This card may not look spectacular, but it's
actually a big part of Magic's history. It was
one of the earlier creatures to use this game
text, which has turned out to be something worth
imitating a few times. It also formed the core
of one of the strongest decks of the original
Ravnica era, alongside Promise of Bunrei and
Ghost Council of Orzhova - "Ghost Husk" was a
white-black deck that could attack its opponents
to death on the fourth turn, and that's
something I'm not sure we'll ever be able to say
about a current Standard deck again. I doubt
there's anything quite so explosive in the
current format, but I would also never bet
against Nantuko Husk.
Today's card of the day is Nantuko Husk which
is a three mana Black 2/2 that can gain +2/+2
until end of turn for each creature you
sacrifice to the effect. Several other
creatures have similar designs both in vampire
and zombie types, though Nantuko Husk having the
insect type as well allows the use of Swarmyard
as support. The sacrifice for a benefit is
a staple of many Black designs and this can be a
key card to both send creatures to the graveyard
and become a large threat. It has and will
continue to be a frequent part of decks in
formats where it is legal.
For Limited this is somewhat situational as more
creatures are usually superior to one
temporarily larger one, though it can sacrifice
lower power creatures to deal more damage or
lower toughness to survive in combat. With
the psychological aspect this performs a bit
better than it may otherwise seem which makes it
a strong second or third pick in Booster and it
belongs in any Sealed deck with Black.
