Wow! Is this card for real? I started to read the flavor text as if it was just regular text instinctually as I assumed there was a caveat, but nope--awesome card is awesome.
Is it better than Nekrataal though? Yes, it avoids the non-black and artifact weakness, but the first-strike has always been relevant. Xenomorph has a bigger body and -3 counters do work even if it doesn't kill. I will def cut something for this Death Doge, easy addition.
Probably will cut Yahenni's Expertise, black has enough wraths, esp. with Languish having been printed from Origins.
Is it better than Nekrataal though? Yes, it avoids the non-black and artifact weakness, but the first-strike has always been relevant. Xenomorph has a bigger body and -3 counters do work even if it doesn't kill. I will def cut something for this Death Doge, easy addition.
Probably will cut Yahenni's expertise for, black has enough wraths, esp. with Languish having being printed from Origins.
I value killing anything way more than FS. Also, having 2 toughness will come up some times as well, FS is prob better than the 2nd point of toughness but it's still something. I agree with others that you play them side by side, but if it was p1 and these two were in a pack and I wanted one it would be tough to take nekrataal over this.
I will be playing this. Not at the cost of Nekrataal, but in addition to. It's a good one. First card from this set I actually like for cubes.
I was thinking this as well, first thing I thought to cut was Nekrataal, but am very hesitant to let go of it and Xenomorph. Decided to find a cut elsewhere.
Chupacabra fixes all the problems Nekrataal has: targeting restrictions and can only hit your opponent’s creatures. First strike ain’t flavor text though. IMO, Chupacabra > Nekrataal > Skinrender.
My cut will probably also be Yahenni’s Expertise. Good card, but this is more useful. Currently loaded with Nekrataal effects though, especially since I play Hostage Taker / Palace Jailer.
FS is absolutely relevant, there are a lot of x/2s that nekrataal kills in combat that this would trade with. I agree that this is easily better, but FS makes it not a blow out since you have to keep playing magic after casting your 187 creature and the 2/1 FS body is much better than solely a 2/2.
Agreed on this being the first card I'm actually interested in for cube. I also don't think this replaces Nekrataal. The restrictions haven't been that detrimental, imo. You're the black player so finding targets isn't that difficult. Every now and then it does come up, but not often at all. Also first strike is huge. Nekrataal will sometimes kill a dude and then keep several others at bay because if that. I'll be finding room for this, but definitely not at the cost of cutting Nekrataal.
Very nice, I will try and find a cut for him but it might have to be Skinrender, it has been great for years but I don't think I want all my 4 drop black creatures to be kill spells and without any support for -1/-1 counters I'm afraid skinrender may have to go.
It's pretty amazing that this is an uncommon, I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they considered unconditional 4 mana removal a "rare" considering the their usual cost in recent limited sets.
My only gripe is the flavour, just feels a little under whelming when compared to the other 4 drops. Maybe it's because it's a fairly new folklore beast but it just doesn't do it for me. The art does nothing for me either, it feels like it could just as easily be a vanilla 2/2.
I will end up playing it though and refer to it as Gostsucker. Wait, are there even goats for it to suck on Ixalan? What does it name mean on Ixalan?
I was just looking at my list wishing I had another Black 4 drop creature, so thank you Universe!
@TheGroglord:
I looked up some alternate definitions and I’m pretty certain that, on Ixalan, the word chupacabra means “pelting rain on the outskirts of Dublin.” Thought you might wanna know that.
I dunno re:flavor, having a playable Chupacabra is pretty much the one thing I've always wanted from a magic card that I never knew I always wanted until now. You could not know what a chupacabra is and it's still awesome, it's really an amazing word to say.
Agreed on this being the first card I'm actually interested in for cube. I also don't think this replaces Nekrataal. The restrictions haven't been that detrimental, imo. You're the black player so finding targets isn't that difficult. Every now and then it does come up, but not often at all. Also first strike is huge. Nekrataal will sometimes kill a dude and then keep several others at bay because if that. I'll be finding room for this, but definitely not at the cost of cutting Nekrataal.
For what it's worth, I cut nekrataal ages ago (after many months of it coming in and out) and it was mainly due to over saturation of kill spells that cannot target black or artifact creatures.
There's almost always a deck in an 8 man that will have barely any creatures in their deck, but if they do, it's very likely an artifact creature.
Having multiple cards that are completely dead in a matchup is a brutal downside.
I haven't missed nekrataal at all, but definitely gonna be testing the chupacabra out and pretty happy about it.
