MTG Salvation

2GGBB for a 2/3 lol.

I guess after Assassin's Trophy Golgari was bound to have to eat some disappointment today?



Really, a 2/3 for Six with two double colors in the casting cost? And in constructed (Standard as obviously a six mana boltable creature is almost impossible for Modern), it doesn't seem likely to produce a lot of tokens.

this is EXACTLY what i've wanted in b/g. like, absolutely exactly what i've wanted for YEARS. i'm so building this for edh and i'm going to love every god damned second of it.

The sac ability is trinket text, basically. The real value here is in the potential to get a dozen insects.

But then, I'd rather just play karador. And really, I'd rather play neither since they both require a heavy creature density.

Might be some hermit druid shenanigans.

Anyway even in commander I'm not interested. But this is also not a card for my preferred style of building commander.

I actually really like it. It has a very specific niche of commander decks that it fits in, and it's one of those odd legendary creatures that's more at home in the 99 than at the helm, but it still fulfils a valuable role, especially since the tokens she creates are clampable, and both green and black for cards that care about it. It's an easy fit in a Savra, Queen of the Golgari deck for example.

I think its pretty OK in Slimefoot brawl. It's another sac outlet, and it generates dudes for your other sac outlets.

Overcosted for sure, but in terms of EDH has some merit.

Works nice with Cadaverous Bloom, filtering through your library pretty quickly.

Food Chain like combos with recasting her.

Earthcraft or Phyrexian Altar to keep the draw flowing.

I think you might not really be too concerned it's a 2/3, you're probably more than happy to see it being killed to get more value town.

My rule is never underestimate a card that has "draw" somewhere in the text.

But if we are being real, not even going to have a shade on The Gitrog Monster in EDH as far as draw/combo potential in Golgari colors. You'll be playing this card for the love of trying something new.

I dunno why everyone is so mad at this card, I think it's great!

It means Vraska won't be 4 colored mana (BBGG), since that's the forula for differentiating the two different 'characters' in a given Guild pair. Which could have happened if this creature was XBG.

Quote from SnowBunny »

Remember folks Whisper, Blood Liturgist is a card...

so she is pretty easy to reanimate.

This is true. As a reanimation target in standard this is actually really nice and I wouldn't feel bad doing that.

And in EDH, I could see her in the 99, maybe, just as another piece in a graveyard strategy but I still think she's not too strong and a little uninspired as a commander (for my tastes, specifically).

I was expecting a Legendary Insect (and maybe a Lord) from that title.

The size of the creature doesn't really matter - you're really playing this to get all the tokens for sacrifice shenanigans more than anything else. Sure it comes a with a sacrifice outlet built-in, but at least where EDH is concerned, you're probably using some other free sacrifice outlet instead.

Yeah, I'm talking about this card basically only much in the context of EDH, it can work in Standard if there's enough support (Whisper alone doesn't cut it and Assassin's Trophy is a generic good card, I'm referring to specific support for the combos for it), but we've not seen enough of the set to determine whether that is possible.

Quote from Rakath »

I dunno why everyone is so mad at this card, I think it's great!

It means Vraska won't be 4 colored mana (BBGG), since that's the forula for differentiating the two different 'characters' in a given Guild pair. Which could have happened if this creature was XBG.

Not so fast. New-Mizzet has triple colors in his cost. Inb4 BBBGGG Vraska.

How good this is in Standard will depend on how good the undergrowth.dec will be. I think something viable for FNM is bound to happen. In worst case scenarium a midrange BG can play one-off or SB this for veeeery long and grindy match-ups where you can expect to play this and have 4+ lands untapped and generate 8+ tokens.

Quote from Demonologo Uriel »

So this time around are the champions that have the mana intensive costs huh. And guild leaders as rares. Kinda cool. I just hope they keeping Vraska for last because she is such a good card.

