Pointed Discussion

A poor version of Mother of Runes.

Except its ability has haste. And he may attack and use his ability the same turn.

May not be as effective as the repeating Mother of Runes, although a deck running Mothers and these just potentially got 8x 1cmc drops that can shield your turn 2 creature that may trigger into a combo, or offer vital protection. Example Fauna Shaman, True Believer, etc. Most decks if not running burn, will have anywhere between 4 - 8 single target removals. Via; swords to plowshares, Path to Exile, or just lightning bolts. The moment these little clerics touch down, although this one does require sac, it still voids one of your opponents removal spells. Anything that forces removal or counter is easily tournament worthy. If your opponent tries to hold on to their removal, watch their facial expressions once additional mothers start to touch down and add to the protective barrier you are setting up. Not to mention this cleric can swing away, and punch the opponent in the head if the battlefield is quiet, and is still able to sac (well tapped) as a response to any instant. Mother lacks in those areas both. As she will likely never swing, and once she is tapped, she goes into fatigue.

Side note: The best friend of 1 cmc clerics: Ranger of Eos.

Also, the Cleric creature type should not be easily over looked. Some of the most disruptive creatures in Magic are clerics... Just look for yourself, do a search for all cleric type creatures. You will find many 1 cmc or 2 cmc drops that can easily disrupt most decks. And yes, even tournament decks.

Here is a few, but there is much more:

Grand Abolisher
True Believer
Mother of Runes
Withered Wretch
Children of Korlis
Ethersworn Canoist
Preacher
Order of Whiteclay

A recursion-friendly version of Mother of Runes with awesome art. Because you never run basic Plains without some form of creature recursion that generates card advantage. And Clerics is a recursion tribe.

Every color is capable of card advantage and has cards that synergize with their methods of generating it.

Blue has stable draw and quick filtering, black trades sections of its life total for bursts of insane card draw or maintains card parity by going after the opponent's hand, red blows as many things up as it can with as few spells as possible, and green forces you to chump block until they put you back a few creature cards over the course of a couple turns while you dig for an answer.

I'm going to ignore the Mother of Runes reference to note that sacrificing is not the same as tapping. This guy can fight and still protect his friend, whereas Mother of Runes cannot, if you want to use her ability.

Honestly, I'd rather run this guy, although I wouldn't run either.

Pretty good Fod a 1 drop.

While it's not strictly worse, I think it's obvious Mother of Runes is the better card; this card is just a neat trick, whereas Mother of Runes is a one-drop that can completely dominate a game if used well and not dealt with. (And when your opponent has to worry about dealing with your one-drop, you know that it's a good card.)

That said, Mother of Runes is probably one of the best one-mana creatures ever printed from the most overpowered set ever printed, so it's not exactly fair to compare things to her. This card is still very useful.