genre has to offer. It's the same kind of stuff that got some of us into this game in the first place. One of my all time favorites.

More flavor, that blue unblockable soldier (I think it's common from tempest or Urza block. casting cost: U1 Pow/Tough: 1/1 someone please help with the name)

anyway, that soldier looks like the art from the Forgotten Realms character Drizzt Do'urden, who carries a glowing blue sword and who is also a master of stealth.......

FLAVOR APPEAL shouts at me.
Drizzt would be better in a U/B deck, but in the novels, he hangs with the good guys (white) and a dwarf king (red), and he's an assasin (the sword ability)

Best utility, best flavor, advantage incarnate, what else can a player with more than 6 turns to live possibly want?

 

[HOUTS]

Ja.

I gave in, once again, and fell in the trap of the 'reply' button.

It caught my eye: "Push me-click it! Say something!!"

Derf.

Now, after the flamming posts, apparently I have to divide 'casual' from 'good'.

So I will state: the best card, obviously, is Skullclamp.

But, that is only if you play competitive tournaments and want to win--regardless of the fun factor or casualplaying.

But, if you don't care, and throw caution to the wind, throwing down a darksteel forge, with any artifacts, can be a game winner.
It's like dropping a bomb.
I have plantinum angel in play...

*drum roll*

*In comes Darksteel forge*

Ta da! You win!

(excluding all the good cards in Type 2 or any format)

Shawn Houtsinger
The one and only,
HOUTS

 

[Reverend Love]

I agree with HOUTS, Skullclamp is one of those rare cards that actually lived up to the hype.

It's kind of a frustrating card being that it has the sole ability to prop-up a half-oinked deck due to it's raw strength. I simply cannot believe how many horrible piles of cardboard I've seen actually given a chance to work by this lone card.

..that said in the hand's of a skilled player it's truly devastating.

 

[Mr_Pestilence]

Yup. Bakshi rules! Check out "Wizards", too.

I vote for Furnace Dragon - big, fast (to cast), evasive, and in the right situation simply too devastating for your opponent to recover from.

Ravager and Sk'lamp are cool, but by the time Regionals and Mirrodin block roll around, I think all the hatred in the form of Oxidize, Naturalize, Detonate, Shatter, Echoing Ruin, Viridian Shaman, Creeping Mold, etc., will just be too much for Artifact decks to be effective.

 

[Reverend Love]

Ravager gets around a lot of that though so I'm doubtful.

 

[train]

not if ravager is the one being targeted...

 

[HOUTS]

Um...


Mr_Pestilence: "Ravager and Sk'lamp are cool, but by the time Regionals and Mirrodin block roll around, I think all the hatred in the form of Oxidize, Naturalize, Detonate, Shatter, Echoing Ruin, Viridian Shaman, Creeping Mold, etc., will just be too much for Artifact decks to be effective."

"Ravager gets around a lot of that though so I'm doubtful"

"not if ravager is the one being targeted"


I usually don't say this...but Mr_Pestilence....I wish this was true, and the same goes for Train, but it isn't
*Clicks heels together*

(wishes hard)

Nope. They STILL running the Type 2 format even with decks with main deck Matrix and shatter.

Think about that. Even decks with Wrath.

Go on...I'll gladly wait. I have to make sure this sinks in...

Yep, skull clamp and Ravager are beatings.

And, unless you wrath, or drop a matrix Train, Mr. Welding Jar (Hi there! I regenerate things...watch me sac myself *giggle*)
will merely mock you. Also, other decks are playing a little bit of counter magic.

More importantly, tempo is the name of the game. By the time you can deal with killing their first turn Skullclamp, land, Mox, and 2/2 beat stick, and second turn ravager....you merely are laying down a land, using ONE of your artifact hate cards, while they are saying "Sure, I'll let him die, draw two more cards, and drop two more threats next turn"

Just in case you didn't get my drift on what deck I detest--it's Affinity with Skullclamp and Ravager-the two mosted hate and deadly cards in T2 at this moment.

Shawn Houtsinger
The one and only,
HOUTS

-----------------------
Third turn-kill YOU with my Affinity deck
My opponent-Derf "I drop my Craw Wurm...um go?!"

 

[Istanbul]

You forgot Elvish Scrapper.

Between Elvish Scrapper, Viridian Zealot, and Viridian Shaman, elves might still be the way to go to make a passable Elf deck AND maindeck hate against affinity and WW Equip.

 

[Reverend Love]

ugh..elves...*shudder*

 

[train]

I run G/W for a reason... dealing with Ravager may take more than 1 turn - but it does get done...

The Peacekeepers base deck means that the ravager has to get nice and huge to beat him down and live, so I'm up 3 cards advantage at that point... another turn allows wing shards to help out - and at this time it's probably 2 ravagers - the more the merrier...

It all comes down to the draw... and I've fared well against it so far... Don't know if I'll make regionals, but if i do, I'll be ready...

 

[Azreal the Soulmaster]

Ravager+Nexus+Skullclamp+disciple= bad news bears

I don't think any one card(with the exception of skullclamp) is completely insane on its own, but when they interact with the current deck archetypes it gets to be abusive. In the words of Zadok "something in this deck is going to get banned".

 

[train]

Granted the combos are strong - but when looking at a 4 card combo as stated - there won't be any bannings... or restrictions...

Ravager is stronger because it has open synergy with so much... combos are weak unless combined...

 

[Azreal the Soulmaster]

I'm not suggesting those cards are "combos" I certainly wouldn't used a skullclamp on a nexus, unless I really needed some cards. but all those cards merged with the existing affinity build to create ravager affinity, which is an extremely abusive deck. The most likely candidate for banning actually is the disciple, which deals on average 10 damage a game.