Three mana for a 1/1 with Devour 3. That's all.
No combat abilities like trample or haste. No
way to protect itself or anything. It's just a
big creature. And it plays well into red's
philosophy, of "damn the consequences, I'm
getting what I want now". Sack one creature, and
it's a three-mana 4/4. Not bad. Sack two, and
it's a 7/7 that you can get on turn three. That
can really blow away an opponent who isn't ready
for it. And remember, this existed in the same
block as Dragon Fodder, a two-mana sorcery that
puts two Goblin tokens into play. So a
turn-three 7/7 wasn't as hard to pull off as you
think.
The problem is, it opens you up for a very bad
moment when your opponent has a kill spell. You
just wasted two or three cards to get that 7/7,
and your opponent spent one killing it. And for
a creature that doesn't even have trample,
nobody at the time was really willing to
sacrifice creatures just to get one big vanilla
creature. Yes, it could wreck an opponent caught
off guard, but you never know if your opponent
is off guard, and the attempt will cost you a
few creatures, so you're either setting yourself
back on available blockers, or you were already
pretty much winning.
When the devour ability first came out, some
players were wary of it, thinking it looked like
putting all their eggs in one basket and losing
card advantage. Personally, I think Magic is a
lot more fun when it doesn't turn into a
card-counting contest, and as such, I think
devour is a perfectly fine ability, and
Thunder-Thrash Elder is one of the most powerful
creatures in that category. In the right deck,
you can have three or four creatures in play by
the time you can cast this card, and it enters
as an outlandishly sized threat. It also gives
you the option of trading in early creatures for
something that's more relevant - often
dragon-sized - in the late game, which is a
problem that red decks sometimes have.
Today's card of the day is Thunder-Thrash Elder
which is a three mana Red 1/1 with Devour three,
allowing for a three mana 4/4 with one
sacrifice, or a 7/7 with two, and so on.
Even at one sacrifice this is fairly efficient,
but it really shines with two or more and in the
early stages of a game. Barring removal,
which can be addressed with support, there
should be little an opponent can do against a
third turn 7/7 or 10/10 using turn one and two
for single mana creatures. That potential
makes this a solid, if risky card, and
aggressive Red decks can benefit greatly from
working the theme into compatible builds.
For Limited the same holds true, but getting the
one cost creatures or this on the third turn is
far less likely. It does benefit from the
lowered supply of removal and can be a finisher
even in the later stages of the game. The
single Red in the mana cost allows for easy use
in multicolor decks and it is a strong second or
third pick in Booster. In Sealed this
should be included when playing Red and can be
supported by whichever other color has the
largest number of low cost or token creatures in
your pool, though that is a fairly solid
strategy in general.
Welcome to
the Pojo.com card of the day section. Today we
are looking at Thunder Thrash Elder from Shards
of Alara. Thunder Thrash Elder is an uncommon
red creature viashino warrior that costs two
generic and one red mana. Thunder Thrash is a
1/1 that has Devour 3.
Thunder Thrash Elder will go down as my favorite
creature perhaps ever, I know, it is only an
uncommon, but it is my favorite creature to
date. For one, Viashino is my all time favorite
creature type. I have several decks where the
Viashino are the main type. One of my best
decks, and my favorite deck is comprised of
utilizing the Thunder Thrash Elder. That also
means that Shards of Alara will go down as one
of my favorite blocks, because it made the deck
what it is. The card itself is amazing, Devour 3
means as Thunder Thrash Elder enters the
battlefield, you can devour any number of
creatures. For each creature Devoured, Thunder
Thrash Elder gets 3 +1/+1 counters. The way I
utilize it is that I on second turn I play
Dragon Fodder, also from Shards of Alara. Third
turn, lay the Tuhnder Thrash Elder, devour the
two tokens, Tuhnder Thrash Elder would then be a
7/7. Usually fourth turn would be attack and
then Soul’s Fire, or Fatal Frenzy and then
attack. Either way, it is a decent amount of
damage if things go according to plan. Sometime
I am luck enough that I can also turn one a
Goblin Arsonist, making Thunder Thrash Elder a
10/10 and dealing one damage to my opponent for
the Goblin Arsonist dying. Which also then means
that a Fatal Frenzy is often indeed fatal.
With the newer Morbid based abilities, the
Thunder Thrash Elder has so much more meaning
and uses then even in the Shards of Alara block.
Devour to have other abilities go off, or even
to further up the Thunder Thrash Elder.
