Crystalline Crawler vs Coalition Relic
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 26, 2016, 12:51 p.m. by MoJoMiXuP
When Prismatic Geoscope was spoiled, I was mulling over if and how it should fit in my There Be Dragons! deck, but then Crystalline Crawler showed up, which looks much better to me. I'm curious what people think when comparing it with Coalition Relic.
It seems a pretty substantial upgrade for 1 extra colorless mana (4 mana turn cast or 5 the turn after, 1 mana per turn indefinitely vs. 1 mana turn cast or 2 the turn after, 1 mana per turn indefinitely).
It also provides a 5/5 colorless body for blocking, with the downside of being a creature removal target. So what do people think? will Crystalline Crawler largely replace Coalition Relic in EDH?
I kind of feel like the Crawler isn't as great as it seems. It's not really a filter since it needs multiple land types to be effective(3-5 probably to be playable) and being a creature I don't think you can count on it being out long in this format. It's kind of cool as a free creature in 4 colors allowing you to cast one of the new commanders, but otherwise I see it as pretty limited.
October 26, 2016 3:10 p.m.
While crystalline crawler will potentially give you a huge hit of mana, the issue is that it needs for your mana base to be fixed already. It also comes down one turn later.
Relic comes down one turn earlier, just does its thing and had less issues when it comes to removal.
Because getting it down to fix mana for you and then having someone wrathing puts you back at square one.
Honestly, I would stick with Relic.
October 26, 2016 5:58 p.m.
As other people have noted without spelling out explicitly, the two cards fill different roles. You would never want to swap one for the other. Rather, Relic is one of a large suite of potential mana rocks you might run to help accelerate in the early turns. Crawler is more closely akin to Karametra's Acolyte in that given the right board state either can provide you with a ton of mana. Obviously not the same board in each case, of course.
October 26, 2016 6:27 p.m.
It really depends on the deck an what you need. For example, I would never run the relic in Token Abuse but crystalline crawler is an auto include in it considering it creates even more combos and just has general synergy in the deck. I'm sure that in other kinds of decks, the relic is much more favorable.
October 26, 2016 6:42 p.m.
PookandPie says... #7
Coalition Relic accelerates and mana fixes, Crystalline Crawler only generates amounts of mana worth its 4 mana cost if your mana base is already properly fixed (3+ colors).
They have different roles, but Crawler looks to be a casual trap that leans toward win-more-- it is only for when you have most/all of your colors, and you need to have at least 4 mana to be able to play it which means it does little to help you when you're behind or mana screwed, unless it synergizes with some other part of your deck. Your dragon deck is not one of those decks. Relic, on the other hand, is generally good for Commander decks in most meta games (I find Relic a bit slow, still, but most metas should be fine with Relic). Prismatic Geoscope should be compared to Gilded Lotus, not Coalition Relic, as it costs the same mana as your Commander and has the slight upside of being able to produce 5 mana, potentially, versus the downside of producing little to no mana in the event of Ruination/Armageddon/Acidic Slime loops and other shenanigans.
Summary: Stick with Coalition Relic. It lets you drop your Commander fourth turn with a mana to spare, at least, which means you only need 1 other ramp card to have been played previously in order to get a Scion activation off the bat to protect him while he has summoning sickness (by, say, getting Silumgar with targeted removal on the stack), or by getting a haste dragon and swinging once with Tyrant's Familiar, depending on board state. I mean, even if not ideal, that still gives you a line to get in and swing whereas Crawler and Geoscope would have delayed you at least a turn.
October 26, 2016 7:24 p.m.
thanks for looking the feedback everyone and thanks for relating it to the deck PookandPie. I'd say you assessment seems spot on for my situation. It's tempting to jump that far ahead on the curve and have multiple utility/protection morphs for scion as opponents turns go round, but really, if the rock can pull that off, I already have my colors and am better served with the safer relic.
shuflw says... #2
relic ramps you from 3 to 6, and can do so in a monocolor deck up to 5c.
crawler can take you from 4 to 10, but only in a 4+ color deck. it's still great in a deck playing less colors, but less explosive. creatures are also way easier to kill (on purpose or with wraths) in edh.
these cards do different things and have different strengths and weaknesses. i think they're both good, and i don't see increases in one leading to the decline of the other.
October 26, 2016 2:30 p.m.