I'm sure I've reviewed this card before. Or at
least, I strongly considered buying a playset
and running them in a monored aggro deck
alongside Titan's Strength, Foundry Street
Denizen, Akroan Crusader, and a slew of cheap
burn. The fact that I included Mugging as one of
my burn spells probably indicates that I don't
know how to build Sligh decks. I'd have to
re-think it now anyway, since Ravnica has
rotated out, but it could have been cool. I
wonder what Tarkir has that coudl replace my
Five-Alarm Fire...?
Common sense (and an apocryphal story about Dave
Price) would tell you that any creature that
attacks for two damage is objectively good.
Common sense, as Voltaire said, is not so
common. Considering the sorts of creatures we
see nowadays, it's hard to imagine they thought
a Firebreathing ability needed to be balanced by
dealing extra damage to the controller; and it's
not like creatures from the middle of the mana
curve look the slightest bit unattractive
nowadays. Either way, this card asks the
fundamental question that's been around since
Orcish Artillery: over the course of a game,
does it get your opponent to zero faster than it
gets you there? With the sorts of blockers
you're likely to see in the three- and four-mana
range in recent sets, the answer is often no.
Much as it pains me to say it, a lot of cards
that are objectively good don't see much play.
Today's card of the day is Firedrinker Satyr
which is a one mana Red 2/1 that whenever it is
dealt damage it deals that much damage to you
and for two mana it gets +1/+0 until end of turn
and deals one damage to you. There many
other options for Red that are less of a
potential drawback then the damage this will
deal to you, even if the boost can be beneficial
in many situations or the damage redirected or
prevented. It is a little too
self-destructive to be reliable, particularly
the +1/+0 for one damage being best against
creatures as it is a one for one and two mana
trade in direct damage. Overall a
technically solid card that probably won't see
much play as other cards can fulfill a similar
role without the additional damage.
In Limited this is a strong early game threat
that can be a dead weight to draw later if life
points are dropping. Best supported with
some kind of life gain, which can make for an
inefficient build depending on the cards
available. In Booster it is a very
aggressive first pick that can backfire while in
Sealed it can be included if Red is being used
anyway, though the risk has to be accounted for
in the design. Either a very aggressive
low cost build or using Black, Green, or White
to build up extra life as a safety net.
The Firedrinker fits the aggressive all-out red
strategy very well. Whether you are mainly
playing burn or dropping small creatures and
swinging away, he gets damage in there very
efficiently. Unfortunatley, he's not very
discriminate about where the damage goes. If
your deck is fast enough, you don't really mind
taking some damage - as long as your opponent is
taking it fast enough.
The idea is sound, but I can't say I've ever
been overly fond of this satyr. Red burn decks
don't usually have extra mana to pump into his
ability, so I don't know how often you'll get to
do that. I'd rather play another burn spell
instead.
He's even worse in limited. The chance of being
able to have a fast enough deck to make use of
him is slim. In multiplayer, there's just too
many ways for people to take him out that his
drawback is much worse and his potential upside
much smaller.
