Bear With Me Here

Rating all of Magic: The Gathering's creatures by comparing them to the simple Grizzly Bears! Posts 5 times a day, so I'll be done with the two drops in about a year!

[betterthanabear]

Hey y’all

Going through some stuff right now.  Blog going on hiatus for a bit.  Sorry.

[betterthanabear]

Dwynen’s Elite

Bear with a massive upside in a certain kind of very strong deck? Check.  Groovy.

[betterthanabear]

Mire Boa

Oh, hey, it’s an evasive 2/1!  And it’s got really cheap regeneration!  That’s pretty darn good.  Swampwalk isn’t the best evasion, but it’s also a type of evasion that you can build around really strongly with a deck that has Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in it!   Or, like, using one of the green enchantments that makes a land into all land types.  There are ways, and this snek beats a bear and eats a bear.

[betterthanabear]

Sungrace Pegasus

I could swear I’ve rated this card before.  Maybe it was a bird instead of a bird horse?  Regardless, decent pants-wearer, okay when you’ve got anthems, bad otherwise, rather have a bear tbh.

[betterthanabear]

Wall of Earth

This wall got a real big butt!  It’s in red, which is a weird color to have a real big butt in.  Is it better than a bear?  Nah, red doesn’t like slowing the game down like this, like, ever.

[betterthanabear]

Fleecemane Lion

Fleecemane Lion is one of the most obviously-strong two drops ever printed.  It’s not, like, broken, it’s just one of those cards that you look at and you go “oh, wow, yeah, that’s good.”  It starts as a 3/3 for 2 with no downsides, and it eventually gets bigger AND it becomes almost impossible to remove.  Non-targeted exile, sacrifice or huge -/- effects are the only things that can get rid of this big kitty once it gets powered up, and that’s super significant.

[betterthanabear]

Bog Imp

Ergh, Bog Imp.  Blurgh.  Bad card.

[betterthanabear]

Wellwisher

Well here’s a lifegain source that I can get behind!  Elves are one of the best creature types for flooding the board really hard, and this gal can turn your board advantage into life advantage staggeringly quick if she’s not answered.  And if your opponent has to take the time to point targetted removal at her, well, it’s not hitting your lord or your dorks and, if it’s a burn spell, it’s not hitting your face.  That’s pretty good!

[betterthanabear]

Nightshade Peddler

Ooooh, soulbond is a really neat mechanic.  When Nightshade Peddler gets his buddies the stuff there’s something wild goes down.  Deathtouch is really strong and getting it on two things is quite good!  However, if you use Nightshade Peddler to remove a big threat then it won’t give its buddy deathtouch no more.  He can, however, keep making new buddies to badtouch monsters and that’s a big upside.  He’s got mush more potential than a bear!

[betterthanabear]

Boros Swiftblade

Oooh, double strike is a mighty fine ability.  Compared to a bear, at base, he trades way better against one toughness creatures in that he doesn’t trade at all and hits just as hard.  He’s more susceptible to -1/-1 counters and other debuffs, but he wears pants, gets anthemed and gets buffed way, way better.  And Boros is a pretty decent color for buffs!  He’s better, yeah.

[betterthanabear]

Tavern Swindler

Bear with a... Uhh, side.  Mathematically, this ability works out to be nothing and it could be actively harmful if you were at six and your opponent responded to you paying it by bolting you or something.  It becomes less bad with Krark’s Thumb or something like that but, like, ehhhhh.  She’s mostly just a bear???  It probably shakes out to be a bit worse empyrically, even though I’m sure someone’s had a game or two completely saved by it.

[betterthanabear]

Longtusk Cub

It’s limited all-star and standard powerhouse, Longtusk Cub!  It’s an energy sink and a huge energy generator all in one, and at the very least it’s a bear with an upside.  An easy one for this blog, at least!

[betterthanabear]

Garruk’s Companion

Now a 3/2 with trample I can get into!

[betterthanabear]

Nurturing Licid

Aw man, aww dang, this card is cute as heck!  It’s mostly just an aura, but it’s an aura that can protect itself from getting removed by all sorts of spot removal and it’s got a pretty neat effect!  It can’t protect itself from board wipes or unconditional permanent removal, but pobody’s nerfect!  I think this effect is interesting and strong enough to do some real work!  Plus, if you have enough mana you can actually save two creatures in one turn!  Good goin’ little lizardy thing.

[betterthanabear]

Sylvan Ranger

1/1′s that guarantee you get something out of them can be pretty good, and this gal is an elf so that’s a plus as well!  Searching just for basics is a bit of a downside, but I don’t think basic land is as bad a word as many magic players do.  Deck thinning and color fixing on a elf bod is a pretty neat package, and is better than a bear in a lot of places.

[betterthanabear]

Satyr Rambler

It’s a 2/1 with trample!  We’ve seen one of these before.  They interact very well with pump spells, but if it wasn’t enough to cut it in green then it’s definitely not in red.

[betterthanabear]

Qasali Pridemage

It’s a bear with an uspide, another upside and two good creature types and it’s at common.  Qasali Pridemage is quite good!  Exalted means that it swings as a 3/3 when it swings alone, and it’s a naturalize effect that you don’t feel bad running mainboard because it’s attached to a relevant body.  Really great, y’all.