I am surprised there is not a thread on him. Seems good to me (I am a 720 unpowered cube with a 8 slot per guild section so maybe I am not the norm). Seems like a top tier Boros card though. Haste with an added +1/+1 counter on something and has a relevant ability to stop damage outside of combat. I like it better than reckoner. I think it is worse than Ajani, Charm and Helix and maybe? new boros angel. Seems very good to me though.
I really wanted a red three drop with haste and mentor but it arrived with white in its casting cost. Is this non-evasive 3/2 good enough for people's Boros sections?
I like the idea of having a 3 drop haste creature in boros with upside. Having the first strike be an activated ability is probably going to kill it but you are adding a lot of damage to the board. The noncombat clause is flavor text to me.
The non-combat damage seems good against wildfire decks specifically and random red hosers that pick off multiple creatures (i.e. arc lightning and the like).
I think this guy is quite good. As long as the mentor trigger is relevant, he's one of the fastest clocks in the game. Haste + mentor is a good combination, and later on down the road when the board gets congested, the first strike trigger will be quite relevant. Not to mention the protection he randomly gives your team from Bolts, 'Quakes and Wildfires. I will be testing this guy out, and I expect him to perform well enough to earn a slot in my 4-card Boros section.
Wow, wtwlf123, that's high praise. Personally I like the look of new Aurelia more on paper, but I have a nagging suspicion that my boros decks could benefit more from an aggressive 3 drop than an aggressive 4 drop. I highly doubt I'd be able to find space for both Tajic and Aurelia.
This card is very good. Swinging for 4 on t3 and allowing your small creatures to attack into larger ones is a big deal, and the threat of activation with first strike means that it's very difficult to block. I'll be playing it and I expect it to do quite well. The prevention ability is just gravy. Boros Charm will be my cut.
Aurelia strikes me as mediocre almost everywhere. A 4/5 with only half haste doesn't cut it for Boros aggro these days (not to mention the 4 cmc slot is ridiculously packed for both colors), and the vanilla-ness makes it a miss for control decks. I think that Tajic is much better, if more narrow.
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This card is very good. Swinging for 4 on t3 and allowing your small creatures to attack into larger ones is a big deal, and the threat of activation with first strike means that it's very difficult to block. I'll be playing it and I expect it to do quite well. The prevention ability is just gravy. Boros Charm will be my cut.
You and I are in the same boat my friend.
I like the lingering nature of his presence too. Adding a +1/+1 counter to my random flyer might just be enough to get me there even after he's gone.
I am afraid it will just always die the turn it is cast. It trades with everything so you do get to leave a 1/+1 counter. Not sure if it is worth a guild slot but will be interested in experiences.
Well, don't attack with it into things that will kill it then. It has haste and can gain first strike ...so wait for the right window and don't make poor attacking decisions.
If I didn't have 4 incredibly good 3 drops with simmilar upsides and downsides that cost 2R, I'd be very interested in this card.
This is a messed up clock when you have the advantage and have another creature out. It closes games fasttt...
Probably need to test it to see how it compares.. On first evaluation I prefer aurelia because, despite being a slower clock, is much better in WR's bad matchups and can see play outside of agro. She's a clock by herself almost no matter what the board state, and can slow down the counter attack of any midrange deck.. whereas this guy is a very dependent on the board state.
Boros charm also has the advantage of being good despite the board state, and it's damage rate is unprecedented.
I think only having 2 toughness, and not just having first strike without having to pay a lot of mana for it kills this card. I'll be interested in how other people's testing goes, but I'm not expecting much.
As others have mentioned mentor/haste is a good combo, and I personally like that it's a soldier and not a knight.
You'll rarely ever have to pay for the first strike. If you play your spells post-combat, your open mana that can threaten the first strike activation will be enough to prevent the opponent from blocking it. If they do block, I can pay 2-mana to kill their creature, still get my Mentor trigger, and feel more than fine with the exchange. My guess is that it'll be really rare that I have to pay any mana to give it first strike, and it will freely be able to attack into creatures with 3 or less toughness without any issues.
