BOK: Cycle of Shoals

[TheCasualOblivion]

I'm not really sold on the Shoals as a whole. I really don't think they should have been rare. The white one is pretty much a 4 of in every white deck, and I hate it when they make cards like that rare. Lets start with that one.

Shining Shoal--I think this is easily the best of the five, and a lot of the people I've spoke to agree. Alone out of all of them, this card can be played by pitching a card without losing card advantge: Cast it by pitching a card, costing 2 cards-prevent damage to a creature you control, saving it for +1 card, and redirecting the damage to an opponent's creature to kill it for another +1 card advantage. Total=0. Paying the mana cost gains you card advantage, at least using it creature vs. creature. This could be the best damage prevention card the game has ever given us. It sucks that this is a rare, since this could very well be an automatic 4 of in every white deck. I'm glad I already ordered mine.

Blazing Shoal--I see a lot of people going for the turn 1 kill with this card. The only clunky part of this card is that a deck going for the fast kill is going to have to pack a few high cc cards to pitch to this, which could undermine the speed. I never really cared for this sort of card, but it very well could be useful in the right deck.

Sickening Shoal--I'm kinda torn on this one. The card is actually useful. The thing is that playing it without mana is really the only appeal of this card. Otherwise the card really has nothing on other cards like Terror, Dark Banishing, Rend Flesh, or Consume Spirit. Just a question of sacrificing card advantage for speed.

Disrupting Shoal--A Force of Will that is tricky to use. Can only be cast for free to counter a spell when you have a blue spell of the same casting cost. Not entirely reliable. On the bright side, this card isn't completely worthless to hard cast, and while slow, is probably easier to use that way.

Nourishing Shoal--Is this card any use? Life gaining cards tend to be fairly useless. Sacrificing card advantage just to gain life? I don't think so. Hard casting this? Does anyone ever use stream of life?


I'm really not sure these should have been rares. They look more like uncommons to me.

 

[Trigger]

These cards are rare for precisely the reasons you are mentioning.
You dont want cards that are this good as uncommons, when creating cards Wizards have to take into consideration all formats. It seems to me that the format affected most by rarities is limited and you dont want cards like sickening shoal and shining shoal turning up all the time, when it comes to constructed, as you have again pointed out by saying you have ordered yours already, if people want the rares they will get them.

 

[Mr_Pestilence]

White - it looks fantastic, but think about it - are you gonna hold a high cc card in your hand just for a one time use? Once your opponent knows you may have it, they may play more conservatively. Maybe that in itself is a good reason to play it.

Blue - its not FoW, but then again, what is? I kinda like it.

Black - when you absolutely, positively have to put a threat in the graveyard, with no mana available, this is your card.

Red - possibly quite broken, with cards like the Red Myojin. Along with Ninja tricks, unblocked weenies have never been scarier.

Green - utterly useless. G already has better ways to gain life, and they are hardly ever played.

 

[Limited]

edit: BEWARE! THE NEXT PART OF THIS POST IS FLOODED WITH THE WRONG!
I actually like the green one; discard a Kuro Pitlord to it and animate; 9 life to dish out to the creatures..
I think the blue one isn't going to see any play, just because you have to throw away a playable card to counter something..
But the top shoal is the black one; it's solid (yet slow) creature removal which can also be a discard-outlet. Mmmm

 

[jorael]

Nourishing Shoal XXGG

You may remove a green card with converted mana cost X in your hand from the game rather than pay Nourishing Shoal’s mana cost.
You gain X life.

 

[Limited]

I am an Idiot. Capital K.

 

[Killer Joe]

The Blue Shoal is loosly based on the mechanics of (I can't remember it's name but it was never played and in the base sets).

 

[Oversoul]

I had never heard of these suckers until seeing this thread. Here are my thoughts at this point...

Shining Shoal: It might look impressive at first. But how useful is damage redirection? I suppose it might be cute to team this up with Scars of the Veteran or something, but (like Scars) this card is not particularly helpful. It is probably good in limited and maybe even has a place in Standard. Beyond that, I don't have any hopes for this card.

Disrupting Shoal: The comparison that immediately comes to mind is Force of Will. Spell Blast might be more realistic. This thing is far more situational. It is a Spell Blast which costs an extra mana. Detractors of blue (and we know you're out there) should be pleased that such horrible countermagic is being printed.

