For four mana, you usually want bigger than a
2/2. Sure, infect effectively means double
damage to players and significantly improved
damage against creatures, but it's still a
little weak. But fortunately, Core Prowler also
has a death trigger. If you've managed to put a
poison counter on your opponent, then when Core
Prowler swings your opponent has no out. Take
the two counters, block and your creature
shrinks, or kill it, and get any poison or -1/-1
counters already accrued proliferated? This is
definitely a creature to swing in with early and
often.
Core Prowler is another important piece in the
puzzle that is the infect deck - how many
aggressive strategies down the years have had
the benefit of a creature that killed the
opponent if it survived and also killed them if
it died? Sure, elves have had cards that let you
cast every creature in your deck in one turn,
and slivers have done like every other ability
that currently exists, but this is almost
through the looking glass here. It's pretty easy
to tell that Wizards of the Coast's developers
wanted infect to be a strong strategy, and it
looks like it might end up as exactly that.
Today's card of the day is Core Prowler which
is a four mana 2/2 with Infect that will
Proliferate when sent to the graveyard.
This is not a bad card, but Infect has many
other options to go with that are more
aggressive and are unlikely to work this into
most decks. If Proliferate is part of the
theme this becomes a prime candidate as it has
both effects in a single card. Overall it
is playable, but at four mana most Infect builds
can bring more to the table for the same or a
lower cost.
In Limited where you are more likely to have an
assortment of effects and counters on both sides
of the field this is a bargain and well worth
playing. A solid pick in Booster after the
first few choices and a good fit in Sealed if
your pool includes any other Infect or counter
production.
Welcome once again to Pojo.com’s
Card of the Day. Today we look at the Core
Prowler from Mirrodin Besieged. The Core Prowler
costs 4 generic mana and is a 2/2 with infect
and when it is put into a graveyard from the
battlefield, proliferate. In my personal
opinion, this guy is way underutilized.
Let’s first talk about its applications in Standard. Attack
with it, hopefully hit your opponent, and equip
it with the Mortarpod, sacrifice it, pinging for
an additional poison counter, and then you get
to proliferate. That could be 4 poison counters
off of this one creature alone. Not to say that
perhaps you have other creatures with infect
that you could then sacrifice to the Mortarpod,
perhaps dealing the finishing blow. And what’s
better, you could add in additional -1/-1
counters, which is especially handy when having
deployed a Contagion Engine. Not to mention that
any Planeswalkers benefit from additional
loyalty counters. Charge counters go up on any
artifacts you control. The possibilities are
endless. And that is just from Mortarpoding it.
If used as a blocker, it can be just as
devastating. Block something bothersome, and
then give it a total of 3 -1/-1 counters just
from the Core Prowler.
In vintage, you could really have a good time. Fatal Frenzy,
Soul’s Fire has long been one of my favorite
combos, and with infect, it only gets better.
Imagine if you will, the Core Prowler in a red
deck. I know, hard to believe since infect has
very little influence in red, but with the
backing of artifact creature with infect, it is
possible, trust me. So, anyways, red deck,
vintage, Core Prowler + Fatal Frenzy + Soul’s
Fire + Fling = 9 Poison counter WITHOUT
attacking. Attack first, and get the hit in, and
then it is just fire away. And all for the
affordable price of 8 mana. Yes, these days 8
mana is cheap. That is 4 lands and four Myr,
anyone can do that.
Like I said, most people wouldn’t look twice at this guy, but
maybe you should…
