Arc-Slogger is a very powerful card, but it's power is generally overlooked. Ignoring it's ability, it is a 4/5 for five mana in red, which is powerful by itself. Add on that in a game you can push through the last four or five points of damage with it's ability, and you have a great red creature.
majinara
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(8 votes)
Arc-Slogger is kind of a skill-tester. Most new players will say "omg is this card bad. It will remove my best cards from the deck! And if I activate it too often, I lose!". More experienced players will notice it's a 4/5 for 5 mana, which can, once it comes into play, instantly kill creatures to remove blockers, or kill a player in dealing directly the last few remaining points of damage.
Hovercraft
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(5 votes)
This is an awesome card. I have 4 of them. Get them now before they get too hot.. Ramping into this creature with rituals for turn 1 is fun.
Asrugan
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(7 votes)
I've always liked this card. It's p/t cost is great, and the ability can make that last push through easier once you pop defenders off directly.
Then there's the name's distinctly european beer sounding name...which friend's and I have always got a laugh out of. (Arc's Lager)
Titobaube
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(5 votes)
Hello MasterOfEtherium, I kind of don't see the synergy between Balthor and Arc-Slogger, nor the synergy between Arc-Slogger and Demigod.
Lege
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Would be a great card to combo with Feldon's Cane if it didn't outright exile the cards from the library.
yojimbojones
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(5 votes)
A good card made even better in the EDH format where you'll have an additional 40 cards to toss
darkfury
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(4 votes)
the fact that it exiles the cards is the really bad part, its a good creature, just with an ability with the value of an antique, useless at first, and better later.
if it just discarded the cards, wheel of sun and moon would let you cycle your library till you hit your ultimate combo
EvilCheesecake
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(5 votes)
Is this broken or just bad? Can you activate it on an empty library?
Ogrillion
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
You cannot activate the ability unless you can pay all parts of the cost, including exiling the top ten cards of your library.
Its still an awesome card. Drop your Earth Elementals today and pick this baby up. =)
Anyway, I hear people saying its ability can be used with an empty library. If I'm not mistaken, that is not true. The exiling is a cost, not an effect, so you cannot use the ability unless you can pay for it, meaning having 1 red mana in your mana pool and having 10 or more cards in your library. I could be wrong. Where's an Oracle ruling when you need it?
Kirbster
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
Phooey on regular play; try this bad boy in the 250-card format (called Prismatic by you young whippersnappers out there.) He can slog away an entire army and you won't have any risk of decking yourself.
ForOfTrumps
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(18 votes)
A friend of mine gave me a copy, declaring it to be the worst card ever. I've beaten him with it several times.
Blackworm_Bloodworm
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
Haha, omg, I want to see more creature abilities with a cost like that! 5/5 for sheer hilarity.
NoobOfLore
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
The 4/5 body for 5 mana alone is enough to make it playable. It's effectively a repeatable Shock if you have the cards to spare.
Excellent card.
garabor
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(8 votes)
needs a reprint.
Gabriel422
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Used to love it because how ridiculously powerful this is. Easily 12 damage the turn after, or card advantage up to +4.
Of course, it didn't stay ridiculous for too long because of a certain other deck... but hey, RDW is one of the only two decks that remained competitive when affinity dominated, and it owed a lot to this card (often powered out by Seething Song).
littlebeast
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Yeah, never use its ability until you can kill someone with it.
Kindulas
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
well great, you can't really abuse him since they exile. It should be 1 damage but to your gravyard, so, wheel of sun and moon could work. Maybe that would break him some but not as much as djinn illuminatus and lightningbolt
Magnor_Criol
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
@Kindulas: There's Mirror of Fate, though it's only seven cards. Still, the Mirror doesn't exile itself for its ability, only sacs, so you could abuse graveyard shenanigans to get it back and do it again for more cards.
OR you could just not use the ability until you're going to win, then it doesn't matter. You'd only need ten mana to kill with him, and that's assuming you haven't done anything else to your opponent for the rest of the game - and in a red deck, that should never be the case.
scumbling1
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
"So could you mill yourself even with no cards in your library left?"
No. Because exiling ten cards comes before the colon, it is part of the cost for the ability. If it had been placed after the colon, then you'd be able to do it.
Oh, and Arc-Slogger is awesome. I love how it displays a nice lesson about undrawn cards in your library: you can't be certain you'll see them over the course of the game anyway, so losing a random portion of them rarely denies you any resources until you're completely drawn out. Many players gripe about being hit with a Glimpse the Unthinkable or Traumatize, complaining that there's a copy of 'card X' that they'll never see. But chances are they have additional copies of that card in their deck, and they weren't going to see all copies of that card over the course of the game anyway. It wasn't in your hand, so you didn't have it anyway; it doesn't matter.
djflo
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
By the time he gets out, you should have at least 40 cards left playing a non-mill deck. Dealing 12 damage up until that point isn't hard, and that'd be game. 4.5/5.
pigknight
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(23 votes)
You're red. If you were going to use those cards you were going to lose.
Shadow1798
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I used to think this card was bad. Past me is dumb.
