Six power and haste is a freight train that
comes out of nowhere. This one hurts all the
more for being an Act of Treason effect
alongside it-- you gain two extra attackers and
your victim is down a blocker. This card
seriously disrupts your opponent's combat math--
no doubt any good opponent takes a moment each
turn to determine how many creatures he can
safely attack with versus how many he needs to
leave back to block. Act of Treason and effects
like this prove that math false, and even though
it only lasts for a turn (and with 4 toughness,
the Primordial itself may or may not last
longer) it can be a devastating blow.
Of course, the real gold here is if you can
combo it with an effect that lets you sacrifice
creatures-- preferably with no additional mana
cost. Stealing their blocker, attacking them
with it, then sacrificing it so that you get
some additional benefit and they don't get it
back, is a perfect storm of insult and injury.
The fact that you get to steal one creature from
each opponent in a multiplayer game adds to the
politics of it. You're not likely to attack each
opponent with their own creature, more likely
you'll swing them all at one player. Depending
on blocks, some opponents may not be harmed at
all by this while others may be taken out of the
game altogether. It's a very hard effect to
"distribute evenly", so you'd better be prepared
to declare all-out war on somebody when you cast
this.
There was a time when card design didn't
explicitly take multiplayer into account - the
default was for spells and abilities to have one
target, and cards were generally not "aware"
that you could have more than one opponent. Now,
of course, things are very different, and cards
like Molten Primordial are, if anything,
somewhat common. Interestingly, I've heard that
this shift hasn't been universally popular among
multiplayers; some have argued that cards that
are "pushed" for multiplayer are not actually as
beneficial as "normal" cards that can be used in
multiplayer games. Others, though, are sure to
welcome the kind of havoc that a card like
Molten Primordial can wreak (ie. the extensive
kind), and the fact that it gets far, far better
as you add opponents and those opponents become
more stereotypically EDH-ish (ie. lots of huge
creatures with triggered abilities and such).
While I think this is probably the weakest of
the Primordials in duels, it's always funny to
kill people with their own cards, and it
certainly helps you recover if your opponent's
recently hit you with his own Primordial.
Today's card of the day is Molten Primordial
which is a seven mana Red
6/4 with Haste with the comes into play ability
that gains control of one of each opponent's
creatures until end of turn. Seven mana for a
6/4 with Haste isn't bad, though in Red cards
like that are usually dragons and this having
neither Flying, Trample, or any other multiple
turn benefit reduces the value considerably.
What it does have is excellent potential for
blowing out a single opponent in one turn,
primarily in Multiplayer games, by having a mass
Act of Treason effect. Overall this isn't
really strong enough for Constructed one-on-one
games for the mana cost, though it has just
enough power to be appealing in Multiplayer.
In Limited this isn't bad for the price with
Haste, a 6/4 body, and adding one of your
opponent's creatures for what should be a
decisive alpha strike. The mana cost isn't
unreasonable in the format and aside from
maintaining a low mana curve there is little
reason not to include this in Sealed builds
using Red mana. In Booster this isn't the
most powerful rare, but it can win games or do
severe damage and is a viable first pick.
Welcome to another great
card of the day review here at Pojo.com! Today
we are looking at Molten Primordial from
Gatecrash! Molten Primordial is a rare red
creature avatar that costs five generic and two
red mana for a 6/4. Molten Primordial has Haste
and says whenever it enters the battlefield, for
each opponent, gain control of one target
creature that player controls until end of turn,
untap it, and it gains haste until the end of
turn.
We have already discussed that the Primordials are great
multiplayer cards, IF you can get the mana to
successfully cast them. However, I feel that in
honesty, Molten Primordial could well be one of
the better suited Primordials for a regular 1v1
game. When combined with things like Battalion,
you instantly have the requirements for it so
long as you controlled at least one creature
prior to dropping the Molten Primordial. And
since you choose which creature to take,
situational circumstances will dictate the best
one to take. Take the only blocker and get in
for a decent amount, or take their biggest and
force choices to be made. Either way, could be a
definite game changer. And let's hope that after
smashing your opponent with their own creature,
you have some way of not allowing them to gain
it back, say, a Cartel Aristocrat for example.
This is actually a quite nice Primordial.
In an aggressive deck it might simply be the
card you need to finish off an opponent.
It's bomb in limited and might move you over
into red. Casual players will like it.
Multiplayer players will love it. Even
constructed I think will see a dose of this guy.
Like all primordials I don't like the cost, but
I think this is a good way to win when you might
have sputtered out a little bit. Combine
it with a way to get rid of your opponents'
creatures once you're done with them and it's
doubly effective
