As I said in another topic, I'm not really impressed with Gerrard's new card. It's better than Gerrard Capashen, to be sure, but I kinda hoped he'd do something more aggro-oriented, like give all your attacking creatures double strike, or even give you an extra combat phase. Shoot, give him Battle Cry as a nod to Gerrard's Battle Cry! I just don't get why he was chosen for a one-shot limited reanimation trigger. Gerrard didn't bring anyone back from the dead by sacrificing himself to destroy Yawgmoth, heck Yawgmoth was the one reanimating dead people just beforehand. I'm sorry, but this Gerrard is still disappointing. Design really should have known better. Here's hoping next year gets a RW deck with a much better Gerrard as the face card.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
As I said in another topic, I'm not really impressed with Gerrard's new card. It's better than Gerrard Capashen, to be sure, but I kinda hoped he'd do something more aggro-oriented, like give all your attacking creatures double strike, or even give you an extra combat phase. Shoot, give him Battle Cry as a nod to Gerrard's Battle Cry! I just don't get why he was chosen for a one-shot limited reanimation trigger. Gerrard didn't bring anyone back from the dead by sacrificing himself to destroy Yawgmoth, heck Yawgmoth was the one reanimating dead people just beforehand. I'm sorry, but this Gerrard is still disappointing. Design really should have known better. Here's hoping next year gets a RW deck with a much better Gerrard as the face card.
Actually Gerrard could be ace in Mardu Aristocrats if you sac all your Kokusho and cards like that stuff to Ashnod's Altar, then sac Gerrard to do it all again.
I still prefer the original Gerrard, even if I never actually played it.
As I said in another topic, I'm not really impressed with Gerrard's new card. It's better than Gerrard Capashen, to be sure, but I kinda hoped he'd do something more aggro-oriented, like give all your attacking creatures double strike, or even give you an extra combat phase. Shoot, give him Battle Cry as a nod to Gerrard's Battle Cry! I just don't get why he was chosen for a one-shot limited reanimation trigger. Gerrard didn't bring anyone back from the dead by sacrificing himself to destroy Yawgmoth, heck Yawgmoth was the one reanimating dead people just beforehand. I'm sorry, but this Gerrard is still disappointing. Design really should have known better. Here's hoping next year gets a RW deck with a much better Gerrard as the face card.
The flavor is him sacrificing himself to save the creatures and artifacts from the edge of death. The artifact is the weatherlight and legacy weapon.
I like how Gerrard and Feather play into the Boros space (aggro and pump spells) but done in way that opens up a bunch of options for the colors. Wrath deck does sound like a fun deck, though for red/white ill stick to my feather deck.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
As I said in another topic, I'm not really impressed with Gerrard's new card. It's better than Gerrard Capashen, to be sure, but I kinda hoped he'd do something more aggro-oriented, like give all your attacking creatures double strike, or even give you an extra combat phase. Shoot, give him Battle Cry as a nod to Gerrard's Battle Cry!
Nooo way. Boros already has way too many "Attack with creatures, they gain keywords" commanders, I'm happy to see them doing something a little different with it.
I saw some things where folks thought Gerard might be here. I was not expecting a Boros Eggs commander as some other folks have noted but I'm cool with it. I've been considering taking on a 32 deck building challenge (I'd just create the lists, probably wouldn't actually build them) and was joking about putting a boros aristocrats list on there just to see if it could be done. Gerard here could make it more than reasonable.
Nooo way. Boros already has way too many "Attack with creatures, they gain keywords" commanders, I'm happy to see them doing something a little different with it.
And why should "something different" come at Gerrard's expense? Fighting is one of the things he's best known for! They could have used this effect on a legendary RW Angel and it would have worked better.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I don't know. I mean he seems powerful with cards that destroy multiple card types (at least creatures and something else) but how much Mana do you need for this? He cost 4 and the spell would cost about 6. So more often you have todo it in two turn or with a third card as support like vedalken orrey. If you blow out the lands and don't win in a couple of turns after than you have the same situation as with bad Armageddons.
I would rather have him in the 99 and flash him out when somebody tries to wipe my board than play him in some combo that doesn't win you the game on the spot, costs about 10 mana and is that obviously.
Flash would have been nice for his effect. At least you could use him as a Faith's Reward variant. A shame seeing how powerful urza is in comparison to him.
