The only thing I can think of whenever I see any
card with the rush keyword is Rocket Powered
Turbo Slug. When Unglued came out, I was young
and innocent and never believed that I'd one day
be writing about how Rocket Powered Turbo Slug's
shadow loomed large over an expansion and indeed
an entire class of temporary creatures. But here
we are.
Sure, you have to pay mana for Flamerush Rider,
when super haste was historically completely
free. But it's absolutely worth paying - when
the least you get for him hitting the table is
six damage straight at the opponent out of
absolutely nowhere, and you can hit astronomical
figures with something like Grave Titan, that
cost might even start to feel cheap.
And you get 1,000 style points for copying
Rocket Powered Turbo Slug.
Today's card of the day is Flamerush Rider
which is a five mana Red 3/3 with Dash for four
and whenever it attacks put a token into play
tapped and attacking that is a copy of another
target attacking creature then exile the token
at the end of combat. This can be a very
powerful effect when combined with other
triggers during combat creatures, such as when
damaging an opponent. The four mana cost
for Dash is reasonable and will likely be used
often for attacks that can easily deal ten or
more damage when an opponent was expecting only
three. This will likely be a popular card
in current formats and Commander, but the higher
mana cost and need for other creatures will keep
it out of older competitive settings.
In Limited this is a strong first pick in
Booster that can dramatically change the tide of
a game when hitting the field with Dash to lead
an alpha strike. In Sealed the single Red
on the base cost can be easily splashed, though
the double Red for Dash is enough to promote
using more Red if the pool can support it.
This guy sounds like a combo deck waiting to
happen.
Can you imagine using this with a creature that
has a good enters-the-battlefield ability?
Hornet Queen, anyone? Fanatic of Mogis? Doomwake
Giant? There's lots of good possibilities.
Even if you just copy your biggest attacker,
that's quite an army for your opponent to deal
with. The biggest problem, of course, is that
the Rider himself is only a 3/3 and costs 5
mana. Is it worth it to pay 5 to hopefully have
it survive to attack next turn? Will it survive
combat to use its ability more than once? These
are all very good questions, and I think they
will make the Rider a little too risky to become
very popular.
