This is a difficult card which I don't pick very high, usually play in my limited (especially Jund) decks and look forward to some awesome combos like with Hissing Iguanar or Rockslide Elemental. Often it turns out a disappointment and the best use it offers is a four mana, 2 card removal via Bone Splinters...
Iwaaan
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(10 votes)
....if you sacrafice 2 creatures....this card comes into play as a +7/+7 for 3 mana......
Am I missing something...?
Why isn't this card considered "omg holy s*** awesome"?
Guest1738264902
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I am just like this cards but I just am confused if you use murderous redcap and sigil captain if with cards if that would be a infinite combo. please comment
SavageBrain89
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Getting a +3/+3 bonus for every creature sacrificed is awesome, watching the viashino get killed to removal or chumped block is dreadful. This card is only great if it can somehow gain access to trample via creature/enchantment/spell effect or if the owner has Mercy Killing ready in hand.
eikymus
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(4 votes)
"I am just like this cards but I just am confused if you use murderous redcap and sigil captain if with cards if that would be a infinite combo. please comment" As far as i know, the +1/+1 counters does now eliminate the -1/-1 counters... The end result will look like they canceled each other out, but they didn't. The creature will still have the -1/-1 counter on it, preventing it from using it's return ability, but it has the +1/+1 counters on it too, making it stronger than when you first played it. So no, unfortunately no killer infinity-combo :)
And i just want to say about this card that it is awesome. If you lay the ground with the right weak cards, then eat 2-3 of e´m up around 2nd-3rd turn, you have a kickass monster early on. Also later on it will prove to be extremely powerful when played with Mycoloth and Doubling Season That's the base for the deck i'm making at the moment by the way...
TwistedNsanity
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Always play this guy to "test the waters"
AlphaNumerical
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(7 votes)
"....if you sacrafice 2 creatures....this card comes into play as a +7/+7 for 3 mana......"
Because removal exists. Just off the top of my head in Standard: Path to Exile, Doom Blade, Maelstrom Pulse..
00mastermind00
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
What about using Thunder-Thrash Elder in conjunction with Mycoloth? It has worked fairly well for myself - when I have the space to pull the combo off. I've been working out some bugs but I think it is a very potent combination.
poopooparty
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Mycoloth + disposable tokens and cretures - sac em' all, hopefully for a +20ish and uncountered thrash -soul's fire for a win all for 6 mana ballsy but i've won quite a few games with that combo
MightyMortox
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This guy + some fodder to sac to him + Soul's Fire
Karang
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
There are many cards to pair this with like Mage Slayer, Whispersilk Cloak, Soul Fire, or Electropotence all make for great one shots especially if you have something that gives it haste.
Tough to run bc u get screwed if its removed but it meshs very well with bloodghast and quest for the gravelord. The quest is just great against removal period but devouring bloodghasts then dropping the land for ur turn ensures that this guy gets big with no drawbacks. Not to mention devouring just one still makes him a 3 drop 4/4. Good times lol
Zageitz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
obvious combo = dragon fodder
GrimjawxRULES
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Zageitz: "obvious combo = dragon fodder"
- I couldn't agree more. Add in a first turn Mass Hysteria to that, and you're swinging for 7 on your 3rd turn!
Boy do I love this card, but I think the reason why this isn't considered "omg holy s*** awesome!", is because it's pretty hard to fit it into a deck. I could imagine a deck running some of these, Dragon Fodder, Mass Hysteria, Goblin Assault and some burn (say, Fireblast and Lightning Bolt?) spells (and probably a couple of Seething Songs and Empty the Warrens), but buying those cards to build an entire deck around it isn't something everyone would do. Still, the idea is nice.
Johnald
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Yes, removal exists, would it be wasted on something like this unless it ABSOLUTELY had to? Probably not. There are bigger threats than this guy out there like predator dragon and mycoloth.
Like it has been said before, this card is a high risk/reward card. A turn three 10/10 is cool, but essentially losing four creatures to a single Doom Blade just sucks.
niallcmurray86
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Great card, well-rounded and easily playable. I could prolly think of lots of things better for a Jund deck, and of course their is removal. Which by the way all you guys that constantly trip about removal, seriously stop. BIG CREATURES WITH AMAZING ABILITIES ARE WORTH RISKS. But this guy is not an amazing creature he is just really good. I have put him in a few decks and he can be a heavy hitter in the early game.
