Apocalypse Limited Review: Artifacts, Split Cards and Lands Gary Wise The following is the seventh and final instalment of my series analyzing the usefulness of assorted cards in Apocalypse for limited play. You can find the other instalments here. SPLIT CARDS Well, the novelty has worn off, so R&D decided to replace that with pure, unadulterated power. This batch of split cards is good enough that they have people talking about them in Constructed, so when it comes to Limited, they don't disappoint. Keep in mind that you only need half of either of these cards to make them playable. Fire/Ice Wow, Scorching Lava wasn't good enough right? Rectifying the situation, this card allows you to split the two damage, killing Coastal Drake and Stormscape Apprentice or other annoying one-toughness creatures for a mere 1 ManaRed Mana at instant speed, and as an added bonus allows you to cycle it with an ability that can prove very important when dealing with that one annoying blocker. Pick it high a 1st - 3rd pick. Illusion/Reality In a category full of great cards, this one is the loser. A viable sideboard card, neither effect is powerful enough to make it an exciting one. An 11th - 13th pick. Life/Death Okay, let's get this straight right now: Life is an X spell. You deal 13 points of damage, get 9 lands into play and attack, so you might as well point it at your opponent and say "Disintegrate you". Death has an interesting ability which hurts a lot in the life department, but it's cheap and therefore viable. You don't want to play the card just for Death, but either ability is playable. A 4th - 6th pick. Night/Day I really like Night because of its instant status. Like Cursed Flesh, you can use this card to kill an annoying one-toughness creature, but in addition, you can kill a larger creature by reducing its girth mid-combat. Day is a solid trick that can surprise a lot of people, so don't be afraid to play it either. A 5th - 7th pick. Order/Chaos Remember Falter? Remember Exile? Forget both of them. Both halves of this amazing card are more versatile than their predecessors, offering the ultimate in offense when you're feeling aggressive and on defense when you have to hold back. I know it's blasphemous to mention taking cards over Jilt, but I've done it before with this card, and while I won't do so most of the time, I'll definitely do it again. A 1st - 3rd pick. ARTIFACTS In a format with twice as many multicolor cards as cards in any one color, something has to suffer, and finally we're arrived. As you'll see below, the selection of artifacts and lands is anemic, with a combined eleven cards between the two sub-sections. Despite their dwindled numbers, there are a few gems in this rough. Emblazoned Golem and Dodecapod provide those players sporting creature-light decks with fat, efficiently costed ground creatures which, under the right circumstances become game breakers, while Legacy Weapon, a tough card to get active, becomes virtually unstoppable once it does. Don't despair at the lack of Apocalypse artifacts or lands in your deck, they just aren't around, but don't be afraid to pick them when available to you either. Uncommons Brass Herald I'm not a big fan of 2/2 creatures for six mana unless they come with insane amounts of card advantage, but I have heard a few players swear by the Herald. The thinking goes that is you have 10-12 Kavus, the Herald can be a good finisher, but I just don't buy it. Next time you have that many of one creature type give it a try, but Herald or no, Coastal Drake will get you. Dragon Arch I have an idea: Instead of you paying seven mana to cast your first gold creature, why don't you just cast? A 13th to 15th pick. Dodecapod This card is great. If nothing else, you have yourself an easy-to-cast Hill Giant that can block Duskwalker and Hooded Kavu, but a lot of the time it's a whole lot more. With so much quality discard in the format and the value of that discard increasing thanks to unsteady mana bases that result in cards being help longer, the 'Pod will often be discarded, leaving its owner with a 5/5 that required no effort to get into play. Sounds like a good deal to me. A 3rd -5th pick. Emblazoned Golem This card is a monster. It doesn't matter when you cast it, as long as you kick the Golem it's a good deal, be it a 3/4 for four, 4/5 for five, or 6/7 for 7. Don't ever cast this without the kicker unless your opponent drafted six Ertai's Trickeries and it'll always do you justice. A 2nd - 4th pick Rares Legacy Weapon I guess we can all figure out why they were searching for this thing. I mean, sure, it's hard to harness, but when you get it going, you've won. Vindicate with the buyback sounds pretty good to me. If you can actually use this thing, you'll likely be the only one at the table, so take something else and hope to get it back, but if you do get it 5-color mage, I'd play it. A 6th - 8th pick. Mask of Intolerance I'll tell you about intolerance: I'm intolerant of cards like this one that serve no purpose in Limited play. Even if you have a bunch of Reef Shamans and Sea Snidds , there's no way to change your opponent's land types in order to force the Mask to trigger. There needs to be 4 different land types at the start of the upkep, or the Mask upkeep ability won't go on the stack. A 12th -14th pick. LANDS Battlefield Forge, Caves of Koilos, Llanowar Wastes, Shivan Reef, Yavimaya Coast These are great. Yes, pain hurts, but they stabilize your mana until you draw painless mana sources in each color, ensuring that color screw won't happen. Alternatively, in a format where splashes happen so often, these make doing so a lot easier. Don't be afraid to take them early, as they'll more often than not make your deck. A 6th - 8th pick.