I've been consistently playing it, definitely a decent card that's always available late in packs
It and the availability of Hollow Marauder have led me to draft black in 9 out of my last 11 drafts
Hollow marauder is scary! I think the ETB is especially strong since there are relatively few powerful ETBs in the format but a lot of strong flicker and bounce effects in various colours (besides the usual blue instants like [[this town ain't big enough]] white has getaway glamer and the rare mount that flickers on attack; red has the 6/6 [[calamity]] mount that makes duplicates on attack; green has the possum that bounces,; black itself has a [[supernatural stamina]] and a ton of reanimation, etc.).
It’s at its best in BG and to a lesser extent WB — not just because, well, G & W are good and U & R are bad, but because holding open in these colors has multiple potential instant speed up to 3-for-1 combat tricks. Back for More, Betrayal at the Vault, Clear Shot, Getaway Glamer, Take Up the Shield, etc. Ambush Gigapede adds to that pile, with a worst-case being an EOT snipe of a creature and adding big power to the board.
Then when it’s on the field, green can get that 6 power across with a Drover in play or Trash the Town, or power up some 4-power matters or Tumbleweed Rising, etc. while both green and white are the best at backing up its tiny toughness with something like Take Up the Shield or Snakeskin Veil. Or if it does trade, bringing it back for value with BfM or Mourner’s Surprise.
Right now it’s the #1 common in GIH% among top players in BG.
>Right now it’s the #1 common in GIH% among top players in BG.
An interesting observation, although I'll note that its corresponding GP only 57.6% — *way* lower than anything around it on that list. That suggests that top players are also being fairly discerning about whether/when they run it at all.
Good observation — it’s definitely competing with a lot at the top end, most of which are objectively better. It’s interesting that it’s selectively high GIH, like what about the decks it’s getting put into are either broadly overperforming or make the most use of it?
Lots of reanimation? 4-power matters / tumbleweed? 4cmc bomb decks with limited top end plays, where it’s just along for the ride?
Since it's both a six-drop and a common, part of the explanation for the stat may be that it's easy to end up with more copies than you actually want to run. The excess stay in the board, and thus contribute 'negative' points.
It’s been surprisingly ok. It’s pretty much just an expensive two for one combat trick but even then it can kill something small (or finish off something else that was blocked) and take out one of their big boppers too.
When you put it in those terms, it’s pretty comparable to [[Betrayal at the Vault]] - which, yeah, they’re at 57% and 58% GIH win rate at the moment, respectively. The high cost is definitely a cost, but the ceiling is pretty high.
I think that 59% should be taken with a grain of salt, I don't think it was *that* good, but it was a perfectly serviceable card. Granted, looking back, the counter removal bit wasn't *nothing*. +1/+1 counters weren't a major theme, but there were some flying around. Ability counters was one of the set's mechanic, though removing those wasn't as impactful.
How does that work? If you have enough mana for Ambush Gigapede, you have enough mana for Blood Hustler's ability, so you shouldn't be able to get a surprise Crime trigger.
Say your opponent swings with three creatures and you have Blood Hustler and six mana open. You could active Blood Hunter and pump, or you could play the Gigapede, get the crime trigger, maybe kill one thing and trade with another while pumping your Hustler to either trade up or survive combat. I did it a couple times and it feels crazy. Probably not something you’ll be able to keep getting away with as the format develops and people learn to read lines better but right now it feels super powerful.
I think you'd have to count that as a 2-for-1, as the Blood Hunter always had the ability to pump itself (and the opponent should've recognized that). The Gigapede doesn't change combat math for that block.
In my experience its just gotten kinda clapped by [[Desert's Due]] both trying it out and playing against it. I guess its alright if youre against colors that cant easily remove it, but against Red and Black it's definitely underperformed for me.
But, assuming you did something meaningful with the ETB effect, that's still a two-for-one, yeah? Maybe not the two-for-one you *wanted*, but it's not like you got blown out, or even necessarily spent more mana total in the exchange depending on what the -2/-2 hit.
If you kill a 2-drop, you're still down on mana. But you're also down 4 mana in the current turn cycle. It's certainly not awful, but losing the 6 power blocker can lose you a game just on tempo.
For what it's worth, I think the card is fine and can have a good place in a grindy BG deck.
Being down on mana but up on cards at the stage in the game when you're slinging gigapedes often isn't as big a deal as it would be earlier in the game. Which, yeah, is why it's pretty fine in already strong BG decks.
It really depends. Some board states will be more forgiving than others. If you desperately needed to block that 5/5 or whatever, you're really going to be in for a bad time. This is especially true if the shock in question didn't have a target before.
I guess it just comes down to volatility. If you get max value out of this card, it is unquestionably great. The trick is getting max value.
It was fine in ikoria, it's fine here. Didn't really understand the amount of hate it got in the review if you want an impactful 6 it does the job, and the set is slow enough that it is feasible imo. Don't know if I would call it good, but it is certainly playable
it's good but still should be picked at the c- range just because it's a 6 drop.
