Sprout
Energy Cost: 2
Choose an opposing Magi. Add one energy to your Magi for each of the chosen Magi’s Creatures in play.
The Card by Itself:
This may be a good time to talk about the concept of adding energy to your Magi. It might seem self-evident, but until you’ve really felt it, many players simply aren’t aware of just how good getting free energy on their Magi every turn is. Let me tell you a story.
Back in 2002 at GenCon, Magi-Nation Duel World Championships took place (yeah, I know, back when the game was popular…ish). This story is about the second-place deck at that tournament, called Pure Energy and piloted by one Stephen Strand. Here’s an article about the deck written by its designer, Jamie Kelly, if you’d like to read it. Here’s the deck:
Pure Energy
Magi:
Aula
Obgren
Shaper’s Apprentice
Creatures (10):
1 J’lith
3 Quido Swarm
1 Sea Barl
3 Bubble Xyx
1 Greater Gargagnor
1 Ormagon
Relics (12):
3 Warrior’s Boots
3 Climbing Staff
1 Abraxin’s Crown
1 Rayje’s Belt
1 Bog Stone
1 Cloud Sceptre
1 Abwyn’s Quill
1 Mantle of Shadows
Spells (18):
3 Kybar’s Echo
3 Sorreah’s Dream
3 Cleansing
1 Beam of Light
1 Spell Pulse
1 Resonate
1 Sandswirl
1 Thunderquake
1 Stone Storm
1 Maelstrom
1 Orwin’s Gaze
1 Bloom
Total: 40
What looks like a pile of junk actually ends up being able to generate an infinite amount of energy on Shaper’s Apprentice when he flips, and from there, it almost doesn’t matter what you do. It’s pretty hard to lose at that point. Now, this combo has been errata’ed out of existence, but this combo and others like it dominated the game at serious tournaments while they were still legal, all because they were able to add an obscenely large amount of energy to your Magi.
I’m not suggesting that Sprout adds anywhere close to an unfair amount of energy. In most cases, casting Sprout should net you between two and three energy (I find that on average, players in decent board positions will have roughly four Creatures in play). That’s good enough, and that simple boost can mean the difference between being able to make the big play and losing because you can’t. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve counted up the energy a winning play would require, only to fall short by one or two, but it’s always dispiriting. Sprout can prevent that from happening, and that makes it a pretty decent, if not terribly exciting, card.
The Card in Context:
Two things to note. First, this card is the pits against many Kybar’s Teeth decks. They often don’t have more than two giant Creatures in play, and in situations like that, Sprout isn’t worth the card stock it’s printed on (and of course it gets even worse against Creatureless Cald).
Second, this card is the stone nuts against Bograth. Slam it forcefully from your hand as often as possible.
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Nice work!
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