This card takes me back to the many, many times
I got stomped to pieces by Long Gui and
Adamantoise random encounters in the Final
Fantasy XIII games. Despite that, I've always
liked tortoises and turtles, and so I rather
like this guy. He's probably intended more for
defense than offense, and though his attack
trigger may annoy control players who want to
end the game quickly when they're on top, there
are few things that can get past his nine
toughness. Islandwalk can also be randomly
relevant, though a lot of blue control decks are
fast nowadays. But since he's good at defense
and has interesting abilities (and unlike Aaron
Forsythe, I use the word "interesting" as a
compliment), I personally don't mind.
In fact, my main complaint about this card is
actually that I can't for the life of me see
what it might have to do with the Sultai.
Today's card of the day is Meandering
Towershell which is a five mana Green 5/9 with
Islandwalk that is exiled when it attacks until
the next declare attackers step when it returns
tapped and attacking.
Offensively this averages two and a half damage
per turn with situational evasion, which is
really weak for five mana and Green can field
much better threats for that cost.
Defensively this is actually a solid blocker
with nine toughness to go along with the five
power, but overall more aggressive choices will
win games and this is unlikely to see much play
outside of gimmick builds which may take
advantage of the high toughness at a low mana
cost.
In Limited this is a nearly unassailable defense
that can offer some minimal offense, though the
opponent can play a threat during the two turn
attack window which is a notable drawback to
actually attacking.
Not a very powerful first pick, but an
inconvenience if an opponent has it in play
against you which gives it some value in
Booster. For Sealed if running Green and
it doesn't imbalance the mana curve this is
worth including for the defense and the possible
offense, even if it is weak over time it can
still do damage.
This is a very interesting creature. It's very
efficient for its cost, even by Green's
standards, and it has Islandwalk to potentially
become a real bugbear for blue decks, but it can
only attack once every other turn. And it really
only "exists" every other turn as well. Part of
the reason man-lands and artifacts that can
temporarily become creatures are so powerful is
that they're rarely a creature on your
opponent's turn, which means your opponent needs
instant-speed removal to deal with them.
Towershell has a similar situation of only being
able to be targeted on certain turns, but
they're not all your turns. He can be killed by
sorceries, but only on certain turns. That
doesn't necessarily keep him safer, but it could
make planning the next few turns trickier for
the enemy, as he has to leave mana up on the
right turn.
In combat, he's a beast-- he hits for 5 and his
9 toughness will keep him safe from just about
any toughness-based removal, but getting there
is the problem. He lands on turn five, but
doesn't actually hit the opponent until turn
seven, which is sort of like the opposite of
Haste. And Haste is a good ability, so its
opposite...
