An interesting card, but very difficult to make good. It can definitely act as a large, efficient beater, and many will not want to block it to keep their creatures alive. However, it can easily be blocked to prevent death, and in the late game does more harm than good, as it will provide a decent body, but also life to keep the opponent going
2.5/5
figgerhaggotnater
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
kills weenies, clears the board, of course its no desecration demon, but skullcrack would make this card interesting
Dabok
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Superllama12 is right. I mean, it's not that hard to "make it work" per se, but one should seriously consider worst-case scenarios when thinking of using this card. And the bad scenarios just seem to outweigh the good scenarios for this card. I'm a fan of undercosted cards that require high risks to reap high rewards, so I'm disappointed to have to "downvote" this card...
lorendorky
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(8 votes)
I am quite happy to see some cards that aren't all upside being printed. Also the art is pretty sweet. It reminds me of the old book Dinotopia.
marmaris74
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(2 votes)
This card is awesome. Who cares if they have a little extra life when you're killing them with an affordable 6/6?
Ladon---
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Amazing beater, and even more efficient with a Heartless Summoning in play. Also, who cares if they're gaining a bit of life after you put a Rancor on him?
Arachibutyrophobia
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
alms for the poor!
SyntheticDreamer
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Potentially quite useful in Limited. Sure, your opponent's gonna gain some life, but it blocks and kills things, then hits him for 6 each turn. Of course, this is pointless in Constructed...
Kryptnyt
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Feels bad enough so that beating someone to death with it would be lulz. Maybe like... soulbond with Wingcrafter. Something that makes you wince when you think about it for too long.
Cards with interesting drawbacks may be difficult to evaluate, but that makes them well-designed rares. It's a 6/6 for 4 mana, and all you lose is the opponent gaining a bit of life. You attack with this and the opponent has to choose between taking 6 damage or sacrificing a creature to gain life equal to its power.
demidracolich
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Was an allstar for me in limited at the prerelease. The drawback was negiligble since there arent really many creatures that can live through blocking it. Also singlehandedly won me a game when I enchanted it with a gift of orzhova.
SRSFACE
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This guy fits a white/black(/blue?) aura deck. Huge creature, low cost. All you have to do is throw an Ethereal Armor on him and instant big badguy. It's pretty easy to get around his downsides.
And this is all simply trying to utilize first strike. You could easily grant flying to this guy. Unblockable is also doable with Rogue's Passage.
I've won many games utilizing Desecration Demon. I see this guy as being a better card, honestly.
DarthParallax
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I'm glad the top comment is what it is- it re-reminded me of what I used to know so well. :P
5/5 stars. I'm rating it high for being so interesting. I'm beginning to think that all the '5-star' cards, or at least, what some people think makes a 5-star card, are actually bad-because-they're-boring.
This adds a creature for you to attack and block with. This affects your opponents creatures in some way. This can be played early.
It' NOT like many 'lol, you solved our one dimensional so-called puzzle, actually-that's-called-a-railroad' cards. This card GENUINELY seems weak. But! it's a weak 4 mana 6/6! And that's just so conundrufusticating! And that makes me want to build decks! ^_^
Constrained Cognition. Restriction breeds Creativity. With Thundermaw Hellkite, or Thragtusk, the sky's the limit on how killer you can make your attack step. With Alms Beast, I don't even know if the deck that really most wants to play this card wants to be attacking! o.O That's NEAT that cards can still be created to challenge all of our previous assumptions!
"Here. This undercosted high-powered creature with a drawback? It can't truly race. Make it race, and your opponents gain too much life because they'll respond to aggression with aggression and totally attack and block you for that lifelink. Your Mission: Find a use for this card."
My Thoughts: 1. Make a deck for multiplayer. Use this as a way to 'Donate Lifepoints' in a group hug way! 2. Make a deck where the opponent does not want to gain life. Not just ANY old punisher deck. There are some cards that care about specific Life Totals a player might have. Use those along with a card that switch's life totals with an opponent! o.o
Existential
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
By the time this come out, most creatures would be killed by this in combat, and if they don't block then suddenly your opponent is losing the race. Also, by the time this comes out, you could have played Vizkopa Guildmage, giving this lifelink by the time it attacks and you would have an even better advantage. Waiting one turn longer, you could play Crypt Ghast, meaning that by this time this attacks, you could activate both of the guildmages abilities. It is also in the colour of Aerial Maneuver, which would probably negate the disadvantage of this card. Finally, it just evades enough attention not to be a major removal target, but the Azorius may be interested in it.
