Nadir Kraken – Theros Beyond Death MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

I’m not quite sure I get this card. Are the tentacles separate entities from the kraken? Is this an allusion to octopi and their diffused brains? Is someone in R&D a fan of Futurama‘s “Beast with a Billion Backs”?

. . . Where was I? Oh yes, that “whenever you draw a card” trigger. Assuming Nadir Kraken stays in play, you’re pretty much guaranteed one +1/+1 counter and one token per turn, and even more when your Commander table starts casting their Howling Mine and Wheel of Fate variants. It’s worth noting that its mechanic is set up to support several very different potential interactions, including the kind of token swarm that we don’t always get in mono-blue. That makes it an easy and interesting card to build with.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

A good way to commence the Tentacling or Re-Tentacling, Nadir Kraken reminds me a fair bit of Magic 2015‘s Chasm Skulker, where card draw gives you more benefit. Unlike the Skulker, you do have to pay for it, but the payoff is pretty powerful: 1 mana gets you a 1/1 Tentacle token and an additional +1/+1 counter on Nadir Kraken. It has no protection early (besides 3 toughness, which is a decent body), but you can snowball into a massive threat in both going wide and going big. Attacking along two axes is a good approach to making your board state threatening, and Nadir Kraken doesn’t need too long to get going. I think it’s a good control finisher for most decks that can support it, and it’s especially heinous in Limited; if you get one turn with it, you’re in pretty good shape, and even it dying means you still have a surfeit of tentacles.

Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander: 3.75

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Hello everyone and welcome to Pojo’s Card of the Day!

I hope everyone had a good time at the MagicFest in Phoenix, and if you didn’t, I hope you have a good time in Reno coming up where I’ll be there to hang out and do stuffs ;D

So today let’s talk about Nadir Kraken, a card that has been on my radar since it was spoiled. This card reminds me of True-Name Nemesis, not in terms of power but in that it’s a low cmc threat that Control Decks can use to finish out the game. While TNN doesn’t require protection, it also doesn’t provide any bonuses outside of being an unblockable 3/1.

This guy, with every draw step, at the cost of (1) provides 2 points of power and toughness spread out over 2 bodies. This is awesome for Control Decks who usually have an abundance of mana, and every draw, which is also abundant in Control Decks, is going to keep making more and more dudes!

So let’s take a look at Limited first, in Draft this guy is an awesome bomb, you don’t want to run him out asap but if your opponent isn’t playing much removal then this guy can get out of hand- or tentacle, really fast! He’s like a bomb-swarm in one and definitely worth first picking in a pack. You’ll probably do really well if you put him in a UB or UW (especially if you follow it up with Dream Trawler!) style deck at your FNM Draft.

In Commander this guy isn’t going to see as much play as I would like, although there’s tons of draw in that format there is also plenty of removal as well and board wipes a plenty. It’s rare that you’ll be able to use this guy to his full potential in that format.

In Constructed, while I like the krakalakin, I don’t think he’s up to snuff for the consistency and aggressive nature of Pioneer, he might do well in Standard as a sideboard card but I don’t seem him in the main 60 since even with his low mana cost you’re going to be spending resources to protect him where as a more resilient finisher like Dream Trawler will just demand your excess lands.

I think this guy is going to do well in Cube though, oddly enough a high powered environment is a perfect place for this guy in 1v1 formats. He’s like TNN in that a control deck will use him towards the end of the match to clean up an opponent.

Constructed 2/5 – I think he has a lot of potential but doesn’t seem strong enough to do the job right now.

Limited 5/5 – Big ol’ bomby tentacle, make sure you grab some tokens!

Commander 2/5 – Not so great here either.

Cube 3/5 – I think he’ll do pretty well here, I have him in for testing and I am eager to see how it turns out.

Phat Pack Magic is a channel dedicated to Magic: the Gathering and creating awesome coverage of local events for formats like Cube, rare pack drafts, and now FNM Pioneer videos! Check it out at https://YouTube.com/PhatPackMagic