Love the new art. Without a doubt, as functional or even better of a reprint than Harrow.
Khias
★★☆☆☆ (2.1/5.0)(5 votes)
Yessir. Terminate, and Dark Temper were way to weak by themselves. : P Thanks wizards.
fastpond
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(4 votes)
hmmm still a little weak compared to some older removal cards, but reasonable for 2 mana I guess, I would still play Gatekeeper over this anyday.
garbagegatherer
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(5 votes)
It is of course in the set against multikicker creatures. I think it will also be great against power creeps however.
JosirisDavid
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(2 votes)
I was hoping the art would be more cool then than the previous. Nevertheless, it's still a great card. Good bye Woolly Thoctar. I just hate it when they cast on turn 3 or cascade out.
zombietomb
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(5 votes)
Oh how I miss the fun of smothering a morphed Exalted Angel.
True_Mumin
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
I'm glad I kept my copies till now.
Grimn777
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(4 votes)
this spell certainly has its place, but that place is harder to find given all of the removal in t2. in decks with both black and red, terminate trumps. A more balanced comparison is this with disfigure or urge to feed. Disregarding the benefit of urge to feed in vampire strategies, and looking at the two from a functionality standpoint, smother seems to act as a hybrid between urge to feed and doom blade.
Doom blade and smother share the bonus of being able to kill all of the manlands, the token created by broodmate dragon, etc., while urge to feed often does not have the oomph. However, doom blade has the disadvantage of being utterly powerless in 1/5 of the color wheel, an advantage of both smother and urge to feed. In the same vein, doom blade can kill big cmc, big toughness threats like baneslayer, etc.
Thus, smother has some advantages of both, as well as some disadvantages of both. It is certainly a useful card, and I expect it will see play in multicolor strategies that do not want to support BB, as well as in some sideboards for decks like boros.
4.5/5
True_Smog
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm glad to see it again.
capitalR
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(3 votes)
kill's zoo that's for sure
JATES28
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Destroys the over-priced TARMOGOYF as well.
Nikeyeia
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I guess it could be sideboarded in every black t2 deck.
"You'll better not play creature lands!"
HairlessThoctar
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Actually, Ken Nagle talked about Smother in an interview on the Magic Show. He said he submitted it to the Worldwake Design File because of the multitude of good token makers and the presence of manlands.
Guntz1092
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(3 votes)
i lol'ed at the art LOL
hexaetherion
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Effective against levelers. Murders Mortician Beetle and vampires in general. Will only increase in value once Alara rotates out.
mdakw576
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(4 votes)
My opinion is that this card's generally outdone by doom blade in standard. Doom blade is only really a dead card vs vampires. Smother is always relevant, but you're guaranteed to run into a couple of creatures it can't kill (baneslayer, bloodbraid, etc).
However, in extended, where decks can run lower cmc, more efficient creatures (tarmogoyf, dark confidant, etc), this is great. it might actually be why wizards decided to reprint this now, since onslaught rotated out recently if I'm not mistaken.
There's a reason why MBA/MBC runs this more than any other removal save diabolic edict: it kills zoo. It kills everything worth killing. For everything else there's Perish.
Kurraga
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Kills Nighthawk, Hell's Thunder, Ball Lightning, Whooly Throctar, Any animated manland (not just WWK), Putrid Leech, Part of Sproting Thrinax, any token (save for certain 20/20 indestructable fliers), Vampire Hexmage, any morph creature, Tarmogoyf, Wild Nacatl, about 90% of all Tribal lords, Birds, Noble Heirarc, Lotus Cobra, Meddling Mage, Rhox War Monk, half of Kitchen finks, Level up dudes like Student of Warefare and the psueso level up Figure of Destiny, Kicker and Miltikicker dudes, Basically the list goes on, but the reason this card is so good because basically every deck runs low cost creatures (the ones that don't are either some sort of combo deck or something) so it beats out Doom Blade for main deck becasue it might be a dead card agains some decks (ie. mono/heave black ones)
So once they four or 5 drop out, Who can be Tendrils of Corruption'd, Consuming Vapors, Gatkeeper of Malikar or Even Damnationthem, outside of black is the Popular Vindicate, O-Ring, Path, Swords (better than smother in basically every sitiation also, but you can't run 8), Wrath/Day, Unmake, Terminate (also better than smother), Doomblade.
Yeah bit of a ramble on just listing cards, but I was bored and can't be bothered editing my post.
Carnophage_4ever
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(5 votes)
Seems like anyone playing a Psychatog against you is just begging for this.
NecroticNobody
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(8 votes)
It's so fun to Smother a feline creature. Think of the synynom for cat and you'll understand.
Much better in competitive formats, but it's always freakin' good. Hits nearly everything in the early game, and if you build an MBC deck right, there shouldn't be too much to deal with in the late game!
Not strictly worse than abrupt decay. Easier casting cost, can target manlands and creatures.cant regen! Great card
Aelvr
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm sorry, Zahr Gada. I'm not surprised. This is Zendikar, I've already had all the surprise trapped out of me.
RunedServitor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So CMC = lung capacity?
OlvynChuru
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Smother is one of those odd cards which is more effective in competitive play than in casual play. In casual, if a creature costs 3 or less, it's generally not worth killing. That is not the case in competitive. Go for the Throat is still probably a better card, though.
@spectermonger
Go for the Throat kills every single card you have there.
Comments (30)
Doom blade and smother share the bonus of being able to kill all of the manlands, the token created by broodmate dragon, etc., while urge to feed often does not have the oomph. However, doom blade has the disadvantage of being utterly powerless in 1/5 of the color wheel, an advantage of both smother and urge to feed. In the same vein, doom blade can kill big cmc, big toughness threats like baneslayer, etc.
Thus, smother has some advantages of both, as well as some disadvantages of both. It is certainly a useful card, and I expect it will see play in multicolor strategies that do not want to support BB, as well as in some sideboards for decks like boros.
4.5/5
"You'll better not play creature lands!"
He said he submitted it to the Worldwake Design File because of the multitude of good token makers and the presence of manlands.
LOL
However, in extended, where decks can run lower cmc, more efficient creatures (tarmogoyf, dark confidant, etc), this is great. it might actually be why wizards decided to reprint this now, since onslaught rotated out recently if I'm not mistaken.
There's a reason why MBA/MBC runs this more than any other removal save diabolic edict: it kills zoo. It kills everything worth killing. For everything else there's Perish.
So once they four or 5 drop out, Who can be Tendrils of Corruption'd, Consuming Vapors, Gatkeeper of Malikar or Even Damnationthem, outside of black is the Popular Vindicate, O-Ring, Path, Swords (better than smother in basically every sitiation also, but you can't run 8), Wrath/Day, Unmake, Terminate (also better than smother), Doomblade.
Yeah bit of a ramble on just listing cards, but I was bored and can't be bothered editing my post.
@spectermonger
Go for the Throat kills every single card you have there.