Milo666
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card, as its name describes, is a Beast. It won me 3 of 4 games in Pre. Actually I wasn't sure about it, but i added it because it was Foil. And it was so awesome.
The maximum life it gave to my opponents was 5 life to a Sepulchral Primordial. I didn't had any creature in my gy at that time, so he had to chumpblock with it, he gained 5, then next turn drew another chumpblocker and next turns 2 lands closed the game. Alms was the only creature i played that match, and he won the game by itself.
Really, it's a BEAST in limited.
HappyJackington
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I had the best loss I have ever had to this card. I was playing Gruul and my opponent managed to get this guy out with a Gift of Orzhova and attack me for turn 5 with a 7/7 lifelinker. Suficive to say, I was very dead.
Mode
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I could actually see this having good use in constructed if you have ways of giving it first strike, since this will prevent the lifegain in most cases.
This isn't only good in Standard, I can see this in a BW commander deck and it doing damage. Just make it unblockable or something and it will kick ass. 6/6 for four mana is good.
psychichobo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Aggrooo
I like the idea of it, though I play so much multiplayer this poor fellow won't be seeing my B/W deck. Still, I really like the idea - and in B/W it wouldn't be hard to give it flying. Am grateful for tricky little rares like this.
majinara
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I see that thing either in a control deck, that wants to stall the ground until the enemy has been discarded of all useful cards and all creatures been killed, to then win. Or in a combo deck, that just wants to stall the ground again, until a certain combo has been found that instantly wins the game. Also: false cure, or cards that prevent lifegain.
vorvrinick
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
4/5 Everyone I have spoken to about this card says less than enthusiastic things about it until they play against it. Then suddenly they are wide eyed fans.
All you need to make the Alms Beast drawback go away is to give it any of the following abilities (unblockable, first strike, or trample). If that does not open the eyes then use a little bit of creature removal to pave the way for the big body.
MyrBattlecube
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(2 votes)
So Desecration Demon is a CMC 4 6/6 creature that will only get to attack when your opponent is ready for it. Its comments page has quite a number of people singing its praises and ignoring the fact that your opponent never has to worry about it unless they have a Fling. This guy is a CMC 4 6/6 creature that actually has a chance of staying untapped during your turn and can either serve as a beefy blocker or an attacker they want to block. This comment page has quite a number of people who can come to grips with this card's shortfallings.
They're both average cards, but it puzzles me how people think Desecration Demon is significantly better than this. Then again, people still think Phyrexian Obliterator is broken, so I guess some mysteries just aren't meant to be solved. Besides, both Alms Beast and Desecration Demon get chump blocked to no end by Moorland Hanut.
Specter_Fanatic13
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
People really underestimate this card. It is an absolute beast. Yeah, it gets chump blocked by tokens. Well guess what, this is in the same set as Illness in the Ranks AND Gift of Orzhova!!!! I'm not saying this is going to win any tournaments, it's far too fair and balanced to do so.
I think people are so used to playing overly powerful cards like Thragtusk and Thudermaw Hellkite to see how good this card is, and how much it makes you work to use it properly. It has a visible disadvantage, but it also comes with great power. 6/6 for 4? Incredible! It is also super useful in multi. I often use it to "help someone out" Orzhov style by letting them chump block and get rid of their big creatures while giving them life. They lose creatures, and gain life, so they are less likely to come at me than the aggro player who chipped them down so much in the first place. I really recommend holding off on playing enchantments to buff it until late game because other wise it will get swiftly two-for-oned. Just wait and use it to make friends, until it's too late...
The flavor is amazing too. Orzhov gives alms to the poor, but only if they fight the beast. He loses his precious coins, and your enemies gain life from them. Super cool. I wish this card got the respect it deserves.
Mike-C
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Straight BRUTAL. Against Lifelink decks. Well.. At least i'm not wrong to say that.. Haha
mdakw576
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Don't be fooled by his drawback in limited. Giving your opponent some life is okay because at 6/6 for 4 mana, you're basically killing anything that blocks (or gets blocked by) this.