Sickening Shoal: This might gain some versatility if used in conjuction with Contagion. It's not particularly better than Contagion or Spinning Darkness, but it's certainly good enough to see some casual play (and probably turn up in tournaments if the format is creature-based enough, just like the Shining Shoal).

Blazing Shoal: If you happen to be using Pyrokinesis and Fireblast in the same deck, you do have some ammunition for this sucker. I don't know what sort of deck it would fit in, but the potential for hitting hard and fast gives this card some inherent power.

Nurturing Shoal: I would rather use Stream of Life. Ugh. Fans of green (and we know you're out there) are probably dissapointed (but were totally expecting it anyway).

 

[Ferret]

I would have to say that the White one is the best damage prevention I've seen since En-Kor Chant (or whatever that was) back in, the Tempest Block. That one did some pretty nasty effects, but this one takes away the annoyance of having to pay mana. If you're playing a typical white weenie deck, it's almost useless, but if you're actually trying to use some of the beefier white critters it can cause a pretty big swing in the game...

The blue, black, and red ones have earned my usual indifference...

As for the Green one, why couldn't they make it "Target creature gains +X/+X? Are they afraid that would actually make it too powerful? As was said above, Green has lots of ways to gain life and usually doesn't need them. When you have big beefy critters coming at your opponent you're not worried about your life total being larger because even if it's only 5 or 6, you usually have more than the other guy...

-Ferret

"Unless, he's using that White one, of course"

 

[jorael]

The white one is really nasty. It gives white some removal it really needs. If damage is done, Shining Shoal can blast a creature, whether in combat or not (most often required with white removal).

The red one is cool, because of the 'hypothetical' turn 1 kill. Who cares if it's shaky and will not see tournament play. At least some people will enjoy themselves with the card!

The blue one might actually be a hidden tournament gem. In Legacy and Vintage, a lot of things cost 0, 1 or 2 mana. So the alternative casting may actually be pretty easy to handle and ditching a card never stopped Force of Will from being good.

Black and green one? Meh. I'm dissapointed.

 

[Striking Dragon]

These are arcane, and would seem to work incredibly well if mixed with splice spells. Shining shoal and the white splicers or glacial ray, make for a nasty set of combat tricks for 1-2 mana.

 

[Gizmo]

Blue one is weak, Black one is decent removal, Green one is awful chaff, Red one will need you to be aware of Fireblast-style kills if people are throwing around expensive Dragons and the like, the White one is part Scars Of The Veteran, part Pyrotechnics, and seems genuinely strong.

Whether it makes constructed decks ahead of other cards Im not sure. I see white weenies big problem as being Hideous Laughter - you'd want a Ramosian Rally more than this Shoal.

 

[DÛke]

The Green one is obviously the filler of the cycle, and will be a collector's item, a "crap rare." The Red one is strong, but almost defeats its own purpose: if you're playing big cards, chances are those cards themselves can do the job, provided that the deck is good. Otherwise, I'm not sure in what type of Red deck you would have small creatures backed by big cards. It's a neat trick, but I don't see how it can be used effectively.

The Blue one is already overrated just simply by being compared to Force of Will, and will be played by bad players all over until a revelation dawns on them: that something as simple as Mana Leak is better. A very flaky card...

I am split on the Black and the White one. I like them both. A lot. In fact, the Black one would go hand in hand with my Siezan deck; few sets back the Black Shoal would have been even worse, but now with cards like Night's Whisper and Ambition's Cost...it's not as bad. I personally like it and hope that a lot of others would think it's bad just so I can get me 4 of them that much more easily.

The White one appears to be very powerful, but I see it more of a control card and not a White Weenie card. I think a slower White deck that's control oriented would benefit a lot more from it than anything else. In fact, it makes mono White control that much more possible....as crazy as it may sound. I would certainly love experimenting with it.

 

[Crackdown]

I really like the Shining Shoal, for much the same reason as Duke mentioned. If you're into playing fun, White creatures (Angels, Dragons, Jareth, etc.) that take some time to establish or even a W/R Samurai deck with Fumiko and Kentaro, this card will give your opponent something to think about and may just slow them down a little.

I don't have enough knowledge to know if it's tournament caliber in any format, but as a fun card to have . . . I'd like four please.

 

[Rooser]

The white one is the best one, obviously.

I first thought that the Blue one was a Mana Leak effect. If it were, it would be a very good card. As it is, it's too hard to use. And if you think that hardcasting it is viable, you 1) Haven't heard of spellblast and 2) Are unaware of the fact that a counterspell's strategic viability hinges on being cheaper than the spell it counters. A spellblast effect is doomed to be more expensive every time, and is therefore pretty crappy.

