I absolutely agree with Quibbleflux. This will win an Innistrad limited game with relative ease. The beauty here is that he's good regardless of when you draw him, Early game to just mana dump, or late game, to power him out in two turns easily. With 6 mana out it only takes one turn to prime it with 2 counters, and flip it next upkeep, and swing. That's nothing to sniff at, espcially in blue. In many ways it reminds me of the level-up mechanic, especially the aggressively costed ones like Kargan Dragonlord. You kill it, or it wins the game. And the thing about the current meta, there's much less aggressively costed removal flying around these days than there was in Rise.
In summation, Stellar in Limited, Good enough for constructed, Fun and cool enough to see plenty of casual.
Posted By:
Guest1381794618
(10/13/2011 9:43:38 PM)
@RJDroid That's why you gotta wait until he puts the last counter on it, and then nuke it.
Posted By:
pedrodyl
(10/26/2011 11:02:51 AM)
This card is remarkable. A 0/3 Defender for 1U is perfectly adequate and from there it acts as a mana dump for any mana you might have to spare. Or you can focus on it and it could essentially be a turn seven win condition. A 13/13 with Trample for essentially 12 mana that you can recycle instead of spending all at once is great.
The card seems remarkably tedious in theory, having to spend five turns, give or take, charging him up, but every single time I played this guy at the Prerelease for Innistrad he won me the match. Broken? In Limited, yes, because Innistrad lacks blatant creature removal like Doom Blade, but in standard it's a fairly legitimate card, more of a presence to worry the other guy than anything.
I really like how it's Blue, too. Really helps beef up any sort of Blue deck.
Posted By:
Quibbleflux
(9/25/2011 11:45:13 AM)
Why it transforms back:
Let's say for the sake of argument, that you start your turn with 4 counters on the Test Subject, and have 12 blue mana available. If you put six instances of the ability on the stack, what you are adding to the stack is "Put a hatchling counter on this permanent. Then, if it has five or more counters, remove them all and transform it."
So the first ability resolves, the Test Subject gets a hatchling counter. Then that ability checks if there are five or more counters. There are, so all counters are removed, and it transforms.
Then the second ability resolves, Abomination gets a hatchling counter. Then that ability checks if there are five or more counters. There are not, so it doesn't transform.
The third, fourth, and fifth instances resolve similarly. Then the sixth ability resolves, and Abomination gets a hatchling counter. Then the ability checks to see if there are five or more counters. There are, so all of the counters are removed and it transforms,... (see all)
Posted By:
PeabodyET
(11/3/2011 7:13:22 AM)
After several frustrating experiments, the visionary Ludevic realized he needed to create a monster that fed on torch-wielding mobs.
Nearly all of the flavor text in Innistrad is impeccably perfect. This might be the best.
Posted By:
Salient
(5/16/2012 6:13:09 PM)
A removal fodder, nothing more nothing less.
Posted By:
JB_Xyooj
(2/13/2012 1:14:29 AM)
If we're talking Standard, I would use Axebane Guardian for mana for the ability — this is a defender after all, so it boosts Guardian's ability.
Posted By:
Continue
(12/25/2012 11:48:43 AM)
This is basically level up, but they wanted to show off dfcs. On a side note, why is there no Ludevic card? I was waiting, and waiting. :(
Posted By:
dlgn
(5/3/2012 1:36:35 PM)
UR proliferate deck, anyone?
Posted By:
pektusman
(9/23/2011 8:24:04 AM)
Thrummingbird and Steady Progress should speed up this glorious transformation.
Posted By:
Atogatogatog
(9/22/2011 9:04:57 PM)