While its true that it does nothing the turn it comes into play, once it is in play you get to swing with any non hast threat before the player who cast the threat can while at the same time removing that threat as a blocker. I have identity thief in play. I dare you to cast blightsteel colossus. I dare you to tooth and nail, polymorph, proteus staff, defense of the heart or whatever emrakul, the aeons torn into play (yes if they just cast it this doesn't work but most decks never cast it).
and yes, it can be used to recurrently blink your own creatures for enter the battlefield abilities.
Its a C- in my opinion.
Also, I don't think Decimator of the Provinces is anywhere near as good as you do. I don't see it doing anything that existing cards didn't already do better and for less mana. I don't understand why elfball would run it over joraga warcaller or why any tribal deck run it over coat of arms. I would take permanent +1/+1 flying and indestructible from eldrazi monument over temporary +2/+2 and trample from destroyer any day. Why any creature heavy deck even needs it if you already have beastmaster ascension confuses me. Why any deck with even medium sized creatures would run it over overwhelming stampede also confuses me, and as you point out Craterhoof Behemoth is better then it in almost any situation.
To me its a D at best.
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I was the guy playing the relentless rats deck back during mirrodin and kamigawa blocks. Yes, cranial extraction was used on me. No, I didn't win much. Yes, I do have a relentless rats edh deck. No, it doesn't win much either...
identity thief should not be an F in my opinion. Its a C- in my opinion.
For a card to score higher than an F I'd have to conceivably be able to play it in a deck and I would never put the card Identity Thief in one of my lists under any circumstances. After all, if I would literally never play a card myself then I don't feel comfortable recommending it. Does is have theoretical applications? Sure. Am I ever going to put a conditional 4 drop that's a bad blocker into my decks? No. I have to draw the line somewhere and if there's no scenario in which I put a card in a deck and reasonably expect that to be the "winning" line then it's an F.
Craterhoof Behemoth is like a $30.00 Magic card. A more powerful alternative is irrelevant if people can't afford to acquire them. Moreover, EDH/Cube are singleton formats and so you can't always run a critical mass of Craterhoofs.
Better cards to compare it to are Shaman of Forgotten Ways and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, the latter of which is criminally underrated as a finisher. Any finisher that doubles as a mass removal hoser is a huge game in my experience.
The card is an easy B to B+ in my mind because it will routinely kill players and/or win games for a single card and as little as 3 mana. I don't care if it's weaker than Craterhoof, I care that it's going to kill people and/or win games.
The highlight of each set release. Even as a purely Commander player there is so much to take away. The only card I disagree with is Mind's Dilation. In a vacuum the card is pretty great, but there are just so many ways to go around the effect: Sylvan Library, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and to a lesser extent Future Sight, Oracle of Mul Daya and the Theros scry lands for example. And Sensei's Divining Top. An early colorless drop, which has low opportunity costs and only emphasizes more and more to play the full grip of fetchlands (which I'm not happy about). Splendid Reclamation makes this matter even worse. I think the card just suffers greatly from the fact, that with enough $$$ Mind's Dilation is made considerably weaker without having to actually try.
The highlight of each set release. Even as a purely Commander player there is so much to take away. The only card I disagree with is Mind's Dilation. In a vacuum the card is pretty great, but there are just so many ways to go around the effect: Sylvan Library, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and to a lesser extent Future Sight, Oracle of Mul Daya and the Theros scry lands for example. And Sensei's Divining Top. An early colorless drop, which has low opportunity costs and only emphasizes more and more to play the full grip of fetchlands (which I'm not happy about). Splendid Reclamation makes this matter even worse. I think the card just suffers greatly from the fact, that with enough $$$ Mind's Dilation is made considerably weaker without having to actually try.
To give you an idea here's the last deck that I played in a "real" EDH event. Needless to say my turn 3 combo decks aren't looking to play a card like Mind's Dilation and so I totally understand where you're coming from. Not only is the card slow and vulnerable to removal but you can even "hate it out" to some extent with library manipulation. How, then can I justify giving it such a high grade?
The reality is that the majority of EDH players don't take the game especially seriously. Every deck isn't going to contain Top + Library even though they're staples and more importantly people aren't always going to be playing obnoxiously degenerate brews that they spent thousands of dollars building. With that in mind my argument isn't that MD will work for 100% of all players in 100% of all metas. Rather, I think of it as a card with very high-highs that doesn't carry a significant opportunity cost. For your 1-time investment of 1 card and 7 mana you have a powerful, permanent effect at your disposal. Can you mitigate its benefits? Yes. Can you easily remove it? Yes. Will it whiff a large % of the time? Absolutely. None of this changes the fact that in casual, grindy games this is an extremely powerful 7 drop that can conceivably win games on its own if left unchecked. Not "given enough time and access to 10, 000 mana Spikeshot Elder can win the game," more like "after 3-4 circuits I'll have an insurmountable advantage." I completely agree that it's not a must-have staple for 100% of Blue mages but from a "broad strokes" perspective this is where 95% of the playerbase wants to be. For the 5% who really care about winning at all costs and want to field nothing but <= 3 CMC bombs (my deck literally stops at 3 CMC w.r.t spells that it actually casts, everything that costs more is a combo card and/or an Unearth/Flashback spell) then you cam safely ignore it but otherwise I think that amazing even though some % of the time people will "get you" with their Tops and whatnot.
identity thief should not be an F in my opinion.
