Pointed Discussion

My friend was trying to tell me that without Flip cards and tribal, Innistrad was just homelands 2.0

So I slapped him

This is the new Obstinate Baloth, but only for Birthing Pod decks.

Even with 5 power this wouldn't have been very good. And it's even an uncommon. Compare to Morkrut Banshee which is likely to net you card advantage.

Slap undying on this with that new Mikaeus, and start sacrificing him with Disciple of Griselbrand.
and if you want to keep repeating it with the same Scavenger, try using Hex Parasite to get rid of the counters to keep the undying going and you'd net some decent life off this creature.

4/5 for five isn't exactly thrilling, but 4/5 and five life can keep you going long enough to finish whatever it was you were doing. In a morbid deck, probably bombarding your opponent with hideously powerful creatures.

Not the best, but certainly not the worst.

Looks like a poorman's thragtusk... not the worst card ive seen.

Here's a query after rereading the card:

Why was the morbid ability of this card written as is (with an intervening if-then clause)? It must check if a creature died twice for the ability to go through: once when Hollowhenge Scavenger enters, and once when the ability tries to resolve.

…but why? There's no way for a creature to not have died once a creature has died during a turn, which would cause the second check to fail. Other morbid cards such as Brimstone Volley, Festerhide Boar, and Gruesome Discovery aren't worded with if-then clauses, while Morkrut Banshee and Reaper of the Abyss are among the few morbid cards that do.

Just something I noticed in the days of Gatecrash.

@DJChill - the morbid *triggered abilities* are *all* worded with intervening if-clauses. It's because if it wasn't worded with an intervening if clause, there would be situations where you could have the creature enter the battlefield, then sacrifice that creature, and thus the ability would give the benefit which is mechanically different to how it works right now. Whether this difference in functionality was a concern or not is another story, but in any case it's also easier to handle the triggers with an intervening if-clause. If morbid is active, the ability will trigger and you'll ultimately get your bonus. If morbid is active, the ability won't trigger. The fact that the condition gets checked again upon resolution isn't relevant to morbid as you point out.

The other cards you've mentioned have replacement effects, which pretty much work in a similar way for non-triggered abilities - if event X happens, you modify what's happening with the spell; if event X doesn't happen, you treat it as normal.

This probably could have cost 4 mana, alright for limited I suppose
3/5 Stars

Used as a filler with a deck I slapped together after opening my fatpack.
The lifegain + 4/5 body for 5 is gamechanging.