Is this worth playing if you have no way of
making your opponent gain life? Well, it's a
Grizzly Bear with trample. You could put a
Blanchwood Armor on it next turn and have a 5/5
trampler on turn 3. You could go for the Beacon
of Immortality/Wall of Shards/Fiery Justice
combo. Or you could just sideboard it in against
lifegain decks. So, yes.
Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 4.8
Limited- 3
Aethereal
Friday - Kavu
Predator
One of the two parts of the Predator Justice
combo deck. The idea behind that deck, if you
can't already tell, is to drop this guy into
play on turn two and then drop Fiery Justice on
turn three to turn this guy into a 7/7 trampler.
Outside of that, you could try and side him in
against a Martyr deck, but he may not even hit
the table now that the deck plays blue. All in
all, a good card in the one deck it fits right
into.
In casual, if you have anyone in your playgroup
with an annoying life gain deck, try using this.
In limited, he's solid because he's a 2/2
trampler for 2. The life gain ability will
likely not come into play unless they drop
something with spirit link on it, but even
without that he'd be good here.
Friday - Kavu
Predator
My favorite creature from time spiral block.
This card dominated my local block PTQ. The kavu
predator deck with fiery justice is just plain
sick. A baby wrath of god that makes your
creature huge just doesn't seem fair. This card
has great synergy with grove of burnwillows
also. Even without the life gain this card is
decent as 2 for a bear with trample.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 3
Limited: 3
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Kavu Predator
Like so many creatures, Kavu Predator is almost
amazingly powerful in theory and quite a bit
less in practice. It does what it was intended
to quite well - except that the first Lightning
Helix, Faith's Fetters, or Tendrils of
Corruption is almost always aimed directly at
it. At least, I suppose, that's one that isn't
targeting your other creatures. I'd play it in
casual games if your friends are fans of the
Nomads en-Kor, Daru Spiritualist, and Starlit
Sanctum combo. As for limited play, it can be
less than impressive, often being basically a
Grizzly Bears (albeit one with trample). But
Grizzly Bears is playable in limited.
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 2/5
Arcane
Kavu Predator
Constructed: Saw actually a lot
of block play this past season on the back of
Grove of the Burnwillows and in some cases even
Fiery Justice. Life gain usually doesn’t rear
its head in most constructed formats with a few
rare exceptions (like Hierarch or Beacon) so
relying on your opponent to pump this up is not
really a good strategy as this will probably
remain just a trampling bear.
Casual/Multi: Life gain tends to
show up a bit more in this format, either in the
form of engines trying to go infinite or with
one of cards that combine life gain with some
other effect (like Faith’s Fetters). I find a
lot more players in my causal circle brining
life gain so that they can try and win the long
game plan (lots of turtlers in my group). This
card is a really easy way of stopping people
from going above and beyond their assigned 20
and can sometimes traps a bunch of cards in
their hand uselessly.
Limited: There isn’t a great deal
of life gain in the Time Spiral block, and even
less that is really worth playing. The ones that
you’d be most likely to see from opponents being
Essence Warden, Tendrils of Corruption and
Jedit’s Dragoons. It is possible to use this
card in combination with Healing Leaves to give
your opponent more life and pump the Kavu up to
a 5/5 but it’s no reason to snag Healing Leaves
early in PC packs (I found they table really
frequently). At the very least the Predator can
fit in the curve as a trampling bear with an
extra ability.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 2.5
Meb9000
Kavu Predator
Everyone knew of the combos with this guy from
the get-go, but it took a few top players to
truly unleash the potential of this little 2 cc
growing monster. Time Spiral block alone gave us
Fiery Justice and Grove of the Burnwillows, the
latter being able to produce a constantly
growing behemoth. Legacy Decks could
theoretically have a lot more fun, using the
likes of Invigorate or Reverent Silence, but
that is usually for the Casual tables. Kavu
Predator has made its mark in several R/G/x
variants, and it still has a lot of time to
stretch its claws.
Ratings
Constructed: 4/5
Limited: 2/5
Until Next Week, Meb9000
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
Kavu Predator
It wasn't used a lot when it first came out.
It's only in decks because it combos to well
with Fiery Justice. If you don't draw Fiery
Justice, this card becomes very bad. In
tournaments, someone is bound to get lucky and
draw both this and Fiery Justice in all of their
opening hands or someone is capable of stacking
such that they always draw both this and Fiery
Justice in all of their opening hands. If you
think you are one of these people, there's no
reason not to play it because the combo on turn
3 usually means GG in a deck without bounce.
In casual, more life gain cards are used, like
that wall in Coldsnap with cumulative upkeep
your oppoent gains 1 life.
In limited, your opponent is not likely to gian
life so this is pretty much a Grizzly Bear with
trample, and that's a late pick.
