Chromium - what is good for?

Tremayne

Now Chromium is out I wonder what it is useful for.

it seems to me that it is an odd mix of abilities.
why Flash? it obviously can’t block on its own.
the spell thing seems peculiar, but it might be powerful if it can negate River rebuke and other spells that has multiple targets. Is that the case?
the mana cost seems on par with other creatures of this power/toughness, but I can’t figure out if the pluses and minuses for this card makes is cost sensible.

anyone has some insight on this creature?

Froggy

A trophy to sit on the shelf.

But there’s a lot of pinkies in the pack - worth more than the Mythic itself if you ask me.

Urzashead

Cards li in e rivers rebuke do no target. So no effect. Basically if your opponent is not playing mass removal or a spell that targets the 1st 2nd or 3rd creature. This guy is invincible to death by spell.

Firinmahlazer

Uhhhh. Seriously?

Legendary, works with cards like Thran's Temporal Gateway. Flying, beats defenders. Flash, ok probably just because the paper card has it. Can't have its mana drained or raised, self explanatory. Whenever your opponent casts a spell on this creature, destroy that spell, its effects do not trigger, and this creature becomes a 1/1 until the end of turn. 

What's the question again?

Tremayne

As the OP, I guess @Firinmahlazer is asking me a question (or making a bad joke)

I hinted in the OP, that if the highlighted portion in the post above was as expected, then the card might have possibilities. However, recent events have shown that just because the text on a card seems great, does surely not mean that the actual effect is as powerful as can be expected. 

So @Firinmahlazer are you confirming that Rivers Rebuke, A Hour of devastation or Nahiris Wrath and others, do not trigger at all if Chromium is on the table?
or are these cards only affecting all other creatures and supports in play (while changing Chromium to a 1/1 creature)
furthermore does Chromium revert to being a 7/7 creature at the end of the opponents turn.
How about Flash cards for that matter.

Now you might see why I asked my original question. Given recent bugs in the 2.9 release, I don’t want to pay for a card that does not work as expected or only partially as expected.

Mburn7

Tremayne said:

Now you might see why I asked my original question. Given recent bugs in the 2.9 release, I don’t want to pay for a card that does not work as expected or only partially as expected.

If you don't want to pay for a card that does not work as expected, you should not buy any cards for cash.

So far the money exclusives are incorrect much more often than not

Tremayne

@Mburn7 - very true. However I would like to know if the card is worth the money before selling out my dough, so I hope someone who has pulled the trigger can shed some light on this cards usefulness.

Gunmix25

@Tremayne

As odd as this is going to sound... I have played with him some 10 fights and Greg insists on targeting everything else but Chromium.

Dunno if it is because the program knows the spell is wasted if used and chooses an easier target or what, I am not entirely sure. In every case I did have one or two other creatures out. So I am going to test it with just chromium in the deck and see what happens.

**side note: Because the AI ignored Chromium I was able to reinforce him numerous times and steam rolled the opponent.

HomeRn

Chromium is basically an anti-control creature.  Direct removal spells doesn't work against him - it only makes him a 1/1 until the end of turn - and due to the fact that he is a flyer... most berserkers can't touch him.  Which means you need to have mass removal or conditional removal (ie. implied targeting such as 1st creature, or last creature, etc.) to deal with Chromium.

This in turn makes him a wonderful target for buffing.  Make him into a "high-priority" target that can absorb direct removal, in order to distract Greg from targeting more important creatures!  Or just buff him to be a constant threat that Greg has to deal with constantly!

Just note that Chromium's ability only works for SPELLS... PW abilities, supports, and abilities from your opponent's creatures will not be countered by Chromium's ability.  So Chromium isn't so good if Greg is running either version of Nicol Bolas, or Ob Nix, who can both deal with Chromium themselves!

octal9

Tremayne said:

So @Firinmahlazer are you confirming that Rivers Rebuke, A Hour of devastation or Nahiris Wrath and others, do not trigger at all if Chromium is on the table?

Chromium only triggers when it is the direct target of a spell. This means that any spell that doesn't say "Target Creature", or says something along the lines of "all", "first", "first and second", "last", etc, will function normally.

HoD, RR, NW, Oath of Liliana (it's a support) - they'll all cast in their normal fashion.

Walk the Plank, To the Slaughter - this type of spell will "fizzle". Electrolyze probably fizzles as well.

Tremayne

Thanks @HomeRn and @octal9. Your answers makes sense, but with all the wording issues that seems to plague the development team, I needed some input on this card.

It seems there are just to many options to make Chromium a really great deal, but YMMV.

madwren

I bought him and enjoy him. My favorite experience was seeing an opposing Sorin dump 3 removal spells in a turn trying to kill him.  With Chromium, Darigaaz, and Phoenix, there are some great options to combat heavy removal decks.

Firinmahlazer

Tremayne said:

As the OP, I guess @Firinmahlazer is asking me a question (or making a bad joke)

I hinted in the OP, that if the highlighted portion in the post above was as expected, then the card might have possibilities. However, recent events have shown that just because the text on a card seems great, does surely not mean that the actual effect is as powerful as can be expected. 

So @Firinmahlazer are you confirming that Rivers Rebuke, A Hour of devastation or Nahiris Wrath and others, do not trigger at all if Chromium is on the table?
or are these cards only affecting all other creatures and supports in play (while changing Chromium to a 1/1 creature)
furthermore does Chromium revert to being a 7/7 creature at the end of the opponents turn.
How about Flash cards for that matter.

Now you might see why I asked my original question. Given recent bugs in the 2.9 release, I don’t want to pay for a card that does not work as expected or only partially as expected.

I'm making a bad joke. While I can't confirm his actual functionality because I don't have him, he basically functions like a modified hexproof. Would you say that hexproof isn't worth an added cost because untargeted removal exsists?