Personally, I was sad both that the 1-cost hybrid cycle didn't continue into Gatecrash and that Simic didn't get more merfolk.

If you combine this with Essence Warden against an opponent's Death Match, the result is a good time.

The opponent would just target the Essence Warden... but the point is valid. I'm sure there are other more appropriate combos {Kyren Negotiations perhaps?)

This card also has some frenemies problems. Let's say I didn't necessarily not like an opponent at a multiplayer game (The Sheriff when playing Bang?) I'm going to get some serious value out of him/her when I play my Whip Sergeant. That situation's probably rare enough, though, that you don't have to think about it too hard.

The Essence Warden / Death Match combo took me a couple of tries to get, but it does work. The key is that the opponent controls the Death Match, but I control the Biomancer token so I choose the target for Death Match's triggered ability. Obviously I loop Biomancers a few million times.

@Alex: Wouldn't that be an ability you control, though, and not your opponent? Or is control dependent upon who controls the permanent the ability was manifested from? I actually am not certain...

Why would you control it? If I have a Suture Priest and you play a creature, the creature's entering under your control but it's me who controls the trigger. For that matter, if I have an Essence Warden and you play a creature, the creature's entering under your control but it's me who controls the trigger. The same is true of Ley Line and Magus of the Abyss and Pandemonium and Death Match: it's always my ability that triggers, it's just that my ability offers you the choice of one of the targets.

I suppose so. It doesn't make sense from an English perspective... If I doing the targeting, then I'm controlling the effect. But that's got to be the way Magic handles the problem. All right. Carry on, then.