Rating the Rares

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19. Ancient Ogre: All ogres have immunity to channeling. But for most of them it goes away after the primary attacks. Not so with the Ancient Ogre. Your opponent is prevented from channeling for the rest of combat! Great card.
20. Captain Red Nose: On the surface, he looks like a great card, but he's very limited. With a vitality of 15, he takes up half the shield, and you're not getting too many more Pirates in there. Works great if you have Pauly, Official Parrot, or Warwick's Conversions to convert small things into Pirates, or even a Soul Mirror and a lot of small creatures. In a starter, he's just another pirate. Okay card.
21. Cow: Another card that's played for laughs. A 3-point AOE isn't going to take out a lot, though you never know. A better bet is the Uncommon Stinking Spirit, which does the same thing, but with up to 4 point creatures. (Warning: Stinking Spirit affects you as well.) The best use for Cows is to be detonated by Farmer Brown. Joke card.
22. Gn'Olegable Gnomes: For 5 points, giving each creature +2 is very nice -- especially if you have more than three small creatures. The only drawback: the Grand Phooba Schnee's +1, +2, +3 ability works for every creature, and blows the Gnomes away by comparison. Good card.
23. Gringe Commander: "This ability cannot be disspelled." Right there it becomes a quality card. And the ability? +3 to your Slag Beasts. Suddenly, Squibby and Groatie aren't so bad. And in the Dry Heaps, these creatures have great bonuses anyway. To top it off, there are enough Slags around that you'll find some in a starter deck to work with Gringe. Cool artwork, too. Great card.
24. Idiot: He has his uses, but not many of them. Idiots are nice in the opening draw, when you have a lot of other creatures. Then you can use one to draw off an opponent's attack as a one-shot nothing. But late in the game, when you need creatures to save a bad game, you do NOT want to see this one coming into your hand. Okay card.
25. Paladin: First of all, here's another card that Archangel Odessa should be able to channel to, but that complicates things. Here's a Captain Red Nose for Knights EXCEPT he's not bribeable, he's a little smaller, there are more knights to benefit from his bonus, the Horse give HIM a bonus, and last but not least, he gives your Mortals immunity to fear! Play with Soooooooul Mirror. Great card.
26. Party Animal: Funny art, but the joke wears off right away. Throw it out there and see if it survives. Not likely to do much. Doesn't suck.
27. Pauly, Official Parrot: If you have a bunch of Pirates, then Pauly is hard to kill off, and his ability is okay, too. In a starter, he's less useful. Good card.
28. Ploogak the Conqueror: (As well as the "Couqueror") A must for a Slag Beast deck. You need to win the battle for your Slag Bunny to heal a slag beast. Ploogak helps take control of the space. If he lives long enough. Good card.
29. Reverend Smilin' Jack: Jack is a one-man schtick. Place a large creature, like a Watcher, face down. Next turn, spring it on your opponent. Watch out for Hammer of Doom. Good card.
30. Shadow Warrior: Nine points may be a lot to spend on a command card, but if you know what your opponent has in his shield already, and there's a beatable creature sitting on top of his deck, go for it. Card advantage is key to Guardians. If you don't have it, you're screwed. Great card.
31. Cherub: The Demon and Devil bonus is nice. Better than what the Archangels get (comparitively). And the immunity will frustrate your opponent. Best match-up opponent: Dreaded Doom Dog. Dog dies without doing any damage to Cherub. Very good card. (Not quite great.)
32. Corruption Stream: You can't beat a Corruption Stream. Literally. It wins as a secondary attacker, though I've had arguments whether that should be allowed against Guardians (according to the rules, yes, but should it?) Great card.
33. Darkness Elemental: Don't get me started on this one. A thirteen point command card that you discard if you use part of its ability. I don't think so. The only thing good about it is that you can then play Standard of the Elements for a 13-point ranged attack.
34. Death: It destroys almost every mortal that it comes up against, but will lose to those it doesn't destroy. (Thankfully, most of those knights are bribeable!). But it stacks very high. The only saving grace is the standard bearer that allows you to change border colors and, thus, make creatures Mortal and destroyable. Good card.
35. Earth Mother: Nice artwork. Channeling receiver. Works great in spirit decks. Not having to place a card is a great ability. Great card.
36. Energy Leach: Dispels command cards like the Boggler, but can stop channeling if played in a matchup. This is sometimes a Very Good ability to have, particularly if you can keep him alive by range attacking or bribing the opponent. Great card.
