Five mana for a 4/2 with haste is a little
unimpressive. Paying four colorless mana and 2
life for a 4/2 with haste is a little more
interesting, especially if you're, say, monoblue,
and you had your opponent convinced that the
combat math would work out in his favor. Or if
you've got some Battle Cry dudes. Four power and
haste for four mana is a pretty good deal, and
if your opponent takes four, it was worth the 2
life you paid to blindside him.
But after that, Slash Panther starts to lose its
luster. A 4/2 with haste just isn't all that
great. It dies in combat to a two-drop. With no
evasion or trample, there's no guarantee that
you're actually going to get through more than
that one surprise attack you got.
Which deck would want a 4/2 haste creature for
four mana and two life? Perhaps you want to see
if you can mess with someone's head enough to
make them side in Circle of Protection: Red
against a blue deck. Perhaps you have a Cat
tribal deck that really, really wants to play
one of every cat ever printed, and would
appreciate a creature with haste as a follow-up
to Pyroclasm effects. Perhaps you don't live in
a world where creatures that would have been
banned in 1997's Extended have become the
baseline (if so, good for you!). Perhaps you
just like the art. Perhaps there's an even
better reason I haven't though of. Perhaps we
should all just try it out and see.
Today's card of the day is Slash Panther which
is a five mana Red artifact creature with Haste
where the one red mana can be paid with two
life. The casting cost is a little on the
high side which makes paying the life points an
attractive option and opens it up to use in any
color deck to take advantage of the Haste.
Green has Vengevine and Black has a few options
for Haste including Skithiryx, so they are a bit
less likely run this. Red itself already
has Hero of Oxid Ridge and Kuldotha Phoenix
which are generally superior and in the same
block. Overall the card isn't exactly bad,
but there are better options available at higher
rarity levels.
In Limited this is a solid common that can be a
big threat on turn four or earlier with
acceleration for most decks as any color can
play it.
The low toughness is the biggest drawback which
makes using this alongside removal or
aggressively trading with any two power
creatures your opponent plays early a good
strategy. In Sealed this should be
included in nearly any Red deck and most other
builds as the two life points is worth the
potential damage it can deal. In Booster
this can be drafted fairly early depending on
the pack as it is unlikely to circle the table.
Welcome once again to New
Phyrexia previews here at Pojo.com! Today we
take a look at Slash Panther. Slash Panther is
one of many new colored artifacts in the new
set. Slash Panther costs four generic and one
red Phyrexian mana, meaning you can pay one red
mana or two life. The Slash Panther is a 4/2
with haste.
Definitely not one of the better cards that you can get your
hands on. The fact that at best you’d have a 4/2
haste on turn four doesn’t excite me. And that’s
really if you would like to give up some life to
get him out. The fact is, he should have cost
three generic and a Phyrexian mana. That would
have been a much better way to go. But, things
are done. So now we have a card that probably
will not see much action unless it is in a draft
scenario.
