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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day

Magic: The Gathering
Image from Wizards.com

Kavu Predator
Planar Chaos


Reviewed September 21, 2007

Constructed: 3.43
Casual: 3.33
Limited: 2.57

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 

BMoor

Kavu Predator

Is this worth playing if you have no way of making your opponent gain life? Well, it's a Grizzly Bear with trample. You could put a Blanchwood Armor on it next turn and have a 5/5 trampler on turn 3. You could go for the Beacon of Immortality/Wall of Shards/Fiery Justice combo. Or you could just sideboard it in against lifegain decks. So, yes.

Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 4.8
Limited- 3

Aethereal

Friday - Kavu Predator

One of the two parts of the Predator Justice combo deck. The idea behind that deck, if you can't already tell, is to drop this guy into play on turn two and then drop Fiery Justice on turn three to turn this guy into a 7/7 trampler. Outside of that, you could try and side him in against a Martyr deck, but he may not even hit the table now that the deck plays blue. All in all, a good card in the one deck it fits right into.

In casual, if you have anyone in your playgroup with an annoying life gain deck, try using this.

In limited, he's solid because he's a 2/2 trampler for 2. The life gain ability will likely not come into play unless they drop something with spirit link on it, but even without that he'd be good here.

Constructed - 4
Casual - 4
Limited - 3.5


David N

Friday - Kavu Predator
My favorite creature from time spiral block. This card dominated my local block PTQ. The kavu predator deck with fiery justice is just plain sick. A baby wrath of god that makes your creature huge just doesn't seem fair. This card has great synergy with grove of burnwillows also. Even without the life gain this card is decent as 2 for a bear with trample.

Constructed: 5
Casual: 3
Limited: 3

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Kavu Predator

Like so many creatures, Kavu Predator is almost amazingly powerful in theory and quite a bit less in practice. It does what it was intended to quite well - except that the first Lightning Helix, Faith's Fetters, or Tendrils of Corruption is almost always aimed directly at it. At least, I suppose, that's one that isn't targeting your other creatures. I'd play it in casual games if your friends are fans of the Nomads en-Kor, Daru Spiritualist, and Starlit Sanctum combo. As for limited play, it can be less than impressive, often being basically a Grizzly Bears (albeit one with trample). But Grizzly Bears is playable in limited.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 2/5

Arcane

Kavu Predator

 

Constructed: Saw actually a lot of block play this past season on the back of Grove of the Burnwillows and in some cases even Fiery Justice. Life gain usually doesn’t rear its head in most constructed formats with a few rare exceptions (like Hierarch or Beacon) so relying on your opponent to pump this up is not really a good strategy as this will probably remain just a trampling bear.

 

Casual/Multi: Life gain tends to show up a bit more in this format, either in the form of engines trying to go infinite or with one of cards that combine life gain with some other effect (like Faith’s Fetters). I find a lot more players in my causal circle brining life gain so that they can try and win the long game plan (lots of turtlers in my group). This card is a really easy way of stopping people from going above and beyond their assigned 20 and can sometimes traps a bunch of cards in their hand uselessly.

 

Limited: There isn’t a great deal of life gain in the Time Spiral block, and even less that is really worth playing. The ones that you’d be most likely to see from opponents being Essence Warden, Tendrils of Corruption and Jedit’s Dragoons. It is possible to use this card in combination with Healing Leaves to give your opponent more life and pump the Kavu up to a 5/5 but it’s no reason to snag Healing Leaves early in PC packs (I found they table really frequently). At the very least the Predator can fit in the curve as a trampling bear with an extra ability.

 

Constructed: 2

Casual: 3

Limited: 2.5

 
Meb9000 Kavu Predator

Everyone knew of the combos with this guy from the get-go, but it took a few top players to truly unleash the potential of this little 2 cc growing monster. Time Spiral block alone gave us Fiery Justice and Grove of the Burnwillows, the latter being able to produce a constantly growing behemoth. Legacy Decks could theoretically have a lot more fun, using the likes of Invigorate or Reverent Silence, but that is usually for the Casual tables. Kavu Predator has made its mark in several R/G/x variants, and it still has a lot of time to stretch its claws.

Ratings

Constructed: 4/5

Limited: 2/5

Until Next Week, Meb9000
PsychoAnime

#1 Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
Kavu Predator

It wasn't used a lot when it first came out. It's only in decks because it combos to well with Fiery Justice. If you don't draw Fiery Justice, this card becomes very bad. In tournaments, someone is bound to get lucky and draw both this and Fiery Justice in all of their opening hands or someone is capable of stacking such that they always draw both this and Fiery Justice in all of their opening hands. If you think you are one of these people, there's no reason not to play it because the combo on turn 3 usually means GG in a deck without bounce.

In casual, more life gain cards are used, like that wall in Coldsnap with cumulative upkeep your oppoent gains 1 life.

In limited, your opponent is not likely to gian life so this is pretty much a Grizzly Bear with trample, and that's a late pick.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 1.5/5

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