Geralf's Messenger

So I hear Deathrite is no longer around in modern stopping this from being amazing.

And I heard Gray Merchants like modern too.

Such good value for 3 mana

Now I really want to know what an Innistrad-Theros standard instead of an RtR-Theros Standard would have looked like. I guess Mono-Black Domination.

Geralf's Messenger is great. Applies pressure, good attacking stats, eats removal.

.Rai wrote:Now I really want to know what an Innistrad-Theros standard instead of an RtR-Theros Standard would have looked like. I guess Mono-Black Domination.

Ah, the terror... it would have been epic.

It would just be the same deck. Grey Merchant is way too high on the curve for such an aggressive deck.

Geralf's Messenger vs Nightveil Specter?

I assume that Nightveil Specter is better for the controlling decks then. To be honest, Messenger doesn't do a bad job there anyway.

Still hilarious when Kitchen Finks and this are on the field together, interacting and stuff.

To be honest, RTR plays such a huge role in the current format that INN-THS is actually rather hard to imagine.

The only thing that would be obvious really is that Zombies would be insanely dominant because almost the entire deck is made up from just RTR block. Without Blood Crypt I guess the mana wouldn't be great for a red splash though so it could potentially be mono black and go slightly higher on the curve for Gary to close games out.

Messenger would assuredly see play in mono black devotion. The deck's got some fast kills and the main issue with Specter is that it's not at all resilient to removal, especially now with Bile Blight in the format. Messenger, on the other hand is so hard to kill that it guarantees being a strong clock and is always a good draw unless you're on the back foot, in which case a 2/3 doesn't block well anyway. The only problem then is that Mono Black gains so much from the card advantage Specter provides. The deck would almost certainly take a more aggressive stance with options in Pack Rat, Messenger and Lifebane Zombie for early game. The deck could also benefit from Gloom Surgeon much like the mono black deck used at the time of GTC's release to deal with all the aggressive decks. The thing is it still seems like it wouldn't be good because its Zombie matchup would be horrendous.

tl;dr INN-THS would just be Zombies, Zombies and more Zombies.


@Dae, it's an interaction Messenger wins every time though.

It is, doesn't mean it isn't funny.