The Green shoal is also not too useful. Well, free lifegain as a surpsrise is actually pretty good in a 2-player matchup, but the card lacks the versatility of other "Lifegain cards that made it in constucted Type 2" such as Pulse of the Fields and Renewed Faith. That said, If I were to be rogueish and build a mono-green aggro-control deck in Type 2 right now, the Green Shoal would probably make the cut at least in the sideboard. Anything that can stall against Affinity for turn is playable, esepcailly when it comes at instant speed - in other words, right after they sacrifice everything to the Atog/Ravager.

But that's a really narrow situation.

I think what we have is a case where one of the shoals is undeniably good and two of them are undeniably bad, and two of them are worth debating.

My first reaction to the red one is that it feels a lot like Hatred. Then I realize that no red cards out there cost 19. In fact, no cards cost 19. If I could play with a complement of game-endingly expensive spells to tack onto my early one-drops then I might say you'd have a deck. But as it is, I think Duke's analysis is correct. The card brings an inherent tension to deck construction that results either in unbalance or minimal power. I want to like the red shoal pretty badly, but I can't.

The black shoal, however, is pretty nice. The shoals are designed to fit into aggro-control decks and I think this one fits the bill nicely. It acts as a free control element, which leaves you open to push on the attack. Hardcasting it is not too terrible either.

 

[Gizmo]

Celestial Dawn + Burning Shoal + Draco = Ouch

 

[Killer Joe]

In the "Casual" world, they ALL stink! There's bound to be a better card.
In the "Tounament World", especially CoK Block and to some extent, Standard, they all might find a viable place for them to be effective. Yes, the Blue one is bad, but in a tourney when you're about to "HOUSE" your opponent with your **Secret Tech** spell and the Disrupting Shoal effectively counters your spell, then how BAD is it? For you? Some Bad. For your ill-informed opponent? Some Good!

Quit whinning about how D-Shoal is being compared to Force of Will because the only reason it is being compared is for it's alternate casting cost <PERIOD!>

Man, doesn't ANYONE know how to react in moderation anymore?

 

[TheCasualOblivion]

I think the White Shoal is very strong in casual. It only really fizzles against a deck that doesn't deal damage.

I've given the matter some more thought, and thought about what people have said here, and:

Shining Shoal: Still the best damage prevention spell ever created. Superior to Kor Chant for the ability to be cast for free, and the fact that you can prevent damage dealt to yourself, and redirect it to your opponent if you so choose. Cast for free, if you prevent lethal damage to a creature you control, and deal lethal damage to an opposing creature, you can cast this spell for no mana and have no net loss of card advantage.

Casual: In a casual game, this spell's unreliability isn't as bad. You can hard cast it for card advantage more easily in a slower game. I think this is a powerhouse.

Tournament: Still useful, though to a lesser extent.

Disrupting Shoal: If you could care less about standard(like me), Force of Will, Thwart, Daze and even Foil are better at being a free counterspell than this. I don't care for this one.

Casual: I see no real use for this here.

Tournament: A faster mana curve makes this card a little more useable. The card requires a mono or mostly blue deck I would think though. The farther you go back into older environments, the more superior alternatives become available. In standard, there really isn't a mono-blue control out there right now, and this card seems all sorts of unreliable in a multicolor deck.

Sickening Shoal: There are two opinions on this one...

Casual: This card really isn't worthwhile for casual. Giving up card advantage to take out a creature isn't that critical.

Tournament: Unless Shining Shoal proves its worth, this is probably the most useful of the Shoals in a Tournament environment.

Blazing Shoal: Having high cc Red spells kind of undermines the speed theme of this card. I see three uses, one of them being this card could be useful in an Obliterate deck. The other two would be:

Casual: I could see this card make it pay off to put a pile of big Red creatures into a Sneak Attack deck.

Tournament: Older formats with Pyrokinesis and Fireblast could get some use out of this, as has been stated before.

Nourishing Shoal- Not really worth the trouble to discuss.

 

[orgg]

The white, black, and red have potential, though the lattermost is debatable on that point.

White will make a big splash I belive.

The black is almost a reprint of Contagion, except that it can't kill two creatures at once... something most people that I know didn't even notice on Contagion.

 

[Oversoul]

Shining Shoal: Still the best damage prevention spell ever created.

If by "still" you mean "not" then yes.