Prey Upon is a card that I feel has always been
on the cusp of excellence. The hardcore
constructed Spikes have usually passed it over
in favor of black's outright destruction spells;
by contrast, kitchen-table settings have always
gotten a lot of mileage out of pairing it with
deathtouch and wither creatures. In an age of
increasingly available mana fixing (there's a
time when Khans of Tarkir's
comes-into-play-tapped dual lands would have
been rare), it is easy to justify reaching
straight for Ultimate Price and the like, but
then you'd miss out on the interactions with
things like wither and lifelink. I think there
are times when it befits all of us to go cute
rather than go big, and Prey Upon is a great
place to start.
Prey Upon makes its triumphant return from
Innistrad as green's common removal spell, and
it does the job decently well for a 1-mana green
sorcery. Green is famous for having the biggest
creatures, and this is a way of ensuring board
supremacy, even at the cost of one of your own
creatures.
There's not a lot to say about a card this
simple: it's removal, and it's powerful removal.
You want it in Limited if you're in green, but
other options are superior in Constructed
formats.
