This is an Inspired card that's really only
Inspired to do one thing: attack. A true green
card, I suppose. I do like the fact that this
slowly scales itself up to match the kinds of
creatures that you'd expect to see at that phase
of the game, but here's the thing-- it hits the
board turn four, swings for three turn five, and
then untaps turn six to become a 4/4. Inspired
takes two turns to get rolling under normal
circumstances, so the Tromper isn't really
keeping pace. I'd like him a whole lot more if
he had trample, or better yet, haste. Even "1G:
Regenerate" would have made him a whole lot more
threatening, as it would severely limit your
opponent's ability to just kill it and would
give it a defensive option.
That said, he's decent at his one job in
Limited. If your opponent can't block and kill
the 3/3, then he isn't likely to be able to deal
with the 4/4 that swings next turn, or the 5/5,
or so on. Your opponent really has to have an
answer for this guy fast, because he just gets
harder and harder to kill and his clock keeps
speeding up. Tromper is therefore an
"all-or-nothing" card-- either he's amazing and
puts the game away in short order because your
opponent didn't have an answer at the right
time, or he dies almost immediately, or he sees
a board state he can't profitably attack into
and just sits there until it's time to go out
like a chump.
You can see this creature as one that grows
at a pretty decent rate - although most of the
time, it will need to do so by surviving combat,
and as a 3/3 with no other abilities, that's not
necessarily a given. Even so, I'd recommend at
least considering the Tromper for certain kinds
of casual decks - if you have an interaction of
some kind that allows it to repeatedly tap and
untap in the same turn, it can operate as a
finisher of sorts.
Today's card of the day is Pheres-Band Tromper
which is a four mana Green 3/3 with Inspired
that gives it a +1/+1 counter whenever it
becomes untapped. While this can get fairly big
and there are ways to get extra untap and tap
effects to speed it up, Green has many other
creature options that can do more for the same
cost or less. An unsupported Tromper takes three
whole turns to surpass a simple Rumbling Baloth
as a 4/4 for four at as a common, let alone
comparing it to a rare like Deadbridge Goliath.
Currently the Inspired mechanic and working
extra untaps have little support in Green with
Burst of Strength and Savage Surge being the
primary ones. Other creatures offer more synergy
at that point of the mana curve and overall
there is little to no reason to include this
card in any deck, competitive or otherwise.
In Limited a four mana 3/3 that gets larger
after every turn it attacks is quite playable
and with only a single Green in the casting cost
is an easy inclusion for any deck using Green in
Sealed or as a second or third pick in Booster.
There's no drawback here and the reduced number
of options leaves this as a serious threat in
the format. It doesn't take long, even if
blocked, for this to become very difficult to
deal with and can potentially win games.
Pheres-Band Tromper sounds like a strange
musical instrument. It is not a musical
instrument, but Pheres-Band Tromper is a great
Limited card. I honestly like the new “Inspire”
ability that was brought to us by Born of the
Gods. Inspire rewards players for doing what
they’ve always done with creatures, tap or
attack with them! Standard play is now being
flooded with combat tricks and creature removal.
This is both good and bad for cards like Pheres-Band
Tromper. I like this card because of its cool
name, but it is just a Draft card at best.
