Great card. Draws you cards when - someone plays an unearth effect - a permanent comes back into play by persist - some flashback card gets played from the gy - some card gets zombified (like with Debtor's Knell
It also got a fine 3/3 body.
Have it in a deck with Power Conduit, which let's me remove the -1/-1 counters after persist and turns them into +1/+1 counters. The Kelpi is especially great with Puppeteer Clique, since it draws you a card when the clique persists, as well as when the clique zombifies a creature.
Anyways, this beast still has great uses as already nicely depicted by majinara. Aside from persist creatures splashing black will give you a broad choice of reanimator cards. Creatures which have an inherent reanimation effect are especially useful. Unearth for instance is a handy effect. I had also some fun using it with Myr Servitors and for instance. Ichorid, Nether Traitor, Nether Shadow, Order of Whiteclay, Proclamation of Rebirth and Recurring Nightmare also do a good job. (Demigod of Revenge from the same set would also synergize with this, but he almost screams not to be played with any color other than black or red) Emeria, the Sky Ruin will do a great job for the late game, too.
Gwafa_Hazid
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Put him in a UB Haakon deck and have fun :D
darkhissatsu
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This with Reya Dawnbringer, Marshall's Anthem and Jaya Ballard, Taskmage is a lot of fun!
Unearth triggers the first ability, but not the second Casting a card with flashback (like cabal therapy) from your graveyard triggers the second, but not the first. Casting skaab ruinator from your graveyard would trigger both.
Superllama12
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Seems like they made this with Retrace in mind...in fact, I think I'm gonna make a Retrace deck with this!
leomistico
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@Jasonoro: Actually, casting Skaab Ruinator from the graveyard trigger Kelpie's second ability, but not the first, since Ruinator comes into tha battlefield from the stack, not from the graveyard...
Nice card, goes along with a lot of mechanism like Persist, Unearth, Flashback, Retrace, and any sort of reanimator (of creature, or spells...).
One day this will be the thing that breaks grave-based decks and makes them crazy.
Dr.Pingas
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Fun Fact: There is no way to trigger both abilities at once. Deal with it.
I love this guy, but he's so weird to use. I also wish the Kelpies looked a little better (why not just make them Selkies; they was sexy)
Enelysios
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Super-best friends with any reanimators, but also Crucible of Worlds! Card advantage for recursion, and a durable body? This is certainly worth the it charges for admission.
DacenOctavio
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
So, what happens when you sacrifice three of these puppies to flashback Dread Return recurring a fourth? Three cards for casting a spell from a graveyard, three persist triggers, drawing one, plus two, plus three cards as they resolve, plus four cards drawn as the returned kelpie enters play. Hello, thirteen card Magical Christmas Land!
DoragonShinzui
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ash Zealot has had enough of your shenanigans...necromancer?
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
These guy may look innocuous, but he used to be a go-to Dread Return creature for Vintage Dredge decks (2009-2010). It moves a Dredge deck away from a blazing aggro build and closer to a tempo/control build. Your Ichorids become cantrips, which reduces your reliance on Bazaar of Baghdad.
Kelpie is almost unanswerable, unless your opponent counters the Dread Return. And you can easily prevent that by using Cabal Therapy to remove counter-spells from your opponent's hand.
If you've never played Vintage, download OCTGN and give it a try. It's fun to play with some of Magic's most powerful cards without having to, y'know, own them.
Note that you can trigger both of River Kelpie's abilities with one card, by flashing back Unburial Rites. But yeah, that's about it.
Comments (17)
- someone plays an unearth effect
- a permanent comes back into play by persist
- some flashback card gets played from the gy
- some card gets zombified (like with Debtor's Knell
It also got a fine 3/3 body.
Have it in a deck with Power Conduit, which let's me remove the -1/-1 counters after persist and turns them into +1/+1 counters. The Kelpi is especially great with Puppeteer Clique, since it draws you a card when the clique persists, as well as when the clique zombifies a creature.
It's really a pity this didn't became a hybrid colored blue/green creature as the two Kelpies from Eventide, given that card advantage is part of green's color pie as well, especially when the graveyard is involved.
Anyways, this beast still has great uses as already nicely depicted by majinara. Aside from persist creatures splashing black will give you a broad choice of reanimator cards. Creatures which have an inherent reanimation effect are especially useful. Unearth for instance is a handy effect. I had also some fun using it with Myr Servitors and for instance.
Ichorid, Nether Traitor, Nether Shadow, Order of Whiteclay, Proclamation of Rebirth and Recurring Nightmare also do a good job. (Demigod of Revenge from the same set would also synergize with this, but he almost screams not to be played with any color other than black or red)
Emeria, the Sky Ruin will do a great job for the late game, too.
Casting a card with flashback (like cabal therapy) from your graveyard triggers the second, but not the first.
Casting skaab ruinator from your graveyard would trigger both.
Nice card, goes along with a lot of mechanism like Persist, Unearth, Flashback, Retrace, and any sort of reanimator (of creature, or spells...).
4.5/5
Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Infinite card drawing.
I love this guy, but he's so weird to use. I also wish the Kelpies looked a little better (why not just make them Selkies; they was sexy)
Kelpie is almost unanswerable, unless your opponent counters the Dread Return. And you can easily prevent that by using Cabal Therapy to remove counter-spells from your opponent's hand.
If you've never played Vintage, download OCTGN and give it a try. It's fun to play with some of Magic's most powerful cards without having to, y'know, own them.
Note that you can trigger both of River Kelpie's abilities with one card, by flashing back Unburial Rites. But yeah, that's about it.
....or even Masticore with Ashnod's Altar--there's your machine gun;
Or Ashnod's Altar + Increasing Confusion or any other {X} spell (banefire, stroke of genius, etc.);
Blue Sun's Zenith + Storm seeker;
Mind Over Matter
this is just johnny, combo player to the max. 5/5 for the spirit of magic