Every card in Time Spiral was a throwback to at least one previously printed card.
This card references Dauthi Marauder and Thalakos Drfters. Likely, the "discard for effect" ability was favored here to help facilitate spells with Madness, an ability that allows discarded cards to be cast anyway, which was brought back and focused in black.
During Tempest block, on the plane of Rath, the Vec were one of the tribes of corporeal beings waging a rebellion against the Phyrexian dictator, Volrath. When the entire plane was overlaid onto Dominaria during Planeshift, all the corporeal tribes were forced into a shadowy aether-world, demonstrated by each Vec, Kor, and Dal card having shadow in Time Spiral block.
Posted By:
Missile_Penguin
(12/9/2012 9:51:46 PM)
woo! this is the allstar for my black madness deck
edit: @Hellraider In black? Theres only a few others in black that are free. Hell i mainly use this and gathan raiders
Posted By:
Omenchild
(4/16/2010 6:29:49 PM)
Discard Auntie's Snitch, get your Prowl on, and get it right back in your hand.
Posted By:
Corey_bayoudragonfly
(4/21/2012 11:00:59 PM)
Skirge Familiar is better if you care enough to pay for it. As I understand it you can even use mana it produces to pay the madness cost of the card you discarded (because mana abilities don't use the stack).
Posted By:
nibelheim_valesti
(6/2/2010 4:05:02 PM)
Seems really good with Hellbent or Madness (Captain Obvious strikes again). Specially hellbent - I can imagine this guy being enchanted by Taste for Mayhem then hitting your opponent pretty much unblockable 7.
Posted By:
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
(10/18/2011 8:53:10 PM)
they are better discard cards
Posted By:
H3llra1d3r
(3/24/2010 1:19:00 PM)
I usually enchant it with Shadow Lance ... love it
Posted By:
Raezimoto-X
(8/18/2011 1:30:44 PM)
The il in Time Spiral block are not actually evil. They used to be traitors and allied with Volrath but Volrath is long since dead. The flavor text on Drifter il-Dal shows that these il are not the same generation as the ones who originally allied to the Evincar and the flavor text on this card explains how they became trapped in shadow. You can see a desire for physicality in both the Drifter and Augur il-Vec.
Posted By:
Taudisban
(8/4/2013 2:05:33 PM)
More expensive than Putrid Imp, but also far more competent at dealing damage alongside meeting its discard engine requirement than the imp is.
Sure, you invest more into it, but you also get a good amount of damage through to your opponent due to having a better form of evasion than flying, which might be just what you were looking for. Also, if it means anything, you can always use shadow to prevent being forced to block creatures with lure type effects and 3 offense is enough to kill a good portion of shadow creatures.
Posted By:
N03y3D33R
(1/6/2014 3:00:04 PM)