But that is the thing. The whole reason that this guy is good is the haste. So a lot of value is being able to attack on turn 3 when you have already used all your mana and it dies to almost all the 1-2 drops in the cube. Not saying it is bad and in fact I want to prove myself wrong but the bar for me is for it to be better than Ahn-Crop Crasher and Goblin Heelcutter. These seem to fit in a very similar slot (getting in extra damage and getting through with the blocking stopping vs mentor and first stike). Those cards are mono colored and don't make the cut but are pretty good hasty 3 drops.
The whole reason that this guy is good is the haste.
Actually, his damage output numbers are up there, even if you're forced to wait. He represents a lot of damage.
The problem with a lot of other 2-toughness 3-drops is that the opponent has an opportunity to play out a utility blocker on their turn, and then it gets stonewalled. This creature doesn't have that problem. Unless they have an immediate blocker, he punches through. And if they do have a blocker, you just wait and attack on the following turn, or play it later in the curve. Even if you do have to wait, the clock is still faster than any other 3-drop you'd be playing instead of this, and most of those have the same issue with getting tangled in combat. Except Tajic has a built-in way to navigate through the muck on subsequent turns. It wouldn't surprise me if this ended up being Rabblemaster-esque in terms of clock, while also having a built-in way to wade through blockers. I expect this creature to be really good.
Goblin Rabblemaster is pretty miserable when facing down an opponent's Grizzly Bears that's ready and able to block on T3 too guys. Tajic is worse in a completely uncontested scenario and in windows where the Mentor can't trigger, but it's far better on congested boards as the game progresses, has more impact in its first few swings, is a much better topdeck and provides some ancillary protections against damage. And joins the upper-echelon of creatures that provide a fast clock. If you have a place to dump the Mentor counters, his clock is absurdly fast and efficient.
I don't know what the ceiling is on 3-drops that can run away with the game, but I aim to find out.
Goblin Rabblemaster is pretty miserable when facing down an opponent's Grizzly Bears that's ready and able to block on T3 too guys. Tajic is worse in a completely uncontested scenario and in windows where the Mentor can't trigger, but it's far better on congested boards as the game progresses, has more impact in its first few swings, is a much better topdeck and provides some ancillary protections against damage. And joins the upper-echelon of creatures that provide a fast clock. If you have a place to dump the Mentor counters, his clock is absurdly fast and efficient.
I don't know what the ceiling is on 3-drops that can run away with the game, but I aim to find out.
It depends a fair bit on your cube environment.... Tajic needs a supporting cast of creatures to excel, so it requires a deck with a fair number of early creatures and ideally those creatures aren't frequently trading off or getting killed. How often creatures die early is a function of the environment.
Tajic is all about those games where you are curving out, and applying maximum pressure. In conjunction with a strong creature curve, he puts the nail in the coffin as well as any creature i've ever seen.
While it doesn't come close to rabblemaster as a stand-alone threat or in attrition heavy games, it's not bad by itself.. unlike say a silverblade paladin.
Overall I expect his dependency on other creatures to make him worse than the 4 horse-goblin-warrior-men of 2R, but not by much..
A smorgasboard of abilities on a pushed dude, I like it more and more the longer I think about it. It would be a nice follow-up to something like Adorned Pouncer, as a Mentor counter dump.
I think I like this slightly more than Aurelia and will try Tajic out over Charm. The Boltproofing clause would feel less like flavour text were the card non-red, since you're still going to be mopping up several burn spells in draft, but I do expect it to be impactful. It does hit the odd colourless card in addition to a huge number of red burn spells. And a fair few R/x planeswalkers will struggle to protect against him too.
Besides regular red burn, Tajic is good protection against earthquake variants and walking ballista. I wish this was a mono-red card but if this is what we get I'll try it out over boros charm and take it from there.
Yeah, protecting against red sweepers might seem like flavor text, but it's not...
It will happen rarely, but when it matters, it will mean the difference between winning and losing the game.
Edit: Damn, just realized it doesn't specify oppenent's non-creature damage! Makes him work well with your OWN earthquake/rolling earthquake, at least in sideboard games against creature decks.
Seems like a pretty incredible sideboard interaction at minimum.
Fiery confluence, all creatures take 1 damage (protecting your own x'1's, killing opponents), things like that.
Yeah, the first place my mind went when I saw the spoiler was to a janky Earthquake based commander build. It's a weird ability.
do it... Anything that will get more people blasphemous acting with boros reckoner, I encourage! Though I guess it's a nonbo when they are both on the battlefield
Aurelia goes in more decks, but this guy is better in what I think are the best boros decks.
