Huatli’s Raptor – MTG Card Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

I absolutely love War of the Spark’s arguable hints of Huatli playing a part in future storylines, because everything becomes cooler when you add dinosaurs to it. We’ve already seen dinosaurs in Ravnica, and read a story about Huatli and Saheeli designing a dinosaur automaton. Now imagine her summons on Theros, where they would probably take well to the Nessian Woods. Imagine elasmosaurs swimming the Merrow Lanes, or pterosaurs gliding on the engineered winds of Esper. Once the gates are opened, they can’t be closed – but why would you want to?

Huatli’s Raptor is interesting in that it can be quite complex or downright vanilla. As a 2/3 with vigilance for just two mana, it’s worth looking at even in decks that aren’t set up to take advantage of its proliferate effect. But if you are set up in such a way, it can push your game plan over the top as soon as it hits play – this gives it a great degree of relevance that not all early-game attackers possess. Coming back around to its efficiency, this means that you don’t have to feel you’re giving up table presence even when you’re going all in on the proliferate strategy. That’s a great deal for a two-mana green-white card.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

A two-mana 2/3 with upside is a pretty good start, and proliferate makes for excellent upside in a set full of planeswalkers and +1/+1 counters running around. The proliferate gives Huatli’s Raptor utility late, but the body is actually pretty promising early, as a 2/3 with vigilance is able to get solid beats in while holding off a fair number of early attackers (or trading with them). Double colored mana can be a small issue, but most decks won’t have trouble getting there, and this dinosaur is a decent presence both early and late.

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander: 3.5