Another pro vs nekrataal/skinrender is when you're playing B/X and you want to apply pressure but you can't because it'll kill your own creature, or with skenrender when you cant play it out into an empty board. I'll admit that this doesn't happen all that often, but it's happened enough to remember it and this guy skirts that negative quite easily.
right now the black 4 i am looking at cutting is vindictive lich. but is having nekrataal, and skinrender at cmc 4 and shriekmaw at cmc 5 too many of this effect to then add chupacabra?
lich is similar but gives some variety from the ETB kill a guy redundancy. nekrataal might be the better cut for variety's sake.
This is clearly good, but I'm not sure I really wanted another Nekrataal/ Skinrender. Nervertheless, it's a welcome enough addition to the game. I'll probably end up adding it whether I want to or not.
I like the card, Good chance I will cut skinrender or Nekrataal for this. Not sure which one yet. It is clearly an upgrade to both of them imo. It is hard to say which is better because much of the time they will perform similar to each other, and it is possible for certain match ups where 1 is really good and the other is awful. Will probably take me a while to decide which one.
For those who are replacing vs adding in-addition to Nek/Skin: is it because you have a threshold for that # of effect? A threshold for the cost? You can't find a cut anywhere else? Your cube is a certain size?
I'm at 405 and only play one 187 creature among black 4s. The other black 4s I play are Braids and Kalitas. Between Skinrender and Shriekmaw, I've got enough of that effect stapled to creatures. This will likely replace Skinrender, although I've also considered replacing Profane Command or something else.
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Yeah, at 360 I only run Shriekmaw and Skinreder. And I'm not convinced I want this over Skinrender. Certainly not over Shriekmaw. I've found Skinrender's 3/3 body is actually a respectable clock unlike a 2/2. Also Skinrender is a rare efficient answer to Glen Elendra Archmage, and to a lesser extent, Kitchen Finks. I've tended to always find that Skinrender does a good job killing things dead well enough that I don't know if Chupacabra's ability will make up for the smaller body and less unique effect. Not that I don't like Chupacabra or don't think it's great. I really like this card, I just don't see fitting it in at my cube's size.
For those who are replacing vs adding in-addition to Nek/Skin: is it because you have a threshold for that # of effect? A threshold for the cost? You can't find a cut anywhere else? Your cube is a certain size?
For me, if I end up running this, it's not because I have a specific threshold but I do feel like I have enough of this effect that, if I were to add more it would start to feel really boring/repetitive.
Something to note in comparison to skinrender is all the reveillark/alesha/recruiter synergies that Nekrataal has, this guy has as well. Again, not a huge thing, but absolutely a thing. Also, in terms of recursion, you're probably better off recurring this vs recurring skinrender since the latter will happily knock off your own guys.
Slam dunk, just need to figure out the cut.
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Probably will cut Yahenni's Expertise, black has enough wraths, esp. with Languish having been printed from Origins.
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I value killing anything way more than FS. Also, having 2 toughness will come up some times as well, FS is prob better than the 2nd point of toughness but it's still something. I agree with others that you play them side by side, but if it was p1 and these two were in a pack and I wanted one it would be tough to take nekrataal over this.
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I was thinking this as well, first thing I thought to cut was Nekrataal, but am very hesitant to let go of it and Xenomorph. Decided to find a cut elsewhere.
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My cut will probably also be Yahenni’s Expertise. Good card, but this is more useful. Currently loaded with Nekrataal effects though, especially since I play Hostage Taker / Palace Jailer.
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It's pretty amazing that this is an uncommon, I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they considered unconditional 4 mana removal a "rare" considering the their usual cost in recent limited sets.
My only gripe is the flavour, just feels a little under whelming when compared to the other 4 drops. Maybe it's because it's a fairly new folklore beast but it just doesn't do it for me. The art does nothing for me either, it feels like it could just as easily be a vanilla 2/2.
I will end up playing it though and refer to it as Gostsucker. Wait, are there even goats for it to suck on Ixalan? What does it name mean on Ixalan?
@TheGroglord:
I looked up some alternate definitions and I’m pretty certain that, on Ixalan, the word chupacabra means “pelting rain on the outskirts of Dublin.” Thought you might wanna know that.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
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For what it's worth, I cut nekrataal ages ago (after many months of it coming in and out) and it was mainly due to over saturation of kill spells that cannot target black or artifact creatures.
There's almost always a deck in an 8 man that will have barely any creatures in their deck, but if they do, it's very likely an artifact creature.
Having multiple cards that are completely dead in a matchup is a brutal downside.
I haven't missed nekrataal at all, but definitely gonna be testing the chupacabra out and pretty happy about it.
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lich is similar but gives some variety from the ETB kill a guy redundancy. nekrataal might be the better cut for variety's sake.
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For me, if I end up running this, it's not because I have a specific threshold but I do feel like I have enough of this effect that, if I were to add more it would start to feel really boring/repetitive.
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