Pointed Discussion

Good old Steve. Still one of the best mana-fixers. And he REALLY should get a reprint. He's weaker under the new rules, so what's stopping you, Wizards? The "Sakura" in his name? Then make him into a "new" bland fantasy card, like you did with may others for M2010. No, I'm serious. Rampant Growth just ain't cutting it for me...

Kryplixx, the ability to sit there and chump block and then go get a land makes Sakura amazing. He's acceleration when you need it, and an easy blocker when you can wait.

Kryplixx Its Totally Important Atleast You Have A Chump Blocker Plus Hes A Creature Not A Slowpaced Sorcery You Just Need To Play A Little More Magic To Find Out Why This Cat Is So Good

One of the best card designs in magic. Simple, yet effective beyond belief. Even with the new rules this makes Rampant Growth look like crap.

Good old Sakura, but why it is not reprinted ?

I for one will be rather disappointed if all of Zendikar block goes by without a functional reprint of this guy.

And why the hell is his rating below 5.0?
There is no excuse for that.

Hey, I'm not the only person that calls him Steve. Neat.

i likee

Ok guys, know why they can't reprint him? Well, his name is Sakura Tribe Elder, and in that fact he was only meant to be a Kamigawa themed card. However, they will reprint a card with a different generic name.

hes even greater to have when you have a Khalni Heart Expedition out. he can just sit there till you need that last mana to pull off that landfall combo. I hope he gets a reprint

The new ruling kill this card, but I still want a reprint...

One of the cards that WOULD have made landfall, but alas...a swing and a miss.

What new ruling killed this guy?

Agreed. He deserves a reprint.

Edit: Well finally.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/467

YES! The chump blocker variant of Rampant Growth! So much better and so much more flavorful.

@SuicidalTendancies: The new combat damage system means that you can't sac him while combat damage is on the stack to both kill a small attacker and net a land.
You can still block a creature and sacrifice the Elder in response to the combat damage step though, so it's not like there's a big difference in how powerful this used to be and is now ... I doubt many people made use of the "combat damage on the stack" trick anyway, unless they were running Lace with Moonglove or similar instant-deathtouch effects, or their opponents were stupid enough to attack with a 1-toughness creature into an untapped Elder...

REPRINT PLZ

Or at least... FUNCTIONAL REPRINT PLZ.

Was a great card, in over 2180 official tournament decks. Then they changed the ruling on combat damage.

Combat had been assigning damage the same way for years.There are a lot of cards like Mogg Fanatic that get ruined with the new simultaneous ruling.

I heard they had to change the ruling because people are too stupid to understand a combat damage 'stack' and response. Yup, dumb-down the game for the masses...

Actually, I think the new ruling (with combat damage no longer using the stack) made a functional reprint of this card possible. It's still strictly better than Rampant Growth, and Rampant Growth has been Standard-playable from time to time.

@ Kryplixx Say you're playing against aggro. You go first, and they drop a Kird Ape on the first turn. You cast the STE, who blocked the Kird Ape and then got sacrificed for a land. The STE ends up saving you 2 damage, so it's sort of like Rampant Growth + 2 life, which is already a good upgrade from just Rampant Growth.

Back when combat damage was stacked, STE did even more. Say you're playing aggro, you control a pair of Mogg Fanatics and they have an STE. What do you do? Usually you either attack with both, wait til damage on stack, then pop the dying Mogg for 1 more player damage; or you use a burn spell on the STE and swing in with both Moggs. In either case they're getting +1 card advantage from the trade, as your Mogg or burn spell is lost for nothing (since STE simply becomes another card, the land they searched for). This is a good reason why Vulshok Sorcerer was played, since she dealt with STEs without losing a card.

He looks more like a turtle than a snake. Still an outstanding card wherever he's playable.

@SuicidalTendencies
Since damage no longer uses the stack, you can't have Steve block a 1-toughness dude and then sac him- trading creatures and then getting a Rampant Growth. Honestly, though, he was more of a deterrent than anything else... all he did was keep your opponent's 1-toughness dude from swinging into you for 1-2 turns. Now he just chumps 1 non-trampler (you still get the Rampant Growth).

Basically he went from being really good to really good.

Also he's phenomenal in EDH - particularly in any sort of recursion deck... G/B especially.

Is it just me, or does the flavor text remind me of Speaker for the Dead?