Butcher of Malakir

The good news is that now you can run eight Grave Pact effects in your deck. The bad news is that four of them cost seven mana. The good news is that they're also 5/4 flying creatures. The bad news is that now your opponent can kill them like regular creatures. The good news is that doing so will trigger them and make them sacrifice a creature.

Constructed- 3
Casual- 3
Limited- 3.5
Multiplayer- 3.75

Butcher of Malakir

Wasn't Grave Pact enough of a threat without being a flying vampire warrior? Granted, he can be blocked or burned in a way that Grave Pact never could, but he adds the ability to finish the game on his own without another card, if need be. I'm looking forward to seeing him in action personally.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Wednesday 3-3-10

Butcher of Malakir

Constructed: A little too expensive for current Vampire decks. Maybe one or two copies because he is not Legendary.

Casual & Multiplayer: A good Vampire for casual players and its ablitity fits in well for multiplayer games.

Limited: It flies. Going black this is a good one to pick or maybe even hate draft it.

Overall a okay Vampire.

Constructed: 2

Casual: 3

Multiplayer: 3

Limited: 3

Later

Miguel

Today's card of the day is Butcher of Malakir which is a 5/4 with Flying for seven mana that can force your opponents to each sacrifice a creature whenever a creature you control is sent to the graveyard.

Forcing a sacrifice is both better and worse than targeted removal as it gives your opponent the choice of creature which can be the difference between a 0/1 token and an 8/8 with Trample, but it also will work on creatures with Shroud, Protection, or Indestructible.

In Constructed and Casual this is a bit too high of a mana cost for the effect as it will rarely stay in play long enough for it to be activated beyond the trigger of the Butcher itself being sent to the graveyard.
Cards like Fleshbag Marauder and Bone Splinters can work well for a theme as your opponent will need to sacrifice two creatures which improves the odds of removing a serious threat and guarantees at least two triggers from the Butcher. Overall this is a support card with the price of a finisher and as a result is not likely to become a major factor in the emerging Vampire deck culture.

For Limited the effect isn't bad and the seven mana cost is still within range of most games. Only having two Black mana symbols in the casting cost is a plus, but by the later turns of the game two or more sources of Black mana should be readily available. In Booster this is a very good choice for a first pick as a large creature with evasion and a potentially repeatable removal effect. With Sealed even a deck that is splashing Black can play this with the low specific color requirement and the effect is for any of your creatures and not just a certain tribe.

For Multiplayer this definitely has some advantages as it forces each opponent to sacrifice and the longer games in the format also give time to get this more expensive creature into play.

Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 4.5