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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Image from Wizards.com |
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Spiketail Hatchling
8th Edition Uncommon
Reviewed August 25, 2004
Constructed: 3.1
Casual: 2.8
Limited: 3
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ...
average.
5 is the highest rating
Click here to see all
our
Card of the Day Reviews
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Chris
Gerhardt
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game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut |
A nice control element. Basically it causes
your opponent to pay one more to get something on
the board safely. In the meantime, you can
still swing with this flyer, as it's ability does
not require tapping. That fact is what makes
Spiketail Hatchling a viable choice for a deck.
Use it in control decks where you'd like to slow
down your opponent to give yourself time to set
up.
In casual, counter
control isn't a popular theme, but if you were
going in that direction, this is a decent card to
consider.
In limited, it isn't
quite as great as probably will only have a shot
at one or two of them in your deck. At
numbers that low, you won't be able to count on
seeing it early enough where it's ability will
make a difference. Better in draft than
sealed, but it is an uncommon, which hurts your
chances of seeing it. But if you can
accumulate a few, a nice add to a Blue build.
Constructed:
3
Casual: 2
Limited: 3
Current Price:
Spiketail
Hatchling -
8th Edition - $0.39
Combos
Well With:
Counterspell -
7th Edition - $1.02
Mana Leak -
8th Edition - $0.99
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Spiketail Hatchling
A nice little card.
Our new Force Spike, you get a 1/1 flier for 1
more mana. It helps to have the body, as you can
usually get a few good shots in before popping
this, if you ever pop it at all. Sometimes,
people play around this too carefully, and
that's OK too, as you have just set those people
back a turn. It was great in an old block deck
way back when, but I prefer to forget that block
ever existed. Everyone else will too in November
2005 (when Masques block rotates out of
Extended).
I'm sure you can
make a cool casual deck from this and a lot of
mana control. Think Pirates if you want to stay
in the same block.
In limited, it's a
flier. Fliers are always good, and the sac
abaility is just gravy.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5
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Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
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Spiketail Hatchling
In limited, there is almost never a time you
wouldn't be willing to pay 1U
for a 1/1 flyer with ANY additional ability.
However, that doesn't mean this
card is great for limited either. In limited, this
is the kind of card you
don't mind playing, but then again, it doesn't
exactly break your heart to
leave this card out of a draft deck either. You
probably have to be able to
play several of these in a draft or sealed deck in
order to get much use out
of this card's special ability to counter a spell.
In constructed, mana
requirements on the whole are tighter, making
Spiketail Hatchling a very
decent card. The problem is, blue constructed
decks are typically control
decks with few creatures. The few creatures in a
control deck are going to
have to offer more of a win condition than this
little 1/1 flyer does. This
card found its best use in the block constructed
format, where it appeared
in aggressive/control mono blue decks containing
lots of flyers.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.5
CASUAL: 3.0
LIMITED: 3.0
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Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer |
Spiketail Hatchling
This guy if one of the
better two drops blue has seen in a long time. He
attacks for one flying a turn, and he can be Power
Sink for one whenever you need him to be. Best of
all, if your opponent not very good, it becomes a
Stone Rain for several turns, as your opponent is
never willing to tap that last mana, afraid you
will sacrifice the Hatchling to counter his spell.
While this guy hardly
qualifies as a kill mechanism, it’s very playable,
and worth looking at.
Constructed:
3
Casual:
3
Limited:
4
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX) |
Honestly this card had
it's moment in the rising waters deck, but it's a
lot less useful these days. I wouldn't recommend
anyone play it when building a deck with lots of
spell counters. It's a good card. It's just not
that great right now.
Casual players don't like to give up their
creatures for just a CHANCE to stop a spell. So it
loses value there of course. I'd only even truly
play this in limited if I had multiples or if I
was trying to force through some more fliers.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 1.5 |
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Andy
Van Zandt |
Spiketail Hatchling
Evasive damage and a huge nuissance to opponents
in the early game- the
fact that he can be disruptive by his mere
presence, without even sac'ing
him, makes this guy much stronger than his
diminutive stature initially
indicates. Not broken, but a card that almost
any blue deck could consider
squeezing in. In limited he's not as amazing,
but still a flier with an
occasionally useful skill.
constructed 3
casual 2.5
limited 3 |
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Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
Boards |
Spiketail Hatchling
This week's cards
were selected some members of our message
board. So if you don't like them, don't blame
me. :p
This card while
seemingly horrible in constructed, not having
seen much play in Type 2, is actually an
important card in the Type 1 tournament winning
deck: Fish (blue/red). Fish basically uses
free/very low costing counters (FoW, Daze,
etc.), then locks with Null Rod, this card, and
a few others (including Friday's card). It's
one of good decks in Type 1, and doesn't
necessarily need any power.
Doesn't really
appeal to me in limited. Countermagic isn't
very strong in limited, although this is a
flier, and it does counter for nothing, so it
isn't too bad I guess.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
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