This card seems to be a callback from another
dimension to Graveborn Muse, as a sort of
Phyrexian Arena on a creature. Graveborn Muse
scared a lot of people away by asking for a
scaling life payment based on creatures, in a
deck that wanted to have a lot of creatures. I
think Smothering Abomination here is more
exploitable, in a certain way, because of its
synergy with black's other creature-sacrificing
effects; he also appears safer to players and
will be a more appealing build-around-me beacon,
but overcommitting to him will run the risk of
putting yourself behind on the table. Still, I
expect him to find a niche somewhere - drawing
extra cards has always been the most powerful
ability in Magic.
Today's card of the day is Smothering
Abomination which is a two Black and two
colorless 4/3 with Devoid, Flying, forces you to
sacrifice a creature each upkeep, and when you
sacrifice a creature you draw a card. This
is designed for mono-Black sacrifice or
colorless eldrazi scion builds to add much
needed draw power. The mandatory sacrifice
is a problem without token generation, but there
are many options for generating at least one a
turn. As a 4/3 evasive with draw power
this adds a lot of value to those builds and
should see play in several formats, possibly
even Standard in addition to the obvious
popularity it'll have in Casual and Commander.
In Limited maintaining creatures for this to
sacrifice will be much more difficult without
eldrazi scion tokens. That combined with
the double Black in the casting cost means this
doesn't fit into every deck. With support
this can be both a serious threat as an evasive
4/3 plus add enough card advantage to impact the
game dramatically. If the pool allows it and
doesn't benefit the tokens staying alive or
building up to larger creatures it is a viable
card to build around in Sealed. In Booster
it is a very risky first pick and likely not
worth it unless aggressively supported with
other picks.
