UM's GLORIOUS spell tier list!

[Unhinged Manchild]

Heroscapers: (crickets)

Me: Let's talk about AotP's spells and how I rank them in usefulness!

Spell rankings – How useful are AotP’s spells?

If you haven’t seen my GLORIOUS army card tier list yet, go check it out! Below, you will find my personal opinions on the overarching power of spells in AotP. I base most of these positions on a standard 1v1 game (with some consideration for a 2v2 game) where the goal is to either kill Planeswalkers or wipe the entire enemy army off of the battlefield. Many games of AotP are literally won by killing an opponent’s Planeswalker, but even in kill’em all battles, killing your opponent’s Planeswalker can severely gimp their ability to respond to you because they can no longer summon, draw cards in action 1, or play spells. Therefore, scenarios such as “capture the flag” or “king of the hill” kinds of things are not heavily considered, but this tier list will likely mostly hold true even for those kinds of battles. Additionally, these rankings assume AotP maps or something like a competitive Heroscape map.

You will see that I use a tier system. Firstly, the order in which I place the colors has nothing to do with how powerful I think the colors are in comparison to one another. On that, I would probably say green or blue is strongest. I attempted to rank the cards within each tier from the greatest (first in the list) to the weakest (last in list) in terms of usefulness. In general, I rank spells higher if they are capable of: dealing direct damage to figures (because Planeswalkers AND creatures are figures,) healing Planeswalkers, or making it easier for your key figures to deliver game-winning attacks, especially against hero creatures or Planeswalkers. Cards that are dead-in-hand when you are playing against a heroes-only army will be ranked a bit lower due to my own personal belief that heroes-only armies seem quite strong and viable in the AotP meta. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the Sorin-Ruiner-Avacyn build or even read this report about a game that I spectated of someone using this heroes-only army against an Ob Nixilis army; perhaps it will give you an idea of why I tend to dislike cards that can only affect an enemy squad. Hero creatures backed by tons of white healing can be a serious threat, especially when those heroes inflict automatic damage on every one of their turns.

Category explanations:

Spoiler Alert!

For each card, I place it under one of these categories below. I name the card and then identify the deck price as well as the AotP set it came from.

Best spell – The card that, IMO, belongs in 95% of decks that use the color. These cards typically contain two or more of the following characteristics: extremely point cost efficient, offensively powerful/destructive, defensively game-saving, and/or offering a very unique functionality not easily found in the color or even within another entity in the game! When the opportunity presents itself, playing these cards should swing the game pretty strongly into your favor, and in nearly all games this card will find use.

High – Very strong cards that will likely exist in most decks of the color. These are often quite unique in what they do, and usually cost efficient. These are also good candidates for “best card,” but were not selected due to minor flaws.

Mid – Mediocre cards that are just average in value (for the color) or somewhat limited in their scope of use; these will form the backbone of the color’s deck. I’m lenient with cost 5 cards even if their effects may sometimes be pretty weak, because IMO filling your deck with a 5 pointer so you can squeeze in a great 30 or 35-point card can be better for your build goals than with two lesser 20-point cards where those 20-pointers don’t really align with your army needs/wants.

Low – Cards that I do not use in most builds, probably due to some mix of the cost of the card, the conditions required, or the (comparatively weak) payoff of the card. Some of these arguably have niche use in specific kinds of decks, though, so don’t completely write off cards in these categories just because I say so in this tier list!

Worst spell – The card that I’m avoiding in 95% of my decks. These cards are costly, inefficient, provide weak payouts, and/or have really annoying conditions to meet. Frankly, having these cards in your deck is probably doing your opponent a favor, more times than not.

Black:

Spoiler Alert!

Best spell

Altar’s Reap (25, AoP) – Healing 4 from your VIP is extremely potent, especially if a Restless Zombie or Skirsdag Cultist is destroyed to fuel this card. A bit shameful that this doesn't heal off damage in a ratio of 1 damage per 5 spell points like Bountiful Harvest and Near-Death Experience, especially when we have to sac a creature as well, but this packs a lot of healing into one card, and I think black PWs are generally expected to carry more weight in their armies compared to other colors, so I find this card has a greater impact for black.

High (8 spells)

Bone Splinters (10, AoP) - This was nearly my choice for black's best spell, it is such a major player in black’s ability to deal with hero creatures. A major plus here is that this card makes no reference to the range or line of sight of your Planeswalker; go rush your weak zombies or cultists into combat with a high priority target (or multiple targets,) make some attack rolls against some figures, and afterward give them the... ahem, metaphorical finger... by playing this 10-point beast to inflict serious harm on a hero creature or outright kill a threatening enemy squaddie.

Rise of the Dark Realms (25, AoP) - Any deck that uses Dark Harvest and/or Blighted Reavers will probably get the best value out of this. You keep your activation quality high by keeping your entire squad on the battlefield so that you have more figures moving and attacking each turn, so undoing death should be a no-brainer. IMO RotDR is slightly more valuable to Ob Nixilis and Sorin due to their range 1 and tendency to be closer to the thick of combat – this means when RotDR resurrects their creature, that creature likely doesn’t have far to travel to re-enter engagement. Liliana might cause small headaches because she will tend to be further out from the fight, and black’s creatures only have 5 move.

Duress (15, AoP) - Considering red’s Power of Fire, which IMO is quite good, it gives a squad +1 power at 20 points; Duress is some really damn good value. It gives your squad +1 power AND the potential to make your opponent discard, all at a cheaper price! This is a kind of lockdown/control card that should be played right when you have the opening to nail your opponent’s Planeswalker with 2 or more of your squad’s attacks. If even 2 squaddies manage to slip some wounds in, Duress’ card discard function is quite snowbally and can cause your opponent to lose their best answers to the situation.

Dark Harvest (15, AoP) - Sacrificing a creature makes this a tough pill to swallow, but given some of the ways that black squad creatures can come back (mostly in RotDR and Skirsdag Indoctrination, but also Zombies’ Darkness Arises if you are in a real pinch for quick power) the sacrifice required for +3 power doesn’t seem to faze black quite as badly as it would other colors. Dark Harvest combined with Duress is a POWERFUL combo if you can get 2 or more attacks launched against an opponent Planeswalker and cause them to discard, but the best kind of enemy Planeswalker is a dead one.

Liliana’s Caress (5, AoP) - Basically 1-for-1 your opponent; your opponent discards a random card on command when you play this card. Just for the off-chance that you cause the opponent to discard a game-clinching spell, this spell seems worth it, especially at 5 points.

Corrupt (10, AoP) - This card isn’t particularly game-changing, but as a card that deals consistent 1 damage to a creature (a hero or squad critter within 5 of your PW) of your choice AND heals your PW of 1 damage, Corrupt is very splashable and efficient in oiling your black war machine.

Barter in Blood (5, SOI) - This card seems quite good at 5 points, especially because you can enchant your own heroes, which may slightly dissuade your opponent from rushing to destroy them. It can damage a PW with it’s effect, too! As a passive enchantment that requires your opponent to kill an enchanted creature in combat, there are ways to force this card to die quietly, such as damage from leaving engagement attacks, abilities, and spells, or your opponent can even ignore the enchanted figure altogether and gun for your PW. It still feels like a card that is hard to use incorrectly, and even if doesn’t correctly trigger because your opponent plays around it, it’s only 5 points!

Despise (10, AoP) - Since there should ALWAYS be an enemy Planeswalker that you are fighting against at the start of each game, it’s pretty hard to go wrong in weakening the power of that figure, especially for 10 points. Blue’s Misdirection can really twist this card against us, though, so it may be a matter of risk/analysis if you have a blue opponent.

Mid (8 spells)

Mental Agony (5, AoP) - Decent card for 5 points. Pretty similar to Liliana’s Caress, except that this is a passive squad enchantment which requires the enchanted squad to be attacked, instead of being something that just fires off when you demand it, like LC does.

