any potential at all in modern? ive seen it pop up in a few pod lists as a 4-costed melira, but that's pretty much it.
maybe it could be used in a bant midrange/ramp-ish type deck? it'd fit pretty well nobler hierarch provides ideal ramp kitchen finks is pretty strong just as a beater, grows whenever it dies, and helps patch up earlier game
Maybe run thragtusk both to stay alive, and because it scales well with biomancer Geist of st. traft is much more able to attack, and his angel scales too
all of these are good by themselves (well, thrag isn't really that great), yet synergize well with biomancer, could be interesting i guess?
just throwing ideas out there
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern UWUW ControlUW UGWSpiritsUGW GHardened ScalesG WGRUKiki PodWGRU [RIP]
I've only done a limited amount of testing with the card (in Melira Pod as a 4-drop combo piece, and out of the board), but there's definitely potential there. He passes the bolt test, he's got a relevant creature type, and he's great with mana dorks because not only can you power him out early, but he smooths out your otherwise bad late-game topdecks.
The main problem is that he doesn't give you an immediate advantage, so you need to find a way to protect him (or just run him in the board and bring him in against decks that primarily use burn as removal).
He also seems interesting in clown-car style decks that just run a bunch of utility dudes since he turns your army of tricksy weaklings into something you can fight with.
Anyway, while I often found myself wishing he were a Thrun, the Last Troll during testing, I'm not going to write him off.
It's a very good card, but the biggest issue is his cost. He costs 4 in a very aggressive and fast format, and to try to do things this late is a problem.
Costing 4, you're probably playing him turn 3 or 4 in a non-Pod deck. This means you're not getting results out of him until turn 4 or 5, and those creatures can't attack until 5 or 6. That's a long time to wait for a result off this card. Yeah, those creatures can block, but you're more concerned with laying down damage, and it's taking too long.
The other problem is trying to protect him. Assuming that your deck doesn't mind that it's going to be late when he generates advantage, you need to make sure he's alive the next turn. Liliana potentially kills him, Path kills him, Wrath kills him, Tribal Flames kills him, etc. There's a lot of removal for him, and you really need to protect him.
He might work in a RUG Delver or even a RUG Delverless Delver (like the deck Shouta played at the Player's Championships), but it's still a little sketchy. I'm not sold on something like Bant wanting him because Elspeth costs 4 and she's just so much better, plus since you have other hexproof guys, they'll just have their removal waiting for him.
any potential at all in modern? ive seen it pop up in a few pod lists as a 4-costed melira, but that's pretty much it.
maybe it could be used in a bant midrange/ramp-ish type deck? it'd fit pretty well
nobler hierarch provides ideal ramp
kitchen finks is pretty strong just as a beater, grows whenever it dies, and helps patch up earlier game
Maybe run thragtusk both to stay alive, and because it scales well with biomancer
Geist of st. traft is much more able to attack, and his angel scales too
all of these are good by themselves (well, thrag isn't really that great), yet synergize well with biomancer, could be interesting i guess?
just throwing ideas out there
UWUW ControlUW
UGWSpiritsUGW
GHardened ScalesG
WGRUKiki PodWGRU [RIP]
The main problem is that he doesn't give you an immediate advantage, so you need to find a way to protect him (or just run him in the board and bring him in against decks that primarily use burn as removal).
The best way I found to make him MB viable was in a UGb shell with Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Deathrite Shaman, either Cloudfin Raptor or Experiment One (not both), Tarmogoyf (clearly) and Spellskite (which is also neat with evolve). However, Kira is a little worse with Abrupt Decay running around, so be aware of that.
He also seems interesting in clown-car style decks that just run a bunch of utility dudes since he turns your army of tricksy weaklings into something you can fight with.
Anyway, while I often found myself wishing he were a Thrun, the Last Troll during testing, I'm not going to write him off.
Costing 4, you're probably playing him turn 3 or 4 in a non-Pod deck. This means you're not getting results out of him until turn 4 or 5, and those creatures can't attack until 5 or 6. That's a long time to wait for a result off this card. Yeah, those creatures can block, but you're more concerned with laying down damage, and it's taking too long.
The other problem is trying to protect him. Assuming that your deck doesn't mind that it's going to be late when he generates advantage, you need to make sure he's alive the next turn. Liliana potentially kills him, Path kills him, Wrath kills him, Tribal Flames kills him, etc. There's a lot of removal for him, and you really need to protect him.
He might work in a RUG Delver or even a RUG Delverless Delver (like the deck Shouta played at the Player's Championships), but it's still a little sketchy. I'm not sold on something like Bant wanting him because Elspeth costs 4 and she's just so much better, plus since you have other hexproof guys, they'll just have their removal waiting for him.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer