Ymzir Common Analysis

Ymzir Common Roundup

I’m not an expert control player, but these are my thoughts on the ‘control’ deck.

ONE MANA

None.

TWO MANA

Tooth Fairy (2/1)

The tooth fairy is an important card in the Ymzir deck. Its base rate from hand of a 1/1/1 for 2 doesn’t look good but it has the sabotage ability. There are cards in the opponent’s reserve that you really want to sabotage at times including but not restricted to Athena, Jeanne D’Arc and Hua Mulan. I rate the sabotage ability a bit over 1 mana, so the tooth fairy is under costed on that side and with base stats of 1/1/1 for 1 from reserve right on par. It’s not worth sabotaging when in the reserve so often you can use that extra mana at the end to win a side.

Ymzir Stargazer (2/1)

I’m less keen on the Ymzir Stargazer which is over rate for the hand cost (a 2/1/1 for 2) and a touch under costed at 2/1/1 for 1 from the reserve. This tends to make your early plays feel weak but allow you to snipe for 1 mana (like the Tooth Fairy) to win a side.

The rare upgrade when played from your hand allows you to banish a card from your reserve to draw a card. Card drawing is always good and as long as you have a used Tooth Fairy there it can be pretty good, though it is not just a pure card draw as on Baba Yaga.

Off you go! (2/4)

The low casting cost (2 mana) Ymzir removal spell will get rid of anything to reserve with hand casting cost of 3 mana or less. This will ideally be used against characters with a hand cast of 3 and then used in combination with tooth fairy to get rid of the character permanently. It can get rid of a Hua Mulan this way, but you need to have it in hand to do this. It does not however deal with pesky permanents or larger things. You need Ymzir’s other removal spell for that. Unlike many other removal spells, you do get to use this one twice, though the second go with it from reserve will be quite costly at 4 mana to get rid of something 3 or less.

THREE MANA

Kadigiran Alchemist (3/1)

The Alchemist is a 3 mana 3/3/3 when played from hand and a 1 mana 1/1/1 when played from the reserve. As such its completely on par as a character but not particularly exciting. It’s possibly the Ymzir best turn 1 play however as it can compete on one expedition side (especially if you’ve used After You to force your opponent to commit first. It then leaves you with a 1 mana play on turn 2 should you need it against an Ordis player to deny them a free advance with their token when they are trying to play an Ordis Carrier. So solid, but not exciting.

Baba Yaga (3/2)

Baba Yaga is a card draw card. A 1/2/1 for 3 is not really going to set the world alight. It seems over costed from hand until you realise that it lets you draw a card as well. Card drawing in TCGs is always powerful. This is a full card draw as well, not just a resupply giving you half a card. My evaluation is that card draw is worth around 2 mana, so add on a 1/2/1 and you making something on the way in. The 1/2/1 though is over costed from the reserve at 2, but you can use that card if needed in the reserve or can discard it for profit from another rare card.

Alice (3/3)

Alice is a 2/2/4 for 3 mana both as the hand cost and the reserve cost, making it marginally over costed by 1/3 mana. That cost is spent on the reserve ability that allows Alice to perform a free “After You” for the price of discarding the card from the reserve. Akesha’s “After You” ability only works for free if you are going first. If you’re not going first, it costs two mana. So, this allows you to do it when going second without cost as well as doing “After You” twice on a turn.

Spycraft (3/3)

Sabotage is worth about 1 mana. Drawing a card is worth about 2 mana. So, three mana for this common spell is worth it. It’s a hard card to fully appreciate though as until you get up to higher mana costs you may be sacrificing a play on one of the expeditions. However, it is useful if your opponent is running low on cards in hand and has one card in their reserve. You are then ensuring that you have more cards in your hand to chose from and ensuring that they only have one play.

FOUR MANA

Banishing Gate (4/4)

Being able to banish any character or permanent is a powerful thing. All the other removal spells in the game have some kind of rider on them, meaning that they can’t always be played when you need them. Banishing Gate can get rid of anything you want once as it has fleeting, but the cost at 4 mana is high. Its more useful late in the game when there is more mana around and the opponent will have fewer cards in hand. I think this is a tricky but powerful spell as you probably need to make this into a mana orb early rather than save it in hand. The rare version allows you to cast it from both hand and reserve as it doesn’t have fleeting, but the reserve cost goes up to 5.

FIVE MANA

Dorothy Gale (5/3)

Dorothy, I think is much better than Banishing Gate. It has a 3/2/2 body together with a removal spell on the hand cost for 5 mana. The spell sends a character card to the reserve unconditionally, which doesn’t stop it coming back, but means that with Dorothy’s stats you can potentially win one side and the removal will help you win the other side. The reserve cost is only 3 as the removal spell is not longer attached to the body. The rate is slightly lower on the reserve side, but its not a terrible rate.

The rare version of Dorothy has the removal spell on both sides and costs 5 mana on both sides. This gives you double the value and the card in rare is very good.

SEVEN MANA

Sakarabru (7/4)

Sakarabru is a really odd card for me. On the face of it the card when played from hand seems really powerful. The first time I saw it, the ability to move an expedition back one space seems game breaking. You can’t do anything to stop the play from hand ability, so you are going to be one expedition down whatever. However, when I’ve played against it in practice, I’ve found that I often win both expeditions against it as the card costs so much and the Ymzir player can’t play much else effective with it and a lucky to have an “Off you go!” in hand and facing the right mana card. Having said that 3 mana to move an expedition back is very good value.

The reserve cost of 4 for a 4/4/4 is on par with the average card costing so that side of the card is fine. So, although its quite a good card, I’m not sure it’s always great.