But hey if I ever want to cosplay a character than I should cosplay him. Facial hair and hair is done :D.
Nooo way. Boros already has way too many "Attack with creatures, they gain keywords" commanders, I'm happy to see them doing something a little different with it.
Point I'm trying to make is that Boros already has plenty of options if you're just looking at turning guys sideways, and I know I'm not the only one out there who wants the options to be explored a little (I believe Maro has stated how they've gotten a lot of complaints on the subject and have actively been trying to find new space for Boros commanders, Firesong and Sunspeaker and Feather, the Redeemed being good examples).
And why should "something different" come at Gerrard's expense? Fighting is one of the things he's best known for! They could have used this effect on a legendary RW Angel and it would have worked better.
I admit I'm not familiar enough with Gerrard's story to know how fitting (or unfitting) this ability is for him. That said, I can absolutely understand not wanting an anticipated character to be wasted on an unfitting hole-filler card (Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist immediately springs to mind), so if that's where you're coming from, fair enough.
Okay... I've had a day to think and I think that I have a better bead on this guy.
At first, I was comparing this guy to a cheaper, multicolored Lena, Selfless Champion that is worse for go-wide token strategies and that crumples against spot removal (whether killing Gerrard before killing your dudes or killing your dudes without killing Gerrard). A better general in general for letting in another color, perhaps, but not exactly a high bar to reach.
Then, I realized that Catastrophe, Devastation, Obliterate, and Jokulhaups would be hilarious with this thing, acting as a legitimate strategy that uses oft-maligned MLD in Boros to actually win games instead of just stalling them out forever.
Then I realized that Gerrard was acting as a poor man's Zurgo Helmsmasher, who adds in another color (and a 3 turn clock per player) for only 1 more mana and that doesn't require you to risk over-extending yourself by building up a boardstate with the hope of resolving a giant wrath with all of your creatures still on-board.
With that said, Gerrard does have unique synergies. As mentioned above, you can stack death triggers to save Gerrard with cards like Gift of Immortality. Gerrard also synergizes with self-sacrificing artifacts such as Oblivion Stone and Memory Jar ( Nevinyrral's Disk and its magus also work well). I imagine that this deck would benefit from sac outlets like a traditional aristocrats deck, allowing you to use cards like Spawning Pit or Altar of Dementia to sacrifice and reset your entire team in response to spot removal. While this deck will lack the blood artist effects of traditional aristocrats decks, this deck would have a greater reliance on ETB triggers. In addition to Purphoros/Tremors, we can reuse the ETB effects of our creatures and benefit from things like Ogre Battledriver and Cathars' Crusade in a big way.
The Scarecrow is good, he is planting on the Raven's Run, rude.
EDIT: Missed the exile part on the trigger lol, not quite infinite with saffi and guide. But is not impossible to go infinite with hin, just need more shenanigans and maybe latice and some lands...
New Gerrard is cool. I like that it's a potential combo commander for Boros, and that he cares about artifacts.
Seems really strong with Krark-Clan Ironworks and mana rocks. KCI, enough mana rocks that enter untapped, and an Ashnod's Altar or other sac outlet for Gerrard, and you can get tons of mana. Not quite infinite, but enough that you should be able to do whatever you want to win afterward. (Or anything that gives you a trigger when a creature or artifact enters or dies also kicks ass)
Gerrard is certainly better, but hes boring. Every build will be exactly the same. Nuke the board into value. Its predictable and lame.
Its also kind of a flavor fail. He didnt really revive anything. I suppose collecting the crew and pieces of his legacy kind of counts?
It is more of a "he saved the rest of the crew and dominaria by using the weatherlight and his legacy to blast off their last hope vs phyrexia and yawgmoth; Every thing went white for a while and then everything that remained was karn and the legacy as the white mana blast vanished every last bits of yawgmoth, urza and gerrad"
Mechanicaly he is reviving, flavorwise he is doing a kamikazi action and saving the people who would die otherwise.
Point I'm trying to make is that Boros already has plenty of options if you're just looking at turning guys sideways, and I know I'm not the only one out there who wants the options to be explored a little (I believe Maro has stated how they've gotten a lot of complaints on the subject and have actively been trying to find new space for Boros commanders, Firesong and Sunspeaker and Feather, the Redeemed being good examples).