Corpse Lunge (10, SOI) - This is a tough one to justify... I think it teeters distinctly between either being super good or being useless/detrimental to you. There is quite a bit of potential in this card because of the sheer amount of damage that can be inflicted by something such as the Eldrazi Ruiner or a Duress/Dark Harvest-buffed squaddie getting a double attack. However, inflicting 2 damage upon your Planeswalker feels risky, and the 4-sight range check of the card will likely be a tad annoying for Liliana. Luckily, black (AND white in Sorin’s case) has a decent amount of PW healing to offset the damage. Without having used this card much, I imagine this is one of the final cards you play before the game closes out, whether you win or lose, almost like a final gambit. CL + Dark Harvest + Rise of the Dark Realms as a game-clincher combo, anyone?

Painful Truths (20, BfZ) - The placement of this one may be mostly due to my own bias, but I love Painful Truths in tandem with Restless Zombies. The lack range/sight check from PW makes this an easy choice to just kill a zombie whenever I want 2 more cards; the zombie will likely return in 2-3 turns anyway. In black decks that don’t use Restless Zombies, this card probably takes quite a dip in usefulness. To note, Painful Truths has some synergy if you tag Sorin with the 2 damage and/or you can trigger white’s Stone Will on him, but that’s quite a specific scenario mostly due to his Vampiric Thirst healing, and I would personally avoid intentionally placing wounds on my PW when I could choose a creature to take the damage instead.

Killing Wave (40, AoP) - Black is definitely the color that makes you (as a potential opponent to a black army) regret bringing tons of squads; this card and Ob Nixilis are the shining examples of why you don't want to rely on range 1 squads to do your heavy lifting. IIRC this card outright kills all squads in AotP except for the Lantern Geists and/or a squad that is enchanted by white’s Spare from Evil, just be careful about the position of your own non-zombie squads! Like RotDR, this one is probably slightly more useful for Ob Nixilis or Sorin, because they will likely find themselves walking into the thick of the fight anyway, where Liliana would probably prefer to keep her distance and potential high ground. Ob Nixilis’ flying makes it very easy for him to find a comfy spot to use KW. Nabbing as many as 2 out of 3 creatures of a squad with this card is often enough to completely gimp that squad and heavily nullify the threat that was presented by that squad. However, against heroes-only builds, this is 100% a 40-point dud, only offering you the potential of IRL paper cuts. The hero creature issue is the primary reason why it places middle of the road instead of higher on the list, because it is a fantastic card outside of that.

Ever After (20, SOI) - Another dead-in-hand card if your opponent runs a heroes-only army, and another reason why you don’t want to bring squads against black. Once again, similar to RotDR, this card is likely preferred by Ob Nixilis and Sorin because of how close they will be to the fight, which should more easily enable any Ever After squaddie to do its job in moving toward and attacking the highest value target.

Strangling Soot (15, AoP) - Are you seeing the recurring theme yet? Black very easily makes you regret bringing squads, but black also tends to struggle against heroes. Yet another dead card when against heroes, Strangling Soot basically completely flips the tables on your opponent when they thought their squaddie was going to attack and kill yours. For 15 points, pretty good, but against heroes, just a total waste.

Creeping Dread (25, SOI) - A slow poison against a squad and (I hate to sound like a broken record) one more for the pile of “useless against hero decks.” I don’t have much experience with this one, but in general I think causing your opponent to discard can be game-changing on occasion, so it’s gotta be decent enough when enemy squads are involved, right? 25 is a bit steep, though.

Crippling Blight (25, AoP) - Another squad hate card that is a dead draw against heroes-only; I’m not very convinced that this is worth 25 points. Perhaps as anti-kessig tech it’s not bad, but 25 points is still steep for a card that might just cause your opponent to buff their next squad/hero and kill you with that one instead.

Low (3 spells)

Demonic Appetite (20, BfZ) – Another card added to our firewood pile when heroes-only armies show up. A passive enchantment that awaits the death of your creatures, it’s also a consolation prize at best; your creature died so your opponent discards a card. DA does nothing against hero armies, and is useless when your opponent has no cards in hand. Good luck coming back from losing your creatures in combat, because I don’t think this card is providing much in return for that loss. While I do believe discard effects can be very useful, this one might have too many issues for 20 points.

Behold the Beyond (15, SOI) - I’m not too much a fan of forcing oneself to discard in AotP especially due to the small deck size of 12; every card seems to count. If you are discarding more than 1 card via Behold the Beyond, IMO you are not coming out on top of that interaction, especially in the long term. I acknowledge that there are certainly instances where pulling 3 brand new cards (especially if you have 0-1 cards in hand after playing BtB) could get you the game-winning move or put you in a strong position to win on your next turn, but discarding too much up front seems very detrimental if you can’t win the game in your next 1-2 turns.

Harrowing Journey (25, SOI) - This card honestly sounds pretty cool and flexible in theory, but it feels as if it’s not making much of a difference for what it does at cost 25. In reverse of what black usually does, this card targets heroes only, and is useless against squads. You can choose to tag one of your heroes with it, or an enemy hero with it. Just remember that the +3 move and the 1 damage per hero turn is all part of the package. Perhaps this is the anti-enemy-hero tech that black needed all along and I just haven’t fully realized it yet, but having a strong hero with +3 move chasing my PW around doesn’t exactly sound like a good compromise for that 1 damage per turn.

Worst spell

Virulent Swipe (40, BfZ) - To no one’s surprise, the lowest card in black effects squad-on-squad combat only, and is a massive dead draw against a hero army. Just... eww. VS seems to have a high probability of feels bad moments on any squad that isn’t the Blighted Reavers or the Malakir Bloodchasers, and I’m not sure I want to inflict wounds on my Reavers just for one turn of “license to kill” mode against enemy squads (for those of you missing my intended reference, this is a throwback to N64’s Goldeneye shooter; they had a License to Kill mode where a player dies if they take one hit/bullet/point of damage.) If you fail to get any hits through in your attack rolls with Deathtouch active, it feels terrible. While similar logic can apply to many things in AotP, does it ever come with the price of inflicting up to 3 wounds on your own squad and dumping 40 points of your deck for a single card to work on a single turn during squad-on-squad combat only?

Blue:

Spoiler Alert!

Best spell

Selective Memory (5, AoP) – The ability to grab any one of your sorceries (any color! Although officially it can only ever be blue or green [Kiora]) on demand seems VERY good for 5 points. I think this makes any blue deck more consistent, and the ability to grab something like Titanic Growth or Overrun makes Kiora terrifying. It would be the same for a red/blue Planeswalker with Seize the Day and Twinflame.

High (6 spells)

Welcome to the Fold (40, SOI) – Why is this so high? Flexibility and the additional actions granted. This card is almost like “Mind Control x2” or “Seize the Day x2,” whichever you fancy in the moment. This is flexible because you can target two creatures from one of your own squads or even two from an ally squad, which makes this card great even in those cases where your opponent brings heroes-only builds. Getting to move + attack with 2 squaddies and your own Planeswalker all in one turn, and in two separate time frames, is quite powerful. And, there's nothing funnier than walking two opposing melee figures out of engagement from your own figures a bunch of times and then have them bash each other in the face as the closing act. Two reasons why this isn’t blue’s top card: high cost, and the requirement to have 2 creatures from the same squad within 4 spaces of your PW in order to successfully make full use WttF (“up to two” means you can just use one creature, but for 40 points that’s VERY expensive to just settle for moving one squaddie.) Luckily, you have tons of control if you want to use WttF on your own squad – just summon your squad within 4 spaces of your PW during action 2, play WttF, and charge forth to slay thine enemies and their lower IQs!

Project Self (5, AoP) - For 5 points, teleport your Planeswalker. This card is super useful and dirt cheap. You can teleport your PW and then summon (this is a rare thing to be able to do,) move and attack, or you can move and attack and then PS to teleport to safety. Heck, you could choose to take a turn with your squad, and then play PS after the squad moves and attacks just so you carry your PW across the battlefield with them, although I’d argue that all of the blue PWs don’t particularly want to be knee-deep in engagement.

