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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Thelonite Hermit
Time Spiral


Reviewed October 27, 2006

Constructed: 2.76
Casual: 3.55
Limited: 3.38

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

Thelonite Hermit

This guy is full of tricks! Thelonite Hermit should only be played as a face down creature. You would think this would be obvious, because as a four casting cost 1/1 Elf Shaman that gives Saprolings +1/+1, you would think his appeal would be pretty low. That’s what I thought, too, until this past weekend’s PTQ, where a dude played Thelonite Hermit not once, but twice straight onto the board face up to help power up a couple of Saprolings he was making with his Thallids. As far as Morph creatures go, Thelonite Hermit is pretty strong, but not necessarily a home run as far as I am concerned.
The only way I am likely to play this card is in Time Spiral limited formats, where surprising my opponent by turning him face up causes him serious problems. In constructed, the Hermit will very likely find a popular life in some fairly complex combo decks where the ability to create four creatures by simply flipping over one face down creature will lead to some degenerate capabilities of some kind or another.

CONSTRUCTED: 4.0
CASUAL: 4.0
LIMITED: 3.5
 


DeQuan
Watson

* Game Store Owner

Thelonite Hunter

This card would be a lot more useful if you didn't have to morph it to use it's ability. It pretty much means that it's pretty much a six mana investment for a 1/1 creature. Outside of a Saproling deck, I can't see myself playing this guy.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
 

BMoor

Thelonite Hermit

A reference to Deranged Hermit of days past, this guy is marginally better since he can come into play morphed, then flip up as a combat trick. But as for the +1/+1 bonus, I wouldn't count on that. The Hermit is just too killable to last long. But the fact that you can get five creatures for one card is pretty awesome.

Constructed- 2
Casual- 4
Limited- 3
 


Jordan Kronick

Thelonite Hermit

Deranged Hermit produced 4 1/1 tokens and made them bigger, just like this guy. And if you wanted to keep him around, it cost you a grand total of 10 mana. This guy's going to cost you 8 mana to get the same effect. The difference - and the reason for the discount - is that you don't have a choice in the matter. Sometimes you didn't want to pay the echo cost on Deranged Hermit. If you want the tokens out of this guy, he will cost you the full 8 mana. 3 to play, 5 to unmorph. Far from being a bad deal, this is a very strong card. Deranged Hermit has a problem in that it boosted Squirrels and Squirrels aren't commons sights. Not until Odyssey did Squirrels become a real force. Saprolings, on the other hand, are all over the palce. And this guy boosts them all up. Deranged Hermit has been described as a 9/9 for 5 mana. This guy might even be better.

Constructed Rating - 3.1
Casual Rating - 3.4
Limited Rating - 3.6
 

Nick Tan

Thelonite Hermit

Saprolings? Honestly, I was thinking of a Husk deck rather than a Saproling deck when I thought of this one, although the Hermit should work well in both. A worthy addition to those Selysnya Token decks some of you out there have, and even better in those Husk decks. Try it out with Doubling Season- fun times for all! But otherwise, nothing fancy to write home about.

Constructed: 2.8
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
 

KC MetroGnome

Thelonite Hermit

This is one that I wasn't as familiar with. In a casual Selesnya or other Thallid deck, this is pure gold, giving you bigger thallids as well as a quick four extra creatures to use for your convoke spells. Probably not going to make a big splash in constructed, although if a deck were to pop up that wins with Saproling Tokens, this could easily fit the bill as a sorcery speed +1/+1 or an instant speed +1/+1 plus 4 extra attackers, although it probably won't have the surprise effect that a green morph of Onslaught block would have had (if you're playing Saprolings, and you have a face-down creature, don't fool yourself into thinking you're going to surprise your opponent with this). In limited, if I was already green, I might take this and try to pick a few thallids here and there through the rest of the draft. I wouldn't go green for it, though, unless I got it very early.

Constructed - 2
Casual - 5
Limited - 3
 

Aethereal

Thelonite Hermit

A remake of Deranged Hermit. Obviously this is a card you morph into play, as it is crap if you just play it as-is. You end up paying less total for this than you do the Deranged Hermit, and in the meantime, you get a 2/2 that hopefully won't get burned off the board. The fact that this makes and boosts Saprolings makes this a potentially strong candidate in Ghazi-Glare type decks, with all the Saprolings they can make.

In casual, I'm sure this will get comboed with Vitu-Ghazi and other Saproling generators for lots of token madness.

In limited, he can help you win a creature race, but paying 8 total for a 1/1 is awful. The Saprolings make up for this, however, so play him if you're green. I think I'm underrating him a bit here actually, so take my rating for limited cum grano salis.

Constructed - 3.5 (with potential)
Casual - 4
Limited - 3
 


Gackley Ferguson

Today's card is Thelonite Hermit. He's a 1/1 but unlike the 1/1 from earlier in the week, I think this guy will have a better use in decks. With all the saproling creatures that you can spawn from Selensya from Ravinica, and with the spore counters and saprolings that you can produce with all the fungus from Time Spiral, I think this guy will fit right in. Plus add in the fact, that when you turn him over you get 4 1/1s that automatically beomce 2/2s aren't anything to sneeze at.

Here's the verdict.

Constructed: 3.7/5 Put him with the right saproling producers and you can have a swarm on your hands.

Casual: 4/5 Again, if you make a saproling deck this guy is key.


Limited 2/5 He doesn't belong in this format, there's no real way that you can guarantee that he'll be effected. In sealed deck or a draft, he's just a 1/1 that can make more 1/1. I'd pass.
 

Cyrus Huang

Throwback to Deranged Hermit blah blah blah anyways the review that no one reads because it's on the bottom of the list:

Constructed: People are only going to put this guy in crappy saproling or thallid decks. If you haven't seen them before, saproling decks run stuff like leyline of the meek, doubling season, scatter the seeds, fists of ironwood, and finally off with Hour of Reckoning. It's a token (sorry) idea but far from competitive because decks based on 1/1's are not good. Thallid decks will pop up, but they'll just be all of the thallids in standard thrown together in one deck (and of course, they'll be terrible).
This guy is terrible because:
-Extremely narrow (and the only deck he fits in sucks)
-Way too expensive for such a narrow effect (8 mana)
-Fragile (I shock him and you just spent 8 mana for 4 1/1's or I just kill him before he even morphs)
1.5/5

Limited: Hey he's actually really good in limited though. Thallids are very playable and he goes along greatly with any you got. Even without support, paying 8 mana and getting 4 2/2's is a very game changing effect, especially when you can pop them out as surprise blockers. The creature advantage you get from this card is so nice that there's no reason not to play it if you're going green. When you get that many creatures out, you can usually just overpower your opponent and alpha strike every turn.
4/5
 
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