Grist, Voracious Larva – Modern Horizons III
Date Reviewed: June 19, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.00
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 3.13
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
This card gives me flashbacks to the Magic Origins card Kytheon, Hero of Akros; it sets off the same sort of alarm bells, threatening to be cast on turn 1 and become a planeswalker way too early. If anything, Grist’s flip condition might be easier to meet than Gideon’s, considering that black and green are both set up to use the graveyard. And her planeswalker face is scarily aggressive in a deck that can take advantage of her abilities, and I don’t just mean the +1. Her -2 might be kind of swingy between matchups, but if it weren’t on the narrow side, she’d take over games for fun; and even as it is, your opponent is going to be reluctant to play cards like Myr Enforcer when you flip her early. I think it’s going to turn out there’s a lot she can do, despite some seemingly low numbers, even in a format like Modern.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Unlike the other members of the flip planeswalkers, Grist is still a bit of an enigma. Hailing from Modern Horizons II, but with no story relevance to this point, everyone’s favorite planeswalking insect gets the flip walker treatment and does some interesting things with it.
Grist, Voracious Larva is pretty innocuous at first, a 1/2 that punches above her weight, but the flip trigger is where things get interesting. She can’t flip on her own, but she can flip with a bit of help…through things black is particularly inclined towards, mind you, but green alone can do a bit of it. Once she does flip, she’s a brutally efficient value engine, all things considered. Spawn more friends to block an offensive, just kill something, or build into conscripting your fallen army into Grist’s swarm…while her ultimate is flashier than functional, it gets the job done nicely, and her day-to-day abilities are all quite menacing.
Flipping Grist might be the one obstacle, since she needs a bit of a spark to do that. That said, Modern has one spell she would pair perfectly with in Unearth. The unearth mechanic, persist/undying, and more can all help her achieve her true glory, and I imagine getting her to flip reliably is a lot easier in practice than it might seem at first. She’s not as straightforward, in a sense, but she’s a 1/2 with deathtouch for 1 mana as a baseline, and that can at least bring something down with her along the way.
Constructed: 4 (I think the question of how readily she flips is valid, but I can definitely see her coming online on turn 2 or so)
Casual: 5
Limited: 3.25 (much harder to flip, so just play her as a deathtoucher with upside)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.25 (she’s green/black, but that’s perfect for what she wants to do)
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