Pointed Discussion

This is a really solid Hill Giant. I feel like they could have made him an ogre though.

The only stand-out bad thing about this is that, once your opponent is out of cards, they have no reason to not block this. Of course with that kind of card advantage, you should be happy anyway.

Encode with Mental Vapors for maximum hilarity.

@Violinist : Hahah! That's a neat idea. It's not effective as is, but it's like giving a choice...of not having a choice (dafuq did I just say?).

Pretty cool with cipher, I must say.

this feels like it's going to be a hit in limited/draft

WELL! I, for one, am quite offended that they didn't put a Dimir flavor text on this guy. He's clearly too good for the Orzhov.

This is a very creative discard effect. Happy to see this was made.

I think you got your archetypes mixed up, lorendorky.

miserable biatch in a megrim deck. 3.5/5
if they lowered the mana cost by 1, it would've been epic, especially in this set with extort

Heh. It's like a weird, backwards Infiltration Lens.

This is actually a slightly better functional reprint of an older card - was the same save for types (might've been a mercenary?) and cmc (was 2black1colourless).

"This is a really solid Hill Giant. I feel like they could have made him an ogre though." -- lorendorky
>"I think you got your archetypes mixed up, lorendorky." -- blindthrall

Funny how lorendorky happened to talk about ogres, since it's the Gray Ogre that he confused with Hill Giant.

But i see where lorendorky was getting at, Jim Murray really made this dude look somewhat like an ogre.
Well, maybe, since Slate Street Ruffian shares the same mana cost and 2/2 body with him,
this was Jim's way of giving a shoutout to this old archetype?


Judging from the flavor text (and artwork), he looks like a mercenary to me.
We also had one of these last time we visited Ravnica... It would be nice to have some of them every now and then.

If this guy is double blocked, does the defending player discard two cards?

Strictly better, but non-Mercenary, Alley Grifters.

Don't underestimate this guy, he's a great fit for discard decks! Even if he's blocked and killed right away, then he was just as useful as casting a delayed Mind Rot. If he's unblocked, then you're dealing damage. I like him a bit better than Abyssal Specter since you always get something out of an attack (and he's more cost effective/splashable).

Furthermore, there are a lot of good cards for a pretty flavorful Orzhov-themed discard deck. I love the Orzhov artwork of Mind Rot in this set, and Shrieking Affliction is an obvious choice. Pair these with Shrieking Grotesque, Castigate, and Strands of Undeath from the previous Ravnica block, and you have a flavorful evil-Orzhov-mind-mash-stew (seasoned, of course, with extortion). Strands of Undeath fits very well enchanting Slate Street Ruffian since you can guarantee he survives to deal damage or discard cards.