I hate Green but honestly this might turn me to the Green side. This card is amazing early game :) I have a feeling I'm gonna beeing seeing this guy around for a while
One Ugly muther*ucker seriously, how did the artist get away with that face?
Hylebos
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(9 votes)
This and Predator Ooze make me want to try making a Mono-Green Deck. Great Card.
Okuu-chan
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(5 votes)
"So I herd u liek Bloodghast..."
It's almost like WOTC's development team is always looking for ways to improve Nether Shadow.
"Hey guys, remember Nether Shadow?" "Yeah, that was good in its day. Impossible to use now, though." "Well, I have an idea. Here's Bloodghast!" "Sick, dude. Hey, here's Gravecrawler!" "I'll raise you a Strangleroot Geist!"
Hunger of the Howlpack with this guy makes a sweet combo for a beatstick in the early and mid game. the haste for green is quite rare, and always worth the effort to try and sneak it for extra damage with an instant combat booster in the late game.
doombladez
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Dies to Storm Crow.
filmfanaticryan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Returns to the field even stronger thanks to Storm Crow.
DritzD27
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Its cards like this that make me glad I play with Red Sun's Zenith!
This, not Geralf's Messenger, is the 'Kitchen Finks clone'. It's fast. It's mean. It's green.
Geralf's Messenger is of course a great card- but at , you have to worry about him a lot less than this.
Llanowar Elves, just to name the most obvious thing. Of course, Birds of Paradise is also a good option, and invalidates Superllama's comment. I could see a deck with this and BoP being the only 'true' green cards, with Birthing Pod and (insert dumb stuff here).
Inherently illegal, but sounds fun to play to give friends a shocker...
Hanksingle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is unbelievable. The capacity for clever pod tricks is awesome, but even without, even just bashing across the table, trading up, or sucking up removal this card is outstanding. Totally in love.
Salient
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(9 votes)
Uncommon, unlike its cousin Bloodghast. Kudos to Wizards for printing both Strangleroot Geist and Invisible Stalker in an appropriate rarity.
an excellent choice for any aggro deck containing green. Heck, even midrange/aggro control gets a lot of mileage out of him.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This card is nice. It starts right away on T2 chipping at there life-points, and early on he trades//takes out mostly anything, and them comes back with a vengeance. Incredibly efficient card.
Zetan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Worst flavor/mechanic mismatch in the set. It's a great card, don't get me wrong, but the flavor doesn't match at all.
If you wanted a quick, undying spirit, but didn't have a good idea for his flavor, just call him "Vengeful Geist" or something else angry-sounding to give him a "rush at you" kind of flavor.
If you wanted a ghost haunting the tree he'd been hanged on (neat concept, btw), give him an ability like defender (to represent the fact that he's haunting a tree in a forest you control, and will only fight things that come near it). It could still have undying, and would either have lower mana cost or higher P/T.
As it stands, it just looks like they had a neat idea, had a neat card, and stuck them together with no thought at all about whether they matched. For a block with such great top-down design and flavor, this one sticks out like a sore thumb to me.
netog121
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Love this guy! Excellent fit in my mono green standard deck
j_mindfingerpainter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Sweet card. Green deserves more aggressive 2-drops in standard, like Garruk's Companion.
Tuyut
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
T2 Strangleroot Geist T3 Drogskol Captian Swing for 4/3 hexproof?
tcollins
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(11 votes)
Haha eat a doom blade --- OH GAWD WHAT HAVE I DONE.
4/5 just because he looks like the tree spirits from Princess Mononoke! Yes undying is awesome, stick Haste and a great casting cost and you have a bomb. Im loving the fact that Green is now getting Haste, it makes sense in the color pie and it only took WOTC how many years to figure it out? My only real problem is Strangleroot should've been a Plant Spirit. I mean, look at the art, he is literally coming out of the ground! Heck even if he was a Mandragora (cough, cough FF) would've been cool. Oh well, I will take what I can get.
This is an excellent creature, with a low mana cost that definitely represents the card. It's highly competitive and has been a 4-of in any deck with green since it was available in standard. It's cheap enough to make the rounds at kitchen tables, but powerful enouh to draw lots of oohs and aahs. Because it uses a set specific keyword, we won't likely see a reprint soon, unless it ends up in a duel deck, planechase expansion, or EDH add-on. This means that if it finds it's way consistently into any Legacy or Modern decks, it'll probably shoot up to $4 or $5, ala Cursecatcher. This card defines the curve. 5/5.
ThinkOriginal
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
I'm loving the Haste-love Green has been getting lately. This will run very nicely the turn before I drop a Dreg Mangler.
XenonPrime
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I've got a ruling question. If Strangleroot Geist dies in combat and comes back with "Undying", can it attack again in the same combat instance because it has "Haste"?
