Pointed Discussion

"nonland permanent" move along...

It works with tokens. In an all-red deck you probably won't have enough non-land permanents, but it still looks playable as a finisher in multicolored decks.

Why "nonland"? I don't get it. If I play it that late game, that I have a large amount of lands in play, and then choose to take the risk and sac them to maybe kill the player (and end up gimped if he has something like instant speed lifegain or whatnot), then what's too strong about it?

All in all the card ain't bad in slow multiplayer decks, where you can sacrifice anything that someone wants to steal or destroy, and kill some creatures along the way or burn a player in the face. Especially in commander/edh decks, when someone puts a pacifism on your general, and your deck doesn't feature the cards to get rid of that aura, so that you can use this to sac the general and replay him.

But the nonland part is bothering. Why make a balanced though unspectacular card worse? bah...

I thought "man... this card looks weak." and I just now realized... it's kind of a combo/win card if you're playing tokens, saprolings or some other way to get lots of cheap things on the field. He's pretty big at 4/4 after you've been ramping and hitting people with big damage spells. Him swinging + saccing everything you've got could be a win.

Ingenious pun regarding the card's name, but the non-land clause spoils the entire fun one could have with this card...

1. Get a bunch of eldrazi tokens into play.

2. Use them to fuel Magmaw and procced machinegun down the opponents creatures.

3. Swing with Rapacious One against your crippled opponent

even without tokens, you turn your opponents removal into your damage on them. They go for doomblade, you sack and burn them.

It's too bad that the same Eldrazi Spawn token can't be used as both mana and ammunition for this, otherwise it would be much more interesting. As it is, I can only see it being used in token-rich decks, or maybe in Limited for those times when you need to kill something on your side that's become a liability.

Target audience: the Burn crowd.

Best thing going for it: It's instant speed.

Biggest problem: in most cases, you'd be better off with a Fireball, Blaze, Disintegrate, Banefire, or one of the myriad other itterations of "X+R= X damage" because they don't require you to sac. anything, just to pay mana. This requires both mana AND sac. It would be better in most cases to sac. those Eldrazi spawn to add extra damage to a Fireball (or other direct damage spell).

Conclusion: Instant-speed burn is good, but there are generally better choices for decks that want to do direct damage. This will likely not see its way into many decks. Skip it.

I think this card is being under rated.. if you play a token deck, especially say.. goblin assault and awakening zone with an rgw deck, marshal's anthem and emeria sky ruin, then this card is really really good.

There are three things to think about here. For starters it gives you a sac ability, yes you can't sac any lands, and yet it makes traitorous instinct and mark of mutiny really good. I steal your creature and sac. it even if you block it for only 1 mana to burn your life points or your bird of paradise, and its colorless mana, at instant speed, and magmaw doesn't need to tap to do it. Secondly, this is a set which gave us a bunch of sac. is good cards including moritican beetle and what's that.. oh yeah, It that betrays and eldrazi con***ion. Lastly, it's still a 4/4 with a useful ability in a set thats just plain splattered with tokens.. and goblin assault and awakening zone are still in standard until the next set.

Also, hasn't anyone noticed it can sac. itself? This gives it combo potential with emeria skyruin, mortician beetle, kresh the bloodbraided, algae gharial, and blade of the bloodchief. It basically prevents any of your creatures from getting exiled, while pinging your opponent to boot *cough* vengevine protector *cough*, just fyi.

Here's a fun combo, magmaw with kor cartographer (ondu giant or other land searchers also work here), emeria sky ruin, and bloodghast. Emeria (or multiple emerias) return the cartographer, which returns the bloodghast, then attack with the bloodghasts until they get targeted by something and sac. it for extra damage. In extended you can use springjack shepherd.

"...everything is fuel for the magmaw" - Except lands.

Conquering Manticore + Splinter Twin + Magmaw = Win

Otherwise it isn't the best card to play.

This with Basilisk Collar. Enough said.

Weak because you have to pay. Phyrexian Plaguelord owns this thing.

So an engine capable of converting permanents into direct damage is printed in a land-centric block.
But it can't sacrifice lands.

