Pointed Discussion

- it's a 4/4 for four mana without a drawback, which is fine
- the lifegain is not optional. with false cure it means: "w: target opponent loses 2 life"
- the tokens are not optional for your opponent. I had a deck using this guy + engineered plague set to "hippo" + tainted aether. since the tokens die before the trigger of the aether resolves, the result of the combo was "g: target opponent sacrifices a creature or land". priceless to see the reactions of opponents, when they first laugh on the plague set to "hippo", and suddenly their permanents are gone
- with Pledge of Loyality it gains protection from green, blue and white, and for w it also gain's protection from black and red
- with enough mana, you can pump this guy up with green mana and kill your opponent. since you can also gives the hippo flying, your opponent won't be able to block with the tokens he gets (so who cares about them), and if your opponent got a flier, it can only block if neither red nor black, since you could just give the hippo protection
- no bad card for multiplayer politics. everyone knows you will activate it, and those who annoyed you least will then gain tokens, life and cards

Fine card all around.

trades with 4 storm crows

Honestly, I often compare this card to Morphling. Protection from black and red doesn't help vs pacifism effects and such, but otherwise might as well be Morphling's "shroud until end of turn" ability for most removal, and the 2 life gain for your opponent is fairly negligible. Pumping with green mana giving the opponent free creatures is unfortunate, but you can get around it by giving the hippo flying (hopefully, if you're doing this you're pretty much doing lethal damage anyway), and also using the pump effect after the declare blockers phase (so you don't get chump blocked by a hippo...). Otherwise, it's very similar to the +1/-1 and -1/+1--better once the new combat rules take effect.

Though, I must also be honest... Phelddagrif with pemmin's aura (so it actually IS a stronger morphling) is also really awesome, if mostly pointless.

Not surprisingly, it's also one of the coolest cards you can ever cast in a multiplayer game. People love these hippo tokens, and anyone who doesn't has no soul. Therefor, you get people doing favors for you in hopes that they can get some free hippos or life-gain, or even card draws while you smash someone elses faces in with your super awesome flying hippo. It's like a slightly worse morphling, but also better since it's a frickin' hippo with wings.

How can this guy NOT be in an Un-set? It's a purple flying hippo, for Christ's sake!

Donate your opponent Transcendence and it's second ability becomes a burn spell! xD

@Snaxme: What was the name of this game again? Oh, that's right. Magic.

Anagram for: Garfield Phd Quest: Gin

It seems to me that some people are thinking too much about how to make this nice card mean. Play alongside other nice cards, like Howling Mine and Upwelling, and for gods sake, don't use control spells. NO ONE WILL ATTACK YOU, and you will be able to use all that extra green mana to make a colossal game ending swing. The only problem with this card is that pro:r/b is not very useful on such an happy card.

Looking forward to scoring one of these in From the Vault: Named after Wizards Employees. Maybe get an alt art Maro in there as well.

I feel that the regular Phelddagrif is better.

-Both have a 'gains flying ability' which allows the hippo to get by blockers, probably dealing 4 dmg. On the original, this was offset be giving the opponent 2 life (2<4). On this version, you give them a card (possibly a greater advantage than 2 life)

-Both have a protective ability: 'protection from R/B' or 'return to hand'. The protection ability only protects from R/B, and you give them 2 life, which isn't a bad price and the phelddagrif does stay in play. Returning to hand your opponent a card (net card advantage 0) but protects fro meverything except discard.

-Old Phelddagrif gives the opp. a 1/1 in exchange for trample. If that hippo was the only blocker as the cost seems to suggest (Hunted Dragon style) then 3 dmg still gets through. Whereas the new phelddagrif gives a 1/1 and gets a timy +1/+1 bump, which is not only negated completely by the 1/1, but also doesn't last as long.

End of rant.

purple flying hippo? awesome.
do you think he is yawning or singing or what?

The artwork on this one looks more badass than the original Phelddagrif. Then again, it's still a winged purple hippo...

suture preist

Another beautiful interaction is with this kid and any incarnation of Essence Warden/Soul Warden. If you have two on the field, then he reads:

"G: You gain 2 life, Questing Phelddagrif gains +1/+1. Put a 1/1 Hippo token..."

That's a powerful interaction that doesn't tie you down to being mean or nice, which means you can use it at any stage of the game! Oh Phelddy! You are my hero.

This one is not legendary unlike the other Phelddagrif. Why is this.

Guys, you don't need tricks or shenanigans or combos to make this guy good. He's powerful enough on his own thank you very much! But if you really want him to shine, stick him in a Bant-like deck with an Armadillo Cloak on him and suddenly he's a 6/6 Trample, Lifelink MONSTER!

Hahahahaha! Dear God, I logged on just to rate Saikuba's comment 5 stars. A questing for gin we go~!

He's got hippo-breathing!

Fun Fact: this card was the release promo for Planeshift, and, besides being foiled, its text is entirely in Greek.
It's probably the most absurd piece of paper I own.

Hmm... ok, let's try Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Moonlit Wake.
Pay 1 Green, get +1/+1 and 1 life. You could try also Blood Artist but then you're struggling a bit colour wise.

Strictly more questing than Phelddagrif.

I've cast this once in EDH so far. I dropped it, gave a few cards to someone, then Donated them and asked them nicely to give me some cards in return. It worked until some third spoilsport blew it up because it wasn't giving HIM cards.

I had a multiplayer game recently in which I played my Grixis smasher deck against a Zombie tribal, a Desecration Demon deck, and a Phelddagrif deck. This specific incarnation of the might that is the Phelddagrif came out on turn six, and never died. You know that a game was awesome when you cast Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and Cruel Ultimatum twice each, and lose anyway. Fear the Phelddagrif.

This works so wonderfully in my Phelddagrif tribal deck.

This guys B ability + Notion thief :gains flying until end of turn. Draw a card.

Even as a standalone card this thing is very powerful.
He can fly, it doesn't matter how many hippo tokens they have if you smash them with the only flying one.

Better yet, use his pump and flying ability BEFORE combat, let them scramble to kill the poor fellow, and then drop Reins of Power and smash them with an army of hippos. They never expect it.