This guy was in the Master Blaster Darksteel theme deck. I got it when I was just started to get into Magic. It was full of overcosted hard to kill creatures such as Darksteel Brute and Gemini Engine . It was a fun deck, though.
Interesting, and I loves me some artifact shenanigans. Don't underestimate the firebreathing: It's colorless and we can always use another one of those for infinite mana combos to dump into. The regeneration just effectively means you can swing every turn, board state be damned. Pumping him effectively gives him "pseudo first strike deathtouch."
The only time I saw it played was during Mirrodin block drafts. I did a lot of drafting of the original Mirrodin, and I always seemed to see this guy on the OTHER side of the table.
Artifact creatures didn't for a long time. Wizards assigned "construct" to many of them, including duskworker, in the grand creature type update - a pretty interesting piece of magic history.
These types of punisher cards were always interesting, because it requires a certain level of thought to play them. You want to have a decent handsize when you play him, but unless you discard creatures or sorceries, black and red have a hard times recurring cards from the graveyard.
This card was in the Kaalia of the Vast precon, so white had more options to make today's card more playable.
Play him with Harvester of Souls. Or just run him in Nekusar for maximum lulz.
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"When does a man die? When he is hit by a bullet? No! When he suffers a disease? No! When he ate a soup made out of a poisonous mushroom? No! A man dies when he is forgotten!" Currently Piloting: EDH BGGlissa, The Traitor - Recursion (Primer) WBRKaalia of The Vast URGRiku of Two Reflections WUBSydri, Galvanic Genius UBRamirez DePietro GWKrond, The Dawn-Clad GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician RGOmnath, Locus of Rage
Funny thing; despite being the only Demon Dragon in the game - the combination of types Baneslayer Angel has protection from - he can kill Baneslayer Angel.
Red and Black both do have ways to quickly recoup their hand, whether it's through wheels (Red) or more gradual effects (Black), so it's not that hard to build around this guy. A top tier commander he is not, but he's far from being bad as well.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Whenever I see him, I inevitably think of all the madness cards and wonder if there is a deck in there somewhere. But it seems predictable and annoying.
I really liked Malfegor in my Kaalia and Bladewing the Risen decks. Black has plenty of reanimation, and it doesn't take many uses of his ability to wreck the board nicely.
I tried him briefly as a commander. Though he could indeed Recoup his losses fairly efficiently, I never really found that he worked the way I wanted him to. He is, however, pretty fun in the 99. I personally enjoy him in Grixis reanimator as a powerful sac-outlet, the deck being stuffed with mostly creatures, sorceries, and your various Reanimates and Mystic Retrievals.
Never minded discarding my hand, clearing the opponents boards, and coming back from the yard.
He has some value with madness too. Or Brink of Madness to OWN your opponent too. Actually, if he's your commander, Bonehoard might be a nice investment.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I have played him several times as a commander and he can be really fun at times and just obnoxious at others. I give him a 6/10 as a commander as he lacks game ending capabilities but draws hate from anyone who has seen him hit the field. He enables madness and hellbent which is crazy on some cards ie: Brink of Madness or Infernal Tutor which is incredibly powerful at times and with Descent into madness can often ruin everyone's day. but then again he draws hate like none other.
I played Malf as a general once. He was passable, and definitely could go places. I did play Brink of Madness, also, but I think my deck predated things like Harvester of Souls or Grim Haruspex.
Honestly, 8/10, would play again. I often harbour thoughts of rebuilding it.
I don't really like Malfegor much. You need to be discarding a few cards for him to be anything more than an overcosted Flashbag Marauder. He's "one-sided" in the sense that your creatures don't get destroyed, but black already has a couple ways of doing that (Plague Wind, In Garruk's Wake). Against decks that generate tokens he's not going to be able to kill anything important. Bonus points for slaying 'ol Infectsteel Colossus, but the benefits don't outweigh the detriments, IMO.
Love the card. I had him as a General for a while.
He accomplishes two things in my opinion: He's a very effective boardwipe, and he lets you dump your hand. Not for anything as obvious as Madness or Hellbent effects. No, he lets you dump your hand to win via Necrotic Ooze based combos (Kiki Jiki and Cinderhaze Wretch being the base of most of them).
It's fairly easy to keep your hand full in Rakdos colors, so the gameplan was usually to just wipe the field as needed until I was ready to combo out. I would keep most of my graveyard based pieces in my hand until then too and treat Malefegor as a way to disrupt creature based threats to the combo that turn and as a way to pitch my hand all in one go (usually pitching Anger, Kiki, Cinderhaze, etc)
You kinda have to build around him some, but he hits the table like a truck. Only struggles against creature token swarms, but I still like him. Rakdos hellbent/madness loves him, he works good as a cheap fast sweeper for Kaalia, and has some synergy with recursion.
I don't really even play it in Goblin tribal. I feel that 2-for-1'ing yourself isn't usually the way to go. Then again, I've never built Goblin graveyard shennanignas, but I don't think that would go very well (y'know, outside of Patriarch's Bidding).
Goblin Grenade is a great card that's seen competitive 60-card Constructed play in the past. 5 damage for R is nuts when you're counting to 20. It's not so great when you've got 80-160+ life to chew through. It would still be okayish in Krenko, Mob Boss deck, but that's about it. Also combos with Djinn Illuminatus.
It's an interesting card, but ultimately doesn't quite measure up. 5 damage is shy of hitting Titans, Consecrated Sphinx, and other must-kill targets. You've got a plentiful supply of Goblin tokens to sacrifice generally, but it's really not going to get there. It isn't even instant-speed for killing things immediately.
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Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
7/10. Not running out to get one, but might consider it in a Karn deck running Pentavus, Blade of the Bloodchief, and Ashnod's Altar.
These types of punisher cards were always interesting, because it requires a certain level of thought to play them. You want to have a decent handsize when you play him, but unless you discard creatures or sorceries, black and red have a hard times recurring cards from the graveyard.
This card was in the Kaalia of the Vast precon, so white had more options to make today's card more playable.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
Currently Piloting:
EDH
BGGlissa, The Traitor - Recursion (Primer)
WBRKaalia of The Vast
URGRiku of Two Reflections
WUBSydri, Galvanic Genius
UBRamirez DePietro
GWKrond, The Dawn-Clad
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage
Modern
UG Infect
Red and Black both do have ways to quickly recoup their hand, whether it's through wheels (Red) or more gradual effects (Black), so it's not that hard to build around this guy. A top tier commander he is not, but he's far from being bad as well.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Never minded discarding my hand, clearing the opponents boards, and coming back from the yard.
9/10 for being a demon-dragon, having six limbs, jimmie-rustling potential, and being a decent flying body for the mana besides.
On phasing:
Honestly, 8/10, would play again. I often harbour thoughts of rebuilding it.
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Draft my Peasant Cube.
He accomplishes two things in my opinion: He's a very effective boardwipe, and he lets you dump your hand. Not for anything as obvious as Madness or Hellbent effects. No, he lets you dump your hand to win via Necrotic Ooze based combos (Kiki Jiki and Cinderhaze Wretch being the base of most of them).
It's fairly easy to keep your hand full in Rakdos colors, so the gameplan was usually to just wipe the field as needed until I was ready to combo out. I would keep most of my graveyard based pieces in my hand until then too and treat Malefegor as a way to disrupt creature based threats to the combo that turn and as a way to pitch my hand all in one go (usually pitching Anger, Kiki, Cinderhaze, etc)
The flavor of this card is so wondorful, and in Limited it's a decent card. It's somewhat playable in a tribal EDH deck, but certainly not top tier.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!