Zurgo Bellstriker is Good?
Standard forum
Posted on March 18, 2015, 2:09 p.m. by weisemanjohn
When I first read Zurgo Bellstriker I completely overlooked him because he is a 2/2 that can't block power 2 or greater... And you have to pay more AND don't get to keep him if you give him haste (dash). Monastery Swiftspear seems like a better play in this case. But then came the thought of putting him in a Jalira, Master Polymorphist deck along side Hero's Blade and he seems to be quite the power house!The fact that you can have a quick creature that can buff easily and be sac fodder to Jalira who doesnt get in the way seems very strong.
(Example build Temur's Polymorphist)
Any thoughts on this little legendary?
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #3
What I like about Zurgo is that he's basically a repeatable Shock. Hero's Blade is definitely sweet.
March 18, 2015 2:51 p.m.
TurboFagoot says... #4
Zurgo is very good. Not because of some shitty polymorph deck lol But because he's a 2/2 for 1 with upside (Dash)
March 18, 2015 3:21 p.m.
BlastercoolWeird says... #5
yeah Red Deck Wins is a real deck that people are playing. I had to put up with Firedrinker Satyr before this guy was revealed, so in comparision Bellstriker is quite good.
Can't block is irrelevant to an aggro deck until it's about to lose, you don't need to dash it when you can drop it turn one. Dashing just lets you get it swinging immediately later in the game and lets you get incidental things like triggering Foundry Street Denizen. Legendary is kind of a pain but you just keep it to two or three Zurgo's in your deck
March 18, 2015 3:33 p.m.
another reason zurgo doesn't work with jalira is her ability says "NONLEGENDARY"
March 18, 2015 4:12 p.m.
Pretty much few people have ever doubted Zurgo Bellstriker. He is a 2/2 for 1 with a possible upside. That will never be bad. But he is incredible bland and pretty boring non-flavor wise. Modern has better options as does standard. He's not bad, there's just better.
March 18, 2015 4:15 p.m.
weisemanjohn says... #8
So, the jalira deck was just my example of finding him to be more effective than I initially thought. As far as using him with Jalira, Master Polymorphist he would be sacrificed to fins another non legendary creature such as Hornet Queen in my example. Being as he is legendary, you cannot accidentally run into him, which is good in this example as he would not be good to polymorph into.
March 18, 2015 4:16 p.m.
@kanofudo. - That's kind of the point.
He can be sac'd to Jalira, but you won't waste a Jalira Activation by pulling him out of your Library. - You can run something like Hornet Queen as your only non-legendary creature.
T1: - Zurgo...
T2: - Tymeret...
T3: - Alesha...
T4: - Jalira...
T5: - Sac Zurgo or Tymeret to get the Queen, Swing with Alesha to get him back. (Or attack first, then sac)
I don't currently advocate trying to use her... as said by others, she's not that good... but there is a strategy to be had.
March 18, 2015 4:25 p.m.
Rakdos Cackler was played A LOT when it was in standard (I think). A 2/2 for 1 is always good. Blocking doesn't matter.
March 18, 2015 6:08 p.m.
If you want to use Hero's Blade and Zurgo in a deck, Ohthenoises has one floating around. I think it is this: Legen
March 18, 2015 6:53 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #13
It's a 2/2 for one with upside (since Red players usually aren't interested in blocking); therefore good.
Regarding Jalira, it is nice that you can't run into it, but its inability to block big creatures is actually a drawback since you probably need chumps. For Red, I'd rather run token stuff like Dragon Fodder to feed Jalira.
March 18, 2015 7:38 p.m.
BlastercoolWeird says... #14
@showda What did you mean by better options in standard?
tbh I think Zurgo's really good as just a flat 2 power guy with no need for jumping through hoops
Akroan Crusader, Satyr Hoplite need to be targeted with something to get you two power, Monastery Swiftspear while really good only swings for 1 power unless you cast something pre-damage, Foundry Street Denizen requires a red creature enter the battlefield to have 2 power. Firedrinker Satyr is just a gigantic liability to burn or ...anything with non-zero power. and lastly, Lightning Berserker require mana to make it more than a 1/1.
March 18, 2015 8:20 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #15
Yeah, I've been toying with Zurgo in a jeskai legend deck. I will say, his dash combined with Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and/or Hero's Blade is just retarded.
March 18, 2015 8:33 p.m.
Crystalite says... #16
There is a thing Zurgo, and Dash creatures in general, can do that I'm quite surprised nobody appears to have noticed. In Standard, there's Altar of the Brood, Outpost Siege on Dragons mode, and the new Impact Tremors. Dash creatures can repeatedly trigger all of these, and none of them require adding a color if you don't want. And in Modern! Divide me by zero! Who knows how many ETB + Dash shenanigans you could do? Mono-Red Dash is a deck I am definitely building in Standard, with a touch of blue for Treasure Cruise just because.
March 23, 2015 7:33 p.m.
BlastercoolWeird says... #17
well, I think people noticed but Impact Tremors and Altar of the Brood don't do enough to be worth running and casting in a red aggressive deck. Outpost Siege is generally better off set to the Khans mode unless I've got my opponent down to 4-5 life and I've resolved a Hordeling Outburst or something.
Also of note: the red ones all help you trigger Foundry Street Denizen, a useful card in the red aggro lists going around. Which is part of the reason those list are running Mardu Scout and Goblin Heelcutter
March 23, 2015 8:01 p.m.
LordOfDispair says... #18
It certainly found a spot in my aggro list (Swaggro (Turn 3 win)). I've seen a surprising number of people saying how bad it is, which I think is just a hipster tendency. It's a 2/2 for 1 red mana that has a fairly small downside and a fairly large upside, there's no need to pretend it's a useless card.
March 23, 2015 9:41 p.m.
Zeondragon says... #19
Zurgo is good because of his dash and if you really like that then play impact tremors with it
April 21, 2015 6:20 p.m.
AngryBearTony says... #20
I'm pretty sure RDW does NOT want to play Impact Tremors. Why waste 2 mana playing a card that will eventually whittle the opposition when that 2 mana could have immediately burned your face for 3, or put something more effective on the board? Altar of the Brood might be okayish in a 
/
deck, but it's opponent geared, and why bother? There are better graveyard engines. And what version of RDW that plays Outpost Siege is NOT going to set it to Khans? The opportunity to burn out an extra card is just too good to pass up for a measly one damage dependent on you losing a creature.
square711 says... #2
Zurgo isn't bad, and he definitely synergizes well with Hero's Blade. The problem with your combo lies in another piece, Jalira. She's clunky as hell, dies before she can tap 99% of the time and just costs too much mana. I don't see what's so good about using Zurgo as sac fodder for her, either.
You'd be better off just dropping a Blade on the field and then dashing Zurgo every turn.
March 18, 2015 2:39 p.m.