Ultimately, the issue with Gallia is that, most of the time, she's a 2/2 haste. Which is a surprisingly good floor, mind you. But my experience with Robber of the Rich has really soured me on potential advantages on haste bears.
Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Grillo_Parlante
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"Satyr Tribal" isn't really a thing in magic, so unless you're drafters have never played this game before, they probably won't assume Satyr Tribal is a supported deck in your cube. This isn't like Relentless Dead or something which, although playable by itself, is a member of a tribe which could plausibly be supported in a cube environment. Gallia is clearly good in a deck that cares about discarding cards, and is just fine without any other Satyrs in your deck. She's more along the lines of Cryptbreaker than Death Baron.
Do you mean, that you don't ecpect her draw ability to be relevant?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
It's fairly trivial to kill a 2/2 in combat. A 2/2 with an attack trigger often has a hard time to trigger more than once. In the case of Gallia, it's all upside though. Pump, burn spells, and Frenzied Goblin-effects can do a lot of work on cards like this though. Plan your support spells around it, and it can do some work, I think
Exactly. While it will happen sometimes, I don't think it will happen very often. Three creatures is a lot, spercially if you want to lean higher on the mana curve as GR usually does. And if she might trigger, your opponent might just shoot her with a Firebolt before she can provide card advantage.
I mean, the card is fine. But it's fine because it's a 2/2 Haste, not because her ability will fire.
I'll just chime in to say that I really dislike when cards imply tribal strategies that aren't supported in cube
I don't run Gravecrawler for that reason
I don't run Gravecrawler for that reason
It's fairly trivial to kill a 2/2 in combat. A 2/2 with an attack trigger often has a hard time to trigger more than once. In the case of Gallia, it's all upside though. Pump, burn spells, and Frenzied Goblin-effects can do a lot of work on cards like this though. Plan your support spells around it, and it can do some work, I think
Thing to note here, Gallia doesn't have to attack herself to trigger. If you somehow get 3 other dudes to turn sideways, you can keep her back and safe.
You are right. But there might be a few factors that could lead to her overperforming. I have lots of 1-drops in both colors and aggressive token producers in red. Also, maybe most importantly, when there are already 2 potential attackers on your side, you can cast her out of nowhere and smash, triggering her ability immediately!
I agree with you in theory, but I don't think these cases are alike. The difference between Gallia of the Endless Dance and Gravecrawler is uniqueness. There are half a dozen other recursive 1-drops in black. It's to the point now where Gravecrawler isn't even consistent enough to be worth playing in most lists without actual tribal support for the guy. There's a laundry list of other options that can do the same thing. In addition, Gravecrawler is a payoff requiring other cards- it's not enabling anything. Gallia of the Endless Dance, on the other hand, has a unique triggered ability for her slot, and enables the discard deck. The Satyr trinket text isn't what makes Gallia worth playing. Even the lord of Jank himself, Saffron Olive, made a Gallia deck that cared more about the other parts of the card than the Satyr stuff.
TL;DR: Gravecrawler and Gallia of the Endless Dance aren't comparable because Gravecrawler needs to be enabled by a tribal deck to be good while Gallia of the Endless Dance enables a non-tribal deck in addition to her trinket text.
I think the real debate here has little to do with how well Gallia of the Endless Dance actually plays. We're talking about cleanliness. The fundamental question here is: "Does the word Satyr being on a card create a false flag/bad signal/inelegant design." Although Gallia isn't as clean as she could be, some random line of text doesn't sink the entire card in my view. Even if the Satyr thing never provides any value, having a discard based card-draw engine in Gruul should more than make up for it in practice. Good gameplay should trump elegance, so if Gallia is fun and functional, then she's the right card for the job.
Gallia of the Endless Dance is a fine Magic card. She's not the best Gruul card and she's not the cleanest card in the world, but she is the best answer to "discard lord for Gruul Madness." In a perfect world, we'd just have a hybrid Arrogant Wurm. Unfortunately, this world isn't perfect, and Gallia of the Endless Dance will have to do for now.
I added her recently and I've played a couple of sample games but haven't gotten to do a real draft with her in the cube.Has anyone ever tried this card? Looks like a nice spells payoff, but without much need of commitment.
The attack trigger vs etb is nice for me and my format, but also ensures you can sink an entire turn's worth of mana into your graveyard. Getting to, say, draw a card, kill a blocker, and maybe even kill a second guy feels awesome. I think it's a good 'xerox dragon' design and would put it in faster, velocity focused decks over more controlling ones.
I think it's a really cool card. Also, if you have support for graveyard stuff in green then it's pretty useful.
How good would this card be in a lower powered cube with just ten fetches (but nothing other than basics to fetch with)?
Degenerate or fun?
It's fuel for your discard decks. Life from the Loam + Wild Mongrel + Noose Constrictor + Putrid Imp + Flameblade Adept + Molten Vortex + Tectonic Reformation + Drake Haven
Oh, you're right. I could also see it doing work in G/U landfall with stuff like Trade Routes and Soratami Cloudskater.
If you support themes like RUG lands/landfall and BUG selfmill (just like me) then you HAVE to try this card. You should just make sure that there are enough decks that want it.
Has anyone ever tried this card? Looks like a nice spells payoff, but without much need of commitment.
I like attack triggers, especially if they don't come with haste (Rankle, Master of Pranks is an exception). Backdraft Hellkite does have the potential to run away with the game IF you can protect it for some turns. What I don't like is its big evasive body while costing 5 mana. At 6 mana it'd be a lot more interesting to me.
Cards I'd compare:
Dwellers also are an evasive 4/4 for 5, but it does have an etb, so it comes with immediate value - but also one-shot.
Dralnu doesn't need to attack, but is as slow as the dragon, and does have a BIG drawback. Never played with it, though I find it very interesting.
Cagebreakers are comparable in power as they trigger on attack, cost 5 and have a very powerful effect. Both need to have lots of cards in gy to give you big value. Cagebreakers aren't flying, so I find them to be somewhat less miserable.
Drakuseth does cost more, but also is bigger and doesn't ask you to invest some more mana but instead might have a VERY high impact on the board, comparable to Balefire Dragon (which actually needs to connect).
Giant and Bishop are obv and I find them somewhat more considerable if you're not looking for raw power.
It's me again with a gruul madness related question
Has anyone ever tried this guy? Is he any good in an aggro deck?
I've looked at Slitherhead before, but I never wanted to devote a slot to it. A 1/1 for 1 with no on-board abilities is usually hard to justify including. Wether or not you can play it really depends on how often it is just a madness card with
: Put a +1/+1 counter on a dude.Scavenge as a sorcery hurts this a lot as well.
yes, noIt's me again with a gruul madness related question
Has anyone ever tried this guy? Is he any goodin an aggro deck?