Will Battle Rager ever achieve his dream of being viable? Find out in this week's episode of Card Spotlight!

Card Spotlight - Battle Rager

The Card Spotlight series reviews cards that we don’t typically see in competitive play. In the spotlight I'll talk about each card’s strengths and what decks could use them.

Battle Rager

Poor Battle Rager. All he wants is to storm the battlefield and unleash his anger upon the lands. The card is unfortunately underpowered when compared to the rest of Red’s arsenal. Battle Rager’s ability has the potential to be incredibly damaging to your opponent. Whatever damage is taken will be mirrored to your opponents Orb. This is a powerful ability but Battle Rager’s base Life makes him susceptible to cheap removal.

Flame Burst, Wind Soldier and Ninja Toad are Battle Rager’s main weakness and feature in all the tier one decks of this meta-game. Combinations of Soul Drain, Seifer’s Wrath and The Emperor’s Command are other easy answers. Let’s not forget you can avoid taking damage altogether with Last Nightmare, Frogify and Mirror Phantasm.

I haven’t done a good job selling this card to you but there is a small beacon of hope for Battle Rager. The card does have seven Attack and can challenge popular cards like Wavecrash and Windstorm Colossus. Green is a great compliment to the card, empowering it’s Life so it has more staying power on board.

Giving Battle Rager more Life allows him to dodge popular removal and could result in multiple triggers of his ability. Green also gives you access to Sagami Grovecaller. Teleporting a Battle Rager can be fatal for your opponent.

Why play Battle Rager?

The main answer here is for fun. Green Red Crackthorn already holds the spotlight for this dual colour combination. Battle Rager doesn’t have a home in this deck but can be used in a fun ‘power-up burn’ deck. Mono Red and Green will both struggle against an empowered Battle Rager.

Green has Voice of Truth to reduce it’s Life but will have to use creatures to remove him. Red on the other hand has no real way to deal with high Life creatures. You can safely pump your Battle Rager’s Life and enjoy the burn damage.

Potential Deck

Green Red Burn is a good fit for Battle Rager because you can power up his Life. You can also buff Grim Guard and Shedim Brute to gain additional value from their combat abilities.

Sagami Grovecaller allows you to teleport your creatures into dangerous positions. Don’t be afraid to teleport a Battle Rager to push Orb damage. He does have seven Attack after all and may deal more damage if your opponent has to answer him in combat.

Conclusion

Battle Rager isn’t a good card and I can’t see it ever being one. He may not be the strongest creature but at least he can provide you entertainment. Maybe one day Battle Rager will dominate the meta-game and it will finally quench his thirst for battle. Dream on, dream on, dream on, until your dreams come true Battle Rager.