This is the quintessential White Weenie card nowadays. In a WW deck, you crank out a bit of early nonsense, Wrath the board on turn 4 or 5, then play this guy and/or Serra Avenger, proceed to mop up and win. You can also play Grunt early, grind out as many turns as the graveyards will allow, and then Wrath after the giant soldier has no more graveyard to eat and bids you farewell.
You might wonder why you'd bother with low CC cards for the finisher, instead of Baneslayer or whatnot. Short answer, you want to be able to use Wasteland and Rishadan Port to lock the opponent down after wrathing. (Wasteland also puts two more cards in the graveyard to help keep Jotun Grunt alive.)
It's also fun to know you basically auto-win against Dredge, rob a Zoo player of fuel for their Grim Lavamancer, neuter Tarmogoyf and keep Tombstalker/aut... (see all)
Posted By:
Salient
(3/15/2012 9:40:45 PM)
This guy loves some opponent Lavamancer
Posted By:
Qazior
(7/28/2011 4:11:18 AM)
Awesome drawback.
@ Bastian: You don't have to target your own graveyard. This guy has much more strategic depth than just that ;)
Posted By:
lorendorky
(6/30/2011 9:24:42 PM)
only thing about it is that there won't be many cards in your graveyard to return during the 3rd turn. this is more of a late game swinger that gives you a lot of free mana and a near-bottomless library.
EDIT: After a few months, i found this card, and my post, again. I can't believe now that I didn't see that you could target other people's library then.. And thank you, lorendorky, for pointing it out. My mistake.
I would love to play with this card against some Innistrad strategies. All that milling going around, this card could either refill your library, or cut down your opponent's graveyard shenanigans. Just goes to show how a missed word or two on a card can make a huge difference..
Posted By:
BastianQoU
(10/21/2011 9:10:28 PM)
hard to search for on gatherer.
Posted By:
luca_barelli
(7/12/2011 10:01:50 PM)
this card is a counter-mill for white. if you're facing a mill deck, use this guy. being cheap also helps.
5/5 against mill decks, 3/5 otherwise.
Posted By:
Pigfish99
(7/7/2011 8:48:27 AM)
even if you are only able to pay for the upkeep once, you still have a beefy blocker on turn 2 and a powerful attacker on turn 3. plus the graveyard shenannigans. i think it is worth the 2 mana.
also everything capable to counter tarmogoyf deserves some respect.
Posted By:
don_miguel
(2/18/2013 2:02:31 PM)
He has a bone to pick with Snapcaster Mage.
Posted By:
BongRipper420
(7/14/2013 1:33:34 PM)
The other soldiers are trying to make him kill another Tarmogoyf. He's tired, guys. Seriously, give him some time to catch his breath.
Posted By:
Kaleidostorm
(8/1/2013 5:11:07 PM)
Such a boss. It's main-boardable graveyard hate in for a white weenie deck, and it's an extremely cost-efficient beater. It's not the fastest card to use, but it's still amazing. Having that mana open when you play your creature is very awesome.
I'm going to put this guy in my Tajic EDH deck to hate on some graveyards and beat some face.
Posted By:
SAUS3
(9/23/2013 11:48:05 AM)