BongRipper420
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If Orzhov had gotten the removal it rightfully deserves by being , this would've been really boss. But since Orzhov didn't get a massive amount of removal like it should have in my opinion, this guy will probably end up being situational at best this block.
What sucks is most of the time I'd rather run Abyssal Persecutor who demands running removal a little more, but has a much bigger payoff.
EDIT: Orzhov being my favorite guild, I decided to draft an Orzhov deck last week at FNM. And while I didn't manage to pull this guy, I do now realize Orzhov DOES have enough removal to back this guy up. I drafted around 10 removal spells, and because of it my opponents rarely had much of a board presence, if any at all. So while before I though this cat was iffy at best, now that I'm familiar with Orzhov's play style, I wish I drafted an Alms Beast.
RedAtrocitus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is terrible. One or two chumps and this guy is doing more harm than good. "Just give him evasion and he's awesome!" No, he's not. More mana and cards? For what? To turn him into a vanilla 6/6, completely negating any reason this card's only upside which is its low cost. Pass.
In limited, he's still bad, though a bit better since he can stomp pretty much anything out of the way and swing for the win. But he gets owned by combat tricks. Gruul laughs and attacks into this, uses bloodrush if you block to both kill it and gain a bunch of life. A Furious Resistance does the same on defense. The Beast probably loves Gift of Orzhova though.
Might work in decks that mainboard lifegain canceling affects, but still needs 2 cards to get going. 2/5
Moxxy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I would always play Desecration Demon over this. They both have the same CMC and p/t but DD has flying. They both will make the opponent lose a creature if the opponent wants them to (block alms, tap demon). The difference is though with Alms they will gain life, with Desecration Demon you get a stronger creature.
Twylyght
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Orzohv strategies with this can be fun. If it dies with Dying Wish on it, and the second ability of Vizkopa Guildmage active is a potent swing of life totals, if it died because you targeted yourself with Devour Flesh, that's usually a win condition.
HunkeyMunky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Make the choice harder on your opponent with an Infiltration Lens. They gain life and you draw two cards or they take 6. Watch them squirm.
ThisisSakon
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Automatic 4 of in a deck with Lure and False Cure. I call it Malpractice.
Also, survives a turn 5 extortedMutilate. Yeah, maybe not as bad as you think...
Demento_Recraves
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A W/B/R deck with this and Havoc Festival might be interesting.
And... what if you did not care about your opponent's life total ? I like these cards that keeps you thinking outside the box.
Throw some blue in your deck and you can get access to Thought Scour, Mind Grind, Consuming Aberration and Psychic Strike. You see where I am going ? If you want to mills the opponent, you won't really care about his life total. And until you win, Alms Beast might be the best blocker you can ever get. If you feel overrunned, just Supreme Verdict everything later on.
That's in that kind of deck I might see him in a while, depending on how Standard develop. Maybe, right now, you'd think you miss some cards to have a really competitive mill deck... but with most players getting HUGE drawing through Sphinx's Revelation, I like the idea that your opponent could help you mills him. I also like the idea that you're opponent's life gain though Thragtusk won't serve him... and the best thing is you actually kill that dude if he dare attack you.
Mr.Anjiro
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Give it first strike.
BlightsteelMolasses
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Really great card, despite the particularly masculine features of the brute. Limited games don't have many quick answers for him. His drawback is fascinating, as it seems to buy time for your opponents but actually encourages them to through their defenses at this monster, ultimately leaving them very vulnerable very fast.
Gruul can take advantage of him a bit by bloodrushing a blocker and gaining an insane amount of life from him. Other than that, though, four mana for a 6/6 is bound to dominate the board. If you're worried, slap on a Gift of Orzhova.
TheWrathofShane
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
LOVE the flavor text. He is perfect in decks with other win conditions then damage. If the board is clear, then he can win the game in 3-4 swings depending.
Zoah
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Go figure, there are only two black/white creatures with a power or toughness of 6 and they both cost 4. Although, admittedly, Voracious Hatchling doesn't get to be big for a little while.
Toxicity17
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Love this cards! Planning on making a W/B/G deck with it using Kavu Predator but seems like everyone has that idea cause the price of kavu predators just went up.
I still have a hard time seeing the issues here. He's a vicious beater. He's stopped by chump blocking for sure, but he *must* be blocked if you want to live long. If they are teching with False Cure then it's dangerous to do anything but chump it.
