I remember when it was easy to determine when
something was card advantage and when it wasn't.
Ancestral Recall is easy; Wheel of Fortune when
you have no cards in hand and your opponent has
five is even easier (and also pretty disgusting,
if you think about the math). The exploit
mechanic is hard. I'm being encouraged, you
might say, to lose a creature just to get this
guy? And in return I get some kind of effect
that may be worth a card, but could put me
behind on the table?
And then, you get to Rakshasa Gravecaller, and
you realize that he can help you go wide with
lots of tokens, ones from a relevant tribe, and
then once you're in a good mood about that you
start thinking about creatures like Rotting Rats
that don't mind dying, and you look at his stats
and realize there are five-mana creatures - even
some in green - that can't get past him
reasonably. And you start wondering about other
exploit cards, and perhaps wondering if there's
more to Magic's various advantages than just
pure math.
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
a a five mana Grave Titan, well it does a good
impersonation. For five mana you get a 3/6 body
which is sizable, the secondary ability is
Exploit allowing you to sacrifice a creature and
if you do you get two 2/2 zombies onto the
battlefield. The goal is to have a creature that
it is profitable to sacrifice in order to get
the maximum amount of power from this card as
paying five mana for two zombies is not as
efficient. In standard this card is interesting
it has the large upside of flooding the board
with bodies the downside is it requires five
mana and is conditionally good, I don't expect
to see this card seeing as much play as Grave
Titan however it has potential which could
result in sporadic play. In modern and vintage
and legacy this card is blatantly unplayable due
to its mana cost and minimal effect. In casual
and multiplayer this card is quite powerful in
zombie decks as it brings more bodies and any
deck looking to sacrifice creatures for profit
can make good use of this cool cat. In limited
its a very powerful card the amount of power and
toughness for its mana cost is an amazing ratio
with a minimal drawback. Overall a card better
suited to limited games and kitchen tables
however it has some competative potential.
Today's card of the day is Rakshasa Gravecaller
which is a five mana Black 3/6 with an Exploit
option that puts two 2/2 black zombie tokens
into play. This is very solid when
Exploiting other comes into play effect
creatures or an otherwise weak in the middle
game one or two mana 1/1. The mana cost of
five is reasonable for what you get, though is a
bit high for anything competitive so it will
mainly see play in Casual, Commander, or
Multiplayer. The types aren't heavily
supported either, so overall it is a decent card
that just misses being a serious threat.
In Limited this is a great early pick in Booster
as it potentially puts seven power into play on
three bodies, even with the sacrifice this is a
notable improvement in most situations.
The single Black allows it to be included with
other splashed cards in a multicolor Sealed deck
and there is little drawback to including it
whenever Black is already in the build.
So, basically what you’re doing here is paying 5
mana and sacrificing your weakest creature to
get a 3/6 and two 2/2’s. That’s 7/10 of
creatures, which is a pretty good deal…IF you
have a suitable weak creature to sacrifice…WHICH
means you are running weak creatures you don’t
mind sacrificing. If you don’t have something
you can or want to sacrifice, his usefulness
goes WAY down. a 3/6 for 5 mana is not something
you want to be playing, except maybe in a
defensive limited deck, and 5 mana just for two
2/2’s (if he exploits himself) isn’t any better.
The potential upside is high, and it could be
really good in sealed, but the conditions to
make him good keep this guy in the fairly
unexciting range.
