viridian longbow bait i guess? woulda been nice if he was a 1/2 or 1/3 though since he is a rare afterall. oh well
SavageBrain89
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Interesting card and I love the flavor as well. Still not as good as Cold-Eyed Selkie in terms of ability, but makes a good addition with it in blue/green decks. Should have been an uncommon though.
themicronaut
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Not bad and not great. There are better creatures that have this effect like Ophidian. To weak for Standard, needs something else to make it strong enough to play overall.
True_Mumin
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
He really needs some more toughness.
PaladinOfSunhome
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
As had already been said, it's an OK card. Good if you can get it in fast early game, or later on if you can someone deal alot of damage with it and get it to avoid your oppants creatures.
3.5
Swiftgamer18
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(8 votes)
Strange card the more I look at it. Seems like they left out something important. Something that would of made it more appealing.
Gomorrah
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Pretty bad card. If you're playing blue you're going to be drawing a bunch of cards anyway. Besides, it's pretty easy to block. You can put a Whispersillk Cloak on it, but that would be a waste of a Whispersilk Cloak IMO.
This card is ok, but i wish it had foreswalk or islandwalk like the one and only Cold-eyed Silkie. Vedalken Heretic is easy to block and he is only a 1/1, but if you bring Murkfiend Liege that is another story. I still like Cold-eyed Silkie a lot better because is unblockable for players that control an island, and you not only get to draw a card but you get to draw as many as your opponent takes in damage.
AgesofThunder
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
being a 1/1 and a rare it should be unblockable or At the very Least have some sort of land walking ability. As it's stands it's pretty unplayable imo.
DoctorKenneth
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Gomorrah: Whispersilk Cloak can't really be wasted. You can switch equipment to other creatures- so, this to draw you cards in the early game and then equip it to bigger creatures for face smashing in the late game. Not that you would ACTUALLY do that, becuase this isn't that great of a card, but you COULD. In theory.
So, anyway, this is blue/green. It gets card drawing from blue and green gives it....personality? Getting a toughness boost from mama green -to the tune of making it a 1/2- sounds better, so that when you swing on turn three, there won't be a chuckle from your opponent as they consistently eat it with their much bigger two/three drop. But I guess if you get a card off of this, it's already become a Elvish Visionary, so what more could you ask for? Well, that's IF you get a card off this. Which you often can't. I wouldn't take the gamble.
Giving it evasion at this cost would be absurd. Unblockable 1/1 at two is already balanced, you don't need to tack on a cantrip. An extra draw a turn is worth more than that, just ask Phyrexian Arena and it's kin. More conditional evasion....well, that's probably a little more fair, but then it would just BE the bloody Selkie. No, stay in Ravnica and Shadowmoor for your enemy coloured needs, comrades.
bigben013
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
Woulda been nice with trollshroud at least.
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In theory, it's an excellent card drawing engine if you can give it evasion. In reality, it's difficult to give it evasion, and the second you try to protect it or give it said evasion it'll just get lightning bolted, or shocked, or terminated, or any other 1 damage burn the opponent has.
Should absolutely have been a 2/2, and possibly given exalted. Heck, look at Qasali Pridemage - 2/2, exalted, AND the very useful ability of destroying an enchantment or artifact. That's how they should've designed this card.
All it needed was deathtouch and/or shroud. That would have made it rare-worthy, and not quite so cold-eyed. The Cold-Eyed Selkie was sooo superior to this thing. This may have a lower converted mana cost, but the extra 1 mana was well worth it for the island walk and the "draw that many cards" rules text. It sucks that the commons/ uncommons in Alara Reborn were so much better/ more useful than the rares, but that's life.
Szyx
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He's works great for me. I'll play him turn two or three and equip him with either Psionic Gift and/or Favor of the Overbeing. And as some may have noticed, he works quite well in tandem with Lorescale Coatl.
GengilOrbios
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
strange mixture between esper and bant... but i like both shards
it is not very strong, but also not bad. i like the artwork
3/5
Tsuichoi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
not worth the price yes, but the art is still incredible- much different then the common feal for the Orderly, and Bureaucratic Vedalken (as apposed to this more, renegade and revolution "point of veiw")
Its a great concept, to bad it was ruined by a boring effect, and bad price :(
Ameisenmeister
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Just like Cold-Eyed Selkie this card should have "draw that many cards" instead so it would fit better to green pumping effects like giant grow or +1/+1 counters.
spike_barnett
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So it's like coiling oracle only awful?
