Mana-free cycling? Sounds very intersting. Faster than Baubles, a bit painful, but also useful if you should have to fill your graveyard for some reason.
kroen
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Free cycling, what's not to like?
Keino
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(9 votes)
He is gangsta...
Saigmundur
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(5 votes)
Free cycling is tech for Astral Slide:D
Azazyel
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(12 votes)
Great cycling - I'd pay 2 life over 2 mana any day. The problem is, the card it's attached to just isn't that good: a 3/4 for five mana with very conditional evasion. For a cycling card to be really playable, it has to either be attached to something that the player would consider playing normally (see Decree of Silence, Angelsong, hell, even Vedalken Aethermage), or the cycling has to hold an additional benefit besides simply putting a card in your hand (the landcycling spells from Alara, definitelyVedalken Aethermage, etc.).
If you can't contemplate playing a creature with cycling normally, and I know I wouldn't with Street Wraith (even in the most casual of decks, black has a lot better things to be doing at five mana), then all you get is a card that draws you a single other card - that is to say, a waste of a card slot.
Of course, this is not accounting for cycling-based decks, where this card could actually work, and work splendidly. Proof of concept that every card in Magic is playable, if you can find a home for it.
babylonian007
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(28 votes)
The Fatht and the Furioth ith my favorite movie about streetwraithing.
Beekhead
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(6 votes)
Ok, I'm giving this card a 6/5. If only I could... Reason being this card along with Urza's Bauble and Mishra's Bauble virtually allows you to play with a 48 card deck. Epic Win.
nimzo
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(6 votes)
@Axelle: Play both, so you'll run a 52 card deck...
ofwgktaftw
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Cool card design. Not for every deck, but a 0-mana cycler that also can function as a (admittedly less-than-stellar) creature is cool. Artwork is nice as well. Cycling is a useful mechanic...I'd love to see more cycling in the future that had "different" costs like this. 4.5/5 (rated it this high because artwork & design is great, not because it's 4.5/5 in terms of playability necessarily).
Crag-Hack
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Good in dredge to help get dredge triggers going and fuels Ichorid. People saying its worse than Gitaxian Probe are wrong. They have different uses.
Nagoragama
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(7 votes)
Riffraff? Street Wraith? I don't buy that.
BMorel
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(5 votes)
I get the feeling that this card could be reprinted in Innistrad.
Paleopaladin
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(3 votes)
EDIT: My original post underestimated this. It's actually great in my deck that uses three Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth -- the deck-thinning helps my combos and as a late-game top-deck its evasion is useful because of the tomb. _______________________________ This would rock so much if the baseline card were just a LITTLE more playable. Either that, or maybe make the cycling 1 life. As it is, 2.5/5. The mechanic has so much potential though!
BlackAlbino
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Nobody who plays this in competitive decks ever cast it. It's there so your deck is 56 cards at the cost of some life.
VarteDod
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
@Axelle Aside from cycling being instant speed, uncounterable and it feeds your graveyard depending on your deck?
blurrymadness
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
@Crag I totally agree. I actually use it in an ichorid-dredge deck. It basically helps add to the reliability/speed of your dredging. I use Darkblast to control the early board game while my graveyard gets up to snuff, and this helps kill bigger things with DB while filling it.
@Axelle It's a creature. This matters for Ichorid. It's black, which.. matters? It's not a spell when you cycle, so it's much harder to block. It also can't be blocked by someone using an instant-speed targeting restrictor (such as a card that gives players shroud.)
luca_barelli
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(6 votes)
Hm. I'm getting Innistrad vibes from this card, but I don't think Innistrad has cycling.
Enemy_Tricolor
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Would be worth it with some minor tweaks. Say, having it cost and be a 3/1, or something similar.
Abl
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I feel like I'm one of the only people that like the futureshifted card frame. About the card itself, I don't think I'd ever play it. The cycling seems like the main part of the card, which kind of makes me wonder what went into design, as it has swampwalk, which doesn't even have much flavor behind it.
PeabodyET
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
A cycling card doesn’t necessarily have to be playable on its own if the cycling effect is free. Basically, this card gives you three things:
1) A black creature card in your graveyard. This is useful in reanimator strategies, obviously. But it also give you advantages for cards like Stitched Drake, Splinterfright, Ichorid, and Avatar of Woe.
2) A replacement card. This is not, as was said, “a waste of a card slot”. This lets you essentially pay life to run a 56 card deck. If your goal is to get to a specific card for your combo, you’re more likely to get there if you have fewer cards in your deck.
