Muna Rundown

Sorry to all my Muna friends that this one took longer than I'd hoped. As usual I'm using the same scale that I've used throughout the other faction rundowns. This is given in the table below.

The first Muna card I’m really not that excited about. I mean I like the picture, but the common is just way underpowered. It will likely be beaten by any other one drop and you’d only be playing it for its support ability, which is admittedly fairly good. However, the support ability to anchor a character with hand cost 3 or less is available in so many cards that I wouldn’t prioritise this one. The rare is slightly better, giving par stats and is playable but I’d likely end up cutting it a lot. As the 2 stat is not on forest I give it a ding for Rin.

Whereas I like the Spindle Harvesters much more as a 1 drop. It has anchored built into it and is playable early and late. Yes, the initial stat is not the best, but Teiga’s boost makes it that bit better for a 1 drop meaning that with the rare, you can get an advance past an Ordis Recruit on turn 1 and still have another play. Then if you gain those boosts you get a free resupply, which is not bad for 1 mana.

Welcome to the worst Muna card. It has some chances of doing something in Rin, but I feel it will likely get cut for numbers there, but I’m honestly not a big fan of these very skewed characters like Lyra Navigator. The rare does at least have the anchored support ability but I’m not sure I’d waste a rare on this card.

I don’t dislike Kitsune and maybe I’ve been a little harsh on the common version. It’s a way for Muna to draw cards (which they don’t have a lot of) though it also gives your opponent a card as well. The one this I will highlight is that in Arjun, the rare gives you an early resupply which is a reasonably rare ability in Muna so will help Arjun get that early anchor with his ability.

Kodama is the strangest card in Muna. The fact is that its sleep ability means that although it is well above par you won’t get the benefit until the next turn, so it’s a poor top deck. I can’t give it a high rating therefore, but with one key exception. This will get played in Lyra Festival decks that need that Asleep character, so it definitely gets played plus having the support anchor ability will help it to get played. The final thing is that several Uniques have a requirement for a number of characters in play to trigger and Kodama might help this.

Sneezy is a top-rated character in my book. He hangs around and around (with some Meditation Training) and just keeps growing. I think Sneezy is into the S tier with Teiga who gets that additional boost when played out first that will just keep growing.

The Muna Merchant is solid. You get a free resupply out of the reserve for your slightly under par stats, but I can’t see that rare being significantly better than the common. It is better, but the improvement is slight, and I can’t see it being good enough to justify getting that elusive rare slot. Of course, with a nice ability, a Unique version might be where you go with the Merchant.

The rare Inari is a card I like a lot more. The common is just so-so and okay as a draft card, but the rare has a potential to draw you several cards if you can anchor it. Since it costs 3 or less there are plenty of ways to do this and Arjun will be especially good with this rare.

When I first saw this one, I thought it would be pretty good with the Spindle Harvesters and Sneezy, but as the spoilers have gone on I’ve seen more and more plants in Muna and there are so many targets that can be anchored down now (including an Eternal favourite that we’ll see later) that I rare the rare pretty highly. The common is a solid card with good stats that has a hand cost of 3 (so can be anchored down) as well as the usual support ability to anchor things down.

Speaking of plants, we have yet another 3-hand cost plant character that can get you a resupply. The common doesn’t guarantee that resupply (though there are plenty of ways to potentially anchor it in Muna. However, it is clearly inferior to Inari which nets you a whole card rather than a resupply. Aloe Vera does have an inbuilt ability to anchor though but it does make the character a little expensive. Definitely playable though as a B tier card.

The rare daughter of Yggdrasil is a top tier card. Not only does it have much better stats for its cost, but it’s a plant, it only costs 3 so easily can be anchored. The rare even mostly gets rid of the downside by letting both players draw, so you get to have a card and can anchor down a very solid card. Rin particularly likes the daughter, as she gives 5 stats in the forest. 

