In recent years, Wizards of the Coast has seemingly been intent on making their own memes in MTG. Cards like Holy Cow and the newly teased Gas Guzzler are egregiously on the nose, often drawing the community’s ire. Thankfully, not all MTG memes are so forced.
Turning the clocks back, meme cards in MTG used to be beloved for their terrible stats or unusual art. Storm Crow, the most powerful MTG card of all time, is a perfect example of this. Similarly, Savage Knuckleblade is another card that’s beloved for its surprisingly disappointing power.
Despite not having been relevant for years, many MTG players have been enamored by Savage Knuckleblade. Trying to make it work in any format, we’ve seen all manner of attempts over the years. At long last, it seems MTG streamer OldDingo may have finally cracked the code, managing a 5-0 Challenge finish with Savage Knuckleblade in Modern.
Savage Knuckleblade In MTG Modern?!
The achievement in question belongs to OldDingo, a prolific MTG streamer and Twitch partner. Just yesterday, they made a post on Twitter celebrating their victory.
“WE FUCKING DID
OldDingo
13 Hours of leagues
17 Attempts
36 Knuckleblades Cast
We trophied with Savage Knuckleblade in Modern”
There’s a lot to unpack here. If you didn’t already know that Savage Knuckleblade was an MTG meme card with no real business in the Modern format, then this post lets you know quickly. Sure OldDingo managed to claim a 5-0 Challenge trophy, but it took a ton of work. 17 attempts and 13 hours aren’t the kinds of numbers you’d expect from a serious strategy.
Interestingly, the deck OldDingo chose to incorporate Knuckleblade into actually is a serious strategy. Eldrazi Ramp currently sits at a 4% meta share according to MTGDecks, making it a solid tier one deck. It also makes a good amount of sense as a home for Knuckleblade when you break everything down.
For one thing, the deck already runs Temur colors. This allows it to cast Knuckleblade normally without modifying its manabase at all. Even with the quality of lands in Modern, this is a big plus. Second, it’s a deck that can generate large amounts of mana. Between Ugin’s Labyrinth, Utopia Sprawl, and the Talismans it runs, you’ll generally have plenty to spare. This means you’ll be able to take full advantage of Knuckleblade’s multiple activated abilities.
With enough mana available, Knuckleblade is a 4/4 for three that can swing right away, pump itself, and even return to the hand to dodge removal. That’s a nice range of options on one card. As OldDingo’s post indicates, it’s still not a particularly good addition to Eldrazi Ramp, but it’s not a totally dead card either. The fact that it was cast 36 times during the run is a testament to that.
A Decade-Long In-Joke
Newer players may be slightly confused right about now. Sure Savage Knuckleblade looks clunky, but it’s hardly the kind of MTG card that you’d expect to be laughed out of Modern right away. What’s the big joke here? The answer to that question, like much of the humor in Magic, is complicated.
Savage Knuckleblade first appeared in Khans of Tarkir, way back in 2014. This was a game-changing set at the time, pushing three-color strategies and bringing Fetch Lands back to Standard. During preview season, players had high hopes for Savage Knuckleblade. It had great stats for the cost and three relevant abilities; how could it possibly fail to make an impact?
Fast forward to release, and fail to make an impact it did. Temur just wasn’t as effective as the other new three-color decks that Khans brought to the table. Between Abzan with Siege Rhino and Jeskai with Mantis Rider, there was little reason to dabble in RUG colors. Heck, even Mardu put on a better performance. The card failed to perform during its time in Standard, and we haven’t heard much from it since.
For whatever reason, perhaps because it was so hyped then did so little, the community really cottoned on to Knuckleblade as a card. Some players have created fan art of this plucky Ogre, while others have gathered ludicrous numbers of copies, holding out hope that it breaks out someday.
There have even been others besides OldDingo who have tried to make the card work in serious events, to mixed degrees of success. The card is firmly implanted in the MTG canon and consciousness, and the fact that it rarely ever delivers actual results only seems to make players love it more.
