There're two big differences between this and Razor Boomerang, even in limited:
1. Razor Boomerang only did 1 damage, but more importantly...
2. Scars has infect.
Pinging for 1 damage for 5 mana is almost certainly not worth it, especially as you can't apply abilities like deathtouch, lifelink and infect to the damage. However, 2 damage for 4 mana is very good, especially if you can do it in the form of poison counters or -1/-1 counters.
The drawback isn't too bad at all. I won my prerelease with a GB infect deck, and this card certainly helped with a lot of them. With 2+ infecters on the board, I'd swap the arbalest between them and either give the opponent two poison counters without even attacking, or give a creature two -1/-1 counters (or more, depending on how feasible it was to block them and then ping them, or just ping them and let them through).
This card is repeatable spot removal, colorless, and combos well with infect. There's every chance that it'll end up giving you c... (see all)
Posted By:
JaxsonBateman
(9/25/2010 7:38:06 AM)
Soliton Machinegun on Limited use
Posted By:
stratoscythe
(9/24/2010 1:17:39 AM)
A.I., start the Lambda Driver!
Roger. Equipping to Soliton.
Posted By:
Flyheight
(2/23/2011 10:37:43 PM)
it cost less mana for double the damage of razor boomerang...
and untappers turn it into a machine gun. with some luck it could be decent for sealed.
Posted By:
Shikadi
(9/25/2010 1:27:53 AM)
This + Ichorclaw Myr and myr galvanizer to add some poison counters might be fun.
Posted By:
hopped
(9/26/2010 1:43:08 PM)
Want to play this in a standard environment, make a U/G infect deck, use brass squire and infect dudes like blight mamba and ichor myr. free swaps.....
Posted By:
NIckza
(5/19/2011 7:05:13 AM)
when used with 2 myr galvanizer & palladium myr, it can do infinite damage to player or creatures. an alternative to using the infinite mana combo with fireball
Posted By:
zakando
(1/7/2011 3:58:29 PM)
lordtian, you can't Equip Equipment to an opponent's creature, only your own during one of your two Main Phases.
Posted By:
kdraphael
(3/11/2011 10:49:10 PM)
Remember that infinite mana combo in Myr decks?
2 x Myr Galvanizer
2 x Mana Myr (Copper Myr, Iron Myr, etc)
Now slap this Heavy Arbalest on one of those Mana Myr.
- Tap Myr A w/ Heavy Arbalest for 2 damage at player.
- Tap Myr B for 1 mana.
- Pay 1 mana and tap Galvanizer A to untap Myr A and Myr B.
- Rinse and repeat, alternating Galvanizers.
Oh looky here, you just wiped out every single opponent in a multiplayer if I'm not mistaken.
And hey, that Platinum Emperion getting you down?
Slap that Arbalest on your Plague Myr/Ichorclaw Myr instead!
I can imagine it would be tricky to actually get this combo out on the battlefield, but I'm going to try it anyway with some blue control as a fun, casual deck.
Posted By:
ARandomMop
(4/9/2011 6:15:26 PM)
This just became a light Arbalest with the introduction of Puresteel Paladin.
Posted By:
highdesertvike
(5/22/2011 7:28:57 PM)