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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Thunder-Thrash Elder
Image from Wizards.com

Thunder-Trash Elder
Shards of Alara

Reviewed April 24, 2012

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 3.30
Multiplayer: 2.60

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Thunder-Thrash Elder

Three mana for a 1/1 with Devour 3. That's all. No combat abilities like trample or haste. No way to protect itself or anything. It's just a big creature. And it plays well into red's philosophy, of "damn the consequences, I'm getting what I want now". Sack one creature, and it's a three-mana 4/4. Not bad. Sack two, and it's a 7/7 that you can get on turn three. That can really blow away an opponent who isn't ready for it. And remember, this existed in the same block as Dragon Fodder, a two-mana sorcery that puts two Goblin tokens into play. So a turn-three 7/7 wasn't as hard to pull off as you think.

The problem is, it opens you up for a very bad moment when your opponent has a kill spell. You just wasted two or three cards to get that 7/7, and your opponent spent one killing it. And for a creature that doesn't even have trample, nobody at the time was really willing to sacrifice creatures just to get one big vanilla creature. Yes, it could wreck an opponent caught off guard, but you never know if your opponent is off guard, and the attempt will cost you a few creatures, so you're either setting yourself back on available blockers, or you were already pretty much winning.

Constructed- 2
Casual- 2
Limited- 1.5
Multiplayer- 1.25

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Thunder-Thrash Elder
 
When the devour ability first came out, some players were wary of it, thinking it looked like putting all their eggs in one basket and losing card advantage. Personally, I think Magic is a lot more fun when it doesn't turn into a card-counting contest, and as such, I think devour is a perfectly fine ability, and Thunder-Thrash Elder is one of the most powerful creatures in that category. In the right deck, you can have three or four creatures in play by the time you can cast this card, and it enters as an outlandishly sized threat. It also gives you the option of trading in early creatures for something that's more relevant - often dragon-sized - in the late game, which is a problem that red decks sometimes have.
 
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Thunder-Thrash Elder which is a three mana Red 1/1 with Devour three, allowing for a three mana 4/4 with one sacrifice, or a 7/7 with two, and so on.  Even at one sacrifice this is fairly efficient, but it really shines with two or more and in the early stages of a game.  Barring removal, which can be addressed with support, there should be little an opponent can do against a third turn 7/7 or 10/10 using turn one and two for single mana creatures.  That potential makes this a solid, if risky card, and aggressive Red decks can benefit greatly from working the theme into compatible builds.
 
For Limited the same holds true, but getting the one cost creatures or this on the third turn is far less likely.  It does benefit from the lowered supply of removal and can be a finisher even in the later stages of the game.  The single Red in the mana cost allows for easy use in multicolor decks and it is a strong second or third pick in Booster.  In Sealed this should be included when playing Red and can be supported by whichever other color has the largest number of low cost or token creatures in your pool, though that is a fairly solid strategy in general.
 
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

       Welcome to the Pojo.com card of the day section. Today we are looking at Thunder Thrash Elder from Shards of Alara. Thunder Thrash Elder is an uncommon red creature viashino warrior that costs two generic and one red mana. Thunder Thrash is a 1/1 that has Devour 3.

      Thunder Thrash Elder will go down as my favorite creature perhaps ever, I know, it is only an uncommon, but it is my favorite creature to date. For one, Viashino is my all time favorite creature type. I have several decks where the Viashino are the main type. One of my best decks, and my favorite deck is comprised of utilizing the Thunder Thrash Elder. That also means that Shards of Alara will go down as one of my favorite blocks, because it made the deck what it is. The card itself is amazing, Devour 3 means as Thunder Thrash Elder enters the battlefield, you can devour any number of creatures. For each creature Devoured, Thunder Thrash Elder gets 3 +1/+1 counters. The way I utilize it is that I on second turn I play Dragon Fodder, also from Shards of Alara. Third turn, lay the Tuhnder Thrash Elder, devour the two tokens, Tuhnder Thrash Elder would then be a 7/7. Usually fourth turn would be attack and then Soul’s Fire, or Fatal Frenzy and then attack. Either way, it is a decent amount of damage if things go according to plan. Sometime I am luck enough that I can also turn one a Goblin Arsonist, making Thunder Thrash Elder a 10/10 and dealing one damage to my opponent for the Goblin Arsonist dying. Which also then means that a Fatal Frenzy is often indeed fatal.

      With the newer Morbid based abilities, the Thunder Thrash Elder has so much more meaning and uses then even in the Shards of Alara block. Devour to have other abilities go off, or even to further up the Thunder Thrash Elder.
 
Limited: 5/5
Constructed: 5/5
Casual: 5/5
Multiplayer: 2/5


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