Ilharg, the Raze-Boar - 3RR
Legendary Creature - Boar God
Trample
Whenever ~ attacks, you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. Return that creature to your hand at the beginning of the next end step.
When ~ dies or is put into exile from the battlefield, you may put it into its owner's library third from the top.
6/6
Is this worth running alongside Sneak Attack and Through the Breach? The lack of haste is my biggest problem with this card.
I'm torn. I don't really need another red 5-drop. However, the fact that this tucks itself when killed or exiled makes it a fairly unique threat that's resistant to white removal. I'm not convinced, but it's definitely piqued my interest. I'll probably jam it if I open one.
I think there's exactly one reason to include this card: you support a Fires of Yavimaya archetype. Without haste, it's not only the worst of the cheatty cards --- which we really don't *need* more of --- it isn't a good rate in other decks. It would be better to play Glorybringer or Thundermaw in that slot for most cubes.
However, if you have a lot of cards that grant haste to support the fires archetype, I think you can consider it. I have Rhythm of the Wild, Surrak Huntcaller, Lightning Mauler, and Lightning Greaves in my 540. And I'm still not sure it'll be great in my list.
Looks like a pretty good card. As previously stated, it avoids removal very well. This might not be a thing in standard, but I love it as an interesting commander.
Agreed on this being a major archetype piece for Fires. The nice thing about this as Sneak redundancy is that there’s almost no removal outside of countermagic that can deal with it forever, so your opponent will have to spend the rest of the game answering it every few turns to stop it from cheating in an Eldrazi. The not-so-nice thing is that it doesn’t give attack triggers, so no annihilator (poor you, attacking with a mere 15/15 flying trampler).
This falls into the Scarab God category for me: it’s just so efficiently costed and does so much with no downside that I can’t imagine there’s any world where it would be an objectively weak card in your cube, even if it isn’t the best thing you could be doing.
I'll probably want to include a few more haste sources to support this guy, which may be something I should have been doing anyway. I think having the ability on a 6/6 trampler for 5 is just great.
This guy is also great in Wildfire decks. Comes down a turn before it, survives it, and allows you to get around losing lands by cheating cards into play.
TBH, I see it as less of a Sneak-like card and more of a ramp + Wildfire card.
If this guy was green we'd all be snap-including him. But yea my red 5s are tight. I can't really see myself cutting any of them and I'm not 100% sure I need this guy, as cool as he is.
If this guy was green we'd all be snap-including him. But yea my red 5s are tight. I can't really see myself cutting any of them and I'm not 100% sure I need this guy, as cool as he is.
Yeah, like I think I'd have to cut Thundermaw for this, and I just don't see that being a good choice for me. It's a cool, resilient, card, but it's not as impactful as other options. Will it be good in wildfire? Probably. Will it be better than Thundermaw there? Probably not. And I feel like I can say that for every non-cheatty red archetype.
Half my cheating targets are 6-drops. Getting them out on time with added conditions isn’t exciting.
Red 5s without Haste or ETB just aren’t going to cut it.
Worst protection mechanic of Gods yet - when it dies, it still costs you a card, and it takes another 4 turns until you draw it, it attacks, and you get a trigger.
Think this is pretty good card in a few narrow archetypes. Uncuttable from a sneak attack deck, uncuttable from a large fires of yavimaya style archetype (not a thing in my cube) a low priority playable in a BR reanimator deck. Unplayable outside that.
Basically, it becomes a powerful card when the attack trigger becomes close to "Attack -> Win the game" a high % of the time.
The protection is.. nice, but a bit misleading. As it still trades down tempo/mana for 1 for 1 removal by an awful amount. However, the protection does make it less likely an eldrazi will get perma stuck in your hand.
That said, I don't think I want a red 5 drop that's only at best a solid playable in niche strategies. But if I owned a large cube and was struggling with redundancy of sneak attack enablers, I would strongly consider testing it.
A chance I test it anyway, but at the moment I don't plan to.
Also, TIMMYYY
Edit: My playgroup loves this card (in theory), so I'll be testing it. But they are probably influenced by The Timmyness of it all.
I think the card is good. Good stats for the cost, a powerful ability that can be used in a variety of ways, and some protection from removal for when you're playing a threat-light deck. Not amazing, but something I'm certainly considering testing. I don't think it needs to be built around or support a Fires archetype to be good. It's a great card for Wildfire decks as it is, and since that's a widely played archetype in my group, the huge body on the 5-drop is appealing to me. I think there are niche decks where he'll be amazing, but I think he's being undervalued as a random 5-drop for red decks that play 5-drops. It's just a good card.
Cool card. The recursion is pretty slow though, and the competition is beyond steep. Emissary of Grudges looking from the outside into my cube just shows how much competition there is on red's high end cmc spells.
I definitely think this guy is playable in non cheatyface archetypes just because of the random value he can generate from his sneak attack ability. You don’t need to drop in a Griselbrand, Flametongue Kavu or even Reclamation Sage could be plenty good. I just don’t want to cut Thundermaw, Conscripts, or Siege Gang for this. Now that I think of it I’m also running Glory Bringer so that could be a possible cut. I’ve been able to support four red 5s in my 540 without issue.
I've been thinking about adding more Fires archetype cards and he seems to fit there quite well. More than the dudes you might want with a Sneak Attack, I think his best friends are more like Verdurous Gearhulk, Thragtusk, and other midrange-y bois.
