MTG Salvation

With green evasive creatures so few and far between I'd like to get some discussion going on this rarely seen card.

Most cubes are certainly not lacking in non-basic lands, and the majority of cube games that I have witnessed have some sort of non-basic in play within the first few turns.

So I ask, has this card been wrongly ignored, or does it still belong in the binder?

Discuss.

It reminds me of Skyshroud Elite which a lot of people used to run but ended up cutting due to being inconsistent. However costing 1 may have been a significant factor since dropping him turn 1 on the play lets your opponent play around him pretty easily.

She has been pretty strong for us, but I think this is a meta thing.

The better your players are, the better she'll be, because they will appropriately value fixing and utility lands. She is definitely not coming out any time soon over here.

My green 2-drops do far more interesting things than this. At least the "sometimes evasive" boas have regenerate when they're not unblockable, and they're not even broken or anything.

Quote from wtwlf123

My green 2-drops do far more interesting things than this. At least the "sometimes evasive" boas have regenerate when they're not unblockable, and they're not even broken or anything.

To be fair there are quite a few cubes on these boards that play Stormfront Pegasus and Mistral Charger in their white sections, and Fledgling Djinn in their black sections, which you do not, and that's cool. But it does show that people do find value in what could be considered by some as uninteresting choices. In all likelihood the sophisticate may not even be at pegasi level, but there certainly is no harm in exploring the possibility.

That being said, I see your point about the boa comparison, and agree to a certain extent, but the boas are mainly efficient regenerators that are sometimes unblockable, where the sophisticates' core focus is upon being unblockable. Similar, but different enough in their roles to warrant a closer look.

In many cubes green is sort of a state of flux right now. More than a few green sections are heightening their focus on ramp effects and are moving away from green "stompy" aggro creatures, so an unblockable creature may be more interesting now than it was even a few months ago. It's a good time to re-evaluate the green cusp cards in my opinion.

P.S. I hope I didn't come off as intending offense, I have mad respect for your opinions and contributions wtwlf123.

Cheers!

No offense taken. I agree that some cards that are considered underwhelming can perform quite well. But my green decks aren't looking for an effect like this, simply enough. I don't play that many green decks that would really want this card. Whereas something simple but useful like Stormfront Pegasus or Vampire Interloper are more valuable in the typical decks that would include them. Green's 2-drops are too good for this creature I think.

If Dryad was simply unblockable, the equation would be much simpler, but she too often gives the opponent the choice of whether or not to play their nonbasic.

I don't think it is good enough for our 450 cube as I like the two snakes better (regenaration), but for slightly bigger cubes that support green aggro this looks like a solid card.

Thanks for putting this one on the radar, I had completely forgotten its existence.

Quote from Phantizle

If Dryad was simply unblockable, the equation would be much simpler, but she too often gives the opponent the choice of whether or not to play their nonbasic.

That is what would keep me from including it, since I tend to dislike cards that are only optimal under specific conditions, particularly when said conditions are in the hands of my opponent. That being said, if I'm playing aggro, slowing down my opponents mana production/diversification isn't the worst thing that I could be doing. Also, I could see it being useful in mid-range decks that don't quite have the time constraints of pure aggro, since it could be dropped at a time when it would be most effective.

Green's two drops are getting so good now that even the Boa's have a pretty limited shelf life left imo. Dryad Sophisticate is alright, but I don't think it's good enough in small to mid sized cubes. Still solid though, so go for it.

On a green 2-drop related note, I still consider Vinelasher Kudzu to be a pretty good card. I'd love to pop him back in.

But I'll totally be putting this in as a spoiler in my multicolored cube project when I fire that up. That cube will have more sweet lands and a meta that encourages them further. Basically, she looks a lot better in a meta where 1-and splash or 2-color decks are less common than Ravnica/Alara-style decks.

Looks like we're in the habit of resurrecting old threads.
In the past it was quite unreliable, but between MDFCs, mono-colored manlands, and what look to be very solid Kamigawa lands, perhaps this card has become more powerful. Especially so when green's aggressive and midrange elements seem to be becoming more prominent.
This card could pressure planeswalkers as well.
What do you guys think?

Even if this was unblockable, would you play it?