[SCD] Malakir Bloodwitch

[Killane]

Ok, so for quite some time now Tombstalker had been the giant black flying beater of choice in deck that want such a thing (mainly midrange BG or Junk decks, I've seen Stalker's in some Counterbalance lists but that's Jank). It's powerful and can be very efficient, sure, but I think the Bloodwitch is much better, and I'm going to try and explain why. For those who are not familiar here's the condensed rules text:

3BB
Creature- Vampire
Flying, Pro-White
ETB trigger-for each vampire you control, tgt opponent looses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
4/4

The biggest plus is that it's pro-white, which turns off over half the removal in the format that can kill it (STPS, PTE, Vindicate). The clock is similar (on its own is does 17 damage after 4 swings vs 20 from the Stalker), and with only 1 other Vampire on the board (many such lists like Nighthawk) and a couple fetchs or the like form the opponent, it can be just as fast.

A few other corner case advantages:

Lifegain, even a point or two can be relevant when racing an aggro deck.
Actually a relevant CMC when revealed to Counterbalance (to hit FoW).
Swings past White Flying Blockers (Iona, Aven Mindcensor, Decree of Justice tokens, Wall of Denial (which can actually be quite good in some metagames))

Negatives:

Can be hit by counterbalance (FoW)
1 turn slower clock in some cases
Can't cost under 5, whereas Stalker can cost 2 but rarely on turn 2.
Can't block and kill a 4/5 Tarmogoyf.

Overall, I feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Discuss....

[Zolek]

You deeply underestimate the drawback of costing 5.

[Admiral_Arzar]

You deeply underestimate the drawback of costing 5.

Agreed. The card was only good in standard because Baneslayer Angel and Path to Exile were in half the decks in the format. It's far too slow for Legacy without mana accel (and there are better things to accel into).

[SpikeyMikey]

For 5 mana you can Sneak an Emrakul, hardcast a Dream Halls, draw your deck with Ad Nauseum, etc. A 4/4 flier with pro StP seems a little lame in comparison, ya dig? TS sees (limited) play because he costs 2.

[Tammit67]

Overall, I feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Discuss....

You'd be the only one

[Nessaja]

You deeply underestimate the drawback of costing 5.

Agreed.

Tombstalker is only good because he costs 2/3. He would not be played if it wasn't for that.
5 mana means you win the game with that card, Bloodwitch is FAR from winning you the game. In fact, most decks laugh at it.

[dahcmai]

Scary thing is if it costed 1BB, it would only be playable, not busted and maybe not even playable.

[Killane]

For 5 mana you can Sneak an Emrakul, hardcast a Dream Halls, draw your deck with Ad Nauseum, etc. A 4/4 flier with pro StP seems a little lame in comparison, ya dig? TS sees (limited) play because he costs 2.

While I see the point of "what else can you do with 5 mana", none fo these examples apply to the deck in which Tombstalker sees play. I'm certainly not saying "OMG BLOODWITCH IS TEH AWESOME PUT IT IN ALL YOUR DECKS!!!!!!", I'm running a situational comparision with the 'Stalker itself.

When runnung BG midrange -type decks in the past (long since set aside for Counterbalance and then TES recently), I found the 'Stalker almost always just ate removal (of course, my loca meta at the time was devoid of combo so the removal count may have been a bit higher than the norm), and that remvoal was almost always white. It's not hard to cast one off Dark Ritual.

Sure TS costs 2, but if that two is essentially a duress for their StpS, it's not doing its job.

[Doomsday]

Costs way too much, loses the race to almost every non-tribal creature in the format despite the fact that they cost half as much mana. Unplayable.

[Killane]

Ok. I guess the format has moved on. I haven't run BG midrange in ages anyways. Let's move on.

[Zolek]

When runnung BG midrange -type decks in the past (long since set aside for Counterbalance and then TES recently), I found the 'Stalker almost always just ate removal (of course, my loca meta at the time was devoid of combo so the removal count may have been a bit higher than the norm), and that remvoal was almost always white. It's not hard to cast one off Dark Ritual.

Sure TS costs 2, but if that two is essentially a duress for their StpS, it's not doing its job.

Play Thrun. Hes like this card only not terrible. The fact that there is debate over whether he is good enough should clue you in to where malakir's playability lies.