Green has always sought to compensate for its
lack of instant-speed tricks and evasive
abilities by simply dominating any creature that
could block or be blocked by it. This is that
philosophy taken to its natural conclusion--
Engulfing Slagwurm destroys any creature that
even tries to engage it in combat before any
combat damage can ever be dealt, regardless of
opposing toughness. Its seven power ensures that
your opponent is duly incentivized to chump
block (and anything that blocks this thing is
indeed a chump) and that it will end the game in
short order once your opponent runs out of
creatures to throw at this thing. Its seven
toughness... is mostly just there for
decoration, much like its teeth. It might become
relevant if your opponent has two Grasp of
Darkness, but mostly it's just there to say
"burn spells aren't good enough unless you've
got a fistful of them to blow on one creature".
Of course, it's not all beatdowns.
Indestructible creatures can block it all day,
and some might even be big enough to kill it in
the combat damage step like Darksteel Juggernaut
yesterday... maybe. And a regenerator can block
and live, but not deal combat damage back.
Though please note-- Engulfing Slagwurm's life
gain ability is not dependent on the creature
being destroyed, so if your opponent throws
Darksteel Myr in front of it, you still gain 1
life.
I'm not entirely sure why you get the bonus when
the Slagwurm eats a creature (instead of, y'know,
the wurm getting it), but I'm glad you do. The
only thing green lacks (that it could have a use
for) is a way to get enemy creatures off the
table. Granted, Engulfing Slagwurm's answer to
that problem is rather roundabout, but the very
least it does is deter your opponent's creatures
from attacking, or else deter your opponent's
creatures from defending. I don't see what's not
to like here.
Today's card of the day is Engulfing Slagwurm
which is a seven mana 7/7 with effects similar
to First Strike, Deathtouch, and Lifelink that
all trigger when it blocks or is blocked before
damage is actually dealt.
This is a fairly impressive set of effects, but
requires Green's mana acceleration to see play
in a reasonable period of time. Without
Trample an opponent can use tokens or other
small creatures to stall, so support effects can
help. Overall this is a powerful card that
can be used as a threat in a deck that can
afford it, but the high cost will limit it from
being played anywhere else.
For Limited this is a bomb card that is very
difficult for an opponent to deal with outside
of Indestructible creatures. It gets
around Infect and is a huge problem if left
unblocked which makes an obvious first choice in
Booster and worth playing whenever possible in
Sealed. Echo Circlet is a nice card to
have with this defensively, but preferably you'd
be on the attack whenever possible.
