If this somehow gave the token if I had ever drawn an Elf or a Shaman, that might be one thing. This needs it to be the exact card that's on the top of your deck.
Even if all my creatures were elf/shaman, which they won't be, it could still be a land, or an enchantment, or a sorcery.
Now I don't really know if he gets there, I'm leaning no, but on the plus side he does get pumped by your Temporal Isolation / Pacifism type effects.
Still, if when you Bestow him he can average a 3/3 griffin-guide aura for 4, he's not TERRIBLE, and it's always fun to just play Cloudgoat ranger or some white token spell with him and swing, I just don't like that's he's a 1/1 without the persistence effect on an empty board.
1GG
Enchantment Creature — Centaur
2/4
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may play the top card of your library if it's a land card.
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 1 life.
Choice between Ramp that comes with a sometimes-evasive 2/1 body and interacts with blink, or a guaranteed unblockable 2/1 that ramps your opponent by 1 as a late-game option.
Are the stats on the body good enough? I'm thinking of her primarily as a Ramp spell with some side options/bonuses.
I like Fear more, and they could technically still use it, right? It's not exactly the same.
Based on their attitude with Hexproof and Shroud, I doubt they really want to have a lot of "almost the same but a little different" abilities still in print at the same time.
Here is where I find this guy surprisingly interesting:
Let's pretend we look through our cube and find that we have no (or very, very close to no) X/2's that can block this guy without first/double-strike.
If that's the case, how does he compare to a 2/1 baseline agro guy for black?
Well, he'll always do at least 2 damage on the attack, so he'll always do at least as much damage as that 2/1 guy. In fact, he's actually swinging for 3 points a turn, you're just only able to block 1 of it (which is a 9 damage by turn 5 clock). So we're swinging for 3 points of damage a turn with our 2-drop, a great deal for black, but when is that not strictly better than an 2/1? When they block with an X/2 without first-strike or double-strike, because then we miss out on the trade we would have gotten (for the record, this X has to be 1 or higher, otherwise even being blocked it's out-performing that 2/1, and since it has to block us, we're ignoring creatures with Shadow). Remember our assumption though, that we don't find any X/2's missing X-strike and/or Shadow (this is our 'upper limit', basically). So, what we found is that he's a black 2-drop that swings for 3 a turn, most of which is unblockable, that's strictly better than an attacking 2/1 body in our environment - that's both reach and high numbers, something black agro really craves.
But here's the thing, it only gets better from here. It also has a split-card version that we can dump mana into if we're flooding a bit more than we'd like. This version of the creature is incredibly resilient, effectively has haste, and has all the flexibility of joining the combat of the creature of our choice, and is providing a lot of reach for black given our resilient unblockable damage. This is mode is all a bonus, but it gives us an option past a blocker we don't like by being an aura on an evasion creature, or even using its resiliency to get in at least 4 points of reach even in the worst case scenario of being walled each turn, assuming the power boost on the base creature isn't enough to take down the blocker anyways, all without the usual card disadvantage that comes with the flexibility and haste of creature auras.
On top of all this, he's a Zombie.
So, in the limit that we have no X/2's without first strike or double strike that can block this guy, this guy is strictly better than a 2/1 on the offense, swings for 3 a turn, is a great form of reach as most of it is completely unblockable (compare to the output of a 2/1 black flyer) and has a secondary super-resilient haste mode.
Guys, he's a pseudo 3/1 pseudo evasion for 2 mana with an extra card mode but for the absence of X/2's without first-strike. So the question is ... how many X/2's that can block him without first-strike/double-strike do you got?
Looking through cube guys, I found VERY few X/2's without Shadow, First-Strike, or Double Strike. So how many do you run? Thing is, Cube tends to be an environment with a lot of 2/1's, and the few X/2's it has ... well, they tend to have Shadow, First-Strike, or Double-Strike (And even when that creature he'd miss the trade on IS there, hey, sometimes that's mitigated by his second card-mode anyways)
I actually think this guy is playable in an environment without his one big problem - blocking X/2's without X-Strike. Not necessarily super-good, but respectable past the point of the inclusion of all the staple black agro guys, and if you're both running black agro and pushing Zombies, I think he's a fun little option.
At least that's how he looks to me, but what do I know?
Oh someone please, please tell me a UU2 Bounce All Creatures Sorcery is remotely, kind-of, bottom of the barrel, compromisingly playable.
Because if it's anywhere high enough to be worth main-decking just occasionally if its included I ... I just really want to play this with Mirror Entity just once. Even if this card doesn't end up playable, I have to say I really approve of putting the creature type on the 'other side' of the card effect, rather than more rarely playable tribal stuff that only makes sense in super linear builds. I just approve of this type of design so much.
Whelming Wave is flavorful, but very, VERY specialized...
It's a card that basically says "Bounce Everything". You know you don't need to play with any Krakens to use it, right?
How many times has the person across from you in any Standard event summoned an Octopus? It's not like linear tribal (although you could use it in a similar way if you want).
It's more like the bounce-everything version of Rend Flesh, which is honestly how I want to see them use creature types ... rather than more Goblin Lords, and Minotaur Lords, and Cat Lords ...
Seriously, this is exactly what I want to see creature types used for.
Not +1/+1 lords, but flavorful 'holes' in what creatures certain cards can effect.
