Quote from Pylgrim »Quote from Manbearscientist »Quote from Pylgrim »Discarding stuff to Lotleth Troll was hardly card disadvantage in the Golgari pair and could be used whilst tapped out to save him from damage. Regeneration ability was considerably cheaper, too. 1 mana and one colour. Hell, Lotleth Troll would still be better nowadays because it helps Delve. And yet, Troll, while being a fun card to play, was never backbreaking or a staple. This card is much, much worse and the limited argument hardly explain its rarity. This card is barely more powerful in limited than Beetleform Mage, which was a common.
Lotleth Troll existed in the last standard. This exists in today's. I played Lotleth Troll in decks, and I know exactly why he wasn't commonly played. The most popular decks could easily deal with him and exploit his card disadvantage. UW Control had Azorius Charm, counters, Detention Sphere, Banishing Light, and Celestial Flare. MUD had Tidebinder, Cyclonic Rift (gets rid of counters), Rapid Hybridization, and Domestication. MBD had Devour Flesh, Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrows, and Putrefy.
Against almost ANY popular deck, you either had a 2/1 that could regenerate through only a few relevant removal spells or a stronger creature that put you multiple cards behind your opponent and was game-over if he got removed. He was good against aggro decks and green-based midrange decks but suffered hard against everything else.
In this standard there are far less exile, sacrifice, no regeneration and edict cards to contend with and the Deathdealer doesn't need to eat 3 creatures to survive Bile Blight. If Lotleth was in today's standard, he'd be a lot stronger as well. But he isn't, and Deathdealer is. In this standard Deathdealer is the best aggro 2-drop, able to attack through Caryatid/Courser while surviving basically any removal with mana open and staying relevant later in the game.
I will not discuss that this card will have its uses and maybe some people will use it. I very much doubt it will be a T2 staple, mostly because in order to survive you need to leave TWO mana open per turn. Two, in the early game is so, so much more than 1! It's a sizeable chunk of your available mana all the way till your 6th land drop. Especially if you want to actually push through those caryatids and use his pump ability. Who cares if it is resilient if to keep it around and be more than a hard to cast bear you basically have to stop playing other cards for the next 5 turns? Opponents will just keep playing threats and when you finally buckle and play answers or other threats of your own, the removal that has been sitting on their hands all that time will get a time to shine. By then, the tempo advantage will be insurmountable.
But you know? That's fine. I'm perfectly aware that not all cards need to be Lotleth Troll (which by your own admission would still be better if it existed in this Standard) nor Putrid Leech which is inarguably better in any environment. The main problem people have with this card is that it is a rare. It doesn't feel like a rare, it is not going to break any limited games more than Beetleform Mage did, it's not exciting or cool and it's definitely not going to be worth more than a quarter or win any tournament. It's just a bear with two costly, hard to pay abilities, that are merely a pump and a keyword. Hell, it's not even a black card at all, besides the creature type. I'm ok when Wizards prints "bad rares" if they are quirky, or build-around-me Johnny fodder, or even, just seemingly impressive brutes for Timmy. This just looks like an attempt at making an aggro power uncommon on the line of the aforementioned cards that both failed to be powerful and then was made a rare. Will be not surprised to know that it started as a uncommon but had to scrap their previous Rare at the last moment and it was quickly moved in as a replacement.
Typing this I figured what this card actually is: A Rootwalla with a tacked on, expensive regeneration clause. Same cost, because a second colour usually is often valued as much as in card design. So take a Rootwalla, add ": Regenerate" and allow it to buff multiple times (something that you hardly ever will do) and the card makes a jump from common to rare?
You don't need to hold 2 CMC open for this guy at all times to use him. If I'm playing him in an aggro deck, a lot of times I'm just going to go ahead and put down my 3-drop or a few one drops. The point is that he CAN at any point pump himself or regenerate himself. You can choose whether or not to use that ability, but your opponent must play around it.
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In your typical aggro deck, that T2 Courser or Caryatid is a backbreaker. Against this guy, they get the choice of letting him through or losing their creature. If you can take either creature, you just got a free kill spell for BG. If you hit them, you got in 2-4 damage that you wouldn't normally get. Then get to choose whether it is more valuable to get immediate damage or drop Anafenza, or keep the mana floating. You shouldn't assume that he has Cumulative Upkeep - BG when he is all about giving players choices.
In an aggro deck, he's playing the part of Ash Zealot or Spiteful Returned. The difference is that this guy has more options. He can punch through a wall, or even a fattie with enough mana open, whereas other aggro 2-drops will always just be stonewalled. If you keep drawing lands he keeps the game from being an instant loss by staying on the battlefield, and if you get better threats he is perfectly serviceable as just a bear. He's not just a continual drain of resources, he's a constant source of options that aggro decks usually don't have.
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Such lazy designs, using game mechanics that exist to create wedge cards that are actually wedge cards.
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Yeah, screw people for wanting a card that actually attacks when you declare an attack with it.
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702.19a Trample is a static ability that modifies the rules for assigning an attacking creature’s combat damage. The ability has no effect when a creature with trample is blocking or is dealing noncombat damage. (See rule 510, "Combat Damage Step.")
702.19b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures that’s being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt. The attacking creature’s controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case can’t assign any damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.
Once the damage is assigned, only replacements effects will alter where it's going.
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Because some people are good at evaluating cards?
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Then again, Fetchlands. They can be played everywhere, and Budget is irrelevant.
I think having to kill the creature is the deal breaker. Even if you don't run Fetches, having a land to play is a common problem with the deck, and always dealing damage is fairly important.
Just comparing the bare minimum of each, Searing Blaze will always deal damage at least one damage to your opponent, while Searing Blood does nothing. Against something like Death and Taxes, the distinction is pretty big.
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