Faaaaaaantastic.

I am new to Magic and i was wondering why you can't use the same Eldrazi Spawn for both mana and sac. I tried to look up the answer to this question in the comp rules for mtg however i am not a lawyer hehe. I understand that you have to sac the spawn for one colorless, the question is why the sac cannot count for both.

time for awesome combo.

This and Dominus of Fealty

kill your opponents stuff, planeswalkers this means you.

as i did it in a R/U deck, rite of replication on the Dominus, then start sacing their stuff to kill them.

Not good? How about this.

You've got them down to 5, but you can't seem to get past their largest creature. Sac everything you've got and you win! It's not like they are going to have 4 trickbinds and a stifle in hand.

Decent ability on a reasonable body for the cost.

If it weren't for some of the insane examples of power creep recently, there is NO WAY this would be rated 2.5

This is at the very /least/ a 3. It should be a 3.5 imo.

Not great but it has niche applications. I run an Act of Treason/Mark of Mutiny + Fling deck that uses this guy to blow up stolen stuff if I don't have Fling handy.

Now that Eldrazi has been around for a while, it's interesting to read what people said back when it was brand spankin new. This card really is poo, and I have an elevated level of hate towards it because I think between my brother and I, we've pulled like 9 of 'em. I don't even bother with Eldrazi anymore. Don't get me wrong, there are some stellar cards in the set, but overall I always feel like i'm disappointed if I don't pull a Wall of Omens (not counting the rare). The uncommons and commons in this set are really sub-par.

I sure hope that the hate this thing is getting is because it was printed at rare, and people are disappointed to open it instead of... I don't know... Gideon Jura?

I have a hard time believing that allowing people to sacrifice lands wouldn't push this card too far in the other direction. Cards like Squandered Resources and Zuran Orb were extremely popular in their day; if you let Magmaw eat lands, he turns every land you draw into the equivalent of a flashed-back Lava Dart, which seems rather good. (it's not a perfect a-n-a-logy, I know)

Anyway, to the card as printed: I think that while he may not be jaw-droppingly powerful, the utility he provides could be handy in a drawn-out game. Admittedly, I am biased, as I was able to put a Snake Umbra on him at the prerelease for profit.

This makes for an interesting combo with Bazaar Trader and either Mindslaver or Sorin Markov.

@Goatllama-Uh, sure, but they're still land permanents...

yeah i used to hate this card until i saw... tokens. I was thinking of making a Rith edh deck using red burn that utilized tokens, so if you have a token swarm, a cardless fireball is great. Still, as much as i don't often like to sac lands, i wish this could let, i mean... EVERYTHING IS FUEL FOR THE MAGMAW RIGHT!?!?!?

Sun Titan, this and Sprouting Thrinax. Only problem is in a R/W deck is getting Thrinax to the graveyard.
I'd use lots of other token generators. Kinda weak especially for extended but, fairly powerful once it gets going.

Does this card remind anyone of Arc Slogger?

omg this guy is a stifle on steroids I mean like you can pay 1 sac him and target himself and BAM free stifle you just countered an ability!! =O

I love this card. Protects almost everything you have from insidious stuff, and when they go for the throat you get a bonus damage to them.
Sacrifice engines are so useful in combos.
When an opponent has a lifelinker, and you need to stop them from gaining life, you can chump block it and sacrifice the chump to deal a damage and stop the lifelink.

So can you pay one and sac an Eldrazi Spawn, then would the Spawn produce one mana to sac another?

I'd like to try something with this, Sun Titan and either Oblivion Ring or Journey To Nowhere. Drop the enchantment, sacrifice it with the first ability on the stack and reuse with the titan, whist pinging for 1. Not at all Type 2 material, but it would definitely be fun for casual play.

Aw, Mortarpod's all grown up!

Run this in a goblin token deck, Brightstone Ritual to victory.

ALL IS FUEL FOR THE MAGMAW, TURN YOUR LANDS INTO CREATURES!!! (and then somehow remove their supertype and also have an anthem on the field)

Its alright, would be fantastic if it could eat lands though.

"...everything is fuel for the magmaw" - including Magmaw.