This is a prime example of the 'silver age' of magic. Still original enough to do fresh things, but wary of OP cost/effects. A good flavorful card, and Christopher Rush's art as always, awesome.
Posted By:
nunyaJs
(2/5/2012 12:06:33 AM)
.... gonna tell me what color socks he's wearing too??
Posted By:
HuntedWumpusMustDie
(4/6/2011 9:28:39 PM)
Love this card. Opponents generally aren't sure how to react to him (short of instant-kill or something) and he's pretty robust. Even though the loss of 4 life isn't that much, somehow the fact that it's unpreventable life loss makes it hurt that much more. What essentially amounts to a 4/3 that can become a 6/6 in combat for 4 mana with a manageable upkeep cost isn't bad at all.
This guy used to be the center of a very effective Ice Age-block deck back in the day, alongside Ashen Ghoul, Nether Shadow, and Death Spark. Death Spark could be discarded again and again and again to the Paladin provided you could kill off at least one of the Shadows or Ghouls every turn, which wasn't that hard given how little toughness they have. Generally attacking with one every turn would wind up with the thing dead. Keep in mind this was in the days of Howl from Beyond, so your opponent generally wasn't going to ... (see all)
Posted By:
yyukichigai
(7/27/2011 6:41:43 PM)
"Come at me bro!!!"
Posted By:
Superllama12
(11/19/2011 7:50:56 PM)
This guy has so many uses...the 4 life loss shouldn't be considered a bad thing seeing as it gets past prevention and sundroplets.
Posted By:
FragNutMK1
(2/25/2010 3:27:40 AM)
This is how to design a bad card exemplified.
You have a base value for it's stats: 0/3.
Then you have his stats if it gets blocked by anything: 6/6.
Then you have yet another value to remember - the life loss inflicted if it isn't blocked: 4.
Furthermore, throw in the fact that he has an upkeep to keep track of (Not to mention, the upkeep has the counter-inuitive aspect of allowing you to draw a card if it's not paid)! That's a bit too much going on for a single card.
It's a bunch of disparate numbers and abilities that are NOT in anyway helped out by envisioning them from a flavor standpoint (who knows what is meant by his life loss trigger?). It's not even a remotely useful card, either, so I can't understand in the slightest what the intention was for this paladin.
Oh yeah - it's a Red and Black paladin! What the hell?
Posted By:
scumbling1
(3/10/2011 6:32:48 AM)
He's a Human Knight.
Posted By:
SandMouse
(1/14/2010 7:25:46 AM)
5 for the art alone. One of Christopher Rush's best, which is to say one of the best artworks in MTG overall.
And yes, people are overlooking its combo potential with Madness, Hellbent, or reanimation. Plus he fits perfectly in a knight deck with Haakon, Stromgald Scourge. He gets Haakon into the graveyard where he needs to be, and after that you just keep discarding other knights which you can cast just as easily from your graveyard.
@DoctorKenneth: I'm not sure either, but it's a recurring theme with Lim-Dul related cards. See Keeper of Tresserhorn, for example (basically a crappier version of this guy). It may be that they get physically strong when fighting normal corporeal creatures, but affect a planeswalker through more arcane life-draining means. Also the 0/3 may be because he is sustained by necromancy and is really just a lifeless corpse. I know he LOOKS human, and they gave him the human creature type, but come on, it's LIM DUL's p... (see all)
Posted By:
achilleselbow
(8/16/2010 5:42:01 PM)
Dude is a bada$$
Posted By:
Forgeling
(8/16/2009 9:42:45 PM)
I love this guy. He's basically an undercosted 6/6 vs creatures, and far better than Balduvian Horde in that regard.
Posted By:
NARFNra
(12/28/2010 3:36:57 PM)