Jace’s Erasure (5, AoP) - Another 5-point beast card from blue. Killing 2 cards from an opponent’s deck for only 5 points seems like it should almost never be anything short of a win. If this destroys even 1 remotely critical card, it has more than done its job. The downside is that this card might actually speed up your opponent’s progress to drawing their good cards if you destroy 2 cards that they don’t particularly care about. Use JE in conjunction with those “look at top card of opponent’s deck” effects to be sure you are destroying at least 1 threatening spell! Even better if you can make a game last long enough to pile two great cards on the bottom of the opponent's deck and murder those cards in cold blood with this card! Pro tip: counter this spell by identifying as non-binary!

Essence Flux (25, SOI) – Wow, this is such an offensively and defensively fantastic card, and it can target any friendly creature! Primarily, this seems to be best used when you take a turn with the Eldrazi Ruiner or the Necro-Alchemist, it will likely allow you hot drop your monster near your opponent’s key figures (read: Planeswalker.) Teleporting, moving, and then attacking with that creature all in the same turn will allow you to easily drill into your intended target. Basically, EF enables a single one of your creatures to have a massive threat range. EF + Roilmage’s trick is a very threatening combo.

Aetherspouts (15, AoP) - I know, I know, I railed so hard on black’s anti-squad shenanigans while they are weak to heroes. Similar logic applies here, this is a dead card against heroes only. However, at 15 points this directly helps to defend your important Planeswalker figure when squads are around, and can cause a massive opening in your opponent’s army if they don’t consider the possibility that your PW is enchanted with Aetherspouts and they heedlessly attack with a squad. Especially useful at slowing/stalling green’s Kessig murder machine combo (Kessig double attack + Titanic Growth.) If you have the trio of blue Planeswalker hidden enchants in your deck (Aetherspouts, Psychic Rebuttal, Scatter Arc,) any opponent that understands AotP/blue will likely hesitate and attempt to scout for which of these cards are on your PW as they attempt to take the game to curtains. If it slows them down even one turn, you may have bought yourself valuable time to win the game. Note that Aetherspouts is slightly less good against red’s Firecats, because those are summoned in action 2 and launch a haste attack upon summoning. If they are summoned to take their haste attack and they are returned to reserve via Aetherspouts, red can just immediately resummon them (this assumes that the cats were their first summon and that the resummoning will count as red’s 2nd summon for the turn) and haste attack your Planeswalker again without skipping a beat.

Unsummon (10, AoP) - This would probably fall in mid-tier if it were only capable of unsummoning enemy squads. Naturally, Unsummon is super powerful when you can use it on enemy squads, but don’t stop there; it has potential beyond that. I have legitimately used this card to unsummon my own Leyline Phantoms to heal them, and to unsummon my own Illusionary Projections to resummon/reposition them and then draw another card via their Collective Knowledge. For 10 points, don’t you agree that this card offers quite a bit of flexibility?

Mid (16 spells)

Psychic Rebuttal (20, AoP) - Although this can be forcefully baited by a simple 5-point sorcery play by your opponent, sometimes your opponent won’t have a throwaway sorcery to use in scouting your PWs hidden enchantments for Psychic Rebuttal. If you can counter a powerful sorcery with Psychic Rebuttal or at the very least slow your opponent down in their fear of your blue trio PW hidden enchantments ruining their plans, this card has probably earned its value.

Misdirection (25, AoP) - I originally thought this card was way too expensive, but after a few games with it, I think I’ve come to terms with its price. It’s quite good – I've done anything from moving black’s Despise off of my PW back onto the originating black PW, to moving Power of Fire from my opponent’s Kessig Rangers over to my Illusionary Projections and putting in some hurt with the Projections afterward. The twist of fate offered via Misdirection seems pretty good, and I see potential for it to move higher in this list.

Ghostly Wings (10, SOI) - I personally view this as a poor man’s Essence Flux. It’s definitely not a bad card! +2 move and flying for a single creature you control is very good, and it is nearly as enabling as EF is. If you would like to use EF but you don’t have the deck points available, try GW instead, it might get the job done. A flying Eldrazi Ruiner or Necro-Alchemist with +2 move is a helluva thing.

Scatter Arc (20, AoP) – Of the trio blue PW hidden enchants, this one scores the lowest because I believe that countering an enchantment has a lower impact than countering a sorcery or stopping a squad attack and unsummoning them. Still, countering something such as Firebreathing, Blessing, or even Paths Revealed might be devastating to your opponent, and also your opponent may want to scout this card while it is face down on your PW if they don’t want to risk their wincon being countered by any one of the trio.

Roilmage’s Trick (35, BfZ) – This card is blue’s metaphorical BFG. While quite expensive, this is a very good card if your opponent has 4 or more cards in hand. It feels to me that this card probably should have been costed around 20-25 points (especially looking at green’s Titanic Growth,) and it’s current cost is why it ranks here instead of higher. If there is not an opponent with at least 3 cards, it’s probably not worth playing RT. Blue doesn’t have much power buffing, so I often find this card pretty crucial. Use it to buff a hero or a squad creature.

Twisted Image (25, AoP) - I haven’t found much use for this card other than “give the Leyline Phantoms +2 power for one turn.” It’s a good card at that, but I see no really strong or logical use for TI outside of Leyline Phantoms.

Ghostform (20, SOI) - A reasonable card when you need to deal with heroes or some really tough & annoying squaddie; especially helpful to accelerate the killing of the Eldrazi Ruiner with your Illusionary Projections. The more power that you can stack for your Ghostform-enabled squaddie, the better. Keep in mind that you still need to save some firepower to kill the opposing PW, though!

Pore Over the Pages (5, SOI) - The only way that blue can intrinsically increase their own PW’s toughness. It’s not too bad for 5 points, but being forced to consistently hold 3 cards in your hand to get this benefit sounds slightly hassling, and I think I’d rather be spending cards to take the advantage and win the game. As a plus for this card, you can enchant an ally PW with it in a 2v2 game, and it benefits their PW based on how many cards are in their hand.

Mind Control (10, AoP) - Another victim of the uncivilized hero-only armies. For 10 points, this card is very good, but you need an opponent squad creature available in order to fire it off. For that reason, it is mid-tier instead of upper to upper-mid. Honestly, blue probably does well enough in general that it doesn’t mind having this card dead-in-deck against hero armies, since it’s only 10 points anyway and it is quite useful against an enemy squad.

Call to Heel (15, AoP) - Effective only in squad-on-squad combat; this scores low just like many of black’s squad cards because of its utter uselessness against heroes armies, and because it does nothing to protect your PW, unlike Aetherspouts which actually can, in the cases where your opponent actually does have squads. This is a pretty good card when it does successfully trigger, though.

Gone Missing (40, SOI) - Expensive, but if you can squeeze another use out of a powerful card like Welcome to the Fold, Aetherspouts, or Roilmage’s Trick, GM might well be worth it. But, fitting multiple 30–40 point cards into your deck is very tough, and you will have to pass on a bunch of blue’s 15-25 point cards and take more 5-10 point cards instead. Plus, you still need to re-draw the card once it is taken out of the graveyard and placed back into your deck. I’ve not made much use of GM for these reasons.

Mind Tricks (5, SOI) - This card seems wildly unpredictable, and IMO leaves us mostly incapable of planning for its execution. However, for 5 points and the potential to snag a ranged PW (remember, it says “single-space figure”) with it, it might pan out and be useful once in a while, especially if your opponent does not remember it nor expect it.

Talent of the Telepath (45, AoP) - Way too expensive for the rare opportunity that you may get to steal an actually worthwhile sorcery from your opponent’s graveyard. It is somewhat useful to get access to something like red’s Twinflame or white’s Near-Death Experience, but that generally requires the opponent to play those cards and they get to reap the benefits first. Ideally, we would nullify and destroy those more powerful cards with blue’s counter-happy trio of hidden enchants or we would send great cards to the graveyard via Jace’s Erasure, but both of these processes can be tricky. Not only that, but consider sorceries which mention either the color of a targeted figure OR the color of your own Planeswalker: red’s Seize the Day and Malevolent Whispers, black’s Altar’s Reap and Corrupt, green’s Titanic Growth and Bountiful harvest, white’s Inspired Charge and Fell the Mighty; that’s just a small sampling of some of the more powerful cards which are completely off the table for Talent of the Telepath, especially for the mono blue Jaces. My gut says that in most 1v1 games, this card isn’t getting value anywhere near the 45 point cost.

