MTG Salvation

Pale Rider of Trostad
1B
Creature - Spirit
Skulk
When ~ ETB, discard a card
3/3

Worse than the other two 1B drops we got this set, but even given that he might make it in. Did SOI really just single handledly fill out the black aggro 2-drop slot just by itself?

Note that the discard is NOT A COST, meaning that he's playable as a late game topdeck.

Skulk is not an awful mechanic, and I think there are certainly decks that will happily discard a card for a 1B 3/3 with skulk. Probably worth testing.

This, discard Haakon seems pretty great. Makes me want to bring the zombie knight back.

I wish this card was a Knight. It looks like it should be a Spirit Knight. Anyway, I do think this card is super cool and I like the way the discard is worded so that you don't look like an idiot if you top deck it late. I think it will have a very hard time finding a home in a standard Cube but it seems like a good workhorse in theme Cubes

If your discard/madness theme is deep, this card will do decently for you. But at face value, I think it falls short.

Interesting card, but with both Heir of Falkenrath and Asylum Visitor, I think we've already found the versatile black 2-drops we needed. Pretty nice art FWIW.

I'd include this if it wasn't for the cards we just got in the set heh.

Cards that are playabe in black agro + reanimator discard outlet is a nice versatile touch.
Think he's JUST short and almost certainly would play him in a larger cube.

Lots of ways to recoup the discard value, 3/3 for 2 is solid rate on defense, and the skulk is more than flavor text.

I think we'll play 3 out of this, heir, visitor, and relentless dead. It's possible that this proves better than heir or dead, but I'm skeptical.

I really like Skulk on this card actually. It makes it hard to kill through combat.
It may just be good enough for large cubes.

I like this card, ill add it to my list of tests for my 810.

At 540 I think I'd test this if I wasn't already adding THREE black two drops from this set. We don't really have a cubable precedent for Skulk (aside from Silumgar's Assassin?) so I can't say for certain how great the mechanic is. On 3/3 skulk feels pretty good though. 3 toughness means it kills 95% of 2 drops in combat, and sneaks past most late game bombs. Maybe I'll test over something down the road but for now I feel ok passing.

Do you think this is better or worse than Despoiler of Souls and Pain Seer?

Quote from Tactuz »

Do you think this is better or worse than Despoiler of Souls and Pain Seer?

Probably depends on what themes your cube has. This new guy is strong with a heavy self discard presence. I'd run him over both Despoiler and Seer if I still had the full Haakon/Reanimator package in my cube. Without that though, I think Pain Seer is definitely better and maybe Despoiler too (but I haven't tested that one so can't say for sure - I don't like Despoiler much because of BB and lack of evasion).

Quote from Tactuz »

Do you think this is better or worse than Despoiler of Souls and Pain Seer?

I think this is better than both...

Quote from Tactuz »

Do you think this is better or worse than Despoiler of Souls and Pain Seer?

Probably better than both.

An evasive splashable 3/3 for two mana with the small drawback/benefit of discarding? I'm onboard. Used to play Drekavac in my early cube days and it's good to see its big brother. I think this is an excellent beater and reanimation support too, these are much more interesting and strong two drops than red has been getting lately. Not too soon though but Black has got FOUR very good two drop aggro beaters in one set which is pretty unprecedented. I will certainly look at making room for this.

Quote from Tactuz »

Do you think this is better or worse than Despoiler of Souls and Pain Seer?

Its better than both IMO.

Quote from steve_man »

I still like Pain Seer more.

RIP Despoiler Souls, may you stay dead forever.

That was my initial thought aswell .

I think even in aggro and reanimator there will be lots of games where you wont want to pitch a card. That said, do we have any other 3/3s for 2 mana in cube? I can't think of one off the top of my head. Evasive 3 power for 2 mana is nothing to ignore. This is definitely a strong card, I just don't know what I'd cut. Maybe Nezumi Graverobber? I do think I like this more than Despoiler of Souls, which was a very aggro-only beater that I ran until very recently. This is just as aggro-y, is better against control and midrange decks, and has the added benefit of re-animator support. Maybe I will test it...

Black got a lot of love this set.

EDIT: Also, closest thing we have to a Ringwraith creature. LOTR FTW.

Pain Seer > Pale Rider > Despoiler

I think this will make the cut in my C/Ube but will likely miss the cut in the Eternal Cube. Black will wind up a little too deep, and Pain Seer is still better than this guy.

Seer > Rider > Despoiler probably.