MTG Salvation

Proven Combatant, I can see they're pushing the use of Embalmer's Tools for that cost reduction.

Still Slither Blade is better especially with The Scarab God

I can get behind using the 1/1 to pitch to the other for a "free" discard. With that said still isn't the best but it's not totally worthless.

Both look like decent limited cards. 1/1 for 1 is obviously awful, but giving you some gas in the late game, and a blocker for fending off aggression on a turn when you usually wouldn't be casting anything, is a decent package. Looks like about a LR C. The naga looks about the same to me - late-game, discarding doesn't mean too much, and being able to trade up (or hit harder) is also a bonus, but costing 3 is a big step down in efficiency.

Geez man, would that 1/1 REALLY have been broken if it had prowess?

Quote from Silver_Spellthief »

Geez man, would that 1/1 REALLY have been broken if it had prowess?

It would have cost more than one, at the very least

I think it could have used provoke, so you can force it into your grave if necessary. Don't think provoke would affect it's rarity or cost either.

Quote from CatParty »

I think it could have used provoke, so you can force it into your grave if necessary. Don't think provoke would affect it's rarity or cost either.

a 4/4 with provoke is a pretty nasty thing to deal with in limited. It'd probably be at least uncommon.

If you're trying to force this into your grave, it only doesn't work if your opponent doesn't want to attack on the ground and is willing to take 1 every turn to avoid giving it to you (or has a 0 power blocker). Seems pretty rare for that to be the case.

Quote from Vorthospike »

Decent limit fodder. I am surprised by how much eternalize costs. I mean it's card advantage and makes the creature stronger but so it Undying and those card didn't have crazy high mana costs.

Also Undying was much stronger due to the fact you could still get them back from the graveyard. Embalm and Eternalize are not very good imo. It's practically a "Limited only" ability.

Yeah, limited and maybe, just maybe, pauper. Honestly, when i saw the Fugitive Wizard with eternalize, I was like 'oh, that would be really cute value in Dimir Alchemy in pauper, but I'm not sure it's even worth playing there, it's so expensive!'.

This thread is kind of amusing. I agree with you all, but it's not like there's been printed bad cards before.
Let's think about the usefulness of Proven Combatant.
It's a stretch to use this in your limited deck. It kind of fills the same space as River Serpent except that drawing a card instant speed for U is usually better than creating a 1/1 creature, and the 4/4 is outmaneuvred by a bunch of creatures present in Amonkhet, such as the River Serpent itself and Colossapede.
The 1/1 will be more relevant with the "Leonin Scimitar" equipment, can trade with Warrior tokens and can chump. It doesn't have much offensive power, but that's not what it'll try to do. It's going to be an early game chump that gives you an additional card, a 4/4 for 4UU.
This isn't particularly potent, especially in a format where distributing -1/-1 counters offensively is not uncommon. Also, there aren't a lot of 1-toughness creatures in this format.
However, it has a few uses going for it.
1 You can use cards like Baleful Ammit to keep the Ammit big. It's immediate card disadvantage but has more board impact (which is important in Limited where having the right removal spells available is difficult). However you can make up for the lost creature if you get to six mana, where you'll then have parity.
2 4 power is quite relevant in HOD due to the presence of Eternalize. Of course this card is doing an uphill battle against other Eternalizers, but it isn't irrelevant.
3 It triggers Monuments for 1 blue.
4 Contrary to River Serpent, this card can have late game oomph even if you expended it early game.
Overall, I think the card is bad. But I'll keep an open mind. It might end up having corner case uses, like how Slither Blade works well with Cartouches and with not-Leonin Scimitar but is terrible in most other situations.

"I've been training all my life, and I'm a proven combatant."
(loses to a little cat.)

Quote from AEIOUsometimesY »

Quote from hippohugger »

Quote from AEIOUsometimesY »

Hey, it's the second monoblue Human Warrior in Magic's history after Talas Warrior! That's got to count for something, right? ...right?

You just made Phantom Warrior cry.

Ah, but Phantom Warrior is an Illusion Warrior!

Inb4 Turtleshell Changeling.