Scatter to the Winds (20, BfZ) - I’m personally not impressed with this card... it makes an opponent re-draw and play their card again, so you basically get a 1-turn break from whatever enchantment may have been causing you lots of problems? Even at that, decking an opponent's enchantment that grants power will do very little for you on your turn, and your opponent will draw back into it and play it without skipping a beat. Instead of this card, I’d just pay 5 more points and put Misdirection in my deck. As far as I can tell, SttW is only particularly brutal against black when they use Dark Harvest, because it forces them to sacrifice a creature again if they want to bring DH back onto the battlefield after SttW tossed it out of play. In general, this card might be best used against another blue player when you don’t have the resources otherwise to scout one of the trio blue hidden enchants on their PW... but you would likely need to make a winning/critical move on the same turn that you play SttW, otherwise that hidden enchant comes back on their next turn anyway.

Trail of Evidence (20, SOI) - Wow, for 20 points, we only get +1/+1 if we are adjacent to a glyph or the cryptoliths... this card feels too situational and expensive for what it offers. Spell Flicker seems nearly worthless. However, it is one of the few ways that blue can actually enchant and buff its squads, and there is probably some legit use for this card if you know what map(s) you will be playing on ahead of time, so you can plan for ToE’s use. Projections feel like the most likely enchant target for this card, but maybe that’s just me.

Pieces of the Puzzle (5, SOI) - Meh, feels like a 5-point throwaway/filler card. The only reason I would ever slot this card in my deck is if I had already used all of the other 5-point blue spells and I desperately needed another 5-pointer to complete my deck of 12 while staying at or under 200.

Low (3 spells)

Infinite Reflection (15, SOI) - I’ve never used this card, so this is all theoretical; it seems like a very underwhelming card unless your opponent has the 6-power heroes such as Eldrazi Ruiner (who does seem reasonably common/liked) or Kor Aeronaut Captain. Buffing one of your Leyline Phantoms to 6 base power sounds like a good deal, but outside of those two enemy creatures existing on the board, this card likely doesn’t quite pull its weight. One hilarious potential use for this card is ranged trample: Imagine we are Kiora with Pummelroots, and our enemy has a ranged figure (best case scenario is Merfolk Roilmage IMO,) so we use IR on a Pummelroot to make him mirror the Roilmage. Boom we have a 6 range, 4 power Pummelroot that can trample any figure up to 6 spaces away, provided we get the damage rolls necessary!

Curiosity (10, SOI) – This enchantment does not enhance the squad’s combat potential in any way. It only allows you to draw a card when the enchanted squad deals damage to an opposing Planeswalker. IMO this card has the burden of getting you to draw 2 cards in order to be worth it, because you spend one turn drawing this card when it could have been any other card. So you want this card to pay you dividends; two triggered draws feel necessary for actual positive benefits. It is above Anticipate and Jace’s Scrutiny because you can enchant any squad with it, including friendlies, and when they damage an opposing Planeswalker, you get to draw. For 10 points, it’s barely usable, but I wish it would’ve given +1 power like black’s Duress, even if it would've driven Curiosity's point cost up to 20 or 25.

Anticipate (10, BfZ) – Honestly, this card has reasonable synergy with things such as Roilmage’s Trick, Pore Over the Pages, and Jace’s Scrutiny, but allowing all players to draw 2 cards is quite dangerous IMO, unless you are planning to win the game on the turn you play Anticipate. You don’t want to cause your opponents to draw into their wincons on your own dime… and the more cards your opponent has in hand, the more you have to attempt to account for those cards as blue, who wants to know everything and control it.

Worst spell

Jace’s Scrutiny (30, SOI) – Even blue is not immune to having ****ty sorceries. A 30-point fail machine, this card only works during a turn where you chose your blue Planeswalker AND where your opponent (or one of them, at least) has more cards than you. How often does this card actually get you more than 1-2 cards? Look at my literal top choice of card in blue, Selective Memory, which lets you dive into your deck and pick your favored sorcery for the excellent value of 5 points. It seems magnitudes better than Jace’s Scrutiny; blue’s best cards are sorceries. This spell is probably a hair better than some of the other colors’ spells that land in this prestigious category because this card has reasonable synergy with Anticipate and Pore Over the Pages, but it still feels shaky at best.

Green:

Spoiler Alert!

Best spell

Titanic Growth (10, AoP) – The value of instant access to +3 power with a fairly liberal requirement (6 sight spaces) to apply the +3 power on a creature (hero or squaddie!) until end of turn all for just 10 points is theft on the level of the 2020 election. Blue has to pay 35 for Roilmage’s Trick to just have a chance to get +3 or +4 power! IMO this is hands down the best spell in the game due to how insanely threatening it is in combination with Kessigs, but it also remains a very powerful and efficient spell even if the Kessigs aren’t in the picture; say we enhance the Eldrazi Ruiner instead – no figure wants to face 9+ attack dice from that thing, either! Underestimate TG + Kessig Hunt at Dawn/Dusk at your own risk. I dare you to name a more iconic & game-warping spell & figure duo in AotP.

High (7 spells)

Overrun (25, AoP) - +2 power for your squad until end of turn is worth it alone. Green’s ranged squads tear things up with this card, and if you want to try and trample stuff, they can run in and engage all the same to make use of that perk. Combine this with one or two of green’s other fantastic four spells (Snare the Skies, Titanic Growth, Paths Revealed) and your squad is an absolute terror for one turn. You're gonna punch through the enemy PW like he was a wet paper bag.

Snare the Skies (10, AoP) – Good, inexpensive boost for Kessig Rangers, Elf Rangers, and Illusionary Projections (Kiora.) Combine with any of the rest of green’s fantastic four spells for unadulterated long-range devastation.

Bountiful Harvest (15, AoP) – Heal 3 from your PW or a friendly green PW, no strings attached. Helps to prevent chip damage or a bad defense roll from killing your PW. At basically 5 spell points per wound healed, I find it hard not to include this in every green deck.

Groundswell (10, AoP) - +3 power stim for your PW? Sign me up! Nearly as good as Titanic Growth, but creatures are easier to launch into power levels of over 9000 compared to what we can do with Planeswalkers.

Paths Revealed (15, AoP) – A wonderful enchantment to place on Kessigs (either form) as well as on the Pummelroots. PR can easily enable your squads to murder your opponent when used in tandem with TG and especially Overrun.

Primeval Light (35, AoP) – Very expensive, but clutch in certain instances against white, blue, and black. This clears out all enchantments and enables us to go ham with two other cards directly afterward (preferably, some mix of the fantastic four - Titanic Growth, Overrun, Snare the Skies, and Paths Revealed.) When you play PL, you will want to have a plan to win this turn or the next turn; press the advantage while opponents are magically naked and vulnerable. Yes, green takes advantage of the vulnerable, don’t you know this is part of the color’s core values?

Leaf Arrow (20, AoP) - The green Planeswalkers all have high range, so this card is potent for them. The option to destroy LA for +2 power until end of turn gets you a slightly gimped version of Groundswell, and even Arlinn-wolf can make good use of that +2. This card is pretty useful, although I do wish the price was just a little bit lower.

Mid (11 spells)

Predatory Strike (15, SOI) - This is about as useful as Leaf Arrow, but it feels slightly less consistent than Leaf Arrow, especially given AotP’s primarily flat maps. On Heroscape maps, Nissa and Arlinn-wolf are unholy in their ability to get to high ground. This card can be a better value than Leaf Arrow while playing AotP on competitive Heroscape maps.

