Original Card, designed to fit the cycle that Leaping Lizard inspired.

3/3 for is unusual. Sure, there's Giant Octopus... but that was generally considered a mistake for being 'too good in Blue for draft' in it's day. If it wasn't for Barrenton Cragtreads and Wanderbrine Rootcutters I wouldn't have any real precedent.

The problem doesn't seem to be that blue can't do it, so much that blue would prefer not to. So would I. But this particular pair of abilities doesn't make sense with a lot of other casting cost to power ratios. I don't want a creature that gets haste and deals 1 damage. And any creature that costs 5 or more is going to push the haste into the irrelevant zone. I suppose this could have been a 3/2 or 3/3 flyer for 5... meh. It can also be a 3/3 for 2UU, so we're going to stick with that.

On a separate side note, the Cragtreads have 1.97 stars. Kind of crazy when you think about it, what with it being one of the best p/t ratio blue (or white) creatures in common. Seems that too many people got stuck on the whole "But red creatures don't block" problem. Funny how perception works.

I feel like a 2/2 with haste for 6 is pretty terrible.

I agree. It occurred to me, though, that a blue 3/3 that turns into a 2/2 first striker is pretty sweet. And the red to white card makes more sense with lifelink anyway, so that's where this is probably going.

A pity, almost. This card isn't good because of the haste. It's good because it's a 3/3 for 4 in blue. I kind of don't want the activated ability to also be good, but I guess I gotta if I don't want people hating the card.

...and updated to first strike.