stop overlooking him. he is not a substitute of the snake or rampant growth, but a partner. you can cast him in turn 3 and have 6 lands on turn 4, plus a 2/4 body that may stop mid-size threats like bloodbraid elf
Posted By:
don_miguel
(5/11/2010 12:31:43 PM)
This guy is a lil pricy for what you get, But fits in great for RoE. I pulled 2 in prerelease and he made a big difference in the slower RoE environment.
Posted By:
ajpinton
(5/4/2010 6:36:38 PM)
This card is not bad at all. Mana Accel does matter most in the first 3 turn turns, but you're discounting many facts:
Most decks that splash green have 1-2CMC ramping options. Therefore, playing this guy on turn 3 is not only good defensively due to his toughness, but acts as additional ramp.
Further, he is a bomb in Valakut Ramp. Valakut wants to ramp all game long. This guy's got the magical number for p/t. He blocks Thrinax and Bloodbraid. He kills BBE and spares Thrinax. That's awesome! He kills most early game critters, and he's completely expendable once he hits the field. Valakut likes expendables.
Either way you slice it. This is a solid card. As with many cards, he fits in some deck archetypes, and not in others. Do we NEED a Sakura Tribe Elder? No. Would it be nice? Sure. But comparing anything to that is like saying that every creature besides Tarogoyf sucks. It's just not true. This card is good. Far from design failure.
Posted By:
Coactus
(4/29/2010 11:05:18 PM)
Reminds me more of Silverglade Elemental than of Sakura-Tribe Elder or Kor Cartographer. Although the latter one resembles something in between this giant and the elemental.
Posted By:
Mode
(4/19/2010 7:52:27 AM)
a better version of kor cartographer?
Posted By:
arcmamon
(4/17/2010 8:42:25 AM)
Seriously, how many years we must wait for reprinting of Sakura-Tribe Elder ?
Posted By:
True_Smog
(4/28/2010 6:40:37 AM)
This card is a design failure. It's too expensive to provide mana acceleration when it's actually relevant (as in, first three turns of the game) and not beefy enough to be worth the wait. Put more simply, REPRINT GOD DAMN SAKURA-TRIBE ELDER ALREADY. And if you even think about colorshifting him to white there will be blood.
Posted By:
True_Mumin
(4/28/2010 6:44:44 AM)
This card is a godsend in RoE limited. That's really the only way to rate cards from this set: how good are they for the Limited environment? Ondu Giant fits perfectly. It's got a chubby body to block the weenies while simultaneously accelerates your mana- when you're trying to cast spells of cmc 8+ this is exactly what you need.
Posted By:
Yoto32
(4/29/2010 2:06:24 PM)
this is a really good card. sure it's a little pricy but over all I like it more than wood elves, 1 manna for a decent board presence is nothing to look down on. It's also funny with splinter twin
Posted By:
Gezus82
(6/3/2010 2:38:13 PM)
So... It's a Quirion Trailblazer with double P/T? Not bad.
Posted By:
Andon_A
(7/4/2010 4:03:10 PM)