Robber of the Rich – MTG Throne of Eldraine Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Gotta steal from the rich when they don’t know I’m coming;
Gotta give to the poor, no time for loving!
— Aqua

You’ve got to love redistributive practices, and in a strange way, Robin – excuse me, Robber of the Rich is eminently fair on a conceptual level. After all, he takes things openly by force and gives the opponent a chance to defend themselves. Granted, the way most opponents will have a chance of doing that is by counterspells or pre-combat instants, which not everyone will have, and you’ll most often get to use a spell from their deck. How useful that is to you will vary depending on the opponent; if you’re an aggressive red deck (which is by far the best place to use Robin), you won’t have a use for combo cards, and a control deck’s draw spell will sometimes whiff. But there are so many decks out there that are very tightly constructed, full of disruption effects and modal spells and things that make creatures and burn spells more effective. Not to mention planeswalkers.

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

Can’t have a set of fairy tales and knights without a Robin Hood-like character, I guess. Steal from the rich, give to the poor, and things like that.

As-is, a 2/2 with haste and reach for 2 mana is pretty solid out of the gate (and reach is a fairly uncommon effect in red, so having it is situationally useful), but the real value is in him stealing things and stuff. And he can steal a lot, so long as you’re going after the rich (usually the filthy blue players). The best part is that, while you do need to attack with a Rogue during a turn to cast it, it can be any Rogue, and it doesn’t need to be on the turn it got exiled! This means that the lowly Robber is still pretty acceptable in a late-game scenario, and he can give red decks some added gas if they start stalling out. Of course, he can’t play lands, but that’s a minor gripe.

He won’t often win games on his own, but he can give you tools to get over the finish line, and even just being a 2/2 for 2 with haste is passable enough in a number of circumstances. I doubt he’s an all-star, but I can see him going places.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander: 4