Akiri, Anya, and Kalemne are more solitary combatants who don't really care about having an army. Akiri in particular welcomes voltron, and Anya is just as happy to knock opponents down with burn spells. Tajic, Blade of the Legion is also more about pumping himself up; he's like a star football player charging in for the touchdown while a couple cheerleaders back him up. Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice and Tajic, Legion's Edge each support one other creature at a time as part of the Mentor strategy. Gisela is all-around awesome, good for burn as well as aggro.
Basandra merely controls when spells can be cast; she actually makes a pretty good RW control commander as she can force the opponents' creatures to attack into traps like Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Lightmine Field while preventing their controllers from casting any combat tricks. Aurelia, the Warleader can function as a voltron commander as well since none of her abilities are dependent on attacking with large numbers of creatures, though obviously that's what most players will want to do since she's the leader of the Boros. Jor is wide aggro-focused, but with the caveat that you want a lot of artifacts, ergo artifact creatures and Equipment are the best ways to enable his Metalcraft ability.
Munda allegedly helps you draw Allies, though since he doesn't actually draw any the effect feels underwhelming. Tiana focuses on Auras and Equipment (not great flavor for her character either, since she's mostly focused on the Weatherlight, a Vehicle), which obviously leans towards voltron aggro. Depala only supports Dwarves and Vehicles. Agrus Kos is limited to red and white creatures. Razia is just sort of meh. Brion Stoutarm and Firesong and Sunspeaker are basically burn-focused commanders, and Brion still wants lots of creatures and to turn sideways. And shoot, Feather herself still encourages aggro by favoring combat tricks.
I admit I'm not familiar enough with Gerrard's story to know how fitting (or unfitting) this ability is for him. That said, I can absolutely understand not wanting an anticipated character to be wasted on an unfitting hole-filler card (Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist immediately springs to mind), so if that's where you're coming from, fair enough.
I mean, I get that the flavor is supposed to be Gerrard's final moment, but that's not what I wanted to see after all this time. I wanted the Gerrard who went toe-to-toe with the likes of Maraxus and Greven, who trained an entire incompetent army to actually be somewhat competent. I didn't want Gerrard as he's about to die, I wanted Gerrard as a badass in battle, with abilities to reflect that.
I get that fans want something for RW besides attacking with armies. And this year's Flashback Commander deck would be perfect for that. But Gerrard was not the character to use for that purpose. He lead the rescue mission on Rath, he taught the Mercadian armies how to actually be competent at their job, and he lead the Coalition armies on the field of battle during the Invasion. He absolutely should have been an army leader; that was his defining trait throughout the entire Weatherlight saga, that he was the hero who leads the charge and inspires others to fight. And this year's Populate deck would have been perfect for that.
I'm not calling this card awful in itself the way Emmara Tandris was awful, just that this is not a good card for Gerrard.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Scaretiller, now that's a pretty decent card. Goes great with cycling lands, fetchlands, lands with sac effects such as Command Beacon and Sanctum of Eternity, and land sac effects such as Aggressive Mining and Destructive Digger.
Flavor win? How? Who came back to life when Gerrard sacrificed himself to destroy Yawgmoth? What artifacts were rebuilt?
And Gerrard has red in him, too. He initially abandoned the crew after one of his close friends, Rofellos, died, and he gave in to his emotions more than once, like when he attacked Greven all out or when he submitted to Yawgmoth in return for reuniting with Hanna (which of course turned out to be a lie). Gerrard is one of the most RW characters ever in Magic's stories.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
It present the moment when urza and Gerrard sacrificed themselves to finally kill yawgmoth for good (turning on the legacy weapon)
I still prefer the original Gerrard, even if I never actually played it.
New scarecrow is dece enough with Lotus Field, The Gitrog Monster in those type of decks.
The flavor is him sacrificing himself to save the creatures and artifacts from the edge of death. The artifact is the weatherlight and legacy weapon.
I like how Gerrard and Feather play into the Boros space (aggro and pump spells) but done in way that opens up a bunch of options for the colors. Wrath deck does sound like a fun deck, though for red/white ill stick to my feather deck.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Just equip Scaretiller with Skeleton Key and play him in decks using the "assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power" support.
He's probably in the flashback deck, since that's the white deck that cares about the graveyard.
Yea I agree
And Sevinne's Reclamation is kind of the same thing showing that some important artifact and creatures in the deck
Even better:
Paradise Mantle+Freed from the Real
Play all the lands in your hand and graveyard.