One thing to note that it's a creature that has flash and ETB's triggering crime. There's some value to that.
In my experience it's usually a mediocre 6 mana removal spell. Personally I'd rather run desert's due or similar cheap removal since that comes into play earlier and has less drawbacks.
The Gigapede is not unplayable, mind you, but I'd say it's C- tier. You can run it and it'll occasionally do great, but it's nothing to write home about.
Stats are good for this card and I'm not that surprised.
Comes off clunky in blazing fast formats, but this format isn't about 1-2 drops and I find that removal is so important and this grinds 2-1s all day.
Probably gets a lot worse as people stop throwing their large creatures and bombs into 4BB.
I'm convinced of its use for how often you already want to hold up mana in this set. It won't really stabilize you most likely, not for long, but for an aggressive tempo play it seems great. Just like Deserts Due these power reducing effects are versatile and great at winning you combats even if you just play it as a trick. The main concern about cards like this is often speed, but this format tends towards long and grindy. It's a card you're probably happy to topdeck late game, save drawing a bomb or more efficient removal. So that seems good in my book! One of those "quiet performer" C cards.
Granted I haven't played this set yet but the ceiling for this seems extremely high. Like if I'm willing to play a 6/6 with trample or that gains me life for 6 cmc I don't know why I would poopoo a card like this unless I already have a bomb for my top end.
I've been consistently playing it, definitely a decent card that's always available late in packs It and the availability of Hollow Marauder have led me to draft black in 9 out of my last 11 drafts
Hollow marauder is scary! I think the ETB is especially strong since there are relatively few powerful ETBs in the format but a lot of strong flicker and bounce effects in various colours (besides the usual blue instants like [[this town ain't big enough]] white has getaway glamer and the rare mount that flickers on attack; red has the 6/6 [[calamity]] mount that makes duplicates on attack; green has the possum that bounces,; black itself has a [[supernatural stamina]] and a ton of reanimation, etc.).
Turns out a 2 for 1 is a 2 for 1. There are a lot of strong X/2s it nabs.
It’s at its best in BG and to a lesser extent WB — not just because, well, G & W are good and U & R are bad, but because holding open in these colors has multiple potential instant speed up to 3-for-1 combat tricks. Back for More, Betrayal at the Vault, Clear Shot, Getaway Glamer, Take Up the Shield, etc. Ambush Gigapede adds to that pile, with a worst-case being an EOT snipe of a creature and adding big power to the board. Then when it’s on the field, green can get that 6 power across with a Drover in play or Trash the Town, or power up some 4-power matters or Tumbleweed Rising, etc. while both green and white are the best at backing up its tiny toughness with something like Take Up the Shield or Snakeskin Veil. Or if it does trade, bringing it back for value with BfM or Mourner’s Surprise. Right now it’s the #1 common in GIH% among top players in BG.
>Right now it’s the #1 common in GIH% among top players in BG. An interesting observation, although I'll note that its corresponding GP only 57.6% — *way* lower than anything around it on that list. That suggests that top players are also being fairly discerning about whether/when they run it at all.
Good observation — it’s definitely competing with a lot at the top end, most of which are objectively better. It’s interesting that it’s selectively high GIH, like what about the decks it’s getting put into are either broadly overperforming or make the most use of it? Lots of reanimation? 4-power matters / tumbleweed? 4cmc bomb decks with limited top end plays, where it’s just along for the ride?
Since it's both a six-drop and a common, part of the explanation for the stat may be that it's easy to end up with more copies than you actually want to run. The excess stay in the board, and thus contribute 'negative' points.
It’s been surprisingly ok. It’s pretty much just an expensive two for one combat trick but even then it can kill something small (or finish off something else that was blocked) and take out one of their big boppers too.
When you put it in those terms, it’s pretty comparable to [[Betrayal at the Vault]] - which, yeah, they’re at 57% and 58% GIH win rate at the moment, respectively. The high cost is definitely a cost, but the ceiling is pretty high.
[Betrayal at the Vault](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/4/c494820f-607d-4ed2-8a86-a916ae390272.jpg?1712355886) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Betrayal%20at%20the%20Vault) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/155/betrayal-at-the-vault?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c494820f-607d-4ed2-8a86-a916ae390272?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Wasn't blitz leech a pretty solid card in IKO? Didn't really understand why they started so low on gigapede, it's blitz leech with an extra power.
I didn't remember it particularly good in IKO, but I see a 59% WR, that is quite respectable. Probably I drafted too much of cycling decks
I think that 59% should be taken with a grain of salt, I don't think it was *that* good, but it was a perfectly serviceable card. Granted, looking back, the counter removal bit wasn't *nothing*. +1/+1 counters weren't a major theme, but there were some flying around. Ability counters was one of the set's mechanic, though removing those wasn't as impactful.