Fog (25, AoP) - A fantastic hidden enchantment when you are making a push toward a critical objective, or you need a squad to hold ground. As long as Fell the Mighty and Ob Nixilis aren’t in your game, Fog should do a fine job of keeping your squad alive for one turn, because once it is flip activated, it prevents ALL damage until the end of the turn (including spells that do damage!)

Nissa’s Expedition (10, AoP) - A chunk of extra move and disengage should help you get your PW out of trouble or get them in range of their target of choice, and hopefully take a shot from high ground. A fine card for 10 points.

Skyreaping (5, AoP) - This is up here as green’s only 5 point sorcery. The draw aspect is decent enough by itself, and it is the primary reason I would put this card in a green deck. The 1 damage dealt to flying creatures is a good bonus, but a bit tough to reliably line the situation up. It has use against red’s phoenixes and white’s heroes. Lastly, this is a good bait card to scout with when blue has one or more of their trio PW hidden enchants in play, since a Psychic Rebuttal counter isn’t so devastating here.

Earthen Arms (30, BfZ) – The only hero a strict green build can use is the Eldrazi Ruiner. Although expensive, EA is satisfactory. The Ruiner is totally worthy of EA’s healing, though, and +2 power (plus another potential +3 from Titanic Growth) is no joke. Arlinn can also use this on Mad Prophet; he can output similar damage to ER against heroes and Planeswalkers. Kiora has the two blue ranged heroes where EA can be applied, too.

Elvish Blade Finesse (20, BfZ) - Not a bad way to get 2 true damage onto an enemy Planeswalker! It works against a figure adjacent to at least 2 of your elves, so if you need to prioritize something other than the enemy PW, go for it.

Equestrian Skill (10, SOI) – A decent and cheap enchantment that makes the Kessig and Elf Rangers even more annoying with hit and run tactics, but a single damage marker on an enchanted creature will break this enchantment for that creature, and I find it sad that it doesn’t offer 3 spaces of move like the Sprint abilities do.

Rabid Bite (20, SOI) - Another pretty tough sell when green does not have enchantments to permanently buff their power, and even worse, they have absolutely NO toughness buffs. This also has no effect against Planeswalkers. Green only has access to Eldrazi Ruiner as a hero figure, and it seems to me that we mostly want to use Rabid Bite on a big and bulky figure to extract the most value. The Eldrazi with his base 6 power and 3 toughness can Fight and delete almost any given squad creature while taking 0-1 damage in return, so Rabid Bite seems more powerful if you have him in your army. However, on turns where I’m playing one or more of green’s powerful spells like Titanic Growth, Overrun, Snare the Skies, or Paths Revealed on my squads, I don’t really want to use any of my 3-spell limit on Rabid Bite, and I’d prefer to gun down the Planeswalker if there is an opening. Titanic Growth + Overrun + Rabid Bite used on a Pummelroot (4 base + 3 + 2 = 9 power) can outright murder the heroes with 6 life and 3 toughness, but it also can put your buffed squad creature’s life at risk mostly due to lack of green’s toughness buffs, which means your figure will likely take some damage during your use of Rabid Bite in return, and you do not want your super buffed creature dying before you have a chance for him to roll his massive attack value! Altogether, I think this card is too situational and costly, but somewhat usable because green offers some healing to help offset any damage taken via Fight.

Rapid Withdrawal (5, BfZ) - While this is cheap and it’s hard to fault a 5-point card, this one seems really situational, because most squads in the game have 3 power, and green doesn’t have any way to permanently buff their squad’s power. RW will likely only get any reasonable consistency with Pummelroots, and that’s under the hope that black, white, or red don’t buff their squads with additional power. RW can be helpful when used in combination with Overrun or Titanic Growth, though, for one or two potential turns of RW-enabled disengages.

Sheltering Word (15, SOI) - Remove 1 damage from each creature in a friendly squad. That squad gets disengage until end of turn. Not too bad of a card, especially for the option of healing friendlies, but I don’t foresee most great AotP players often spreading their damage output thinly between whole squads; IMO you want to destroy one or more figures per turn with focus fire to reduce the capacity of enemy squads to retaliate. That will limit the use of SW to an extent, although disengage can be clutch in rare occasions.

Natural End (15, SOI) - Heals up to 2 damage from amongst your squad and removes their enchantments. Seems mostly like an anti-black card, since black has so many squad-hating enchantments that they want to put on your squad, and NE wipes those off of your squad. In general, this card is even more niche than Sheltering Word, and IMO has a similar fate of limited use.

Low (1 spell)

Naturalize (20, AoP) - This card is basically “pay 20 points to hedge a bet that your opponent uses a figure with enchantments on it to attack into the enchanted squad.” This card is a really tough sell IMO. It has too high a potential for moments where a figure with no enchantments attacks and triggers this card, and absolutely nothing changes, and thus Naturalize is destroyed with no effect. It is decent in that it can remove enchantments from an attacking hero or Planeswalker. Here’s the problem I have with it: I want it to act like white’s Solumn Offering where we can defensively use it to destroy crucial offensive enchantments, and Naturalize has POTENTIAL to do that, but, just like white’s Solumn Offering, even if it removes a single enchantment, did Naturalize do it quickly enough before the enchantment earned too much value for your opponent? Additionally, since this is one of only two green hidden enchants (the other being fog,) and since both of those hidden enchants are triggered by attacks, they both somewhat deter your opponent from attacking the enchanted squad. So, your opponent might attempt to wipe out your squad via abilities or spells instead, which would cause Naturalize to go to the graveyard with no effect. I find it hard to justify the use of this card.

Worst spell

Moonlight Hunt (30, SOI) – 30 points!? MH can only target a creature, has a damage ceiling of 4, and requires Transform figures to be adjacent to our target. The only remotely saving grace for this card is that it can be used from anywhere – there is no range limit or line of sight requirement.

Red:

Spoiler Alert!

Best spell

Twinflame (15, AoP) – No red card makes me hotter than this one. This card is potentially game-ending if you can force your opponent’s Planeswalker to be on the receiving end of the attack. This is a strong contender for best spell in AotP. TF with 4 (or more) attack dice is fear-inducing, especially due to how swingy it is. Just thinking about it is causing my PTSD to flare. TF, Seize the Day, Firebreathing, and Power of Fire are basically red’s fantastic four spells. This scores above Seize the Day because it does not have the requirement to target a red squad – TF is absolutely devastating when used in an Arlinn build with a double-attacking Kessig Ranger as the beneficiary, or even on a Pummelroot if engagement can be established.

High (7 spells)

Seize the Day (10, AoP) – Such a good card, taking another move and attack with a creature can mount so much pressure in one turn, especially combined with red’s other fantastic four spells. This and TF 100% belong in every red build that has even a single red squad card in it. If you can start your normal turn with a red squad, play TF on one of them, and then play StD on that same figure to get a second TF-boosted attack, you will likely inflict some serious damage. As noted above, if this card didn’t have the red color requirement for the target squaddie, it would probably be my choice for red’s best card.

Firebreathing (30, AoP) – Getting +2 power against adjacent figures works for all of red’s squads because they are all range 1 anyway. In the case of Arlinn, it works well for Pummelroots, Wardens, and Kessig-Wolves. Nahiri’s white melee squads are also savage with FB. Firecats especially appreciate this enchantment because it sincerely helps them consistently meet the requirement for Intense Strike’s roll 2 get 1 free.

Power of Fire (20, AoP) – +1 power is universally appreciated by all squads regardless of their range. In a strict red build, PoF is a poor man’s FB, but still very usable. For Arlinn builds, the Kessigs and Elf Rangers can certainly make good use of PoF.

Stoke the Flames (15, AoP) – A 4-space aura of +1 attack makes it dangerous for enemies to end turn near your red PW while you still have creatures in play or haste creatures in reserve. This card can buff your creatures’ haste attacks if those creatures are summoned within 4 of your PW, which makes this card much stronger if you are using Firecats and Mad Prophet, due to how hard it can be to buff haste attacks otherwise. Arlinn with rangers can make great use of this aura due to the flexibility offered by their high range which should enable them to remain in the aura pretty consistently.

