I didn't play Dark Ascension, so I have no experience with this card, but I'm trying to get a feel for whether it is playable in M15. 2-mana 1/1s are obviously marginal, but this seems like it might be playable, or at least sideboardable.
Red, White, and Black all have some relevant early drops that have 1 toughness that probably wouldn't really want to trade, much less 2-for-1 themselves). If this eats a piece of removal, that's a 2-for-1 as well (or if it gets exiled, that's still a piece of removal to get rid of a 2-drop. Even in the worst case scenario where this just chump blocks it saves you some amount of damage and gets a card. You don't even go behind trading for a raise the alarm token.
The only time it's really bad is if a) opponent has flyers or other evasion or b) opponent is out of cards (e.g. the game has gone long). It's not very good then, but really very few 2-drop creatures are good in those situations.
I'm not saying that these are a reason to go into black or that I'm excited to run a bunch of them or anything, but based on how the set looks to me this looks a lot more like a 20th-21st card than a 24th.
Yeah, this wasn't a good card in Dark Ascension either. It did have a few things going for it in that format; there were some minor zombie tribal synergies, a few sac outlets, Silver-Inlaid Dagger, the stitchedcreatures that wanted creatures in your graveyard (making a chump blocker that didn't cost you card advantage a little better), etc.
So if you had enough things to make use of the creature, Black Cat would sometimes become a card in that format, but even then never a good card. In M15 it doesn't have nearly as much going for it (I guess convoke rewards playing lots of cheap creatures, but it doesn't seem worth it to run a lot of bad ones), so I expect it to just not be a card at all for the most part.
Side it in against the guy with a bunch of Oreskos Swiftclaws, though.
It will never be better than in the first few rounds of the prerelease when poorer players who don't understand the card advantage will simply not attack into with their hordes. After that, it'll be an OK sideboard card.
Child of Night is significantly better than the poor little cat. You might be amazed at how important Lifelink can be in a format where enchantments stick.
I feel like Cat + Mind Rot could be a thing. Please tell me it's a thing.
Sorry, it's not really a thing, not in a good deck. The problem with discard is that it hurts you in the tempo department -- that's why Black Cat isn't really a full card's worth of value unless it also trades with a creature or powers up something like a spell that requires you to sacrifice. Also, discard promotes longer games but discard spells become dead in the late game, so your strategy is naturally at odds with itself.
Mind Rot is quite a bit better than Black Cat, not just because it hits 2 cards but because you get to decide when. One of the problems with Black Cat is that your opponent typically decides when you get to use the effect. This can generate a little value (unblockable 1/1, preventing attacks, etc.) but in the meantime your opponent is playing out his hand and ruining the value of the discard so it's a net negative. And even though Mind Rot > Black Cat, Mind Rot is not an auto-include in every Black deck. There are far more shameful choices, but the best Black decks will not run Mind Rot.
It's within the realm of remote possibility that I would sideboard the Cat versus a deck with lots of X/1s, assuming I had some other cards in the main deck that I thought were worth taking out (and no better sideboard options).
I wouldn't main deck it under any circumstances.
Child of Night is vastly superior. Bears are playable cards in MTG limited and lifelink compensates for the one toughness IMO. Not a great card but solidly playable
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Red, White, and Black all have some relevant early drops that have 1 toughness that probably wouldn't really want to trade, much less 2-for-1 themselves). If this eats a piece of removal, that's a 2-for-1 as well (or if it gets exiled, that's still a piece of removal to get rid of a 2-drop. Even in the worst case scenario where this just chump blocks it saves you some amount of damage and gets a card. You don't even go behind trading for a raise the alarm token.
The only time it's really bad is if a) opponent has flyers or other evasion or b) opponent is out of cards (e.g. the game has gone long). It's not very good then, but really very few 2-drop creatures are good in those situations.
I'm not saying that these are a reason to go into black or that I'm excited to run a bunch of them or anything, but based on how the set looks to me this looks a lot more like a 20th-21st card than a 24th.
You both spent two mana. But the opponent has a creature in play.
It's not a loss of card advantage (which is the usual crime bad cards commit). It's a loss of tempo advantage.
So if you had enough things to make use of the creature, Black Cat would sometimes become a card in that format, but even then never a good card. In M15 it doesn't have nearly as much going for it (I guess convoke rewards playing lots of cheap creatures, but it doesn't seem worth it to run a lot of bad ones), so I expect it to just not be a card at all for the most part.
Side it in against the guy with a bunch of Oreskos Swiftclaws, though.
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Sorry, it's not really a thing, not in a good deck. The problem with discard is that it hurts you in the tempo department -- that's why Black Cat isn't really a full card's worth of value unless it also trades with a creature or powers up something like a spell that requires you to sacrifice. Also, discard promotes longer games but discard spells become dead in the late game, so your strategy is naturally at odds with itself.
Mind Rot is quite a bit better than Black Cat, not just because it hits 2 cards but because you get to decide when. One of the problems with Black Cat is that your opponent typically decides when you get to use the effect. This can generate a little value (unblockable 1/1, preventing attacks, etc.) but in the meantime your opponent is playing out his hand and ruining the value of the discard so it's a net negative. And even though Mind Rot > Black Cat, Mind Rot is not an auto-include in every Black deck. There are far more shameful choices, but the best Black decks will not run Mind Rot.
Child of Night is better because it has 2 power.
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I wouldn't main deck it under any circumstances.
Child of Night is vastly superior. Bears are playable cards in MTG limited and lifelink compensates for the one toughness IMO. Not a great card but solidly playable