A pretty simple, and pretty effective, creature
that can make itself bigger. It should have no
trouble getting bigger with just about every
other creature you play, and it can regenerate
itself for no mana, which makes it a very
effective blocker. Unfortunately, the nature of
the Evolve mechanic means it'll never be the
biggest thing on the board, so its potential for
growth is limited. It can re-grow the counters
it spends to regenerate itself, and it has to be
at least a 3/3 to regenerate, so it serves well
in a deck that just needs creatures and lots of
them, but it doesn't really do much of anything
all that well. If it had a way of moving its
counters onto another creature, I'd be much more
impressed. As it stands, it just fills a hole in
your mana curve.
This is obviously a strong card - anything that
either has or can acquire two or more power for
one mana is - but I can't stop thinking about
possible scenarios where the Experiment wouldn't
need to regenerate if you didn't take counters
off, but did for some reason. It's unlikely, of
course, but the fact is that there's more than
one use for the regeneration ability: note that
Selesnya Charm can remove creatures with high
power, and if a creature somehow ceases to be in
the requisite range while it is on the stack, it
is countered by the game rules. I'm sure you can
think of more.
Also, I want to take the opportunity to point
out that this guy can easily get to 4/4 or
higher, and thus would still have been good in
an environment where Incinerate was legal and
sported a badass quote from Chandra Nalaar. Just
putting that out there.
Today's card of the day is Experiment One which
is a one mana Green 1/1 with Evolve that can
remove two +1/+1 counters to Regenerate. Evolve
on a 1/1 is for one is very playable and can
easily be a 2/2 on the second turn for the
attack, which would not be difficult to increase
for the third turn. The regenerate aspect
is a nice little bonus that can save it from
removal later and resets Evolve to speed up
regrowth. Overall a solid start to an
Evolve deck that will likely see play both there
and in other builds looking for a 1/1 as a
potential threat.
In Limited a 1/1 for one is good and one that
gets bigger rather easily is even better.
This is a solid second or third pick in Booster
and automatic inclusion in any Green deck,
whether it is Simic or not.
There is no drawback to a creature like this and
it should be played whenever more than the
smallest splash of Green is present.
Welcome to another great week of card of the day
reviews here at Pojo.com! We begin the week
looking at Experiment One from Gatecrash.
Experiment One is an uncommon green creature
human ooze that costs just one green mana and is
a 1/1. Experiment One has Evolve, meaning it can
get bigger for each creature you play with
either higher power or toughness. Experiment One
also has the ability of remove two +1/+1
counters from him to regenerate.
While there is mixed opinions right now about how
Experiment One will fair, I for one saw him used
quite aggressively this past weekend, and he can
definitely be a game changer. While not
necessarily as powerful as some other humans in
Standard right now, he benefits from human
benefits, and slids nicely into aggressive Naya
decks, and in Selesnyan based decks.
The regenerate ability can always be disheartening once able
to use, because he can survive kill spells and
mass destruction and combat, but then loses his
pumps. But since he is again weaker, the pumps
come back quickly.
Honestly, I feel that if you look at this card and are on the
fence about him, take him. He is a really strong
card, and will likely surprise you in the end.
In limited, it's okay. Solid, not great.
I'll play it as a decent 1 drop. I think
it might see some block constructed play seeing
how large it can get quickly as a 1 drop.
I think there might be better things to play
there, but this one isn't too horrid.
Constructed: 3
Limited: 3
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