Life... Successfully
  • Life Successfully
  • Family & Home
    • Kymani's Travels
    • The Nova Skye Story
    • Upstream Parenting >
      • Positive Parenting Books By Lyn Lomasi >
        • Upstream Parenting Book
        • The Pregnancy And Baby Care Guide Every Parent Needs
        • The Only Potty Training Guide You'll Ever Need
    • Family Craft Store
    • Life & Home Blog
    • Better Plumbing Blog
    • Momtrepreneur Moments
    • Successful Relationships Blog
  • Education & Literature
    • Free Learning Education Blog
    • Heart 'N Mind Homeschool Blog
    • Free Homeschool Worksheets
    • The Perpetual Prose Machine
    • Books - News, Reviews & Info
    • Science and Nature Articles
    • Creative Writing
    • Academic Articles
    • Monsters Within Us Monstrous Incantaions Blog
  • Animal Advocacy
    • Crafts For A Purpose Family Craft & Jewelry Store >
      • Give To Pets
    • Animal Advocacy & Healthy Pet Parenting Articles
    • Heart 'N Mind Paw Rescue Blog
    • Positive Pet Parenting Blog
    • Raising Pet Positive Kids
    • Super Pet Mom...Kind Of
    • Pawsitively Adventurous Pets
    • Purrely Pawsitive And Barkably Amazing Pet Training Tips
    • Dog Praising
  • Health & Beauty
    • Healthy Living Blog
    • Good Eats Recipes, Diet, & Food Blog >
      • Recipe Books By Lyn & Rich
    • Fash Diva Fashion Blog
    • Naturally Simple Beauty Blog
    • Senior Living
    • Disabilities Articles
    • Green Living Articles
  • Society & Causes
    • Speak Up!; A Homelessness & Social Justice Blog
    • Motivational Friends Inspirational Blog
    • Straight Up LGBTQ Blog
    • Colorful Expressions
    • Inner Healing & Spirituality Blog
  • Fun & Games
    • Gaming Successfully
    • Luna Starlight Comics
    • Crafting Successfully Crafts Blog
    • Mouthy Momtrepreneur Blog
    • Clowning Around
    • Music Articles
    • Entertainment Articles
    • Holiday Articles
  • Travel
    • RV'ing Successfully RV Blog
    • Local & Travel Blog
  • News
    • News Articles
    • Sports Break
  • Writing, Web, Business, & Tech
    • Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff Blog
    • Writing Tips Blog
    • Write W.A.V.E. Media Thought Leadership & Tech Blog
    • Be a Writer!
  • Our Books
  • Services
    • Custom Jewelry-Making
    • Native & Magickal Healing
    • Social Media & Content Marketing
    • Author & Book Marketing Services
    • Custom Product Marketing
    • Get Reviewed, Interviewed, or Featured!
    • SEO & Marketing Research & Writing
    • Social Media Posts & Community Engagement
  • Contact

MTG Battle for Zendikar - Call of Blood Intro Pack Review

10/15/2015

 
Picture
by Richard Rowell, Gaming Successfully Staff

The Call of Blood Intro Pack for Battle for Zendikar is a White/Black deck featuring a lifegain and “drain” theme - that is, cards that gain you one life and make each opponent lose one life. While it’s a good place to start, and offers a good finisher in Felidar Sovereign (and to a lesser extent, Defiant Bloodlord) it is missing a couple of things that would make this truly good out of the box.


The Deck List

Creatures (25)

2 Kitesail Scout
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
2 Serene Steward
3 Stone Haven Medic
1 Hagra Sharpshooter
2 Malakir Familiar
3 Nirkana Assassin
1 Shadow Glider
2 Drana's Emissary
2 Courier Griffin
2 Bloodbond Vampire
2 Kalastria Nightwatch
1 Felidar Sovereign
1 Defiant Bloodlord

Non Creature Spells (9)

2 Dutiful Return
2 Demon's Grasp
2 Gideon's Reproach
2 Tandem Tactics
1 Roil's Retribution

Lands (26)

1 Blighted Steppe
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Mortuary Mire
10 Swamp
11 Plains


Synergy

For the most part, there’s plenty in the deck to complement the themes of the deck. However, there is a missed opportunity to inflict even more damage. With the amount of Allies in the deck, it’s a bit surprising that they decided not to include the common Kalastria Healer, an Ally that gains you 1 life and causes an opponent to lose 1 life each time a Healer or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control. The deck as it’s build seems more intent on gaining life and having Serene Steward put +1/+1 counters on your flyers - creatures that outside of their ability to fly and take the best advantage of those counters seem at odds with the flavor of the deck.

Grade: B-

Value

Felidar Sovereign was a fairly valuable mythic rare from Zendikar before being reprinted as a rare in Battle for Zendikar and seeing its value pounded into dust. That being said, it’s still a popular card among casual players and has single-handedly won many a Commander game with its alternate win condition ability. It’s a fine rare to have. Defiant Bloodlord, while being a bit slow mana-cost wise, is also playable in Commander as an alternative to the enchantment Sanguine Bond. Being a creature, though, it has the downside of being much easier to remove than an enchantment. Being a 4 / 5 flyer isn’t nothing, though. Since the deck offers an alternate art foil version of the Bloodlord, it’s a much better investment than the traditional non-foil set version. So as far as intro pack rares go, these are just fine.
The real value is in the Zulaport Cutthroat, which while only a complementary piece to this particular deck, can be a drain engine in the right deck, especially one that can crank out cheap creatures and sacrifice them for value (a theme which appears in the Battle for Zendikar Event Deck in a very playable manner.) Also, the two copies of Mortuary Mire are good to have, as it’s a utility land that is very playable.

