Apparently the second half of this week was "red
aggro week" for some reason. This little beauty
is a 3/2 on offense and a 1/2 on defense.
Simple, but powerful. A definite consideration
for any red deck that wants its opponent dead on
Turn Four if not sooner.
This is arguably one of the best-designed red
creatures I've seen recently: giving everything
on offense and not so much on defense. It
doesn't quite beat Kiln Fiend in my book,
because Kiln Fiend demonstrates the fundamental,
sometimes overlooked truth that red is actually
a color about spells rather than creatures; but
there are few better ways to encourage attack.
It's difficult to know exactly how many
people will take the Marauder up on that,
though. Personally, I've never been of the
school that everything you play has to be
something ridiculous, and I advocate at least
trying out a deck based on Magic fundamentals in
any setting; and what's more fundamental than a
low-cost, high-power attacker?
Today's card of the day is Borderland Marauder
which is a two mana Red
1/2 that gains +2/+0 until end of turn whenever
it attacks. Aside from combining with multiple
attack cards like Relentless Assault or Aurelia
this is still a solid 3/2 on the attack for just
two mana. Overall this will see play in
aggro Red decks as an ahead of the curve threat
at the two mana slot.
In Limited this is an excellent common that can
potentially be used in multiples to apply a
great deal of pressure in the early stages of a
game. Even later on a 3/2 has some value
and this is an easy inclusion when running Red
in Sealed while in Booster this is a worthwhile
early pick, possibly as high as second or third
in a weak pack.
To round out our week with three aggressive
red creatures, the marauder provides a very
simple 3/2 body for a cheap price. What's that,
you say? She's only a 1/2, and only gets the
bonus on the attack? Well, what else were you
planning on doing with this lady? Hiring her as
a maid? Taking her out to dinner? Oh. Blocking.
Since when have aggro red decks cared about
something as trivial as that? No, this is a 3/2
for 2 as far as anyone is concerned. Simple, to
the point, and effective.
