Probably not the most competitive creature, but it looks like a really fun target to strap a Lightning Greaves to!
A beatdown midrange deck with a lot of 3 & 4 power mid-cost creatures could get this thing to the table for 3GG pretty reliably though, and it could be worth considering ...maybe? IDK.
It's probably relegated to just cube managers that go really deep on the Fires subtheme. It's pretty rowdy if you can gift it haste somehow.
Elder Dinosaur being awesome aside, it’s not a great fattie to cheat into play and it’s a very win-more card if you’re casting this for a reasonable amount of mana. I’d consider it if it had an ETB trigger of gain 20 life or something.
Some things are too big and dumb for their own good...
It really comes down to how much it will cost on average and by which turn. If it was regularly 3GG, that would be incredible even without a fires subtheme as it's friggin huge for that cost.
The card seems to live or die with how well your match up as at its base--if your opponent is dealing with all your creatures, then Ghalta will sit in your hand forever, but if they're not interacting it's a pretty fast clock and while that could be 'win more' it can also be breaking a stalemate if you have creatures that can't attack through. I imagine there aren't too many boards where your opponents live for more than a turn or two after untapping, even clogged ones.
But, not interacting is *a lot* to ask of a cube match up. So while I'm not counting out the eldersaur completely, I'm more pessimistic than anything about its outlook.
At minimum, its always exciting to get back into spoiler season.
Now that's a big chicken. Requiring a board presence is not an easy thing to do. Post-wrath, this looks pretty bleak in your hand. Being as it is actually just big and stupid, it's probably not going to make many cubes, but I'd try it in mine. If you have three or more creatures out, this is probably cheap and sweet. Otherwise, it's in your hand, and it's worse than Keldon Warlord.
Pass. Generating 7-8 power on board in my first 3-4 turns will hopefully win me the game anyway, and if it doesn't it's probably because I'm about to get board wiped. Adding this behind that early unanswered curve probably doesn't help, since it can't protect itself. Makes me sad, because I love the full-art foil rare promos (e.g. Glorybringer) and this one's not good enough.
I wonder if this will be a mechanic? I would be interested in a 5GG 5/5 trampler with this ability, but maybe that would be too good other formats, 4GG doesnt see printable.
Too many spots where it will be un-castable and the pay-off/upside isn't worth the risk.
Begs you to over-extend into wraths, doesnt end the game on the spot when you do, and is vulnerable to removal.
Not a BAD card, but compared to other curve toppers it's got a long way to go... With the fires archetype, it basically requires another fatty on the board to reach it's potential. The weakness of that archetype is in it's fragility to removal, lack of a card advantage and awkward curves. This card exacerbates all those issues, without making up for it in explosiveness (requires you to have another fatty in play, which might already be winning the game itself).
Probably not the most competitive creature, but it looks like a really fun target to strap a Lightning Greaves to!
A beatdown midrange deck with a lot of 3 & 4 power mid-cost creatures could get this thing to the table for 3GG pretty reliably though, and it could be worth considering ...maybe? IDK.
It's probably relegated to just cube managers that go really deep on the Fires subtheme. It's pretty rowdy if you can gift it haste somehow.
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The card seems to live or die with how well your match up as at its base--if your opponent is dealing with all your creatures, then Ghalta will sit in your hand forever, but if they're not interacting it's a pretty fast clock and while that could be 'win more' it can also be breaking a stalemate if you have creatures that can't attack through. I imagine there aren't too many boards where your opponents live for more than a turn or two after untapping, even clogged ones.
But, not interacting is *a lot* to ask of a cube match up. So while I'm not counting out the eldersaur completely, I'm more pessimistic than anything about its outlook.
At minimum, its always exciting to get back into spoiler season.
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Too many spots where it will be un-castable and the pay-off/upside isn't worth the risk.
Begs you to over-extend into wraths, doesnt end the game on the spot when you do, and is vulnerable to removal.
Not a BAD card, but compared to other curve toppers it's got a long way to go... With the fires archetype, it basically requires another fatty on the board to reach it's potential. The weakness of that archetype is in it's fragility to removal, lack of a card advantage and awkward curves. This card exacerbates all those issues, without making up for it in explosiveness (requires you to have another fatty in play, which might already be winning the game itself).
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edit: Nevermind, Regisaur Alpha is a 4/4, thought it was a 4/5. Wishful thinking.
It checks power, but either way it would come down as a 5 drop if both dinos lived i.e. it works.
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