It seems a lot weaker than it is. I think it's deceptively powerful, especially if you can (somehow) level up a Kazandu Tuskcaller to level 6. EOT draw 2 cards? Yes, please! :D
nammertime
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(6 votes)
Works well with Garruk's Companion and Garruk Wildspeaker himself. Multiples of this guy and the Companion will draw you lots of cards... in green!
mdakw576
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
In green it basically turns every one of your creatures into cantrips.
Mode
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
A 4/4 body for five mana that provides card advantage certainly is a good thing.
And it's about a bazillion times better than what red can provide in M11 for that cost.
(Not talking about Cyclops Gladiator here, this one costs less and three colored mana.)
Garruk's Packleader is a nice alternative for Wirewood Savage in a tribal deck, in case the fact that the savage is not a beast should cause any problems - and given that you don't run too many beasts with power less than 3 of course.
JWMidnight
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
By the time this guy's out, your big guys should be coming in. So perfectly executed, and its just big enough to avoid burn. Not a game changer but a great supporting beasty.
Kryptnyt
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I likey where Don is goin with the tuskcaller idea, especially since I pulled 3 of em and want to sell them for like 150 bucks if that ever came to pass :P
I had my doubts about this card.. and surprisingly it wasn't playing with it but against it that suddenly made me wake up to it. I played blue white at pre release and my friend played a green red deck with this card in it. Whenever it got into play and managed to stay there for a turn or so, he drew 2 - 3 cards. It might have said 5 mana 4/4 creature, draw 3 cards when it enters the battlefield, because its about the same thing. If it ever stays around a really long time then you have a nice draw engine going. Also works with crystal ball, and various others including protean hydra.
JaxsonBateman
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Such a good card in draft and sealed. A decent beater, and a card drawing engine - considering green has 3 power creatures as early as 2 mana, and at common (Garruk's Companion), it's not hard to trigger, and any extra card drawing in a deck is nice.
I'd *love* to play him alongside Garruk though. Turning Garruk's second ability into "Put a 3/3 beast onto the battlefield and draw a card" just sounds brutal.
Talcos
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
This card is ungodly powerful in limited. Drawing cards wins games. You may not think it's much, but when all of your 3+ power creatures replace themselves, it gets pretty crazy. I think it's a win-more card with Garruk Wildspeaker himself, but then again, every little bit helps.
His 4/4 body allows him to crash into your opponent. And I promise you that his 5 CMC is not a hindrance.
JenBroness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I got 2 of these in draft - nice synergy with Clone and a few Unsummons.
Troutz
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I didn't like this card until I started actually playing with it, such a nice card to have in stompy green decks where you're usually top-decking by turn 5. This is truly a great card for casual constructed decks.
TheSwarm
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(8 votes)
Id like to take this time to say that animals are instinctively selfish and that humans have a larger capacity for kindness
Laguz
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I used to overlook this thing. No idea why. Maybe I read it wrong.
Reliable green card draw is so useful, especially in a 4/4 body. Best non-rare green creature in my opinion.
Ryney
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Alright, just for clearance, let's say I have a Gaea's Anthem out, then I decide to kick the Wolfbriar Elemental, I draw a card for each time it's kicked, correct? Because that's a pretty fun combo it seems.
Remember back in Alara when creatures had to have a power of 5 or greater when they came into play to do anything? That's how hardcore this card is. One on the field cantrips creatures, two creates a divination effect. Any more than that gives you CRAZY card advantage. Because Garruk's Companion is a cost effective creature whose effect can duplicate and activate itself, there's no drawback to putting in a playset. Do that and you won't be topdecking by turn 5 or 6 - which is exactly what happens to your typical green aggro and is why most people don't play mono green in Standard. In my deck I also run a playset of Rampaging Baloths, who in combo lets you DRAW CARDS for NO MANA just for PLAYING LANDS while getting 4/4 TOKENS. That combo makes Seer's Sundial look like Joraga Bard.
4.5/5
Perfect as an uncommon, although they could've just made it a rare/mythic and/or given it 5 power for 5 mana. Still no complaints - mono green is OFFICIALLY playable in standard now. THANKS WIZZURDS!!!
Saxophonist
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Card draw in Green = lolwut
I know it's been done before, but still...I always considered that more Blue's thing, maybe Black's.
WhiteyMcFly
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned this yet, but here's a combo that I just LOVE using.
This guy + Joraga Warcaller in an elf deck. When you're paying 1 or 2 mana to play an elf and draw a card, you can get a ton of elves out on the battlefield fast as long as you have a healthy supply of Elvish Archdruids. Run with the Fauna Shaman + Vengevine combo and things get even more fun.
