BDM and I decided to do something a little bit different this time around. We are both writing previews for Baloth Woodcrasher, without consulting each other. They are both going up tonight, and you can see our differing reactions to this new Beast:

Okay - How about the stats?

Baloth Woodcrasher is a six mana 4/4 creature. It is pretty clear that there has to be something fantastic attached to a six in order to justify Constructed play. We have seen a tournament viable six mana 4/4 creature or two in the not-too-distant past… for instance Broodmate Dragon, which is literally a 4/4 creature or two; they both have flying. To be fair, Broodmate Dragon is one of the best six mana creatures of all time… So even if Baloth Woodcrasher were contending for a Constructed spot, it would have a steep hill to climb to compare to that particular six.

Baloth Woodcrasher is clearly no Broodmate Dragon.

Does that mean that it is not tournament viable?

Of course not–not in and of itself.

However, that said, I think that Baloth Woodcrasher does not seem like an obvious Constructed contender. 4/4 for six is too small a body for the mana requirement without something really impressive attached, such as, I dunno, Cascading into Air Elemental.

In this case we are talking about “just” a medium-sized creatue with an interesting, albeit potentially devastating, ability.

Basically you have to get to the point that you can crash through those woods, which requires survival of the Beast, an untap, and an attack… At which point you can smash–make that crash–for 8-12 consistently.

One of the problems with Baloth Woodcrasher is that it isn’t at all sneaky (maybe that should be obvious for a creature purporting to crash through the woods, I dunno)… But you have to lay down your land during the main phase, which means if you are going to do it during the first main phase, he is already going to Landfall his way into 8/8 (meaning not much of a bluff), though if you have one of the funky new enemy dual lands such as Misty Rainforest, you can reserve a handful of Green Option, saving the next +4/+4 for another time (you know, like if the opponent puts nine power worth of blockers in front of it).

So what might make this card powerful enough for Constructed play? Is it possible?

Well if you have a way to cheat Landfall, such as a Knight of the Reliquary in play, then you have a way to help protect Baloth Woodcrasher on his virginal turn. Knight of the Reliquary can sacrifice a Forest or Plains at instant speed to put a land into play, which will put the Baloth on 8/8 and protect him momentarily from spells along the lines of a Char / Psionic Blast / Flame Javelin. The disadvantage to this is that a Knight of the Reliquary is awfully obvious; on balance, if it is active you get a probably-not-dead Baloth Woodcrasher.

So what is the up?

Actually it is signficant. Just playing a land puts the Woodcrasher to 8/8, and playing a land as humble as a Terramorphic Expanse can set him up to 12/12. Now if you have that Knight of the Reliquary in play? You can hunt for a second Misty Rainforest / Terramorphic Expanse / whatever… and all of a sudden you have a [potential] 20/20 attacker with built-in evasion. Unless the opponent has gone all Loop Junktion on you, it is fairly likely that this creature can go all the way all by his lonesome in a mere two attacks (or maybe just one when the Knight is on your side).

What will you not want to do?

One of the first things I thought about was waiting until “turn seven”* to play my Baloth Woodcrasher. That is actually kind of a dorky idea. I was thinking that I could get the Landfall bonus, but it would wear off at the end of the turn, meaning that I would have just as vulnerable a Beast as if I ran it out on the regular “turn six” only I had just penalized myself a turn. WHY WOULD I DO THAT? Yes, it’s awful and I wouldn’t… and now you can excise that thought from your gray matter if you were accidentally thinking it yourself.

I actually reversed my position on this card while writing this blog post… It has considerably more up than I originally give it credit for, and I can see it winning the game outright fairly quickly. Certainly it is a wee bit vulnerable the turn it comes out, but we were perfectly happy to game with Indrik Stomphowler on five… This is only one mana off for a creature that can potentially win the game all by its lonesome.

How about Limited?

This is a format where Baloth Woodcrasher has some tremendous up. If the opponent doesn’t have a lot of removal, and if you are conservative with land drops, you can easily turn this card into a more relentlessly taxing version of the abyss. Of course basically everything I said about going from 4-to-20 in one or two attacks applies equally to Limited, everything but that Knight of the Reliquary bit.

My conclusion: Role Player

LOVE
MIKE