Its a solid green creature for the mana cost, and you never really want to attack with your dorks anyway
Japanese booster boxes have an MSRP of 5,400 (~$37), but retail availability is extremely limited
so hit that buy button right now!
Skip the $20+ cards (Thrumming Stone, Coat of Arms, Cover of Darkness) and the deck still hums: Commander: Karumonix, the Rat King (~$1) Engines: Pack Rat (~$3.30), Piper of the Swarm (~$3), Ogre Slumlord (~$0.45), a couple of Relentless Rats / Rat Colony (~$56 each cap the copies to stay on budget) Payoffs/utility: Crypt Rats (~$0.50), Nezumi Bone-Reader (~$0.40), Bontu the Glorified (~$3) as a sac outlet, Throne of the God-Pharaoh only if budget allows The rest: cheap black removal, Swamps, and a Sol Ring The whole list comes in well under $50, and it scales up gracefully add Marrow-Gnawer and Thrumming Stone later and the same shell jumps several power levels
I can look at a card like By Force and easily hold its value in tension with cards from the past that Ive played like Vandalblast, Shatterstorm, Shattering Pulse, Shattering Spree, and Release the Gremlins
Yet, the most prevalent negative impact of the Pokmon TCG resurgence is one that will be all-too-familiar to anyone who has tried to purchase high-profile items online, especially in the last couple of years
