Pointed Discussion

I can haz Whispersilk Cloak?

needs trample and buffs badly.

Distortion Strike, enough said.

You know what bugs me? That "it deals damage equal to its power to each blocking creature."
While the wording appears interesting, this contradictive ability doesn't do its job on a 3/3 five-drop.

It invokes a one-sided Firespout when unblocked on all blockers, and does even more damage when it gets a power boost.
But knowing that, which opponent would let this guy stay unblocked then? And its body is not a threat too hard to handle either.
If he has any creatures, he'll just keep one ready to block.
Then if you manage to actually hit your opponent because he's unable to block, he doesn't have any creatures that could be dealt damage anyways.
So you're merely left with an overcosted Hill Giant.

I thought about using this in a beast tribal deck, but aside from Fangren Pathcutter maybe (or Canopy Crawler to increase the damage) i chouldn't find any beast that would synergize with it in regards of dealing damage to the opponent while still getting a bunch of blockers that could be dealt damage to.
Maybe Nucklavee with
Assault Strobe with Distortion Strike or Shadow Rift? O_o

Oh, i concede. It's a crap rare. Wizards should just print a better version of this someday.

Come to think about it, this would be pretty interesting as an enchantment that gives the ability to all of your creatures. Probably just with 1 damage for each creature then, since there would be an increasing chance for a one-sided wrath for each unblocked creature.

@Mode: If we had a creature that would do everything to win the game by itself, why would we play this game?

This is awesome creature, but to get it working we need something else also. So here are my thoughts:

1. Give it unblockability (like Whispersilk cloak) and attack with all you have. Unless your opponent blocks they are toast.

2. Put Lure on another creature you have and attack with it and this. All your opponents creatures block the one with Lure and this gets through, you lose the Lure, but is that big prize to pay.

An electric trilobite? Wait a minute... Electric trilobite... Oh Urza's block, you so silly.

I see three creatures in the art and only the creature type lets me identify the actual electryte as the mechanical horseshoe crab in the lower-right.

Sure, when it really works out it could be great. However, from the game balance standpoint, this really showcases how low-powered creatures were back in the day.

The consensus of designers, developers and players back then: this creature's ability is so awesome. Red usually gets a 5/4 for 3RR, but if it does something as awesome as doing a mini-board wipe every turn, it can only be a 3/3 for that cost and be a rare. Any bigger and it would just be unfair to those Serra Angels.

The reality of the metagame: Lightning Bolt. Counterspell. First turn Phyrexian Negator. Tinker me a Phyrexian Processor that makes 10/10s. Replenish me ten enchantment creatures. Tolarian Academy, I win.



Edit: when I wrote this I thought it was all their creatures. Turns out... Wow.

Nacatl war-pride solves all your electryte problems.
lots of blockers, check.
nothing blocking electryte, check
???, check?
profit, check

Only semi-usable if you manage to make it unblockable. If the wording was the other way around I could see it being somewhat usable, though - if it dealt damage equal to its power when it got blocked it would be kinda cool, but as is, you opponent is just gonna block it and kill it without much consequence.

Don't take this at face value. This is what you call a combo card, and is not very good on its own. However, in the right deck (BOROS), it basically reads "Attacking creatures you control that are blocked get +3/+0 until end of turn." Master Warcraft and Odric are already strong on their own, but they work fabulously well . This is a fun little card - nothing ridiculously powerful, but when it matters, you'll be grateful you had it.