My topdecking friend sacced three creatures to play this guy. Facing down a 10/10, I was kinda worried! Then I topdecked an Oust.
Needless to say, he was less scary the second time around. My friend took him out of his deck after that...
TheSwarm
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(14 votes)
I hate people. Who say. This card sucks. Because of removal. It is by far the lamest excuse I have ever heard. It is an unintelligent way for people to fight the crowd and lift their noses at great cards like this. That excuse basically makes every creature in Magic worthless. This card is very good, especially when you can give him plenty of creatures to eat. And I'm sure if you play him in a white red deck which seems plausible you can give him shroud anyway. I mean Whispersilk Cloak was MAAADE for this guy. And don't you DARE say wrath of god.
ClockworkSwordfish
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
He gets stupid big pretty easily.
Trizeam
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(7 votes)
I bounced one of these once after he sacced 4 dudes. Felt good.
.Blaze.
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I personally love the skill involved with using devour. Unless the card makes up for the advantage you really shouldn't kill more then a couple of your creatures. This is a great example. Even if you only kill one creature you still get 4/4 for 3 and thats a good deal. Killing another one nets you a 7/7 well above the curve and also worth it early on. If you feed it more then that though you start getting greedy and leave yourself open to be punished for it. So as long as your doing it right the advantage you loss when you play it will be small making the possibility of losing it a nonissue.
Bass1987
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I totally agree with TheSwarm. Yes removal is out there, its removes stuff. All you people who say this and this all die to removal, well think of your best card or favorite card, yes it dies to removal, but doesn't mean you'll play it less, so stop saying everything dies to removal. Its a bad excuse and rather old. I like this card. I never really thought much about him till now, I am really thinking about making a deck out of him.
Tap Nova Chaser (it has haste from In the Web of War) to create 12 elementals. Play Thunder-Thrash Elder. Sac the 12 elementals. Thunder-Thrash Elder becomes a 39/39 with Haste, Double Strike, and double damage. Proceed to hit for 156, and get blocked by a 1/1. Whispersilk Cloak might help.
danyo622
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I have a constructed Jund deck and this is definitely a 4-of. It is a staple in every jund deck. Some of my fodder feeders are dragon fodder and scatter the seeds. I eat up 3-4 of these guys making him a 10/10 or 13/13. Then I slap a fists of ironwood on him, pumping out 2 more saprolings. Then bring in the predator dragon (eating everything else) for the next turn win!
Kharazni
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Splinter twin and this guy...
Play him, SPLINTER TWIN
Sac him, EPIC WIN
With splinter twin, this guy can devour himself. ^_-_^
DacenOctavio
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@ danyo6ZZ:
If you're running this in constructed, I feel bad for you. There's so much great removal in constructed that no Jund deck would be caught dead playing fun cards like this. You can't even play this guy if you don't have any creatures, which is pretty likely considering the presence of Day of Judgement in the format. That said, it's still a fun card. But fun cards don't necessarily do anything.
I already ran Rockslide Elemental in my Nether Shadow/Ashen Ghoul deck, but then I ran across this guy and added him in as well. Surprisingly, this guy serves in a defensive role most of the time: I'll attack with a huge mob of Shadows and Ghouls, then feed whatever of them is left over (and tapped) to the Elder, who remains untapped and serves as a rather gigantic blocker during my opponent's turn. Yeah, I attack with him successfully on occasion, but he's rarely won me a game on the offense. Weird, I know.
Oh yes, aside from Rockslide Elemental and the other "things die and we get bigger" Jund mini-cycle from the Alara block, the Elder works great with Mortician Beetles and Khabál Ghouls.
Shoe2
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Stupid huge dudes with drawbacks and low mana costs are not unfamilliar, but without evasion or a way to keep him alive, he is just gonna keep splattering my token-blockers on his windshield.
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Okay. I understand people objecting when someone says "Dies to removal" on absolutely every good creature. Fine, that's silly.
