Raise your hand if you know off the top of your head what the card
Cragganwick Cremator does? No googling!
Hmmm, no hands. I can’t say I’m surprised. Shadowmoor was printed a long
time ago, well before most current players had cracked their first pack,
and it hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since then, despite the fact
that the Cremator’s only goal is to create a giant inferno that engulfs the
opponent for a potential one shot kill.
Four mana for a 5/4 is a stat line that would’ve turned heads fifteen years
ago, but in 2018 and in Modern it’s not going to cut it, so we really need
to be getting a lot of value from the ability. The plan for that is to
include a couple gigantic creatures, like Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Worldspine
Wurm, and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and hopefully empty the rest of your hand
so the random nature of the discard is irrelevant. That may be tough to do,
but the payoff is significant.
The main issue here is that most of the big creatures aren’t castable.
Ghalta allows you to backdoor into the Worldspine Wurm at least via
Eldritch Evolution, but sadly Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is just barely out of
reach.
Fauna Shaman is ostensibly there
to find these cards in order to discard to Cremator, but it can also filter
them away into something better, either a large creature to build your
battlefield or one of the several utility creatures depending on the
matchup.
But with the aggressive capability of Strangleroot Geist and Steel Leaf
Champion, a card I think has real potential in Modern, it’s possible that
Cremator only needs to be dealing three or four to be effective. Anything
that can increase the clock by a half turn or so that you’re consistently
killing on turn 4 is going to give you a shot in Modern, and that reach may
be the thing to get you there. In most draws, you’re going to cast your
cheap spells early anyway, so it’s not hard to get a Lightning Bolt out of
the trigger, and if U/R Wizards has taught us anything, it’s that having
eight Lightning Bolts in your deck is good.
I’m not sure who’s going back through the Shadowmoor card list to find
hidden gems in Modern, but I’m grateful that someone is because if there’s
one thing I like it’s a good sweat. You never feel more alive than when you
need to hit that one in three to dome them for eleven or lose on the spot.
Cragganwick don’t fail me now!
Creatures (30)
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Magus of the Moon
- 4 Cragganwick Cremator
- 1 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 2 Fauna Shaman
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 2 Worldspine Wurm
- 1 Surrak, the Hunt Caller
- 2 Tireless Tracker
- 1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
- 4 Steel Leaf Champion
Lands (23)
Spells (7)