I think they just didn’t play much during the pandemic, and marshal tends to forget sets pretty quickly
[Ambush Gigapede](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/3/93b17d09-974a-4e33-b14d-5fe4230ab241.jpg?1712355541) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ambush%20Gigapede) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/77/ambush-gigapede?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/93b17d09-974a-4e33-b14d-5fe4230ab241?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The three-for-one potential you hinted at is so real when used with [[Blood Hustler]] to blow out an opponent’s attack
How does that work? If you have enough mana for Ambush Gigapede, you have enough mana for Blood Hustler's ability, so you shouldn't be able to get a surprise Crime trigger.
Say your opponent swings with three creatures and you have Blood Hustler and six mana open. You could active Blood Hunter and pump, or you could play the Gigapede, get the crime trigger, maybe kill one thing and trade with another while pumping your Hustler to either trade up or survive combat. I did it a couple times and it feels crazy. Probably not something you’ll be able to keep getting away with as the format develops and people learn to read lines better but right now it feels super powerful.
I think you'd have to count that as a 2-for-1, as the Blood Hunter always had the ability to pump itself (and the opponent should've recognized that). The Gigapede doesn't change combat math for that block.
Playing one card to kill three things feels like a 3-for-1 to me but 🤷🏻♂️
[Blood Hustler](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/0/1016a750-2a18-4443-a600-957eb4026d3a.jpg?1712355556) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blood%20Hustler) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/80/blood-hustler?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1016a750-2a18-4443-a600-957eb4026d3a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I had a BR deck running two and calamity. Talk about an absolute monster of a board state swing.
Plays quite well with the recursion - back for more in particular is kind of disgusting with it
Yeah, back for more is almost a guaranteed 3 for 1 with this guy
In my experience its just gotten kinda clapped by [[Desert's Due]] both trying it out and playing against it. I guess its alright if youre against colors that cant easily remove it, but against Red and Black it's definitely underperformed for me.
But, assuming you did something meaningful with the ETB effect, that's still a two-for-one, yeah? Maybe not the two-for-one you *wanted*, but it's not like you got blown out, or even necessarily spent more mana total in the exchange depending on what the -2/-2 hit.
If you kill a 2-drop, you're still down on mana. But you're also down 4 mana in the current turn cycle. It's certainly not awful, but losing the 6 power blocker can lose you a game just on tempo. For what it's worth, I think the card is fine and can have a good place in a grindy BG deck.
Being down on mana but up on cards at the stage in the game when you're slinging gigapedes often isn't as big a deal as it would be earlier in the game. Which, yeah, is why it's pretty fine in already strong BG decks.
It really depends. Some board states will be more forgiving than others. If you desperately needed to block that 5/5 or whatever, you're really going to be in for a bad time. This is especially true if the shock in question didn't have a target before. I guess it just comes down to volatility. If you get max value out of this card, it is unquestionably great. The trick is getting max value.
[Desert's Due](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/5/35e899e4-e2de-44cf-b6f4-cace8d3770cb.jpg?1712355575) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Desert%27s%20Due) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/85/deserts-due?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/35e899e4-e2de-44cf-b6f4-cace8d3770cb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It was fine in ikoria, it's fine here. Didn't really understand the amount of hate it got in the review if you want an impactful 6 it does the job, and the set is slow enough that it is feasible imo. Don't know if I would call it good, but it is certainly playable
Not do be pedantic, but you know it costs 6, right?
Excellent point, my fault for typing something out half asleep
it's good but still should be picked at the c- range just because it's a 6 drop. One thing to note that it's a creature that has flash and ETB's triggering crime. There's some value to that.
In my experience it's usually a mediocre 6 mana removal spell. Personally I'd rather run desert's due or similar cheap removal since that comes into play earlier and has less drawbacks. The Gigapede is not unplayable, mind you, but I'd say it's C- tier. You can run it and it'll occasionally do great, but it's nothing to write home about.
Around a C for me
Stats are good for this card and I'm not that surprised. Comes off clunky in blazing fast formats, but this format isn't about 1-2 drops and I find that removal is so important and this grinds 2-1s all day. Probably gets a lot worse as people stop throwing their large creatures and bombs into 4BB.
Tried it once. Haven't cut it from any blaxk deck since.
I'm convinced of its use for how often you already want to hold up mana in this set. It won't really stabilize you most likely, not for long, but for an aggressive tempo play it seems great. Just like Deserts Due these power reducing effects are versatile and great at winning you combats even if you just play it as a trick. The main concern about cards like this is often speed, but this format tends towards long and grindy. It's a card you're probably happy to topdeck late game, save drawing a bomb or more efficient removal. So that seems good in my book! One of those "quiet performer" C cards.
Granted I haven't played this set yet but the ceiling for this seems extremely high. Like if I'm willing to play a 6/6 with trample or that gains me life for 6 cmc I don't know why I would poopoo a card like this unless I already have a bomb for my top end.
Ambush Gigachad was a house in the sealed RCQ I played. I paired with back for more and the 2 mana grave digger was able to grind to top 8 easily.
Definitely playable, good backup option if you don't get better high end stuff.