A fairly by-the-numbers green five-drop, with
undying giving it an extra wrinkle. In a recent
article, Mark Rosewater mentioned that they
wanted the undying creatures to be used as
attackers, but the nature of the ability means
that adding undying to a creature makes it a
much better blocker. The boys in the back room
were tasked with making players more willing to
attack with their undying creatures. Vigilance
is certainly an elegant solution. Now the
opponent who wants to leave Vorapede back to
block can do so and is still encouraged to
attack. The fact that Vorapede has trample and a
power higher than its toughness helps reinforce
the "swing with me" message.
And of course, undying means that Vorapede can
charge into the fray without fear of a
deathtoucher or a pump spell. In fact, if your
opponent has a Giant Scorpion, Daggerback
Basilisk, or other small deathtouch creature
left open to scare you out of swinging,
attacking with Vorapede may be the best
counter-strategy! You trample through for
damage, the deathtoucher is killed, and Vorapede
comes back that much stronger! The three-way
combo of vigilance, trample, and undying really
work well together here to make Vorapede a
moster worthy of haunting your nightmares.
I think it might just be time for me to stop
complaining about green creatures for a few
months. Hard-to-kill is a quality that's
occasionally sadly lacking in creatures,
especially ones that are strong enough to kill
pretty much anything short of a Titan without
enhancement. On top of that, I like what it
shows about design philosophy as well as its
power: it can be answered even with just the
most recent sets, but it makes you think a
little more than "Doom Blade, lol." If you're
afraid of centipedes, you might want to try not
to play against green decks for a while.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
Vorapede an interesting undying creature that is
quite powerful. In standard having a 5/4
vigilant trampling beat stick and undying is the
icing on the cake. Undying allows this card to
serve as a one of in Birthing Pod lists and also
perhaps seeing play in some sort of ramp decks
as it provides a sizeable body for the mana cost
and is hard to kill due to undying. In
extended and modern the same tricks apply
although this is getting dangerously close to
being too expensive and too green mana intensive
to see any play it could see some fringe play.
In legacy and vintage this is too expensive and
just too green to see any play. In casual and
multiplayer this creature is big beefy and hard
to kill making it a good choice for decks
looking for solid green beaters at a medium mana
cost, undying also opens up some interesting
combo situations and allows for a creature to
survive a board wipe such as Day of Judgment. In
limited it’s a real big and beefy bomb but
requires lots of green mana but it is worth the
commitment to green. Overall a powerful creature
for beat down decks and has some combo
applications with Birthing Pod and the like.
Today's card of the day is Vorapede which is a
five mana Green 5/4 with Vigilance, Trample, and
Undying. The combination of keywords makes
at five mana makes this an efficient and
noticeable threat for a mono or mostly Green
deck. As a harder to remove creature, with
Trample, and being available on defense is
strong in any format and Multiplayer in
particular. Some Green decks may add this
in as a higher end option and possible finisher
with support which may include removal of the
counters, though it is a crowded field for the
color around that cost and the triple Green will
keep it out of many multicolor designs.
For Limited the heavily Green weighted cost is a
concern and likely blocks it from use in most
Sealed builds. Booster can draft into
Green exclusively and entering the field on turn
five or six is where the effects on Vorapede can
really shine. A two color deck can have
some difficulty playing this while anything more
will likely not be able to cast it barring an
outside effect. With the low availability
of removal a 5/4 then 6/5 is not going to be
dealt with easily and having Vigilance for
defense in addition to Trample for offense
provides an ongoing source of pressure on an
opponent's strategy. If this was two out
of five Green instead it would be an ideal card,
but as it stands Vorapede is still worth playing
if your pool can manage it.
Welcome to the
Pojo.com card of the day section. Today we are
taking a look at Vorapede from Dark Ascension.
Vorapede is a mythic rare green creature insect
for three green and two generic mana, and is a
5/4. Vorapede has Vigilance, Trample, and
Undying.
Vorapede is ridiculously awesome. The only thing that
could have made him more amazing would have been
inability to be countered and/or Hexproof. But
then I guess we would almost have been looking
at a green version of Akroma, lol. The Vorapede
hit’s the table earlier than fifth turn in most
green decks, and the ability in Standard or
other formats to use other spells to protect it
from counter spells and targeted spells goes a
long way, like an Autumn’s Veil or a Asceticism.
But in Limited, it will still hit early, and
hard. The facts that it is both Vigilance AND
Trample mean you will no doubt swing all the
time, since it still doubles as a blocker after
the fact. And should something match up against
it that is a tad bigger, or Deathtouch, or even
against a chump block, it just comes back even
bigger and meaner than before. And there is no
shortage of fun enchantments and equipments that
make it even harder to kill, and worse off when
they eventually do.
