Did you notice that there are more cards of this
type in recent sets compared to ones like
Rampant Growth or Farseek? It's true that
shuffling your library all the time can be a
pain, and there are also a number of ways for
unscrupulous players to take advantage of having
an excuse to touch their library. (There should
really be a rule about touching your library
when you don't have a card that tells you to.)
In any event, Courser of Kruphix is pretty good
at giving you extra lands, or at least should be
in the right deck. It's not quite as much of an
accelerant as some previous similar cards, but
the life bonus can be relevant in certain
situations; and of course, you can combine it
with other extra land cards for even more of
both.
Today's card of the day is Courser of Kruphix
which is a three mana Green 2/4 enchantment
creature that has you play with the top card of
your library revealed, allows you to play the
top card if it is a land, and whenever a land
enters the battlefield under your control you
gain one life. The final effect is pretty
trivial outside of a combination with effects
that trigger from gaining life and the first
clause is often as much a benefit to your
opponent as it is to you. The ability to
play a land when it is on top of your library is
beneficial even if you have a land in hand and
at the cost of three mana for a solid 2/4 it is
a strong addition to a Green acceleration build.
Overall it isn't a great deal of raw power, but
adds some library management to Green attached
to a fairly durable body which should make it
relatively popular for certain builds.
In Limited the double Green is a drawback, but
the added benefit of some library control
alongside the four toughness body overcomes that
enough to make it a valuable addition. A
reasonable if unremarkable first pick in Booster
that works well enough in Sealed when playing
predominantly Green.
Courser of Kruphix can help your deck play the
land that it needs… Is showing opponents your
next card a big drawback? I guess that depends
on if you care. I personally don’t like letting
my opponents see my next card, because it could
help them way more than it could help me. I
really like getting a chance to play a land from
the top-deck but how often will you really get
to do this? Think about it. You can’t use
Courser of Kruphix to play an “extra” land. So,
you are hoping that this card helps you get
lands when you need them. There are plenty of
green cards out there that can help you get
lands. Maybe if Courser of Kruphix had some sort
of Scry ability, then I could see an actual land
advantage. I’m sure that this creature is great
in Limited play, but unless a I missed something
Courser of Kruphix is a Casual card at best.
