Creatures with flying take 3 damage, or
creatures without it can't block for a turn.
It's better to not have flying when this card is
in the equation! You can also reappropriate
anything that's been stolen from you, but that
doesn't come up much. Mostly this card works in
Gruul aggro (is there any other kind?) to either
clear a path for an aplha strike or take out the
flying creatures that Gruul struggles to cope
with. A card perfectly suited for the guild that
best uses it.
In Multiplayer it finds a bit of extra utility.
Not only does more players mean more creatures
that may or may not fly, but by playing this
during another player's combat, you could
disable everyone else's ability to block in
addition to your own, allowing one opponent to
get an attack in on another opponent... or
yourself.
Those who remember the original Ravnica block
are probably surprised right now that the
Gruul's unique charm is one of the seemingly
less-aggressive ones in this set. The "new"
Gruul seems to have sacrificed some of its raw
aggression for a degree of subtlety - of all
things - which is good news for fans of red and
green decks and bad news for any people who
think that blue should be the one color to rule
them all in constructed. Directly attacking
three of the things that are often used
against aggressive decks of this color
combination is good. Doing it on one
card, thereby saving space for more
Volcanic Geysers and Skarrg Goliaths than a pair
of opponents can counter between them, is
nothing short of amazing.
Today's card of the day is Gruul Charm which
costs one Red and one Green for one of three
effects. The first prevents creatures
without Flying from blocking that turn which is
by far the most likely to be used option as both
Red and Green can deliver powerful alpha
strikes. The second one of gaining control
of all permanents you own is extremely
situational and outside of a truly specialized
metagame doesn't even warrant sidedecking for
this purpose. The third deals three damage
to each creature with Flying which supports the
first effect meaning it is often useful to the
same deck and a solid sidedeck choice against
aerial builds. Overall two of the options
are quite solid and provide a Gruul deck with a
strong offensive threat, particularly against
the normally problematic Flying themes.
In Limited this is a card that really functions
about the same as in Constructed with the
potential of being mass removal or opening a
game winning attack. Multiple copies are
very beneficial and even two can make even a
fairly weak pool a serious threat. An easy
second or third pick in Booster and automatic
inclusion for Sealed, probably worth splashing
into other Green or Red guilds as well.
Welcome to Charm week here at Pojo.com's Card of
the Day section! We continue by looking at the
Gruul Charm from Gatecrash. Gruul Charm is an
uncommon instant that costs one green and one
red mana. Gruul Charms the abilities to choose
from are: Creatures without flying cannot block
this turn; or Gain control of all permanents you
own; or Deal three damage to each creature with
flying.
The
Gruul Charm is in no way a Boros Charm. The
Gruul Charm seems to me more like you'd be
running it almost always for it's first effect
and not so much the other two. It may even be
more or less a sideboard option for those games
when you find your opponent doesn't rely on air
forces, or plays control, or uses exclusively
fliers.
Outside
of that, if matched up against something
favorable for the abilities, it could be
devastating. There aren't a ton of gain control
of decks out there, so the second ability seems
the weakest. However, as I said, the first is
the most important, and works well with the
third ability should the first actually be
ineffective.
What I mean by all of that is this. If your
opponent isn't playing a lot of fliers, it means
you will be able to get a large scale attack
through, and probably Bloodrush some heavy
damage. If they are playing a lot of fliers,
then the 3 damage is likely to clear down a
sizeable portion of their field. Meaning that
the two abilities heavy compensate the other.
As I
said, I'm not a huge fan of the second ability,
but the complimented way the first and third
work makes this a decent card in the end.
Due to some technical difficulties, starting my
week out on Wednesday here. First of all, I
have always loved charms, even bad ones. I
love versatility, so being able to do one of
three things is always awesome. Speaking
of bad ones, though, we have Gruul Charm.
This is at best a sideboard card in constructed,
and I don't even see it seeing much play there
unless the metagame really calls for it.
In limited I'd play it for the versatility, but
it's a late draft pick and could easily get cut
if you have a good card pool. None of the
abilities just really do enough to be game
breaking. Situational, yes, but I think
more often than not you'll draw it and wish it
was something else.
