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Magic: The Gathering: Morningtide Set Review

Reviewed by on Jan 31, 2008
Rating: 4 Star Rating

The fairies and elves of the award-winning Lorwyn set are back in the Morningtide expansion! We review the new cards here.

The faerie magic of the Lorwyn expansion set for the Magic: The Gathering card game kicked butt and won the 2007 Card Game of the Year award here at Kidzworld. Now Morningtide is here to bring more magic to the game with powers based the creatures' jobs. Gary checked out these new cards and here's the 411 on whuppin' the opposition with this card game review.

New Faerie Powers

There are 150 cards in this set and not only do you see the fairies, elves, goblins and other critters from Lorwyn again, this time they have classes! Whether they're soldiers, wizards, rogues, shamans or warriors, all these creatures are up to something and there are cards to power them up. There are also three new abilities to give you new strategies. Check 'em out:

  • Prowl - Damage your opponent with a creature and you can play Prowl cards for cheaper, with extra bonuses, or both!
  • Reinforce - Rather than using a card normally, pay the Reinforce cost to add some +1/+1 counters to your creatures.
  • Kinship - At the start of your turn, flip the top card of your deck. If it matches a creature with Kinship you activate a power!

Theme Deck Throwdown

It's $4 for a 16-card Booster Pack of random cards, but for $9 you can pick up a 40-card Theme Deck and know exactly what you're getting. Not only that, Theme Decks are a great way for new players to get started because they're designed to kick butt as soon as you give 'em a good shuffle. Here's the scoop on each deck.

  • Battalion - Command legions of soldiers to attack your opponent in deadly teams.
  • Going Rogue - Fast attacks with deadly creatures help you activate your Prowl cards. Watch out for the lack of defense though.
  • Shamanism - Slowly build up your army of unstoppable treemen until you're ready to crush your opponent flat!
  • Warrior's Code - Elvish warriors and huge monsters let you beat your opponent into a paste.
  • Wizards?!? - Someone forgot to make a wizards Theme Deck! Booo... Gandalf is angry.

Faerie Magic For the Win?

Morningtide takes the faerie magic of Lorwyn and turns it up a notch. It gives you new strategies, and the awesome Prowl ability, but makes it harder to use the race/class theme because there aren't many cards that match both. It's a lot of fun, pretty powerful, and works well with older cards. If you're gonna get some, get a bunch!

Lorwyn is great! It's packed with cards and abilities that you can use to power-up decks you're already using. The new planeswalker cards are a bit weird, but can be a lot of fun. Once you figure out how all the new Lorwyn cards work, they're fantastic and even just a few packs can really your Magic decks. Definitely grab some!

Rating: 4

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