At first blush, it looks like you need a
creature with 4 power for this to be better than
Overrun. But remember, Overrun costs 2GGG while
this costs 3GG, so really this would be better
than Overrun even if your biggest guy has only 3
power. And with Garruk's Companion, that's easy
to do. Really the artwork says it all-- as long
as you have one big creature, every last little
Elf you've got becomes a threat. And moreso,
Overwhelming Stampede can be every bit worth it
even if you only have one or two creatures, if
one of them is big enough. While Overrun thrives
on lots of creatures, and thus encourages you to
walk right into an opponent's Day of Judgment,
Overwhelming Stampede looks pretty good even on
a single Primeval Titan or Gaea's Vengeance.
Overrun is a hard act to follow for anything,
any card. About the only way you can is by doing
what Overwhelming Stampede does: take a fairly
straightforward effect and make it slightly
more abusable (see: Gaea's Anthem) and much more
potentially hilarious (see: Mossbridge Troll). I
expect this card to be a big hit at kitchen
tables and FNM, and maybe points beyond.
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day:
Overwhelming Stampede
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
our new Overrun, a more conditional one that
pumps based on your strongest creature. For the
most part players used Overrun to pump weenies
this card unfortunately is lackluster for that
effect making it worse then Overrun, if
you have creatures with high power you should be
playing creatures with built in evasion not
overcommiting to the board to make this card
more efficient. In standard I don't see this
card seeing play as long as there are cards like
Eldrazi Monument still playable, it just doesn't
do enough for the cost. In extended and eternal
we have Overrun over this for most builds if a a
card such as this is needed, I don't suspect it
getting a lot of support. In casual and
multiplayer this card could find a real home,
combine this with cards such as Joraga Warcaller
or hell other lords and alpha strike. In limited
it could be a good finisher in a creature heavy
deck I am not sure how it will pan out. Overall
an interesting take on Overrun but I fee lit
lacks the power most players played Overrun for
a weenie rush.
Today's card of the day is Overwhelming
Stampede which is fairly appropriate as today
happens to be the launch day of StarCraft II
known for just such a tactic used by the Zerg.
Overwhelming Stampede is the 2011 replacement of
Overrun with the same converted mana cost with
one less Green mana symbol and a shift from
uncommon to rare status. In addition the
static +3/+3 is now changed to +X/+X which is
equal to the greatest power among creatures you
control. If the battlefield holds no
creature with a power of three or higher than
this is worse than Overrun, otherwise this can
be better and an even more dramatic finishing
move with the huge creatures Green has access
to. Cards like Giant Growth can be played
before this to end the game quickly, so the
strategy is a bit more in depth than it may have
been with Overrun.
While not as flexible as the original the new
edition is potentially more powerful which
should keep it in Standard decks and even taking
the position away from Overrun in some of the
Extended builds.
For Limited the change in rarity will mean fewer
showing up in the format, but the power level
remains hard to match and the change to two
Green mana symbols makes it easier to manage in
the multicolor decks which are common in limited
formats. Having a larger creature out is a
bit more common than in the constructed formats,
but having a swarm is less common which will
often make this even better than Overrun was and
further justifying the change in rarity.
This is a fairly easy first pick in Booster and
a likely inclusion in Sealed due to the ease of
using Green as a baseline or splash color.
This could be fun in Mana Ramp decks. Could be
fun outside of those too I suppose. I still
prefer Overrun if I had to pick, but you can go
either way. The price is decent for the effect
and considering that even having a 3/3 creature
and choosing to beef based on him is decent as
well. We'll see in the next week fews how this
one plays out... my bet is that it stays low.
Might be gamebreaking in Draft/Sealed.
