by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist
Today on Mages of the Guild, we take a look at the aggressive red/green Guild of Gruul! Our contestants are Gruul Guildmage and Skarrg Guildmage. Continuing the new trend started with Izzet Guildmage of showing the old guard before the new kid on the block, we’ll begin with Gruul Guildmage from Guildpact!
Gruul Guildmage, for how aggressive his guild is, has two fairly highly costed abilities. His first, for 3R, allows you to sacrifice a land to deal 2 damage to target player. Considering that there are cards that deal 3 or 4 damage to a player for less mana without sacrificing any thing makes this ability appear pretty bad. Yes, that ability could help you finish off a player. That non-tap ability can potentially be used many times in a turn, so it's properly costed. But in a Constructed environment, there are just more effective ways to finish an opponent.
The second ability is an expensive pump effect, 3G to give a target creature +2/+2 until end of turn. The fact that both this and the first ability can be played at instant speed is certainly important. Activated abilities are far more difficult to counter than cast cards, so Gruul Guildmage is an okay card overall. In an aggressive deck, both abilities can work, especially if mana flood becomes a problem in a given game, so he’s still a decent card, if only good back in his day. He’s a bit slow now.
The second ability is an expensive pump effect, 3G to give a target creature +2/+2 until end of turn. The fact that both this and the first ability can be played at instant speed is certainly important. Activated abilities are far more difficult to counter than cast cards, so Gruul Guildmage is an okay card overall. In an aggressive deck, both abilities can work, especially if mana flood becomes a problem in a given game, so he’s still a decent card, if only good back in his day. He’s a bit slow now.
Now, Skarrg Guildmage from Gatecrash is definitely a lot more aggressive than his Guildpact counterpart. He has two fairly low cost abilities, and they’re both pretty powerful. Like Gruul Guildmage‘s abilities, they can be played at instant speed. His first ability for RG (1 Red, 1 Green) gives all creatures you control trample until end of turn. This can be declared before combat damage is assigned, too, which is extremely relevant. That’s a lot better than Gruul Guildmage’s comparable +2/+2 pump for 3G, since using this ability could deal far more damage.
Also, Skarrg Guildmage‘s second ability involves lands, like Gruul Guildmage’s first ability to sacrifice a land to deal 2 damage to target player. The good news here is that for 1RG (1 colorless, 1 Red, 1 Green) you make a target land you control become a 4/4 Elemental creature until end of turn that is still a land. You can do this as you enter combat. Potentially, this 4/4 land will deal a lot more damage to a player, especially if given trample with that other ability, than sacrificing that same land would do. Yes, it then becomes vulnerable to creature removal and being destroyed by blocking creatures. But it survives otherwise to stay a land at the end of the turn and going forward.
Gruul Guildmage may have been playable back in the days of original Ravnica block and the abilities are properly costed for what they do. But Skarrg Guildmage has two very underrated and powerful abilities for a far lesser cost that can potentially do far more damage. While he’s been in Standard, though, he’s been relegated to sideboards. It seems that there’s a lot of untapped potential in this creature. While he never became that viable in competitive play, he's clearly the superior card.
Winner: Skarrg Guildmage, by a considerable margin.
Also, Skarrg Guildmage‘s second ability involves lands, like Gruul Guildmage’s first ability to sacrifice a land to deal 2 damage to target player. The good news here is that for 1RG (1 colorless, 1 Red, 1 Green) you make a target land you control become a 4/4 Elemental creature until end of turn that is still a land. You can do this as you enter combat. Potentially, this 4/4 land will deal a lot more damage to a player, especially if given trample with that other ability, than sacrificing that same land would do. Yes, it then becomes vulnerable to creature removal and being destroyed by blocking creatures. But it survives otherwise to stay a land at the end of the turn and going forward.
Gruul Guildmage may have been playable back in the days of original Ravnica block and the abilities are properly costed for what they do. But Skarrg Guildmage has two very underrated and powerful abilities for a far lesser cost that can potentially do far more damage. While he’s been in Standard, though, he’s been relegated to sideboards. It seems that there’s a lot of untapped potential in this creature. While he never became that viable in competitive play, he's clearly the superior card.
Winner: Skarrg Guildmage, by a considerable margin.
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