He gives so much reach. If the opponent drops below six life with this thing out they just die.
Give it infect and your opponent goes into panic mode. Basilisk Collar is great too. Remember, he doesn't tap, so he can swing for his four even after clearing the field.
AmericanVigor
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(13 votes)
Supports the sort of innovation that makes Magic awesome.
Edit: With the release of Innistrad, this guy works quite well with Laboratory Maniac.
Shannnnoonn
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Go ahead... Laugh if you want, but this guy was in my state PTQ deck... Ol Slogger scares people when he hits the board!!! They think to themselves "This guys crazy!!! He just might use him..." and for good reason... Every game ended with me having 10 or less cards left in my deck... Every game went close to this... Round 1: crom mox , mountain, spark elemental, spell bomb: take 3 Round 2: mountain, top, srapmetal blast: take 5 Round 3: mountain, seething song, Slogger: remove 10, take 2 Round 4: mountain, pulse of the fordge, remove 20 take out any creatures, swing, take 8 Round 5: mountain, remove 10, take 2 ..... Win...Player 1:" good game!!! How many cards you have left in your deck???" me: "Let me see.... 7, wow that was close!!!" I beat affinity twice, and it beat me twice... The two times I lost Slogger didn't hit the board.... the two I won, he delt the winning blows... 4.5/5.... He should not be under 4..... He wins too many games when he's on the board... I love this card....
zakando
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
put in a few of those eldrazi monsters where they reshuffle ur graveyard back to ur deck whenever it's place into a graveyard from anywhere, this is now officially an op card lol
Shadoflaam
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@Shannnnooon This is why we can't have nice things.
Alas, no. You exile the cards, not pitch them into the graveyard. That would be too easy.
KokoshoForPresident
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Slog means a slow or dragging march, in case anyone was wondering. Poor guy has always looked so sad to me. I think he needs a hug.
Trygon_Predator
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For when you absolutely must get those last points of damage in. A 4/5 body isn't shabby either. And the art is amazing! A giant Jacob's ladder slug-creature? Why didn't we see more of this?
anytwofactors
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
One of the best hated cards in all of magic.
Arachnos
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
A deck has 60 cards at minimum... Unless you're playing against a mill deck, you probably don't need all 60, particularly in a red deck. Assuming a 60 card deck you can probably safely get at least 6-8 damage out of his ability, so not too shabby.
I never thought this guy was awful- I remember reading an article on him during Mirrodin previews and realized he was good, but my love for good ol' Sloggy wasn't cemented until he allowed me to win a game against my early rival (and only other friend I played Magic with) after he knocked me down to 1 life. Arc-Slogger helped me fight off his creature army and I was able to strike the final blow. One of my most adored Magic moments. :)
TheWrathofShane
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I admit I first started playing in mirrodin, and my first reaction was junk. I never got to see him an action, my playgroup was a small local and isolated card shop.
But now I understand why this card is really good. Think about it this way, if you have all red mana, thats 10 damage the following turn plus his swing.
Cyberium
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Tournament record speaks truth, Arc-Slogger was used in many red decks to deal final blows. Remember it's a 4/5 creature, it can attack till your opponent could be killed with his activated ability.
The_Trendkill
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This was one of my earliest favorite cards. Good ol' Slogger taught me a very important lesson about Magic- that trading a resource, even if it's a very valuable one, for something that pushes you much closer to winning the game, is usually a very good trade. My first impressions of this guy were extremely negative. I remember laughing at the card when my friends showed it to me and wondering who in the world would ever want to remove their whole library from the game to do eight, maybe ten damage. As I saw it then, you would lose with his ability before you won with it.
I completely missed the point. As I quickly learned from being on the receiving end of him, his bizarre ability was often plenty enough to win you the game by the time he arrived. In those days, by the time he was out Slith Firewalker had been beating your face in nonstop for several turns, often accompanied by his big hasty buddy Oxidda Golem. Fast creatures plus the burn of the day (Shock, Volcanic Hammer, etc.) were enough to make a big swing from this guy and a few activations of his ability lethal almost every time.
I think he's a great card not only in his own right but also for teaching new players some important lessons about managing resources in the game. He started my love affair with big creatures, with beatdown strategies, and with cards that force you to use some forethought to make tough choices for big effects. Both fun and skill-testing, a great design.
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
The lab maniac comments make a good point, don't forget to include Misthollow Griffin in your deck for backup. It's easy to forget that he hits creatures, but when your aim is to exile your library being able to do that to keep the board under control is far more important than player burn.
CogMonocle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
comes down T5, T6 swings for 4, proceed to throw your library at the opponent for 8. Awesome.
@ Kirbster
there's not much risk of decking yourself if your opponent is already dead.
talcumpowder0046
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Actually, a 4/5 and about 3 shocks is pretty good. Just don't get Mindslavered.
Rancid_Raptor
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
People need to really stop rating cards they never played themsevles. Only reason I could see this being down so low.
