Here's a Spellshaper I can get behind. Goblin
tokens are always useful, even if you're nto
playing a Goblin deck. These guys make great
blockers, and you can sacrifice them en masse to
take down Dragons. Or you can just swing and
hope that your opponent blocks poorly. And, it's
in the color of Madness!
Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 3.5
Limited- 4
Aethereal
Thursday -
Skirk Ridge Exhumer
Another so-so spellshaper. This time, you get to
make Festering Goblins. Festering Goblin doesn't
see play in constructed, and I don't see this
even making the cut in a mono-black deck. It
doesn't do enough; you might as well just play
Damnation instead, which doesn't bother your
hand like this does.
In casual, just play Damnation instead.
In limited, a good choice for a black deck since
he can trade with guys bigger than himself, or
trade for two really small guys, and he's
repeatable.
My favorite spellshaper of the set. It's cheap
at 2 for a 1/1. And it makes the best token,
festering goblin. -1/-1 is such an awesome
ability. Kills their early threats such as
savannah lions and blade or takes care of the
birds or elves. Just simply amazing. Awesome
black is one of the main colors of madness,
dredge, and delve mechanic.
Constructed:4
Casual:4
Limited:4
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Skirk Ridge
Exhumer
With the real Festering Goblin around, there's
no real need to play Skirk Ridge Exhumer in
constructed. Even in reanimator or madness
decks, there are better options. In limited,
though, the Exhumer is strong. Not only is it a
discard outlet for exciting cards like Dark
Withering and Conflagrate, the tokens it creates
trade with 2/2 creatures (at least, any that
aren't named Blood Knight or Suq'Ata Lancer) or
with two 1/1 creatures. That makes up nicely for
the card you discarded to make the Festering
Goblin token - and another one will probably be
along next turn.
Constructed: 1/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 4/5
Arcane
Skirk Ridge
Exhumer
Constructed: Unlike a lot of the other
spellshapers we’ve reviewed this card is one of
the only ones I really don’t mind discarding
cards to mass produce tokens with. Unlike
yesterday’s card that doesn’t answer your
opponent’s creatures these tokens are quite
capable of trading with creatures larger than
themselves making blocks hard for your opponent.
Also zombies have always been a very well
supported archetype, and even in standard right
now we have access to Lord of the Undead and
Undead Warchief which can make the little tokens
all that much more devastating.
Casual/Multi: Every kitchen table has at least
one person playing their zombie deck that they
believe is fun with its Gemplam polluters and
Noxious ghouls (A hint: It isn’t a fun deck and
everyone hates you for playing it.) Well
regardless of enjoyment values the Exhumer
provides a nice little kick in the pants to
those zombie decks. Produce a nice wall-like
army of festering goblin tokens making attacking
you seem very unappealing but then launching
polluters that make leaving you alone even less
so. Combine with some cards like haunted
crossroads and oversold cemetery and you can
offset the cost of discarding cards.
Limited: I know I said that I wouldn’t mention
madness with the spellshapers anymore this week,
but black in TS limited is just too important to
not mention along side the exhumer. It’ll come
late in the draft meaning that it will most
likely act as a supplement to a madness based
strategy more than as a catalyst to make you
head that direction, but you’ll almost always be
happy to see it in black. And the ability to
make a 1/1 that can kill creatures on its way to
the bin will almost always find a use in every
stage of the game whether you have lands to
pitch to it or not.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.5
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
This isn't that bad. The pattern I'm seeing here
is that if a
Spellshaper creates creatures that need to tap,
then it is horrible.
This card doesn't suffer from the same drawback
as its tokens can start
doing its stuff right away. This guy also comes
out on turn 2.
Festering Golbin, although not a great card on
its own, certainly
serves to be a nuisance in a bundle. 2 Festering
Goblins can take out a
4/4, which is quite decent.
However, in constructed, this guy like the other
Spellshapers aren't
playable as every card is better than the
tokens.
