Species Gorger MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Species Gorger provides a consistent mechanism to return a creature to your hand at the beginning of your upkeep. This can be particularly potent with creatures that have valuable enter-the-battlefield effects, essentially allowing you to trigger those abilities repeatedly for persistent card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly providing resource acceleration, Species Gorger can indirectly contribute to it. By returning mana dorks or creatures with cost-reducing abilities to your hand, you can re-deploy them for an effective mana boost on subsequent turns, thus facilitating larger plays earlier in the game.

Instant Speed: While Species Gorger itself doesn’t have instant speed, it synergizes well with instant-speed spells and abilities. By bouncing your own creatures, you can save them from removal, or you can free up mana by replaying creatures with tap abilities at instant speed. This can add an element of surprise and flexibility to your strategy.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Despite not mandating a card to be discarded, Species Gorger requires you to return a creature you control to your hand during each upkeep. This process can set back your board presence, particularly if you have no other creatures to play or if the returned creature has summoning sickness upon its replay.

Specific Mana Cost: With a green and blue mana cost, Species Gorger’s playability is constrained within those color combinations. This limitation may not sync well with decks that do not focus on or support Simic guild mechanics or themes, potentially affecting the card’s utility in various multi-colored decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: At a total of five mana which includes both green and blue specifics, Species Gorger commands a relatively high cost for its 6/6 body. Considering the current meta where there are creatures with lower costs and impactful enters-the-battlefield effects or other evasive abilities, the cost-efficiency of Species Gorger might be viewed as less favorable.

Reasons to Include Species Gorger in Your Collection

Versatility: Species Gorger offers a unique flexibility in decks that thrive on bouncing creatures back to hand. This can be particularly useful when reusing enter-the-battlefield abilities or saving key creatures from removal.

Combo Potential: This card opens up dynamic combo routes, interacting seamlessly with creatures that have powerful effects when they enter the battlefield or when other creatures are returned to a player’s hand.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where games tend to go longer, Species Gorger provides recurring value, making it a worthwhile addition against decks that struggle to permanently deal with repeated threats.

How to beat

The Species Gorger poses an interesting challenge for players looking to maintain control on the battlefield. This amphibious creature card has the bounce ability, enabling a return to the owner’s hand at the beginning of each upkeep, which can be strategically advantageous for deck rotation but also a vulnerability. The key to outmaneuvering Species Gorger lies in timing and resource management. It’s essential to exploit the moments it’s off the board, as it consumes significant mana resources upon each return. Efficient removal spells and quick creatures can put pressure on an opponent relying on the Gorger’s rhythm.

Counterspells are also a highly effective tool. By interrupting the cycle of the Species Gorger, players can force opponents to either commit more mana to replay it or to deal with a growing threat on the other side of the board. Permanent lockdown tactics, such as enchantments that prevent creatures from untapping or cards that impose summoning costs, can turn the Species Gorger’s ability from an asset to a liability. By anticipating your opponent’s plays and maintaining board presence, the imposing Species Gorger can be rendered less of a threat and more of a strategic misstep.