Fluicor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
rating 5/5 to compensate for all the ignorant people rating him down. I made a monored burn deck centering on this godly beast and war elemental just to teach casual players two valuable lessons:1-How the stack works (elemental+instant burn) and 2-A valuable resource you are not using and will not use is not valuable at all. Its really funny,people look at the resolved elemental and know immediately that they must neutralize it ASAP,but they see the slogger and the usual reaction is some weird look and disdain.The next turn I untap and by then its too late for them,I remove all but a few cards from my library and they die a quick death,even when they had some kind of removal. The second game they usually let it stay too,still not sure if the first time was a fluke. By the third game they already learned their lesson and deal with him accordingly,the Slogger has earned their respect by the sheer power of the Shock.
Comments (45)
Then there's the name's distinctly european beer sounding name...which friend's and I have always got a laugh out of. (Arc's Lager)
if it just discarded the cards, wheel of sun and moon would let you cycle your library till you hit your ultimate combo
Its still an awesome card. Drop your Earth Elementals today and pick this baby up. =)
Anyway, I hear people saying its ability can be used with an empty library. If I'm not mistaken, that is not true. The exiling is a cost, not an effect, so you cannot use the ability unless you can pay for it, meaning having 1 red mana in your mana pool and having 10 or more cards in your library. I could be wrong. Where's an Oracle ruling when you need it?
It's effectively a repeatable Shock if you have the cards to spare.
Excellent card.
Of course, it didn't stay ridiculous for too long because of a certain other deck... but hey, RDW is one of the only two decks that remained competitive when affinity dominated, and it owed a lot to this card (often powered out by Seething Song).
OR you could just not use the ability until you're going to win, then it doesn't matter. You'd only need ten mana to kill with him, and that's assuming you haven't done anything else to your opponent for the rest of the game - and in a red deck, that should never be the case.
No. Because exiling ten cards comes before the colon, it is part of the cost for the ability. If it had been placed after the colon, then you'd be able to do it.
Oh, and Arc-Slogger is awesome. I love how it displays a nice lesson about undrawn cards in your library: you can't be certain you'll see them over the course of the game anyway, so losing a random portion of them rarely denies you any resources until you're completely drawn out. Many players gripe about being hit with a Glimpse the Unthinkable or Traumatize, complaining that there's a copy of 'card X' that they'll never see. But chances are they have additional copies of that card in their deck, and they weren't going to see all copies of that card over the course of the game anyway. It wasn't in your hand, so you didn't have it anyway; it doesn't matter.
He gives so much reach. If the opponent drops below six life with this thing out they just die.
Edit: With the release of Innistrad, this guy works quite well with Laboratory Maniac.
Round 1: crom mox , mountain, spark elemental, spell bomb: take 3
Round 2: mountain, top, srapmetal blast: take 5
Round 3: mountain, seething song, Slogger: remove 10, take 2
Round 4: mountain, pulse of the fordge, remove 20 take out any creatures, swing, take 8
Round 5: mountain, remove 10, take 2 ..... Win...Player 1:" good game!!! How many cards you have left in your deck???" me: "Let me see.... 7, wow that was close!!!"
I beat affinity twice, and it beat me twice... The two times I lost Slogger didn't hit the board.... the two I won, he delt the winning blows... 4.5/5.... He should not be under 4..... He wins too many games when he's on the board... I love this card....
This is why we can't have nice things.
Also I want some for a casual
Alas, no. You exile the cards, not pitch them into the graveyard. That would be too easy.
And the art is amazing! A giant Jacob's ladder slug-creature? Why didn't we see more of this?
At the very least it's a strictly better Earth Elemental.
But now I understand why this card is really good. Think about it this way, if you have all red mana, thats 10 damage the following turn plus his swing.
I completely missed the point. As I quickly learned from being on the receiving end of him, his bizarre ability was often plenty enough to win you the game by the time he arrived. In those days, by the time he was out Slith Firewalker had been beating your face in nonstop for several turns, often accompanied by his big hasty buddy Oxidda Golem. Fast creatures plus the burn of the day (Shock, Volcanic Hammer, etc.) were enough to make a big swing from this guy and a few activations of his ability lethal almost every time.
I think he's a great card not only in his own right but also for teaching new players some important lessons about managing resources in the game. He started my love affair with big creatures, with beatdown strategies, and with cards that force you to use some forethought to make tough choices for big effects. Both fun and skill-testing, a great design.
@ Kirbster
there's not much risk of decking yourself if your opponent is already dead.
I made a monored burn deck centering on this godly beast and war elemental just to teach casual players two valuable lessons:1-How the stack works (elemental+instant burn) and 2-A valuable resource you are not using and will not use is not valuable at all.
Its really funny,people look at the resolved elemental and know immediately that they must neutralize it ASAP,but they see the slogger and the usual reaction is some weird look and disdain.The next turn I untap and by then its too late for them,I remove all but a few cards from my library and they die a quick death,even when they had some kind of removal.
The second game they usually let it stay too,still not sure if the first time was a fluke.
By the third game they already learned their lesson and deal with him accordingly,the Slogger has earned their respect by the sheer power of the Shock.
P.S.:If anything goes sour,a red sun's zenith or a beacon of destruction every turn will help you not lose.