Jackal Familiar

[ewallhagen]

Jackal Familiar :r:

Creature - Hound Common
Jackal Familiar can't attack or block alone.

2/2

:eek: Dunno if this guy will be fast enough. If you can get a turn 2 haste dude to follow him then ballin'. Hackblade won't cut it in this case though, as this guy is single colored. Maniac into Hackblade is still the better 1-2 punch.

[TribalElfMage]

holy flying dogs!! :)

anyway...Gruul decks are now drooling buckets. This is going to replace those FoDs and Fanatics easily. I never really likes the hackblade anyway...now i have an excuse to cut em. I love M10...

[agracru]

Er, yeah, not sure how I feel about this guy. If you can follow him up with a turn-2 Haste creature, he's fine. Other than that, he's not going to attack until turn 3.

Will RDW decks have to use an all-Haste creature suite to support the Familiar? I mean, the deck I plan on running is all-Haste outside of the 1cc spot (which is currently dominated by Figure and Maniac), so in theory running Familiar wouldn't be a problem. (Though I wouldn't run the Familiar just because there's no need when superior 1cc dorks already exist.)

But when everything rotates and the deck loses it's 1cc suite on top of Ram-Gang, R(G)DW may have to make some interesting creature choices just to power Familiar consistently, and here I'm thinking that it may end up using Rip-Clan Crasher and Raging Goblin. I'll be interested to see what Zendikar gives Red (and RG) in terms of quality Haste creatures.

[flipsandtricks]

T1: Jackal
T2: Hellspark Elemental
T3: Ball Lightning/Hell's Thunder

[agracru]

Sure, but my point is that you need to curve out with nothing but Haste creatures every game in order for the Familiar to be playable. Unless there are two really great 1cc drops in Zendikar that are flat-out better than Familiar, that means that RDW has to use him as a 1-drop. If RDW uses Familiar as a 1-drop, then every other creature in the deck has to have Haste.

This isn't a terrible thought since the deck has Bloodbraid Elf, Ball Lightning, and Hellspark Elemental, but that leaves two more creatures that have to have Haste. Again, unless better creatures surface, that might mean having to play with somewhat sub-par cards like Rip-Clan Crasher and Raging Goblin in order to ensure that the deck curves out that way every time.

[NessOnett]

He's not my favorite, but with the rest of my decklist containing Hellspark, Ball Lightning, and Hell's Thunder, it seems this guy will rarely be alone for the fighting even if he didnt have to be. Would have prefered a reprinting of Sparky to join his brethren, but I suppose the core set has only so much room. And Sparky became less useful/unique with both Hellspark and Bolt to eliminate his usefulnesses. The only problem with this guy is if I have three in my opening hand, it will likely put me a turn behind as I won't be attacking until turn3. But my turn3+ will be explosive in that case swinging for 12, so it could go either way. This guy does have to live up to the mogg fanatic he's replacing in my eyes, and that's a very tall order. I'm not sure he can do it. All in all though, I'm glad we got at least something usable in the core set for RDW at 1cc creature.

[agracru]

I think if you draw a hand with 3 Jackal Familiars and you decide to keep, you're making a very very wrong move.

Also, I'm glad that we don't have Spark Elemental anymore. I would rather not have the deck be overloaded with Lightning elementals.

[NessOnett]

Also, I'm glad that we don't have Spark Elemental anymore. I would rather not have the deck be overloaded with Lightning elementals.

But it ruined my plans for a lightning elemental deck :(

[yuench]

Crap.

You can build it around hasty guys. But the thing is you will almost always suffer huge tempo loss if the opponent kills the active creature. It happens a bit too often on Jund Hackblade already.

[agracru]

I absolutely agree. Which is why I'm hoping Zendikar offers more in terms of playable 1cc dorks.

[namegoeshere]

bad
is bad

[RoninX]

yeah... as much as I would like this guy to work making your creatures even more vulnerable to spot removal is simply a bad idea in this day and age.

[NessOnett]

All good arguments, but after Lorwyn is out we might be forced onto this guy as the best 1cc red drop. We didn't get any great ones out of ALA, and unless ZEN brings something this is not a terrible alternative. At any rate I like him better than Tattermunge, but that seems to be only me.

[heathro1281]

He's not my favorite, but with the rest of my decklist containing Hellspark, Ball Lightning, and Hell's Thunder, it seems this guy will rarely be alone for the fighting even if he didnt have to be. Would have prefered a reprinting of Sparky to join his brethren, but I suppose the core set has only so much room. And Sparky became less useful/unique with both Hellspark and Bolt to eliminate his usefulnesses. The only problem with this guy is if I have three in my opening hand, it will likely put me a turn behind as I won't be attacking until turn3. But my turn3+ will be explosive in that case swinging for 12, so it could go either way. This guy does have to live up to the mogg fanatic he's replacing in my eyes, and that's a very tall order. I'm not sure he can do it. All in all though, I'm glad we got at least something usable in the core set for RDW at 1cc creature.

You do realize that this type of deck makes the Jackal even more useless? (Every turn you sac the other creatures forcing you to consistently draw more creatures or else Jackal is a dead guy on the field)

[jodokast34]

This card is not good. People see a red 1-drop with 2-power and automatically cream themselves. But this is not Jackal Pup, and certainly is not even Tattermunge.

That's not to say it won't find some sort of home some day. But it will likely be in one of those red "go-big-or-go-home" concoctions that either takes a magnificent early damage lead (and wins) or burns out too fast and can't hold the advantage in the mid to late game. Kind of like Tattermunge. But worse.

[justactcasual]

This card makes me yearn for the days of Goblin Cohort...which is probably unhealthy.

But I guess efficient weenies was the price for Ball Lightning and Lightning Bolt.

[NessOnett]

You do realize that this type of deck makes the Jackal even more useless? (Every turn you sac the other creatures forcing you to consistently draw more creatures or else Jackal is a dead guy on the field)

you realize of course, that a deck like this will starve itself regardless if it stops drawing creatures. Besides, with the anticipated win by at lastest turn 5, I shouldn't need to "draw" too many, I should start with most of them.

[Blackmage]

He definately must be tested. If he ends up doing the same amount of damage as Tattermunge Maniac before he is eaten by a Rhox War Monk or a Colossus then he might be worthy.

Raging Goblin is always an option lol!

[Element511]

I really don't like this guy, he looks amazing the first time you see him, but there is just TOO MUCH removal right now to run something like that consistently even in RDW or B/R.