Pointed Discussion

Fairly underwhelming for a legendary. Probably good in Limited, but not too exciting anywhere else (not even in Commander), unless you want to play a land-animation themed deck.

"Now, you two! Stop this bickering, or I'll tickle your adam's apples with my blades here!"

I wish she just turned one land into a 6/6

or at least she could have untapped those lands...

I think I'm missing the flavor here. If she's killing 2 minotaurs, why does she animate lands? Is there a reference I'm totally missing?

Stats & abilities are totally disconnected from the art which probably means that Anthousa suffered the same fate as Emmara Tandris in DM. Ie. got hit by an 11th hour change.

Can put on 10 points of pressure on your opponent the turn after it is played as long as the heroic trigger didn't cost too much. I'm just glad we got a cool heroic ability that didn't involve a +1/+1 counter.

If you really want an EDH general who abuses lands, play Jolrael, Empress of Beasts.

You have to tap it for mana and use one more card for the ability (since you're using one to activate Heroic anyway), but you can then animate all of the lands. Not only that, but if you're opponent is really bringing the hurt and plays Wrath of God, you use Jolrael's ability and turn it into a one-sided Armageddon.

Question: If I have a spell that targets multiple creatures, can I target Anthousa, and one of the lands she animates? Or do they only become targets after the spell resolves?

I feel like Green has a lot of good limited players, but this card specifically makes me want to avoid it at the prerelease. Why? All the best common and uncommon removal can take out 2/2s at instant speed.

I'd sooner play Skarrg Guildmage. I suppose her best use is as a package battallion trigger, but blaze commando probably does that job better. Still, combos nicely with Frontline Medic I suppose. I really do try to see the best of all the cards, no matter how much I want to complain about how we went from Thragtusk to this...

So, I picked green because nobody else did and I thought I could be edgy. I thought this card was pretty bad but I put it in anyway... and then it won me the pre-release swinging for over 20 damage most games I got her out. I wasn't even mad that I pulled another one with my winnings, don't underestimate her.

One of the most boring legendaries I've seen in quite a while. Her effect is lackluster, she's a 4/5 human which is just weird, and I'm not sure what's even going on the art. She's stabbing them both in jugular at the same time? It's very awkward looking.

Anthouse, Formican Hero

@StyrofoamKing
You cannot target the lands, and the lands animate before the spell resolves, but after you've casted it (ie after you've chosen targets and paid costs).

This card is pretty meh. In constructed, a 5-mana 4/4 is pretty bad. In order for it to be good, it has to have powerful abilities. Animating 3 lands as 2/2s is okay, but that means you have to use other cards to support your 5-drop.

In EDH, I cannot think of anything it is particularly good at that other legendaries are not better at. I think the only thing you can do is more damage for less mana than other legendary creatures require. That's all fine and dandy, but you put your lands at risk, which is bad in EDH. Running her in the deck (not the commander) seems kind of wasteful.

She's good in limited, but those are the most boring cards imo - designed to be sucky in everything except limited. The ones that are good in limited AND other formats are much more interesting. On top of that, they did all this with a legendary creature.

This card is pathetic for a legendary/rare. Arbor Colossus is better than this and honestly i think i would rather run a Nessian Asp than this. It would be a much better ability if it gave you two 2/2 beast tokens and said to remove them from the game at the next end step. Sacrificing lands is red's deal not green's. Yes I do realize that you don't actually sacrifice the lands but you put them at great risk of being destroyed.

Hohoho, Anthousa may be pretty underwhelming, but at least Simic at the pre-release went quite well with things like Bident of Thassa and Triton Tactics.

It's true though, she could at least have the courtesy to untap the lands she animates.

It does make a nice combo if you use it with Chorus of Might. You use the creatures not to attack with, but to pump it up.

Bow of Nylea can make these two 2/2 creatures not useless as they have deathtouch, but mehhh.

While I will certainly never say she is excellent on her own, some self-contained uber-beatstick like Memnarch or Glissa, she does have promise. She is the kind of general that requires a really creative build and for that she wins flavor points.

She creates Warrior tokens. If you use instants to do it, they can only be defensive. Else, the trick is gone and they are created at sorcery speed so they can attack with her. This makes sense given the flavor text. She is always faster than them. In fact, to attack with them, she has to wait for them.

Use triggers that make her bigger when they "appear" such as Chorus of Might and Might of the Masses. Get limited overrun effects from Coat of Arms. With the new Heroic creatures, use Bounty of the Hunt or Blessings of Nature to bump them all up - (even loners have to have friends). The biggest thing is to make every creature have to target her so that the lands come through as damage (small or big): Nemesis Mask, Enlarge, Irresistible Prey, Revenge of the Hunted... It fits with the flavor of her in front.

Obviously the biggest drawback is the potential loss of land. Run Natural Balance to make haters realize the punishment for their derision. She may not be standard gold, but man, when everyone says "She sucks like old vanilla Legends" I can't help but try and break her.

Playability: 3
Challenge: 5

You know, based on her pose in the promo art, and it's similarity to the pose ulvenwald tracker has, i think her heroic ability might have originally been "When you cast a spell that targets Anthousa, it fights target creature you don't control."
or something along those lines.

@Taudisban
See, in limited, it's generally okay when your opponent uses a removal spell on one of your lands instead of one of your creatures, and Anthousa doesn't force you to animate lands anyway, so she's a perfectly respectable 4/5 for 5.

Now if they print something like Sigil Blessing...

They forgot to add the part where these three lands untap...