Nemesis, Part Six

Gary Wise

The following is a preliminary analysis of the artifact and land cards in Nemesis for the purpose of limited play. They are listed in alphabetical order
ARTIFACTS

Belbe's Armor - An excellent card, the Armor combines the finer points of a number of cards to become a table dominating force once in play. The Armor can be used to prevent an attacker from dealing damage, protect your creatures from red kill spells, protect your creatures in combat and thoroughly dominate most of the games in which its played. 8.5/10

Belbe's Portal - 8 mana for the first creature, huh? 0.5/10

Complex Automaton - A very solid card, the Automaton is huge in the early going, and can serve as a 4/4 Wall in the late game, eventually serving as Spellshaper fodder. 7.5/10

Eye of Yawgmoth - Another in the line of interesting new effects, the fact that you can activate this in response to whatever is killing your creature being cast, means that it may be playable. While you have to be careful about decking yourself and will obviously only have so much fodder to sacrifice to it, it could be very cool with cards like Saber Ants and Spontaneous Generation. 5.5/10

Flint Golem - Not quite large enough to be considered 'good', the Golem will fill the 23rd slot of a deck admirably. 6/10

Flowstone Armor - A very strong card that kills 1/1s and boosts your attacker's power levels, it will come in handy against small creatures and large, enabling your 2/2s to trade with their 3/3s. 8.5/10

Flowstone Thopter - A huge offensive weapon, this card will finish an opponent off in around two turns if they don't have an immediate solution. Unfortunately, there are a lot of immediate solutions considering it costs seven. 8.5/10

Kill Switch - Sideboardable against broken artifacts like Crooked Scales, Power Matrix or Flagship, Predator. 4/10

Parallax Inhibitor - Doesn't really do enough to merit a main deck slot. 3/10

Predator, Flagship - Best card in the environment, hands down. Not only does it kill almost every creature in the environment at no risk to you, but it also serves as a one sided Sailmonger, allowing your attackers to avoid their blockers. I don't see any other card in the set being picked over this one. Ever. 10/10

Rackling - Could be fun in a deck with a couple of Scandalmonger, but generally not good enough play in limited. 3.5/10

Rejuvenation Chamber - Doesn't do enough fast enough, weak even as a sideboard card, as you can't gain the life all at once. 3/10

Rusting Golem - The first time it attacks, it goes in for four, but that's about the only upside. After a few turns, its ineffective as an attacker or blocker, and doesn't have a strong enough starting point to make it an early pick. If you get it late though, it'll have a place in your deck. 6.5/10

Tangle Wire - This card will admirably fill a slot in your hard-to-trade rare binder. 2/10

Viseling - So if you can Ritual this thing out, it will do 2-3 points of damage before it becomes a limp 2/2... 3/10
LANDS

Kor Haven - Essentially a White card, the Haven can be a strong deterrent to opposing attackers, with the possibility of trading their creatures for the tapping of three lands being non-too-pleasing for opponents. This card has a place in any White deck. 6.5/10

Rath's Edge - The strongest land in the set, the edge is essentially a Kris Mage with a more mana intensive casting cost and without the vulnerability. More importantly, it's a way for colors like Blue or Green to deal with annoying spellshapers. Very solid. 7.5/10

Terrain Generator - Not fast enough to be effective in limited. 2/10