Pointed Discussion

Solid 1 drop. A 1/1 for 1 mana that gives all your spells a kicker cost to drain 1 life is pretty neat. No drawback here. Second ability might even be useful to finish off a planeswalker. Cast Liliana of the Veil and force me to sacrifice? I'll pay that 2 life to kill her any day

Why the nonland clause? Would it be so broken? the thrull art design in this set is so dope.

Combos well with Geralf's Messenger. As if I needed another reason to hate that card already.

This card will find its place in so, so, sooo many decks! Five stars fo' sure!

The counter-removal is dandy, but a one-drop with Extort alone is going to be a dangerous force in Limited.

So good!
Over these past few years, counters has been a solid part of magic (compared to the time I started playing around the Odyssey block). So this little creature's effectiveness is just all that sweeter.
Careful not to be greedy for the counter removals though, 2 life isn't that high a price to pay, but you better make sure that it's worth it.

Terrifying art.

Very solid 1 drop, the fact that it could potentially kill a planewalker or keep your Undying/Persist creatures alive, is well worth the cost, not to mention extort evens out the life cost of its ability.

Guys. One-drop Extort and counter removal? That's a lot for one creature.

Non-land clause is to prevent Dark Depths shenanigans.

This guy truly the B button that'll stop the evolving shenanigans.

I saw this guy in a Tool video.

Bane of Planeswalkers, enabler of the undead. And the extortion gains give you enough life to keep doing it.

@DeckMechanic

This is essentially a three card combo with Dark Depths. You need some sort of untap deal to really accelerate it. Technically Crypt Ghast is more dangerous, because Dark Depths has good synergy with ramp.

I'm kind of actually hoping that the non-land clause hints at gates being playable after Dragon's Maze. I would be really happy with playable common dual lands.

Extort one-drop with other relevant ability? 4/5

Dark Depths shenanigans?

There was a card called Vampire Hexmage printed at some point...

@DeckMechanic

I think they where more worried about Glacial Chasm then Dark Depths.

Awww yeah, another parasite for one mana that removes counters. (The other one being Hex Parasite.)
The nonland-restriction seems kind of redundant, and 2 life for each counter really add up.
but it makes up for doing it without mana, which you can perfectly use on Extort then instead.

I still wish Wizards would have made Extort cost rather than , though.
As opposed to the other nine Guild-related abilities (19 if you count the last Ravnica block), this is the only one tied to colors. This will make reusing it harder on future cards. I don't expect it to pop up in future Core Sets as Bloodthirst did.
They probably didn't want to make that ability that splashable. Still, that "inconsistent restriction" bugs me a bit.

Artwork scares the hell out of me.

Love me some Thrull Parasite. He's a very effective deterrent versus Simic, he can keep planeswalkers from using their ultimates, and he can manipulate other counters too. Plus he has extort. Super useful. Definitely running a playset.

That said, I love the thrulls flavor wise and how the Orzhov shape them to their whims. A vampiric tax collector that looks vaguely like a leech is very Orzhov; Slightly unnerving and practical.

The deck might suck and make no sense, but really feel that this guy and Screeching Skaab belong together. It just feels...right.

Actually I like the synergy with Undying myself. Activate it just as your boosted undying-er is about to bite it, and enjoy bringing them back for more!

Why do people hate this card?
If you play Orzhov, two life isn't really a giant price for removing counters.
The only reason why anyone wouldn't like this is that they're like "OH NO LOSING LIFE"
A one-drop with extort is already a blessing in itself.
But with that? Great! You can heal your creatures, unbuff your opponents', and take special counters off of permanents.
It frustrates and slows people playing Assemble the Legion, any of the Myojins, Grimoire of the Dead... that kind of stuff.

@Mistralis I actually lost a FNM Top 4 because my monoblack deck was incomplete, didn't have Thrull Parasite, and my opponent was able to resolve a Grimiore of the Dead. I had 24 life before that and he had 1 life. So the thrull, with either ability, would have been able to finish the match for me. As it was it took it to a third match (which I won) but the 2-1 instead of a 2-0 just squeezed me out of top 4.

So a lesson to all of you about how good the Thrull Parasite is in maindeck mono-black Standard.

A nice way to shut down Aether vial.

Carrion Feeder + Geralf's Messenger + this guy can trade you 2 life for 6 life loss on your opponent on T3.
T1 This guy
T2 extort + feeder
T3 Geralfs (2 life), sac, undying (2 life), remove counter, sac, undying (2 life) => 6 life loss; attack with a 4/4; total of 11 life loss

This also allows for a 0 mana 2 life loss for your opponent on following turns.
T4 Attack for 8, pull off undying counter, sac geralfs for 2 more.

That's 21 with no acceleration and only 3 spells.

FUN FACT TIME

Extort is a dual ability that appears equally in both black and white, like first strike is dual colored ability that appears equally in both white and red. (see boros recruit, Tundra Wolves, Striking Sliver) In fact there's no reason at all it should say "pay w/b", since only white and black cards have the cost... It should have just been printed as "pay an extra 1,..." Except for one reason:

Mark Rosewater specifically requested the design team to make Extort have the hybrid w/b cost in it so that extort cards could only be used in white AND black EDH decks, not one or the other.

Or, more accurately, he designed it so that the people in charge of the EDH format would remove the ridiculous (in his mind) rule that hybrid cards can't be played in mono colored EDH decks. In Magic Design, Hybrids are cards that can fit into either of the colors it is (for example, Merfolk of the Depths is a card that could be printed at 4GG OR 4UU, without changing or editing anything besides perhaps it's creature types in any way. Gold Cards on the other hand, are cards that give abilities that exist solely because the card is that color (Skyward Eye Prophets gets vigilance because it's white, card draw because it's blue, and land accel, however bad, because it's green. With any one of those colors lacking, they would not have printed skyward eye the way it was).

It's interesting to note that the people who run Elder Dragon Highlander changed the entire rule on color identity just to spite the entire design philosophy behind hybrid costs, and the whole point of extort, while still allowing this card to be run in mono black EDH decks.

I would use hexmage in modern/legacy as a solid sideboard against counters. But in standard there is definitely potential as anti-walker tech. (It's sort of useless against hydras, and simic, the other main counter-based cards in type 2.) In mono and even some dual black decks once you use your downfall you might find it difficult to handle a Jace or Elspeth. And that's where parasite comes in. All in all, strong sideboard card. You might even find he tempos a lotleth nicely.

1/1 for 1 is TRASH. F*CK PEOPLE DONT OVERVALUE THIS TERRIBLE TRASHPILE BODY.

The extort ability is not that good. Paying 1 extra mana is not worth it.

The tap ability is situational, but it can be good. Possibility to combo with it or just screw your opponent over.

@ Shane

How is paying 1 extra mana not worth it if you have the mana around? This can make more game and more board impact in the later game than most 1-drops without "trash bodies", and can also easily cause more life loss (not even including life swing) over time than a 1 drop with a better body if dropped early. Getting out as a 1 drop allows it to combo its counter ability much smoother with your own counter-removal shenanigans. This sitting at 4/5, where it is now, is easily reasonable.

Use this card to remove -2/-2 counters from your Ebon Praetor!

@TheWrathofShane

Something tells me that you are trolling. Just because a card is a 1/1 for 1 DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS BAD. Power and toughness aren't everything. Dark Confidant is a 2/1 for 2, (which is "worse than Walking Corpse"), yet the confidant is an extremely powerful card. Back to the thrull, the extort ability is so useful that something tells me that you just want to find an excuse to hate this card. I've seen extort decks in action, and they are devastating. The second ability can also be useful if you build your deck right.