Dies to Removal

Looks like there is a 5 drop cycle with Ivorytusk Fortress being among them and more thank likely are the intro pack rares.

5 mana legion loyalist is a lot worse then legion loyalist

5 mana legion loyalist is a lot worse then legion loyalist

True but for limited that guy is going to push through. Could see sideboard play in a Mardu Midrange deck to face creature match ups when board stalls happen. He's no Loyalist though for sure.

All bad. They couldn't even give the Vizier trample?

And the name so good

Why are the BUG and RUG cards not uncommon? These rares are so lame.

These actually seem to fit Wizards' new "more complex uncommons" design, but yeah, don't seem special enough to be rare, especially into pack rares.

The rug one doesn't even pass the vanilla test, and Provoke doesn't even nearly make up for that.

I'm probably looking at this wrong, but I can see instances when Ankle Shanker could be very useful, especially against an opponent's field full of high toughness creatures. If this is going to be a slower Standard environment, then Shanker would basically be a creature-based board wipe if they defend. It turns any 1/1 tokens into little death machines, which would fit the Mardu strategy of hit hard, hit fast.

But it's still a much worse 5-drop than Sarkhan or Stormbreath or even Underworld Cerberus in the same colors.

When they will ever print a good goblin to make the tribe competitive in legacy again ???? Poor little goblins, tortured with 5 drop 3/3 creatures....

Ankle Shanker is fun to say at least. Too bad I'll never be saying it in a game...

for this game it should have been called cankle shanker

The Vizier and Tusker need trample so bad

I wonder how playable the Ankle Biter will be with Rabblemaster in some sort of Mardu aggro deck with a goblin (sub)theme. This guy would basically let you stop worrying about blockers and just swing for the fences each time.

5 cmc is looking like some sort of sweet spot in this set. I'm starting to think there might be a good Mardu midrange deck here

5 cmc is looking like some sort of sweet spot in this set. I'm starting to think there might be a good Mardu midrange deck here

With each card being previewed it appears we may be heading into a midrange standard format.

that Tusker could easily be a common. so bad.

Mardu's got a lot of sweet stuff for something like that.

Rabblemaster and Brimaz as 3-drop army-in-a-can creatures
Zurgo and Stormbreath as 5cmc bombs (Zurgo's not too bad, imo)
Sarkhan, Elspeth, and maybe Sorin and Chandra as powerful walker backup.
Some good removal spells like downfall and the new b/w spell
mardu ascendancy for more overrun and sweeper defense, etc'

And ankle shanker is actually really good in a standard metagame that's lots of midrange creatures. Enables swing-ins that are almost always profitable.


Mana would be icky, but with The 3-color land, confluence, pain lands, and fetch lands, it could be done. I just hate when manabases are twice as expensive as the rest of the deck combined. It's annoying e.e

Shanker is a 2/2, according to mothership previews. Seriously?!? For a 5 CMC, rare, multicolored creature that's kinda ridiculous.

Tusker is also a 6/4 (not that it makes the card playable).