Seems like a very powerful card in an aristocrats shell. This doubles the damage output of your nontoken creatures with the Goblin Bombardments, Hissing Iguanars, and Blood Artists of the world, and can even power out double tokens sometimes for extra fodder. He triggers on himself, so you only need two more devotion before he leaves two guys for a mini Sprouting Thrinax effect.
It's also decent in heavy-red aggro, since you don't have to care as much about losing your creatures, you don't need the tokens to block as much, and you can get him up to a 5/3 or 6/3 pretty easily.
The nonblocking tokens hurt (chumping is a big part of a 1/1 token's job), but it's the double red that really hurts Anax. The ability to occasionally attack with high devotion is a nice upside though.
Turn 1 Goblin Guide, attack (2)
Turn 2 Goblin Bombardment, attack with GG (2)
Turn 3 Anax, attack with GG (2)
Turn 4 Purphoros, God of the Forge, attack with GG and Anax (7), Sacrifice GG to Bombardment (1), Get a token and Trigger Purphoros (2), Sacrifice Anax to Bombardment (1), get 2 tokens and trigger Purphoros (4), Sacrifice 3 tokens to bombardment (3)
That's 24 Damage by turn 4. Not a bad goldfish in Magic Christmas land. That's even enough room to replace Goblin Guide with any 1-drop.
I think this card could be nice. It looks good in Red Aggro, it looks good in Aristocrats, and it offers some Wrath Protection.
The double red hurts for the black decks splashing for the few red cards. Being unable to block is also a huge downside for these decks.
For the more red token decks, i'm not sure if it beats out one of the rabblemasters. If your board is kept under control, this card does very little on its own, but it can become an engine and wrath protection. I feel like it's just a bit too low floor, hard to cast and slow to make it.
I think this needs too much going for you on your board state for this to be good and red 3 is so competitive.
Would be great in an aristocrats shell IF it didn't have RR in it's mana cost. Aristocrats mostly splash red, they don't have an equal 2 color mana base.
It's really a mono R card, but mono R wants to maximize immediate damage output more than anything, and anax isn't as good as it's competition at doing that.
Even in the right shell, I think it'll create less tokens on average than the traditional Rabblemaster variants do. Combined with the 1RR cost and the steep competition in the slot, and I think this is a miss.
I've only just realized how similar this is to Pawn of Ulamog. This has better stats, and compares somewhat favorably, but it probably won't make
it in places Pawn doesn't.
That said, I'm definitely a fan of both Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls. It's a really powerful ability, and gets better in multiples.
Seems like a very powerful card in an aristocrats shell. This doubles the damage output of your nontoken creatures with the Goblin Bombardments, Hissing Iguanars, and Blood Artists of the world, and can even power out double tokens sometimes for extra fodder. He triggers on himself, so you only need two more devotion before he leaves two guys for a mini Sprouting Thrinax effect.
It's also decent in heavy-red aggro, since you don't have to care as much about losing your creatures, you don't need the tokens to block as much, and you can get him up to a 5/3 or 6/3 pretty easily.
The nonblocking tokens hurt (chumping is a big part of a 1/1 token's job), but it's the double red that really hurts Anax. The ability to occasionally attack with high devotion is a nice upside though.
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Turn 2 Goblin Bombardment, attack with GG (2)
Turn 3 Anax, attack with GG (2)
Turn 4 Purphoros, God of the Forge, attack with GG and Anax (7), Sacrifice GG to Bombardment (1), Get a token and Trigger Purphoros (2), Sacrifice Anax to Bombardment (1), get 2 tokens and trigger Purphoros (4), Sacrifice 3 tokens to bombardment (3)
That's 24 Damage by turn 4. Not a bad goldfish in Magic Christmas land. That's even enough room to replace Goblin Guide with any 1-drop.
I think this card could be nice. It looks good in Red Aggro, it looks good in Aristocrats, and it offers some Wrath Protection.
[180 classic cube]
For the more red token decks, i'm not sure if it beats out one of the rabblemasters. If your board is kept under control, this card does very little on its own, but it can become an engine and wrath protection. I feel like it's just a bit too low floor, hard to cast and slow to make it.
Would be great in an aristocrats shell IF it didn't have RR in it's mana cost. Aristocrats mostly splash red, they don't have an equal 2 color mana base.
It's really a mono R card, but mono R wants to maximize immediate damage output more than anything, and anax isn't as good as it's competition at doing that.
Decent for sure, but not interested in it.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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it in places Pawn doesn't.
That said, I'm definitely a fan of both Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls. It's a really powerful ability, and gets better in multiples.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.