Scariest Creatures in Greg's Hands (Standard Only; No Origins)

jtwood

This short thread got me thinking: If Quartzwood Crasher no longer freaks me out (like it used to when Killer Instinct was around), what creature does instill panic in me? I'm talking about creatures that hit the board and make me curse under my breath. Creatures that even Greg can't misplay. Creatures that you feel like you have one... maybe two... turns before you're really in trouble. Remember Szadek? That dude scared the bejeezus out of me. After a couple punches, I was going to have a really hard time getting any new cards cast.

Let's exclude Origins, too. Nothing new there.

Here's what was at the top of my mind:

• Eidelon of Blossoms definitely gets my attention, as does...
• Leafkin Avenger (and I might poo a little when both hit )
  
• Militant Angel in an E1 deck is pretty frightening after even one ETB trigger
• Brash Taunter makes me extraordinarily uncomfortable
• Haktos the Unscarred raises my blood pressure
• Emry, Lurker of the Loch always catches me off guard with her power level

What's on your list?

Narcoticsagent

The only creature I can think of that I hate seeing hit the board is urza. Urzas not bad himself but the support he makes can get out of control pretty easily.

ambrosio191

Aside from what you listed Hamletback Goliath is the only creature that comes to mind as something I cant completely ignore. Anything with haste is a partial pain because I always run Labyrinth of Skophos and haste hard counters it. Urza can be annoying because Labyrinth can make it unintentionally big. 

jtwood

Definitely Urza. Good call. For me, it’s always the fear of the second one that looms over those matches. I can handle a single resolution, but if two of them resolve, it really starts a downward spiral.

I don’t think I’ve seen enough Hamletbacks to have that fear instilled yet. I don’t even play it in decks outside of Legacy, myself. 

Does the list of scary critters seem smaller than usual? 

ambrosio191

I rarely see Hamletback myself, but I've seen it get out of hand quickly when left unchecked. The list does seem small, and I don't know if it's because there just aren't a lot of scary things, or if what I see as scary has changed over the years. It's so hard for a card to be scary by itself to the point where Greg can effectively use it. 

Also, It could just be my perspective, but since losing any given match just doesn't mean much anymore because rewards are worthless regardless, it makes it hard for any given card to stand out as a threat. You can afford to risk racing against those cards because you have nothing to lose. 

andrewvanmarle

Angel of destiny!

Wonder why no one has mentioned that

jtwood

andrewvanmarle said:

Angel of destiny!

Wonder why no one has mentioned that

Oh man. I don’t have that and haven’t seen it. Wasn’t even on my mind. But I’ve heard so much about it. Maybe it will cross my path soon. 

Mburn7

I know you said non-Origins only but there still isn't anything in this game scarier than a turn 1 or 2 Gaia's Revenge.

Julie71

Having a razia drop still makes me cringe. 

jtwood

Mburn7 said:

I know you said non-Origins only but there still isn't anything in this game scarier than a turn 1 or 2 Gaia's Revenge.

Absolutely

QuiksilverHg

Quartzwood crasher plus some others mentioned already.

urza and Haktos included

Bil

Mburn7 said:

I know you said non-Origins only but there still isn't anything in this game scarier than a turn 1 or 2 Gaia's Revenge.

I've actually been quite impressed by Destiny angel when Greg cascaded it on his first turn the other day.

The early cast makes it even scarier than a gaeas revenge .... At least if you dont pull a removal in your starting hand.

Even without atacking, on the turn it lands, it will Take out 50% of your life total, and you cant do anything about it, not even a flash card as nothing has attacked yet.

Starting a game with half life is an uncomfortable experience for sure. And the 4 turns death counter does not Make things better.

jtwood

Bil said:

Mburn7 said:

I know you said non-Origins only but there still isn't anything in this game scarier than a turn 1 or 2 Gaia's Revenge.

I've actually been quite impressed by Destiny angel when Greg cascaded it on his first turn the other day.

The early cast makes it even scarier than a gaeas revenge .... At least if you dont pull a removal in your starting hand.

Even without atacking, on the turn it lands, it will Take out 50% of your life total, and you cant do anything about it, not even a flash card as nothing has attacked yet.

Starting a game with half life is an uncomfortable experience for sure. And the 4 turns death counter do not Make things better.

Stories like this are why I think Greg should get to go 1st half the time. 

TheHunter

Definitely the ones mentioned so far - plus Otrimi which can get out of control pretty quickly.

The card I'm most glad rotated out is Rakdos, eye rolls and groans whenever Greg dropped that one.

Stormcrow

Haven't run into Destiny Angel yet, which I'm pretty glad about. Getting stuck behind an early Haktos can be really troublesome for a lot of decks though. And Nessian Boar is usually a one-sided board wipe. Quartzwood, Urza, Eidolon I wouldn't quite call panic-inducing, even though they can get out of hand very quickly if you let them. (One thing about Quartzwood though, is it *feels* like a mono-green creature so I'm always momentarily surprised when it shows up in like, a Bolas deck or a Narset deck.) Militant Angel I've only run into a few times - one of which I had a labyrinth out for, which definitely turned that game into a long, drawn-out struggle - but it surprisingly wasn't the big scary game-winner I would've expected.

Leafkin, though, that's easily my #1 "What were they even thinking when they printed this card?" card. Will be glad to see it rotate out.

I second Rakdos being a card I'm glad to see gone.

jtwood

Any creature + A Timeless Voyage bottom node

Man, that’s a tough nut to crack now that we don’t have Lavinia

andrewvanmarle

jtwood said:

Any creature + A Timeless Voyage bottom node

Man, that’s a tough nut to crack now that we don’t have Lavinia

Try archon of emeria... 

jtwood

andrewvanmarle said:

jtwood said:

Any creature + A Timeless Voyage bottom node

Man, that’s a tough nut to crack now that we don’t have Lavinia

Try archon of emeria... 

I did. There are a lot of issues with that defensive approach, not the least of which is that it's hard to recover from a Ruinous. Control felt bad in this event. I switched to a win-faster build, and that went better. Still need to improve a lot. That event kicked my butt.

TomB

I been having some fun with Otrimi and Vengevine together in a deck with some ability to dump cards into the GY. Never faced it though, but I could imagine what it would look like from across the table...

Firinmahlazer

andrewvanmarle said:

Angel of destiny!

Wonder why no one has mentioned that

I had the AI cast it first turn during the weekend event and I just quit the match. 

Tezzeret

recently I have seen a HUGE  Flux in scute mob/swarm decks.. eidelon looping with those lil bugs gets  so out of hand.... I dismissed  it at first  as its just a little 2/2 and 3/3....... give it one or two turns and it's in the hundreds... squash that bug right away!