If you haven't already, I would recommend
checking out MagicTheGathering.com's Latest
Developments article from two weeks ago, which
quoted a comment from the internal development
process about this card, attributed to Aaron
Forsythe: "Hard to justify historically. Feels
like we've lost our minds." In some ways, I
agree; but at least it doesn't really have any
game-breaking abilities. It's "only" a Tarmogoyf
(play it on turn two, courtesy of the huge
number of multilands in Standard and Extended,
and demand an answer) rather than an Arcbound
Ravager (if it's on the stack, or in your
opponent's hand, you lose). Even then, it's
still not necessarily an auto-include; there's
stiff competition at its cost in its colors from
Burning-Tree Shaman, Troll Ascetic, Ohran Viper,
Glowrider, and Call of the Herd, many of which
have relevant abilities against combo and
control decks. Woolly Thoctar is definitely one
to watch, especially in block constructed where
you need Executioner's Capsule or Oblivion Ring
to avoid taking about ten damage from it.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Miguel
Monday 11-17-08
Woolly Thoctar
Constructed:
Naya got some big critters for their cost. A 5/4
on turn 3 is a little scary. With green for the
base color it is easy to manage your mana to be
able to cast this big critter on turn 3 or even
2 turn with the help of Birds.
Casual:
Big beast are always good with one color. This
3-color beast will be setting on the sidelines,
because most of the decks are mono green.
Limited:
Very good creature with the right mana fixing.
Draft a top pick for a creature, very few cards
I would pick over it.
Overall a good uncommon that is so cheap.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 2
Limited: 4
Later
Miguel
BeJose
Woolly Thoctar
Can you say power-creep? A 5/4 for 3 mana, this
is prety crazy. The fact that it costs RGW
doesn't really matter consider the wealth of
land based mana-fixing available right now. On
the other hand despite its massive size for such
a cheap cost I don't see it as making that
huge of an impact. Firstly its a vanilla
creature which means its only to going to really
see play in aggro decks, and it can be dealt
with in just the same way. I know the 'dies to
removal' argument (people argued that 'Gof was
bad because it died to all kinds of removal) is
fairly weak, but it does have somesway here.
Thoctar costs 3 different colored mana and
although color-fixing is easy it prevents the
easy splashing into any deck that 'gof saw. This
definitely has a place in ext. Zoo and possibly
an aggressive standard deck, one of the pros in
Standard is that in can slip under Cryptic in
the early turns and avoid the most common board
seeper Firespout making it a possible choice
against QnT. In limited its a nice enabler for
Naya cards and all around beat-stick.