I wouldn't mind draw 7 cards, twice, with Memory Jar. I wouldn't mind control my opponent for two turns via Mindslaver.
I see synergy with Greater Gargadon and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. I see synergy with Angelic Renewal and Gift of Immortality, in which you stack the dying trigger so you revive Gerrard right after, because his trigger doesn't require his exile, much like how peopel abuse Mangara of Corondor.
Gerrard is a very good Boros, but he will require players to think outside of the box.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Technically, only Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder actually grants keywords upon attacking. And for otherwise granting keywords, you have Adriana, Captain of the Guard who grants your creatures melee, Anax and Cymede grant trample for triggering their Heroic ability, Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice grants trample to red creatures and vigilance to white at the beginning of combat, and Iroas, God of Victory grants menace. 5 out of 22 legendary RW creatures.
And why should "something different" come at Gerrard's expense? Fighting is one of the things he's best known for! They could have used this effect on a legendary RW Angel and it would have worked better.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I would rather have him in the 99 and flash him out when somebody tries to wipe my board than play him in some combo that doesn't win you the game on the spot, costs about 10 mana and is that obviously.
Flash would have been nice for his effect. At least you could use him as a Faith's Reward variant. A shame seeing how powerful urza is in comparison to him.
But hey if I ever want to cosplay a character than I should cosplay him. Facial hair and hair is done :D.
Point I'm trying to make is that Boros already has plenty of options if you're just looking at turning guys sideways, and I know I'm not the only one out there who wants the options to be explored a little (I believe Maro has stated how they've gotten a lot of complaints on the subject and have actively been trying to find new space for Boros commanders, Firesong and Sunspeaker and Feather, the Redeemed being good examples).
I admit I'm not familiar enough with Gerrard's story to know how fitting (or unfitting) this ability is for him. That said, I can absolutely understand not wanting an anticipated character to be wasted on an unfitting hole-filler card (Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist immediately springs to mind), so if that's where you're coming from, fair enough.
At first, I was comparing this guy to a cheaper, multicolored Lena, Selfless Champion that is worse for go-wide token strategies and that crumples against spot removal (whether killing Gerrard before killing your dudes or killing your dudes without killing Gerrard). A better general in general for letting in another color, perhaps, but not exactly a high bar to reach.
Then, I realized that Catastrophe, Devastation, Obliterate, and Jokulhaups would be hilarious with this thing, acting as a legitimate strategy that uses oft-maligned MLD in Boros to actually win games instead of just stalling them out forever.
Then I realized that Gerrard was acting as a poor man's Zurgo Helmsmasher, who adds in another color (and a 3 turn clock per player) for only 1 more mana and that doesn't require you to risk over-extending yourself by building up a boardstate with the hope of resolving a giant wrath with all of your creatures still on-board.
With that said, Gerrard does have unique synergies. As mentioned above, you can stack death triggers to save Gerrard with cards like Gift of Immortality. Gerrard also synergizes with self-sacrificing artifacts such as Oblivion Stone and Memory Jar ( Nevinyrral's Disk and its magus also work well). I imagine that this deck would benefit from sac outlets like a traditional aristocrats deck, allowing you to use cards like Spawning Pit or Altar of Dementia to sacrifice and reset your entire team in response to spot removal. While this deck will lack the blood artist effects of traditional aristocrats decks, this deck would have a greater reliance on ETB triggers. In addition to Purphoros/Tremors, we can reuse the ETB effects of our creatures and benefit from things like Ogre Battledriver and Cathars' Crusade in a big way.
Possible Cards for starting a list:
1 Mother of Runes
2 Wall of Omens
2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Seasoned Pyromancer
3 Loyal Retainers
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Ogre Battledriver
4 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Magus of the Disk
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 Karmic Guide
5 Reveillark
5 Archangel Avacyn
5 Cavalier of Dawn
5 Cavalier of Flame
5 Hoarding Dragon
5 Keldon Firebombers
6 Sun Titan
6 Flayer of the Hatebound
6 Lena, Selfless Champion
7 Chancellor of the Forge
2 Impact Tremors
2 Goblin Bombardment
2 Spirit Bonds
3 Gift of Immortality
4 Outpost Siege
4 Flameshadow Conjuring
5 Assemble the Legion
5 Cathars' Crusade
5 In the Web of War
6 Warstorm Surge
Artifacts
1 Sol Ring
2 Lightning Grieves
2 Alter of Dementia
2 Spawning Pit
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Phyrexian Altar
3 Oblivion Stone
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
5 Memory Jar
6 Mindslaver
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Boros Charm
3 Teferi's Protection
3 Chaos Warp
3 Generous Gift
4 Return to Dust
Sorcery
1 Gamble
2 Martial Coup
4 Wrath of God
6 Catastrophe
6 Jokulhaups
6 Hour of Revelation
7 Devastation
8 Obliterate
9 Blasphemous Act
The Scarecrow is good, he is planting on the Raven's Run, rude.
