Six months ago, the Coming of Galactus MTG card was revealed. Now the big planet-eating alien himself is finally here, and sadly he’s just not all that good.
Seriously, the Galactus, Devourer of Worlds creature, found in the Fantastic Four commander deck, costs ten mana – and what do you get for your hard ramping or reanimating work? Okay, sure, he can exile any permanent when he enters the battlefield, but after that he’s just a huge, indestructible, flying guy that hits people really hard.
I’m not sure that’s enough value for a 10-mana creature that can be Path to Exile-d off the board. What’s more, he even comes with a downside. The creature is forced to attack the opponent with the highest life total unless you have the Silver Surfer on the battlefield to reign him in.
I really like this from a flavor perspective. But I think to convey the idea of a world-eating force, Galactus needed to have more oomph. Sure, you won’t be happy when this hits the field, especially if you have the most life, but he’s hardly at Eldrazi titan threat levels, and an ‘Elder Alien’ ought to be just as much of a cosmic horror.
Seriously, this thing consumes planets! Lots and lots of planets. If there’s anyone in Marvel that deserves to have the Annihilator keyword, it’s him. True, Annihilator, which makes an attacked player sacrifice permanents, is widely hated for setting one player back in resources and potentially landing them in an unwinnable position. MTG’s head designer Mark Rosewater has said it’s unlikely to be reused again.
But Galactus is all about remorsefully ruining the day of one planet at a time. And he’s usually forced to attack the player in the best position, so it wouldn’t even be unfair. I’d put money on the idea that instead of his ETB Galactus originally had an ‘on attack’ ability that worked a lot like Annihalator, and it was cut during set design.
The Silver Surfer card is more fun, in my opinion. It can tutor Galactus for you, making the pair pseudo Partners, but it also has its own thing going on. When you hit a player with this (flying) creature, you can force any creature you choose to attack them next go. I like the idea of this character siccing Ulamog or a Blight Colossus onto someone. A true hero!
Come join the conversation over on the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