Senseless Rage (20, SOI) – This is one extremely flexible card; not only can you play it on one of your squads or heroes, but you could instead choose to enchant one of your allies or even an enemy squad/hero with it! Yes, you can use it defensively if you had enchanted an opponent squad with it and you feel that you will have better luck rolling less crossed weapons than whatever your opponent just rolled for their SR-enchanted creature. Offensively, this card is passable enough to replace one of red’s fantastic four spells if you want/need to attempt a game-closing play, because SR will help guarantee that your dice roll at least 50% crossed swords, and your TF-buffed squaddie getting more crossed swords means lots of extra hit output. Burny kitties like SR to help them with IS' roll 2 get 1 free requirement. Basically, offensive use of SR helps you get consistently more hits for your creatures, while defensive use of SR helps ensure that your opponent gets consistently less hits; this is an annoying handicap on an opponent hero especially if that hero is one of the opponent’s core wincons.

Circle of Flame (5, AoP) – Cards that deal true damage to figures (Planeswalkers!) are tough to find, especially at the insane value of 5 points. The conditions required to fire this one off are a drag, but they should be relatively easy to meet for most red decks because of red’s sheer reliance on range 1 creatures (outside of Arlinn builds with rangers.) When used in combo with Pyroclasm, you can potentially surprise an opponent’s PW with 2 quick points of damage! It might be hard to consistently get this to work against an opposing PW, and excluding the potential to hit a PW with it, CoF is not very special, but definitely very splashable.

Chandra’s Fury (10, AoP) – Definitely belongs in every Chandra deck. Usable by Nahiri and Arlinn, but Arlinn-wolf can’t benefit at all. 10 points for this buff on your core unit is hard to pass up.

Mid (15 spells)

Pyroclasm (10, AoP) – Pyroclasm has the drawbacks of both damaging your own red creature AND dealing damage to any figures you control without flying that are next to that creature, but red’s Firecats are quite mobile and the phoenixes have flying, so further friendly collateral damage seems avoidable. Similar to black’s Bone Splinters, this can be red’s going away gift after you have already moved and attacked with the red creature you intend to target with Pyroclasm. Notably, Ob Nixilis is the only Planeswalker that is immune to the damage of this spell.

Chandra’s Outrage (5, AoP) – Similar to CoF but with two primary differences; CO cannot hit Planeswalkers (which IMO drops it below CoF,) and it does not require your figure to be damaged. Easy 5 point slip-in for most red decks, though.

Stubborn Resilience (30, BfZ) – This might be a hot take, but I think this spell is this good mostly for 3 army cards, from most powerful to least powerful: Kessigs, Firecats, Phoenixes. Kessigs still get their savage double attack even if only one of them is left, and Phoenixes can slowly rebirth back to full power, although I wouldn’t make that the core wincon of your army build out of the gate. If this card was priced at 20 points, I probably would have placed it in high tier, but it is still very decent even at 30, if only for how great it is with a Kessig or Firecat especially in late game.

Dual Casting (45, AoP) – A disgusting price of 45. The concept of casting a spell two times in one turn is great, but with the way DC works, this uses up all 3 of your spell plays for the turn: Twinflame > Dual Casting > Twinflame, and you cannot play anymore spells for the turn. IMO TF and StD are best played on the same turn, but DC can be a sort of Frankenstein attempt to make that same powerful combo by DC’ing either TF or StD if the situation requires (perhaps if one of the two were sent to the graveyard by one of blue or black’s spell destruction effects earlier in the game.) I think the best targets for DC are: Twinflame, Seize the Day, Incinerate, Dual Shot, and Malevolent Whispers. However, there are definitely times where a double-play of Pyroclasm or CoF are warranted, especially in drilling more damage into the enemy PW. Just remember that you are basically playing 2 copies of 1 spell for the price of 3.

Incinerate (25, AoP) – An instakill on most squaddies or a massive chunk of damage against heroes makes this a decent card for it’s cost. Incinerate + Dual Casting will make your opponent regret sending their creatures after your PW. I’m not a massive fan of this card due to the adjacency to PW requirement, but I recognize that there are times where it is clutch.

Dual Shot (20, SOI) – Not too shabby, at least this can hit a hero creature if you really want it to. It is very odd that this works ONLY on the window of things between 7-9 spaces away, because often the only figures that are often that far away from your Planeswalker are OTHER Planeswalkers (who cannot be affected by dual shot,) and a few ranged creatures like the Elf Rangers and the Illusionary Projections. 2 damage is enough to destroy the small number of squaddies who have max 2 life such as the ever-threatening Malakir Bloodchasers, the Illusionary Projections, or the Eldrazi Scions, though. Dual shot is a decent bang for buck.

Burn at the Stake (10, SOI) – While only having theorized the uses of this card, I do strongly believe it is better than most people think at first glance. BatS buffs all figures you control, including things like your Planeswalker and your creatures’ haste attacks (which are hard to modify) as long as you are attacking the named creature type. BatS takes a hit in viability because an enemy Planeswalker cannot be declared as a creature type, but BatS is one more power boosting option that can be used to assist us in bursting down an annoying squad or hero.

Rush of Adrenaline (5, SOI) – The self-damage aspect sucks, but I’ll be honest in saying I mostly put RoA here because of the great synergy it has with Eldrazi Ruiner. If you play RoA between action 1 & 2 on ER, this gives you a chance to move him potentially adjacent to a bunch of enemy creatures, so that when you do select him at action 2, his Lash of Tentacles ability will deal optimal damage. Also, finding additional movement points is quite tough, and I think there is reasonable surprise factor in moving 4 spaces more than usual. When used with Nahiri and white’s fantastic four healers, RoA is more tolerable IMO.

Malevolent Whispers (20, SOI) – You already know why MW is this low; useless against all-hero armies. Otherwise, it’s really similar to blue’s Mind Control, with the caveat that the opposing creature keeps it’s +1 power until the end of our turn. This gives MW some slight anti-synergy with things like green’s Rapid Withdrawal or Rabid Bite, if we are using Arlinn.

Goblin War Paint (10, BfZ) – This might be a sleeper card, I haven’t used it much. The requirement of a destroyed creature this turn is annoying. However, keep in mind that this includes your own creatures destroyed by things like Pyroclasm or Infernal Plunge, so there is some synergy there and some potential to fire GWP off even before our normal action 3 move. Red also has stuff like haste attacks which can kill creatures before our action 3, too. Even if we need to use our action 4 attacks to finally destroy a creature, the ability to move your squad 4 spaces seems nice to get the jump on whatever your next turn’s target will be, or to just occupy a glyph after you remove an opponent's figure from his post.

Flames of the Firebrand (10, AoP) – I’m somewhat on the fence with FotF. It can hit hero creatures if needed, but if you have 2 or even more enemy creatures within 2 spaces of your PW, I feel that the game might not be going so well for you. For 10 points, even settling for doing only a single point of damage to a single creature isn’t completely atrocious (although for Chandra you’d probably be better off discarding FotF to use Super Heated from a longer distance in that situation.)

Nahiri’s Machinations (10, SOI) – What is up with these “kill a creature in combat first” conditions?!? Seriously, +1 power only while hitting adjacent figures feels like such a poor reward, but two things remain as positives: this card is only 10 points, and you do have the option to enchant an ally Planeswalker if you are playing a 2v2 game and your teammate is playing someone like Sorin or Gideon. This is probably a decent enchantment for Nahiri and Arlinn-wolf if you typically play in wolf form.

Burn from Within (20, SOI) – More squad hatred that is useless against hero builds. This one actually combos pretty nicely with MW because you can trigger BfW via your MW movement. Heroes removed from the equation, this is a reasonable card.

Dissension in the Ranks (15, SOI) – Oof, even tougher to successfully use because we can’t move with the target squad creature. DitR works much more easily with Nahiri or Arlinn-wolf if/when we are charging toward ranged squaddies such as Illusionary Projections or Elf Rangers, since they are much more likely to have a wider target selection than a range 1 melee unit.

