It’s really not. As a 1/1 with no other abilities it does nothing to improve your board state. It’s only value is being repeatable removal, and it can be pinged off the board for nothing. You also have to wait a turn to fire it, which gives your opponent(s) a whole turn to deal with it.
It’s a good card, arguably a seriously underappreciated one, but it’s telling that it’s a rare that goes for $2 and has an inclusion rate of just 0.32% on EDHREC.
It does combo hilariously with Thornbite Staff though.
I don’t play magic, how does that work? Moving the creature to the graveyard, and the staff effect, are both instant? So if you get the combo up, you basically clear the board of any power 4+ creatures?
Yes and no. It’s a two card combo, and the mana costs are all sequential, so in theory you can do it perfectly on curve. On the other hand, its not really worth doing in singleton formats given that it relies on two very specific cards for a payoff that’s… fine. Like, pretty good, but not worth two cards for something that needs a perfect draw to work.
Yeah, I mean, obviously a board wipe that evades your own stuff is better, but if all you’ve done for the first four turns is set up this combo, you don’t even have a board state to protect. And a wrath can’t be shocked off the board before it can fire.
This is exactly why it’s just not actually all that busted. There are simply better ways to get the effect it gives you.
Well, it is from Urza’s Saga originally, so that follows. It’s a 1/1 for three mana, that’s its drawback. Compare to one of the original game’s cards, Royal Assassin.
Royal Assassin was like my favorite card back in the day, playing in school when 4th edition was new. I had a couple of them and animate dead. Good times.
I remember the first time someone ever played royal assassin against me I thought it was so cheap and then the dude busted out visara the dreadful and I nearly crapped myself lol.
card does not untap during your untap phase.
Was going to say this seems op af
It’s really not. As a 1/1 with no other abilities it does nothing to improve your board state. It’s only value is being repeatable removal, and it can be pinged off the board for nothing. You also have to wait a turn to fire it, which gives your opponent(s) a whole turn to deal with it.
It’s a good card, arguably a seriously underappreciated one, but it’s telling that it’s a rare that goes for $2 and has an inclusion rate of just 0.32% on EDHREC.
It does combo hilariously with Thornbite Staff though.
I don’t play magic, how does that work? Moving the creature to the graveyard, and the staff effect, are both instant? So if you get the combo up, you basically clear the board of any power 4+ creatures?
Yeah, every time you tap hero to kill something the effect of the staff triggers, untapping the hero. Repeat ad infinitum.
That sounds hard to set up, but hilarious.
Yes and no. It’s a two card combo, and the mana costs are all sequential, so in theory you can do it perfectly on curve. On the other hand, its not really worth doing in singleton formats given that it relies on two very specific cards for a payoff that’s… fine. Like, pretty good, but not worth two cards for something that needs a perfect draw to work.
Just play a Wrath?
Yeah, I mean, obviously a board wipe that evades your own stuff is better, but if all you’ve done for the first four turns is set up this combo, you don’t even have a board state to protect. And a wrath can’t be shocked off the board before it can fire.
This is exactly why it’s just not actually all that busted. There are simply better ways to get the effect it gives you.
Well, it is from Urza’s Saga originally, so that follows. It’s a 1/1 for three mana, that’s its drawback. Compare to one of the original game’s cards, Royal Assassin.
Royal Assassin was like my favorite card back in the day, playing in school when 4th edition was new. I had a couple of them and animate dead. Good times.
I remember the first time someone ever played royal assassin against me I thought it was so cheap and then the dude busted out visara the dreadful and I nearly crapped myself lol.
No, it’s pretty bad. It’s slow and being a 1/1 creature in Magic is the equivalent of being a redshirt in Star Trek.
This card should be meta you mean