2RR
Creature - Elemental Giant
Whenever attacks or becomes the target of an opponent's spell, choose:
- Deals 3 damage to each opponent
- Exile the top two cards of your library, choose one, you may play it until the end of your next turn.
There is a lot to like about this Giant. It kind of passes the Terminate test and grants you value. Only abilities and sweepers will not trigger it, leaving you without value. The 3 damage ability scales for multiplayer cubes and the red flavoured draw mode is quite good, too. It is "play" and not only "cast" and I like that it works even in the opponents turn until the end of your next turn. Just imagine playing Izzet and exiling a Force of Will to protect it in response to the removal
3/4 is a good ratio for such a value midrange card. I had Felhide Spiritbinder in my cube for years and learned that a 4 mana 3/4 with heavy utility can be relevant and worth the effort (removal, etc) supporting it. I dislike the double red cost and would have wished for haste or an etb trigger (at the cost of weaker triggers).
Still a neat design for grindy cubes like my multiplayer EDH cube. I would not touch it in a powered duel cube where stuff like Hellrider performs much more explosive.
Pretty good on its own. Definitely a midrange card since aggro would rather just have any Hellrider variant. Unfortunately, the red 4-cmc slot is just stacked with great value spells like Chandra, ToD / Fiery Confluence / Flametongue Kavu / PK Nalaar / Rekindling Phoenix / etc. This is probably the next best one over Thunderbreak Regent, but I don't like this more than Phoenix, which is at the bottom of the totem pole currently for this role in my cube.
Unlike say hellrider, I like how it’s playable in a more midrange shell as well as Agro. Body is a solid blocker and it doesn’t need any other support to be good.
card is very close for me, but can’t imagine it would stick (due to reds roles and the stacked 4 drop slot).
The pure Agro 4 drops are quite a bit better in Agro.
This is tough. It's got good value, but as noted, it's not as good as Hellrider variants in aggro, and it doesn't survive Wildfire either. I want to test it, but don't know what I'd cut for it, since my current suite of 4s is:
Clearly everyone already understands this is more a midrange card than pure aggro; but, I appreciate that it it's got that Bonecrusher Giant clause, because some decks have the instant answers and ensuring some base damage gets through regardless against those plays is pretty cool. I also like the potential for card advantage in any red creature.
Overall, I don't think it makes it into mine, but I like the design. I'd like to see the next iteration of this guy that comes at mythic, with some slight boost that pushes him over the edge. Something like bolting any target would be cool.
I love the effects that this card offers. It can be used to gain value or hit hard in both aggro (as the 23rd card since you didnt find better) or in midrange.
However I feel like this card is dead a lot of times. If you need a blocker, this is not that big, and you dont want it to die before getting value. Though you get value the moment you attack, you still don't want to attack with it into a 4/5. And a lot of the rest of the decks carry sweepers. What deck is this card actually good against? Aggro? Midrange? control? Combo? I think this guy is another good in most cases, but not really great in any.
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Creature - Elemental Giant
Whenever attacks or becomes the target of an opponent's spell, choose:
- Deals 3 damage to each opponent
- Exile the top two cards of your library, choose one, you may play it until the end of your next turn.
That's a lot of value for four mana.
There is a lot to like about this Giant. It kind of passes the Terminate test and grants you value. Only abilities and sweepers will not trigger it, leaving you without value. The 3 damage ability scales for multiplayer cubes and the red flavoured draw mode is quite good, too. It is "play" and not only "cast" and I like that it works even in the opponents turn until the end of your next turn. Just imagine playing Izzet and exiling a Force of Will to protect it in response to the removal
3/4 is a good ratio for such a value midrange card. I had Felhide Spiritbinder in my cube for years and learned that a 4 mana 3/4 with heavy utility can be relevant and worth the effort (removal, etc) supporting it. I dislike the double red cost and would have wished for haste or an etb trigger (at the cost of weaker triggers).
Still a neat design for grindy cubes like my multiplayer EDH cube. I would not touch it in a powered duel cube where stuff like Hellrider performs much more explosive.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
card is very close for me, but can’t imagine it would stick (due to reds roles and the stacked 4 drop slot).
The pure Agro 4 drops are quite a bit better in Agro.
Maybe I’ll test it out of curiosity.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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Flametongue Kavu
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Overall, I don't think it makes it into mine, but I like the design. I'd like to see the next iteration of this guy that comes at mythic, with some slight boost that pushes him over the edge. Something like bolting any target would be cool.
However I feel like this card is dead a lot of times. If you need a blocker, this is not that big, and you dont want it to die before getting value. Though you get value the moment you attack, you still don't want to attack with it into a 4/5. And a lot of the rest of the decks carry sweepers. What deck is this card actually good against? Aggro? Midrange? control? Combo? I think this guy is another good in most cases, but not really great in any.