Card/Deck Creatures With Neutral Card Economy

[Chris Taylor]

How about as a 2/1? The important thing is that it has the extra power to actually trade with things consistantly.

I really like phyrexian rager, but that card isn't really cubeable for most people.

I tried that. Still felt a bit too strong when it traded for one of the early good creatures.
Again, mine was blue which probably contributes to the feeling, but still

Knight of the White Orchid sucks in my experience. It just looks like it should be good.

The problem I found is the ability only triggers conditionally and they are all sort of bogus scenarios (not things you should be building your deck around).
1. You fell behind on lands due to hosing or other undesirable scenario (i.e. you didn't kill your opponent early and now it's late game with your opponent on a billion lands). You are probably losing if this happens and a 2/2 FS with land attached is unlikely to save you.
2. You're on the draw and decided to cast a 2 drop on T3. Fine I suppose for the free land/ramp, but also not really what I want to be doing in white weenie. What is my hard WW deck ramping into that wants a 2/2 FS conditional wood elf?

All other times, it's a 2/2 FS for WW.

I wouldn't underestimate white getting to 4 a turn earlier
Also WW 2/2 first strike is not a bad WCS

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I was thinking of it from the perspective of a low curve aggro deck, running say 14-15 lands. Those decks really don't need more than 2-3 mana to operate, and are best as 2 color decks. Knight of the white orchid is a relevant body, color fixes, thins, and puts the deck up to three mana. Because its card neutral its card advantage if it trades with anything, and because the land CIP untapped, it ups your spell velocity if you can use the mana.

The effect is powerful, and the body isn't bad in the worst case scenario.

 

[ahadabans]

2/2 FS is not relevant for long. If it were a good WCS, Precinct Captain would be stellar since he's constantly threatening extra bodies everytime he swings (so his WCS is very rarely all you get). But the first X/3 that hits the board turns that 2 power FS guy into elite vanguard. FS goes from great to useless in a microsecond.

I ran Knight of the White Orchid for a long time early in my cube's history. I had a friend that would constantly draft it (along with things like Weathered Wayfarer) because he was all about white ramp. But the problem with "white ramp" is the same thing that plagues "green removal". It's just bad and you are better off splashing for the color that doesn't suck at what you want to do.

Give it a shot if you don't believe me, but I bet 500 monopoly dollars you'll be cutting that guy from your cube. And not because he's truly terrible but because he's worse in practice than on paper and that WW mana cost will start to look like a really raw deal in hindsight.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

...and I somehow forgot one of my favorite creatures



and his big brother, I suppose