Erik's Random card 7/16/2011
When Aaron Forsythe led the design of Magic 2011, he originally entered this as:
3GG
Deathtouch
3/4
He decided to make a it a 2/4. At 3/4 it killed creatures a bit too well, and deathtouch was a little less important.
In development, it turned out green was a bit weak, so I changed this back to a 3/4 (not realizing I was reversing Aaron's change).
I also noticed the problem that at 3/4 deathtouch wasn't mattering enough. Also I noticed that green didn't have any 5 toughness commons or uncommons. Green-Blue was not doing as well as some other color combinations in limited, and I thought this would be a nice filler card for that combination; against a ground color, this card can really clog up the ground while you attack with fliers. On the other hand, if your opponent is playing a lot of fliers, you can keep your blue fliers back to block and send in this beast; if your opponent gang blocks to kill it, deathtouch means it can kill up to 3 blockers. ... (see all)
Posted By:
WotC_ErikL
(7/16/2011 9:59:35 PM)
This is a new version of the basilisks of old (Thicket Basilisk and its flying cohort). While deathtouch is good, their abilities were better.
Posted By:
nammertime
(7/8/2010 3:23:40 PM)
Trample and Deathtouch are great together, woot!
Posted By:
RPGsr4me
(7/18/2010 12:22:47 PM)
This guy equipped with Sword of Vengeance won games for me in the release party tournament (got second overall). Good times, good times...
Posted By:
Cardcypher42
(7/21/2010 11:53:46 PM)
very solid common
Posted By:
GengilOrbios
(8/28/2010 2:50:59 AM)
All I can say is that this fella is a near perfect blocker for Green. He has decent defenses and kills things that get him anyway.
Posted By:
NARFNra
(10/28/2010 8:32:45 PM)
A hugely underrated and very playable common. Green gets this out turn 3 and rapes face. Green player runs Sword of Vengeance alongside this and wins the game 3 turns later.
Basically reads 5/5 for {3GG} that says "whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature, and whenever this creature would deal combat damage to a player, it gets -2/-0 until end of turn." How do you not play this in a budget green deck?
Posted By:
DacenOctavio
(2/10/2011 7:14:38 PM)
I'm not sure how a basilisk would hold a Viridian Longbow but he really wants one.
Posted By:
Concerned_Bystander
(3/10/2011 1:00:08 AM)
@Shell shokkun and @majinara:
Starting with M11, deathtouch no longer ignores blocking order in situations involving multiple blockers. Additionally, you only need to assign a single point of damage from a creature with deathtouch to each blocker, which makes deathtouch a potent combination with trample. A 4/4 with trample and deathtouch can assign one damage to a blocking 8/8 and the other 3 damage to the defending player. The full FAQ entry for deathtouch appears below. Note that it's subject to changes before the final version of the FAQ is posted, and not all the cards in the examples appear in M11.
From an Aaron Forsythe article on 28 june 2010.
Posted By:
Endlessor
(7/10/2010 7:50:34 PM)
I'm really digging the art on this card. Something about the smoking eyes and the smoldering arm says "FEAR MY LASER FACE!!"
Or something like that.
Posted By:
RobinHood3000
(9/25/2010 10:23:24 AM)