Lightning Reaver Versus Demigod of Revenge

shiZnits · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 6

With Thought Hemorrhage, Anathemancer, Terminate and Lightning Reaver coming out in Alara Reborn we are sure to see a large increase in B/R decks. I am trying to figure out what would be a better addition to the deck the new Lightning Reaver or the old Demigod of Revenge?

I see it like this:

Demigod Pro's
-He's a 5/4
-He has flying, other than the heavily played Spectral Procession and Faeries he has no big problems.
-His ability is great.

Reaver's Pro's
-He cost 3BR
-He has fear, the heavily played Spectral Procession and Faeries is not a problem as well as other non-black fliers (lark, swans, etc...)

In my opinion for BR decks Demigod takes the cake. His mana cost should not be a problem for you and Volcanic Fallout/ Infest deals with Spectral Procession and Faeries. Reaver's ability is nice, but you are going to deal much more damage with a 5/4 and Demigod's ability can straight up win games. In a 3+ colored deck I can see Reaver being the better choice. BR decks are probably going to see a big rise in playability in which case the Lightning Reaver wouldn't be to good for the mirror.

What do you guys think?

alsorhombus · Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 58

Play Broodmate Dragon and Maelstrom pulse instead of either.

Jacois · Joined: 05 Sep 2004 Posts: 721

Tird_Ape · Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 225

seige gang is better bc of path

Stucco · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 595

Demi god > Reaver imo. It is out of range of more removal and it does more damage once it hits play. It would take the reaver 3 successful attacks before it's damage total would reach the Demigod's (opp would have taken a total of 15 at that point).

arch_raziel · Joined: 06 Jul 2008 Posts: 153

I suppose it would depend on your meta,ultimately. if you're playing in one where there are a lot of people running boatbrew, which has quite a few fliers (FoD, Rev, Spirit tokens, cloudgoat ranger when pumped, etc) or other reveillark variants (Mulldrifter, sower of temptation, etc), lightning reaver may actually be better simply because it can still manage to gitcha gitcha in for his little damage. also, in long drawn out matches he eventually can over take the demigod in terms of damage per turn (granted, that would take 4 turns of it being around [5 - 4, 10 - 9, 15-15, 20-21] to outclass demigod, but none the less, it still would technically happen eventually). however, I agree that most times Demi is going to be more relevant in the generally short minded race that is Blightning Aggro. In my own opinion, lightning reaver would be better suited in replacement of say... Shambling remains. They may not be at the same CMC, but lightning reaver is more useful than remains is. XD