Except there's an entire shard dedicated to 5/5s which this can block and kill.

I don't necessarily like the ogre, but it's better than a single exalted creature which won't do much for a non-bant deck.

That shard has burn and effects that laugh at X/1s though right?

I don't understand this draft strategy we're employing. I wanted creatures for sac effects, then ppl argued against it, then I wanted a creature for grinding it out , but we took a sac effect creature. Now we're arguing for x/1 blockers. I think we need to pick a direction and go in it, bc right now we're all over the place.

I hate the X/1s. But I'm also not fond of Exalted. Especially in a non-bant deck. I don't like this pack at all as a matter of fact, but since everyone wanted to take a bad red card earlier, we're in red now. Everyone else wanted X/1s so I thought I was just going along with the flow at this point.

Every shard has removal in Alara, and nothing in this pack is immune to any of it except the Thoctar (only due to it's toughness) which isn't in our colors.

Outrider, but it's mostly a hate pick. I hope we don't play it. I hope we don't have to play the ogre either.

I like the Outrider better here, but this is a bad pack.

Cavern Thoctar is the only playable card here. Outrider costs 4 for a bear and a pump, and we won't be in exalted enough to justify playing to it anyway. ogre is awful and trades down on attack all the time. on defense, it's not reliable 'cause it's easy to kill. however, we're in red, which is a third of Naya. that means we might pick up some stuff that cares about 5-power creatures, upping Ogre's value. also, Ogre isn't that bad in a dedicated Naya deck, so taking it here is a bit of a hate. I'm gonna say Ogre, not because it's good but because Outrider is worse.

Outrider.

Why do you think you have to be heavy exalted for the +1/+1 bonus to matter? It doesn't matter when you attack with more than one creature, otherwise it's always welcome. As for 5 power matters, the only good card of that sort that I remember is green (card draw), which we ain't.

Outrider. I freeking love Exalted. Even a small dose can really give you options and change your gameplan for the better.

Easy Outrider.

you have to be heavy exalted because otherwise you're not sufficiently incentivized to actually do it. if I have two creatures I want to attack with, I won't hold one back just so the other can get +1/+1. and if I'm not going to be triggering it, then Outrider is just a 2/2 for four. I refuse to pay 4 mana for what will almost always be a grizzly bear. Outrider is barely playable in the exalted deck, outside of it it's utter crap. Ogre isn't good for us, but he's good in the 5+ deck, so he's the better hate, and he's also the better 23rd card if we need one.

Except having creatures untapped is itself valuable.

Often enough, you don;t want to swing with the team because committing to attacks gets your dudes killed for nothing, or trading down, and opening yourself for the counterattack is worse than the benefits of attacking are good. In limited, this is a pretty common game state: the staring match at parity where someone has to pull a trump before anyone does anything, because otherwise the defender is the person who wins out.

One way you trump that mess is with evasion, but you're unlikely to have many evasion creatures, so you often start bleeding an opponent with just one flier. Exalted is pure value there. And if you don't have the flier? Exalted enables you to send one junky creature forward and either get damage through or get it to trade up rather than down, while maintaining the defense that keeps your opponent from doing the same thing.

This, frankly, almost goes double on synergy with unearth. I like the idea of swinging with a 3/2 temporary dregscape and, when the other guy inevitably takes 3 rather than losing something real to a 1-drop that's going away at EoT anyway, dropping Fleshbag and just laughing it up.

Outrider is, I fully admit, not the best card, but exalted does NOT have a required critical mass to get use: if you're meaning to alpha strike rather than plink away with a creature, you're winning anyway, and if you are at the parity/plink away phase, even one exalted on the board gives you expanded tactical options and/or a faster clock.

Nice post, I agree completely.

+1/+1 is not that valuable. thus, I will not keep a creature back to block for it unless I would have anyway. if you're holding back good attackers for one exalted trigger you are playing wrong. so yeah, sometimes it'll be right to swing with just one creature. and in those cases, Outrider is marginally better than grizzly bears, a card that's only ok and costs less. but there'll also be times when you need to get aggressive in order to win, and your 2/2 for 4 will not help you there. you also have to remember that parity board states don't just magically occur, they're manufactured. and they'r manufactured by strong defensive bodies that make attacking not worth the cost. and a perfect example of a card that does not do that is a 2/2 for 4. you're running cards that are only good in a specific game state and do nothing to help you reach that state. in every other state (racing, turtling, building up, anything.) Outrider is awful. in a board stall where you have exactly one evasive creature, Outrider is the world's worst anthem. that's its best case scenario outside a dedicated Exalted deck.

your arguments are for the qualities of Exalted on good cards. like, I would run rhox charger as my only exalted source. because it's a good body on its own. when I find myself being able to use its exalted, that's a nice upside, but when I don't, I still have a tramply hill giant. that's strong, and it works great in all the situations you described as well. but when it's only useful in that narrow band of board states? yeah that's a bad card.

Don't you think that sometimes you argue just to argue? Outrider is a bad card, the 5/1 is worse.

it's not, though. the 5/1 is good in its deck, the Outrider is passable in its. and since we may wind up short on playables and needing a last card, it's also relevant what each one does in our deck. the 5/1 sits back and makes it hard to attack with good creatures until a removal spell is tossed at it, whereas the Outrider is a 4-mana grizzly bear. Ogre is fragile but it affects the board. Outrider is barely less fragile and it doesn't.

Or they attack with two Goblin tokens and the Ogre trades with one? But never mind, we could go this way for days. Let's just agree we don't want to have to play this pick.

Pack 1:

Viscera Dragger
Cruel Ultimatum
Agony Warp
Obelisk of Grixis
Skeletal Kathari
Bloodpyre Elemental
Dreg Reaver
Bone Splinters
Dregscape Zombie
Outrider of Jhess

Next...

Mindlock Orb
Swerve
Shadowfeed
Shore Snapper

Next...

Angel's Herald
Onyx Goblet
Viashino Skeleton

Next...

Clarion Ultimatum
Steelclad Serpent

And finally...

Relic of Progenitus

Shore Snapper
Onyx Goblet
Steelclad Serpent - but I would be sad in real life to pass the Clarion Ultimatum
Relic of Progenitus - awesome!

This

But I'm waffling on Swerve. Swerve can ruin an opponents plans by redirecting removal at their largest threat. But we really do need some usable creatures, so I see why we want the snapper.