A 2/1 pro: black seems appropriate for WW, as it
can skate past mono-black decks easily. The jump
and pump abilites are also nice, turning extra
mana in the late game into extra damage, as well
as allowing this thing to kill nearly any
creatures it tangles with, given enough mana.
The only trouble is, it will likely only kill
one creature and then die thanks to its one
toughness. A creature would need zero power to
block this thing without killing it, and even
then, Drift of Phantasms can hold this thing off
for quite a while if you're still accumulating
mana. It's alright, but its toughness coupled
with a lack of any way to protect it from
nonblack damage makes it a bit fragile.
The thing about the new pump knights is that
they are way more fragile than those that came
before them. There are three reasons for this -
firstly, they don't have first strike
capabilities. This means that any 1/1 flyer they
don't have protection from can take them down
easily. Secondly, the lower end of the bell
curve for removal is a lot better these days.
People don't have to rely on something like
Serrated Arrows to take down pump knights
anymore. Thirdly, it's very rare to run into a
mono-colored deck these days. The old Order of
Leitbur and Order of the White Shield were great
because the dominant deck was mono-black. It had
virtually no way to kill these besides the
above-mentioned arrows or Nevinyrral's Disk.
These days most decks are two or more colors so
the chances of protection being dominating are a
lot lower. That being said, pump knights of any
variety are stronger than the curve usually
allows for.
May be a decent add to White Weenie builds.
Being pro-Black is nice, and it can give itself
flying and pump. Versatility is always great to
have in a card, and when you can have a 2 power
creature that can be as versatile as this, it
can't be a bad thing.
Constructed - 3
Casual - 3
Limited - 3
The Antman
White Shield
Crusader- Uncommon- Coldsnap
A efficient creature, with a good cost, good
abilities, and good evasion/protection White
Shield Crusader should be just as useful as his
brother, stromgald crusader, why do I think he
wont be? because white is full of cards that
also have a good cost, with good abilities, and
good evasion/protection, while black has very
few. All in all a good card, but probably not
worth playing in constructed
ratings:
constructed- 3/5 a good creature but has a lot
of competition for this spot, maybe after
kamigawa leaves it will see more play
limited- 5/5 a great creature with great
abilities for limited
casual- 3/5 nothing special here
Aburame Shino
White Shield
Crusader
When I first saw this card, I immediately
recognized the mana costs as being the exact
same as Order of the White Sheild, with the
single white ability granting Flying instead of
First Strike. When I saw that it now granted
flying I wasn't quite as happy with the card.
I'm not saying flying is bad, but if I wanted a
small White Weenie creature that could fly I'd
use Leonin Skyhunter or Suntail Hawk. The upside
of this card is that it still has the pump
ability, but is that still good in the current
meta?
What made Order of the White Shield good was the
fact that it granted First Strike along with its
"firebreathing". It could easily block any big
creature and keep itself from being destroyed in
the process by making the card stronger than the
other and granting it First Strike. Crusader can
grow, but it just can't stay alive in combat,
which I think makes it a bad choice to use.
I only see one use for this card, and that's to
be a chump-blocker against Kokusho. Sure this
forces you to hold back a mana each turn, but if
you're playing a small creature deck (the deck
this belongs in) you'll more than likely have
mana open to feed this card in the mid to late
game, which is when Kokusho appears.
Constructed: 2 - This card's only good against
Orzhov and Kokusho.
Casual: 3 - The similarity to Order of the White
Shield makes this guy awesome, at least to me.
Limited: 1.5 - I'd rather take a Big Dumb Fattie
than this guy.