VampireCat
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Synergizes incredibly well with Leatherback Baloth. The Baloth is powerful enough to trigger his draw ability, and cheap enough to drop multiples the turn after Packleader comes out.
GrimjawxRULES
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
This thing makes Briarhorn very happy to have evoke. Oh, and Shriekmaw too now we're at it.
So all the splicer's from New Phyrexia can cantrip? Hmm...seems pretty useful till I find a better option for that deck.
.Blaze.
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Cards like Kazandu Tuskcaller and Rampaging Baloths now let you draw cards. Heres hoping the rare Garruk card in M12 allows for more reusable uses of this guy.
dberry02
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(5 votes)
At first I said, "Awww, 5 mana! That's going to be too expensive..."
And then I realized that I'm playing green and that I am running mana accelleration and it essentially says 2G rather than 4G. Overall solid card. Even better when combo'ed with the right deck. The 4/4 body it's attached too is just icing on the cake :)
I have a deck planned out that involves this guy and Ooze Garden. Play, sac, draw, get an Ooze, draw. I've been thinking about using Kitchen Finks for fuel.
lorendorky
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
in extended this has great synergy with Savage Conception
OmegaSerris
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(4 votes)
is definitely the card draw king, but I think is next to equal, if not better than, . has a bit (Wall of Omens) but for being both an ally to both and , I'm not impressed.
@OmegaSerris - Green has better draw than Black? I mean green has Greater Good, which is an amazing card, but are you forgetting Necropotence? Yawgmoth's Bargain? Phyrexian Arena? Graveborn Muse? (I could continue but I'll stop here) You need to consider that some of these cards are banned/resticted in eternal, which certainly says something.
If anything Black has the best draw because you're not paying mana for it. -1 life for a draw is simply broken because every card you draw should do more than 1 damage to your opponent, and at that point you're not paying mana to draw leaving you with mana to play all the cards you just got.
Now that all of that is out of the way, the problem with this guy is that he simply costs too much to really effect the game in any serious way. This guy is a 5 drop, meaning in a Stompy deck I can play in consistently on turn 4, however that drop is taken by Khalni Hydra, who replaces the single draw for much more face bashing. Now if he had been a 2 draw, it might be a little different, but that single draw is pretty weak when you're staring down an 8/8 Trampler for 4..
Dr_Fletchers
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Garruk believes bigger is better....and this is case and point!!!!!
I was came for the infinite mana, but stayed for the infinite card draw. :) Therefore, with these three cards: You can play your entire library (minus a few cards for relative safety) in a single turn. :O
kiseki
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Thinking of this and Nacatl War-Pride sends shivers down my spine. I love the idea of the word "May" saving your deck.
*INTERESTING STORY* How we met.. On DOTP 2012 ps3. I was playing the Ghoulcaller deck in campaign mode against Garruk's horde, of course. It was pretty close, don't recall the details 100% but he had this guy and 2 or 3 2/2's. I had 2 or 3 3/3 Zombie tokens from a recently dead Grave Titan and Lord of the Undead. Skinrender and Titan in the graveyard. In my hand, 2 or 3 cards including Reanimate. I swing with a token, he blocks and kills it with this guy. So now he's 4/1. Next step, I use Lord Undeads ability to return a Zombie targeting Skinrender whom I play targeting this guy who then goes to the graveyard. I reanimate him and he comes over to the dark side. HOLY S**T!! He was so badass in this deck that has next to nothing (minus a Grave Defiler), as far as card draw, that I decided to splash green JUST for him in a new deck, outside the Ps3 obviously. Turned out to be a GREAT call this deck is built for overloading the board with 3/3 zombies and it's just shy of 70% creatures. As it turns out, this deck is pretty sick in casual play as I have yet to lose with it and have since added Glissa, the Traitor, just for the first strike and deathtouch (couldn't care less about the artifact retrieval), which turned out to be another great call. Fun fun deck! Hope you liked my story. Happy casting!
MindAblaze
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@TheSwarm
In rebuttal, humans are simply animals with speech. Language animals have the capacity to interpret other people, which I would argue, more and more in our day and age, is being neglected. With conservatives in power our society is leaning toward individual endeavours and devaluing kindness and understanding. A quick Internet search will find you a number of example of animal compassion and even interspecies play. Beyond that animals share amongst their groups when it can be afforded, which people rarely do. They just take their hybrid cars and charitable donations as excuses to be more selfish in their social lives.
@MindAblaze: Somebody read up on altruism in the animal kingdom.
tcollins
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Synergizes with {G}.
