Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
an interesting twist on Lord of The Pit due to
its transformed state, unflipped it’s an
unremarkable 4/4 for five mana. In standard this
is nothing to write home about as decks with
humans generally are of the powerful variety so
you don’t want to sacrifice or decks that rely
on human numbers to overwhelm opponents
currently there is no place in standard for a
card like this as it also dies to Dismember. In
extended, modern and eternal formats the same
concept applies this card just is not the most
constructed playable card sacrificing one human
is bad enough but the constant effect pushes
this into the virtually unplayable category. In
casual and multiplayer this card is pretty
flavorful and cards like Lord of The Pit style
demons are more likely to see some play and a
9/9 flying creature is big enough to present a
threat to opponents the only drawback
sacrificing humans can be taken care of with a
token engine allowing you to keep a fat demon on
the board, but it may not be worth it with the
huge amount of other big beefy creatures in
multiplayer however. In limited its solid you
need humans and big commitment to black but it’s
a bomb a huge flyer and worth snagging and
building around. Overall a card better suited to
kitchen tables then the top tables at
tournaments but still interesting and fun.
One of the first creatures I ever tried to build
a deck around was Lord of the Pit, way back when
the Fourth Edition had just been released. Since
that day, I've always been a fan of high-risk,
high-reward creatures. It seems there are
somewhat fewer of those than there used to be,
but Ravenous Demon is a worthy member of that
tradition. His drawback is a little more
specific and thus difficult to build around than
his venerable ancestor's, but there are still
plenty of interactions that make it worthwhile
(did you ever notice that Ramosian Revivalist,
and many of the Rebels from Time Spiral, are
humans?). It's also worth keeping in mind that
you can control when he starts up his "pay me or
die" mode, and before you activate it, you still
have a solid 4/4 creature who activates whatever
demon-related interactions your deck may have (Rakdos
the Defiler, Tomb of Urami, etc).
Welcome to a new week of card of the day
reviews here at Pojo.com. To kick start this
week we are looking at the Ravenous Demon/Archdemon
of Greed. Ravenous Demon costs two black and
three generic mana for a rare 4/4 creature
demon. The Ravenous Demon says sacrifice a human
to transform him, but only anytime you could
activate a sorcery. Ravenous Demon then becomes
the Archdemon of Greed. Archdemon of Greed is a
9/9 flying trample creature demon that says at
the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a human,
if you can’t, tap Archdemon of Greed and it
deals nine damage to you.
There have been plenty of remakes
involving the original Lord of the Pit over the
years, and this is just him when he was a
sprout.For five mana, you get a 4/4 that you can
transform at the cost of a human. Now under
normal circumstances, this may seem rough going.
However, Dark Ascension is filled with cards
that allow you to drop human tokens rapidly,
including one that you just have to tap in order
to get one. A green, black, and white deck could
easily be built to exploit the sacrificing of
the humans, and use the Parallel Lives from
Innistrad to take full advantage of the token
generation. You could even go so far as just run
green and black mana, just using Avacyn’s
Pilgrim for the white mana.
The Ravenous Demon to me is a little
under powered, and the fact that the Archdemon
of Greed is just a bigger Lord of the Pit is
just a little weird. I would have preferred to
see something amazing, and instead just get a
beefed older card. The damage can be easily
handled though in older formats, using Circle of
Protection. But even in newer Standard legal
sets there is a nice way to dodge the only
drawback to the card. Personal Sanctuary also
prevents the damage that Archdemon of Greed
would inflict upon you. And if running white is
not exactly your thing, blue has access to
Xenograft in Standard, which you could use to
choose humans.
A very decent card, nothing I am super
hyped on, but I’m sure some people feel
different. Just too much leg work to maintain
for long if you do not build the deck around
him.
One nice thing about the Ravenous Demon/Archdemon
of Greed is you get one for coming out to your
local prerelease this weekend! Be sure to
support your local prerelease this weekend,
January 28th and 29th!
Today's card of the day is Ravenous Demon which
is a five mana Black 4/4 that requires a human
to be sacrificed to transform into a 9/9 Flying
with Trample. The drawbacks are noticeable
and can be manipulated by an opponent with
removal which makes this a risky, albeit
powerful, finisher for Black which is a fairly
common theme. There are not many humans to
choose from in Black in the Standard format, but
options open up as older sets are added in.
Overall a card that may have potential in a
multicolor human deck or sacrifice theme, but
requires quite a bit of support to be reliable.
For Limited the format includes a number of
human cards and if enough are available a 9/9
with Flying and Trample should win any game.
The likelihood of having humans available when
needed to maintain Archdemon of Greed is a bit
low, though the removal needed by an opponent to
disrupt it should be less likely to appear as
well. The risks outweigh the reward in
transforming it as tapping and dealing nine
damage are more likely without luck and it can
cost a game faster than it can win one. In
Sealed the transformation should be avoided
unless your pool contains a large number of
humans, but it can be played as a five mana
4/4 and should be included in every Black deck.
For Booster it can be drafted first in the hopes
of gaining a supply of sacrifices and if not can
still be used as a 4/4. The base form is
large enough to be useful in either format, so
the 9/9 should only be a factor when it is a
sure thing.
