A cycling card doesn’t necessarily have to be playable on its own if the cycling effect is free. Basically, this card gives you three things:
1) A black creature card in your graveyard. This is useful in reanimator strategies, obviously. But it also give you advantages for cards like Stitched Drake, Splinterfright, Ichorid, and Avatar of Woe.
2) A replacement card. This is not, as was said, “a waste of a card slot”. This lets you essentially pay life to run a 56 card deck. If your goal is to get to a specific card for your combo, you’re more likely to get there if you have fewer cards in your deck.
3) No tempo loss. Normally, if you cycle a card, play a search effect like Sleight of Hand or Faithless Looting, or similar, you use mana to do it, and thus use an early turn. Street Wraith cycles with no tempo loss. He can also be cycled at instant speed, which m... (see all)
Posted By:
PeabodyET
(3/2/2012 8:34:18 AM)
An interesting card that seems balanced. It basically serves two purposes. It allows a deck to trade life to run essentially 56 cards, and it allows a deck to trade life to inflate its graveyard. I think they did a good job with this and the probe, but I hope they don't continue to the point that running 48 and even 44 card decks becomes a possibility.
Posted By:
jjmalove
(4/18/2012 10:42:08 AM)
Thins my deck (For freeee!), looks cool, and he is even playable end game? Sure, why not!
Lets all be honest here, if you ever play this guy its probably because you are already winning and you know it.
Posted By:
Enelysios
(5/6/2012 5:03:58 AM)
It's kinda funny that a STREET wraith has Swampwalk for some reason.
Badass flavor text, though.
Posted By:
Arachnos
(1/14/2013 10:22:06 AM)
Found this in a 10 cent bin at my local card shop. Bought it and shoved it in a high tempo deck and never regretted it. Once I even got in the last 3 damage from playing him as a creature, unblocked through swampwalk.
My only regret is I couldn't find anymore.
Posted By:
Moxxy
(1/28/2013 12:54:04 AM)
Free card draw is free.
3/5 Stars
Posted By:
Hunter06
(2/4/2013 7:57:47 PM)
We've got this confirmed for Modern Masters. Now we just need the plane where this horror heralds from...
Posted By:
SkyknightXi
(5/30/2013 10:54:05 AM)
Riffraff? Street Wraith? I don't buy that.
Posted By:
Nagoragama
(7/27/2011 1:18:54 AM)
There is little reason to use this over Gitaxian Probe.
11/1/2012 EDIT: I don't believe this anymore, but I'm leaving it for posterity.
Posted By:
Axelle
(11/1/2012 11:02:08 PM)
Good in dredge to help get dredge triggers going and fuels Ichorid. People saying its worse than Gitaxian Probe are wrong. They have different uses.
Posted By:
Crag-Hack
(7/23/2011 12:47:05 PM)