You have to deal 20 damage in total with this to get the first Demonic Tutor trigger. So I think that's flavor text most of the time. Also it does not trigger on "6 or more power", which would make it better with equipment. It also says "exactly four +1/+1 counters".
A not as color-intensive Slith with Menace seems pretty good. It reminds me of Bloodsky Berserker in a way. It stops growing at 6/6 though.
A 2/2 grow creature with evasion ain't bad. This is no Luminarch Aspirant since that spreads the wealth around and can swing as a 3/3 on its first attack, but menace can make this tricker to deal with. Honestly the Demonic Tutor trigger is mainly flavor text unless you're able to give it +1/+1 counters in other ways. Ultimately I think this competes most with Blade of the Oni, which I like more since it has a higher base power, can be found with Stoneforge Mystic, and powers up Karnstruct tokens.
I agree the tutor effect is essentially flavor text (what game are you losing where you managed to deal 14 damage with an unanswered 2-drop?), but a 2/2 menace slith seems great in BX aggro.
If you’ve gotta cube where you’re going to curve scales into this into aspirant or whatever, that’s kind of spiffy. But if they just printed a 3/3 menace for 1B that might make it and this could be sorta close
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
I think it’s not good enough by todays standards for cubeable creatures.
2/2 menace trades down for all 1 mana removal, doesn’t block well, it’s damage production is moderately slow. Even if it connects a couple times it can still eat a wrath, get stone walled or late removal spell (yay you got a few points of damage in, but it’s not a reliable snowball effect).
It’s an aggressive threat with some evasion in a weak slot , so it won’t be bad… but I prefer the options that exist by a good margin… and I don’t even like most of those much.
I want my aggressive 2 drops to be strong on one of three axis, resiliency, disruption or raw burst damage output. This does none.
I just played a few games with this on the Arena Cube and I have to say this card is fairly good.
I think we've been focusing too much on the Demonic Tutor as aspect of the card. Yes the opponent would need to eat 14 damage before you get the tutor, which at that point you would have won the game, but the interesting part is once this grows into a 5/5 (the opponent has eaten 9 damage), it essentially "needs" to be removed, or else the opponent can very easily tutor a burn spell or removal and win the game, especially with the opponent as such a low life. It also cannot be easily chump blocked as it has menance.
Furthermore, menace is nothing to scoff at, I've found this essentially to be a consistent Stormblood Berserker that can grow into a 4/4 by midgame and will almost always trade on par for value as Menance makes blocking difficult. I've found this to be VERY important against slower decks, especially reanimator/ control decks that are relying on a few threats as you usually push past their blockers/ tokens.
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A not as color-intensive Slith with Menace seems pretty good. It reminds me of Bloodsky Berserker in a way. It stops growing at 6/6 though.
EDIT: 14 damage, it comes after another. My bad.
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T2: 0 damage total, as you just cast it
T3: 2 damage total, 1st counter
T4: 5 damage total, 2nd counter
T5: 9 damage total, 3rd counter
T6: 14 damage total, 4th counter and tutor
This is pretty cool, and it may be worth trying out for me, since I do have a Humans subtheme in WB, which might like an evasive 2-drop.
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2/2 menace trades down for all 1 mana removal, doesn’t block well, it’s damage production is moderately slow. Even if it connects a couple times it can still eat a wrath, get stone walled or late removal spell (yay you got a few points of damage in, but it’s not a reliable snowball effect).
It’s an aggressive threat with some evasion in a weak slot , so it won’t be bad… but I prefer the options that exist by a good margin… and I don’t even like most of those much.
I want my aggressive 2 drops to be strong on one of three axis, resiliency, disruption or raw burst damage output. This does none.
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I think we've been focusing too much on the Demonic Tutor as aspect of the card. Yes the opponent would need to eat 14 damage before you get the tutor, which at that point you would have won the game, but the interesting part is once this grows into a 5/5 (the opponent has eaten 9 damage), it essentially "needs" to be removed, or else the opponent can very easily tutor a burn spell or removal and win the game, especially with the opponent as such a low life. It also cannot be easily chump blocked as it has menance.
Furthermore, menace is nothing to scoff at, I've found this essentially to be a consistent Stormblood Berserker that can grow into a 4/4 by midgame and will almost always trade on par for value as Menance makes blocking difficult. I've found this to be VERY important against slower decks, especially reanimator/ control decks that are relying on a few threats as you usually push past their blockers/ tokens.