MTG Salvation

Dire Fleet Ravager3BB
Creature - Orc Pirate Wizard
Menace, deathtouch
When Dire Fleet Ravager enters the battlefield, each player loses a third of his or her life, rounded up.
4/4

This one is interesting to me. The ETB trigger seems strong when backed by the 4/4 body, if the opponent wants to block they're going to lose two creatures, and it fits in a shallow slot in the cube.

I'm just not sure what deck would want this. If you're playing aggro, dropping this in as a curve topper isn't going to net you a lot of opponent life loss unless things were already going poorly, in which case this probably won't turn things back your way. If you're going to recur it, you're hurting yourself as badly as you're hurting them. A control deck isn't going to jump at a finisher that reduces their margin of error. I could see it as a midrange option perhaps, but it doesn't seem to excel in that role either.

I'm not sure I'd put this in over things I'm not already playing, like some of the 5/4 flying demons with upside, or Gilt-Leaf Winnower.

Cool Pox callback here. Menace and deathtouch make this really hard to block. I disagree that Gary is better. This body is far better, has evasion, blocks like a champ, and doesn't require setup like Gary does. The symmetry is tough, especially without much cube-worthy lifegain in black. But the body and evasion more than makes up for that, to me.

This is cool, and it's good, but it's just shy of being good enough for most cubes. It goes on top of the many other black fives at similar level. I definitely prefer Gary, but the merchant is my favorite Magic card since Birthing Pod, so I'm biased.

A 4/4 menace deathtouch is quite a body, so this is not to be underestimated. It's definitely powerful enough for a cube like mine, but isn't enough to conquer the weak slot in small cubes.

Name, P/T and casting cost confirmed.

Does dire fleet ravagers ability when he is summoned affect planeswalkers?

Does dire fleet ravagers ability affect planeswalkers when he is summoned

No, it's lifeloss, not damage. If it was damage, it could be redirected to a Planeswalker. Lifeloss can't be redirected.

Quote from jamis »

If it was damage, it could be redirected to a Planeswalker.

Haven't they changed that, or has it not come into effect yet? I was under the impression you could no longer redirect damage, although I haven't applied it to my cube.

They haven't gone into the details of what that change might look like. Right now, everything still redirects.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

They haven't gone into the details of what that change might look like. Right now, everything still redirects.

Where can we find info about it? Has WotC released an anticle about that potential change to the game?

Nope. I've been trying to pry it from my contacts inside WotC and have gotten nothing. They're being super secretive about this upcoming change.