Is the +3/+3 worth costing a mana more than ol'
Hyppie, and losing the random part of the
discard so your opponent can choose what he or
she wants to pitch? I think so. Hyppie's biggest
problem has traditionally been that once your
opponent plays out his or her hand, it's just a
2/2 flyer. Hardly worth the price of admission.
Guul Draz Specter here solves that-- once your
opponent is out of cards in hand, it becomes a
Dragon-sized beatstick. Your opponent will be
desperate to hold cards in hand, only to have to
pitch them to the Specter!
I remember Entropic Specter from way back in
Exodus, and how even though he was good, you
still sometimes felt a little bad even when you
were attacking your opponent because your cool
Specter got weaker. Guul Draz Specter, by
contrast, is all upside, punishing your opponent
both for not blocking him and for trying to play
their hand out faster than him. He may not be
what competitive play is looking for right now,
but he can still do a lot of damage. And you'd
be surprised how often people end up with no
cards in their hand in limited matches!
Constucted:
Another Specter. Dark Ritual cannot get it into
play on the first turn.
Casual & Multiplayer:
Well if someone in your muliplayer game has no
cards, this dude is bigger.
Limited:
It flies. There are a few uncommons and maybe a
common or two that I would pick over this card.
But it fly so I might hate draft it if I was not
into black.
Overall it is just another Specter that can get
bigger.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Multiplayer: 3
Limited: 3
Later
Miguel
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno
Today's card of the day is Guul Draz Specter the
latest in a long line
of Flying hand destroying specters. In fact
there are seventeen
different specter cards in Magic and all save
one involve some kind of
reduction to your opponent's hand size, just
ignore the black sheep of
the family Dread Specter. Having used this
concept so many times it can
be difficult to fairly judge newer additions to
the theme. Hypnotic
Specter and Sedraxis Specter are both still
standard legal and can be
played earlier in the game, provided the right
mana is available of course.
In Constructed, Casual, and Multiplayer I feel
better options exist as
keeping an opponent at a single card is a
difficult prospect to maintain
for any long period of time and the act of
discarding to this effect
would be before any increase in power. Whenever
the opponent has even a
single card in hand this is a strictly worse
Hypnotic Specter and there
is little reason to run this card instead.
For Limited this specter isn't as bad as the
other formats and the
possibility of your opponent running at no cards
in is a bit more
likely. Playing any other cards that support a
discard theme can assist
in the potential 5/5 Flying threat, but it is
still uncommon and by
being a frequent target of removal rarely seen.
I don't see this as a
first pick in Booster as the cost is a bit high
for a 2/2 Flying and
locks you into a difficult draft color, but if
running Black already
this is a decent addition to the aerial offense.
In Sealed it depends
entirely on the rest of your pool, but aside
from an unlikely hand
destroying theme this is likely to be just an
overpriced 2/2 in the air.