Sure Strike (25, BfZ) – Ugh, expensive and requires a creature to be destroyed in combat in order to play SS. This means destroying stuff with spells doesn’t fulfill this requirement, unlike GWP where we are allowed to cheese a creature with a spell or even an ability. Special note: you can destroy your own creature in combat to satisfy the requirement for SS. Perhaps early-mid game we kill our own 1 life/1 toughness Phoenix and later that turn play SS…. But that feels inefficient. Frankly, I’d rather just use Power of Fire and/or Firebreathing before I ever put SS in my deck because I can play FB and PoF on demand without having to kill something in combat first. Perhaps one day I will get itchy and play a deck with FB, PoF, and SS in it just to see how things go.

Low (3 spells)

Ugh, red has some really great high tier cards, but these bottom few I just SMH my head...

Stensia Masquerade (10, SOI) – Deal 1 guaranteed damage to your squad creature in order for each of your attack dice for that creature to statistically have 1/6 higher chance to roll a hit… Do I have that logic right? SM feels really weak, I feel as if you need to convert 2 blanks into hits for it to get close to positive value… 1 hit to make up for the self-inflicted wound, and 1 hit to make up for having the 10 point card in your deck to begin with. I tried a dice probability calculator, and even with rolling 6 dice, it told me that there was about a 67% chance that at least one blank showed up in a tossing of 6 dice. Maybe my math is wrong, I’m not too wise with probabilities, but that rather generous calculation of 6 dice makes SM look really sad…

Rolling Tremblor (5, SOI) – Total cringe. I feel terrible that there are cards that score even below this one… but RT costs only 5 points, and IMO has legitimate use in a true damage red/green Arlinn deck with a focus on assassinating the enemy PW with spell and ability damage. Without that silly niche, this card sucks. Use RT and the two cards below if you want to intentionally throw a game against your little nephew.

Infernal Plunge (20, SOI) – This card feels like a desperate and poor attempt to bring back a game that is likely already lost. Red’s only squad with more than 2 life is the Goblin Javelineers. I feel that in nearly every scenario, you would be better off taking Dual Shot or even Incinerate instead of this 20 point scam. Keep your squads alive on the field as bodyguards or offensive pillars as you need them to be, instead of trying to be black but worse in every way. Black’s Bone Splinters costs 10, deals flat 4 damage, and they have multiple kinds of regenerating creatures and even a spell that straight up regenerates one of their figures back onto the battlefield, so they don’t typically care about killing their own.

Worst spell in the entire game

Harness the Storm (20, SOI) – WAY too much ask in return for WAY too much potential of friendly fire. Weighing in at 20 points, you must first destroy a creature in combat, and then discard 2 cards (which is insane, 1/6 of your deck, and it’s draining your precious hand where red does not generate card draw!) to deal 1 damage to all creatures, including friendlies, within 3 spaces of your Planeswalker. The only real use for this card is in an AotP-themed lie detector test; if your opponent doesn’t burst into tears and laugh loudly in your face if/when you play this card with sincerity, that’s how you’ll know they’re full of **** and not being honest with you.

White:

Spoiler Alert!

Best spell

Healing Salve (10, AoP) – 10 points to draw a card AND heal 2 from a friendly creature (your squad/hero creature, or ally’s squad/hero creature) makes this a very efficient and widely useful spell that belongs in EVERY SINGLE white deck. Oh, you know how red and green have a fantastic four? Well, white’s fantastic four spells are all healers (HS, Chaplain’s Blessing, Angel’s Mercy, Hope Against Hope) which make heroes an absolute pain in the ass to deal with (especially when heroes are often immune to the spells and abilities that straight up take dumps on squad creatures.)

High (7 spells)

Chaplain’s Blessing (20, SOI) – Approximately as useful as HS, except that CB is specifically for heroes only and it costs twice as much. It’s still quite good, white’s heroes and the Eldrazi Ruiner are quite threatening with a +1 power token, and allowing them to hold their position by extending their life will force your opponent’s hand.

Near Death Experience (10, AoP) - Good PW healing on the level of green’s Bountiful Harvest. Again, at 5 spell cost per damage healed, this is a nice card to prevent slow bleed attempts at your PW. Even better, this has no color requirement, so this can be played on any ally Planeswalker, if needed, in a 2v2.

Angel’s Mercy (15, SOI) - IMO one of white’s best builds includes nothing but heroes, so this card is a no-brainer in those hero armies. Take a turn with your hero, play AM, and heal up to 3 damage, what’s not to love?

Tenacity (10, SOI) - Again, with white’s hero builds, I will typically play this card simply as “enchanted hero gets +1 power when attacking a figure it is engaged with” and honestly if the card ended there, it’s still fantastic at 10 points. All heroes that white can use (Avacyn, Kor Captain, Mad Propet, Ghoul Vanguard, Eldrazi Ruiner) are all range 1 creatures and therefore are self-fulfilling for this card’s requirements. Bonus is that other creatures can also benefit from Tenacity if the battlefield conditions allow. I don’t think I would ever use this in a squad army build nor would I often enchant my PW with this, even though the option is available.

Swift Justice (5, AoP) - In case the fantastic four healers aren’t enough for you, how about we convert your hero’s attack into a heal spell? While this certainly relies on your hero getting engaged and then getting a decent roll of crossed swords, it is still very powerful on Kor Captian or Eldrazi Ruiner because of their 6 base power. I feel that it is rare to not inflict at least 1 damage when you roll 6 dice, so even 1 point of lifelink healing feels decent for this card, and anything beyond that is total gravy. It even allows your creature to heal off of smacking a PW, so book that hero straight for the enemy PW if they are the juiciest target. SJ can totally be used for one of your squaddies, but their lower life and lower power means that SJ is less likely to earn value, although at cost 5 it’s not a terrible loss if it doesn’t get value.

Hope Against Hope (20, SOI) - This hero healer is a bit lower compared to the other fantastic four healers because it is not an on-demand healer; it requires you to hide it on your hero, bait your opponent into attacking that hero, hope your hero survives, and then take a turn with that hero to actually execute on the healing. Still, oftentimes it is completely possible to pull that off, and it’s demoralizing to the opponent just like all of the other healing cards, lol.

Inspired Charge (20, AoP) - You remember green’s Overrun, right? Well, this is basically white Overrun, but without trample and with the requirement of your figures being within 8 clear sight spaces of your PW at the resolution of this card. This simultaneously works on heroes, unlike Overrun which is only for a specific squad, but I personally would primarily use this for a squad’s turn anyway. The major exception to that is if my PW was Sorin and I’m taking a turn with Ghoul Vanguard: GV gets a free move and attack with a zombie (who can benefit from IC,) and GV benefits more strongly with higher power for killing stuff and triggering Wake the Dead. Could you imagine a green/white PW using both IC and Overrun?!? A squad with +4 power for the turn is nuts, and we would have the option of a third spell in there still! But, IC isn’t quite as great as Overrun despite IC’s slightly cheaper price, mostly because white has a much harder time pressuring an enemy PW with this buff due to white’s higher density of range 1 figures as well as their lack of movement buffs & lack of disengage. Still, you can use IC to beat the snot out of whatever creature(s) might be in your way in a given turn, and I can’t think of any creatures that want to take multiple attacks buffed with +2 power...

Mid (16 spells)

Divine Favor (25, AoP) – Just how PoF gives +1 power for 20, this one appends +1 toughness for just 5 points more. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I like PoF more mostly because red/green squads generally have better move & range than white/black squads, so IMO PoF has a much easier time getting value. DF on red’s burny kitties is a flaming good time, pun intended (get it, flaming for red, good for white?)