Another decent plant that anchors himself. You get slightly better stats for your mana the turn after you play it with the rare which makes it much better. The longer you can keep this anchored down, the better it becomes. Teiga shines with Dracaena as she gives it that extra boost and Rin isn’t as keep as the little Dragon Plant starts with nothing in the forest.

Yong Su is a quest card. If you fulfil the quest, you get a nice prize. Since the quest involves having two plants on the board, and there are so many plants in Muna (plants that can be anchored) it is not a hard quest to fulfil. A 3/3/3 for 3/3 is already par stats and then you can get so much more from it. Same with the rare, which is cheaper and will allow you to fit it into more hands.

In any other faction, Parvati would be a much stronger character, but since most of Muna can already be anchored by so many other effects and those that can’t either have Eternal or are less likely to be effective I don’t see Parvati being a character that will always get played in Muna. It will likely get some play, but I doubt it will be a shoe in for 3 copies in a deck. Since Arjun can’t anchor it, the card is weaker with him.

This is Muna’s version of Haven Warrior. A variant as a common and then a 4/4/4 for 3/3 for the rare. The common version is par for stats but has very few synergies so it can’t be easily anchored or boosted as easily as its not a plant. It’s perfectly good and I wouldn’t have an issue with you including it as a common for numbers. The rare is better though as not only is the rate better, but it can be anchored more easily with Muna’s support abilities.

I like Aja quite a bit, though it will depend a lot on what decks you are facing in the meta. Having those extra manas is great against Waru decks (which I expect to see a lot of), but its not so great against Auraq and Atsadi (which I don’t expect to see a lot of). The extra mana will enable you to not only play your own Hydracaena quicker, but also cope with Robin Hood’s taxes. Yes, they will get to put more mana in play as well, but your creature effectiveness should be greater.

Captain Slow (not sure if any non-UK people will get the reference) needs to have plants with him to be useful to us to further the expedition. Now Muna is not short on plants so the quest should be achievable, but that doesn’t take into account random draws, opponents sabotage and removal and having enough mana to put them all out together. It’s a fine body to block a side, but the common is 4 mana, which means it can’t be anchored easily so I’m not in love with it. The rare is better as it can more easily be anchored and cast with other things. I’m not a big fan of this one, but its playable.

The Coneman does a job. He’s a plant, he hangs around as he has a built-in anchored effect. He’s just a little expensive for all that at common and the rare can’t be easily anchored. He’s not bad, but I don’t rate the Coneman highly as he doesn’t naturally grow or make it easily to be anchored. He does have ways he can be boosted, and I think he’ll get some play.

The Son of Yggdrasil is much less likely to see play that the daughter as he costs six mana to play. Now he has gigantic, but he suffers from the disadvantage of actually losing a lot if he gets removed. The rare has tough built in, and because he has 6 in his forest stat I can see him being of use with Rin.

Hydracaena is an S tier spell. It grows and doesn’t go and will always probably end up winning the side unless it is removed. It can be a bit slow getting going, but its just super good if you can get to the 7 mana you need. The rare is way better as it some a tough ability to protect it.

This one is odd. Muna doesn’t really thrive off resupply effects, but they are always useful. Arjun can make use of them to anchor, so I think that this might be useful there but I’m not sure where else this belongs.

This is prime removal for Muna, mainly because it is 1 mana that takes a character out for the turn. It obviously won’t get rid of annoying bureaucrats or help with creatures that grow over time, but it will solve a problem for a turn (or two). I don’t like the rare as much, as its more likely that you’re going to want to use it on your own creatures and although it is more flexible (in helping your own characters and still very good) the cost of the rare upgrade is more than the bonus effect.

This spell gives a nice, distributed set of boosts. The common is pretty good and is definitely useable in decks that have an issue with rare numbers. The rare is 8 boosts for 5 mana as opposed to 4 boosts for 3 mana with is a way better deal and a real A list card that will help anchored characters as well as triggering lots of Unique effects.

Meditation Training is another way of getting the anchored effect on a character with hand cost 3 or less. It depends on the makeup of your deck, but it will always be useful to keep your anchored characters from leaving. The rare gives a bit more flexibility with the support effect but if you have lots of that support effect already, will you need more of it?

