This guy is really taking off in tournaments.
His best use is to untap lands upon entering
play, giving you an extra boost of mana with
which to play a creature. Next turn, if nobody
got through to him, you've got yourself an
Overrun waiting to be cast, and you've still got
mana to play Groundbreaker the same turn. Or he
can make a herd of Beasts to defend himself from
attackers. Or he can just be the druid and untap
lands turn after turn, giving you a psuedo-Overgrowth
until you've played all your spells and are
ready to let him play his. His versatility, the
power of his third move, and the speed at which
he can build up to it, is quickly making him the
most favored of the planeswalkers.
Constructed- 4.5
Casual- 4.5
Limited- 4.8
Arcane
Garruk
Wildspeaker
Back after a short hiatus, been busy with: new
job, my teachers college applications and
frustrated by just losing a Top 8 slot in the
Ontario Provincial Championships last weekend on
tiebreakers. My ninth place was courtesy of this
strapping planeswalker though (which is as good
a segue as I can come up with).
Constructed: Arguably the best planeswalker of
the bunch (and I’m sure this debate will go on
for years and years or until Wizards gives us a
new set of the newest card type. Whether or not
you think he’s the best, Garruk still has some
quite killer abilities that are all constructed
worthy. Untap two lands may not seem like a
great +1 ability but it does have great
applications and can help speed aggro decks into
more early creatures, help fight off control by
mustering up more mana then they can or powering
out slightly larger fireballs…er…disintegrates.
Beast making is a powerhouse ability that some
(read: blue) control decks can have a hard time
keeping up with as a stream of 3/3 nigh-uncounterable
creatures every turn-ish can be hard for them to
handle and lets you hold threats in hand as they
scramble to deal with your one card that is
pouring out men. And lastly the Ovverrun is just
ridiculous. Whether you have 2 creatures or 10
this is going to pose serious problems for any
one and you could be off to the races with
something as early as a turn 4 swing of 10-12+
damage with enough early drops like birds, elves
and snow elves to hit the board quick.
Casual: The fact that planeswalkers are their
own card type is going to spare them from some
common removal seen in Casual circles, but the
fan favorites (like Vindicate are going to send
these guys packing). Burn decks are also going
to smile wickedly at you knowing that they can
cripple your planeswalker with a simple
lightning bolt. They are also harder to protect
at the kitchen table as having to deal with more
than one opponent can spell quick doom for a
‘walker if you don’t have the proper protection.
Fortunately Garruk can bring his own buddies
along to protect him from early ground pounders
(though watch out for flying and shadow, as
green has some problems with these). These
beastial buds are also a great way to recover
from multiple wrath effects while keeping up
card advantage over your opponents. Nothing like
seeing your opponent sigh as he has to Damnation
away a pair of beasts when you’ve got nothing
else on the board and a mittful of cards and
just replace the beast on your next turn.
Overrun is a great way of ending stalemates and
if set up properly can take down 2 opponents at
the same time. The disadvantage being that your
opponents have a better idea of when the overrun
is coming and might be able to stop you.
Limited: Bomb, plain and simple. At the very
least he’s like a trio of 3/3 creatures for 4
mana, and at best he’s a DIY army and “I win”
kit all bundled up together. Double colored mana
means that he’s not really going to splash in
anything (which can be said of all Planeswalkers)
but he’s going to make green a lot more
appealing to play. Of course you’ll have to
watch out for evasive creatures, so save your
removal for fliers and Garruk should be a happy
camper. Creature stalemates happen all the time
in limited as one person waits for some kind of
advantage to pull ahead and whether you sneak
out a few extra creatures or alpha strike all
out it’s hard to see Garruk not winning. Not
you. Garruk. Sorry, but really he did all the
work.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4.5
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
Garruk
Wildspeaker
The best Planeswalker in my opinion, it
effectively costs 2 mana to play on turn 4 and
gives an Overrun on turn 4. That's a 2 mana
Overrun which by the way is extremely efficient.
It's also decent in the new R/G Dragonstorm deck
as it gives a 3/3 token to stop damage as well
as untapping 2 lands per turn for extra mana.
It's really good in any format.