However, you'll note that the "dies to removal" argument, albeit explained slightly differently, is a legitimate grievance against Auras (and to some extent buff spells): you can two-for-one your opponent by killing something that's getting an aura put on it or already has one. It's the same deal with this guy: you're consuming cards to make him bigger, so if your opponent kills him they're getting card advantage by effectively destroying all the devoured creatures too. He therefore carries the same drawbacks and cautions as creature enchantments (well, ones that don't provide removal protection, anyway).
That doesn't mean he can't be used to good effect, but you have to realize that you're generally losing more than just that card and the mana spent on it if it gets hit with removal. Eating otherwise useless tokens is nice, for instance, just don't devour your entire board if your opponent is running removal (which they should be). In short, good card, gets used by bad players who munch all their things, eat a Doom Blade, and instead of bemoaning their poor planning decide the card is bad and go buy a playset of Baneslayer Angel.
Kryptnyt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It dies to removal, but it looks like it plays nicely with Hissing Iguanar and Fling, doesn't it? Only complaint is that it devour doesn't work in a viashino tribal build all that well. You need things like end step Rith's Charm, and haste enablers like Fires of Yavimaya.
DoragonShinzui
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(2 votes)
HOLY JESUS! *Hides under a rock* Devour should never be that high. Holy crap that thing is just frightening to think about.
Turn 1 forest, young wolf. Turn two, mountain, infernal plunge tap forest for another young wolf, use the three floating red for this.
7/7 beatstick turn 2 is pretty nice.
Pendulous
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
With a pair of goblin tokens, he's a 7/7 for 3 mana. How can you not like this guy?
Yukikah
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Honestly it's not just removal that makes me not like this guy. It is a valid argument though; For all the people who say something like Raging Goblin, Krenko's Command, then this guy for a 10/10 turn three, it is true that Doom Blade or etc. is basically killing four creatures when you play it on this guy then. Not to mention being down three turns and three cards.
Yeah one could argue there is always board wipes that can do that regardless, but killing this guy can essentially turn into a cheap one sided board wipe. Oh, and removal is easily more common than wipes anyways.
Back to the thing I started with, saying it's not just removal. Apart from that this guy is horribly vulnerable to other forms of control for the same reasons; Tapping this guy out with a Master Decoy essentially taps out all the creatures you sacrificed by proxy, a Pacifism locks down that investment, and an Unsummon bounces the whole investment.
To top it all off, this guy doesn't have trample or evasion, so you can sacrifice three turns worth of creatures and avoid him being destroyed/controlled just to have him running his face into chump blockers.
It's just not worth it, normally, to me.
That said... if you build a deck around devour/sacrifice, this guy can be a decent choice. Cards like Bloodghast, Squee, Goblin Nabob, and etc. are certainly worth sacking to this guy. But that's the important part in the end; I don't think you can just throw this is any swarm deck and sac a lot of spuds to him then call it a day. To really get mileage out of this guy it's important that you put him in the right deck.
Comments (39)
Am I missing something...?
Why isn't this card considered "omg holy s*** awesome"?
As far as i know, the +1/+1 counters does now eliminate the -1/-1 counters... The end result will look like they canceled each other out, but they didn't.
The creature will still have the -1/-1 counter on it, preventing it from using it's return ability, but it has the +1/+1 counters on it too, making it stronger than when you first played it.
So no, unfortunately no killer infinity-combo :)
And i just want to say about this card that it is awesome. If you lay the ground with the right weak cards, then eat 2-3 of e´m up around 2nd-3rd turn, you have a kickass monster early on. Also later on it will prove to be extremely powerful when played with Mycoloth and Doubling Season That's the base for the deck i'm making at the moment by the way...
Because removal exists. Just off the top of my head in Standard: Path to Exile, Doom Blade, Maelstrom Pulse..
2 Doubling Seasons
paradox haze
3 Thallid Shell-Dweller
can anyone say 299/299
the timmy in me is drooling
- I couldn't agree more. Add in a first turn Mass Hysteria to that, and you're swinging for 7 on your 3rd turn!
Boy do I love this card, but I think the reason why this isn't considered "omg holy s*** awesome!", is because it's pretty hard to fit it into a deck. I could imagine a deck running some of these, Dragon Fodder, Mass Hysteria, Goblin Assault and some burn (say, Fireblast and Lightning Bolt?) spells (and probably a couple of Seething Songs and Empty the Warrens), but buying those cards to build an entire deck around it isn't something everyone would do. Still, the idea is nice.