Would you rather have an opponent have a Robin Hood asleep, a Hydracaena or a mana orb. Giving them a mana orb is almost certainly the right answer and being able to use the spell twice makes the rare version an S tier spell for Munu. It’s good.

The Bountiful Meadow allows you to pay a little up front to get discounts on all you plants. Remember all those plants I was talking about in section 1, that was a lot and even Hydracaena is a plant so this is well worth it. I’m not sure that the rare upgrade is worth that much extra to justify a rare slot, so I’d be usually happy with the common which I think will overperform.

Generally, since most Muna likes to have creatures that cost 3 or less to anchor, tough 2 really isn’t as great as it might otherwise be. If you are running a bug deck with Verdantbacks, Son’s of Yggdrasil and Hydracaena’s then maybe the common is worth it. However for most Muna decks I think that the rare will give the most value as at noon one of your anchored characters will get a free boost as well.

I had to upgrade my rating on this as I was thinking that there weren’t many good ways to get Coppelia into the reserve from the hand in Muna. Then I looked down at the cards to come and realised that actually there are some. So, you are getting another free 3/3/0 which gets asleep if you can pull this off. Why is that important? Well, we’ll talk about the Lyra Festival a bit later.

The Kelon elemental is probably the best way that Muna has for putting cards into the reserve that you need to get there. No there’s a certain robot above that gets to be free if it’s put into the reserve from the hand. A combo perhaps? The poor forest stat probably makes it less god with Rin, but if you’re playing festival combo in Rin then you might consider it.

Given the number of plants that are in Muna, I feel that Ogun is worth a shout for all the heroes. It only needs a couple of other plants for this to be really effective and since you can anchor down your plants, this should be relatively easy to achieve.

Muna doesn’t really have any sabotage of its own and although its expensive this is their only real option if they want to use the sabotage ability. It will see occasional play I think where Axiom or Basira strategies are strong, but I expect it often to get cut for numbers as it has no real synergies in a Muna deck. I wonder if there are any unique versions out there that will really bring this up for Muna.

Ganesh is a combo card waiting for a good combo to go with it. At seven mana to cast I don’t think there is anything worth it out there to make it a useful combo card. Reactivating all your anchoring effects is cool and all, but 7 mana to do it is way too expensive. 

Having a good 1 drop is useful for all factions, but I don’t think that Isun Boshi is the one drop Muna really wants. Spindle Harvesters is really where Muna wants to be, so I think this is really a draft only card for Muna.

The Tiny Jinn on the other hand will see play in builds that want to play Hydracaena. I think that this is more likely to be Teiga and Arjun. Teiga can give the little Jinn a boost as it comes in, making it able to ramp on turn 1.

I was going to rate Sun Wukong a lot lower until I realised that the boosts from the reserve can go on any character. This can therefore go on your anchored characters and spend another turn in the expedition, which for me marks it up a bit. I don’t think its really strong but will see some play.

The ability to resupply is always going to be okay, but I just don’t thing its worth wasting a rare slot on. The only place it might be okay in is for Arjun who wants to discard cards from reserve to anchor cards played from hand down.

A two-cost card that can be a 4/4/4 is definitely worth looking at. Given Teiga can give you a boost on this as it comes in, you only need another anchored character in play with a boost to make this actor into a 5/5/5 for 2 mana. I definitely think its worth looking at even if its not part of the main Muna strategy.

Whilst I like the rare cloth dancer in Lyra, I think that its just too weak to justify a rare slot in Muna. The stats are under rate and the ability is marginally useful. I mean its fine. It stops something nasty coming back next turn but doesn’t deal with the problem now.

Loki is a strange card. In magic similar cards are used by fast decks to refuel when control decks still have lots of cards left. The principle of using Loki would be similar here, but with this only affecting the hand and not the reserve, I’m not sure you are getting the value of a seven-mana ability here on top of your 5/5/5. A fine and fun draft card though. The only use in constructed I can see for this is to dig for your combo card if you are playing Lyra Festival.

