"Ruric Thar , the Unbowed: A Big Headache for Control"

"Ruric Thar , the Unbowed:  A Big Headache for Control"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

     When I first saw this Legendary Ogre I thought of how bad it actually hated blue for some reason. The Gruul has a new clan member that hates logic and counter spells as much as the next guy but he dishes out more pain than any of them ever could.

     Ruric Thar , the Unbowed has the mana cost of a Gruul titan at 1 Red , 1 Green and 4 Colorless Mana with the same 6/6 Body. He attacks whenever he could which is very Gruul in nature. He has vigilance and Reach showing disdain for Flyers and having the ability to defend and attack at the same time this trait alone makes him a winner in any aggressive RG strategy. Not to mention the fact that you could search for him with a Mwonvuli Tracker because he has Reach.They obviously made draw backs for him like his inability to restrain himself and attack each turn where he is most likely to die to a big blocker , Mass block or blocker with death touch but hey you are Gruul! You want to attack anyway so it is not much of a drawback and with this guy you even do it with Vigilance. You could even use a pitfight or Ulvenwald trackers ability first before attacking to remove any blockers just to be sure.

     What actually sets him apart and now places him as a hot card is his triggered ability to dish out 6 points of damage when a player plays a "Non-creature spell". Being Gruul you could expect that the ratio for creature spells is dominant than any other spell and with a Domri Rade you would expect that you would have a handful of creature cards just waiting to be unleashed. So for control players they either give up 6 points of damage to remove Ruric Thar from play or bounce it to your hand ( which is not a wise move considering that he would still be there) or give up a counter spell so as not to see him on the battlefield.

   When he does make it to the battlefield the upside for Gruul decks is stupendous! You give the opposing player a dilemma every time you play a huge creature that could attack right away (with fervor in play). He either counters it and takes 6 damage , allow it on the battlefield and it attacks and he Murders it and still takes 6 damage. Yup , this Ogre warrior has it in for all the control players out there.If I were playing Gruul in standard I would have 3 copies of this guy in my deck. He is just so worth it.