Everyone is a critic...Dack's Duplicate
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on May 24, 2014, 10:40 a.m. by kungfuturtle
My absolute favorite thing that blue does is Clone other cards. I have an entire EDH deck based around it. Today I am going to break down the one of the latest spoiled cards from Conspiracy
Dack's Duplicate
I am going to break this card down line to line starting with the name then all the way to the power and toughness box.
Name: I for one am not a fan of the name, it seems to be to simple and unimaginative.
Mana cost: Two colorless a red and a blue mana. Four mana seems to be the cap for competitive creatures. sure there are out-layers to this theory but that is the average top end. as such I think the mana cost is just fine, it is not too color intensive and for a Clone four is just right for flavor and practicality.
Creature Type: I hate the creature type Shapeshifter. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Illusion would make more sense but I am rambling more about flavor for Clone s overall not just this card, overall it doesn't make the slightest of difference to this card.
"Clone " Ability: it is what it is, you copy the best creature and use it on your opponent.
"It gains Haste".... oh so this is why there is red in the cost. HOLY F#$KING $@IT a clone with HASTE?!?!?! thank you my prayers have been answered. What does this mean competitively? it means throwing down a Wurmcoil Engine with haste, it means you can flash in Vendilion Clique at the end of their turn, hit your fourth land, then bash your opponent. That makes this card beyond playable, it is the absolute best clone ever
"Dethrone" so.... play this in a control shell, your opponent is gonna be at higher life then you play this guy, it is there very best creature but +1/+1 meaning it can attack favorably every time.
Also remember this can be your best creature too, this can be copy 5-8 of what ever creature you need.
Overall, A+
I cannot wait to pick up four of these bad boys in foil as soon as they hit store shelves.
I'm going to interpret the "Everyone's a critic" part to be in-universe with regards to duplicating. In which case: Holy crap, so frickin' what if my creature didn't have haste, jeebus dude not ever creature has to have haste get off my case about it and stop being all passive aggressive with the copying stuff.
May 24, 2014 12:02 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #5
"it means you can flash in Vendilion Clique at the end of their turn, hit your fourth land, then bash your opponent."
Umm... you can do that with any haste 4-drop, and in fact if you tried to copy your own clique you'd have to sacrifice one.
May 24, 2014 1:17 p.m.
"possibly the best ever printed."
I'm gonna go ahead and say "No" to that.
Phyrexian Metamorph would like a word with you.
May 24, 2014 1:49 p.m.
SwiftDeath says... #7
I don't know if it is the best clone, I agree with zandl the metamorph isn't going to give up it's spot easily. A few ways to think about it is it has haste so whatever your cloning can attack immediately so it is better in situations to have haste. One of the situations that Dack's Duplicate can be better is after your opponent resolves Show and Tell getting Emrakul, the Aeons Torn into play and you get to copy it with haste next turn so you can attack with a hasty annihilator 6. That can be one of the hardest situations to set up but it is a possibility. Overall because of the difference in the two there is no way to say which is better or worse, only which one is better given the situation.
May 24, 2014 2:51 p.m.
NotSoLuckyLydia says... #8
Phantasmal Image is also better than this. It's sweet, but there are better clones.
May 24, 2014 2:53 p.m.
True. It's a tough toss-up between Phyrexian Metamorph and Phantasmal Image . Phantasmal may be the better competitive clone, but Metamorph easily takes the cake in EDH.
Though, even Metamorph is a 3-mana clone that also hits artifacts and doesn't die to anything that can target it.
May 24, 2014 3:03 p.m.
I forgot about Metamorph, but it's still very fragile because it remains an artifact no matter what it becomes and artifact hate is popular in every format.
Image has that pesky illusion clause, so it dies extremely easily.
Maybe I should have said "one of the best," but it's still a very powerful clone effect.
May 24, 2014 10:07 p.m.
I have a loving relationship with clones. They always make me smile because they give me exactly what I want. Your cards! I'm excited for the new clone and will be sure to get it. Haste is a really good advantage but I don't agree that its the best clone ever. its good, and fun. Best? No.
It also depends on the format as well. For legacy I'm not too familiar with that or vintage to really say one way or another. But At the same time I don't see a situation where Phyrexian Metamorph isn't just straight up better in both formats. Perhaps there are situations, but it isn't apparent to me.
For Commander or Kitchen table, he can swing games pretty fast. People play a lot of big, nasty creatures in Commander and getting your own copy of that with haste is a big deal.
May 25, 2014 5:49 p.m.
Quite frankly.... with the name "Dack's Duplicate", it should be able to copy a PW as well.
meecht says... #2
There have been other hastey clones in the past, but they've mainly been red and require you to sac it at EOT. The blue here lets you keep it and makes it an awesome clone, possibly the best ever printed.
I do wish it kept its name, but it would be super broken at that point.
May 24, 2014 11:46 a.m.