HMMMM
Given that I think he and Aurelia are the #4 and #5, I guess I'll need to test both. I don't think either of these cards are better than boros charm, figure, or Ajani, so they'll be duking it out for a spot for me.
Yeah, the first place my mind went when I saw the spoiler was to a janky Earthquake based commander build. It's a weird ability.
do it... Anything that will get more people blasphemous acting with boros reckoner, I encourage! Though I guess it's a nonbo when they are both on the battlefield
It's a weird ability, but original Ravnica Boros specifically has had the ability to prevent damage to its own creatures with Light of Sanction, so it's at least on-theme.
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Aurelia strikes me as mediocre almost everywhere. A 4/5 with only half haste doesn't cut it for Boros aggro these days (not to mention the 4 cmc slot is ridiculously packed for both colors), and the vanilla-ness makes it a miss for control decks. I think that Tajic is much better, if more narrow.
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You and I are in the same boat my friend.
I like the lingering nature of his presence too. Adding a +1/+1 counter to my random flyer might just be enough to get me there even after he's gone.
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This is a messed up clock when you have the advantage and have another creature out. It closes games fasttt...
Probably need to test it to see how it compares.. On first evaluation I prefer aurelia because, despite being a slower clock, is much better in WR's bad matchups and can see play outside of agro. She's a clock by herself almost no matter what the board state, and can slow down the counter attack of any midrange deck.. whereas this guy is a very dependent on the board state.
Boros charm also has the advantage of being good despite the board state, and it's damage rate is unprecedented.
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As others have mentioned mentor/haste is a good combo, and I personally like that it's a soldier and not a knight.
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Actually, his damage output numbers are up there, even if you're forced to wait. He represents a lot of damage.
The problem with a lot of other 2-toughness 3-drops is that the opponent has an opportunity to play out a utility blocker on their turn, and then it gets stonewalled. This creature doesn't have that problem. Unless they have an immediate blocker, he punches through. And if they do have a blocker, you just wait and attack on the following turn, or play it later in the curve. Even if you do have to wait, the clock is still faster than any other 3-drop you'd be playing instead of this, and most of those have the same issue with getting tangled in combat. Except Tajic has a built-in way to navigate through the muck on subsequent turns. It wouldn't surprise me if this ended up being Rabblemaster-esque in terms of clock, while also having a built-in way to wade through blockers. I expect this creature to be really good.
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I don't know what the ceiling is on 3-drops that can run away with the game, but I aim to find out.
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It depends a fair bit on your cube environment.... Tajic needs a supporting cast of creatures to excel, so it requires a deck with a fair number of early creatures and ideally those creatures aren't frequently trading off or getting killed. How often creatures die early is a function of the environment.
Tajic is all about those games where you are curving out, and applying maximum pressure. In conjunction with a strong creature curve, he puts the nail in the coffin as well as any creature i've ever seen.
While it doesn't come close to rabblemaster as a stand-alone threat or in attrition heavy games, it's not bad by itself.. unlike say a silverblade paladin.
Overall I expect his dependency on other creatures to make him worse than the 4 horse-goblin-warrior-men of 2R, but not by much..
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I think I like this slightly more than Aurelia and will try Tajic out over Charm. The Boltproofing clause would feel less like flavour text were the card non-red, since you're still going to be mopping up several burn spells in draft, but I do expect it to be impactful. It does hit the odd colourless card in addition to a huge number of red burn spells. And a fair few R/x planeswalkers will struggle to protect against him too.
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It will happen rarely, but when it matters, it will mean the difference between winning and losing the game.
Edit: Damn, just realized it doesn't specify oppenent's non-creature damage! Makes him work well with your OWN earthquake/rolling earthquake, at least in sideboard games against creature decks.
Seems like a pretty incredible sideboard interaction at minimum.
Fiery confluence, all creatures take 1 damage (protecting your own x'1's, killing opponents), things like that.
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do it... Anything that will get more people blasphemous acting with boros reckoner, I encourage! Though I guess it's a nonbo when they are both on the battlefield
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HMMMM
Given that I think he and Aurelia are the #4 and #5, I guess I'll need to test both. I don't think either of these cards are better than boros charm, figure, or Ajani, so they'll be duking it out for a spot for me.
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