EDIT: Missed the exile part on the trigger lol, not quite infinite with saffi and guide. But is not impossible to go infinite with hin, just need more shenanigans and maybe latice and some lands...
Seems really strong with Krark-Clan Ironworks and mana rocks. KCI, enough mana rocks that enter untapped, and an Ashnod's Altar or other sac outlet for Gerrard, and you can get tons of mana. Not quite infinite, but enough that you should be able to do whatever you want to win afterward. (Or anything that gives you a trigger when a creature or artifact enters or dies also kicks ass)
Its also kind of a flavor fail. He didnt really revive anything. I suppose collecting the crew and pieces of his legacy kind of counts?
It is more of a "he saved the rest of the crew and dominaria by using the weatherlight and his legacy to blast off their last hope vs phyrexia and yawgmoth; Every thing went white for a while and then everything that remained was karn and the legacy as the white mana blast vanished every last bits of yawgmoth, urza and gerrad"
Mechanicaly he is reviving, flavorwise he is doing a kamikazi action and saving the people who would die otherwise.
Akiri, Anya, and Kalemne are more solitary combatants who don't really care about having an army. Akiri in particular welcomes voltron, and Anya is just as happy to knock opponents down with burn spells. Tajic, Blade of the Legion is also more about pumping himself up; he's like a star football player charging in for the touchdown while a couple cheerleaders back him up. Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice and Tajic, Legion's Edge each support one other creature at a time as part of the Mentor strategy. Gisela is all-around awesome, good for burn as well as aggro.
Basandra merely controls when spells can be cast; she actually makes a pretty good RW control commander as she can force the opponents' creatures to attack into traps like Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Lightmine Field while preventing their controllers from casting any combat tricks. Aurelia, the Warleader can function as a voltron commander as well since none of her abilities are dependent on attacking with large numbers of creatures, though obviously that's what most players will want to do since she's the leader of the Boros. Jor is wide aggro-focused, but with the caveat that you want a lot of artifacts, ergo artifact creatures and Equipment are the best ways to enable his Metalcraft ability.
Munda allegedly helps you draw Allies, though since he doesn't actually draw any the effect feels underwhelming. Tiana focuses on Auras and Equipment (not great flavor for her character either, since she's mostly focused on the Weatherlight, a Vehicle), which obviously leans towards voltron aggro. Depala only supports Dwarves and Vehicles. Agrus Kos is limited to red and white creatures. Razia is just sort of meh. Brion Stoutarm and Firesong and Sunspeaker are basically burn-focused commanders, and Brion still wants lots of creatures and to turn sideways. And shoot, Feather herself still encourages aggro by favoring combat tricks.
I mean, I get that the flavor is supposed to be Gerrard's final moment, but that's not what I wanted to see after all this time. I wanted the Gerrard who went toe-to-toe with the likes of Maraxus and Greven, who trained an entire incompetent army to actually be somewhat competent. I didn't want Gerrard as he's about to die, I wanted Gerrard as a badass in battle, with abilities to reflect that.
I get that fans want something for RW besides attacking with armies. And this year's Flashback Commander deck would be perfect for that. But Gerrard was not the character to use for that purpose. He lead the rescue mission on Rath, he taught the Mercadian armies how to actually be competent at their job, and he lead the Coalition armies on the field of battle during the Invasion. He absolutely should have been an army leader; that was his defining trait throughout the entire Weatherlight saga, that he was the hero who leads the charge and inspires others to fight. And this year's Populate deck would have been perfect for that.
I'm not calling this card awful in itself the way Emmara Tandris was awful, just that this is not a good card for Gerrard.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
He’s in the flashback deck