RCotD #24

Random Card of the Day #24:

Caravan Escort - W

Creature - Human Knight

Level up {2}

1/1

LEVEL 1-4

2/2

LEVEL 5+

First strike

5/5

Initial thoughts:

I'm wondering how I got 2 Level up creatures next to each other so soon. There's only 24 in the game. This card was just a classic for me, but when you analyze the card it really is no better than other cards.

One of the interesting this about Level up creatures is that you can choose when to level up, so at the least it's a 1/1 for 1 mana but for 3 mana you can get a 2/2. As I mentioned with Lord of Shatterskull Pass beyond the next few levels is becomes a mana-sink, or at least in my opinion it does. It's done at sorcery speed too so if you have an option to play an instant on your opponents turn such as Stoic Rebuttal or Lightning Bolt, it poses an interesting option of whether you want to level up your creature or stop your opponent.

It might just be my personal opinion but I don't really like that decision. It is an awful choice to make when you are losing. If you are losing your opponent will just swing at you, and you don't really do anything to stop it. If you level it up, your opponent can Doom Blade your own creature, wasting your mana. And depending on the stage of the game, could be the end.

I mean as with any other Level up deck, they are probably playing Blue/White for Venerated Teacher and Time of Heroes. So if you opponent is playing level up and is topdeck mode, you are probably going to win soon. The deck functions as a snowball, if it's stopped early it could become an easy duel. It's the deck design, really. You put a lot of creatures/spells to pump all of your creatures and then if that creature is removed, it's a lot of lost card advantage/mana. But if the card is allowed to thrive against a removal-light deck such as monogreen, it could reach it's potential.

It can be a great card, but with more investment into a card than I would normally commit it can't truly be a great card. 3/5