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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Smothering Abomination
Image from Wizards.com

Smothering Abomination
- Battle for Zendikar

Reviewed October 7, 2015

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.25

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

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Card of the Day Reviews 


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Smothering Abomination
 
This card seems to be a callback from another dimension to Graveborn Muse, as a sort of Phyrexian Arena on a creature. Graveborn Muse scared a lot of people away by asking for a scaling life payment based on creatures, in a deck that wanted to have a lot of creatures. I think Smothering Abomination here is more exploitable, in a certain way, because of its synergy with black's other creature-sacrificing effects; he also appears safer to players and will be a more appealing build-around-me beacon, but overcommitting to him will run the risk of putting yourself behind on the table. Still, I expect him to find a niche somewhere - drawing extra cards has always been the most powerful ability in Magic.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Smothering Abomination which is a two Black and two colorless 4/3 with Devoid, Flying, forces you to sacrifice a creature each upkeep, and when you sacrifice a creature you draw a card.  This is designed for mono-Black sacrifice or colorless eldrazi scion builds to add much needed draw power.  The mandatory sacrifice is a problem without token generation, but there are many options for generating at least one a turn.  As a 4/3 evasive with draw power this adds a lot of value to those builds and should see play in several formats, possibly even Standard in addition to the obvious popularity it'll have in Casual and Commander. 
 
In Limited maintaining creatures for this to sacrifice will be much more difficult without eldrazi scion tokens.  That combined with the double Black in the casting cost means this doesn't fit into every deck.  With support this can be both a serious threat as an evasive 4/3 plus add enough card advantage to impact the game dramatically. If the pool allows it and doesn't benefit the tokens staying alive or building up to larger creatures it is a viable card to build around in Sealed.  In Booster it is a very risky first pick and likely not worth it unless aggressively supported with other picks. 
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 3.5
EDH/Commander: 3.5


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