Pointed Discussion

Over expensive level cost is overexpensive.

That's why cards like Venerated Teacher and Training Grounds exist! Still, a 2/6 on turn 4 that can attack and still block is quite nice. Think of it as a Guardian of Zendikon that can still grow instead of just looking at the expensive level up cost and you'll be able to see much more potential for the little creature.

God, this card is just awesome to me.

It's not a special card in any sense of the term, but the idea of leveling a soldier up to a 3/10 power wall with vigilance is awesome, lol.

Level up is a great mechanic but a lot of their abilities are overcosted, as this one. I'd rather have a second creature for four mana (or 4 more for 16). Still...

I will admit, the lvl cost is a bit expensive, but this guy at level two and drake umbra won me a lot of games at the pre-release. They're now like my two favorite cards from this set lol.

redundant comments are redundant

Lol I like him :D

Kekai Kotaki's art is beginning to grow on me. He looks cool and his toughness gets retarded... oh yeah, then there's vigilance.

Works well with training grounds and other level-ramp obviously. He's a house when you give him flying. With Training Grounds and Venerated Teacher he's Level 4 on Turn 4, ready to swing. Turn 5 Drake Umbra turns him into a 4/11 flying, attacking, vigilant defender with totem armor. Solid leveler in the right deck.

Where might the Ikiral Outrider be riding to? He's riding to a Siege Tower. Specifically, Doran, the Siege Tower.

Sweet blocker, but that level up cost is a bit silly.

It's the Pillarfield Ox's fault he sucks.

In a {U}{W} with a couple Training Grounds, it can be a 3/10 Vigilance for 6. A pretty good deal in my opinion.

Strictly better than Glory Seeker, that why it isn't a 0.5 of 5. The high toughness doesn*t create any special benefit, if it can*t kill anything. And it can't.... that's why it is a soldier and not a knight. I would have preferred a more defensive version with defender and maybe some sort of "soul warden"-ness. The ultimate level could have turned him into a non-defender.

@blindthrall: How can it be the Pillarfield Ox's fault? Everything that is touched by Pillarfield Ox is surrounded by a radiant aura of awesomeness, including this guy.

On a more serious note, it's a decent card. It needs Venerated Teacher to be good, as the majority of the levelers do.

Like most of the "expensive to level up" creatures (that I have noticed), since their full potencial is unlocked at lower levels in comparison to, let's say, Student of Warfare, this creature benefits more from Venerated Teacher and Training Grounds than the cheaper ones. However, they only get to shine in a dedicated level up deck.

It's cool to think that a "tiny" human soldier can block some Eldrazi (like Pathrazer of Ulamog) and live to tell the tale (considreing fully leveled up).

Wouldn't be too bad if the level up cost were 3 mana, but 4 is ridiculous

Good eye noticing the Pillarfield Ox, but then shouldn't he be at least 2/4 to begin with? Or does he start out on foot and only learn to ride the ox after some training?
Very expensive on his own, but might be worth throwing into an EDH deck with Doran, the Siege Tower. If Doran is in play, you can cast this as a 6/6 with Vigilance for 6, which is very decent, and possibly get him up to a 10/10 Vigilance, which is insane.

chances are you aint gonna hard level him past level one but with umbras and such yeah thats pretty beast

This card is well designed up to the level cost. For what it does, the Level Up cost is about {2} to high. The 10 toughness is great with Doran, The Siege Tower, so maybe thats why they screwed up the Level Up cost.

Alright, so it will cost you 6 to get a 2/6 vigilance, but the ability combos nicely as a blocker and an attacker, plus this artwork is sick!

This is a perfectly good card that is ruined by a stupidly high activation cost. Caravan Escort is a common leveller but he's actually useful. You're dumping over 15 mana into a guy with three power and not many other significantabilities. Level up for 3, or level up 2 and lower toughness, would have made him perfectly fine.

Him: They ran out of horses, so I got to ride the Pillarfied Ox. Nobody else wanted it for some reason.

I will play Intomitable Ancients straightway, don't need to say anything about this.

1.5/5

Erik's Random card 7/7/2011

When design handed this over, it was a 3W 1/5 Vigilance. However there was the view that there needed to be more levelers per pack, as that was the major new mechanic of the set.
So this became:

2W 1/3
Level up 2W
Level 1-2 2/4 Vigilance
Level 3+ 3/5 Vigilance


It is a little smaller per mana than one would expect, but levels up to get +1/+1.
It was OK in limited, but not great. However it looked terrible to most people.
So we made it:

2W 1/1
Level up 3W
Level 1-3 2/6 Vigilance
Level 4+ 3/11 Vigilance

The experiment was whether people would like a version that started off terrible, but became big.
On turn 4, you would attack with your 2/6 vigilance. People still didn't like it much.

I wanted it to become a 4 power attacker at the end, to start getting through some of the 0/4 walls.
Matt wanted this one to not get through, which makes sense.

So the next try was one you see. Matt wanted there to be a leveler that was OK, but not picked too early in most drafts. Imagine you draft a leveler build around card, and try to build a leveler deck. If all the levelers are great, you aren't going to get more levelers than anyone else; every leveler is an early pick. But if some are just OK, you can get those later, and it makes your deck fill out. Its best to put some of those at common, so enough of them are opened in a typical draft. Matt decided this slot should be one of those, and I think it did its job.

deck with Twisted Image

How do people still not 'get' level up?
You're not supposed to have to get it maxed out, but you have the option to.

Riding a Pillarfield Ox.

Why is it not a knight?

Level up is far, far to expensive, but when fully leveled up he's a surprisingly aggressive dude. Give 'im something to up his rather pitiful power, and you have a nice wall.

"I, Kira! L, Outrider!"
- Yagami Caveman

*Runs for cover from the bad joke police*

The flavor is that he starts out on foot and you have to pay {4} to get a Pillarfield Ox for him to ride. From there, you pay 12 more mana to get the ox to unleash its true power (err, toughness) for you.