Enchantment_Removal
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This guy is good tempo. If you give him support, he gets you a card. It's not like you need to hit the opponent several turns in a row. He's technically good after two successful combat phases.
So about the mana cost: This being two colors means next to nothing. It simply costs 2 mana. Two mana is that reasonable cost that can be played in the same turn as other stuff. He can be blocked, but still, he needs to be blocked (if you built your deck with useful cards and love). Forcing your opponent to do something for two mana..... is good.
This guy is not tournament quality, but I've managed to use him to the extent that he (barely) earned his rare status.
NuclearMECCA
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He's pretty good, but I drew two of these from boosters, and I play a killer blue-green deck, yet I still decided to trade both of em. Not sure what that says about him or me, but I think that he just doesn't do enough to fit into most decks. By all means still good if you can make him bigger or give him some evasion.
drunyon
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I play him with Wonder in my U/G Madness deck. I didn't expect much out of him, but he's actually been surprisingly useful for repeated card draw. He draws most of the removal, too, meaning Wild Mongrel and Basking Rootwalla can operate unimpeded.
Not the best card ever made, but quite useful in the right situation.
HairlessThoctar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Needs evasion or a bigger bod.
land_comment
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wow. A vedalken in green. This is a really cool flavored card. The ability is not so great, but the other stuff..
TPmanW
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Not sure if he needed to be a rare but he makes for a decent uncommon.
ninjaman98
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Some brilliant artwork, the best I've seen in a long time... But greg Stamples is probably one of my favourite Magic Arttists.
maison_dieu
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I think the point of this is totally missed - this card isn't trying to be another Cold-Eyed Selkie. It's using Ophidian's strongly-blue ability to make a Taunting Elf-style green blocking control situation. Drawing cards with him is not the issue. the threat of you drawing cards with him is what makes your opponent block him over your Wolf token or whatever. It's sortof like a 1/1 with infect, but not as immediately clearly dangerous.
That being said, it does feel awesome to get Mythic Proportions to cantrip.
I'm with a lot of you, I don't really get what this card was trying to do. In enemy colors, and an otherwise good effect on something tiny and without some form of evasion or anything... You'd almost need to place Lure on something else and attack with this to make it work. And the fact that it's a rare is insulting.
It's a two mana half-green creature. That's fairly aggressively costed.
Also, they printed Lorescale Coatl in this same set, very very deliberately for synergy.
This is rare because one of these cards had to be rare for Limited. Put them both at uncommon, and it's too much goodness. This guy has two advantages over Ophidian: Deals Damage. And Costs 2.
Making it just an uncommon, for all that, seems like it would be too much. On the other hand, you want more for your rares right?
One last point- this was the early days of the Mythic Rarity. Mythic Rares weren't quite as good back then, and Rares had to be less good than Mythics. Alara Mythics are somewhere between current Rares and Mythics in power, and Alara Rares are somewhere between current uncommons and rares in power, and actually do not look too shabby compared to a wealth of the less sleekly costed cards that came before.
Magic is constantly evolving. The best way to give a card a fair evaluation is to compare it to its predecessors, not to its descendants. This also makes Alpha look much much cooler and less imbalanced, because HEY! Magic! Cool game! :D
A3Kitsune
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The new soulbond ability is a good way to give him evasion.
Totema
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Well, being a rogue, you can at least give him a Cloak and Dagger pretty easily.
General_Naga
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Edric likes him at least.
lordof1000mimes
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This really needed to say, "Whenever Vedalken Heretic deals damage to an opponent, you may draw THAT MANY cards." That would have made a huge difference in my book. As is, its not really much better than Scroll Thief.
MojoVince
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
At least his only advantage is to do damage and not only combat damage in order to draw , must give it a pincher ability and he's great !
Manite
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Did anyone notice that's a Lorescale Coatl draped over his body? DarthParallax did, it seems. Love the synergy. I wonder if any other pairs of cards in Alara Reborn were designed this way?
BongRipper420
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
One cool part about this guy is that you can draw a card off any damage he deals, as opposed to just combat damage. That means aura's that allow him to ping would work well here.