Ooze flux Unlimited lives and spammable tokens add ooze flux with parallel lives thats my green deck in a nutshell
Xinsden
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Zameck Guildmage's 2nd effect after this has a +1/+1 counter placed on it = Infinite Undying!
knight3607
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Turn 2 Geist, wait to attack Turn 3 attack, let it die and come back, 3 Hunger of the Howlpack Have fun with your 11/10, I know i did at that tournament :)
MojoVince
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Yes there is a nasty combo with Zameck Guildmage's, infinite undying and a draw for UG... A friend of mine was playing with these two fellows and i said "clevered one" than he responded "wow i did not play them both on purpose". shame.
SAUS3
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@XenonPrime No, it can't attack again.
The combat step is broken down into phases. Basically, one of the steps is the 'declare attackers' step, and at that step, you simultaneously choose each creature that is going to attack (as in, you can't say 'I attack with creature A', and then after they block say 'I attack with creature B'). For that reason, if creatures have already attacked, any new creature that enters the battlefield will not be able to attack that turn.
Another reason that it should work like this is that creature with vigilance would do infinite damage. There is nothing that state a creature can attack only once during a turn. The only limiter is that single 'declare attackers' phase. That's why cards like world at war don't say 'each creature can attack again this turn'. It just says 'there is another combat step this turn'.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Primal Forcemage works well with him. Add in a sac outlet, Vengevines, and groundbreaker to ensure a quick win. Use vines of vastwood to protect the mage or buff for a lethal swing.
Hastey tarmogoyf+ equivilents are hard to manage.
Deadling
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Definitely getting a set of these. I currently run Lone Wolf's in my mono green, I need these to replace them, lol.
Lord_of_phyrexia
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
HAI GUYZ!!!!!!!! http://manadeprived.com/comics/durdling-around-53-strangy-the-socially-awkward-geist/
Singlehandedly enables kikipod chain kills. Only requires a pod and 4 mana + 8 life.
SirLibraryEater
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I sense there could be an infinite combo somewhere with Zameck Guildmage. Maybe Ashnod's Altar and then some way to make colorless mana into not-colorless mana?
Comments (51)
<3 Primalcrux
seriously, how did the artist get away with that face?
It's almost like WOTC's development team is always looking for ways to improve Nether Shadow.
"Hey guys, remember Nether Shadow?"
"Yeah, that was good in its day. Impossible to use now, though."
"Well, I have an idea. Here's Bloodghast!"
"Sick, dude. Hey, here's Gravecrawler!"
"I'll raise you a Strangleroot Geist!"
Geralf's Messenger is of course a great card- but at
Llanowar Elves, just to name the most obvious thing. Of course, Birds of Paradise is also a good option, and invalidates Superllama's comment. I could see a deck with this and BoP being the only 'true' green cards, with Birthing Pod and (insert dumb stuff here).
Spike Rogue
Strangleroot Gheist
Inherently illegal, but sounds fun to play to give friends a shocker...
On
Demand
Morbid
Enabler
If you wanted a quick, undying spirit, but didn't have a good idea for his flavor, just call him "Vengeful Geist" or something else angry-sounding to give him a "rush at you" kind of flavor.
If you wanted a ghost haunting the tree he'd been hanged on (neat concept, btw), give him an ability like defender (to represent the fact that he's haunting a tree in a forest you control, and will only fight things that come near it). It could still have undying, and would either have lower mana cost or higher P/T.
As it stands, it just looks like they had a neat idea, had a neat card, and stuck them together with no thought at all about whether they matched. For a block with such great top-down design and flavor, this one sticks out like a sore thumb to me.
T2 Strangleroot Geist
T3 Drogskol Captian
Swing for 4/3 hexproof?
Also triggers morbid.
T1: Forest, Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise
T2: Forest, Strangleroot Geist, enchant with Rancor.
Welcome to the new Standard post-M13.
But only once.
(Kills Storm Crow in the process too)
For 3, 10/9 haste by Turn 5.
Unlimited lives and spammable tokens
add ooze flux with parallel lives
thats my green deck in a nutshell
Turn 3 attack, let it die and come back, 3 Hunger of the Howlpack
Have fun with your 11/10, I know i did at that tournament :)
A friend of mine was playing with these two fellows and i said "clevered one" than he responded "wow i did not play them both on purpose". shame.
No, it can't attack again.
The combat step is broken down into phases. Basically, one of the steps is the 'declare attackers' step, and at that step, you simultaneously choose each creature that is going to attack (as in, you can't say 'I attack with creature A', and then after they block say 'I attack with creature B'). For that reason, if creatures have already attacked, any new creature that enters the battlefield will not be able to attack that turn.
Another reason that it should work like this is that creature with vigilance would do infinite damage. There is nothing that state a creature can attack only once during a turn. The only limiter is that single 'declare attackers' phase. That's why cards like world at war don't say 'each creature can attack again this turn'. It just says 'there is another combat step this turn'.
Hastey tarmogoyf+ equivilents are hard to manage.
Maybe Ashnod's Altar and then some way to make colorless mana into not-colorless mana?
infinite combo with Sage of Fables and Ashnod's Altar