Nothing is funnier to me personally than when
Wizards of the Coast reprints cards whose
original printing is less than a year old. Of
course, since Karplusan Strider is REALLY from
Coldsnap, “the long lost expansion to Ice Age”,
I guess this card is actually ten-plus years
old. In reality, Karplusan Strider is just an
okay card. Decent enough in limited, Strider has
not found a home in any constructed decks since
it first appeared last Summer, and with good
reason. Karplusan Strider is too narrow for
constructed, and just good enough for limited:
Karplusan
Strider
I'd really just rather have a creature with
protection from blue and black, frankly. But
protection is too complicated to go into the
core set at common, so we get this. Well, I
guess it's still pretty hard for a blue or black
mage to kill this. Blue can still counter it,
but black's targeted removal looks pretty
useless. And blue can't even bounce it, so once
it hits the table, it's a happy time. Trouble
is, it's still just a 3/4-- very nice in Limited
even if you're not playing against House Dimir,
but Constructed tends to ask a little more of
it's creatures. In Constructed it's sideboard
food.
A replacement for Anaconda and River Bear. This
is better than both of those in every format
except limited, but this guy is not that
impressive when you consider Troll Ascetic is in
Tenth. The 3/4 body is certainly nicer than the
Ascetic's 3/2, but the Ascetic regenerates.
Therefore, skip this unless you're on a budget
and can't afford Troll Ascetics. That goes for
casual, too.
In limited, solid but not as good as his
predecessors. Still, he can't be Banished (well,
ok, in Tenth's case, Deathmarked) or bounced,
and that plus the decent P/T will go a long way
towards helping you seal up the game.
I didn't really play much coldsnap so I've never
seen this guy in action. He looks like he has
some potential but he doesn't have pro red which
is the color of removal. But it does have 4
toughness so it should be safe from most burn
spells. Nothing special here. Might see some
played in draft.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 2
Limited: 2
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Karplusan
Strider
When I look at a card like Karplusan Strider, I
usually feel kind of sad that Ravenous Baloth or
even Erhnam Djinn didn't win the Selecting Tenth
Edition vote against Troll Ascetic. It reminds
me that green has an overload of three-drops but
is about to lose its best four-drops (Giant
Solifuge and Loxodon Hierarch). Still, Karplusan
Strider is far from a bad card. There are black
removal spells running around everywhere in
Standard - Sudden Death, Slaughter Pact, and
soon Terror - and especially limited. In
constructed play, the Strider is a sideboard
card at best; in limited, it can be a
powerhouse. I still remember playing in Coldsnap
drafts, facing players with three copies of
Chill to the Bone and a Soul Spike in their
deck, casting Karplusan Strider, and winning
easily.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 4/5
Arcane
Karpulsan
Strider
Constructed: Didn’t make that big a splash when
it came out last summer in Coldsnap and other
than the fact that I do feel it makes a good fit
to represent the enemy color interactions (along
with cryoclasm, deathmark, luminesce and
flashfreeze) for the core set it just doesn’t
pop for the tournament scene. Can’t be the
target of blue or black spells is nice, but I’d
rather just go for the full on protection or
untargetability offered by the Scragnoth or
Quagnoth even if you’re paying more mana.
Casual/Multi: A pretty good budget card. It last
through some of the most common targeted
removal, evading black creature kill, blue
bounce and surviving most burn with 4 toughness.
Combine that with a relatively cheap casting
cost (though for 4 mana green usually gets 4/4s)
and it comes up with a few points, but there are
definitely going to be games you wish it had
full on protection.
Limited: Going to be really hard for your
opponent to answer this as I said earlier it’s
dodging the best sources of creature removal, of
which there aren’t that many to begin with. The
colors you’ll probably have to watch out for
with this are going to be green (with giant
growths) and white (with pacifism). Other than
that it’s going to overrun a good 50% of the
creatures your opponents play.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 3.5
The Missing
Linc
-Balding
for just over 5 years
-Playing MTG for just over 10
Karplusan
Strider
I like this simply costed ground pounder in
draft or sealed. It won't see play in
constructed. 4 is a reasonable cost for a 3/4
and excepting red, blue and black have the most
commonly seen removal right now.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 2
Limited: 3
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
It's a Yeti! I'm pretty sure there's a lot of
stuff better than this
though. It's a 3/4 for 4 mana with a very weak
version of shroud. Not
good.
In casual, who wants to use a Yeti? It's all
about Dragons! The
shroud for blue and black is not that useful
too, as people will
catch up to your plans and simply plan for it.
In limited, this is decent. 4 toughness is prety
hard to burn down
and it does stop black spot removal, well,
except for Nekrataal.