Even if all my creatures were elf/shaman, which they won't be, it could still be a land, or an enchantment, or a sorcery.
If it's close how well he fits into my archetypes might push him over for me, but ... is he really that close?
Still, if when you Bestow him he can average a 3/3 griffin-guide aura for 4, he's not TERRIBLE, and it's always fun to just play Cloudgoat ranger or some white token spell with him and swing, I just don't like that's he's a 1/1 without the persistence effect on an empty board.
1GG
Enchantment Creature — Centaur
2/4
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may play the top card of your library if it's a land card.
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 1 life.
How playable is this?
Image leeching replaced. Warning issued.
—Lanxal
Choice between Ramp that comes with a sometimes-evasive 2/1 body and interacts with blink, or a guaranteed unblockable 2/1 that ramps your opponent by 1 as a late-game option.
Are the stats on the body good enough? I'm thinking of her primarily as a Ramp spell with some side options/bonuses.
Based on their attitude with Hexproof and Shroud, I doubt they really want to have a lot of "almost the same but a little different" abilities still in print at the same time.
Yeah, but for those of us with Tribal concerns, they're not Zom ... wait, hold the phone.
Let's pretend we look through our cube and find that we have no (or very, very close to no) X/2's that can block this guy without first/double-strike.
If that's the case, how does he compare to a 2/1 baseline agro guy for black?
Well, he'll always do at least 2 damage on the attack, so he'll always do at least as much damage as that 2/1 guy. In fact, he's actually swinging for 3 points a turn, you're just only able to block 1 of it (which is a 9 damage by turn 5 clock). So we're swinging for 3 points of damage a turn with our 2-drop, a great deal for black, but when is that not strictly better than an 2/1? When they block with an X/2 without first-strike or double-strike, because then we miss out on the trade we would have gotten (for the record, this X has to be 1 or higher, otherwise even being blocked it's out-performing that 2/1, and since it has to block us, we're ignoring creatures with Shadow). Remember our assumption though, that we don't find any X/2's missing X-strike and/or Shadow (this is our 'upper limit', basically). So, what we found is that he's a black 2-drop that swings for 3 a turn, most of which is unblockable, that's strictly better than an attacking 2/1 body in our environment - that's both reach and high numbers, something black agro really craves.
But here's the thing, it only gets better from here. It also has a split-card version that we can dump mana into if we're flooding a bit more than we'd like. This version of the creature is incredibly resilient, effectively has haste, and has all the flexibility of joining the combat of the creature of our choice, and is providing a lot of reach for black given our resilient unblockable damage. This is mode is all a bonus, but it gives us an option past a blocker we don't like by being an aura on an evasion creature, or even using its resiliency to get in at least 4 points of reach even in the worst case scenario of being walled each turn, assuming the power boost on the base creature isn't enough to take down the blocker anyways, all without the usual card disadvantage that comes with the flexibility and haste of creature auras.
On top of all this, he's a Zombie.
So, in the limit that we have no X/2's without first strike or double strike that can block this guy, this guy is strictly better than a 2/1 on the offense, swings for 3 a turn, is a great form of reach as most of it is completely unblockable (compare to the output of a 2/1 black flyer) and has a secondary super-resilient haste mode.
Guys, he's a pseudo 3/1 pseudo evasion for 2 mana with an extra card mode but for the absence of X/2's without first-strike. So the question is ... how many X/2's that can block him without first-strike/double-strike do you got?
Looking through cube guys, I found VERY few X/2's without Shadow, First-Strike, or Double Strike. So how many do you run? Thing is, Cube tends to be an environment with a lot of 2/1's, and the few X/2's it has ... well, they tend to have Shadow, First-Strike, or Double-Strike (And even when that creature he'd miss the trade on IS there, hey, sometimes that's mitigated by his second card-mode anyways)
I actually think this guy is playable in an environment without his one big problem - blocking X/2's without X-Strike. Not necessarily super-good, but respectable past the point of the inclusion of all the staple black agro guys, and if you're both running black agro and pushing Zombies, I think he's a fun little option.
At least that's how he looks to me, but what do I know?
Hey, sometimes you get beached.
Because he goes with the flow. P)
Oh someone please, please tell me a UU2 Bounce All Creatures Sorcery is remotely, kind-of, bottom of the barrel, compromisingly playable.
Because if it's anywhere high enough to be worth main-decking just occasionally if its included I ... I just really want to play this with Mirror Entity just once. Even if this card doesn't end up playable, I have to say I really approve of putting the creature type on the 'other side' of the card effect, rather than more rarely playable tribal stuff that only makes sense in super linear builds. I just approve of this type of design so much.
Entirely
It's a card that basically says "Bounce Everything". You know you don't need to play with any Krakens to use it, right?
How many times has the person across from you in any Standard event summoned an Octopus? It's not like linear tribal (although you could use it in a similar way if you want).
It's more like the bounce-everything version of Rend Flesh, which is honestly how I want to see them use creature types ... rather than more Goblin Lords, and Minotaur Lords, and Cat Lords ...
Seriously, this is exactly what I want to see creature types used for.
Not +1/+1 lords, but flavorful 'holes' in what creatures certain cards can effect.
I'm ... I'm ecstatic.
I was half sure that this was a joke thread with a made-up card name.
Now I'm caught up.