Have I said recently how cool I think it is that
we're getting more cards from Lorwyn? I love
northern European mythology, I loved Lorwyn, and
I loved elves with a dark edge like we saw in
that block. I loved my Elf Rock deck from that
era, and I'm going to love pulling my Gilt-Leaf
Palaces out of the card box this weekend and
building around this lady and the other Origins
elves. In such an aggressive black-green
strategy, she is at worst a solid creature and
at best a one-shot kill. I never liked splashing
for Fireball in Elf Rock style decks - it seems
like Lorwyn's chauvinistic elves would
disapprove - and no-one will ever have to again.
Today's card of the day is Shaman of the Pack
which is a three mana Black and Green 3/2 that
deals damage equal to the number of elves you
control, which is a devastating alternate win
condition or at least reduces the number of
elves needed to overwhelm an opponent. The big
drawback is the Black mana which forces at least
a splash of Black mana sources and prevents
simply adding this to existing elf tribal
builds.
In a dedicated token build with some way to
blink it could be a viable win condition by
itself. Overall it needs a very specific
build to be of use which may leave it strictly
in the realm of Casual and Commander.
For Limited this is just not worth going to any
extra effort for as it is two colors with
minimal potential for the effect to do much and
is just 3/2 for three otherwise. Easily
passed in Booster until the end of the pack,
unless you are already drafting into Black and
Green, and generally best in the sidedeck of
Sealed unless in the colors already.
