Snow Covered Swamp

Random Card of the Day #1

Razormane Masticore - 5

Artifact Creature - Masticore

First Strike

At the beginning of your upkeep sacrifice Razormane Masticore unless you discard a card.

At the beginning of your draw step, you may have Razormane Masticore deal 3 damage to target creature.

Initial Thoughts:

An absolute bomb in Limited. A 5 cost 5/5 first striker would be really hard to deal with. Seeing play in Limited is not that relevant when Tenth Edition has already passed, but it definitely wins game if it's not dealt with though.

Razormane Masticore's second ability about sacrificing or discard seems a bit of a draw back to me. Clearly for it's third ability, but this is a disadvantage on a card that can't be "thwarted" to make the card broken, unless you are playing from your graveyard. It won't exactly see play in a Dredge (see: Golgari Grave-Troll) deck, but maybe with some nifty Flashback (See: Think Twice, Forbidden Alchemy) cards it could be great. It is important to note, that because of his ability, he is a really bad card when in a topdecking match as you won't be able to play it until the next turn, when you have another card in your hand because your upkeep is before your draw.

The third ability is also amazing. The most important thing to notice that it is a may ability, meaning you don't have to use it if it's the only the creature on the field. It could be very frustrating if your opponent is sitting on a Lightning Bolt (albeit only able to hit creatures), is unable to bolt your creature, but the ability you have must trigger first. It clears the board, essentially turning all of your discards into bolts, but unable to be Counterspell'd.

How to deal with it:

Something real simple could turn this card into an absolute nightmare for you. Pacifism or any kind of enchantment lockdown, (or even Crown of Empires) makes you have a recurring Lightning Bolt if he's not dealt with. If your opponent Doom Blade's him at the end of your Upkeep step, you just got 2-for-1'd. So even if your opponent is playing token generators, or a spell-based deck, this card should probably be atleast stalling the game in a losing game to get you the card you need to win. If your opponent is playing aggro, you are probably going to win if this resolves.

A great card. 4/5