The Clockman Card Vault

Welcome to the first of what will hopefully be many preview articles to be found here at Clockman Card Vault! Today's preview card comes from the upcoming Seed 3 fixed set. From what we have been told, Seed 3 will feature 30 fixed cards with power level equal to that of rares from previous sets. This card certainly does not disappoint in that regard.

Let's start with the basics: cost and threshold. This card has a rather cheap cost of two, which means it will usually be playable whenever you happen to draw it and you won't have to worry about allotting a lot of resources to throw this card in to play. This card can be played from turn one onward, so it's unlikely you'll find this card to be dead in your hand.

The one threshold means this card is likely to be a mainstay for heavy Rogue decks and easily splash-able for anyone else. Many decks will have no problem starting one Deception resource just to run a few copies of this card. Some decks, such as Banker or Gearsmith builds, won't even have to start the Deception icon in play if they have ways to search out the lone Deception resource required for this card.

So what do you get for putting this card into play? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this card is all about acceleration, whether it be hand or resource acceleration. It is rather quick acceleration too as the trigger on this card fires at the start of both players' turns, rather than just on it's controller's turn.

This comes with a price, however, as your opponent will benefit from this card as well. Unlike Free Trade Agreement or Obscene Communion, in which one player chooses one effect that both execute, Community Chest allows each player to pick his poison. While you may be accelerating your resources, your opponent may be choosing to fill his hand. The upside is that you get to do whatever you want/need, but the downside is that your opponent does as well.

Thankfully, though, this is a Unique item, so you will only have to worry about two of these at a time, and that's only if your opponent is playing one as well. This card won't create the obscene acceleration that Free Trade Agreement does, but it will certainly help particular decks get to their resource and threshold plateaus faster.

The real magic of this card, however, comes with the second effect. If you have one Deception threshold at the start of the game and choose to put this card on the bottom of your deck via your mulligan, you essentially increase your handsize by one!

This is an unbelievable option to have at the start of the game. Not only do you have a card that you can mulligan without worry (assuming you don't depend on the first effect) but you gain something amazing from it if you do. If you happen to draw two of these in your opening draw and choose to mulligan both, your hand on the first turn will be either ten or eleven cards!

I don't know about you but I already enjoy the card advantage that comes from going second in The Spoils, so imagine that card advantage having the potential to increase by one to four cards! I know drawing four of these in your opening hand is very unlikely, but even drawing just one can be a huge shift in your favor.

The effect this card will have on Banker, Rogue, and Warlord combo decks will also be astounding. With the exception of a handful of cards, these three trades do not have many tools to search their own decks for cards. This generally means that if you mulligan one or more Community Chests it is likely they will stay on the bottom of your deck, meaning you never have to worry about the ones you mulligan-ed clogging your hand later.

If you happen to build a deck with no search, Community Chest effectively allows you to play a deck that is 69 cards rather than 73 (after your two starting resources). If you have no desire to use this card beyond its mulligan ability, you will never care how many of them you draw in your opening hand as you can bottom deck them and know that you'll never see them again, assuming your opponent doesn't shuffle your deck with an effect of his own.

With this in mind you can also put Community Chest in what would normally be spaced reserved for resources, allowing you to pack more options in your deck while minimizing the negative effect of drawing these cards beyond the first turn. If your Community Chests take up resource slots you will have no problem placing them face-down as a resource when you draw them, rather than having to make the hard decision of whether or not to play them.

Lastly, you don't even have to play a Rogue deck to benefit from this card! Sure, it requires one threshold to play and activate the second effect, but is one threshold really such a big deal? I would not be surprised if many combo decks of the future start one Deception threshold just to play this card and no other Rogue cards.

What do you think of community chest? Be sure to discuss the card and this article over on The Spoils forums here!