There are a couple of dimensions to this card.
One is to illustrate how harsh time travel tends
to be on people who aren't the protagonist of
the story. Another is about how that
disadvantage isn't actually a disadvantage at
all. Think about it: not every red deck plays
one-cost creatures, but do the ones that do ever
block at all? The third is almost the most
mind-blowing to me: why is his game text is
almost identical to cards like Ironclaw Orcs and
Brassclaw Orcs, from the original Sligh deck? Is
there any chance they're hinting at an
extraplanar origin for those creatures? Perhaps
not, but then again, nobody thought Gideon was
from Theros either!
Today's card of the day is Zurgo Bellstriker
which is a one mana Red 2/2 Legendary that can't
block creatures with power two or greater and
has Dash for two mana. This is a decent
aggressive card for a Red deck that just offers
an early game threat or possibly as a reusable
enters or leaves play trigger, such as .
The blocking drawback is worth noting, but it is
not very different from Rakdos Cackler and that
saw play.
Overall it is very likely that at least one copy
of this will find a home in many Red decks
across current formats
In Limited this is a somewhat weak first pick as
it has no impact on the battlefield by itself
other than being a 2/2 for one which is best on
turn one then decreases rapidly in value.
It can support other cards, though drafting into
that and having the combo function in games is
somewhat unlikely. In Booster a creature
with another effect or removal should be drafted
instead, though if already in the color and
nothing else stands out in the pack this is not
a bad card to have. In Sealed it is an
easy inclusion with a Red build and there is
minimal drawback to using it aside from the lack
of chump blocking.
Any time you can attack with two power on the
second turn, it’s going to be a card that people
play. The drawback isn’t very relevant most of
the time, because the decks that want to play
this don’t leave their creatures back to block
very often anyways. The versatility to pay it
once to save your mana for later spells or pay 2
for a surprise attacker later in the game makes
this just the piece that many red decks need.
In limited, your chance of building a deck that
can take full advantage of a major aggressive
strategy is small. Most of the time, Zurgo will
simply be outclassed and you’ll wish he was
something bigger. Multiplayer games are usually
less aggressive, and there’s not much place for
a 2/2.
