RCotD #22

Random Card of the Day #22:

Lord of Shatterskull Pass - 3R

Creature - Minotaur Shaman

Level up {1}{R}

LEVEL 1 - 5

6/6

LEVEL 6+

Whenever Lord of Shatterskull Pass attacks, it deals 6 damage to each creature defending player controls.

6/6

Initial thoughts:

I remember this card. It was a very powerful card but it rarely saw play in limited because: 1) it's a rare and 2) if you invested in red you probably had a Kiln Fiend, and if you had a Kiln Fiend you probably went U/R for Distortion Strike. (Unless you had R/W defenders but it really only worked in theory with Vent Sentinel.)

It was an amazing card in theory to say the least, but with Heat Ray, Oust, Vendetta and plenty of others floating in limited he never really got to level 6. Every color had a way to deal with him, except green. (But green had Beastbreaker of Bala Ged, which dominated more drafts than I can remember.)

It's difficult to say this card is truly amazing when there's a thousand different ways to deal with him. I would rather play Balefire Dragon even though I have to deal combat damage. He's at least a 4-cost 3/3, which isn't too terrible in Red, and at 6 mana he becomes a 6/6--about par albeit a little weak. After that it's 16 mana sunken in to a 6/6, all of which has to be done at sorcery speed because of Level up--it's just way too much of a mana sink to be Vapor Snag'd as you enter your combat step. Though good news, it survives Dismember and kills Titans.

So as I said, it's a very good card but I just can't see it winning any games over not having it. If you were able to sink 16 mana into a card and win the game, you probably could have spent 16 mana on any other card and win that game. Hell, I would play Fault Line or Comet Storm for 14. Now I know it's a bit of an exaggeration because its 16 mana over several turns, but you see the point.

That isn't to say that me and this card have a history. I managed to draft this, but I was knocked out in the semi-finals. I traded it away with one of my friends who promised me a Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief whenever he got another one. He did. A year later. It's in my Archenemy deck now.

Anyways as mentioned earlier, it's at least a decent card, but it can't be a truly great card because it doesn't win games that haven't already been won... if that makes any sense. It's too slow to have any competent player not see it coming or deal with it for the 3-4 turns it takes to level it up. 3/5