Stag Gardener

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Bell
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Stag Gardener

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[Art Not Yet Available]


Type: Creature
Race: Majest
Quadrant: Dominion
Element: Earth
Cost: 3
Power: 2000
Effect: [Deplete 1]: Until the end of this turn, whenever this creature attacks, you may draw a card.
Set: Advent of Chaos (CF-01) Common
Flavor Text: not yet available
Writer Text: Those who tend to their family and their world find themselves tended to in return.


The Element

The great creatures of Earth consistently shift and adapt to their environments, showing greater capacity for working in groups than perhaps any other Element. This is probably one of the core aims of anyone who wishes to use the Stag Gardener, as it is a card that offers continual progressive ability if one can keep it in play. The effect of the Stag Gardener cannot be said to benefit its own element directly any more than any other, but as a relatively low costed creature option for Earth, it does push its own element a bit ahead, especially if one continues to draw other Earth cards to swarm with. It is on the 'resource gathering' side of its element, rather than the powerful and resistant type one sees in the other half of Earth, contributing more to 'unstoppable by numbers' than 'unstoppable by force'.

The Combat Ability

Stag Gardener's combat ability is barely average, at best, for the point of the game where it can be called. This is offset somewhat by it being a creature of Earth and therefore able to more easily be used with cards that increase its power such as Violent Stampede or Morning Glory, but still somewhat limits its usefulness as a standard fighter as the game plays out. This is offset by another factor as well, though. With early Cost Reduction effects from other Earth creatures, one can quickly get Stag Gardener moving, and once you do, in certain decks, it is capable of helping you to draw the exact sort of card you need to either protect it or raise its power in order to keep up the attack. This ability, combined with just enough strength to at least take down the earliest of enemy creatures, lets a player strategically choose when to attempt to use Stag Gardener in combat, but may not be much protection if the opponent is very fast or aggressive themselves.

The Effect

For the most part, the effect of Stag Gardener would be the reason to play it, especially when comparing it to the other options in Earth. Used 'randomly', it will, at the least, allow the player to regain a card to make up for any loss of the creature on their opponent's turn. Used more strategically, this creature's effect can be a true headache, enabling various responsers, bait/trap plays, or simply countering Gravity decks that rely too heavily on discard effects and then end up taking relatively long to exceed this creature's power. When accelerated by cost reduction and acting as a part of a larger strike force, the Stag Gardener may also somewhat 'draw fire' off other creatures, since in the long term, the winner of a Chaos Fractal duel is often the person who took the longest to become exhausted. Stag Gardener staves off this exhaustion, and does so at a minor cost, one which is usually easy to pay even if the player is not using Earth, simply because decks using this card tend to use many cheaper creature options to help build up that attacking force, resulting in both more overall cost reduction, and more threat from newly drawn cards.

This makes the Stag Gardener clearly more useful in the later game, when there are more ways to protect it from enemy effects and strikes, but it also makes this creature one of the few that can attack early on with a near surety that the player will not end up giving the opponent more of an advantage than they are getting from the attack. This additional pressure, especially combined with the opposing need to actually deal with the Stag Gardener, is extremely powerful, especially when combined with cards such as Steady Aim or Wooden Hammer, which, when used correctly, allow the player to dispose of an opponent's creature while still gaining a new card. This cycling that 'freshens' the hand of the player using this card is probably the biggest effect, even if it is the hardest to fully appreciate, allowing decks that play a lot of Stag Gardener to be extremely dynamic.

Ratings

Casual: 7/10
Forcing the opponent to respond to you or pre-empt you in casual play is a very strong form of dominance, and Stag Gardener performs this task wonderfully when played early on. The less cohesive tactics and higher number of simpler defense methods here feed into its strength, but because the opponent will probably have a lot more larger creatures that must be dealt with, the lack of power, especially in the later game, really hurts.

Tournament/Ladder: 9/10
On the high competition scene, Stag Gardener serves a powerful purpose for nearly any player using Earth, and also if combined with any other defense system. Reducing the cost of other heavy hitters is never bad, and being something that the opponent needs to move or worry about despite that is even better. It only loses a bit of its sting when the opponent already got control, since unlike a few other options (mostly not in Earth anyway) it does not do much to turn the tables.

Random: 9/10
One of the most powerful effects one can have in the RND duel type on KP is the ability to get through 'faster'. If even one attack can get you another card from your deck, it may help. The big issue here is 'may', and the card has the same strike 'against it' as it does in tournament play. So many cards do more either immediately and obviously, or theoretically, with a little push, but the Stag Gardener's biggest use in RND comes when you don't have that much that is good, yet.

Overall: 8/10
If you are aiming to get a leg up on your opponent, this is the card for you. Everything you could want in a neat package, with the big drawback being that it does not have much other capacity. This normally can't be considered a reason not to play a card, but unlike others that are situationally very useful or much less so, the Stag Gardener does not exactly tend to increase in usefulness, itself, so if you need a very 'tight' progression, it may still get in the way, as well as sort of doing the same if you don't manage to get control in the first place. A good card for beginners to help their flows, and for experts who know their flows very well.
In chats wrote:<Wedjat> Why is there no function for converting "antagonizing fools" into "delightful servants"?
<ri> you don't have access to defool.exe?
<Wedjat> It would be an illegal operation.
<Bell> SIGGED
<Wedjat> \o/
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