Heroic can be a powerful ability, but this one
just doesn't live up to the promise. To trigger
the Crusader, you must target it with a spell
you cast. The trouble is, the Crusader itself is
a 1/1, and each spell you target it with gets
you one additional 1/1. Usually, you get the
best out of Heroic by sending it into battle and
using combat tricks on it, or by throwing Auras
on it to turn it into a fearsome beast. But
there are better options for those spells than a
1/1, and the tokens will lose their relevancy
pretty quick.
After a certain point, 1/1 tokens just don't do
anything unless you can crank them out en
masse, and the only way for Akroan Crusader
to do that is with copy effects like Elite
Arcanist or Isochron Scepter. And in both cases,
you're using the other piece of the combo for
far below its potential.
It's tempting to look at this card and say that
its controller is generally somewhat unlikely to
get a lot of tokens out of it in most red decks,
and therefore it's not much of a threat. That's
the sort of assessment that is going to cause
you to lose games to it. You're going to ignore
it until it's enchanted by Unflinching Courage
or Spearpoint Oread, or until it stalls your 3/3
with the aid of Gods Willing or kills it with
the aid of Thunder Strike, and the opponent's
side of the table is filled with tokens and
you're sure you have Supreme Verdict in your
deck somewhere and what do you mean they have
haste and the opponent also has a Soul Warden .
. . yeah. Try not to do that.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
an aggressive one drop that can create an entire
army if you dump some spells into it. This card
creates hasty tokens and they can soon overwhelm
opponents, but the grand question is, what makes
this card superior to cards such as Rakdos
Cackler as you need to invest more cards in
order to turn out an army rather than being just
a solid card by itself. This card is a build
around and the potential for cumulative
advantage can be powerful but does require some
dedication. In standard I can see this card
sliding nicely into red decks that have a heroic
theme and ways to abuse these triggers otherwise
there may be better choices. In modern and other
eternal formats this card is outclassed and not
worth investing effort into in most
circumstances. In casual and multiplayer this is
a solider giving it some relevant tribal support
and this card is much easier to build around and
churning out an aggressive army. In limited it’s
a staple in heroric decks running red and can
create overwhelming board presence in no time.
Overall a powerful card that does require some
effort but has a large potential payoff.
Today's card of the day is Akroan Crusader
which is a one mana 1/1 Red with Heroic that
whenever you cast a spell that targets it put a
1/1 soldier token with Haste into play.
This is a very solid card in a deck built to
utilize the effect as it generates card
advantage for minimal cost. Decks using
Red mana with combat tricks or auras have little
reason not to include this at the one mana level
of the curve as it offers useful early game
options and has no real drawbacks. The
types are heavily supported as well and overall
this is a card that is likely to see play in
most formats and at the higher competitive
levels as well.
In Limited this is an excellent common as both a
1/1 and for the ability as token generation is
almost always beneficial. The card
advantage and threat of 1/1 Haste tokens is
noticeable and this is a strong second or third
pick in most packs for Booster. In Sealed
there is no reason to not include this is in any
deck using Red mana as even with minimal spells
to target it, the 1/1 for one is still playable.
Try to think of every 1 drop Common creature in
Magic. Now try to think of one that is better
than Akroan Crusader! I’ll give you some time…
Seriously, this little guy may be the best
Common 1 drop ever created in MTG. (I hear a
War Falcon shriek from above!) Akroan
Crusader can give you two maybe three creatures
on turn 2. Those tokens can also attack! Yes,
I’ll play first! Think of the possible turn 2
damage. This little red guy has the potential to
be much faster than a Young Pyromancer. When
running Red, it never hurts to have a turn 2-3
kidney punch in your deck. There are plenty of
spells out there that can target Akroan
Crusader. Find your own and try to build an all
Common deck!!
