Pointed Discussion

This poor bastard is the worst Hatchling, I think. "Can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control" would be far better.

IT has it's merits, though. You can give it Favor of the Overbeing and give it vigilance and flying. but the shroud ability REALLY throws it off a bit.

So, if you play a blue/green card like this one, can you take off 2 -1/-1 counters?

What I don't like about sturdy hatchling, is even though shroud is amazing, there are cards that have shroud that 1, don't require you to pay mana to have your creature keep it, and 2, don't have to bother with trying to remove counters, such as naya hushblade, troll ascetic, uril, and several others. I prefer the voracious hatchling and belligerent hatchling, for their more powerful non mana using keywords, even though green and blue are my fave colors.

Ummm, well one of the problems with the hatchlings is that they have to survive long enough to become a 6/6... And with shroud he does just that, so why all this haterade?? Since its not static 'shroud' its pretty much whenever hes just the target of an opponents ability, so equipping w/ Favor of the Overbeing is no problem... It doesn't go away later if he has shroud and hes already enchanted fyi...

Could be good in a graft deck. pop 4 1/1 counters on it when you play it from 4 graft creatures... voila, 6/6 for 4 mana

A decent hatchling, real shroud would of made it worse in my opinion, but it would of been pretty nice if it had troll shroud instead. The art is pretty disappointing compared to the other hatchlings. I also hate the name, the other hatchlings are voracious or noxious, this guy is sturdy... is he a chair?

I think it's the best of all the hatchlings, or at least the most playable. Drop it turn 5 so you have the mana open and it can actually fend for itself against any of the thousands of creature controls there are.

Suppose Sturdy hatchling (SH) is in play without shroud at the moment. I target SH with Volcanic Hammer to destroy it. In response, SH gives itself shroud. What happens? a) Since SH wasn't protected with shrough when I targeted it with Volcanic Hammer, it takes the damage. b) Shroud goes on the stack and gets resolved before the Volcanic Hammer. Volcanic Hammer fizzles.

@ FargoJake

b) is what happens. Since the shrouding ability goes on the stack last, it resolves first. When the Volcanic Hammer tries to resolve, it finds its target is no longer legal and fizzles.

Its a.... a.... sloth turtle with blue hair. I don't know what to say anymore.

Would anyone survive a duel long enough to see this guy grow to 6/6?

its a hairy turtle.. who dont like turtles?

@Jaeden Keil
That could be said for EVERY 2/2 that costs 4 mana. That's a terrible strategy.

5/5

btw, can i activate the shroud ability eventhough it is tapped?

This guy is possibly the best U/G creature at 4 mana ever. Of course he needs a nice U/G deck to pay dividends. it is better to play him when you can afford 5 mana so that shroud is on. And of course he is an excellent target for favor of the overbeing, so you play it at 4 mana and the next turn you have a 6/6 flyer, vigilant that gains shroud when needed and with the potential of becoming 8/8.
Beautiful creature, I hope Gatecrash that is releashed these days had at least an uncommon as good as that for the simic... but sadly it has not...

and to answer some of the questions here

a) if you cast a volcanic hammer and the opponent pays U/G for shroud in responce the hammer fizzles
b) you can pay for shroud even if the creature is tapped
c) if you play a green AND blue spell (so it must have U and G in its cost or a dual cost U/G ) then you remove 2 -1/-1 counters.
d) if you already have an aura or equipment on hatchling and then you pay for shroud nothing happens to the aura/equipment

Or just run it with Melira and profit.

For me it does really well with Fate Transfer. It also receives both bonuses from Murkfiend Liege, for exemple. And loses 2 counters if I play Simic Charm, which is only GU. Pretty good card for the cost.