While its true that it does nothing the turn it comes into play, once it is in play you get to swing with any non hast threat before the player who cast the threat can while at the same time removing that threat as a blocker. I have identity thief in play. I dare you to cast blightsteel colossus. I dare you to tooth and nail, polymorph, proteus staff, defense of the heart or whatever emrakul, the aeons torn into play (yes if they just cast it this doesn't work but most decks never cast it).
It stops cards like, vigor primordial hydra, kalonian hydra, forgotten ancient, scavenging ooze, mycoloth from getting out of hand.
and yes, it can be used to recurrently blink your own creatures for enter the battlefield abilities.
Its a C- in my opinion.
Also, I don't think Decimator of the Provinces is anywhere near as good as you do. I don't see it doing anything that existing cards didn't already do better and for less mana. I don't understand why elfball would run it over joraga warcaller or why any tribal deck run it over coat of arms. I would take permanent +1/+1 flying and indestructible from eldrazi monument over temporary +2/+2 and trample from destroyer any day. Why any creature heavy deck even needs it if you already have beastmaster ascension confuses me. Why any deck with even medium sized creatures would run it over overwhelming stampede also confuses me, and as you point out Craterhoof Behemoth is better then it in almost any situation.
To me its a D at best.
For a card to score higher than an F I'd have to conceivably be able to play it in a deck and I would never put the card Identity Thief in one of my lists under any circumstances. After all, if I would literally never play a card myself then I don't feel comfortable recommending it. Does is have theoretical applications? Sure. Am I ever going to put a conditional 4 drop that's a bad blocker into my decks? No. I have to draw the line somewhere and if there's no scenario in which I put a card in a deck and reasonably expect that to be the "winning" line then it's an F.
Joraga Warcaller dies to Doom Blade mid combat and only effects Elves. That doesn't help my Prossh, Skyraider of Kher + Avenger of Zendikar deck and it's not even good in the Elf deck. Ezuri, Renegade Leader is fine because you can't blow him out but you never want to field a finisher that dies to Doom Blade.
Green can't tutor for Coat of Arms, Eldrazi Monument or Overwhelming Stampede and my Black revival spells can't recur them. I generally only care about finishers that I can easily interact with.
Craterhoof Behemoth is like a $30.00 Magic card. A more powerful alternative is irrelevant if people can't afford to acquire them. Moreover, EDH/Cube are singleton formats and so you can't always run a critical mass of Craterhoofs.
Better cards to compare it to are Shaman of Forgotten Ways and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, the latter of which is criminally underrated as a finisher. Any finisher that doubles as a mass removal hoser is a huge game in my experience.
The card is an easy B to B+ in my mind because it will routinely kill players and/or win games for a single card and as little as 3 mana. I don't care if it's weaker than Craterhoof, I care that it's going to kill people and/or win games.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
To give you an idea here's the last deck that I played in a "real" EDH event. Needless to say my turn 3 combo decks aren't looking to play a card like Mind's Dilation and so I totally understand where you're coming from. Not only is the card slow and vulnerable to removal but you can even "hate it out" to some extent with library manipulation. How, then can I justify giving it such a high grade?
The reality is that the majority of EDH players don't take the game especially seriously. Every deck isn't going to contain Top + Library even though they're staples and more importantly people aren't always going to be playing obnoxiously degenerate brews that they spent thousands of dollars building. With that in mind my argument isn't that MD will work for 100% of all players in 100% of all metas. Rather, I think of it as a card with very high-highs that doesn't carry a significant opportunity cost. For your 1-time investment of 1 card and 7 mana you have a powerful, permanent effect at your disposal. Can you mitigate its benefits? Yes. Can you easily remove it? Yes. Will it whiff a large % of the time? Absolutely. None of this changes the fact that in casual, grindy games this is an extremely powerful 7 drop that can conceivably win games on its own if left unchecked. Not "given enough time and access to 10, 000 mana Spikeshot Elder can win the game," more like "after 3-4 circuits I'll have an insurmountable advantage." I completely agree that it's not a must-have staple for 100% of Blue mages but from a "broad strokes" perspective this is where 95% of the playerbase wants to be. For the 5% who really care about winning at all costs and want to field nothing but <= 3 CMC bombs (my deck literally stops at 3 CMC w.r.t spells that it actually casts, everything that costs more is a combo card and/or an Unearth/Flashback spell) then you cam safely ignore it but otherwise I think that amazing even though some % of the time people will "get you" with their Tops and whatnot.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold