A card so good eventually that it's horrible immediately.
Razmataz24
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Solid card for a control deck. With the obvious Training Grounds this little nasty can be its own win condition as you shut them down with counterspells.
Wraique
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(5 votes)
For two mana you get a vanilla 1/1. For five mana you get Phantom Warrior. After you sink a whopping eleven mana into it you're gonna want more than a 3/3, regardless of shroud and unblockable. You could be casting Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
Granted, you could get it up there on three mana alone, but if a 3/3 is all you've got out after five turns (if your luck craps on you and you only pull three lands after 5 turns), then you're in trouble. Every other leveller is better than this, as are the majority of the cards in the set.
Diachronos
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
One of the few Level Up creatures that can actually protect itself at max power.
blindthrall
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Costs too much to level, but far from the worst one.
SleetFox
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
This guy's too costly, but still really cool.
However, try this: level to 2, use Snake Umbra, level to 3. It'll survive most removal and be quite a threat. Any Umbra works, but Snake is my favorite since an unblockable Ophidian is pretty awesome.
Cheza
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(4 votes)
@ f_fivefiftyseven Not true. Unblockable, shroud is similar to an enchantment dealing damage directly, since 2 colors don't have any cards to handle enchantments. However there is a lack of sacrifice effects that are more specific. Wing Shards is more or less the only card I know. Now let's imagine something like "target player sacrifices an unblocked creature". This would balance things quite well. So I don't see a problem here.
Flying, shroud is more common, as well as protection in general, which is more or less unblockable, shroud. With effects like "gain x life or similar effects, you can simply negate the damage dealt.
Sironos
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Blue lvl-up, means venerated teacher and training grounds, this one rox!
Gaussgoat
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(8 votes)
As already mentioned, one of the really cool things about this card is that it gains shroud later, so you can boost it, level it, and then kill. Equip artifacts or some insane enchantments and then activate the cloak, so to speak.
Expensive, but a major threat if the opponent doesn't deal with it. Almost worth it for the initial low cost distraction value which will almost assuredly save other creatures from Lightning Bolts.
Oh, as a final note, this guy can equip things and THEN get shroud, making it an incredibly dangerous creature if it can make the transition from lvl 2 to 3 in one piece. Imagine slapping something like Trusty Machete on this and then giving it shroud :D
4/5
Boday1
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Think about this, if you have a training grounds in play this is escentialy and 3/3 With shroud that is unblockable for CVM 5. Pretty good.
coyotemoon722
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Man it'd be awesome if these guys were merfolk
Artscrafter
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(4 votes)
As people have said, playability is much improved with Training Grounds. I run a couple of these in my WU leveller deck. Can be pretty sweet if something like this can come out of it:
Turn 1: Training Grounds Turn 2: Hada Spy Patrol. Turn 3: Level it up to 3, swing for 3 unblockable. Turn 4: Time of Heroes, swing for 5 unblockable, and play a 2-drop for defense. From there, opponent has 3 turns to live, provided you don't start swinging with anything else. If your opponent is playing a slow deck and you can manage to drop a Glacial Fortress turn 2 or3, it's even possible to play 2xTime of Heroes and swing for 7 on turn 4.
This won't win tournaments (turn 7 win and no blockers until turn 4) but it's pretty good for casual.
f_fivefiftyseven
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@ Vedalken Arbiter
Probably because that creature would either be severly overpowered or a 1/1 for 5 or more, and thus be completely useless
Stray_Dog
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(7 votes)
Damn these levelers have some awesome art...
surewhynot
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
So far it's a safe bet that any dude with "Hada" in its name is going to be pretty damn good.
divine_exodus
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Vedalken, the only card I can think of is Cephalid Inkshrouder and he doesn't really count....
Pillow676
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
O Hai there Prowl cards
Jesseman
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
It's a wonder why this card is named "Had a spy patrol." Probably because no one can see it or believe it after it has unblockable and shroud.
NeoKoda
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Invisible Stalker is much better, but the Patrol has a special place in my heart.
dhinge
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I guess the only benefit this has over Invisible Stalker is that you can make it bigger, though it only has Shroud... this was before the Hexproof craze, so this card probably wouldn't have even been made by that time or would have cost less to level up and would have gotten Hexproof. Oh me.
Comments (24)
Still, 3/3 Unblockable Shroud around midgame is nothing to scoff at. It's a good card on its own right
Training Grounds either way when hes lvl 3 owns this card wins games! 5/5
Granted, you could get it up there on three mana alone, but if a 3/3 is all you've got out after five turns (if your luck craps on you and you only pull three lands after 5 turns), then you're in trouble. Every other leveller is better than this, as are the majority of the cards in the set.
However, try this: level to 2, use Snake Umbra, level to 3. It'll survive most removal and be quite a threat. Any Umbra works, but Snake is my favorite since an unblockable Ophidian is pretty awesome.
Not true. Unblockable, shroud is similar to an enchantment dealing damage directly, since 2 colors don't have any cards to handle enchantments. However there is a lack of sacrifice effects that are more specific. Wing Shards is more or less the only card I know. Now let's imagine something like "target player sacrifices an unblocked creature". This would balance things quite well. So I don't see a problem here.
Flying, shroud is more common, as well as protection in general, which is more or less unblockable, shroud. With effects like "gain x life or similar effects, you can simply negate the damage dealt.
Expensive, but a major threat if the opponent doesn't deal with it. Almost worth it for the initial low cost distraction value which will almost assuredly save other creatures from Lightning Bolts.
Oh, as a final note, this guy can equip things and THEN get shroud, making it an incredibly dangerous creature if it can make the transition from lvl 2 to 3 in one piece. Imagine slapping something like Trusty Machete on this and then giving it shroud :D
4/5
Turn 1: Training Grounds
Turn 2: Hada Spy Patrol.
Turn 3: Level it up to 3, swing for 3 unblockable.
Turn 4: Time of Heroes, swing for 5 unblockable, and play a 2-drop for defense.
From there, opponent has 3 turns to live, provided you don't start swinging with anything else. If your opponent is playing a slow deck and you can manage to drop a Glacial Fortress turn 2 or3, it's even possible to play 2xTime of Heroes and swing for 7 on turn 4.
This won't win tournaments (turn 7 win and no blockers until turn 4) but it's pretty good for casual.
Probably because that creature would either be severly overpowered or a 1/1 for 5 or more, and thus be completely useless