3) No tempo loss. Normally, if you cycle a card, play a search effect like Sleight of Hand or Faithless Looting, or similar, you use mana to do it, and thus use an early turn. Street Wraith cycles with no tempo loss. He can also be cycled at instant speed, which makes it better than Gitaxian Probe. And because it is cycling and doesn't target anything, it's much harder for your opponent to stop it.
This card could be a 9 mana 0/1 that comes into play tapped and it wouldn’t change how you play it. You run this card for the free cycling. The 3/3 body makes it better in reanimation strategies, but you’re never putting this in your deck to be a 5-mana 3/3.
jjmalove
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
An interesting card that seems balanced. It basically serves two purposes. It allows a deck to trade life to run essentially 56 cards, and it allows a deck to trade life to inflate its graveyard. I think they did a good job with this and the probe, but I hope they don't continue to the point that running 48 and even 44 card decks becomes a possibility.
Enelysios
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Thins my deck (For freeee!), looks cool, and he is even playable end game? Sure, why not!
Lets all be honest here, if you ever play this guy its probably because you are already winning and you know it.
j_mindfingerpainter
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@ Enelysios: Do you mean if you cast this guy you're winning? Because actually it has a use on the battlefield (though not through casting). Living End.
DacenOctavio
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
3/4 swampwalk is a bit of a quandary for your opponents playing Blood Crypts and Overgrown Tombs. They're not sure whether to kill it or not, and sometimes it just gets there. One of the best applications of this card is in the Living End Modern combo deck. You pay 2 life to draw the card and get the creature whenever you play the namesake card.
11/1/2012 EDIT: I don't believe this anymore, but I'm leaving it for posterity.
Arachnos
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
It's kinda funny that a STREET wraith has Swampwalk for some reason.
Badass flavor text, though.
Moxxy
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Found this in a 10 cent bin at my local card shop. Bought it and shoved it in a high tempo deck and never regretted it. Once I even got in the last 3 damage from playing him as a creature, unblocked through swampwalk.
My only regret is I couldn't find anymore.
Hunter06
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Free card draw is free. 3/5 Stars
TheKazu
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So Gitaxian Probe, this, manamorphose, anything I'm missing.
SkyknightXi
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
We've got this confirmed for Modern Masters. Now we just need the plane where this horror heralds from...
Comments (30)
Faster than Baubles, a bit painful, but also useful if you should have to fill your graveyard for some reason.
If you can't contemplate playing a creature with cycling normally, and I know I wouldn't with Street Wraith (even in the most casual of decks, black has a lot better things to be doing at five mana), then all you get is a card that draws you a single other card - that is to say, a waste of a card slot.
Of course, this is not accounting for cycling-based decks, where this card could actually work, and work splendidly. Proof of concept that every card in Magic is playable, if you can find a home for it.
_______________________________
This would rock so much if the baseline card were just a LITTLE more playable. Either that, or maybe make the cycling 1 life. As it is, 2.5/5. The mechanic has so much potential though!
I totally agree. I actually use it in an ichorid-dredge deck. It basically helps add to the reliability/speed of your dredging. I use Darkblast to control the early board game while my graveyard gets up to snuff, and this helps kill bigger things with DB while filling it.
@Axelle
It's a creature. This matters for Ichorid. It's black, which.. matters? It's not a spell when you cycle, so it's much harder to block. It also can't be blocked by someone using an instant-speed targeting restrictor (such as a card that gives players shroud.)
About the card itself, I don't think I'd ever play it. The cycling seems like the main part of the card, which kind of makes me wonder what went into design, as it has swampwalk, which doesn't even have much flavor behind it.
1) A black creature card in your graveyard. This is useful in reanimator strategies, obviously. But it also give you advantages for cards like Stitched Drake, Splinterfright, Ichorid, and Avatar of Woe.
2) A replacement card. This is not, as was said, “a waste of a card slot”. This lets you essentially pay life to run a 56 card deck. If your goal is to get to a specific card for your combo, you’re more likely to get there if you have fewer cards in your deck.
3) No tempo loss. Normally, if you cycle a card, play a search effect like Sleight of Hand or Faithless Looting, or similar, you use mana to do it, and thus use an early turn. Street Wraith cycles with no tempo loss. He can also be cycled at instant speed, which makes it better than Gitaxian Probe. And because it is cycling and doesn't target anything, it's much harder for your opponent to stop it.
This card could be a 9 mana 0/1 that comes into play tapped and it wouldn’t change how you play it. You run this card for the free cycling. The 3/3 body makes it better in reanimation strategies, but you’re never putting this in your deck to be a 5-mana 3/3.
Lets all be honest here, if you ever play this guy its probably because you are already winning and you know it.
11/1/2012 EDIT: I don't believe this anymore, but I'm leaving it for posterity.
Badass flavor text, though.
My only regret is I couldn't find anymore.
3/5 Stars