In a vacuum it seems good, as a cheap Ally with
a decent ability. But here's the issue: most
Allies aren't useful in a mill deck, and milling
does nothing to further the usual Ally
strategies. So, in an Ally deck, this is little
more than a Lumengrid Warden who triggers your
other Allies, because you're not going to mill
out anybody before your other Allies win it for
you. And in a mill deck, she's basically just a
cheap blocker that mills for one, maybe two.
Hedron Crab would be more effective.
Milling is conventionally considered a weak
ability, and people feel they have good reason
to think so. After all, it's not like decks with
Allies play lots of creatures and lots of mana
to play them via Harabaz Druid and friends. It's
not like Halimar Excavator is the same color as
Rite of Replication. It's not like it can also
play backup to more aggressive Allies and in all
likelihood put lots of opposing answers out of
action pre-emptively. It's not like you'll ever
lose a match to this card.
Magic The Gathering Card of the day: Halimar
Excavator
Welcome back readers today’s card of the day
is Halimar Excavator a card I am excited to
review. First off when allies first emerged I
doubted they would make any impact on
constructed tournaments and would only be used
in limited. I am happy to say I am wrong,
recently ally decks have reached the top 8 in
various tournaments and Halimar Excavator has
played a large role in each of the decks. Being
able to switch from the beat down strategy to
milling allows the player to have an additional
strategy. In standard this card has seen some
play and has fared quite well, in extended and
eternal however its too slow and incentive. In
casual and multiplayer this card can mill
multiple opponents as you commit allies to the
board, combine with soul foundry and presto. In
limited milling is a viable strategy and if your
heavy into allies you can turn it into a viable
win condition. Overall I am impressed by this
card and allies in general as they allow allies
to become competively relevant.
Today's card of the day is Halimar Excavator
which is a two mana 1/3 Blue creature with the
Ally type that causes the opponent to send cards
from their library to the graveyard whenever an
Ally comes into play.
The main combination available is Rites of
Replication which gives this Ally a big
advantage even with minimal support.
In Constructed, Casual, and Multiplayer the
Ally theme isn't bad and deck destruction is
often tried, but the above combination can do
quite a bit of the work. A solid card for Ally
decks and one of the more dangerous options for
milling.
In Limited the options to build a solid deck
destruction build are usually pretty sparse, but
this block offers several at the common level.
If you have some support from a rare you can
draft these, Hedron Crab, and others to make a
fairly lethal arrangement in a forty card
minimum environment. Worth including if running
Blue in Sealed even as just a 1/3 with a small
effect. For Booster it is more about what you
are drafting into as you need either Allies or
other mill to make the most out of this. Not a
bad card in the format, but not nearly as
powerful when not fully supported.
