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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Hushwing Gryff
Image from Wizards.com

Hushwing Gryff
- M15

Reviewed Aug. 5, 2014

Constructed: 3.38
Casual: 3.38
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.20

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Deck Garage

Hushwing Gryff

If yesterday's card was a super-enabler for ETB abilities, this is the counter. A two-power flyer for three mana is a solid creature on its own, and the fact that it can counter ETB abilities will sometimes be super-handy. A lot of other times, though, it will barely do anything at all. And if you're holding back on this waiting to counter an ability, you're missing out on swinging for two in the air. Remember: if you've got this on the table, your opponent can't trigger any ETB abilities, so he may hold them back in his hand. Just because you can't see any being played doesn't mean you're not hurting the other guy's strategy.

Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 3.75
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 3.8

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Hushwing Gryff
 
I like that we're starting to get some more hippogriffs in Magic. I mean, I know that they're just "horse-griffins," but look at how adorable this guy is! I'm sure some readers are probably wishing he'd been in M11 when Titans were new, but the fact is that the comes-into-play-trigger trope of Magic design is not going away any time soon, and he's only going to get better. Flash means that a lot of decks will think they're safe when they're not, and his stats mean you're not unhappy to just play him early and go to town. My Hunted Horror deck is rather wary right now.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Hushwing Gryff which is a three mana White
2/1 with Flash, Flying, and creatures entering the battlefield don't cause abilities to trigger.  This is a mediocre creature aside from the final effect as a low toughness with Flash isn't ideal for defense and only two power, even with evasive, isn't impressive offensively.  The effect works well for sidedecking against specific builds if building around it in the maindeck is factored in, but it likely won't be popular even in that role.  The very specialized nature will prevent this from seeing much play and overall it is going to be kept to a few metagames barring a shift in current formats to very trigger oriented designs.
 
In Limited this is a three mana 2/1 with evasion and Flash, which makes it playable if only for the early game surprise threat on the opponent's turn.  Not really a great first pick in Booster as the effect isn't key in the format and removal or bigger creatures will have more of an impact.  In Sealed this is worth including when running White and aside from the low toughness it doesn't have any major negatives.
 
Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 3.0
Multiplayer: 3.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Hushwing Gryff
 
Creatures entering the battlefield can sometimes have a big effect. In Standard alone, a quick search on Gatherer shows several pages of cards with "enters the battlefield" in their text. A lot of them are pretty good, too: Angel of Serenity, Archaeomancer, Armada Wurm, Banisher Priest, Brain Maggot, Burning-Tree Emissary, Fanatic of Mogus, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Lifebane Zombie...and I'm only halfway through the list and only listing ones I've personally played with or against. That's not to mention all the evolve and constellation triggers that might happen with enchantment creatures, and all the crazy abilities people use in Commander, Modern, or other formats. With Flash, you can stop any of these abilities on the spot and keep any more from happening until they deal with your Gryff.
 
The downside is, that sometimes this guy is just a 2/1 flying for three mana. But with flash, even that's not completely terrible - especially if you have some way to pump him up. For this reason alone, he's a decent pick in limited.
 
I expect to see this card in a lot of sideboards in the future as he messes up a lot of game plans for your opponent.
 
Constructed: 4
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 3


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