Pointed Discussion

This set's artwork is loaded with mounted humanoids.

"Gonna fight the Eldrazi? You're gonna need a horse, kiddo."

This reads to me "attacking turn 2 as a 2/2" so it should be fun in limited. Otherwise it's competing with to many other 1 drops so it would need a slower/control deck. lol... WW control

I like it, but it's outclassed by Student of Warfare. Being common and having a colorless Level up cost helps, though.

I wish people would play less limited so they would be discouraged printing this garbage. They could have at least made it a vanilla 3/3 or a french vanilla 2/2.

Way to go, WotC. This card is a great way to introduce the new mechanic, making players ABSOLUTELY HATE EVERY ASPECT OF LEVEL UP!!!!

If I see this card in anything but a Limited or casual setting, I'll probably have an aneurism from sheer stupidity.

Set filler. White has 7 levelers and there are 24 total in the set, it's not a big deal that a couple are garbage.

Dumb and ugly. Like all the other "leveling" creatures. Who approved this hideous cardframe design? It makes my eyes bleed. A really stupid and cliched idea overall. Magic is slowly morphing from CCG into RPG.

@ Temple_Garden

People are entitled to play whatever they want, and I've personally found limited much more enjoyable to play than any constructed format. Limited appeals to the Timmy, Johnny, and Spike in me. There's the thrill of opening packs and checking out the rares (a very Timmy thing), the fact that each draft is different, even if you had the same people opening the exact same cards you'd even get different games, so theres always something new for you to do (which appeals to my Johnny side), and draft is also the most challenging and intellectually stimulating format out, thus being able to make the correct choices improves your ability to win, and the satisfaction of actually outsmarting your opponents opposed to mearly getting better draws with your idendical Jund or Dark Depths deck (which appeals to Spike).

Personally, I love the fact that Rise of the Eldrazi is designed for limited, its a nice change of pace. As for this card, its a fairly good leveler, you're not winning games with it, but he helps out. Its a common, and it has a decent activation cost. Not the best card out there, but not the worst

9 for a 5/5 with first strike.
step aside, Vampire Nighthawk.

>>> Dumb and ugly. Like all the other "leveling" creatures. Who approved this hideous cardframe design? It makes my eyes bleed. A really stupid and cliched idea overall. Magic is slowly morphing from CCG into RPG.<<< qft

I would have created at least this version:
level 0-1 = 1/1
level 2-4 = 3/3
level 5+ = 5/5 first strike

This is weird. Student of Warfare is much better than this, strictly. I don't understand Wizards' "the rarer the more powerful" mentality. It just favors people with more money (me). Rarity should give more possibilities, not more power.

One of the worst level up creatures. This should not be the card we should be judging the whole mechanic by, like most of these people here who have probably never played with these creatures are.

Yes, Student of Warfare is much better, but also requires more white to be playable. It takes three white mana to get her to level two, and if you want to get her to level seven you better be playing a heavy white deck. Caravan Escort can be easily played in any deck with even just a little white. Then again, so can Elite Vanguard, and I'd much better play one of them.

Then we have Transcendent Master, the other very splashable white card. Well, let's just say not everyone can get a card that rare, and this guy is perfectly sufficient for a player with a smaller collection.

i dont undderstand why people hate things because they are different. sholdnt you be happy that there is innovation? things would be pretty boring if they just kept reprinting cards more powerful or less and never changed anything.
this is only in one set, it wont be replacing standard creatures so stop whining
3.5/5

You people are nuts.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: defending underpowered cards with the notion that they're "designed for limited" is a logical fallacy. There is nothing about limited that requires it to be so much crappier than constructed. Limited will be limited no matter what the overall power level of a set is - the only thing that matters is that the colors and card types are balanced relative to each other. So there is nothing that makes ROE, which contains mostly mediocre cards and a few good ones, better designed for limited than Lorwyn, which mostly consists of insanely overpowered cards. All it does is ensure that people will waste their money on cards that will end up in the trash bin after one limited play.

Probably my least favorite levelers. It's a 3 mana 2/2 creature early on in the game. Bring out an Eldrazi rather than wasting time on building a 5/5 first strike creature after 5 turns and plenty of wasted mana.

It is a 1/1 for 1 with a bonus ability. You guys are off your rockers complaining about this card.

Time of Heroes anyone?

Is it awesome?
By no means.
Is it nice?
Yeah/ Play it turn 1, sink extra mana into it later on.
Basically, one-drop 1/1, that you can sink extra mana into to turn him into a healthy first-striking beater, and with synergy with guys like Venerated Teacher and Time of Heroes.
At the very least, he's a 1/1 for 1 with an ability that easily remains relevant late-game without heavy color investment. Don't underrate it. it's remarkably powerful in-block, and not useless out-of-block.

Random Card Comment

@ZEvilMustache or a lion/dragon/drake whatever. Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that...

Caravan Escort has the misfortune of being a 1 cost W leveller in the same set as Student of Warfare. I don't play much limited, so like most people I tend to skim over this guy to get to the student.

It's somewhat sad that a fair amount of cards in each set do not see much play outside of limtied or draft because they are less efficient versions of more powerful cards, especially if those more powerful cards are readily availabe (such as in a deck).

He's one advantage over the student is, as has been pointed out, that his mana is colorless. But that's not often enough to lead to his inclusion because in a multi-color leveller deck there are better cards to include.

Incidentally, I resented the levellers for a long time because I sort of felt like they had replaced the Allies, a type I had been enjoying in the previous 2 expansions. Now I've used a level deck, I appreciate them but I still would like to see more allies in a future set (although I do not know if that would work)

I'm realy suprised nobody mentioned Training Ground. I mean, it's Rise of the Eldrazi, The birthplace of TG. And with TG, you can pay to summon him as a 2/2, then next turn pay to get a 5/5 first striker.