by Richard Rowell, Gaming Successfully Staff
While Scythe Leopard is more Hedron Scrabbler than Steppe Lynx, the 1-drop Cat with the Landfall ability for +1/+1 isn’t bad. Steppe Lynx was pretty good back in the day as a 0/1 for one White mana that had a Landfall ability to gain +2/+2 each time a land was dropped. This often made for a 4 / 5 when a fetch was played searching out a basic land. That’s a lot of damage potentially on turn two. Obviously, Wizards didn’t want that sort of power creep again, so they offered this one-mana Green Hedron Scrabbler (which is a 1/1 artifact creature for 2 colorless mana with the same +1/+1 Landfall ability).
Scythe Leopard may be disappointing to those hoping to jam it into some sort of Landfall Zoo deck. They also bumped up this sort of creature to uncommon whereas the Scrabbler (which only saw Limited play), Steppe Lynx and Plated Geopede (a 1R creature that was 1/1 with first strike that also gained +2/+2 for each Landfall trigger) were all commons in old Zendikar. Landfall proved to be pretty busted in the last Limited Zendikar environment and made real noise in Standard. While Landfall Zoo doesn’t really do much in Modern anymore, Wizards realized the power level those common creatures presented in the past and adjusted accordingly.
All that being said, Scythe Leopard should be an easy pick in Limited where it’s almost always going to be a 1-mana 2/2. In Standard, it will often be a 3/3 or even a 4/4 with enough mana ramp. The Leopard is definitely a playable creature and while it’s not Steppe Lynx or Plated Geopede, it should see Constructed play at least for a time.
Scythe Leopard may be disappointing to those hoping to jam it into some sort of Landfall Zoo deck. They also bumped up this sort of creature to uncommon whereas the Scrabbler (which only saw Limited play), Steppe Lynx and Plated Geopede (a 1R creature that was 1/1 with first strike that also gained +2/+2 for each Landfall trigger) were all commons in old Zendikar. Landfall proved to be pretty busted in the last Limited Zendikar environment and made real noise in Standard. While Landfall Zoo doesn’t really do much in Modern anymore, Wizards realized the power level those common creatures presented in the past and adjusted accordingly.
All that being said, Scythe Leopard should be an easy pick in Limited where it’s almost always going to be a 1-mana 2/2. In Standard, it will often be a 3/3 or even a 4/4 with enough mana ramp. The Leopard is definitely a playable creature and while it’s not Steppe Lynx or Plated Geopede, it should see Constructed play at least for a time.
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