Abzan Battle Priest or Crystalline Crawler?

Commander Deck Help forum

Posted on Aug. 1, 2019, 12:28 a.m. by DemonDragonJ

In my Atraxa EDH deck, I have an Abzan Battle Priest , who is in that deck specifically to combo with Archangel of Thune ; however, I have realized that the probability of reliably drawing both of those cards within close proximity of each other in a single game is very miniscule, so I am now considering replacing that creature with another one.

One creature that many websites and other players recommend for an Atraxa deck is Crystalline Crawler , and I can understand that recommendation, since that creature would work very well in such a deck, providing almost free mana for minimal investment. It also has the same mana cost, albeit with no colors, as the priest, so it shall not raise the mana curve of my deck.

What does everyone else say about this? Should I replace Abzan Battle Priest with Crystalline Crawler ?

enpc says... #2

I've moved to the deck help forum.

August 1, 2019 1:04 a.m. Edited.

enpc says... #3

This thread was moved to a more appropriate forum (auto-generated comment)

August 1, 2019 1:04 a.m.

ZendikariWol says... #4

I personally think that of the three cards mentioned here, Archangel of Thune is by far the least synergistic. That’s just my casual opinion tho.

August 1, 2019 1:25 a.m.

multimedia says... #5

Yes, no question make that replacement.

Abzan Battle Priest is kind of lackluster since don't really need it's lifelink ability since Atraxa has lifelink. It's interaction does seems good with Archangel of Thune , but Thune is good just by itself where as Priest isn't.

I would value more ramp that has interaction with proliferate over more lifelink that has interaction with proliferate. Crawler can by itself the turn you play it, if you use four different colors of mana to cast it, cast Atraxa. Since it's a 1/1 removing all the counters the turn you play it doesn't kill it which is good to be able to later on put more counters on it.

Crawler is more versatile being a creature who can be a powerful mana rock or just one who can grow in power to be an attacker. Who if you use four different colors of mana to cast can ETB as a 5/5. Only using three different colors still gives you a 4/4, even that's better than Priest.

August 1, 2019 1:26 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #6

multimedia, I was already considering replacing the priest, so your post has helped me to finalize that decision; thank you very much.

August 1, 2019 6:44 a.m.

shadow63 says... #7

Took a quick look and I'd recommend Juniper Order Ranger over either of those two. It does have a slightly higher cmc but it powers up everything you play after he hits the board

August 1, 2019 1:51 p.m.

shadow63 says... #8

Somehow missed the ranger but your missing a Corpsejack Menace

August 1, 2019 1:52 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #9

shadow63, I already have Doubling Season in that deck, and there is no card that I could remove for Corpsejack Menace , other than the aforementioned Abzan Battle Priest .

August 2, 2019 5:49 p.m.

shadow63 says... #10

Redundancy is almost a never bad idea in edh. And if you have then both out tou get 4 times the counters

August 2, 2019 9:53 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #11

shadow63, I agree, but that leaves the question of what card I could remove to make room for it.

August 3, 2019 2:17 p.m.

shadow63 says... #12

The battle priest

August 3, 2019 2:20 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #13

shadow63, I have already removed the battle priest in favor of crystalline crawler, unless you believe that Corpsejack Menace is a better card.

August 4, 2019 12:06 p.m.

shadow63 says... #14

I'd say so

August 4, 2019 1:28 p.m.

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