I like this. The Reaper reminds me of Dack Fayden: it comes down and immediately steals your opponent’s permanent, with the threat of maybe stealing another permanent later. It has a lot of interesting play patterns:
A common pattern will be to steal your opponent’s x/1 immediately, and maybe put the second counter on a bigger creature hoping to steal that later.
You can also just kill two x/1s and steal one. The Reaper is quite the answer to an opponent’s Orcish Bowmasters - not only can you remove both halves of your opponent’s card, but you also get a Bowmasters of your own including the enters trigger. There are so many nice enters effects on creatures that make this type of kill-then-reanimate effect better than a Threads of Disloyalty effect.
Later in the game, if the opponent only has big creatures that a -1/-1 counter can’t immediately kill, that’s great too if you can follow up with a removal spell or two.
Another play pattern will be to attack your creature into their slightly bigger creature, then if they block play The Reaper post-combat to finish off their big creature with a -1/-1 counter and steal it. (This move is pretty telegraphed, so it will probably only work once per opponent as players learn to fear The Reaper).
This is also tech against your opponent’s persist creatures if you run those.
I really appreciate cube cards that can go in many different decks. Regular 3-color cards slot into a very narrow range of decks. In contrast, this mana cost of three different two-brid mana is great for draft, because this could be good in any of the three two-color decks as a nice 4-drop. Two color decks can even throw in a Ziatora's Proving Ground or other third-color duallands to hope for an occasional 1-mana discount on casting The Reaper.
He seems like the respectable option for the Jund section if anyone is running 3 colors.
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I anticipate this will be played as a 4 mana 3/3 FTK variant in Red/Green, Green/Black, Red/Black decks.
A common pattern will be to steal your opponent’s x/1 immediately, and maybe put the second counter on a bigger creature hoping to steal that later.
You can also just kill two x/1s and steal one. The Reaper is quite the answer to an opponent’s Orcish Bowmasters - not only can you remove both halves of your opponent’s card, but you also get a Bowmasters of your own including the enters trigger. There are so many nice enters effects on creatures that make this type of kill-then-reanimate effect better than a Threads of Disloyalty effect.
Later in the game, if the opponent only has big creatures that a -1/-1 counter can’t immediately kill, that’s great too if you can follow up with a removal spell or two.
Another play pattern will be to attack your creature into their slightly bigger creature, then if they block play The Reaper post-combat to finish off their big creature with a -1/-1 counter and steal it. (This move is pretty telegraphed, so it will probably only work once per opponent as players learn to fear The Reaper).
This is also tech against your opponent’s persist creatures if you run those.
I really appreciate cube cards that can go in many different decks. Regular 3-color cards slot into a very narrow range of decks. In contrast, this mana cost of three different two-brid mana is great for draft, because this could be good in any of the three two-color decks as a nice 4-drop. Two color decks can even throw in a Ziatora's Proving Ground or other third-color dual lands to hope for an occasional 1-mana discount on casting The Reaper.
Also - what a sweet combo with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.