Wall of Heat, or None Like it Hot!

"At a distance, we mistook the sound for a waterfall..."

For those of you not currently in the United States, we've been gripped by a massive heat wave, and to put it bluntly, it sucks. Which came as the inspiration for todays article. While I was going to do something written about Baron Sengir, or about War Mammoth, I ultimately decided that Wall of Heat was the most appropriate decision for this.

Which brings up an interesting question? How do I judge walls? They actually have some unique qualities about them in OS (such as being able to block Basilisk without fear of death), tribal support, and under costed value, with the various infamous drawback of not being able to attack. I was surprised when I realized, despite my general love of them, I never actually reviewed a wall.

 



Card: Wall of Heat is a 2/6, for 3. If not for its wall status, it'd be a powerful, but uninteresting vanilla. However, since it's a wall, it losses one point for that drawback. It has 6 toughness for three, which isn't that unique in the color, since Ywden Efreet has the same thing, with an additional point of power, Wall of Stone is tougher, and Wall of Dust, while weaker, comes with a more useful ability. Sure, 6 toughness is pretty good, after all, who wants to fight the heat, but there are just better options. 2/5

Art: I always loved Richard Thomas wall art. This one is no exception. His images of a wizard (or maybe a planeswalker) standing behind a wall of their creation, are often rather ingenious and fascinating. This one's contains a woman, holding a sun like orb, and radiation heat around her. The constant changes in color, though is the best part of the art is the constant changes in color, particularly where the color's fail to appear, hinting at the appearance of the woman.

Art 3/5


Flavor: There are so much strange about the flavor of this. It's power and toughness makes sense, but why doesn't it fly, is it that localized of a spell? Why can some drunk dwarves blow up an abstract. Finally, I never, once, understood the flavor text of the card. I'm giving the flavor on this one 2/5.


There we have it, 7/15, rounded down, makes it a 2/5. Another one from Legends I suppose. I guess, just like the Heat itself, none like Wall of Heat.