IMO, it does a decent enough job without anything special in similar ways to some of the old big beaters. 6/6 is hard for control decks to deal with appropriately if they've been removing your other threats, and 4 mana isn't too much of a set back for card neutrality (at worst.) If they can't get a steady board position after a bit this guy eats those kinds of decks alive; meaning he has a place.
I'll agree that Desecration Demon is better, as is Abyssal Persecutor (by a mile) but mono-black demons are almost always brutal if you manage their drawback. This guy doesn't need a lot of managing and is quite impressive. Again, mono-black is almost a drawback by comparison to mixing colors; in this case because white has access to very very good removal of any permanent type.
3.5/5 IMO
EDIT: Recently I was picking up a bunch of removal cards (because I have, like, a million black decks) and I realized that this guy dodges: Doomblade Smother Dismember Ultimate Price (as well as the standard Dark Banishing, Terror, etc..)
conmandude
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Absolute. HOUSE. In sealed/draft. Slap him on the table turn 4, they're literally not going to have anything big enough to survive combat with it. And the best part is, they just keep blocking it and losing guys because "Hey, at least I'm gaining life." WRONG. What happens when you play ALL of your dudes and you block Alms Beast with ALL of them? All of a sudden, you're getting punched in the face with 6 damage. Plus other creatures. Plus Cipher, because that's playable in sealed too. Anyways, it's no Abyssal Persecutor, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in some Esper control deck at a local FNM or two.
Even vanilla this card is really effective at what it does, and make no mistake about it, this card is there to clear the board. Defenders want to keep him alive but also keep him from hitting them and on turn four it's pretty much standard that this guy will be slowing down offensive decks, which is exactly what W/B wants in Standard right now anyway.
SAUS3
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@TPmanW lol that's a funny way to look at it.
This card is okay. I think the only real reason no one like it is because of desecration demon which can be played in even less colours, and it's overall better (the chumps feed the demon instead of their controllers, and it has flying).
I just played this card in my WBR midrange deck, and I was so impressed that I replaced a second Desecration Demon with this. Where D. Demon occasionally fails you because he enjoys his meal too much, this beast absorbs all damage and survives (or at least trades with) any creature from an aggro deck short of a Wurm token pumped with Ghor-Clan Rampager. The lifelink drawback doesn't matter in 95% of games I played, even though my deck wins through damage. In a true control deck it would not matter at all.
The only thing to watch out for is Boros Reckoner + Boros Charm + your Alms Beast, the infinite life combo.
When fighting multiple opponents I always attack one person with this fatty, then I just bleed 'em dry! "More life for me!" The Orshov way.
pmalleable
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I've been having a lot of fun with this card in a casual deck. Throw in some instants to give it firs strike or prevent damage to it and it runs wild over the table.
Atali
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Type your comment here.
moonmist103
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
People laughed at me for using him. that was until i broke their metaphorical in-game jaws with my alms beast s . Now they know fear. Also i am an advocate for him. his mana cost is easier to cope with in my 3 color deck and they can't use tokens to keep him tapped, unlike a certain demon
But I digress, the main idea is not to attack with it, but rather use it for other means. If you must attack with it, use Golgari Decoy to get rid of any lifegain the opponent might try to get with blocking.
Black_Sun28
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I love the flavor. The higher up people in the church do their brown-nosing good deeds by paying alms to the poor, but of course the poor have to use those same alms coins at Orzhov shops. Win-win, they get karma and they keep their money. Except in the case of this card, life=money.
orzhov20
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
a 6/6 for 4 is great, that's the same price as one thousand lashes. but the drawback is huge, especially if its being blocked by a 5/5 demon. if you had Erebos on the battaelfield then it would be amazing. 3/5.
I agree with Mr. Anjiro. Giving this first strike is an easy way to turn the drawback into a non-issue most of the time. I'd slap an Ethereal Armor on it myself. A 7/7 first strike creature for 5cmc is always good in my book.
SpaceMagic
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Erebos bonded with this beast over their shared love of coins, the afterlife, and life "disadvantage."
littleboyblue
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I plan on making a white-black deck featuring this card. Don't know why. Just think that it might be different.
deworde2510
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@orzhov20 Really? So their 5/5 demon blocks, they gain 5 life, and next turn, if they don't drop another critter, they lose that life. Oh, and I don't take damage on their turn from the demon.
