The guy who did the preview on the mother ship is a righteous master, but we will nevertheless try our best with Alara Reborn rare Maelstrom Pulse.
Aesthetics:
Like the man said, looks like a slow Putrefy, acts more like a Vindicate cross-bred with an Echoing Ruin.
Where can I see this fitting in?
This is the interesting question… “Classically” speaking it would be a card for The Rock; Maelstrom Pulse is after all in the traditional colors of The Rock. People love their Green creatures, Siege Towers, and whatnot; so for Standard especially we can see this in The Rock and that kind of a deck.
However we live in a world of cheap mana; that is, mana that is easy to come by if you have the resources, not financially cheap. Today’s mana bases even in Standard are anything but… Therefore Maelstrom Pulse is the kind of card that can find a home outside the traditional confines. I think that it can be played as a surgical non-four-of in Reflecting Pool Control if for no other reason that Reflecting Pool Control can cast it (I mean just look at the name).
Those kinds of control decks are always in the market for removal of some sort and this is the rare card that can kill Ajani Vengeant, Swans of Bryn Argoll, Seismic Assault, Bitterblossom or all the damn Bitterblossom tokens! In a sense Maelstrom Pulse can be considered a space saver because in playing it Reflecting Pool Control can avoid having to play so many different kinds of cards for different situations.
Snap Judgment Rating: Clear and present Staple, if not automatic four-of.
Overall, this Mike Flores did a fine job with the Two Great Traditions article on the mother ship. You should read it if you haven’t already.
LOVE
MIKE
All Alara Reborn
11 comments ↓
do bitterblossom tokens have names? does a nameless card have the same name as another nameless card? malestrom pulse is looking pretty sweet BUT rock already has great removal w/ p-2-exile and celestial purge (hits ajani, that’s why i mention it). looks good for destroying spell stutter sprites, o-rings and cliques…even given the other removal suite available to rock, i agree m.pulse will see tourney play very soon.
Tokens have the same name as their type unless otherwise specified. Morphs though, are nameless and don’t share names.
I think this card is great in a lot of decks, especially once people stop playing 700 colors and it doesn’t have to compete with cheaper answers like Path and Purge. I bet it will look pretty boss in foil.
yeah, stand corrected. didn’t realize that tokens have the same names as their creature type. this card is now 100x better. wish i’d known that before i opened my big [dumb] mouth! 😉
Hey Mike, this is completely unrelated to anything posted here, but…
One time you said that Blind Seer was surprisingly playable in Constructed. I wasn’t playing back then, and I can’t fathom a circumstance where he would have been. What was up with that? Did he block the crap outta some hapless Yavimaya Barbarians?
Hurray for “echoing” Vindicates with a restriction! It’ll go great with my new Meddling Mage!
“Bang.”
Recently I started taking up religion, and doing a good chunk of praying. I prayed for the usual stuff…safety, security, happiness, blah blah blah. I also prayed for something else involving Alara Reborn once we ‘knew’ it was going to be all gold all the time here.
I prayed for Vindicate to be reprinted in this set, and if not, I would settle for Terminate.
I am glad I get both. 😀 😀 <3 <3 😀
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