This is a niche card. You'll never exactly be
disappointed to run it, since it's a 2/2 for
two, but its only ability is only useful if your
opponent uses Flashback cards, reanimator
strategies, or the like. Exiling cards from
graveyards just isn't very useful if your
opponent isn't banking on certain cards being
there. I suppose you could, in theory, use
Thraben Heretic in conjunction with Elixir of
Immortality to "thin your deck" while gaining
life, but doing so would be an incredibly long
process during which you're not really
accomplishing anything. You'd pretty much have
to be running the Martyr of Sands combo to find
that useful. Otherwise, it's basically a
sideboard card that can attack for two.
I'm a big, big fan of this card, and not just
because of the visual and conceptual
similarities to Jill Valentine. She also nixes
undying creatures at will, makes troublesome
flashback cards into one-shots, and turns off
threshold and cards like Anger. She does it all
while attacking when you need her to, and
fitting into almost any deck that can fit at
least some white mana in, which is amazing when
you consider how much some colors struggle with
those aforementioned cards.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
a very narrow graveyard hate creature. Being
only able to remove creatures definitely hurts
this cards playability. In standard the majority
of cards to remove from graveyards are flashback
so this makes a small impression and overall is
not the most competitive card for your deck. In
extended and modern this cards power level is
pretty low although removing things from the
graveyard could be more beneficial. Casual this
card is very underwhelming but passable. In
multiplayer there are more efficient ways to
punish graveyards and to deal with creatures in
them. In limited it’s a solid body that has a
mild effect on the game making it an ok grab but
not highly desirable. Overall an underwhelming
and predictable card with a solid amount of
flavor.
Today's card of the day is Thraben Heretic
which is a two mana 2/2 that taps to exile
target creature from a graveyard. As with
many similar effects this will primarily see
play in a sideboard, but can be maindecked as it
still works as a creature if there is nothing
worthwhile to remove. It balances
vulnerability as a creature with the reusable
nature and is a solid choice against graveyard
based themes, so it will see play at the
competitive level in sidedecks at the very
least.
For Limited nearly every deck should have some
sort of graveyard enabled effects and a two mana
2/2 with only one mana of a specific color is
definitely playable. Any Sealed build
using White should include this card as it is
useful even without the effect and Booster draft
can easily value this as removal considering the
supply of Flashback and Undying available.
Welcome to the
card of the day section here at Pojo.com! We
close out our week looking at Thraben Heretic
from Dark Ascension. Thraben Heretic is an
uncommon 2/2 white creature human wizard that
costs one generic and one white mana. Thraben
Heretic has tap, exile target creature card from
a graveyard.
I really love what this card does in both Standard and
Vintage formats. It is cheap enough to get out
really fast, and powerful enough to shut down
most graveyard based decks, although, not
guaranteed. It is also a beefy creature for just
two mana. A 2/2 may not seem like much, but it
can make an opponent think twice about sending
an attack. It could survive a 1 power creature,
and take out anything two toughness or less.
As I said above, the best thing about the Heretic is
what she does, exiling creatures from
graveyards. We all know that the Zombies of
Innistrad just love dyinga nd coming back. Well
not with the Thraben Heretic on watch. As soon
as something in the graveyard would trigger, tap
the Heretic, and watch it vanish! This really
shuts down decks like the recently printed
Graveborn deck. The main problem is that Thraben
Heretic is mostly a sideboard card, unless you
really love the 2/2 for 2. This means since it
is side boarded, your first game may go badly,
and then you have to hope that you pull one
quickly in the first game, and could mulligan
until you do so. These factors are indeed very
risky.
