[single card discussion] Meloku, the Clouded Mirror

[mrieff]

Meloku, the Clouded Mirror

4U
 Legendary Creature — Moonfolk Wizard  
1, Return a land you control to its owner’s hand: Put a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token with flying into play.
2/4  Flying

This card from CoK seems quite interesting. It is not a very splashy card that makes you say "wow!" when you first see it, but it may have potential. It also found a home in Aluren in the extended PT this weekend, and it may be suitable for T1.

The deck that pops to mind first is 4CC. I am not an expert in this deck, so please think along. Let us compare it to Exalted Angel first:

Meloku's cons:

+  Its casting cost, it is:
    A) One (colored) mana less
    B) It required U instead of WW, which sometimes is hard to get. Playing it may make 4CC's mana base (one of the deck largest weaknesses) stronger as you can adjust your land selection because you loose the WW    commitment.

+  It is a blue card, important for Force of Will

+  It makes all you land Wastelandproof

+  Balance can be a massacre for your opponent if you return all your lands to your hand

+  You may be able to use a specific land twice. (Tap, return to hand, play Tap). This is nice with Library, and when you    need 2 mana of a specific color.

+  It is better with regard to the most widely-played removal spells
    A) Immune to Diabolic Edict
    B) Not immune to Swords to Plowshares, but you can make some tokens leaving you with something after the Plow

+  The amount of damage you can do is more flexible. You can just adjust the amount of tokens to what suits the    gamestate best. If you really need you can make many tokens and go in for the quick kill

+  Meluko can be used to dump Mana Drain mana, avoiding mana burn

+  You can make chump blockers


Disadvantages of Meluko compared to Exalted Angel:

-  Its a legend. This is of course a disadvangate, but how often do you have 2 angels in play at the same time? Extra copies are also not completely dead because of Brainstom and Force of Will

-  It doesn't gain life. This is of course a pity. Do note that Meloku can make chump blockers, which may save you life in some matchups where life is important.

-  Meloku is 2/4, Angel is 4/5. However the point of extra toughness is quite irrelevant. Angel has a +2 power, but Meloku can make attacking tokens to compensate.

-  Returning land to your hand is not always attractive, especially in a control deck

-  Exalted Angel has morph. Morph is nice, allowing a turn 1 or 2 morph creature

-  Exalted Angel can be unmorphed at end of turn, while Meluko must be cast in your turn.


This sums it up. Although Angel has +2 power, I don't think it will kill faster than Meluko in most cases. You only need to make 2/3 tokens to match an Angel, and given a time span of 4/5 turns (to go from 20 to 0), I think that in most cases Meluko will be on par, or even faster if you return more land.  

I won't give a judgement which card is better, as as I said I am not an expert 4CC player. But based on the above pro's/con's, I think Meluko should be given serious consideration. Especially the mana consequences are nice, which may be Meluko's strongest advantage over our beloved Exalted Angel

[jpmeyer]

While the casting cost is annoying, this actually does seem like it kills pretty quickly.  The average play would look like something like this probably:

1) Cast Meloku and make one guy (since you probably don't have mana for more than that)
2) Attack for 3 (17,) replay the land you bounced, make 4 guys
3) Attack for 7 (10,) replay the land, make a guy
4) Attack for 8 (2) which may be lethal

[goober]

This is really bad, 4 turn clock that leaves you very vulnerable.  Compared to a 5 turn that leaves you with a high life total, untapped lands to protect yourself, and which is able to come down really fast with the morph.

[jpmeyer]

This is really bad, 4 turn clock that leaves you very vulnerable.  Compared to a 5 turn that leaves you with a high life total, untapped lands to protect yourself, and which is able to come down really fast with the morph.

I don't think it's that simple.  Compare it to Exalted Angel in these situations:

1) Opponent attacks with Sundering Tian (Him 20, you 13)
2) Attack with Exalted Angel (16, 17)
3) Titan (16, 10)
4) Angel (12, 14)
5) Titan (12, 7)
6) Angel (8, 11)
7) Titan (8, 4)
8) Angel probably needs to hold back to block, because you would only go up to 8 here, and if you took any damage during the game from City, fetchs, or Force you would die here

With Meloku, you can just attack for 4 while blocking with a fresh token each turn.

Morphling eats Exalted Angel alive.  Meloku just sits there making 1/1s until you can swarm through.

[ruken]

Being the proponent of 'new' ideas once in awhile that don't pan out, I understand how this is going to feel.

This card is absurdly bad.

ABSURDLY bad.

There is nothing to inherently recommend this card over Exalted Angel, or Morphling for that matter.  Exalted Angel got the nod over Morphling for a reason; it's slightly greater vunerability to targeted effects were outweighed by its inherent increase in p/t, the life gain effect proving to be a death knell for aggro that couldn't kill it, and, hell, it's easier to cast.  You can play it straight off Drain mana and flip it later.

