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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Allosaurus Rider
Cold Snap

Reviewed August 10, 2006

Constructed:
Casual:
Limited:

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


Jeff Zandi

 5 Time Pro Tour
 Veteran

Allosaurus Rider

I love the idea of plunking this card down in the middle of a game without paying his casting cost and suddenly having a giant creature in my weenie beatdown deck. The key with this card is to NOT think about playing him on turn one, when you have only one land in play, but to play him later in the game when he is more impressive. This card was carefully crafted to eliminate the ONLY problem I had when I first heard about this card. I was thinking, in what kind of beatdown deck am I really going to (a) have multiple green cards in my hand and (b) really want to remove them from the game to put Allosaurus Rider into play? The answer is elves. As soon as I realized this card would be a good finisher in an elf deck, the next thing I thought was "gee, it's too bad Allosaurus Rider isn't an elf..." Almost immediately, one of my friends (who can read) jabbed me in the arm and showed me that Allosaurus Rider IS an Elf (Warrior). Perfect for constructed, although only in a couple of decks. In limited, Allosaurus Rider is a powerful card in Coldsnap drafts. If this card had been printed in the Ravnica block, he would be much less interesting, since the power of Ravnica favors green the least. In Coldsnap limited, you need any better than average edge you can get, and Allosaurus Rider can be that really good beatdown creature. Basically, it works like this, in constructed, the Rider is good because you don't pay his casting cost, and in limited, the Rider is good because you DO pay his casting cost.

CONSTRUCTED: 3.0
CASUAL: 3.5
LIMITED: 3.5
 


DeQuan
Watson

* Game Store Owner

Allosaurus Rider

It remains to be seen how strong this card is. Once players get to use him in constructed tournaments, we might see some different things about it. For now, I have to put him in the "decent" pile. He's not super, but he's far from terrible. The rider can obviously cause some late game problems for your opponents as well.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5
 

Jordan Kronick

Allosaurus Rider

In the Coldsnap preview Podcast, Randy Buehler mentioned that the Allosaurus Rider is one of the cards we could expect to see in tournaments. I can't say I agree with that. He's lacking a couple things to make it decent. First of all, it lacks evasion. Secondly it lacks some ability to defend itself from hostile spells. Both of these qualities are exemplified in a recently reviewed card, Simic Sky Swallower. Sure, you won't be casting SSS for free, but it's going to survive a lot longer than this guy. Still, this can be a mighty draft bomb in a format where removal often cares about the size of a creature.

Constructed Rating - 2.2
Casual Rating - 2.8
Limited Rating - 2.8
 


Christine
Gerhardt

Allosaurus Rider

Really fun to play in limited enviroments. This thing just gets uglier each turn. The alternate casting cost of removing 2 green cards in your hand instead is kind of nice. Though playing it early does mean it will be much smaller. So the trade off is there. Not for constructed, though I could see some casual players having fun with this Elf.

Constructed - 1.5
Casual - 2.5
Limited - 3.5
 

The Antman

Allosaurus Rider- Rare- Coldsnap

While many people are iffy on this card, I personally like it. I can easilly see this thing in a G/U control and/or critial mass type deck that uses ohran viper to help against the card disadvantage, and cards like Sakura Tribe Elder and Kodama's reach to get a bunch of land out quickly, with things like voidslime and runesnag to protect him from the plethera of kill spells out right now. The one problem with him though IS that plethera of kill spells. Who wants to spend 2 cards from their hand just to get this card killed by a simple putrefy or mortify?

Ratings:
constructed- 3/5 Just because he doesn't cost you any mana doesnt mean you should play him early, which is the mistake of many players
limited- 4/5 many games get a lot of mana out, and most of the time you will probably hardcast him, which isnt hard in limited
casual- 4/5 fun fun fun, now we can do something with those decks made to get all your land out

Final Thought- Only play him if you can protect him, I dont have much more to say than that...
 
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