This card is exceptionally powerful, but doesn't really do anything for me in Historic. Too much mana, doesn't meaningfully disrupt the opponent. You're too likely to make your token and then lose. As far as purely putting numbers onto the battlefield, which is important to do, this card is excellent, even for five mana. But, that seems to be less and less what Historic is about. The reason that I'm so into Goblin Dark Dwellers right now is that it does a lot of the same stuff that W7 does, puts a big body on the table and gives you card advantage, but it does it in a way where it disrupts your opponent. I'm pretty excited for it in Standard though. Curving Esika's Chariot into this is going to be awesome, and Chariot is already one of the better cards in the format anyways. Standard 22 has looked pretty fun from what I've seen so maybe I'll give this a shot.
Speaking of Esika's Chariot, I'm not sure that Arlinn really does anything for us that Chariot doesn't. Similarly to Wrenn and Seven, she doesn't kill any opposing creatures to do anything to any of their stuff. And since we can already get that from Chariot, is Arlinn going to be able to do that better? It's possible, especially since Prismari Command seems to be everywhere right now. As far as I have the deck built at the moment, I don't think there's really room for either of these cards, but the build of the deck is very likely to change at some point, like always, so maybe we'll want to jam some cats or wolves again.
Not long ago, if you were to tell me there was a three mana 3/3 Ophidian with some significant upside, I'd have loved it. Now, I'm not so sure. The problem is that there just aren't that many opponents out there where you can expect to cast a three mana 3/3, untap with it, and attack with it the next turn. I got fooled by Nighthawk Scavenger, so I don't want to get fooled by Tovolar. But, the power is definitely there. It's certainly worth a shot.
Here's another three drop with potential. It reminds me a little of Deathgorge Scavenger, but I think it's probably more powerful. I don't disregard any graveyard hate cards, so this will always have a chance. The Ward ability is a pretty big deal against decks where you're grinding, and the back side has enough power to threaten an opponent. It doesn't really tangle on the ground with anything in the format, but there's some potential here.
It's funny, losing 2 life is a pretty significant cost to a removal spell. In theory, you want to use your cheap removal spells to keep your life total high, not empty your hand out fast. But, Historic seems to be very much about keeping pace on the battlefield instead of worrying about your life total. Right now, I'm more interested in catering my deck around Goblin Dark Dwellers, and losing 2 life twice isn't what we want to be doing, but this could be an interesting option in the right metagame.
It's been a while since I kicked a Shivan Fire, so this card is certainly an option out of the sideboard. Is it good enough to main deck? I think we'd main deck Lightning Bolt if give the chance, potentially even something like Chain Lightning, so it's not out of the question. Three is a lot more than two, though, no matter what else we tack on.
The translated version of this is 1R, Sacrifice a Vampire and discard a card: Draw two cards, activate only if an opponent lost life this turn. Similarly to my explanation on Ragavan in Modern, nothing is off the table if it's versatile and cheap and powerful enough. It gets on the board early, trades with most other cheap stuff, pressures planeswalkers, and can help you dig for value in a pinch. I don't think it can fit in the Dark Dwellers top end plan that I've got going now, but I like to keep an eye out for cheap stuff like this. Over time, the power level of eternal formats necessitate mana curves going down.
I like these a lot. One thing that's apparent with the list I posted earlier is that the mana is stretched quite a bit to hit all of our requirements, Thoughtseize on turn 1, Abundant Harvest on turn 1, and double red for Goblin Dark Dwellers. These don't help you cast your early stuff, but they do increase the count for your red sources, and without needing land types like Rootbound Crag does. By cutting those lands, we can also cut the Shocklands from the deck and have a functional mana base. I'm interested in trying to get Stomping Ground out of the deck entirely, which is tough to do if you're using Rootbound Crags. These lands also work nicely with Darkbore Pathway, since a Pathway plus either one of these lands will get you all your colors, plus the Pathway will be able to cast your one mana spell, be it Thoughtseize or Harvest. And, like most of these other lands, at the very worst they are tapped lands that add two colors, so your awkward mana draws will still be able to cast stuff, if possibly a little slower than we'd like. My best guess right now is that somewhere between three and five of these lands should be in the deck, but it will take quite a bit of testing to get the knobs turned just right.
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There's still plenty left of this set to see, and if there's another card or two that look viable then I'll post something quick here. Also, I'd love to get another Youtube video out about Goblin Dark Dwellers in Historic, if I have time. If you want to check it out, you can see my past broadcasts on Twitch. Thanks for reading.
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