As Palladia have just entered the vault I’m curious to know why I want to use this dragon as opposed to say Vaevictis or Arcades.
I fear Palladia is going to be on the battlefield for brief periods of time due to berserker. Whereas Vaevictis has more longevity. I don’t expect the “give the opponent a creature/support” part a huge issue unless the opponent uses haste creatures or nix for returning supports from the Graveyard.
So paying 1 mana more for Vaevictis seems a much better deal.
Even Arcades seems to be of much better deal when used with Zepalta or On Serra’s Wings as long as you cast them in the optimal order.
For instance Zapalta/On Serra’s Wings first and then Arcades.
As far as I can see the only reason to get Palladia is it is a white dragon, but since the number of white dragon cards are non-existent at present (other than the M19 cards) is there something in the coming releases that will augment white dragons?
In the case of paladia, trying to keep close to paper version wasn’t really accurate. I guess she was granted berserk to give sense to his temporary hexproof … But with a 6/6 body she’s likely to become the queen of hara-kiri.
It would have been probably more interesting to do the exact oposite of the paper one … Giving her hexproof when she actually does damage to oponent, thus opening the path to an interesting creature removal buildup. As she is now she will either suicide or act like a basic 6/6 flying creature.
With a bunch of supports, first strike in particular, she could become a decent threat … As any other creature would though …
She should have been 8/8 for starters. All elder dragons imo. And yeah, gaining hexproof after dealing damage would have been more interesting. As she is now she may as well not have hexproof.
Palladia-Mors is a showcase of a failure in transition because mechanics were copied without thought.
In paper, her losing hexproof after dealing damage works because you can choose not to attack with her. She makes for a decent blocker.
Her hexproof serves no purpose in PQ other than to allow her to attack for 1 turn and then it’s gone. She will either
Hit the creature and die, so hexproof wont matter.
Hit the creature, deal trample damage, and lose hexproof.
Hit the opponent directly, and lose hexproof.
Because you can’t choose to keep your creatures from attacking and because toughness doesn’t reset at the end of the round, her viability in PQ is nowhere near the same level.
The suggestion to gain hexproof on dealing damage instead sounds like a good idea. As well as buffing her to an 8/8.
I currently only own Bone Dragon but of the other 13 only Palladia would be upsetting to get in a booster and I would never spend money on it. Arcades wouldn’t make me happy but at least he has major build around me upside. I would be ecstatic to get Darigaaz, Verix, Avaricious, Demanding (they would all be powerhouses in my Jaya Dragon deck.) The MP five would be great pulls also (Ryusei for the same reason I just mentioned) but the other 4 would be great for other reasons. Chromium would be fun to have in a control deck but Vaevictus isn’t something I would want but I could play around with it and find a way to make it work.
So, outside of Palladia I would play the rest.
It is a card that albeit basically copy-paste from paper it failed to translate in a way that makes it interesting and desirable.
More importantly, a guaranteed hit for 6 in paper is a lot, almost 30% of your starting life, whereas 6 DMG is closer to just 5% in mtgpq, meaning the one hit you get has nowhere close to the same impact, so the main advantage is lost, especially compared to GR
Her hexproof does mean that you’re going to lose a creature, unless it’s larger than her, which is helpful in green decks at least. There’s no way of dealing with her easily when she hits the field. I normally keep a charged up Murder in hand for when my opponent casts or potentially reinforces a creature. That doesn’t work with Palladia since she is still hexproof when she attacks.
Losing it and regaining it is a little odd, though, and I do kind of wish she didn’t have berserker.
I figure they designed Palladia-Mors to be immune to instant-speed removal, which presumably will be expanded upon the future. Right now, her hexproof serves little purpose, but if Flash effects become as prevalent as say, exile, then it could be a moderately useful ability.
“Moderately” might be too generous, though. In practice, even if that were the case, it’s basically either an expensive dragon-shaped missile you aim at a creature that’s probably larger than Palladia-Mors
I did face one in the Dragon Wars. She was definitely a bit annoying to deal with, but that was more because I drew 4 Animist Awakenings instead of actually useful cards