DoragonShinzui
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My problem with this guy is that I can't find a single ounce of flavor in him. Blue and Green both deal with card drawing, yes, but green tends to have either bigger creatures or creatures with great utility, and blue tends to have evasive creatures. Being a 1/1 with no evasion and very limited utility in those colors is kinda...bad. In addition, why is he a rogue? Is it just because he's given up his etherium? Does he conduct guerrilla raids? Looks too much like a monk to me.
I'm not sure how I would've gone about making a vedalken heretic, but I know this isn't it. Especially because of the flavor the other cards have, like Lorescale Coatl, Nulltread Gargantuan, and Jhessian Infiltrator, I'm really underwhelmed and confused by this card.
Also, rarity should never be an excuse for more raw power. Rarity should denote complexity, and relative power, but simply saying "Well he'd be too powerful if he'd be uncommon" is a sign of lazy, lazy, lazy development. I imagine a world where Magic has no rarity system, and all cards have to actually be balanced, and I see a bright and wonderful place.
Comments (45)
3.5
So, anyway, this is blue/green. It gets card drawing from blue and green gives it....personality? Getting a toughness boost from mama green -to the tune of making it a 1/2- sounds better, so that when you swing on turn three, there won't be a chuckle from your opponent as they consistently eat it with their much bigger two/three drop. But I guess if you get a card off of this, it's already become a Elvish Visionary, so what more could you ask for? Well, that's IF you get a card off this. Which you often can't. I wouldn't take the gamble.
Giving it evasion at this cost would be absurd. Unblockable 1/1 at two is already balanced, you don't need to tack on a cantrip. An extra draw a turn is worth more than that, just ask Phyrexian Arena and it's kin. More conditional evasion....well, that's probably a little more fair, but then it would just BE the bloody Selkie. No, stay in Ravnica and Shadowmoor for your enemy coloured needs, comrades.
Should absolutely have been a 2/2, and possibly given exalted. Heck, look at Qasali Pridemage - 2/2, exalted, AND the very useful ability of destroying an enchantment or artifact. That's how they should've designed this card.
The Cold-Eyed Selkie was sooo superior to this thing. This may have a lower converted mana cost, but the extra 1 mana was well worth it for the island walk and the "draw that many cards" rules text.
It sucks that the
it is not very strong, but also not bad. i like the artwork
3/5
Its a great concept, to bad it was ruined by a boring effect, and bad price :(
So about the mana cost: This being two colors means next to nothing. It simply costs 2 mana. Two mana is that reasonable cost that can be played in the same turn as other stuff. He can be blocked, but still, he needs to be blocked (if you built your deck with useful cards and love). Forcing your opponent to do something for two mana..... is good.
This guy is not tournament quality, but I've managed to use him to the extent that he (barely) earned his rare status.
Not the best card ever made, but quite useful in the right situation.
That being said, it does feel awesome to get Mythic Proportions to cantrip.
Also, they printed Lorescale Coatl in this same set, very very deliberately for synergy.
This is rare because one of these cards had to be rare for Limited. Put them both at uncommon, and it's too much goodness. This guy has two advantages over Ophidian: Deals Damage. And Costs 2.
Making it just an uncommon, for all that, seems like it would be too much. On the other hand, you want more for your rares right?
One last point- this was the early days of the Mythic Rarity. Mythic Rares weren't quite as good back then, and Rares had to be less good than Mythics. Alara Mythics are somewhere between current Rares and Mythics in power, and Alara Rares are somewhere between current uncommons and rares in power, and actually do not look too shabby compared to a wealth of the less sleekly costed cards that came before.
Magic is constantly evolving. The best way to give a card a fair evaluation is to compare it to its predecessors, not to its descendants. This also makes Alpha look much much cooler and less imbalanced, because HEY! Magic! Cool game! :D
I'm not sure how I would've gone about making a vedalken heretic, but I know this isn't it. Especially because of the flavor the other
Also, rarity should never be an excuse for more raw power. Rarity should denote complexity, and relative power, but simply saying "Well he'd be too powerful if he'd be uncommon" is a sign of lazy, lazy, lazy development. I imagine a world where Magic has no rarity system, and all cards have to actually be balanced, and I see a bright and wonderful place.
Edit (since 5/8/2009):
"Woulda been nice with trollshroud at least." --bigben013
I think what you meant to say was "This would have been ridiculously nice with hexproof."