TastyWumpus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I find this to be much better than cards like soul of the harvest which is often included in mono green edh lists as a draw engine - this guy triggers on tokens and is 1 cmc cheaper.
Comments (37)
And it's about a bazillion times better than what red can provide in M11 for that cost.
(Not talking about Cyclops Gladiator here, this one costs less and three colored mana.)
Garruk's Packleader is a nice alternative for Wirewood Savage in a tribal deck, in case the fact that the savage is not a beast should cause any problems - and given that you don't run too many beasts with power less than 3 of course.
I'd *love* to play him alongside Garruk though. Turning Garruk's second ability into "Put a 3/3 beast onto the battlefield and draw a card" just sounds brutal.
His 4/4 body allows him to crash into your opponent. And I promise you that his 5 CMC is not a hindrance.
Reliable green card draw is so useful, especially in a 4/4 body. Best non-rare green creature in my opinion.
4.5/5
Perfect as an uncommon, although they could've just made it a rare/mythic and/or given it 5 power for 5 mana. Still no complaints - mono green is OFFICIALLY playable in standard now. THANKS WIZZURDS!!!
I know it's been done before, but still...I always considered that more Blue's thing, maybe Black's.
This guy + Joraga Warcaller in an elf deck. When you're paying 1 or 2 mana to play an elf and draw a card, you can get a ton of elves out on the battlefield fast as long as you have a healthy supply of Elvish Archdruids. Run with the Fauna Shaman + Vengevine combo and things get even more fun.
And then I realized that I'm playing green and that I am running mana accelleration and it essentially says 2G rather than 4G. Overall solid card. Even better when combo'ed with the right deck. The 4/4 body it's attached too is just icing on the cake :)
I have a deck planned out that involves this guy and Ooze Garden. Play, sac, draw, get an Ooze, draw. I've been thinking about using Kitchen Finks for fuel.
Look at
Overbeing of Myth
Biomantic Mastery
Dormant Sliver
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Then there is a TON of
So
If anything Black has the best draw because you're not paying mana for it. -1 life for a draw is simply broken because every card you draw should do more than 1 damage to your opponent, and at that point you're not paying mana to draw leaving you with mana to play all the cards you just got.
Now that all of that is out of the way, the problem with this guy is that he simply costs too much to really effect the game in any serious way. This guy is a 5 drop, meaning in a Stompy deck I can play in consistently on turn 4, however that drop is taken by Khalni Hydra, who replaces the single draw for much more face bashing. Now if he had been a 2 draw, it might be a little different, but that single draw is pretty weak when you're staring down an 8/8 Trampler for 4..
Composite Golem
Nim-Deathmantle
I was came for the infinite mana, but stayed for the infinite card draw. :)
Therefore, with these three cards: You can play your entire library (minus a few cards for relative safety) in a single turn. :O
If that isn't crazy enough for you, add in Reliquary Tower and Endless Swarm.
How we met.. On DOTP 2012 ps3. I was playing the Ghoulcaller deck in campaign mode against Garruk's horde, of course. It was pretty close, don't recall the details 100% but he had this guy and 2 or 3 2/2's. I had 2 or 3 3/3 Zombie tokens from a recently dead Grave Titan and Lord of the Undead. Skinrender and Titan in the graveyard. In my hand, 2 or 3 cards including Reanimate. I swing with a token, he blocks and kills it with this guy. So now he's 4/1. Next step, I use Lord Undeads ability to return a Zombie targeting Skinrender whom I play targeting this guy who then goes to the graveyard. I reanimate him and he comes over to the dark side. HOLY S**T!! He was so badass in this deck that has next to nothing (minus a Grave Defiler), as far as card draw, that I decided to splash green JUST for him in a new deck, outside the Ps3 obviously. Turned out to be a GREAT call this deck is built for overloading the board with 3/3 zombies and it's just shy of 70% creatures. As it turns out, this deck is pretty sick in casual play as I have yet to lose with it and have since added Glissa, the Traitor, just for the first strike and deathtouch (couldn't care less about the artifact retrieval), which turned out to be another great call. Fun fun deck! Hope you liked my story. Happy casting!
In rebuttal, humans are simply animals with speech. Language animals have the capacity to interpret other people, which I would argue, more and more in our day and age, is being neglected. With conservatives in power our society is leaning toward individual endeavours and devaluing kindness and understanding. A quick Internet search will find you a number of example of animal compassion and even interspecies play. Beyond that animals share amongst their groups when it can be afforded, which people rarely do. They just take their hybrid cars and charitable donations as excuses to be more selfish in their social lives.
This card is good.
@MindAblaze: Somebody read up on altruism in the animal kingdom.