A good card, but missing a little something to make it great. It's mana cost means that it's only reasonably playable in monogreen (barring, of course, a bunch of dual lands), and is a bit too expensive in the mid and early game to play anything other than 1-2 cc card in the same turn (when you could be playing a big creature instead to swing with repeatedly in following turns).
I disagree with Overkill that it would be overpowered as an instant: combat tricks are mostly for post-blockers (on your turn) or on your opponent's turn. If you use it after a creature blocks, then you're missing out on it's pseudo-provoke ability, getting relatively less bang for your buck. If you cast it on your opponent's turn, then you're losing out on both the provoke and the trample damage.
Without making it instant, I think it would be greatly improved just by giving it actual provoke so that you can effectively pick off/weaken bigger creatures and combo creatures who can normally be tapped dow... (see all)
Posted By:
Calver
(9/4/2011 10:24:57 AM)
"When this creature attacks, target creature blocks it this turn if able."
Who needs that at instant speed? That's like saying "I want to make my creature unblockable at instant speed". This is perfectly fine as a sorcery.
Posted By:
shotoku64
(5/28/2012 7:17:53 AM)
I'm vaguely tempted to play this in a monoblue aggro deck.
Posted By:
Kirbster
(11/29/2012 12:23:13 PM)
It looks like this isn't portraying a boggart, but a spriggan (q.v. Swirling Spriggan). Makes sense; in Cornish lore, spriggans were supposed to be the spirits or reincarnations of ancient giants, and could grow TO giant size when needed.
Posted By:
SkyknightXi
(3/8/2013 7:58:11 PM)
Green removal
Kills indestructibles
A good pump
high CMC can be good with manaplasm and probably elsewhere
trample on a non-permanent card is always nice. Gives you fatty-options; but even hitting for 5 with a token is pretty brutal.
To the "instant speed" argument; it would be better in mutliplayer to allow an opponent to unexpectedly kill another opponent/trample over/win-combat. I do this with Shadow Rift sometimes. Then someone goes from "kill your chump blocker" to "whoops I killed ya" for 1 mana; which is sometimes counter-productive for who you pumped if they were planning on you being focused on the guy they just killed.
Aside from that, instant wouldn't do too much; but it would be nice to be able to pump the token they didn't block or the fatty who was only chumped for the loss of the provke-esque ability. I imagine they didn't do that because it would train new players to use the card wrong and cause confusion. "What do you mean he... (see all)
Posted By:
blurrymadness
(4/23/2013 9:32:36 AM)
This is pretty much a green kill spell... NEAT!
Posted By:
ZaisConsultant
(9/22/2013 1:47:32 AM)
"That day, the goblins received a grim reminder..."
Seriously reminds me of Attack on Titan.
Posted By:
Sleepy_Jackdaw
(11/5/2013 10:24:38 PM)
Part of a cycle of triple 2/Color-costed uncommons:
-Advice from the Fae
-Flame Javelin
-this
-Spectral Procession
-Beseech the Queen
Most of them are good uncommons, and the costs make them playable in other colors as well.
Hybrid symbols are one of the coolest 'newer' things in magic.
This card obviously is a blowout if your opponent has instant-speed removal. Other than that, it's a green direct-damage kill-spell which is nice. Even on a 1/1, you're likely to kill (or severely weaken) one of their creatures, and still trample over for a little bit of damage. Works well with deathtouch.
Posted By:
Aremath
(3/21/2014 1:10:48 PM)