37. Fire Elemental: I'm a little leery of showing 14 points of my hand on the first matchup, but if I know that he's got a bunch of 4-pointers in his combat hand, you better believe it's coming out! If your opponent has a lot of little creatures floating around, don't expect your Fire Elemental to live long. Good card.
38. Light Elemental: Nothing too special. The ability is silly and leaves it open to destruction by the Golden Fleecer. Still it's a 13-point channelable flyer. That counts for something. Very good card.
39. Mist Veiler: A couple of these and your opponent is screwed. Many battles are won by carefully selecting your secondary attacks and picking off the right creatures. But you can't pick these off. Play them in the Woods with no ranged-attacks and your opponent will be very limited in his options. Great card.
40. Spirit of the Forge: An Elemental Master Gunner, except that he's an unbribeable Spirit. With Traithes (from Necropolis Park) he's almost useless. However, if NP isn't available, he's not too bad. Good card.
41. Thunder Hawk: One of the best surprises in the game. Sock someone for a great ranged attack. And it's possible to save your Hawk as it is "lost" in combat. Great card.
42. Arms of the Earth: For six points, you get a shot to pull your opponent's Earth Elemental out of his hand. Whatever you get won't count toward victory conditions, so the bigger the beter. And if you know what he has in his hand, so much the better. Great card.
43. Black Unicorn: A 13-point unbribeable channeling receiver. Sure, it can't receive channeling from Grand Avatars, but otherwise a Great card.
44. Bone Shambler: Receives up to double vitality in channeling. The version with the off-color bonus is naturally better.
45. Crystal Flash: Great with Tookle (he's small) and Great in a starter deck.
46. Eternal Witch Lord: His channeling ability is pretty much useless. His other ability -- healing Undead -- rocks! Maybe not as good in a starter, but phenomenal if you can get your hands on Necropolis Park. Oh, and he can kill every Guardian single-handed. Great card.
47. King of Mystfall: There are enough common and uncommon faries to make this a good card in a starter deck, but with all the fairies available, it's a Great card in a constructed Fairy deck. Just watch out for Idiot Fiends. Great card.
48. Lake Serpent: Yet another creature that can kill a Guardian solo, and this one has an AOE, too. As with the Flame Elemental, I'm leery of using the AOE as my first attacker unless I *know* my opponent's hard. Hard to stack so that he'll live, but still Great card.
49. Phantom Stalker: Sucks in a starter deck, because his ability is useless. Even in a constructed Undead deck, I've never seen his ability actually used. Okay creature.
50. Rik' Sook: Rik Rocks! For a five-point command card, you can channel to every creature in the matchup. A reusable Power Lunch. A portable Spirit Mountain that works for everyone. Kills in a starter. Overall, a Great card.
51. Shadow of Ashes: One of the few cards that has a fire-based attack, but isn't immune to fire. Sun Spirits kick their butt. Nothing special. Okay.
52. Slippery Slime: Play your big guy first, let him pull out the ranged attacks, then swap it with the Slime and you got your big guy back. Great card.
53. Valkyrie Spirit: Her 3 points of channeling vs 7 stacking is better than most. She channels to knights that don't accept channeling. And with Warwick's Conversion or Soul Mirror you can make lots of knights. Great in a starter (lots of common/uncommon knights), Great in a constructed Knight deck.
54. Vampire Lord: Disappointing. His Vitality bonus is useless since he's a 12, Vampires are 9, and there aren't any other "vampires" in the game. "Vampire" isn't even a Class, it's a creature. And what creature is it going to beat that has accepted channeling? Disappointing.
55. Winterseed's Maiden: Okay card. Nothing special.
56. Wraith: Another card that can receive twice its Vitality in channeling. The fact that it can strike as a 24 when it stacks as an 8 is even better! Great card.
57. Haba Naba Daba: Considering that AOEs are usually played first, Haba is a good defense card, but overall goblins are a weak bunch. Good card.
58. Sorcerer: Expensive to use. But if you *know* what your opponent has, it can be a killer card. Good card.
59. Energy Well: Sucks in a starter beacuse it's very likely that you won't have any channel-receiving elementals in your deck. Otherwise, it's better than average. Good card.
60. Grim Skull: A six-point ranged attacker that stacks as a four. It you have any channelers, this is the card to use with it. Good card.

    C. J. Burke, Keeper of the Flame

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