The upside on this card is a 3 mana 5/5/5, but to get there you have a little quest to fulfil. You need three other characters in play to get your prize. Unlike in Ordis, Muna does not get free token spam to make the prize achievable. Instead, I feel (even with anchored characters) that the prize will not be hit often enough just like the fairground grabber device to be worth playing. 

I like the Ordis Gatekeeper much more because a) there’s no quest to achieve to get the boost and b) you can put the boost tokens on an anchored character for maximum effect. I suspect that this card will get overlooked a lot, but at 3 ana it can also be anchored down. The main count against it is that is not a plant. 

Quetzalcoatl is a fine card, but I just don’t see many Muna decks actually running it. Its stats are on a par, and it is a 3 cost that could be anchored down. However, the ability to create random Ordis recruit if the opponent co-operates and allows you is not really a core Muna thing. I don’t expect to see this getting played often despite the fact that its could be.

Where’s I was down on Ganesh, I think that this could see a little play. The same ability as Ganesh but not at seven mana, and if you need to, you can cast it twice in a turn for double the fun. 

I just don’t see mana channelling getting played in a muna deck. I don’t see it getting much play in bravos to be honest, but I am even less of a view that it will get played here. Ramp is not a primary aim of Muna and there are better options and Muna will want their rare slots and spell slots for other things.

Physical training is fine. It will get some play in Muna decks. A 2 or 3 mana spell that gives three boosts is good for an anchored character. I think the common Nurture or the rare will get played over this though.

I like Mana Eruption a lot in Bravos and it’s also very good here. It’s a 2-mana unconditional removal spell after all is a rarity in the game and it permanently deals with it (not just sending it back to hand, reserve or the top of the deck. The downside however is quite big if you haven’t got lots of ramp in your deck and the fact that the Muna rare Mana Reaping doesn’t lose you a mana orb AND can be used twice means that will get played more often.

As a simple little spell that can be used as a 1 mana after you is fine in concept, but it you are wanting to pass the turn you really want something in play first to target with this. You’ll have it occasionally against other Muna decks, but targeting an Ordis Recruit, Booda or a sleeping bureaucrat with this spell won’t be particularly effective. I don’t see this getting much play in Muna, therefore.

Another Lyra spell that I don’t see getting loads of play, but possibly a little more than the song above. Yes, its removal, but its not any cheaper than Mana Reaping and it won’t get everything so I don’t see it getting lots of play.

Paint Prison is another level down again. At 5 mana (even if you can go around the houses to make it cheaper), it will only delay that card getting into play for a turn (kind of a super Intimidation). I’m not a big fan of Intimidation, and even less of a fan of this in a constructed deck.

Charge is a superstar in an Ordis deck, but my guess is that is not quite as good in a Muna deck as they can’t get enough bodies on the board to make it useful. They would need at least 4 bodies in the expeditions to make it equal to the rare Nurture, so I think this won’t get played often unless you really need more of this effect or if you have a super Unique that spams lots of tokens.

This is not a card I expect to see played much if at all in Muna. Arjun might play the odd one or two to get cards into the reserve to use for anchoring, but its an expensive way of doing it and you get nothing the turn you play it. 

The Lyra Festival is a combination deck that I am pretty sure will show up from time to time in Muna. I think that Muna can put the pieces together for this far easier than Lyra and see it as potentially an alt win condition in Rin’s deck. I think Teiga has better things to do, but I could see a Teiga deck play the Lyra Festival combo too. Although it’s a combo, it’s a fragile one, however.

The Monolith is a very good card with Muna. Its effectively a double Haven (double the cost and double the effect) and it can be brutal when it gets going. If you are playing a lower to the ground deck (not playing Son of Yggdrasil, Hydracaena etc), then this can boost up all your characters and very soon give you more value than you put in. My one worry is that you want to play it early and may need to take off a turn to do that.