Yesterday I said that Hordeling Outburst wasn't
very good because 1/1's individually aren't very
impressive. Today I'm telling you that Hornet
Queen is a very good card indeed. Why? First,
Hornet Queen's 1/1's have flying. That means
they can attack and are much more likely to
actually get through for damage. They also are
able to block a wider variety of creatures.
Second, Hornet Queen's 1/1's have deathtouch.
That means that if and when you use them to
block a creature, you will kill the creature you
block, while Hordeling Outburst's 1/1's can't
trade with anything bigger than a Squire without
help. If each of Hordeling Outburst's tokens die
chump blocking something they can't kill, you'll
just bought yourself some time, but your
opponent still has the creature trying to kill
you and you have nothing left to show for your
Hordeling Outburst. Hornet Queen's tokens always
trade with something. Third, Hornet Queen is six
power's worth of flying creatures in GREEN, a
color known for being all-but-bereft of flyers.
While the rest of your army holds the ground,
Hornet Queen's swarm can sneak in for lethal,
possibly aided by a fistful of Giant Growth and
the like.
Hornet Queen is, in many ways, the ideal card
for the elusive but always slightly plausible
green control deck. If you see it as a swarm of
evasive tokens, it's a good finisher. If you see
it as a way to kill huge numbers of much larger
attackers, that's something every control deck
needs. And since you're in green, its high and
specific mana cost shouldn't be a problem (even
before you factor in dual lands and such).
It's also good to see Hornet Queen in a core set
- regardless of where they settle regarding the
color pie arguments about the card, at least
it'll always have a place in the record books as
a significant card from the second-to-last core
set ever printed. My own position on said
arguments is very simple: there's a little set
that popularized this game, and kickstarted not
only Magic the phenomenon but the trading card
game as a concept, without having a rigid,
mechanically-defined color pie. It was called
Alpha, and there's a reason why stores advertise
its singles as "the most elite cards".
Today's card of the day is Hornet Queen which
is a seven mana Green 2/2 with Flying,
Deathtouch, and when it comes into play you get
four 1/1 tokens with Flying and Deathtouch.
The mana cost is a little high even with
acceleration, so this is very unlikely to see
any competitive play. Five creatures with
six power and toughness, evasion, and Deathtouch
is a solid offensive or defensive play in Casual
or Multiplayer and may even see a slot in
Commander decks.
In Limited this is high cost, requires half the
deck to be Green, and only produces low power
and toughness creatures. However, with
minimal mass removal available this is a major
threat that can easily win games and is an
amazing topdeck that can stall for a very long
time. A great first pick in Booster even
if it solidly locks you into Green and if the
pool can support enough Green cards in Sealed
this is an easy inclusion there as well.
This was another card that caught me off guard a
little bit. I initially wrote it off as another
fancy, overpriced piece of junk, but after
seeing it played a few times, I realized it has
a lot of things going for it. Having five flying
deathtouchers is something that a lot of decks
can't deal with. You can either keep them up as
very intimidating and effective blockers, or fly
over for some incremental damage. If the
opponent doesn't have something that deals with
lots of little creatures like Bile Blight or
Anger of the Gods, it's probably going to turn
into a big swing in your favor, whether it be in
damage or cards it causes them to use to get rid
of your hornets one at a time.
Of course, none of this happens until you get to
seven mana. Fortunately, it's in the right color
to get to 7 mana fairly reliably. And right now,
green decks like the triple green casting cost
for devotion, allowing Nykthos to cast even
bigger things, or a god to come online.
It's not for every deck, but if you can cast it,
it can be the splashy, game-changing effect you
expect from a seven mana spell.
