Tergrid, God of Fright | Tergrid’s Lantern
– Kaldheim
Date Reviewed: January 25, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.13
Casual: 4.13
Limited: 4.25
Multiplayer: 3.88
Commander [EDH]: 3.88
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
Isn’t this an interesting pair of cards? Even more interesting, they’re printed on opposite sides of the same card. I’m not sure how we’re expected to not be mound-thieves when one of the gods is, unless Tergrid’s teachings actually encourage us to do so (like her game text). Not only does she attack very effectively, her ability adds a massive upside to classes of cards that black likes to use anyway. Maybe that is what she’s teaching us to do.
On top of that, her lantern provides a reasonably difficult dilemma for opponents. It actually makes me think all the way back to Magic’s life-dawn, specifically the card Disrupting Scepter. As clunky as that card may seem now, it taught us that a disruptive effect snowballs over multiple turns, and that’s certainly true of the lantern even before you start untapping it with your spare mana. Plus, it encourages you to play it alongside Tergrid herself, which seems very fitting flavor-wise and very powerful game-wise.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Commander: 4/5
Tegrid has a pretty potent effect, all things considered: stealing the things your opponents discard and sacrifice can be quite potent, particularly in a color that is very good at forcing discards and sacrifices. Unfortunately, Tegrid generally is a bit on the slow side, coming in at five mana and usually requiring time to get her engines going. That said, her lantern is rather useful at facilitating her effect, making multiples of Tegrid quite useful in terms of being able to chew up things. While giving an opponent a choice is rarely ideal, the “worst-case” scenario is pinging them for 3 each turn, which isn’t half bad.
She has synergy between her two halves, and Tegrid has some fun tricks if you can enable her. Five mana is a lot, though, especially since you need to build around her to make her pop. A 4/5 with menace isn’t bad, but you could do better than that in terms of raw rate of return if you’re just going for the creature.
Constructed: 3.25 (she’s potent if she has time to establish, but Tegrid strikes me as a bit too slow for most decks)
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.5 (both sides can win you games, the creature side more so)
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander: 3.75
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