Great Minos of Sciondar
The Great Minos of Sciondar is quite an unusual card – in some cases it can win you the game, in others it’s nothing more than a minor distraction for your opponent.

At first glance, Minos might seem like a bit of a let down – 3 Summoning Cost and only 1HP (and a Rare to boot!), however, as I’m sure we all know by now, appearances can be deceiving. Minos is 1 of only 3 cards in the game which has Perfect Dodge active all of the time – no need for specific Field types. It also uses the ‘Lancer’ attack pattern, which means that, when placed with care, you can hit 2 enemies in a single attack – and since it has Perfect Dodge, you don’t have to worry about Counter-Attacks either. This means it is very useful as both an offensive and a defensive card. Throw in its Activation Cost ability, and it can perform its attack for only 1 Mana, a very nice bonus.

However, Minos has a single, major weakness. If it is on any Field other than Fire, it is destroyed instantly. This means that if your opponent Fieldquakes it, it’s dead. If they switch positions with it, it’s dead. If you accidentally play it on the wrong field, it’s dead!
This means that if you don’t draw this card until later in the game, you run the risk of there being no free Fire fields to play it on, making it completely useless, not to mention the fact that your opponent could simply play Fissures of Goghile and wipe it out.
Because it can only exist on a Fire field however, it means it will always have 3HP, protecting it against the most common Magic-Attack creatures.

Assuming you have the right cards at your disposal, countering a Minos is a simple task. Any card which causes a Fieldquake will do the job (Fissures of Goghile, Behemoth Groundbreaker) will finish it off right away. Failing that, throwing any Magic Attacks you have at it will do the job relatively quickly – if you have a Clare Wil’s Banner handy, that will often be enough to do it in a single attack. If neither of those options are available to you, then (aside from considering re-examining your deck) your only other option is to neutralise it by making it face a harmless direction. Use a Beguiling Fog to turn it against a far wall, or facing your enemies own cards (but remember if you do this, its Turn Cost is only 2, so if they have some spare Mana they could easily turn it back the next turn). Keep in mind that cards like Bewitching Elf Archeress won’t help you here – those cards need to deal damage to turn their targets and the Minos’ Perfect Dodge will prevent that.

If you want to ensure the survival of your Minos, try placing a Lesser Granvenoa next to it – this will prevent Fieldquakes, thus eliminating its major weakness. Didi the Enlightened is also great for this job, as he can prevent Fieldquakes to Fire fields from anywhere on the board. A Healing Shower will help it survive those pesky Magic Attacks, but keep in mind that it probably isn’t worth wasting the Mana doing it specifically for the Minos unless you’ve set up the aforementioned Fieldquake protection.
Cards like this also benefit greatly from Clare Wil’s Banner – attacking 2 of your enemies cards for 4 Damage will certainly put a frown on his face, just make sure that your own cards don’t accidentally get caught in the crossfire.

With the right combination of cards in play, Minos can be a very potent tool, but they aren’t required to make good use of it. If worst comes to worst, you’ve at least forced your opponent to spend extra Mana dealing with it, but if they can’t, you have something which is going to cause them a lot of headaches.

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Posted by Icepick on Wed, 28th Nov 2007, at 17:46
Sorry for the lack of a card scan on this one - I can't connect to my FTP to upload it. I'll put it on as soon as I can. Thanks!
Posted by Jesster on Wed, 28th Nov 2007, at 18:24
Nice review as usual, although I find it kind of silly to play up the fact that the Minos's perfect dodge ability is not dependent on field types ("Minos is 1 of only 3 cards in the game which has Perfect Dodge active all of the time – no need for specific Field types.") when the entire card is dependant on a single field type. The fact that its perfect dodge would work on a wood field doesn't do much good if the Minos dies immediately when placed on a wood field.
Posted by slarth on Wed, 28th Nov 2007, at 19:17
this card only lasts a couple although i prefer juno tree haunt to this 1
Posted by Fartwinky on Thu, 29th Nov 2007, at 00:30
juno and minos for life son! every good deck ive made has these two. I do things that can only be stoppped with land flip. How many you got!!? Cards like him and the wood and fire fields being next to each other yields a possible wall of dmg that is too good to pass up
Posted by Scanlon on Thu, 29th Nov 2007, at 02:19
I have two Minos and two Juno Tree Haunts in my current deck. Often in the mid and end-game I've found that they'll clog up my hand as uncastable trash. Unless my deck used enough drawing and discarding mechanics to offset getting a glut of them, I couldn't see playing with 3 of each.
Posted by Junotree on Thu, 29th Nov 2007, at 09:29
This card was somewhat of a mystery to until because i didn't have it. Hardly seems frightening now that I know how to handle it. Fieldquake FTW!
Posted by ArcaneJMS on Thu, 29th Nov 2007, at 11:06
Minos is a strong card but it's also somewhat of a liability. If you try playing your own creatures in its line of fire, your opponent can trigger its counterattack and fry your own guys and there's nothing you can do about it. Overrated in my opinion, but people love perfect dodge, so fortunately i know how to deal with it :)
Posted by Crovax on Thu, 29th Nov 2007, at 15:42
This card is all right i much prefer the Juno tree haunt as it can choose which space to attack. so if i need to i can place a creature in front of it and not have to worry about it getting hit by the Juno.
Posted by Furo25 on Thu, 29th Nov 2007, at 16:01
I also prefer Juno Tree Haunt, cause the cost to turn it 90° is only 1 opposed to the 2 mana of Minos, so on both wood fields you have the possibility to attack 1 of 4 different spaces with 2 damage for a maximum cost of 2 mana, and u don't hurt ur own guys.
Posted by Fartwinky on Thu, 29th Nov 2007, at 23:02
obviously juno IS better for 90% of the time but with one of each you dont have to worry about the clutter and i run a lot of protection so the minos does no dmg to me anyways so having him and black hood whatever betrayer yellow guy or any other person you can slap protect on can double team an enemy inbetween them for one mana. 4 dmg 1 mana... HMMMM
Posted by Pessimism on Sun, 2nd Dec 2007, at 22:15
Fartwinky: True, wall damage is good, but you (generally, at least on official layout) play them up top. You play them on the bottom tiles, and Juno's flip is an earth field- not so great. Minos is ALWAYS going to be a liability because of the instant death factor, but in a bind and played right, can work wonders on your game! :oD
Posted by exodusonline on Mon, 3rd Dec 2007, at 14:29
Pessimism: Juno Tree Haunt is destoyed if on a Non-Wood field in exactly the same way that Minos is when on a Non-Fire field, which means regardless of the flipside being Earth, the Tree would be kicked in his strange nuts and die anyway. The corner wood tile is just a better location if you can get it. BTW the other card which has Perfect Dodge permanently is Queens Servant which can be cast on ANY field and retain its Perfrect Dodge, however costs more to summon and costs more to attack for less damage (that being said its Magic Damage that it delivers). It will be reviewed shortly I bet.
Posted by Pessimism on Mon, 3rd Dec 2007, at 16:20
Exodusonline: I haven't actually looked at a Juno yet- cheers! Still trying to work out the cards I have, to be honest. If that is the case, then despite higher cost, perhaps Queen's servant is the way to go? I am still extreemly new to EoJ, so you will have to forgive me- at least till I get a proper idea of what does what and how it does it! Again, thanks!
Posted by biolithlord8 on Thu, 17th Jan 2008, at 02:28
I love this card and its effects. I have two decks, one of them is just a load of bioliths and some random low cost creatures, and the other a pure earth and spell deck. But sometimes in my earth deck, i need a few other cretures to complete it, i normally choose this card as one of them.
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