Honor of the Pure (35, AoP) – Although I believe that one of white’s best builds is a heroes only one, HotP seems quite good even if we have to use a squad + hero, although this build would preclude the nonwhite Eldrazi Ruiner (sadge…) White’s healing will do especially well in keeping their white hero topped off for this bonus. You could try PW + two white heroes with this card in your deck, but you would 100% be relying on your opponents to have a squad. Feel free to enchant an opposing squad with this card and enjoy the buffs for your white heroes as long as those heroes are undamaged! In case it hasn’t been clear; I usually dislike having these expensive spells in my decks when they could be dead (in the cases where my opponent brings no squads,) so I strongly advise having your own squad if you slot this card in your 12 so you can be absolutely sure that this card is playable every game.

Skillful Lunge (5, SOI) – 5 points to give one of your melee squaddies +2 power and extend their range by 1 seems like a good deal to me, even with the stupid stipulation that we need to be attacking a same-level figure. In a Nahiri build, mix SL with TF and maybe stack StD in there for some insane damage potential out of one red squaddie.

Survive the Night (10, SOI) – You should already know that I have a pretty strong bias towards white hero builds. StN sincerely helps heroes hold ground for one turn so that they can lay the smackdown on the following. Basically, a slightly less powerful version of green’s fog, but for heroes.

Gideon’s Phalanx (10, AoP) – The Raelin to Stoke the Flames’ Taelord, GP is not restricted to enchanting only your own PW, but it only buffs your white creatures. If you are feeling quite aggressive, go ahead and toss it on a friendly PW or even on an opposing PW. While your white creatures are within 4 clear sight spaces of the enchanted Planeswalker, those creatures get the defense buff. Congratulations, you transformed your opponent’s PW into a pot of honey for your worker bees to swarm! All in all, GP seems like a decent buy for 10.

Battlewise Valor (10, AoP) – Similar to StN, but for your squad. Part of the problem with this versus fog is that this doesn’t prevent spell damage later in the turn, and white’s Achilles Heel is how they buff defense so high and yet it is easily bypassed by spell damage, especially with how many spells target squads yet do nothing to heroes. However, for 10 points versus fog’s 25 and considering fog’s remaining vulnerability to “destroy squad outright” spells, BV seems quite fairly priced.

Spare from Evil (20, SOI) – This card is pretty unique, and you can enchant ally squads with it (enemies as well… although I don’t think I can see competitive reasons for that?) SfE is a particularly good counter to prevent/impede an opponent’s Ghoul Vanguard from zombifying your squaddies in combat, but otherwise this card mostly feels like 2-3 points of healing for a squad. How do you get 3 damage prevented via SfE? Prevent 1 wound from your first instance of wounds, and then the next time enchanted squad receives 2 or more damage, place 2 of them on SfE. Boom SfE now has 3 markers on it and it is destroyed. Cool in theory but probably tough to do in-game.

Blessing (30, AoP) – While the buffs provided here look really good on paper, I knock this down a notch because it is a hidden enchantment, which requires your opponent to attack into enchanted squad before you can benefit from Blessing. I prefer Divine Favor for this reason; I can get the power boost on demand to place more pressure on my opponent on my own immediate turn.

Stone Will (20, SOI) – I’ve seen Sorin carry a nearly lost game into a win due to the combination of this spell and his vampire healing. This is definitely worth it for him. Reasonable on Nahiri with her higher base life, but still a card I wouldn’t gun for in her builds considering the array of red’s beastly spells available to her. I wouldn’t particularly recommend this for Gideon.

Marked by Honor (10, AoP) – One point toughness boost is meh. Only feels worthwhile if you want to try either a really annoying high defense Deck or if you want to attempt a bluff on your opponent in a white/black Sorin build by making them think that you have placed Strangling Soot or even Mental Agony on your squad.

Fell the Mighty (45, SOI) – Similar to black’s Killing Wave. Very powerful when we are dealing with enemy squads, but useless when the enemy only has heroes, or has no squads left. If you know that your opponent has squads, this card should make it quite easy for you to gimp that squad on demand. Slightly less useful for Nahiri or Sorin if they are using nonwhite squads; friendly fire is a thing, here. Also, this card beats green’s fog, in case you really hate fog.

Solemn Offering (25, AoP) – White’s only way to destroy an enchantment, other than killing the actual figures/army cards that the enchantments are attached to. At 25 points to murk just one enchantment, this feels expensive, and frankly might not stop an opponent’s enchantment from getting value before we destroy it, but SO offers unique utility that white totally lacks in all of the other cards.

Not Forgotten (15, SOI) – An interesting card that may be a sleeper in a white build with tons of creature summons. I’ve used NF to decent effect in a 600 point Nahiri build containing Flamewing Phoenixes, Avacyn Inquisitors, Kor Hookmasters, and Bloodline Nobles. That’s a lot of meat that can be destroyed to give Nahiri +1 power, and the Phoenixes can respawn next to her when you play a red sorcery. This is not a card I would try very hard to include in most of my games, though.

Silverstrike (15, SOI) – Anti-squad shenanigans again. I feel as if the only reasonable way to use this card is to summon one of your own 3-man squads adjacent to an enemy squaddie, and then force its instant death with Silverstrike right after summoning with your PW. Honestly, rarely would I want to surround a single enemy squad creature with 3 of my own via an action 3 move taken with a squad themselves, because I’d likely just attack it and kill it with my action 4 attacks at that point.

Seize the Initiative (10, BfZ) – Pretty ridiculous that we are required to roll more hits than the amount of total dice rolled by the defending figure. Honestly, against most creatures, if you roll 4-5 hits and that is higher than the defending creature’s toughness, you were likely going to kill them with that attack anyway, even if they did roll defense. IMO this card should only be used as a decent filler spell in a heroes only build, and StI is great with SJ’s lifelink as long as we get that lucky 4+ hit roll. Most of the heroes have high attack values and can successfully First Strike with higher consistency compared to squads.

Ghostly Possession (25, SOI) – Expensive, works only against a single squad figure for one turn, the power reduction is worthless AFAIK, and it still leaves them with 1 base toughness, which is a -1 or -2 modification for most squaddies. GP is particularly stronger against blue’s Leyline Phantoms and Lantern Geists due to how much defense it cuts from them, and the Geists do not like losing even one of their annoying duo. GP combos decently well with Swift Justice to maximize your potential for lifelink heals, and in the hero armies that white does so well, it makes this card a bit more valuable (only as long as the opponent has a squad, though!)

Low (2 spells)

Sunlance (30, BfZ) – Kill a squad figure that you announced an attack against. Steep for 30 points, and card is dead against heroes. For those two reasons, I place it this low. It is a nice way to guarantee that you will remove a squaddie, though, and has some cool synergy with Nahiri and haste - if an opponent's squaddie gets too close, summon your haste creature, launch the attack, and use Sunlance as the delete button. This card also beats creatures under the protection of green’s Fog, for what that’s worth.

Sanctified Charge (10, AoP) – I feel that this card is quite confused. If I had a full squad alive, I would definitely take a turn with that squad so that I could extract value out of them while the whole squad is alive, even if they had a few wounds on them. When 1-2 of the creatures die, maybe I’d use my PW, but throwing the PW into danger at any point except in late game is IMO a bad idea, and the white PWs must be quite close to the action in order to be slaying stuff. This card mostly seems good for healing a beat up squad toward the end of the game, but I’d only even consider using it with Sorin (multi-attacks = multi-heals) or in instances where my PW dying likely won’t cost me the game. Which is never.

Worst spell

Stasis Snare (20, BfZ) – Similar to black’s Demonic Appetite, but this 20 point card stops an opponent’s rampaging squad in their tracks for a turn only after they have killed one of your creatures. I don’t typically like these cards that await the death of your creatures before the spell triggers to do anything. You are still going to have to make up that creature deficit somehow, but IMO this card works slightly less well than DA because black can resurrect it’s squads where white has no ability to do that.

What do you say? Do I like Titanic Growth too much? Is Virulent Swipe a hidden gem and I'm just an idiot? Let us know!

[Nukatha]

Very well done!

[Unhinged Manchild]

Originally Posted by Nukatha

Very well done!

Thank you! The floor is completely open for you; what's your opinion about my nearly incoherent wall of text? You likely have more than just three words! What parts do you agree with, disagree with, explain your personal experience, etc?