RCotD #41

Random Card of the Day #41:

Jushi Apprentice - 1U
Creature - Human Wizard
{2}{U},{T}: Draw a card. If you have nine or more cards in hand, flip Jushi Apprentice.
1/2
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Tomoya the Revealer
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
{3}{U}{U},{T}: Target player draws X cards, where X is the number of cards in your hand.
2/3





Initial thoughts:

It's alright. It might just be a pet peeve of mine but I don't normally like mill decks. The way I see it, milling is setting your opponents life total to 60, but it diminishes a lot faster. Additionally, creatures you play don't hurt their "life total" but instead mill them. They can play things from their graveyard, get threshhold, or maybe are playing Boneyard Wurm. There's just too many factors (Other than Eldrazi and Elixir of Immortality) that could completely shut down your deck.

The other thing I don't like about mill decks is the over-drawing ones. Jace 3.0's ultimate is exactly what I don't want on a mill card. Yes, they draw for 20 cards and have to discard at least 13 of them but you completely refilled their hand. and it was only 1/3 of their life total.

Though to be fair, your life "life total" isn't actually 60. Any competent player will be playing 60 cards but milling almost acts like you have a constant Underworld Dreams in play. If they don't mulligan they have 53 life at the beginning, an average game lasts 5-9 turns (at least until the victor is noticed) but sometimes games last 12-15 for really long ones. Okay, a really long game. 15 turns, 7 card hands, is 22 "damage" to them, meaning they have 38 life left. Now consider the difference in power between Lightning Bolt and Tome Scour. Lightning bolt will take 15% of their life. Tome Scour is about 13% of their "life total" not that big of a difference but we assumed a 15 turn game. In a 7 turn game, that's more like 10.8%. Tome Scour has decreased utility as it can't hit creatures. It doesn't stop your opponent from trying to win the game, and you will lose the race in percentage's of life totals.

Hm... I seem to have gone off-track. Anyways, the Card of the Day seems to be a mill card that refill's your opponent's hand. You could also use it on yourself, but if you wanted a card drawing machine, you can get one that's better that won't have a "If you have nine or more cards in hand." clause attached to it. I don't like this card, and would never play it, but that's more of personal distaste for cards like these; other players could still use it. 3/5