Comments (75)
2.5/5
And the bad scenarios just seem to outweigh the good scenarios for this card.
I'm a fan of undercosted cards that require high risks to reap high rewards, so I'm disappointed to have to "downvote" this card...
Maybe like... soulbond with Wingcrafter. Something that makes you wince when you think about it for too long.
He's actually one of the best targets for things like Skillful Lunge, Swift Justice and Zealous Strike, is a great sponge for equipments that grant first strike, and is a phenomenal target for Silverblade Paladin. Throw Ajani, Caller of the Pride and use his -3 Loyalty ability.
And this is all simply trying to utilize first strike. You could easily grant flying to this guy. Unblockable is also doable with Rogue's Passage.
I've won many games utilizing Desecration Demon. I see this guy as being a better card, honestly.
5/5 stars. I'm rating it high for being so interesting. I'm beginning to think that all the '5-star' cards, or at least, what some people think makes a 5-star card, are actually bad-because-they're-boring.
This adds a creature for you to attack and block with.
This affects your opponents creatures in some way. This can be played early.
It' NOT like many 'lol, you solved our one dimensional so-called puzzle, actually-that's-called-a-railroad' cards. This card GENUINELY seems weak.
But! it's a weak 4 mana 6/6! And that's just so conundrufusticating! And that makes me want to build decks! ^_^
Constrained Cognition. Restriction breeds Creativity. With Thundermaw Hellkite, or Thragtusk, the sky's the limit on how killer you can make your attack step.
With Alms Beast, I don't even know if the deck that really most wants to play this card wants to be attacking! o.O That's NEAT that cards can still be created to challenge all of our previous assumptions!
"Here. This undercosted high-powered creature with a drawback? It can't truly race. Make it race, and your opponents gain too much life because they'll respond to aggression with aggression and totally attack and block you for that lifelink. Your Mission: Find a use for this card."
My Thoughts:
1. Make a deck for multiplayer. Use this as a way to 'Donate Lifepoints' in a group hug way!
2. Make a deck where the opponent does not want to gain life. Not just ANY old punisher deck. There are some cards that care about specific Life Totals a player might have. Use those along with a card that switch's life totals with an opponent! o.o
It is also in the colour of Aerial Maneuver, which would probably negate the disadvantage of this card.
Finally, it just evades enough attention not to be a major removal target, but the Azorius may be interested in it.
Actually I wasn't sure about it, but i added it because it was Foil. And it was so awesome.
The maximum life it gave to my opponents was 5 life to a Sepulchral Primordial. I didn't had any creature in my gy at that time, so he had to chumpblock with it, he gained 5, then next turn drew another chumpblocker and next turns 2 lands closed the game. Alms was the only creature i played that match, and he won the game by itself.
Really, it's a BEAST in limited.
since this will prevent the lifegain in most cases.
I like the idea of it, though I play so much multiplayer this poor fellow won't be seeing my B/W deck. Still, I really like the idea - and in B/W it wouldn't be hard to give it flying. Am grateful for tricky little rares like this.
Everyone I have spoken to about this card says less than enthusiastic things about it until they play against it. Then suddenly they are wide eyed fans.
All you need to make the Alms Beast drawback go away is to give it any of the following abilities (unblockable, first strike, or trample). If that does not open the eyes then use a little bit of creature removal to pave the way for the big body.
This guy is a CMC 4 6/6 creature that actually has a chance of staying untapped during your turn and can either serve as a beefy blocker or an attacker they want to block. This comment page has quite a number of people who can come to grips with this card's shortfallings.
They're both average cards, but it puzzles me how people think Desecration Demon is significantly better than this. Then again, people still think Phyrexian Obliterator is broken, so I guess some mysteries just aren't meant to be solved. Besides, both Alms Beast and Desecration Demon get chump blocked to no end by Moorland Hanut.
I think people are so used to playing overly powerful cards like Thragtusk and Thudermaw Hellkite to see how good this card is, and how much it makes you work to use it properly. It has a visible disadvantage, but it also comes with great power. 6/6 for 4? Incredible! It is also super useful in multi. I often use it to "help someone out" Orzhov style by letting them chump block and get rid of their big creatures while giving them life. They lose creatures, and gain life, so they are less likely to come at me than the aggro player who chipped them down so much in the first place. I really recommend holding off on playing enchantments to buff it until late game because other wise it will get swiftly two-for-oned. Just wait and use it to make friends, until it's too late...
