You may not realize it, but an MTG spoiler season is currently underway. MTG’s newest Alchemy set for Tarkir: Dragonstorm is showing off some new cards this week. With it, some incredibly powerful infinite combo enablers are coming to the platform.
A new digital-exclusive Lizard was just sighted. Offering a Regrowth-style effect attached to a 1/1 body with Deathtouch is certainly interesting, but will this adorable Lizard see any play? It does do god’s work in a very niche Historic deck.
Pampered Loamfrill
For one mana, Pampered Loamfrill is a bit difficult to evaluate. On the surface, this Lizard doesn’t appear too interesting, but it does have its uses. Creating value on top of being a potential roadblock is interesting, for example, and granting Deathtouch to the creature it Conjures can do some good work.
Besides being the perfect addition to a Fynn, the Fangbearer Brawl deck, Pampered Loamfrill can also create pseudo-boardwipes. Partner this with a creature like Goblin Chainwhirler, and you’ll get a one-sided effect that kills all of your opponent’s creatures. Similarly, if you ever manage to Conjure a Walking Ballista with this, your opponent will struggle to ever have a board presence.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any creatures that can do this in the Alchemy format right now. So, unless Alchemy: Tarkir has one in store, this synergy will be limited to Brawl and Historic. Thankfully, the potential use cases don’t end there, as decks that mill cards to the graveyard could also take advantage of Pampered Loamfrill.
Essentially, you’ll be getting a free spell in your graveyard that ensures that your draw will be powerful. This could be an exciting consistency piece for any decks that are doing an excessive amount of mill. Milling over your payoff can hurt, but Pampered Loamfrill essentially ensures that you’ll get another copy. Brawl decks, like the new Teval, the Balanced Scale, could use the Lizard while triggering other abilities.
Another card that Pampered Loamscale has some scary synergy with is Kotis, the Fangkeeper. Kotis’s Indestructible nature makes it very difficult to remove. Combine that with Deathtouch and a +1/+1 buff, and this card becomes a nightmare to deal with. Block, and you lose a creature. Don’t block, and your opponent gets to cast free spells off the top of your deck.
Uses in Alchemy
The niche Jund Reanimator deck may also be interested in Pampered Loamfrill. Milling Loamfrill over with another creature via Overlord of the Balemurk can create a disturbing amount of value. That said, Loamfrill cannot be used as a cost for Lich-Knights’ Conquest, which makes it a poor draw outside of being a road bump.
You can technically use Pampered Loamfrill to create infinite value. Targeting a Loamfrill in play with one in the graveyard can create a continuous chain of Lizards. If something cares about cards leaving the graveyard, like Insidious Roots, you could use this to infinitely generate value. That said, this process is both extremely slow and expensive, and would only work in an exceedingly slow metagame.
Pampered Loamfrill in Historic
For the most part, Pampered Loamfrill will be too slow for the Historic format. It theoretically does something that Kethis Combo is interested in, but Agatha’s Soul Cauldron does a similar thing better. Instead, Pampered Loamfrill could see play in Historic Oops, All Spells.
Based on the Pioneer variant of the combo deck that has since been banned, Historic Oops, All Spells wins the game by casting Balustrade Spy and milling your entire library. You get a gigantic board of creatures with various mill-based abilities and try to swing for lethal. You’re essentially threatening lethal on turn four rather consistently behind a cushion of 12 extra life.
Sadly, the endgame for Oops isn’t always good enough to actually end the game. A gigantic lifelinking creature from Boros Auras, or an early Saint Elenda powered out by Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord can make it difficult to win the game before you run out of extra draws. Pampered Loamfrill can fix this by recurring a creature tailor-made to solve your problem to the top of your deck. This could seriously impact the viability of this niche archetype, but Loamfrill may struggle to do much else.
An Interesting Idea
In the larger scheme of things, with the exception of Historic Oops, Pampered Loamfrill doesn’t seem too powerful outside of Brawl. This is a sweet one-of that can generate a considerable amount of value in a longer game, but if the Alchemy metagame is a mana-efficient one, it’ll be difficult to find the mana to use your Lizard.
If exile-based removal like Torch the Tower becomes popular after Alchemy: Tarkir, Pampered Loamfrill will be unlikely to see any play at all. Torch exiles Lizard on resolution, meaning that the poor guy can’t create any value.
The good news for curious Alchemy players is that, if Pampered Loamfrill is the real deal, we’ll know soon. An Alchemy Qualifier is scheduled to start the weekend after the release of Alchemy: Tarkir. This may be the most competitive event for MTG Alchemy players for the entire year. If Loamfrill doesn’t break out after this event, it may just be a cute little guy, which is totally fine.