T1 : Mountain, Raging Goblin
T2 : Mountain, Dragon Fodder
T3 : Mountain, Thunder-Thrash Elder
Like it has been said before, this card is a high risk/reward card. A turn three 10/10 is cool, but essentially losing four creatures to a single Doom Blade just sucks.
Kozilek's Predator, then this guy = 3/3 and 7/7 for 7
Needless to say, he was less scary the second time around. My friend took him out of his deck after that...
Turn Y: Nova Chaser + Elemental Mastery
Tap Nova Chaser (it has haste from In the Web of War) to create 12 elementals. Play Thunder-Thrash Elder. Sac the 12 elementals. Thunder-Thrash Elder becomes a 39/39 with Haste, Double Strike, and double damage. Proceed to hit for 156, and get blocked by a 1/1. Whispersilk Cloak might help.
Play him, SPLINTER TWIN
Sac him, EPIC WIN
With splinter twin, this guy can devour himself. ^_-_^
If you're running this in constructed, I feel bad for you. There's so much great removal in constructed that no Jund deck would be caught dead playing fun cards like this. You can't even play this guy if you don't have any creatures, which is pretty likely considering the presence of Day of Judgement in the format. That said, it's still a fun card. But fun cards don't necessarily do anything.
"Sacrifice 2 Tukatongue Thallids, 7/7 for {2R}!"
"Cool! Oblivion Ring/Path to Exile/Terminate/Into the Roil/Crystallization. . . . How many ways can I say 'DIE'?"
Oh yes, aside from Rockslide Elemental and the other "things die and we get bigger" Jund mini-cycle from the Alara block, the Elder works great with Mortician Beetles and Khabál Ghouls.
However, you'll note that the "dies to removal" argument, albeit explained slightly differently, is a legitimate grievance against Auras (and to some extent buff spells): you can two-for-one your opponent by killing something that's getting an aura put on it or already has one. It's the same deal with this guy: you're consuming cards to make him bigger, so if your opponent kills him they're getting card advantage by effectively destroying all the devoured creatures too. He therefore carries the same drawbacks and cautions as creature enchantments (well, ones that don't provide removal protection, anyway).
That doesn't mean he can't be used to good effect, but you have to realize that you're generally losing more than just that card and the mana spent on it if it gets hit with removal. Eating otherwise useless tokens is nice, for instance, just don't devour your entire board if your opponent is running removal (which they should be). In short, good card, gets used by bad players who munch all their things, eat a Doom Blade, and instead of bemoaning their poor planning decide the card is bad and go buy a playset of Baneslayer Angel.
Only complaint is that it devour doesn't work in a viashino tribal build all that well. You need things like end step Rith's Charm, and haste enablers like Fires of Yavimaya.
*Hides under a rock*
Devour should never be that high. Holy crap that thing is just frightening to think about.
If that scares you then Thromok the Insatiable must be your worst nightmare. :P
7/7 beatstick turn 2 is pretty nice.
Yeah one could argue there is always board wipes that can do that regardless, but killing this guy can essentially turn into a cheap one sided board wipe. Oh, and removal is easily more common than wipes anyways.
Back to the thing I started with, saying it's not just removal. Apart from that this guy is horribly vulnerable to other forms of control for the same reasons; Tapping this guy out with a Master Decoy essentially taps out all the creatures you sacrificed by proxy, a Pacifism locks down that investment, and an Unsummon bounces the whole investment.
To top it all off, this guy doesn't have trample or evasion, so you can sacrifice three turns worth of creatures and avoid him being destroyed/controlled just to have him running his face into chump blockers.
It's just not worth it, normally, to me.
That said... if you build a deck around devour/sacrifice, this guy can be a decent choice. Cards like Bloodghast, Squee, Goblin Nabob, and etc. are certainly worth sacking to this guy. But that's the important part in the end; I don't think you can just throw this is any swarm deck and sac a lot of spuds to him then call it a day. To really get mileage out of this guy it's important that you put him in the right deck.