Is Rampaging Raptor Truly the New Questing Beast?

Hello everyone!

With the March of the Machine debut a few days ago, we saw a huge influx of new cards coming in March of the Machine. While I spoke about Kroxa and Kuronos, Sunfall, Hidetsugu and Kairi, Monastery Mentor, Wrenn and Realmbreaker, and Archangel Elspeth. we have plenty of new cards to look at as well! Today I want to go over what many players are considering the new Questing Beast – Rampaging Raptor!

Rampaging Raptor beyond being winner for one of the most generic names I’ve ever seen is a four mana 4/4 with Trample, Haste, 2R to give it +2/+0, and when it deals damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to a planeswalker or Battle they control! While it has a lot of words on the card, it’s a pretty simple design! It’s no surprise that players are comparing this to Questing Beast! The only real differences is obviously the color, and Questing Beast had Vigilance, Deathouch, and the clause where small creatures couldn’t block it while Raptor has Trample and a buff. The cards are clearly similar, but is Raptor good enough to see play like Questing Beast did, or is it no longer good enough?

VERDICT

It’s good enough, but more or less just good enough.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a very solid card. A four mana 4/4 Haste and Trample is a solid stat line, being able to buff it is nice, and damaging planeswalkers and Battles is a nice bonus. While this card certainly feels closest to Questing Beast, I’d argue that it’s going to much more often play out like Ulvenwald Oddity.

Buy on TCGplayer $1.19 Buy on Card Kingdom $0.49 view card details

Don’t get me wrong, I like Oddity, but nobody looked at Oddity and saw Questing Beast. Raptor is good, but Questing Beast had substantially more going for it than Raptor currently does. First off, the Vigilance is pretty massive on Questing Beast. Being able to attack as well as defend is pretty sick on such a threatening body, and in a more modern example, not getting exiled by The Wandering Emperor is a pretty big deal. Second, the Deathtouch was actually quite relevant on Questing Beast, but only because it was so effective in conjunction with the can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less clause. What that ended up creating was this monstrosity that was impossible to get off the board cleanly if you didn’t have a removal spell. Of course, Questing Beast was just one of the many absolutely busted designs coming out of Eldraine, so reigning that in was definitely the right call.

While Raptor is definitely much worse than Questing Beast, I still envision it seeing a solid amount of play. The Battles do look relatively promising, so having something that can pressure the opponent as well as a Battle is quite scary, and a 4/4 Trample Haste is a good way to pressure them. It is unfortunate that it can be blocked pretty easily by commonly played creatures and it gets kind of embarrassed by Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, but despite all of that, this still seems solid.

Thank you for reading! Agree or disagree? Come join our Discord community, discuss the new spoilers, and more.