Hey everyone! Welcome to Card of the Week. The purpose of this series of threads is to prompt strategy discussion and answer any rules questions about specific cards. Feel free to share stories of how you’ve used the featured card in the past, speculations of how you might use it in the future, and any strong synergies or counters you may think of. And feel free to message me with any card requests for next week! Otherwise cards will be chosen randomly.
This week’s card is the mighty Rampaging Elephant:
Rampaging Elephant is quite the beast, pardon the pun. He’s a little pricey at 6 gold, but the 6/7 body is likely larger than anything your opponent will have in play. On offense he can take out two or even three things by himself, and on defense he’s just a big solid dude.
In-spec synergies Ferocity - For when you really want to go on a rampage. Taking out 2 things and still having a fully healthy Elephant afterwards is quite the devastating move.
In-color synergies Dinosize - Attacking for 24 damage in a single turn seems pretty good, don’t it? If only there were some way to give him Overpower too… Spirit of the Panda - Not quite as much damage as above, but you get 2 gold back the turn you cast this since the Elephant can attack twice. Then heal a bit for the next turn and do it again.
Out-of-color synergies
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Counters Kidnapping - perhaps the most notable counter. No worse feeling than your own Elephant rampaging in the wrong direction! Sacrifice the Weak, Hooded Executioner - against Black, make sure you’ve got some other weaker stuff around, or that Elephant is toast.
The one time I had this guy in play, he died to Faerie Dragon putting a Feather rune on him (after something else did 1 damage).
If you want to win in style, he combos well with Sanatorium (which ignores Tech requirements and takes care of the cost) or anything else that can give him Haste, so you don’t get blown out by a removal spell / effect on your 6 gold investment.
I haven’t played green yet, but one thing I imagine is nice is that this guy’s huge body makes it fairly likely that he’s going to survive the turn he hits play so you actually do get to attack with him the next turn.
If you’re playing a Feral deck, what kinds of strategies would you see your opponent going where you’d think, “I really need to tech Rampaging Elephant?” Is he best used for clearing patrol zones against weenies (since he can take out 2 per turn), or for taking out big threats (at the cost of more of his own health)?
In my opinion, Rampaging Elephant is a more proactive card - you don’t use it in response to something necessarily, but as a large threat that your opponent must then respond to.
I also think it’s much better against medium to large enemies rather than small ones - if all it’s doing is taking out 2 skeletons a turn, your opponent has plenty of time to react.
6/7 are decent stats, especially for attacking twice, but unless you can clear your opponent’s patrol zone or give him evasion abilities, his rampage is just going to run into chump blocking technicians and scavengers.
That means that he has out of color synergies with things that clear patrol zones (Fire spells, Discord, Thunderclap, Stewardess, Porkhand, Injuction, etc) and things which grant evasion abilities. Unphase is the easy one here, but the more difficult and stylish combo is putting your Elephant through the Fox’s Den School.
First, I like the format with the “in-spec” and “in-color” and so on.
Second there is a in-color-but-with-a-tech-lab-but-that’s-only-1-gold way to give Rampaging Elephant Overpower. Blooming Elm will at least make your elephant 7/8 if not 9/10 with overpower. Might be hard to actually swing with this combo, but it’s exactly the kind of devastation that can end the game if not answered immediately.
The most immediately obvious out-of-color synergy is anything that gives haste or allows a unit to attack again. Geiger and Draak ability’s come to mind first. If the elephant survives a round to attack, then Geiger with Now! and Maxband can give it FOUR attacks in a single turn. You could even combine that with Blooming Elm for one hell of a trick shot.
Rampaging elephant is a big body coming from a spec that is known for big bodies. Your first problem is getting around the fact that your opponent has probably teched in Big Body Busters & Blending Solutions the moment you hit tech II or sooner. First talk to your sodium manager or a seasoned codex professional about the risks of Feral Spec to see if Feral Spec is right for you and your situation.
I’m a fan of Quince here. Elephant’s biggest problems are that it’s a removal sponge and doesn’t immediately impact the board the turn it comes out. Quince’s mirrors let you make pseudo-haste Elephants, and Free Speech shuts down nearly everything else that can kill it outside of combat, where its huge body does work.
Additionally, as a perk to Calamandra/Quince, Calamandra’s midband provides some cover to your Illusions if you’re going for a Truth tech II plan, although that has nothing to do with Stompy. But it’s nice!
Do not forget stampede! is ult, true, bit imagine a 9/7+3A that attacks twice with OP on enemy base against puny blockers like skeles or mox. Playing an elephant with MAxArg on the field can put much pressure, imo.
If you have other ways to clear out the patrol zone, killing two tech buildings in one turn with the Rampaging Elephant is the kind of play that wins games.
eta: though it occurs to me that 12 to the base is also a play that can win a game, sometimes.