4cc desperately needs every point of mana available to it at all times, and cannot afford to return precious lands to its hand in order to play useless 1/1s.  It needs the mana to fight off other threats, like the Sundering Titan that should not have hit the board in the first place.  If Titan hits the board before Meloku does, 4cc has no chance of casting Meloku.  If Titan hits the turn afterward while 4cc is largely tapped out, 4cc's manabase is wrecked anyway.  And furthermore, even if Titan comes down a few turns after Meloku does and the 4cc player can bounce a few of those lands, the 4cc player is STILL crippled, by not being able to legitimately respond to threats in the future.

And even though Titan doesn't trample, Triskelion and Darksteel Colossus each have their own ways to either ignore the tokens or make sure they don't block.  

When Meloku makes a chump blocker, you're giving your opponent a free Time Walk.  You lose, unless you've already won and the situation is so hopeless for your opponent that Angel would have wrapped it up faster.

Might as well play Wood Elemental.

[Machinus]

The lifegain from angel is really amazing combined with morph. The only drawback to angel is the double white, which is really the least offensive "drawback" ever. The interaction with lands is useful if you are trying to get double white, but if you aren't using angel you don't need that, scrying becomes too dangerous, and you have a completely different deck.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

You guys are comparing this to the wrong card. Compare it to 4CC own 1/1 creation spell, Decree of Justice. I don't think it's better than that. I love close to uncounterable cycling triggered beatz so much . Not to mention being able to trade useless win conditions for a card in the early game (sometimes getting a chumper or two), and keeping open mana for Drain.

As for Exalted, it might be better than that against Control, but it doesn't offset Scrying life-loss against Aggro and is not winning random games because for some reason you can get it into play turn 3.
Actually, is there even a good reason why this is better than Morphling? If you have the lands to use it  for relevant amounts, Superman should work like a swiss knife, too. I'm not even sure Meloku is better than Goblin Trenches.

[serialjester]

I could see it more in a U/G comboish deck with Fastbond, Vernal Bloom/Heartbeat of Spring, Glacial Chasm and Skullclamp. The trick is being able to generate 2 mana off the land you are returning, so you cover the activation cost of both Meloku and Clamp. Draw cards until you hit Time Walk with an absurd amount of counter backup, make enough tokens for one lethal swing, and win.

[Covetous]

I was thinking that this would have the most potential in a TurboLand-style deck with exploration/fastbond and maybe horn of greed, allowing you to draw cards, make creatures and the deck still wouldn't be very good.  This guy forces you to wreck the manabase you have fought to develop only to make a few 1/1 dudes.  At least those dudes have flying.  On the plus side, he can save your lands from opposing strip effects, not that there aren't much better ways to do that already (mmm crucible).  Basically, this guy's effect is VERY similar to DoJ (i.e. trading mana for 1/1's in an amount proportional to your land count), but he is easier to remove/counter, doesn't get you a card, hoses your manabase, you can't use drain mana or moxen to make his dudes, and none of them will be 4/4's.  He might be neat in decks that get lots of land out but can't run DoJ, like Mono-U.  Of course, neat isn't necessarily good enough for type 1.

@JP--your titan/angel analysis is only relevant if they attack with their titan before you attack with your angel (and you don't have STP/DoJ to deal with Mr. T).  If you attack first, you win the race.  Of course, if they are swinging with Titan before your angel can attack, you are already in a world of shit in the first place.

[Apocd21]

i don't think it is bad at all.  in the 4cc mirror or against mono blue meluko beats the other creatures.  It is still a 4 touchness creature so it takes atleast 2 burn spells to kill against any random red.  meluko vs angel you can make  a 1/1 to block angel while doing your own swinging. meluko against morphling just looks terrible because the 1/1s will over power morphling edventually and there is no life gain off the angel.  Being able to protect your lands from waste strip or titan i think is very important.  
Draining 1 spell makes casting meluko very easy and i dont think that should be over looked.  
I think i will try it in mono blue.

[kronofear]

4cc I don't think is the way to go. Well not Exactly....

Now this is just a fast decklist
4 Melouk-Cloud-girl
1 Fastbond
4 Cruciable of Worlds
4 Zuran Orb

Hmm...maybe it ends up being a funky version of 4 CC..

Anyway the combo is if not apparent pay 2 return lands to your hand. create a 1/1 illusion token.  Fastbond allows you to make semi-infinate tokens (limited by your life). Zuran Orb keeps your Life high. Cruciable allows you to play your lands you've sac'd to the orb.

Zuran Orb + Fastbond + CoW = Infinate Life

Fastbond + Melouko = Tokens = to your LIfe.

A bit clumsy but i think in here is where she will find a spot.

[Arkeld]

You worry me Kronofear, Meloku is male.

