Yasova is aggro pure and simple. Four power on
Turn Three not only means hitting hard, it also
means triggering Ferocity. And trample means
that Yasova absorbs pump effects with stupefying
efficiency. The ability, meanwhile, steals away
potential blockers to add to your army of
beatface delivery. My only concern is that two
toughness. Yasova's not that hard to deal with,
so you may end up not getting the full potential
out of the card, but if your opponent doesn't
have an answer, you're going to take a major
chunk out of his life total pretty darn quick.
I tend to play a lot of midrange-style decks in
every format, and I really like how all of
Yasova's abilities work against that most hated
enemy of midrange - the chump blocker. It's
tempting to try and figure out a way to make
them work against Titans, Eldrazi, and other
people's commanders in the late game, but it's
easy to forget, in the midst of all that, that
Yasova is still a four-power trample creature.
Sometimes the shortest route really is a
straight line.
Today's card of the day is Yasova Dragonclaw
which is a three mana Green
4/2 Legendary with Trample and at the beginning
of combat on your turn you can pay two Blue or
Red and one additional mana to Act of Treason an
opposing creature with power less than Yasova's.
This is an excellent creature both as a high
power threat for a low mana cost and also for
the reusable effect. The low toughness is
a bit of a concern, but that can be overcome
with other cards such as Hero's Blade which also
powers up the control effect. Overall this
is a very strong offensive card for Green/Blue
or Green/Red and is likely to see frequent play
in those builds.
In Limited this is a three mana 4/2 with Trample
which alone is enough to be an automatic
inclusion in any Green design for Sealed. For
Booster this is a solid first choice as a
standalone threat that gives some flexibility
with later choices of either Blue or Red to make
use of the powerful control effect.
Every set seems to have one rare that keeps
coming up in the packs I open, and Yasova is the
one for Fate Reforged. Even so, I have not
really had the opportunity to play her. Her
abilities give her an interesting range of
options.
A 4/2 trample is a creature that wants to do
some quick damage, but is not likely to survive
combat, but that's not the ability you'd
probably play her for. The ability to steal one
of your opponents' creatures each turn is why
you would use this. Maybe you steal away their
biggest blocker so Yasova can get through
unharmed. Maybe you pump Yasova's power so you
can steal their huge creature. Maybe you just
steal their creature just so you can sacrifice
it to some other effect. There's lots of
potential here, and I'm honestly quite not sure
what to make of it yet. I'm leaning towards
Yasova being a little too fragile and mana
intensive to be truly great, but I'm going to
keep her in the "maybe" box for now.
