I've played a few drafts with the Scarhide and I have to say, this guy is crazy good. I won a match by faltering my opponents Brimaz that would have stopped my aggro rush dead in it's tracks... it felt good!
What happened here? He's no longer in your cube but still have stuff like carnophage and sacromancy, is this worse?
I mean, his comment you're quoting is from 6 years ago. It was definitely one of the best aggro 1-drops available at the time, and it stayed in my cube for a good while. It is definitely worse than Carnophage and Sarcomancy, though. Zombie synergies are useful - mostly for Gravecrawler in aggro, but sometimes I'll end up running one of them alongside Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - and having the second point of toughness is also relevant.
This is on the outside of my cube looking in at this point. I'd probably rate aggro 1-drops now:
Not all of the greater-than signs are of equal value. This also is ignoring other 1-drops for non-aggro purposes, like Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer. I currently run the top 7 of those, although I only cut Gnarled Scarhide about a month ago for a non-1-drop card (I never got around to actually adding Knight).
Since his post in 2014, Gutterbones, Dread Wanderer, and Knight of the Ebon Legion were all printed.
EDIT: I forgot that Carnophage only taps if you don't pay the life, so I've moved it ahead of Sarcomancy.
I used to run scarhide, too, but he was just a vanilla 2/1 that couldn't block the vast majority of the time. The bestow was almost never relevant. Since we've gotten a bunch of good aggro 1-drops in black since then, he only goes in big cubes now. Here's my black 1 section:
Sarcomancy is better than Carnophage due to interactions with Smokestack, Kor Skyfisher, and more. In any case both of those are superior to Scarhide, which has just been outclassed by the other black 1-drops we've gotten.
Yeah, that's fair. I was trying to rate them late at night before I went to bed, and wasn't really thinking about the various interactions Sarcomancy has.
Scarhide is very good but not needed now at 400ish cards. Maybe the best 1 drop I'm not playing in black though, aside from Knight of the Ebon Legion which is sort of decent. I do like Bestow quite a bit, hoping for some other playables with that mechanic in the future.
I will never quite understand the love for carnophage or sacromancy. The self-inflicted damage is a big problem, especially in black where you have so many other ways to damage yourself that are in much better cards. Is a 2/2 for 1 really worth the 1 damage per turn it deals its owner? I've just never had good experiences with them and am always happy to see opponents play them (when they were in my cube).
I will never quite understand the love for carnophage or sacromancy. The self-inflicted damage is a big problem, especially in black where you have so many other ways to damage yourself that are in much better cards. Is a 2/2 for 1 really worth the 1 damage per turn it deals its owner? I've just never had good experiences with them and am always happy to see opponents play them (when they were in my cube).
2/2s not trading with 1/1 elves / tokens is a big deal, and the Gravecrawler synergy can be huge, especially with something like Skullclamp. Kinda sucks in the aggro mirror, but otherwise the lifeloss usually isn't the biggest deal in a dedicated aggro deck.
We need another good Zombie 1-drop! My Gravecrawler count is getting low.
Even if I were more of a fan of this card than I am I think I’d prioritize any of the Zombies for that reason, since the second tier options are all at least somewhat close.
We need another good Zombie 1-drop! My Gravecrawler count is getting low.
Even if I were more of a fan of this card than I am I think I’d prioritize any of the Zombies for that reason, since the second tier options are all at least somewhat close.
We need another good Zombie 1-drop! My Gravecrawler count is getting low.
Even if I were more of a fan of this card than I am I think I’d prioritize any of the Zombies for that reason, since the second tier options are all at least somewhat close.
Great point. I've been waffling on it and am disappointed that it's a solid tier below all the recursive creatures, but it should probably be in for Gravecrawler density. Just re-added.
Love the quote, because it genuinely made me laugh! Good points, however, very solid.
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What happened here? He's no longer in your cube but still have stuff like carnophage and sacromancy, is this worse?
This is on the outside of my cube looking in at this point. I'd probably rate aggro 1-drops now:
Bloodsoaked Champion (definitely the best) > Gravecrawler > Gutterbones/Dread Wanderer > Carnophage > Sarcomancy > Diregraf Ghoul > Knight of the Ebon Legion >= Gnarled Scarhide > Tormented Hero/Vampire Lacerator.
Not all of the greater-than signs are of equal value. This also is ignoring other 1-drops for non-aggro purposes, like Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer. I currently run the top 7 of those, although I only cut Gnarled Scarhide about a month ago for a non-1-drop card (I never got around to actually adding Knight).
Since his post in 2014, Gutterbones, Dread Wanderer, and Knight of the Ebon Legion were all printed.
EDIT: I forgot that Carnophage only taps if you don't pay the life, so I've moved it ahead of Sarcomancy.
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Sarcomancy is better, and Carnophage is better as long as Gravecrawler is in your list.
Lots of good black aggro 1-drops have been printed in the 6 years that have passed since the post you quoted was put up.
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Bloodsoaked Champion
Carnophage
Diregraf Ghoul
Dread Wanderer
Gravecrawler
Gutterbones
All of these are better than scarhide, and there are probably a few I'm not running that are too. Sarcomancy for one.
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2/2s not trading with 1/1 elves / tokens is a big deal, and the Gravecrawler synergy can be huge, especially with something like Skullclamp. Kinda sucks in the aggro mirror, but otherwise the lifeloss usually isn't the biggest deal in a dedicated aggro deck.
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Even if I were more of a fan of this card than I am I think I’d prioritize any of the Zombies for that reason, since the second tier options are all at least somewhat close.
I would play Diregraf Ghoul in your 720 list.
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Great point. I've been waffling on it and am disappointed that it's a solid tier below all the recursive creatures, but it should probably be in for Gravecrawler density. Just re-added.