Invocation of saint traft

glggwp

What's the point of this rare...

ZW2007-

I think they are toying with the idea of 'bulk rares' like in paper mtg. Seriously though, this card is pretty pointless imo. I'd rather just use murderer's axe for less than half the cost for the same effect (+2/+2 all the time vs +4/+4 half the time).

Ekkias

Maybe to protect your creature from Smite or Aligned Hedron Network? Those are the only two reasons I can think of.

ZW2007-

That's interesting, never thought of that interaction. My main thinking was they were just emulating the paper version that summons a 4/4 angel that's tapped and attacking when the enchanted creature attacks. The angel gets exiled at the end of turn. Hence +4/+4 while attacking and that's it. Bland rare in paper translates to a worse rare in pq even before factoring in that the set size is smaller and rares are much harder to come by.

glggwp

how about changing it to summon 4 8/8 octopuses with trample, haste and reach for 1 turn?

glggwp

Ekkias wrote:

Maybe to protect your creature from Smite or Aligned Hedron Network? Those are the only two reasons I can think of.

this a creative thought but also a little pathetic in nature...

Irgy

Repeatedly gaining and losing toughness is better than just having toughness, because of how it interacts with damage. If a creature for some reason takes 2 damage every time it attacks (maybe your opponent is making a scion every turn) it will die eventually no matter how much toughness it has. If that creature gains 4 toughness every time it attacks, it will never die.

The card is still bad of course, I'm just trying to find a slightly better reason why you could in theory want to use it.

nexus13

The fact that it sort of gives regenerate 4 is interesting but it should be 8 mana at most, probably 6 to make it a decent rare that sees much play.

span_argoman

Invocation of Saint Traft works best with Berserkers (that don't have first/double strike). You get to clear the opponent's board while the creature takes lessened damage. There is also that side benefit of taking less damage from defenders.

Unfortunately Berserkers are deadweight until Runaway Carriage is fixed. Also Blue doesn't exactly have many Berserkers though it can run Berserker's Plate. White doesn't have many either, the most prominent being Iroas's Champion which would rather you run Murderer's Axe cause it doesn't benefit from the damage blocking.

So in order to have access to good Berserkers, your best option ends up being running it in one of the following dual-colour planeswalkers: Kiora, Saheeli, Ajani, Nahiri, Sorin. Of that list Kiora obviously has better decklists to run but the rest are suitable candidates for experimentation.