"Meandering Towershell:Turtle Power!"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.
What is huge , green and gets easily distracted in battle? You guessed it right. The Meandering Towershell. I was looking at my daughters own pet turtle the other day and was reminded of this 5 mana , 5/9 behemoth that seems to wander off and comes back to attack things on your next turn.
The Meandering Towershell has solid stats for a creature that costs a measly 5 mana , it could block and attack with ease and with a lot of Blue Mages in the game , the Islandwalk comes in really handy but it's triggered ability seems more like a liability than an asset. I had the misfortune of getting one turtle during my KTK Pre-release and simply did not know what to do with it. I surely can't pair it up with the Kheru Lich Lord that I had as my PR card. It gets reanimated , attacks and poof , vanishes into thin air and never ever comes back. Making me a sad sad Sultai mage.
I was racking my brain for possible uses for this easily distracted turtle and came up with a few comes into play ideas that would be feasible in EDH decks(and believe me this turtle is destined for a lot of EDH decks). And I was able to find cards that would love to have a little turtle power on their side. As it turns out there was a lot of things that one could do with such a wonderful creature.
Garruks Pack leader and Soul of the Harvest. Meandering Towershell with these two guys nets you a total of 2 cards. One when it comes into play and another one when it returns attacking on your side of the board. 2 card advantage! I'd take it! It is also great with Kavu Lair who seems to have Ferocious written all over it.
Evolve Creatures. The Simic would love this Turtle because it also makes smaller creatures evolve a lot of times. A 5/9 creature means that this would be able to evolve creatures like Renegade Krasis(a 3/2 creature) for at least 7 turns since the Evolve mechanic looks at both creature power and toughness. Our distracted turtles big butt could evolve the Renegade Krasis a total of 7 times! In addition it means that other creatures that have a +1/+1 on it would grow bigger a total of 7 times as well.
Champion of Lambholt. The Champion and the Meandering Towershell make a mean triggering team. She gets a +1/+1 counter every time our turtle comes back! And with it the chances of your opponents not being able to block your creatures as well. So if your opponents only control 2/2 creatures and the Meandering Towershell comes in for the attack on your second turn. Those creatures could not block it since your Champion of Lambholt is by now a 3/3 creature and creatures with power less than her could not block creatures your control.
Cream of the Crop. A two to cast enchantment that is just waiting for the turtle to drop into existence and what you get is an effective way to filter your library. It sees the turtles 5 power and you look at the 5 top cards of your library and decide which card to put on top of it. Looks like a winner.
Soultether Golem. Another "sick" creature that is limited with the vanishing counter that it has on it. It is worth 2 colorless mana with a 3/3 frame. Guess what , you could cast this guy on your 1st main phase , your Meandering Towershell comes into play increasing the Vanishing counter on him. You can have the 3/3 golem stay on your side for as long as you keep on piling the time counters on him. Sure you could cast other creatures but it never hurts to have one that just automatically comes into play and helps you out in this regard.
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice.If you already have an existing Selesnya EDH deck the turtle could also make a fine addition. 9 life per appearance is nothing to sneeze at. You would have tons of life the moment this guy fades in.
Temur Ascendancy. I am not sure if there would be a standard deck with these two cards but since the Meandering Towershell is a 5/9 creature it does allow you to draw cards from the Ascendancy and not only that since it gains haste , you could draw a card when it comes in , attack with it and draw another card the moment it comes back. Yeah! 2 card net gain!
Ronin war club , Sai of the Shinobi. What if you really want to make Meandering Towershell a ninja turtle? well with these two artifacts from Kamigawa you surely could.They get equipped to a creature that just came into play. Our phasing Ninja turtle gets a +2/+1 from the Ronin Warclub and an additional +1/+1 from the Sai. Now give the guy an Red mask and it could make a mean 8/11 Raphael impersonation.
War Surge , Pandemonium and Electropotence as a win condition? Meandering Towershell maybe on the unreliable side but these 3 enchantments may argue in its defense. So now we have a creature that automatically fades in and out of existence and deals damage to creatures or players when it comes into play. You get to pile on 5 damage every time our turtle pet appears for free with the exception of paying 3 mana for the damage from Electropotence which I am sure you could easily do.
Upon further analysis the "liability" ability of the Meandering Towershell actually makes it a great offensive threat and the reason is that you could attack with it on your attack phase and it phases out to nothingness.It is with this evasion that the turtle shines through. On your 2nd main phase you could cast a mass removal spell removing your all your opponents amassed armies. When our wayward turtle pet comes back it could move in for 5 damage. Assuming that there are no other blockers or your opponents have at least a single island in play.
I hope I have opened your eyes a bit and offered a different way to view a fast fading , fast attacking turtle. So go ahead and Ninja turtle someone. Cowabunga!
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