Courser vs Herald
Standard forum
Posted on Oct. 26, 2014, 8:04 p.m. by capriom85
Which of these 3 cmc choices do you like in Abzan aggro? I personally am running Courser of Kruphix , and I think its mostly a local meta choice, but I can see the attraction toward running Herald of Torment . I prefer the Courser simply because its doges most aggro hate lke Anger of the Gods and Lightning Strike . I like the life gain and draw filtering. They also let me know if I should wait to crack a fetch and block for days against most other decks. Which do you like and why?
xlaleclx, now see I totally agree, but most of the lists I see are playing Herald of Torment and it makes me wonder. I rather gain a life every turn than lose 1. The deck already has the hitting power, so I don't think its worth it.
October 26, 2014 8:39 p.m.
In a meta more focused on 1-for-1 trades forcing top decking pretty often, I say herald wins out. He's a much better top deck and overall gets in more damage with greater reliability. With how much lifegain Abzan can pump out, I simply don't see his downside being all that important.
October 26, 2014 8:49 p.m.
austin11223344 says... #5
Think about it like this: what if you play both? You can enchant the demon onto the corser and you get a 5/7 flyer and you lose one and gain one every turn, plus if the opponent kills it, you get a 3/3 flyer. Good by anyones standards. Also a 7/8 flying siege rino would be really cool.
October 26, 2014 9:07 p.m.
austin11223344. what kind of split do you suggest for both?
October 26, 2014 11:43 p.m.
Arorsthrar says... #8
In an aggro deck Herald of Torment is the much better fit. A 3/3 Flyer is just better than a 2/4. Bestow essentially adds 3 power with haste, insurance against removal, and evasion to another threat.
Courser of Kruphix gets walled by other Coursers and Sylvan Caryatid and Mantis Rider , making it a poor attacker in general.
Both cards interact with mana flooding. Courser helps prevent it while Herald of Torment 's bestow is a great mana sink.
October 27, 2014 12:23 a.m.
I'd rather take 1 and deal 3 every turn against green decks then gain 1 life most turns and not being able to do any real profitable attacks or blocks. Being an aggro deck you need to attack since the bigger midrange decks will win if the games drag on.
October 27, 2014 5:44 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #10
Why not both? Think of Herald of Torment as a 5 CMC enchantment to put on your Coursers.
October 27, 2014 7:21 a.m.
Coursers makes the curve worse as it's a bad beater. Having to work for a card to become good is not really where you want to be in this format currently. And by good I'm talking in context of a deck, not the individual power level of a Courser, where it's actually rather bad in many matches while only really being good against mono red.
October 27, 2014 7:41 a.m.
I can see the point of attackers better than defenders, but its not just mono red giving courser its $15 price tag.
October 27, 2014 4:59 p.m.
I'm not say its not a great card, but so is Brimaz. None of them are, however, as great in a Abzan aggro as they are in other decks that are built in a way that takes advantage of their strengths.
Just jamming a good card in a deck will not make it good in that particular deck. Because there are always other cards you need to cut to make room, and in the case of Abzan aggro there are better creatures to play, and cutting removal/disruption will all in all make the deck worse. Price $15 tag or not.
October 27, 2014 5:33 p.m.
I didn't mean to make any offense Jojja. You said Courser was bad in most matches outside mono red. I took that as your stance on the card in general. I see what you mean about Herald being a more efficient creature, though. I'm going to play with them both and see if it suits me better, too.
October 27, 2014 9:40 p.m.
No offense taken capriom85 and I hope none was given. English is a second language for me so I sometimes have trouble with expressing myself. :)
October 28, 2014 3:55 a.m.
No, none taken. Jojja, you made a good point. Courser is one of my favorite cards right now so I am biased toward it (emotion got in the way of strategy), but I am going to play with Heralds in place for a while and see if my stats improve. Take care
xlaleclx says... #2
Courser is much better. The card is insane.
October 26, 2014 8:34 p.m.