Avatar of Woe vs. Visara, the Dreadful

[Dune Echo]

(Quick digression... Is it just me or does Onslaught look like it's shaping up to be a much better Prophecy?! LOL)

Mikeymike started a good comparisson in the forums, and I wanted to elaborate on it since both cards will possibly be important to casual and tournament players. Here's what Mikeymike said:

Heavier black commitment, but cheaper in general - however the Avatar's ACC is quite manageable.

5 power flyer vs. 6 power fear. I like the 5 power flyer better.

Legend vs. Avatar. I like the Legend better b/c it fits right into my Captain Sisay Legend deck, but in general I suppose non-legend is better.

Kev Walker vs. RK Post. Whew, tough one. Walker is my favorite, and Visara is one nasty mama, but the Avatar of Woe is one of my favorite pieces ever.

I'll elaborate upon the differences more.

1) Casting cost:
Avatar of Woe - 6BB
Visara, the Dreadful - 3BBB

This is particularly important to decks like Benzo/Reanimator where playing one of these creatures typically costs life. Visara overall will be less painful when putting it into play via Reanimate or Life/Death. However, Visara, the Dreadful doesn't have an alternate play cost will be a huge determining factor for decks that rely on playing a creature for BB rather than 6BB.

2) Power/Toughness
Avatar of Woe - 6/5
Visara, the Dreadful - 5/5

Both creatures deal the neccessary 20 damage in 4 turns. Because most often you would be using the tap ability to remove creatures rather than through creature damage. This difference will have to been seen over long time for players.

3) Evasion
Avatar of Woe - ~this~ can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.
Visara, the Dreadful - Flying

Both are effective. There are only two obvious occassions where these two abilities are important. "Fear" helps against any non-black/artifact deck out there. Flying helps against deck without flyers or Teferi's Moat.

4) Creature type
Avatar of Woe - Avatar
Visara, the Dreadful - Gorgon Legend

Avatar of Woe has a creature type that doesn't have any set backs that any other creature type doesn't already have. Visara, the Dreadful however is a Gorgon Legend. This has two negatives associated with it: First, the Legend rule ensures that if your opponent has Visara, the Dreadful in play before you, you cannot have yours in play as well. Also, you may not have multiple Visara, the Dreadful cards in play at the same time. Second, the Gorgon creature type does have one unlikely seen drawback (as long as Gorgons are not further explored in Onslaught or any future sets):

Masked Gorgon
{4}{B}
Creature -- Gorgon
5/5
Green creatures and white creatures have protection from Gorgons.
Threshold -- Masked Gorgon has protection from green and from white. (You have threshold as long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard.)

If an opponent is playing this card and that same opponent or someone else has a white and/or green creatures, you will have a problem taking advantage of Visara's ability. Luckily, Masked Gorgon is not a tournament level card at this time, so this difference will be negligible.

5) Artwork
Avatar of Woe - rk post
Visara, the Dreadful - Kev Walker

Man, Mikeymike said it best... "Whew, tough one... but the Avatar of Woe is one of my favorite pieces ever." Yeah! I'm right there with ya guy! I think that in the Extended format (provided Gorgons aren't screwed given any further drawbacks), I think that Visara, the Dreadful will ultimately replace Avatar of Woe in Benzo/Reanimator decks. But, man, I will seriously be regretting the loss of using Avatar of Woe simply for the artwork alone! Kev Walker's piece is good too, but I prefer rk post's.

So, it still remains to be seen what ends up happening and what other cards are revealed in Onslaught/Legions/Scourge. However, at least in the case of the Benzo/Reanimator decks, Avatar of Woe will be replaced by Visara, the Dreadful.

 

[Jigglypuff]

I'm going to go with Visara simply because her name rules and just take the chance that the Masked Gorgon will wreck my fun.

After all, how often do you get to play with a card that's "Dreadful"!

(- Steve -)

 

[train]

I think running her would be fine, just be able to take out a masked gorgon if necessary.

 

[Mikeymike]

I have yet to see a Masked Gorgon played in any type of game yet, so I'm not too worried about the 'protection from Gorgon' thing.

That said, it makes me wonder why Masked Gorgon came out in Judgment and not in the Onslaught block. I'm assuming that the Gorgon race will be quite powerful in this new block, and with the Masked Gorgon in Ody-block it won't allow for Gorgon's to be able to be easily hosed for their entire stay in constructed.

Still, with the amount of green in the environment and the resurgence of white weenie, I don't see the Masked Gorgon getting too much inclusion beyond the sideboard.

Of course this is all speculation on my part, but who cares its fun to play the guessing game.
---
Visara, the Dreadful
Arcanus, the Omnipotent
and even the Goblin Piledriver

Those are some cool freaking names.

--
This is definitely an interesting set, a nice combination of new constructed creature tricks and big-assed casual spells.

 

[train]

That may be a question good enough to send in to Wizards - better than most of my previous: Why was masked Gorgon in Judgement, and not released with the Onslaught? It seems more gorgons will be in Onslaught, was there a card hole that needed filling in black? Was it because of the dominance of G/W and the chance for G/W to get help from it's primary enemy?

Is there a better way to phrase the question?

Will I stop asking questions?

Why did I say that?

(Drifts off into deep thought...)

 

[Mikeymike]

That is a good idea, but I'll have to wait on the question since it will be ignored until Onslaught drops. Remember, we weren't supposed to get this info yet.

Do you think Gorgon's are the black tribe? I suppose they could be, but it seems kind of odd when you compare them to the weenie-esque Goblins, and Wizards, and Elves (oh my!).

I do look forward to new Balthor builds with Visara - as long as they stop using that stupid Overeager Apprentice.

 

[train]

I think minions or zombies will develop as the tribal creature for black.
The gorgons seem to be a lot bigger than would be tribal creatures. The may sprout like the nishobas have, bigger creatures, in the middle of the food chain, BFM being the pinnacle.