Muna Common Analysis

Muna Common Roundup

ONE MANA

Kitsune (1/1)

The cost of the Kitsune is bang on for her stats, being a 1/1/1 for 1. Kitsune also has an ability though that when played from hand gives both players a card. The question then that you need to ask yourself is what the gift ability is worth and whether it is a positive or a negative thing. Drawing a card is good of course, but here we are also letting our opponent draw one as well. I feel that its at least neutral against most decks, a slight plus against Ymzir and a negative against Bravos. The Bravos deck is the one that suffers the most with running out of steam, so giving away extra cards to Bravos is not going to help you, as you want to use your inbuilt advantage is in utilising your Anchored creatures instead.

The real advantage for Kitsune is if it’s your first play, since Teija’s ability will make it a 2/2/2 for 1. This will at least blunt many low-cost characters (Bravos excepted) and gives you a second 2 mana play to react. On the whole I quite like Kitsune against the right decks, though it’s not the greatest late game play from the reserve.

Spindle Harvesters (1/1)

If the Kitsune is a good target for Teija’s ability on turn 1 then the Spindle Harvesters are even more so. They suffer from being only a 1/0/0 for 1 mana. With Teija though they become a 2/1/1 that is anchored. So, if someone else plays a 1/1/1 you will likely advance on the first turn. Then it can become a target on one side for a Nature. Your opponent is not really going to try and remove it as it only cost 1 mana and the best removal in the game is 2 mana (Ymzir). So, it’s not an effective target for their removal and will likely stay around for a while. You’ll want to replay it again first with Teija from reserve to get the full 4 turns from it. The main issue is you might have better targets for that ability from Teija later on.

The Spindle Harvesters look pretty weak, but they can be deceptively good if used correctly.

TWO MANA
 

Nurture (2/1)

The spell that we just spoke about Nurture is a fairly basic card but good value. It gives two boosts that can be used on one or two characters. A boost is worth about 1 mana so the hand cost is on par with what we’d expect. The reserve cost though is a bargain, and we are making a mana up from the reserve so all in all this is a good card.

You can use it to boost a single character twice, but you need to be careful about removal if you do. It is usually much better to split it across two characters to ensure that removal doesn’t take out two whole spells.

Sneezer Shroom (2/2)

The Mushroom with a cold is another really good card in Muna. Sneezy is a 1/1/1 for 2 mana, but he sticks around another turn as he has anchored. Like most cards in Muna, he’s a great target for Teija as he becomes a 2/2/2 for 2 turns which is great value. Then when played from the reserve he gets another 2 turns in play as either a 1/1/1 or 2/2/2.

Rare Sneezy gets even better though. If he sticks around through Anchored, he gets another 1/1/1 boost, making him potentially a 2/2/2 and then 3/3/3 for 2 mana. Since he only costs 2 mana the opponent is often saving removal up for something better lest the lose out on the mana deal. Bravos doesn’t want to send it back to your hand it’s a 2 mana for 2 mana trade and you’ll just get to do the whole thing again next turn.

Mowgli (2/2)

Mowgli is a card I’m less keen on. A 2/2/2 for 2 is on par with stats but it doesn’t do lots else. I mean its fine. Nothing wrong with it and Teija’s boost is always nice, but I’m not excited by it in a deck where everything else seemingly sticks around an extra turn. It can be a target for Meditation Training but its not an exciting target to be truthful.

The rare Mowgli has an extra ability from the reserve that allows you to discard it to get a 1/1/1 boost, which considering you are not paying any mana is a good deal. It just depends on how much you need that extra card at the time.

Meditation Training (2/3)

The ability to put Anchored onto a character of mana cost 3 or less is very powerful, but I’d argue it isn’t as good in the Muna deck as most things can already get Anchored. The main targets for this are going to be midrange cards such as Inari, Muna Druid and Daughter of Yggdrasil.

Daughter is of course the highlight as it being anchored (particularly the rare version) is great. However, you have another way of giving Anchored (on Muna Druid). You really want those in hand or reserve in conjunction with each other. The 2-mana cost is good for the effect, but the three mana can make things awkward are before you get to 8 mana you need to put out a 2 mana and a 3-mana creature to cover both sides if possible. Adding 3 mana to a 3 creature is asking for the 2 mana Ymzir removal spell to make your day really sad.

So, I don’t love this card, but when used in the right place it can be very effective.

THREE MANA

Inari (3/2)

Inari is another creature that depends very much on where it’s played from. It is over costed if played from hand, being a 3 mana 3/1/3 (which should cost 2 and 1/3 mana). From reserve it only costs 2 mana so you are getting a slight bargain on the rate, but since the card does nothing else and the reserve cost is only just a little cheaper from reserve, I am not big on this card. Its functional, but unexciting for me.

Muna Druid (3/2)

Muna Druid on the other hand I like a lot more. It has a similar issue to Inari but the stats are spread a little differently 3/2/2 for 3. So, what’s the difference between the two cards? Muna Druid has a little ability that allows it to be sacrificed from the reserve to make a creature with 3 or less cost anchored. This reserve ability can replace the Meditation Training spell as they are the same effect and this one is free, meaning that provided you are prepared to give up the card from reserve you can Anchor another 3-mana card. I almost feel that Inari needs a slight bump up in power to make it a better choice in deckbuilding.

Daughter of Yggdrasil (3/3)

The Queen of the 3 mana cards is Daughter of Yggdrasil. Her stats are very impressive at 3/5/5 for a measly 3 mana, making her under costed by 1 and 2/3 mana. Of course, that under costing is accounted for on the card by letting your opponents draw a card. (Note that the wording here is deliberately worded for multiplayer play). Card drawing is very valuable in the game as having that extra choice makes it easier to make difficult mana orb decisions easier. So, giving your opponent a card is not nothing. They could have drawn that removal that gets rid of your Daughter of Yggdrasil, for instance or something that trumps it. However, on a mana cost for biome stat basis it’s really hard to beat.

The rare is even better though, turning the gift into Kitsune’s ability, giving a card to each player instead. This makes the downside no longer a loss of card advantage and potentially very useful to you (as well as your opponent). The rare Daughter of Yggdrasil is definitely one of the best cards in the Muna deck.

FOUR MANA

None

FIVE MANA

Coniferal Coneman (5/5)

The top costing card in Muna reminds me a lot of Atlas in Bravos, but I think its probably a bit better. Both are 3/3/3’s for 5 mana, but they have an added 3/3/3 in the price. Atlas’s bonus applies to the other expedition and the Coniferal Coneman’s applies to the following turn as it has Anchored. I think that this makes the Coneman slightly better than Atlas (in my mind) since you can boost him easily (from Teija) and from a Nurture making him formidable for the following turn as well. He is as vulnerable as Atlas is, but I rate him slightly higher than Atlas. Muna wants its threats to stick around the following turn and Coneman really does fit with that strategy.