Did you know that the only one-cost two-power
legendary creatures are Kytheon, Isamaru, Zurgo
Bellstriker, and Norin the Wary? I found it kind
of cool that Kytheon is in such company, though
I almost hope they don't do it too often - it
feels more special somehow than a lot of the big
expensive effects!
I wouldn't be surprised if Kytheon was played
for his power-cost ratio alone - the two-power
one-drop may not be as relevant in Standard as
in years gone by, but its power can't be denied.
He also happens to be fairly easy to flip, too,
seeing as white likes to attack with creatures
of around this size anyway and a deck whose
creatures are around this cost is likely to have
the mana to make sure he survives. In
planeswalker form, he constitutes a cute but
rather less overbearing callback to his first
appearance in Zendikar, and is a solid finisher
for white decks based around cheap creatures -
and excuses them from having to cut some of
their two-power one-drops to include a midrange
plan B.
Today's card of the day is Kytheon, Hero of
Akros which is a one mana White 2/1 Legendary
which is already worth playing in human or
soldier themes and also has a three mana
Indestructible option. The transformation
requirement is easily obtainable with a few
creatures plus three mana as a safety net.
As Gideon, Battle-Forged has no loyalty lowering
abilities and he can become very difficult to
remove through combat alone. The +2 is
situational, but a way to stall out a smaller
threat or one with an effect that can trigger
from hitting a player and not a planeswalker.
The +1 is very useful with tap effect creatures
to get a second activation or for a large
offensive threat to give it pseudo Vigilance
with Indestructible added on. The 0 cost
of turning into a 4/4 with Indestructible is a
solid aggressive addition to soldier build and
has little drawback. Overall the one mana cost
with a solid creature and the planeswalker +1
and the 0 make this a great card that should be
popular across most formats and a likely staple
of soldier builds going forward.
In Limited this is a very easy first pick in
Booster as even the one mana 2/1 is quite
playable while the Indestructible 4/4 or extra
untap with Indestructible can be a serious
threat if enough creatures and mana can be
fielded to safely trigger it. In Sealed
this can fairly easily be splashed and both
forms add enough value to the White pool to make
including the color worth considering.
So, a white weenie with an indestructible
trigger. Neat thought, though the only reason
you'd want this kind of ability on a 2/1 is
because of his flip trigger. attack with him
leading 2 or more, he flips. His +2 is combat
trick bait, the +1 for untap and indestructible
on a target creature is nice, And the creature-ization
ability is always nice. No ultimates here, just
a decent variety of utility.
only one-cost two-power
legendary creatures are Kytheon, Isamaru, Zurgo
Bellstriker, and Norin the Wary? I found it kind
of cool that Kytheon is in such company, though
I almost hope they don't do it too often - it
feels more special somehow than a lot of the big
expensive effects!