Interesting to me... splashable mana cost, menace + deathtouch is a strong combination for attacking and it some cool synergies with Red.
Flames of firebrand effects turn super lethal, bonfire becomes plague wind.
Even in a controlish deck, combining with fiery confluence/earthquake etc. is a full board wipe.
Not exciting without red, but also not an embarrassing playable... Perhaps the upside isn't frequent enough to justify a slot, but it's certainly there.
I think it’s okay. Menace + deathtouch is an interesting combination, but I don’t see myself playing this outside of an aggro deck, and you really need to be Rakdos to use the full potential of this card. I think there’s a lot of other 3-drops I’d rather play than this.
The body is really good, the effect is really good in a rakdos deck. Grixis midrange/control is an archetype that would love this card as well as rakdos aggro. I just feel like this is a rakdos card.
I agree with steve_man when he says this card is just too narrow. Yes, it synergizes well with red burn but outside of that I think it just doesn't do enough. The two toughness leaves the card vulnerable to many effects and makes the spirit a poor blocker confining it to aggressive decks. Yet, with no etb effect or haste it doesn't play the aggro role that well either. I'll enjoy this in RNA limited but it's a miss for me in Cube.
Black threes are pretty stacked at this point. 3/2 Menace Deathtouch is probably pretty good on its own, but I don't know if it can break in past even the bottom tier three drops like Hippy or Nighthawk.
This is unfortunately one of those cards that will shine in a specific constructed deck, but is too narrow to be in cube. Which is unfortunate because I really like the design of these sorts of cards that give spells a keyword. I wonder what we'll see in the future.
I will test this card in my powered cube, since rakdos needs to have a competitive theme. But it is not aggro, the not overwhelming aggro abilities are just not enough. but a midrangy control deck that can clear the board easily with splitable burnspells like Violent Eruption. This card can then be a nuisiance since in black you are able to protect it with discard spells and reanimator spells. also consistancy can be guaranteed through tutoring. The higher the cube level the worse aggro becomes in black/blue/green which is why cards like Vampire Nighthawk are just no good. black has acces to much better stuff. so the issue for me and the main reason to play this card is to define rakdos in powered.
Interesting to me... splashable mana cost, menace + deathtouch is a strong combination for attacking and it some cool synergies with Red.
Flames of firebrand effects turn super lethal, bonfire becomes plague wind.
Even in a controlish deck, combining with fiery confluence/earthquake etc. is a full board wipe.
Not exciting without red, but also not an embarrassing playable... Perhaps the upside isn't frequent enough to justify a slot, but it's certainly there.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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I really like the body though, menace ànd deathtouch is a really sweet combo.
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