Once again, a 4/5 for four mana. But this one
doesn't have nearly as much resilience as the
Reaper did. All it really has going for it is
its monstrous trigger, which lets it upgrade
into a 7/8 and force everybody to sacrifice
three lands. If you can produce 5RR, you can
probably spare three lands, but maybe your
opponent can't? This might be interesting in a
ramp deck to hamstring an opponent's midgame
develoment, or sideboarded into a red midrange
deck against a slower deck. My biggest concern
is that from a combat stance, it's basically
nothing but a big vanilla creature. Nothing but
its toughness to keep it alive, so any slow
control deck should be able to kill it before it
makes them sack lands.
This card sends me on a flashback to the days
of Erhnageddon. If you don't know what that
portmanteau refers to, it's enough to know that
having a huge creature on the table while you
attack your opponent's manabase has always been
a winning strategy. It's true that by the time
you can make an Ember Swallower monstrous, your
opponent will probably be able to keep enough
lands to still cast spells, but it's hard to see
that as a disadvantage when they have four or so
lands on turn seven and you have a 7/8 creature.
And it's not like there's a bunch of sets in
Standard and Modern that're based on
multicolored decks and very specific color
requirements in mana costs . . . oh, wait.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
Ember Swallower a decent sized creature as a 4/5
for four mana is a decent sized body and the
ability to set each player back by three lands
and bumping it up to a 7/8 creature. In
standard this I don’t suspect will see much play
there is better things to spend your 11 total
mana on much more effective and powerful threats
for decks running red. In modern and eternal
formats the same concept applies to expensive
and not enough payback from making it monsterous
it could be possible to shut opponents out of
mana by getting it out early and activating it
but you could have a better game plan. In casual
and multiplayer its symmetrical land destruction
on a solid body and is an elemental it could see
some play but could make you a focal target. In
limited it’s a big body and combined with mana
accelerates or mana creatures it can shut
opponents down while you continue some mana
production. Overall a card that could see niche
constructed play but will mostly be relegated to
draft and casual.
Today's card of the day is Ember Swallower
which is a four mana Red 4/5 with Monstosity 3
for seven mana that also has each player
sacrifice three lands. Four mana for a 4/5
is strong for Red, though another effect to give
it Haste is recommended and likely to be part of
a build including this. Provided your own
deck has few or no cards with a higher casting
cost than four this effect has little drawback
for you and may slow an opponent down
dramatically. Overall this is a decent card for
Red, particularly in Multiplayer, and is likely
to see at least some play in competitive
settings.
For Limited the four mana 4/5 is playable, and
Monstrosity to make it
7/8 is both attainable and a serious increase to
survivability and the threat it generates.
The land sacrifice effect is hit or miss as you
may need additional mana for other effects like
Bestow and the opponent can have excess lands
available. The opposite can happen where
you have lower cost cards, certainly possible
with Red, and the opponent is either low on land
or building up to a bomb. If you have the
mana advantage the play can win games and for
that combined with the base efficiency of it
makes for a solid first pick in Booster and easy
inclusion for Sealed when running enough Red.
I’m going to try to keep reviews short and
sweet from now on. Ember Swallower is another
value creature for four mana. Being a 4/5 makes
Ember Swallower good on offense and defense. The
reason that Ember Swallower is a Rare is because
of its monstrous ability. (5)RR can turn this
hound into a 7/8 and force each player to
sacrifice 3 lands. This ability is great if you
can use it to your advantage. Now, YOU can be
that guy running land destruction in Standard… …
Do it!