That might just be the two guilds with Planeswalkers in them. Also Rav1 balanced them mechanically not on lore (Isperia was the champion in Rav 1, but had the WWUU because Grand Arbiter Augustine had the 'my colors matter' effect.

Quote from 13055 »

Quote from Rakath »

I dunno why everyone is so mad at this card, I think it's great!

It means Vraska won't be 4 colored mana (BBGG), since that's the forula for differentiating the two different 'characters' in a given Guild pair. Which could have happened if this creature was XBG.

Not so fast. New-Mizzet has triple colors in his cost. Inb4 BBBGGG Vraska.

I considered it, but dismissed it, Niv is priced so weirdly for one of two reasons:

1. Balance reasons (He's really pushed textbox wise).
2. He's not actually the Guild Leader of the Izzet when we get story going, since Ral seems to be making a play for command. Meaning a third legend in Izzet colors.

But mostly reason 1, cause Niv Mizzy's ability set is really good and playing him in three colors would be mean.

I don't get all the hate for her in Constructed; I mean, she's probably not great as things stand now, but if the set has some decent mill ala Grisly Salvage or something then she could easily generate 6+ tokens by the time she comes down. I seem to recall Ishkanah, Grafwidow being played a little bit back then, so it's not that much of a stretch to say there could be a deck for this one.

And here I was wondering why they made that artifact in core 2019 that hoses tokens.

Mazirek is going to like this card quite a bit, especially with Savra out.

Her casting cost alone makes you want to run her in an elf ramp deck (she is an elf as well). However, ramp decks typically want their creatures on the battlefield, not in the graveyard. So the next best thing is to run her in a self mill re-an deck, possibly with zombies. But, that kinda negates the use of her second ability when you'd rather be binning cards than drawing them. Don't understand how she should function. Bulk rare at the moment.

you'd think with the casting cost the insects coulda come with some keywords. i mean cmon, at least give them flying.

Satyr Wayfinder, Sakura-Tribe Elder, dredge dredge dredge surveil surveil surveil ..., Anger, Wonder, Dread Return, Izoni, flashback Dread Return, Izoni again, gg

Quote from tronix »

you'd think with the casting cost the insects coulda come with some keywords. i mean cmon, at least give them flying.

At least they're both Black and Green,
meaning Creakwood Liege pumps them all to a respectable 3/3.

Quote from SnowBunny »

Remember folks Whisper, Blood Liturgist is a card...

so she is pretty easy to reanimate.

Yeah, this. I mean, if you aren't dumping creatures with comes-into-play effects into your graveyard and reanimating them over and over, what are you even doing playing Golgari? CMC shouldn't be an issue because you're hardly ever going to be hard-casting it.

I like that she doesn't exile the cards. Put her in a Conjurer's Closet or reanimate her and watch your bug army grow.

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

2GGBB for a 2/3 lol.

2GGUU for a 1/1 rofl.

Quote from soramaro »

I like that she doesn't exile the cards. Put her in a Conjurer's Closet or reanimate her and watch your bug army grow.

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

2GGBB for a 2/3 lol.

2GGUU for a 1/1 rofl.

Prime speaker actually cantrips when she etbs. She also requires far less setup to pay off. Even if you only got a lowly 1/1 when she etb you draw 2 cards. That is more than Izoni can provide.

I'm not saying that Zegana isn't the overall more powerful card. I just exaggerated a bit to illustrate how easy you can make any given card look bad. Even if Izoni worse overall (i.e. has a worse baseline), that doesn't make her outright unplayable. In EDH, she and Zegana go into different types of decks anyway, so it's not like you'll find them competing for the same slot very often. Izoni's draw ability is mana intensive, but still works after she's hit the battlefield. She needs to be built around more, but in the kind of the you'll want to play her, you'll probably already want a good deal of selfmill/sacrifice stuff anyway, so it's not like you're really going out of your way just to make her useable.

Throw in a umbral mantle, a hell's caretaker, three creatures in your yard, and a phyrexian altar and it don't matter how small she be