Oh man, dropping in a Gearhulk and then casting it after it bounces back to your hand would be pretty wild. Same goes for any creature with a strong EtB, of which there are many in cube.
EDIT - Derp, the creature goes back on the end step.
My group stopped playing kiki combo, so a red 5 just opened up for me (thank goodness, cause I was tired of working around it). I feel like if you are having success with Feldon of the Third Path, than this will likely be just as good... even with recognizing that the feldon comparison is a difference of whipping out a threat on turn 6 instead of turn 4(something that I think is this pigs only downside).
Plus! Having a 5 drop 6/6 trampler that can come back every few turns is the floor, that seems good
Give this riot or haste, combine with thragtusk or titan, and good times will be had. I think this would be great for gruul decks because threats that get answered leave the deck with nothing.
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Got in some testing with the Boar god and think he's the real deal.
He's not as archetype versatile as cards like thundermaw hellkite, but his upside is much higher.
Putting him in a deck that realizes his upside strikes me as fairly easy. Sneak attack decks, big GR decks or random decks that play red and have big creatures (and/or utility creatures that can create value) seem common enough. It may not be every draft, but I'd estimate 50%+ of drafts have a deck that fit this description, and would pick this card early.
I played against a GR sneak attack deck and both times boar daddy single-handedly won the game against my Jund agro midrange deck. One game I was fairly ahead, had 7 cards in hand from dark confidant and a wider battlefield. Opponent got to attack with the boar, putting in a sundering titan, blowing up all 6 of my lands and forcing me to trade off most of my board.
Other game I lost, my opponent had a library of alexandria and 7 cards. I died to the boar, but anything big would have killed me.
Most importantly, I found the card fun to play with. The suspense of "whats in my opponent's hand?" is exciting. His attack might win the game on the spot or you may have up to 2+ more turns to answer it.
Tiny sample, but I'm 95%+ convinced it's sticking around.
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar - 3RR
Legendary Creature - Boar God
Trample
Whenever ~ attacks, you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. Return that creature to your hand at the beginning of the next end step.
When ~ dies or is put into exile from the battlefield, you may put it into its owner's library third from the top.
6/6
Is this worth running alongside Sneak Attack and Through the Breach? The lack of haste is my biggest problem with this card.
EDIT: Also, it's a 6/6, not a 5/5.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
However, if you have a lot of cards that grant haste to support the fires archetype, I think you can consider it. I have Rhythm of the Wild, Surrak Huntcaller, Lightning Mauler, and Lightning Greaves in my 540. And I'm still not sure it'll be great in my list.
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This falls into the Scarab God category for me: it’s just so efficiently costed and does so much with no downside that I can’t imagine there’s any world where it would be an objectively weak card in your cube, even if it isn’t the best thing you could be doing.
Cubetutor Link
TBH, I see it as less of a Sneak-like card and more of a ramp + Wildfire card.
Yeah, like I think I'd have to cut Thundermaw for this, and I just don't see that being a good choice for me. It's a cool, resilient, card, but it's not as impactful as other options. Will it be good in wildfire? Probably. Will it be better than Thundermaw there? Probably not. And I feel like I can say that for every non-cheatty red archetype.
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Think this is pretty good card in a few narrow archetypes. Uncuttable from a sneak attack deck, uncuttable from a large fires of yavimaya style archetype (not a thing in my cube) a low priority playable in a BR reanimator deck. Unplayable outside that.
Basically, it becomes a powerful card when the attack trigger becomes close to "Attack -> Win the game" a high % of the time.
The protection is.. nice, but a bit misleading. As it still trades down tempo/mana for 1 for 1 removal by an awful amount. However, the protection does make it less likely an eldrazi will get perma stuck in your hand.
That said, I don't think I want a red 5 drop that's only at best a solid playable in niche strategies. But if I owned a large cube and was struggling with redundancy of sneak attack enablers, I would strongly consider testing it.
A chance I test it anyway, but at the moment I don't plan to.
Also, TIMMYYY
Edit: My playgroup loves this card (in theory), so I'll be testing it. But they are probably influenced by The Timmyness of it all.
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EDIT - Derp, the creature goes back on the end step.
Plus! Having a 5 drop 6/6 trampler that can come back every few turns is the floor, that seems good
Great timing for my cube
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He's not as archetype versatile as cards like thundermaw hellkite, but his upside is much higher.
Putting him in a deck that realizes his upside strikes me as fairly easy. Sneak attack decks, big GR decks or random decks that play red and have big creatures (and/or utility creatures that can create value) seem common enough. It may not be every draft, but I'd estimate 50%+ of drafts have a deck that fit this description, and would pick this card early.
I played against a GR sneak attack deck and both times boar daddy single-handedly won the game against my Jund agro midrange deck. One game I was fairly ahead, had 7 cards in hand from dark confidant and a wider battlefield. Opponent got to attack with the boar, putting in a sundering titan, blowing up all 6 of my lands and forcing me to trade off most of my board.
Other game I lost, my opponent had a library of alexandria and 7 cards. I died to the boar, but anything big would have killed me.
Most importantly, I found the card fun to play with. The suspense of "whats in my opponent's hand?" is exciting. His attack might win the game on the spot or you may have up to 2+ more turns to answer it.
Tiny sample, but I'm 95%+ convinced it's sticking around.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
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