The flavor is amazing too. Orzhov gives alms to the poor, but only if they fight the beast. He loses his precious coins, and your enemies gain life from them. Super cool. I wish this card got the respect it deserves.
What sucks is most of the time I'd rather run Abyssal Persecutor who demands running removal a little more, but has a much bigger payoff.
EDIT: Orzhov being my favorite guild, I decided to draft an Orzhov deck last week at FNM. And while I didn't manage to pull this guy, I do now realize Orzhov DOES have enough removal to back this guy up. I drafted around 10 removal spells, and because of it my opponents rarely had much of a board presence, if any at all. So while before I though this cat was iffy at best, now that I'm familiar with Orzhov's play style, I wish I drafted an Alms Beast.
In limited, he's still bad, though a bit better since he can stomp pretty much anything out of the way and swing for the win. But he gets owned by combat tricks. Gruul laughs and attacks into this, uses bloodrush if you block to both kill it and gain a bunch of life. A Furious Resistance does the same on defense. The Beast probably loves Gift of Orzhova though.
Might work in decks that mainboard lifegain canceling affects, but still needs 2 cards to get going. 2/5
Also, survives a turn 5 extorted Mutilate. Yeah, maybe not as bad as you think...
Turn 5 Disciple of Bolas + Extort?
Holy Mantle?
Only things in standard I can think of.
Throw some blue in your deck and you can get access to Thought Scour, Mind Grind, Consuming Aberration and Psychic Strike. You see where I am going ? If you want to mills the opponent, you won't really care about his life total. And until you win, Alms Beast might be the best blocker you can ever get. If you feel overrunned, just Supreme Verdict everything later on.
That's in that kind of deck I might see him in a while, depending on how Standard develop. Maybe, right now, you'd think you miss some cards to have a really competitive mill deck... but with most players getting HUGE drawing through Sphinx's Revelation, I like the idea that your opponent could help you mills him. I also like the idea that you're opponent's life gain though Thragtusk won't serve him... and the best thing is you actually kill that dude if he dare attack you.
Gruul can take advantage of him a bit by bloodrushing a blocker and gaining an insane amount of life from him. Other than that, though, four mana for a 6/6 is bound to dominate the board. If you're worried, slap on a Gift of Orzhova.
Although, admittedly, Voracious Hatchling doesn't get to be big for a little while.
IMO, it does a decent enough job without anything special in similar ways to some of the old big beaters. 6/6 is hard for control decks to deal with appropriately if they've been removing your other threats, and 4 mana isn't too much of a set back for card neutrality (at worst.) If they can't get a steady board position after a bit this guy eats those kinds of decks alive; meaning he has a place.
I'll agree that Desecration Demon is better, as is Abyssal Persecutor (by a mile) but mono-black demons are almost always brutal if you manage their drawback. This guy doesn't need a lot of managing and is quite impressive. Again, mono-black is almost a drawback by comparison to mixing colors; in this case because white has access to very very good removal of any permanent type.
3.5/5 IMO
EDIT: Recently I was picking up a bunch of removal cards (because I have, like, a million black decks) and I realized that this guy dodges:
Doomblade
Smother
Dismember
Ultimate Price
(as well as the standard Dark Banishing, Terror, etc..)
WRONG. What happens when you play ALL of your dudes and you block Alms Beast with ALL of them? All of a sudden, you're getting punched in the face with 6 damage. Plus other creatures. Plus Cipher, because that's playable in sealed too.
Anyways, it's no Abyssal Persecutor, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in some Esper control deck at a local FNM or two.
lol that's a funny way to look at it.
This card is okay. I think the only real reason no one like it is because of desecration demon which can be played in even less colours, and it's overall better (the chumps feed the demon instead of their controllers, and it has flying).
The only thing to watch out for is Boros Reckoner + Boros Charm + your Alms Beast, the infinite life combo.
"More life for me!" The Orshov way.
But I digress, the main idea is not to attack with it, but rather use it for other means. If you must attack with it, use Golgari Decoy to get rid of any lifegain the opponent might try to get with blocking.
I will take that bargain!