Grade: B

Improving the Deck

The first thing to do would be to have a full playset of Kalastria Healers in the deck. You’d also want two more Drana’s Emissary and at least one more Zulaport Cutthroat. A really good card for this deck would be March from the Tomb, which can bring back up to 8 converted mana cost worth of Allies back to the battlefield for 3BW (3 colorless, 1 Black, 1 White). This allows you to get multiple triggers from Kalastria Healer and make your Bloodbond Vampires really big in a hurry.

Overall this deck is probably a B or B-minus out of the box, but it’s fairly inexpensive to improve afterward. It’s also quite likely you’ll get one or two Kalastria Healers out of the two packs included with the product.



Content Powered by Write W.A.V.E. Media.

Get content like this for your blog or website.

Not writing for us yet? Submit something today!





Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Gaming Successfully mini logo
    Keep up with the latest Magic the Gathering and other gaming articles by subscribing below:

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    For Magic: the Gathering, sports cards, and other trading cards, visit our store!

    Gaming Peeps
    We Love

    CardSphere
    Geek Initiative

    Generic Bad Magic
    Master of Magics (UK)
    Sylvan MTG
    Sylvan Studies

    Young Mage (MTG)
    .

    Staff Authors

    Picture
    Lyn Lomasi & Richard Rowell are life & business partners. Owners of the Write W.A.V.E. Media network, they are your content superheroes to the rescue! Running their network, tackling deadlines single handedly, and coaching fellow writers & entrepreneurs to be thought leaders is their top priority. While rescuing civilians from boring content and marketing, they conquer the world, living the RV life and making Crafts For A Purpose with their awesomely crazy family while recounting The Nova Skye Story, along with Kymani’s Travels. They also strive to one day cuddle with lions and giraffes. Until then, they’ll settle for furry rescue kitties and doggies.

    Hire Lyn & Rich!
    Ask Lyn
    Stalk Us On Social Media!

    Archives

    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    February 2013
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    July 2011
    May 2011

    Categories

    All
    1v1 Commander
    Aether Revolt
    Alara Reborn
    Amonkhet
    Amonkhet Spoilers
    Anatomy Of A Bulk Rare
    Arabian Nights
    Avacyn Restored
    Battle For Zendikar
    Born Of The Gods
    Budget Magic Decks
    Building The Collection
    Card Reviews
    Cardsphere
    Car Games
    Cheap MTG Cards
    Commander
    Commander 2013
    Commander 2014
    Commander 2015
    Commander 2016
    Commanding Opinion
    Computer Games
    Console Gaming
    Conspiracy
    Conspiracy: Take The Crown
    Content Creator Spotlight
    Dark Ascension
    David Rowell
    Deck Reviews
    Dragon's Maze
    Dragons Of Tarkir
    Duel Decks
    Duelist Diaries
    EDH
    Eldritch Moon
    Eternal Masters
    Event Decks
    Fate Reforged
    Friday Night Magic Promos
    From The Vault
    Frontier
    Future Sight
    Game Daze
    Games
    Games And Mechanics
    Gaming Blogs
    Gaming News
    Gatecrash
    Gathering Successfully Round-Up
    Hour Of Devastation
    How To Get Mostly Free Magic Cards
    Ice Age
    Iconic Masters
    Innistrad
    Interviews
    Ixalan
    John Grgurich
    Joshua Packard
    Journey Into Nyx
    Kai Chang
    Kaladesh
    Kaladesh Inventions
    Khans Of Tarkir
    Lyn Lomasi
    Mages Of The Guild
    Magic 2011
    Magic 2012 Core Set
    Magic 2013 Core Set
    Magic 2014 Core Set
    Magic 2015 Core Set
    Magic Digital Next
    Magic Online
    Magic Origins
    Magic The Gathering
    Magic The Gathering Online
    Magic The Gathering Prices
    Max Kautsch
    Mirrodin
    Modern
    Modern Masters
    Modern Masters 2015
    Modern Masters 2017
    MODO
    Morningtide
    MTG Card Values
    MTG Combos
    MTG Community Spotlight
    MTG Finance
    MTG News
    MTGO
    MTGO 1 Event Ticket Collection Challenge
    MTGO Finance
    MTG One Dollar At A Time
    MTG Price Trends
    MTG Sleepers
    New Phyrexia
    Nintendo DS
    Oath Of The Gatewatch
    Online MMORPG
    Pauper
    Pauper Commander
    PC Games
    Penny Dreadful
    Planeswalker Decks
    Playstation 4
    Pokemon
    Pokemon Go
    Pokemon Red And Blue
    Pokemon Sun And Moon
    Pokemon TCG
    Pokemon X And Y
    Portal Three Kingdoms
    PS4
    PucaTrade
    Ravnica
    Retro Magic
    Return To Ravnica
    Rise Of The Eldrazi
    Rivals Of Ixalan
    Road Trip Games
    Scars Of Mirrodin
    Selling Stuff Online
    Shadowmoor
    Shadows Over Innistrad
    Shawn Leonardo
    Steam Games
    Tempest Remastered
    Theros
    Tiny Leaders
    Top Selling Cards
    Trading Card Games
    Video Games
    What's Hot On Amazon
    Wild Wild West
    YuGiOh
    Yugioh Toons
    Zendikar

COMPANY

About Us
Brand Healing Blog
Staff Blog


SUPPORT

Contact
Disclosure, TOU, Disclaimer, & Privacy Policy

Write For Our Sites!

ALL SITES

Write W.A.V.E. Media                                                                    Life Successfully
Article Writer For Hire                                              Pawsitive Parenting
Heart 'N Mind Homeschool                           Better Plumbing (Partner Site)
Brand Shamans

© 2005-2018 Life... Successfully by Write W.A.V.E. Media,
a division of Brand Shamans

Photo used under Creative Commons from Parker Knight
✕