Yesterday my friend was asking about Blue Devotion, a deck that he has been playing thus far as a casual deck. After cutting things like Ponder, Brainstorm and a single copy of JtMS, we were left with a lot of holes, so to the gatherer I went. That's when I came across Skaab Ruinator. I question why he doesn't see play. I think he is best compared to Tombstalker.
Skaab Ruinator Pros:
Undercosted for the body
Evasion
Cast-able from the graveyard
Good value in Pod
Easy to flip off Bob
Can shrink opposing Goyfs
Can't be Dismembered
Skaab Ruinator Cons:
Can not be cast on empty graveyard
Can shrink your Goyf
Double blue in casting cost
Dies to Abrupt Decay
Tombstalker Pros:
Can be cast for as little BB
Evasion
Solid Body
Can be hardcast on empty graveyard
Can Shrink opposing Goyfs
Can't be Abrupt Decayed
Tombstalker Cons:
Painful Bob flip
High hardcasting cost
Double black in casting cost
Has this guy just not found a good home yet? He seems like a very solid beater in blue, and could be nice as a two of in a Delver deck as a back up plan.
Skaab Ruiniator's BFF Is Misthollow Griffin. Maybe there's a UGX deck with Skaab as the finisher combined with Life from the Loam?
Oona's Grace is something I've been hoping to try out in a Life from the Loam deck. Controlling deck would be favourable, either B or W splash to add disruption /removal? Four colour with Lingering Souls? Needs more creatures to feed the Skaab as well.
Good catch, I'll have to add that to the list. The Ruinator just looks far too strong to be off most radars. I was talking to a friend about poding him off to grab Obliterator and then recast him, either to do it again, or just begin the beatdown.
Just to making it clear, I am in no way saying that you should run the Skaab over Tombstalker, I am just using the stalker as a water mark. He is a creature that is constantly brought up in thread when someone is looking for a good finisher, but the Skaab is never brought up when someone is looking for a blue creature finisher.
Skaab Ruinator is one card I'd like to acquire for a mono blue deck. I'd make sure it saw plenty of play, especially in combination with that Misthollow Griffin!
I don't actually like Misthollow Griffin. I'm all for building synergy to the extreme, but I think Misthollow is too high on the curve for the Ruinator. I would feed him with fetches and spells like Thought Scour or Gitaxian Probe. I was thinking some sort of UB deck, but I'm pretty bias to the color black.
Ah, I had forgotten about that. Well, things like Street Wraith would work, and I Thought Scour would still be decent as you can make a your Stinkweed Imp dredge for 7 in a round about way.
Skaab Ruinator is tough to cast. You get a great body for the cost but three bodies really is difficult. If you want to play Ruinator in Modern you probably want to use some sort of Aether Vial strategy.
Three creatures is a lot, yeah. Its not like with Delve, where you can just exile whatever you don't need, leaving a target or two for Snapcaster and/or enough stuff to not shrink your Goyf, and that makes the card nearly unplayable as more than a 1of (and even then, you need to plan for casting him) outside of an Aether Vial deck.
Admittedly, if Blue Devotion ever supplants Merfolk as the Blue aggressive build of choice, this would probably be a good card to run in that deck.... its just not going to happen unless we see something crazy, like huge devotion support in Blood/Sweat or something, and even then I don't think it can out-compete Fish since Fish is basically MonoBlue Devotion + great Tribal synergies.
It's a good beater in Wu Death & Taxes. 4 Aether Vial plus 28 creatures in the deck. I would never run more than 2 in any deck, 1 is probably all I'd risk. Being able to cast it late game from the graveyard is quite powerful.
I've been jamming a lot of DredgeVine lately, and even there he can be a real pain to cast. I eventually took him out of the deck completely because i only ever managed to cast it once. He is definitely decent if you can resolve him though. I mean a 5/6 flyer for 3, that can be played from the grave is pretty crazy.
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Not just the Tendo King, the power of the Galactic Leyline surpasses that of the Tempa Emperor, No!, It's magnificent power is even greater than that!
No one ever tried this card in a Aether Vial build? I think it goes really well with Tassa and Thought scour, and even gravecrawler and bloodghast... and that 1/1 unblockable... 5/6 flying, this is def like a blue goyf...
Skaab Ruinator Pros:
Undercosted for the body
Evasion
Cast-able from the graveyard
Good value in Pod
Easy to flip off Bob
Can shrink opposing Goyfs
Can't be Dismembered
Skaab Ruinator Cons:
Can not be cast on empty graveyard
Can shrink your Goyf
Double blue in casting cost
Dies to Abrupt Decay
Tombstalker Pros:
Can be cast for as little BB
Evasion
Solid Body
Can be hardcast on empty graveyard
Can Shrink opposing Goyfs
Can't be Abrupt Decayed
Tombstalker Cons:
Painful Bob flip
High hardcasting cost
Double black in casting cost
Has this guy just not found a good home yet? He seems like a very solid beater in blue, and could be nice as a two of in a Delver deck as a back up plan.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Oona's Grace is something I've been hoping to try out in a Life from the Loam deck. Controlling deck would be favourable, either B or W splash to add disruption /removal? Four colour with Lingering Souls? Needs more creatures to feed the Skaab as well.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Admittedly, if Blue Devotion ever supplants Merfolk as the Blue aggressive build of choice, this would probably be a good card to run in that deck.... its just not going to happen unless we see something crazy, like huge devotion support in Blood/Sweat or something, and even then I don't think it can out-compete Fish since Fish is basically MonoBlue Devotion + great Tribal synergies.
RGGruul Aggro
WSoul Sisters
WBTokens
BUGRRestore Balance
BMono-Black Infect
EDH:
RGWMayael, the Anima
GWURoon of the Hidden Realm
BDrana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Locked. --CavalryWolfPack