Pointed Discussion

Abusable common.

Very good power and toughness for its cost. Your opponent loses 3 life whether they block and kill it, kill it elsewhere, or let it through.

Exquisite Blood

I wish this either did hose or was hoseable by Grafdigger's Cage. Would have been nice flavor :)

Compare to Geralf's Messenger :

The Messenger 1) gets stronger when it dies and can immediately come back via undying, 2) has the useful zombie creature typing, and 3) will ultimately deal more damage to one player than the fiend would.

However, Soulcage Fiend does have a few advantages:

1) It's mana cost is not as heavily dependent on black, so it is easier to splash.
2) It's effect targets EVERYONE, so it is pretty scary as a blocker/ sacrifice fodder in multiplayer, and since it has a global effect, in my experience, your opponents are less likely to get mad and gang up on you.
3) It can block for you the turn it comes into play.
4) It is a common, and much less likely to break your wallet than the highly sought-after Messenger.

I really like both of these cards, and I appreciate both of them. I just have too many friends questioning why this card was made in the same block as the Messenger.

It's not overpowered at all, but it definitely works for anybody that would want to make a demon-themed deck. Just look at that art... so sadistic and hardcore. All you can see behind that mask is his teeth!

With me personally, I have made a sort of demon-themed deck that actually works with multiplayer games (even though I hate multiplayer typically) this guy with barter in blood, innocent blood, trecherous pit-dweller, Abyssal Persecutor, and bloodgift demon will make some really interesting multiplayer interactions I think.

He turns Scroll of Griselbrand on, so there's that.

Nice in black aggro/suicide for AVR limited. Ramping Kruin Striker into this and bashing in for potentially 6+ turn 4 is nice enough in my books. Can bolt your opponent with Bone Splinters/Blood Connoisseur effects when the time is right. 3/5

This guy is a fixed Deathcurse Ogre, with a halved cmc in exchange for one toughness on something that wants to die anyway.

And you can tell it was an intentional throwback too. In addition to the same power and ability, their names are both (made-up compound word + species). And hell, they're even an ogre-demon pair.

Way to make a stupid card playable in the most stylish way possible, y'all.

disciple of griselbrand helps counter his drawback.

Sylvok Lifestaff is an option.

I run 4 of these in my Aggro-Sac deck. 3 CMC gets him out fast, 2 toughness lets him die easily (which you want him to do anyways), and his 3 dmg ping + 3 power + the ability to sac him whever poses an intersting delema: whether they let him through, block and kill him, or block with a chump and have him be sacrificed anyway. Whatever they choose, they're taking at least 3, possibly 6, when he swings. Cheap, useful, damaging. And who cares about the life loss. The goal of the game is to reduce your opponents life to 0 (generally speaking), not keeping your own at 20. 4/5

All i see now is a Rakdos enabler, and i love it. it definitely shot up in usefulness IMO. You play this guy, if they dont auto-kill it, you get 3 damage almost no matter what if you swing with it. Will be seeing/using many a t4 rakdos with this guy

There are so many ways in standard to counteract his drawback it's not even funny. While Exquisite Blood won't save you (ruling is that if you both take damage at the same time and your life is reduced to zero, you lose the game before Exquisite Blood kicks), Blood Artist will if I'm not mistaken (since you control both creatures, you choose the order in which the triggers hit the stack, correct??) as well as amplifying the damage.

Like GunG12aVe said he enables Rakdos, Lord of Riots pretty well (unless your opponent chumps or walls, which can be overcome with some type of sacrifice or removal).

He's a good deterrent from strong attackers as well, as he'll asplode all over your opponent.

It's not the most gamebreaking card ever, but it's great for what it does. 4/5.

"Kastinne, the Demon Killer. A young and insane woman from Shadowgrange who considers herself a wandering monk. A demon killed her three children, and she has vowed to slaughter it and every other demon until her children's souls find rest."

I never noticed that the woman from the flavor text was mentioned in the Planeswalker's Guide to Innistrad! She's in the Stensia section.

One of the cheapest demons you can get in a pure demon tribal deck. Love this guy.

I like mostly that it's a 3-drop demon. He'll probably find his way into my kamigawa ogre/demon deck or possibly a demon-tribal.