Articles

Danesh Jogia
Email: daneshj@optushome.com.au
Forums Nic: omegaideal

It has been said that in Extended, Yavimaya Elder is the green Ancestral Recall...could this take that mantle for Type 2?

Limited:

Obviously this guy is 100% amazing in Limited. If you can support double green in your deck he's a worthy first pick in draft and a pretty good reason to play green in a sealed tournament. Archetype wise this guy is strong in all the match ups. Against BR decks he obviously avoids the Black removal and essentially avoids the red removal unless they happen to have three things to throw at him. Against GR he's an absolute house. Decks with White sporting Kirtar's Desire are obviously the worst, so pick up any stray Rays of Revelation if you have reason to believe anyone has drafted WG (vomit) or WU (the worst one for Centaur even then he's a must deal with and very quickly as well). The usual phantom-y comments apply; give him +1/+1 attack for 4 repeatedly.

Constructed:

I think it was a bit harsh to print Erhnam Djinn and this guy in the same set. I feel the Centaur blasts Djinn away. As for my unjustified Ancestral comment, it was mainly because he'll often take three cards to get rid of him. Whether they burn him thrice or shove three guys in the way of him he's obviously batting pretty well for your team. Global kill effects are pretty much the only way to reasonably get rid of him on a permanent basis. However, having said all that you have to remember Roar of the Wurm, for OBC at least. Even the Centaur tank won't be getting through him anytime soon. Even in this case he'll let the other guys in your team through for the good beats. The kinds of decks he fits into are reasonably clear, any beatdown deck can probably use him without too much complaint. At least he can't be Ghastly Demised, which is starting to be the fate of many Yavimaya Barbarians.

Anyway now you can happily overload the four casting cost slot. I guess he's fairly comparable to Blastoderm when all is said and done.

Value: Uncommon, one dollar, whatever. Foiled maybe 5-6.

Jason Street
Email: mastervillain@hotmail.com

This is an interesting card, mainly because the protection aspect makes it a lot more likely to stay around against some people. Of course any black player who has been in the game for a while will have some kind of idea how to deal with a protection creature, so you can assume it will be Disked/Mutilated/Forced Marched/Whatevered away at the first opportunity. I'll overlook the obvious ways to get rid of it for now, since even a red player will find a way around being unable to use direct damage - and that's probably Jokulhaups. Red players get upset when they can't burn things, so everything is in danger....

If you run into decks that aren't black it starts to look a little more bleak. It has the ability to use up three creatures, but in a format that's wide open like Type 1 you could end up with it running into three soldier tokens churned out of a Kjeldoran Outpost. Or a River Boa. Or.... Well there's actually a lot of ways to slow it down, so I won't list them. This all depends on whether your opponents play them of course. The solution could be trample (Brawn, Primal Rage, Stampede or Overrun), or you could just pound away and kill their stuff if they have no special trick other than giving up creatures.

The other thing is keeping it out there. Sure, you can let it die and get it back (Genesis, Gaea's blessing, Haunted Crossroads), but I'd rather keep it in play. Any creature enchantment that boosts toughness would be handy, but I like the look of Armour of Thorns (1G, creature gets +2/+2, only on a non black creature, may play as an instant but is sacrificed at end of turn). Armour of Thorns looks good to me because it makes the Phantom Centaur a respectable 4/2 and it supports other cards. Of course you can use whatever you like - Carapace will do, if you don't mind it being a damageproof 2/2. For those who want to try a theme deck, see how many Phantom Centaurs you can get out with a Coat of Arms in play. That should be enough to give any red player (who does not use An-Zerrin Ruins) a serious headache.

All in all this card is typical of the recent stuff, it needs other cards to help it work. You can use it on it's own for sure though, it's not too bad, but I think it pays to invest a little more in it while playing, even if you just make sure you can get it back for a second shot.

Value? $2-3 is my guess. Not too powerful, but it certainly gives you an edge worth having in a straight creature fight.

Jason

Dan Turner
Email: daimyodan@yahoo.co.uk
Forums Nic: RECOIL

Green gets another great four drop in the form of Phantom Centaur in Judgement. Could this by the new Blastoderm - we will have to wait and see...

Limited - This is one of the best uncommons for green in Judgement and is only outranked in the creature department by Genesis. A first pick every time Phantom Centaur is the sort of creature that will always induce a "truckie slump" from your opponent. A 5/3 pro black creature for 4 mana is great but it is the phantom ability which will shine in limited play. If you have some sort of creature booster (Seton's Desire, Ghostly Wings etc) the centaur becomes "immortal" as it has permanent counters and will always prevent damage.

Constructed

Extended - There is a lot of beatdown available for green in this format and I'm sure the centaur will make the cut. Blastoderm and Ernham Djinn are it's closest rivals at the moment and the only reason it may not be played is because of the double green in the casting cost. Saying that, extended is in a bit of flux, but I'm sure this will see play in an Erniegeddon style W/G deck. The centaur is also good at stopping opposing Ashen Ghouls, Ichorids and Nether Spirits so it will definitely see some action.

Type 2 - Could this be the foil for Psychatog? A pro black creature that the tog player can't block is pretty good especially if it comes down on the third turn. It is still susceptible to bounce but it will be interesting to see if green decks start packing this guy.

OBC - Quiet Roar decks seem to be all the rage at the moment and I'm not sure what they would take out to play this guy. He is good against monoblack decks packing Nantuko Shades, Braids etc so may see some sideboard action. I have seen another deck based around phantoms "the phantom menace" (which relies on giving all of the phantoms permanent counters so they can't be killed) so I'm sure the centaur will be played in this format.

Phantom Centaur will fetch a lot for an uncommon so start trading/drafting them now, as they may even fetch up to $5 a piece in the near future.

Until next time

Dan

[ Email the Author | Discuss this Article ]