Cards Of The Week #8

Magellan (OP16-074)

It may only be a common card from our latest set but this Magellan doesn't pull any punches. It has no counter use in hand but that is made up by a high 10000 power on an 8 cost character. He can't act as a real purple deck staple since his On Play effect requires an Impel Down leader to work but it's a good effect and the On KO effect is even deadlier.

The first effect will slow down your opponent's DON!! by 1 and the second effect will do the same for a grand 4 DON!! In both effects and power this Magellan is a buffed up version of the OP02 original print. Honestly, there aren't any drawbacks technically besides the obvious approach of avoiding to KO Magellan to avoid the major DON!! loss.

You could also say that by the time you get to 8 DON!! to play this card your opponent will also be in a high DON!! range so they may not really be that bothered by the loss of 1 DON!! Yet, even in that situation, a loss is a loss. If they played first they would be at 8 DON!! instead of 9 and by looping this card a second time you can stall them out from reaching 10 DON!! for a little bit.

This assumes no other DON!! manipulation from your or your opponent is going on; it could very well be the case that his first effect would wind up irrelevant. But, I wouldn't say that's going to be a likely scenario against the majority of decks. This is not a real drawback either but what could also hold this card back is just your typical competition with other cards of a similar cost. It's a pretty solid card overall but we can say the same about most new cards coming out now.

SaberWolf's Rating: 4.3/5

Nami (ST14-006)

If you know me you know that good cards with simple effects are my favorite. A great example of one of my favorite simple blue cards to use is Marguerite from OP07. A cheap Blocker that will draw you a card on summon. Nice. Loved the card as soon as I read it and couldn't wait for OP07 to come out. That set had a lot going for me besides that card but I think you get the picture.

This card is a close counterpart and is also a Nami card so everything's perfect right? A good card bundled with our beloved heroine from the series. Not quite, and it does pain me to say it. This card is slightly better than Marguerite in that it won't be useless if it's in your hand; but the additional conditions to get her draw 1 can make things annoying.

First, you need to have 6 or fewer cards in your hand. Not a hard condition to meet but it's still there. The big one (ironically as a pun) is the need to have an 8 cost character or more. That won't always be easy timing wise. If you know about ST14, the starter deck this card comes from, you know the theme of that deck and leader is high cost characters and effects that will increase the cost of your characters to get the most out of them.

So, there are many outlets to help you meet this card's condition easier and up to now several black cards exist in the format that just buff their cost on their own. But, it still makes it that you can't splash this Nami in any black deck like you could with Marguerite. Others may not care for such techs, but I've ran some copies of Marguerite in almost every blue deck that I've used. Not the case with Nami. It really does defeat the purpose of being a 3 cost blocker when it's going to be impossible for you to get her draw 1 in the early game.

SaberWolf's Rating: 3.5/5