With Training Grounds he's a Turn 4, Level 4, with 2 mana left over to counterspell, or use his ability that turn and save an island for Dispel. Pretty scary indeed.
Posted By:
coyotemoon722
(4/21/2010 5:07:16 PM)
This card is actually really good. It's cheap-destroy. I had the same issue with this card when I first got it, by the time you level up, they are either exiled, destroyed or neutered in some way and they're mana-wasted, but I found out that he combos really nicely with Nirkana Revenant. With her ability to add an additional swamp every time you tap a swamp, you can max level him in a single turn or two. These two along with Nirkana Cutthtroat has gotten several wins. People aren't afraid of these cards until they level up, so he becomes an sleeper threat pretty quickly and you can take down some bigger creatues, if you have more than one of him on the field.
Posted By:
LordReth
(6/12/2010 12:52:21 PM)
i thnk the levelers are ok, but they arent the last cards to finish out your constructed deck. levelers truly shine when your deck was built to abuse them. when in conjuction with venerated teacher, this guy can become a nightmare fast. also he can be used as a 1 drop that may just be threatining enogh for your opponent to waste valuable removal. at the very least, ill probably sideboard a copy or two to help deal with eldrazi green. one tap from his final form removes an indestructible master of the hunt, eldrazi greens only real means of removal. this guy can pick apart their board.
Posted By:
enter_the_mill
(4/27/2010 8:48:12 AM)
Think of it this way, if your opponent doesn't have a removal spell in hand, he quickly dominates the game. If you level him to 4, he can't be bolted, and requests Terminate. I see some potential in this guy.
Posted By:
persecutor
(6/8/2010 1:14:10 PM)
He's not bad. But... when you give a creature -2/-2 the first time, you invested 6 mana in this and waited at least a turn. The first time you give a creature -4/-4, you invested at least 10 mana into this guy. That is quite a lot...
Posted By:
majinara
(12/15/2010 6:14:20 AM)
One of my favourite levellers assassinate ftw!
Posted By:
hugemanatee
(4/23/2010 10:48:59 PM)
I really like his crab armor... so in fashion!
Posted By:
LeoKula
(6/2/2010 10:56:38 AM)
I opened a booster today and to my surprise not only found this guy, but received a companion foil. I was ecstatic. Until I got him home. I had just bought one of the pre-made decks because my friends were sick of my super-decks and decided to level the playing field. After modifying that god-awful creation I proceeded to test it to see how level-up worked. As soon as I cast this guy I realized the quandary I would be facing in light of this sorcery-speed ability. After I cast a few level-up creatures I realized this was at best a novelty in anything but a deck toting blue. The only cards that work with level counters are blue and Clockspinning is the only other spell I can think that would be of any use and then it's really better to remove than to add counters. All in all, though, this guy wouldn't be too bad as long as he isn't competing with other level-up creatures. It is nice to have death-on-a-stick with some of these crazy powerful creatures.
I re... (see all)
Posted By:
InsideousRakael
(5/8/2010 10:25:18 AM)
To the people saying levelers are weak, I lol at thee. They are not, you simply need to know how to use them. If you're running a deck based solely on levelers, then you run Training Grounds and Venerated Teacher to abuse them. If you're not, then you avoid the inefficient levelers (such as this one, since he only activates at level 2), and run the efficient ones, such as Nirkana Cutthroat and Enclave Cryptologist. It's that simple.
Posted By:
Azazyel
(6/20/2010 5:24:30 PM)
Gotta love black removal that works on black.
Posted By:
blindthrall
(4/29/2010 5:55:29 PM)