I haven't actually tried him in Vintage but I'm heavily testing a Standard U/W deck and he's GOD in there.

Thing is, as I said in my initial assessment of ChK over at the Wizards boards, Melokus is a good card, no doubt, but there's no deck out there atm that can really use him. Think Anurid Brushhopper, think Razormane Masticore etc. All decent cards that never found a home.

[Pex]

4cc I don't think is the way to go. Well not Exactly....

Now this is just a fast decklist
4 Melouk-Cloud-girl
1 Fastbond
4 Cruciable of Worlds
4 Zuran Orb

Hmm...maybe it ends up being a funky version of 4 CC..

Anyway the combo is if not apparent pay 2 return lands to your hand. create a 1/1 illusion token.  Fastbond allows you to make semi-infinate tokens (limited by your life). Zuran Orb keeps your Life high. Cruciable allows you to play your lands you've sac'd to the orb.

Zuran Orb + Fastbond + CoW = Infinate Life

Fastbond + Melouko = Tokens = to your LIfe.

A bit clumsy but i think in here is where she will find a spot.

Or.. just play Orb+Fastbond+CoW without Meloku... then you'll have lots of life.. lots of mana.. and Stroke him to dead or something..  :wink:

[firebird365]

I think that the problem with Meloku is that it detracts from 4CC's effectiveness, and turns it back into Keeper. I'm not a 4CC player but IIRC one of 4CC's strengths (and one of Zherbus' reasons for switching away from Keeper) is its ability to not play control, and play proactively instead of reactively with the turbo-Angel plan.

[Karn, Mox Golem]

After trying out meloku and angel I have to say that the angel is better.  There are only a few situations where im going to want to return my lands to my hand in exchange for a 1/1, whereas there are plenty of times where im willing to get that angel out fast, tapped out for the same ammount of time to cast but not after.  Overall I have to say that keeping mana open to Scry/Drain/Force than I like having those extra tokens.  And I also found that I dont like scrying w/o angel, but I cant really think of a solid draw mechanism for the deck other than scrying(not ak/intuition please..).  Any comments on my post would be appreciated.

[Outlaw]

The only place this card seems relevant would be in turbo-land.dec.  Thats true because Turbo-land has an assortment of cute little combos it can do, and this would just add to that.  Zorb + Crucible + Fastbond (given) Crucible + Strip lock, Glacial Chasm stuff, now you can throw in make infinite life, mana and tokens!  Even without all the combo pieces, using exploration and Meloku can net you 2 1/1 tokens a turn,.

In regards to Meloku in 4cc, its absurb.  4cc runs angel to have synergy with scrying, and to demolish aggro.  4cc relies heavily on land drops, and returning lands isnt on their "to do" list, while Turbo-land has premise with exploration and fastbond.  On a lighter note, exalted isn't legendary, most of the time you dont win with two angels on the board but theres always random.occurance.

One card that could work in a turbo-landish deck is Azusa, Lost But Seeking, play two additional lands per turn.  Just a thought.

[andrewpate]

I have done a bit of testing with the Type 2 Turboland deck that uses Soratami Cloudskater in place of Horn of Greed, and while the deck sucks, Meloku is just about the best part.  I think that I will start testing him in the Vintage Turboland deck I've been tinkering around with.  He seems to be an interesting alternate kill to Intuition for Chasm/Ring/Waste.  On theoretical grounds, he seems very strong in the deck.  With Chasm and Fastbond, he can make as many tokens as you want, and this could happen fairly early if you can get Fastbond down quickly.  Worth a try.

I do agree, however, that he is much worse than Exalted in 4cc.

[freakish777]

+  Balance can be a massacre for your opponent if you return all your lands to your hand

I'm surprised someone hasn't pointed the above statement out already.

You are now playing:

Armageddon version Two     X1W

Create X 1/1 tokens.
Return X lands to hand.
Sacrifice a bunch of those tokens you just made.
Destroy a bunch of land.
Discard some cards, probably the land you just returned to your hand.


Uhm... does anyone else see a problem with this besides the abundant amount of math you'd have to do??

[goober]

Calculating how synergistic it is with Balance is stupid, it is like saying Urza's Bauble is good because you can sac it to tinker.  This card isn't playable, Morphling is better for MonoU and Angels are better for 4cc.  Trying to make some combo with this will ultimitly be a janky mess, strictly worse than a lot of those 2 card combos out there.

[MSR9889]

i found this very interesting indeed. it may be best to do 1-1. tutor for w/e floats ur boat. both have their own gains, but an angel cant die to a FTK. angel gives life, like GOD. as much as i like meloku, it is a t2/ extended card. angels protect more with lief gain. and as for the titan comparison, most 4cc decks ive seen lately do  decree. massive tokens, draw a card. extra 4/4 flying beats. meloku has no place in this deck, but definetly is gonna be GOD in t2 and extended.