Whenever the question, "Why is card X so good?" comes up, my solution is to play with it. Many cards are much better or worse in actual gameplay than they seem at first glance.
Scavenging Ooze is a beast of a card for the reasons that LMTRK has already stated. It's cheap, grows explosively, and wins games.
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The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Whenever the question, "Why is card X so good?" comes up, my solution is to play with it. Many cards are much better or worse in actual gameplay than they seem at first glance.
Scavenging Ooze is a beast of a card for the reasons that LMTRK has already stated. It's cheap, grows explosively, and wins games.
Scavenging Ooze is also useful in the early and the late game, while providing disruption while simultaneously advancing your gameplan. It's ok in the early game, but it's a fantastic manasink in the late game. It's also useful in Legacy, so it has a multi-format thing going for it.
It's cost efficent. (It's a bear with abilities)
It's very effective against graveyard strategies.
It allows for efficent mana use... in a deck that you'll play it in, you'll frequently be able to use all of your mana every turn.
On top of that, while not just hurting recursion strategies your opponents run, it also turns all of your dead creatures (and theirs) into extra assets. In many decks, after a creature goes to the graveyard it's usefulness ends. With a Scavenging Ooze in play, each creature lying in the graveyard becomes a combat trick.
It's good because it becomes better by your deck doing what it wants to. You're not laying it out and try making the focus of your deck trying to get Scavenging Ooze big. Throughout the game, it just manages to get big, allow your deck to use it's mana as completely as possible, and eek out value from places where there was none.
Goyf and Ooze are different beasts. One is basically a blunt object and the other a swiss army knife. Each has it's place where it's what you want.
It's main board graveyard hate which matter sin formats where the graveyard is a resource, it gains you life when you need it, it can steal targets from DRS, it can shrink a tarmogoyf/KOTR, it can grow to be a 4/4 or greater rather quickly and does it all at 2 mana. One of them being colorless so it's splashable as well.
Plains - John Avon - 230
Island - Jung Park - 235
Island - Vincent Proce - 237
Swamp - John Avon - 238
Mountain - John Avon - 242
Forest - John Avon - 246
Better question, where is Scavenging Ooze NOT good?
vs Aggro - You get a fairly costed blocker on turn 2 or a big creature that gains you life on turn 5.
vs Control - You get a fairly costed threat at any point in the game. Keep in mind that there is a lot of value in a card that can act like a solid 2-drop that applies pressure early AND acts like a serious threat late game (which is what a late game Ooze can be, as it is very easy to make it a 6/6+).
vs Other - A hit vs any deck relying on the graveyard, which includes quite a few of them.
Important part is that it's ability is not a forced mana sink (like needing to pay a G every turn to keep it), if you need to do something else you can do that and not use it's ability. It is instead a way to get value using left over mana that would otherwise go to waste.
Why is this card so good? Everyone I know thinks this is the new Tarmogoyf. Seems very mana intensive to be worth it.
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I don't know about the new Tarmagoyf, but it's a very high utility creature for 2 mana, and specifically hoses a LOT of deck strategies in Standard and Modern. It's also an EDH staple. I'm ordering my playset soon, it's a $25 card IMHO. Just look at the SCG Standard T8 decklists, the thing is all over the place.
I’d like to know what happens when you get two out, and you use the effect, do both trigger as long as there is a valid target for both in the grave?
No, Scavenging Ooze has an activated ability, not a triggered one. When activating an activated ability you are only activating and paying for that specific one, not any others, even if those are worded exactly the same and even if their sources look exactly the same. In Magic, when an object refers to itself by name, it really only means [this particular object].
Why is this card so good? Everyone I know thinks this is the new Tarmogoyf. Seems very mana intensive to be worth it.
Posted from MTGsalvation.com App for Android
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
Scavenging Ooze is a beast of a card for the reasons that LMTRK has already stated. It's cheap, grows explosively, and wins games.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Scavenging Ooze is also useful in the early and the late game, while providing disruption while simultaneously advancing your gameplan. It's ok in the early game, but it's a fantastic manasink in the late game. It's also useful in Legacy, so it has a multi-format thing going for it.
@MTGClue - Haakon, Stromgald Scourge in the Moorland Haunt with the Hammer of Purphoros.
It's very effective against graveyard strategies.
It allows for efficent mana use... in a deck that you'll play it in, you'll frequently be able to use all of your mana every turn.
On top of that, while not just hurting recursion strategies your opponents run, it also turns all of your dead creatures (and theirs) into extra assets. In many decks, after a creature goes to the graveyard it's usefulness ends. With a Scavenging Ooze in play, each creature lying in the graveyard becomes a combat trick.
It's good because it becomes better by your deck doing what it wants to. You're not laying it out and try making the focus of your deck trying to get Scavenging Ooze big. Throughout the game, it just manages to get big, allow your deck to use it's mana as completely as possible, and eek out value from places where there was none.
Goyf and Ooze are different beasts. One is basically a blunt object and the other a swiss army knife. Each has it's place where it's what you want.
CardboardCreationism
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http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=4832736
Trading 10 full art zen basics for 8 of yours!
I want
Plains - John Avon - 230
Island - Jung Park - 235
Island - Vincent Proce - 237
Swamp - John Avon - 238
Mountain - John Avon - 242
Forest - John Avon - 246
vs Aggro - You get a fairly costed blocker on turn 2 or a big creature that gains you life on turn 5.
vs Control - You get a fairly costed threat at any point in the game. Keep in mind that there is a lot of value in a card that can act like a solid 2-drop that applies pressure early AND acts like a serious threat late game (which is what a late game Ooze can be, as it is very easy to make it a 6/6+).
vs Other - A hit vs any deck relying on the graveyard, which includes quite a few of them.
I don't know about the new Tarmagoyf, but it's a very high utility creature for 2 mana, and specifically hoses a LOT of deck strategies in Standard and Modern. It's also an EDH staple. I'm ordering my playset soon, it's a $25 card IMHO. Just look at the SCG Standard T8 decklists, the thing is all over the place.
Anyway
No, Scavenging Ooze has an activated ability, not a triggered one. When activating an activated ability you are only activating and paying for that specific one, not any others, even if those are worded exactly the same and even if their sources look exactly the same. In Magic, when an object refers to itself by name, it really only means [this particular object].
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