Predator's Strike

Instant

Target creature gets +3/+3 and gains trample until end of turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

indieinside on Mono Green Poison and Proliferate

5 months ago

Thanks for the upvote Profet93!!!!

Yavimaya Hollow is definitely getting added. Vines of Vastwood does go a little bigger, but it is missing the trample that Predator's Strike has. I don't need to hit with everything. I just need to hit for some. As for Staff of Compleation, the draw and proliferate together make that card worth it. Just the other day I won the table off of that card. I like it.

Piglord98 on Death's Awakening (Help me Update!)

1 year ago

Not sure if Predator's Strike is worth it anymore. I'd recommend either Massive Might if you still want a buff, or Charge Through to still give trample but you draw instead of making the creature stronger. Either way they are both at instant speed.

PickleNutz on Don't Let Em Breathe (Quick)

1 year ago

Green is my color, has been a very long time. I’ve ran similar decks to this, but I’ve always had dorks in at early play and at least 2 to 4, 4 or 5 CMC beaters with evasion for that mid range strategy. I’ve always felt without haste being prominent in low CMC creatures it’s hard to weenie out something competitive. Red has always done that well with high damage low cost hasty things. However, I think what you have going on here is a legitimate strategy. My only suggestions would be to try Hardened Scales, Blossoming Defense, and Predator's Strike. They’re simple toolkit cards that may help in the sideboard or main deck against heavy hate decks. Devotion boosters like the instant you are running doesn’t give much consistent better numbers than Predator’s Strike. Both are instant, but pred gives you trample. Regardless, you’ve got a good thing going here.

rb701 on Sword to a Magic Fight - TRON Equipment

2 years ago

for an equipment/artifact deck, red and green are kind of irregular colors. i had a hard time, using this, posing a threat for quite some time until there was a nemesis mask ready to go. swords are good, hence their value, but not reliable in small amounts. given that you have 3 magnetic theft's in for the main deck, have you considered using Cranial Plating? there's a lot of artifacts being brought out, which is good, but i don't see the need to have indestructible creatures to also have protection when the likelihood of someone using exile-effects is very minimal. with the lack of trample, as well, maybe put in some "combat trick" instants to accommodate that (such as Predator's Strike)

mobizque on $50 1-Up Green

2 years ago

Hey Beginner-Budget-Builder, Solidarity of Heroes could definitely make some big creatures. I tried Tuskguard Captain and I wasn't satisfied. It's too expensive and slow for what it does. I think a well-timed Predator's Strike might give you better surprise trample with some protection to boot.

Hornbash Mentor is interesting. I might try a trample tribal deck. I've been looking for a way to play the Almighty Brushwag...

Rorolith on The zada's death touch Pezzent

3 years ago

Taking out the ones that target Zada and a creature an opponent controls, you could include Giant Growth-eur 0.11-for Thrash / Threat, out Fists of Flame for a 2 mana Overwhelm in the form of Predator's Strike-eur 0.19- (Fists of flame will only ever give +2/+0 in this deck).

Out 2x Nature's Way, in Ajani's Presence for board wipe immunity that can also work without Zada. I don't mind having 4xDomri's Ambush and 2xNature's Way for some cheap removal.

Alkadron on Graverobber Spider, Mrs Self Mill

3 years ago

If the goal is a giant punch, I feel like it needs more Predator's Strike and Horned Helm.

I know they're not creatures, but I don't think Pridemalkin and Elvish Herder are enough.

At the very least, if you wanna do trample and graveyard stuff, throw in Talons of Wildwood and Sylvan Might

TheVectornaut on Searing Infection

3 years ago

Most of my experience with infect comes from playing simic, but I have played the mechanic in all 5 colors. In terms of power, green is the most effective color to play by a very VERY large margin. You get access to the best infect creature in Glistener Elf (along with the slower and safer option of Blight Mamba), you get trample sources to push through damage with Ichorclaw Myr such as Rancor, Predator's Strike, and Larger Than Life, you get protection bundled with buffs in the form of Vines of Vastwood, Ranger's Guile, and Blossoming Defense, and you get the largest pool of very strong power boosts in the form of Mutagenic Growth, Invigorate, Scale Up, Might of Old Krosa, Berserk, Become Immense, Groundswell, Phytoburst, Noble Hierarch, and Pendelhaven. Since infect is an all-or-nothing sort of archetype, even when running the less aggressive versions, the most important characteristics that you need are speed, protection, and evasion. Green offers two of those things in spades but can struggle with evasion. This is why blue is generally considered the next best color to run. You get the insane threat of Blighted Agent, unblockable buffs with Distortion Strike and Aqueous Form, and protection from spells via Spell Pierce, Dispel, Turn Aside, and the odd Spellskite. Black is the next best. Plague Stinger's flying isn't as good as the unblockable on a Blighted Agent but it's still very powerful evasion as illustrated by the ubiquity of Inkmoth Nexus in every non-budget infect list ever made. Black also nets useful control tools like Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Dismember, and Assassin's Trophy. White was considered the worst infect color for a very long time since its best option (Apostle's Blessing) can be used in any deck, but the recent introduction of Giver of Runes has breathed some life back into the color. Additionally, I've seen a lot of equipment lists popping up that use Colossus Hammer, Kor Duelist, Sigarda's Aid, and Kor Outfitter to see some success. Unfortunately, that leaves red as the current worst color to run in infect. It has some decent buffs but they pale in comparison to green's offerings. The result is that most red infect decks rely on gimmicks like using Razor Swine's first strike to wither enemy creatures, generating infinite mana to pump into an unblocked Ogre Menial, or putting Phyresis on something like a Spikeshot Elder to bypass combat altogether. Your instant tricks definitely fall in this category. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If your meta is casual enough, red should still work and it will be much more interesting to play with / fun to play against than a more traditional deck. How competitive you want to be is always up to you.

To answer your specific questions, I would probably start by cutting a few creatures. Most lists run about 12 infect sources (and that's including a playset of Inkmoth Nexus). With Hand of the Praetors on your top end, running 16-20 isn't that unreasonable, at least as long as all of them are good. Infect creatures usually become "bad" when they cost more than 2. That's why I wouldn't usually recommend running Ichor Rats or Septic Rats. Both Necropede and Plague Myr are perfectly acceptable inclusions with very similar power levels. They'll rarely be better than Plague Stinger or Ichorclaw Myr but that's okay if you just want more guys to play. As for Vector Asp, it's honestly a pretty bad choice in most circumstances. While you usually won't need to activate it more than 2 or 3 times to win the game, that mana would be better spent elsewhere, and it doesn't even trigger the Hand. However, given the choice of it and a 3-drop, I'd probably take the snake, especially since it would be your only proactive play on turn 1 (barring the inclusion of Glistener Elf or Inkmoths). Better though would just be to run neither and invest in more buff spells to assist in combat and trigger Livewire Lash. I do like the idea of those spells having cycling in theory, but in practice, the mana needed to cycle can short you of the resources needed to close out the game. Plus, cycling spells tend to cost more to account for the added ability. Cycling lands on the other hand should be fine as long as they come in untapped, although it looks like that only describes Ash Barrens and Blasted Landscape. Just like with creatures, I wouldn't run any spells that cost more than 2 unless they can win you the game like Soul's Fire can. This will also allow you to run 20 lands or fewer, opening up even more slots for gas. I apologize if I'm repeating myself about the low-cost-high-speed thing but that is basically the reason the infect mechanic exists. If you prefer a slow and more controlling style, Rakdos wither built around Necroskitter is a fun option that has some overlap with infect.