Atalan Jackal

Creature — Human Tyranid Scout

Trample, haste

Skilled Outrider — Whenever Atalan Jackal deals combat damage to a player, you may search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.

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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (12)

BlueGriffon on ognis, the goblins' lash

2 weeks ago

Deck is tuned and going well. Got killed first because i was scary. Considering putting in a small lifelink creature that I can grab with Rushed Rebirth, or just draw into. Because once that life goes, it gone.

Most notable interaction this game was casting Genesis Wave for X=12, which got countered by a Tibalt's Trickery. Which doesn't feel good, but does feel good if you know what i mean. also Atalan Jackal is a beast to drop early game.

Card draw was on point, just made a dumb attack decision and ended up unnecessarily killing my Harvester of Souls way before i should've.

i did notice that i've subbed out a lot of my targeted creature removal for other stuff. i didn't draw into any spot removal, which makes sense because i cut a bunch and i didn't draw an ass ton of cards. still happy with the removal level i think. will see about tweaking

DemonDragonJ on Elemental Storm

2 months ago

I have replaced Atalan Jackal with Songcrafter Mage, since I believe that the newer card better fits the theme of this deck, in terms of both flavor and mechanics.

DemonDragonJ on How Good is Atalan Jackal?

4 months ago

Bookrook, yes, I agree that wallisface made some very well-reasoned arguments, so I shall not be using Atalan Jackal in my Ghired, Conclave Exile deck.

wallisface, how can you say that my Ghired deck should not "run creature cards in general?" I can think of only a few other generals who have a stronger emphasis on creatures than him, with another example being Chulane, Teller of Tales, who is also the general of an EDH deck that I have made. Also, I agree that Ephemerate is an amazing spell, but I chose Momentary Blink over it, because I can choose when that spell recurs, and am not forced to reuse it on my next turn or lose it.

DemonDragonJ on How Good is Atalan Jackal?

5 months ago

wallisface, Kazierts, your points make sense, and, perhaps I can find a creature that is a better alternative than is Atalan Jackal, although I still think that it is a very interesting idea, and you also said that "ramping for the sake of ramping does not solve anything," but is that not what Cultivate does? Also, why has no one yet mentioned Explosive Vegetation? For one more mana over Cultivate, it can put two lands onto the battlefield, making it essentially a double version of Rampant Growth.

Kazierts on How Good is Atalan Jackal?

5 months ago

Here's actually something I disagree with wallisface. I don't think Wood Elves is much worse than Cultivate nor is marginally better than Atalan Jackal.

If we're talking about raw ramp, then yes, Cultivate is better because it can also set up future ramp such as Explore and Growth Spiral, but Wood Elves can get nonbasic lands such as Indatha Triome. I'm not saying it's an auto-include if you have nonbasic forest, but it's something I'd consider.

About Atalan Jackal, just look at its EDHrec page. You'll see roughly 4 types of commanders that play it.

• Warhammer commanders - I imagine this is because it comes in the precons.
• Haste commanders - Ognis, the Dragon's Lash, Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, Deathleaper, Terror Weapon and Samut, Vizier of Naktamun.
• Combat commanders - Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder and General Marhault Elsdragon.
• Very creature focused decks - Animar, Soul of Elements, Nikya of the Old Ways and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed.

These aren't the only commanders that run this card, but the ones that play it the most. They don't run Atalan Jackal because it's good, but because it actually synergises with the overall strategy. It doesn't enable the strategy, it is part of the strategy.

wallisface on How Good is Atalan Jackal?

5 months ago

DemonDragonJ Atalan Jackal might loosely be a creature version of Cultivate, but its a terrible choice. It has to connect with combat damage to actually do anything, and with its terrible stats there's a big of it ever doing so. Your deck might focus on creatures but that doesn't mean every one of your cards has to be a creature - indeed if there's no inherent benefit from this card being a creature then there is no point in running it as such. Having a quick look at your deck, I see no reason why this shouldn't be Cultivate instead.

Wood Elves is probably marginally better than Atalan Jackal, but is still only even remotely useful if you have some way to abuse the etb trigger repeatedly and reliably, otherwise it's again just a much-worse Cultivate. Its also worth noting that while you may be able to blink/copy Wood Elves, that I would hope there are far better targets for such effects, making it an even less-useful card.

Ramping for ramps-sake doesn't really solve anything.

DemonDragonJ on How Good is Atalan Jackal?

5 months ago

wallisface, Atalan Jackal is a creature version of Cultivate, and my Ghired deck focuses on creatures, and I also do not use "generically good" cards in every one of my decks; I ensure that each of my decks feels distinct from the others, but what about Wood Elves? What is your opinion of that card?

DemonDragonJ on How Good is Atalan Jackal?

5 months ago

Kazierts, what is wrong with cards being "generically good?"

wallisface, I am not planning to put Atalan Jackal in everyone one of my EDH decks that contain the colors red and green, likely only my Ghired, Conclave Exile deck, because that deck has a strong emphasis on creatures, including being able to copy them.