DEBATE: Skinrender vs Rotting Fensnake

Personally I'd just rather run fensnake for the board presence. Besides you can always beef him up with equipments. A good one is kite shield that 5/1 is now a 5/4

I made that comment.

I will be defending Skinrender. First of all, Skinrender is removal + a solid 3/3 body, for four mana.
Secondly, if you have an empty board then you should be winning already.
Thirdly, Skinrender is even better with reanimating than the Fensnake since you can take down one large creature or two small ones.
Fourthly, Skinrender is a 2-for-1.
Fifthly, Skinrender can trade with a Titan.
Sixly, Skinrender has been in multiple fringe competitive decks.
Sevenly, Fensnake is just limited fodder.

I made that comment.

I will be defending Skinrender. First of all, Skinrender is removal + a solid 3/3 body, for four mana.
Secondly, if you have an empty board then you should be winning already.
Thirdly, Skinrender is even better with reanimating than the Fensnake since you can take down one large creature or two small ones.
Fourthly, Skinrender is a 2-for-1.
Fifthly, Skinrender can trade with a Titan.
Sixly, Skinrender has been in multiple fringe competitive decks.
Sevenly, Fensnake is just limited fodder.

Hater's gonna make some good points.    Let's look at those points.

1) Okay, yes he is a solid 3/3 for four.  Double black, so less splashable.  NBD  He can remove small, targettable creatures and cripple larger ones.  so let's say "conditional removal".  No good against a Blinkmoth Well, or Invisible Stalker.

2) Empty board =/= winning.  You may be behind on life and just cleared the table with Black Sun's Dawn, Damnation, or other sweeper.  Or trying to recover from an opponent's Day of Judgement.

3) A valid point.  Skinner is good at removing.  If you can use his ETB ability more often, so much the better.

4) This point has already been made in point one. 

5) This point has already been made in points one, and three in a way.

6) So Spikes like Skinner.  yay.  Not everyone plays competitively.

7) This is a subjective opinion, not a point.  You can derive an opinion from arguments, you can't use them as arguments.

so you really have 2 1/2 points here.

Fifthly, Skinrender can trade with a Titan.

I'm assuming you mean the recent Titan cycle, and not, say, Sundering Titan.
 
Seriously, you could only expect the Skinrender to be able to kill three of the five Titans, mano-a-mano:

Grave Titan: check.

Primeval  Titan: check (barring any pumping shenanigans).

Sun Titan: check (again, barring any Oblivion Ring or other graveyard shenanigans).

However:

Frost Titan: Causes the Skinrender to cost 4BB and Frosty will just tap it down on the attack.

Inferno Titan: "I'll declare my attack.  Die Skinrender."

In all fairness, the first three are probably the bigger threats and you're more likely to see them played.

Submitted for your consideration: a deck where Rotting Fensnake is a better choice than Skinrender:

Sick'em 2.0

imtgapp.com/.....c,798.0.html

(I wanted to make a whole new deck, but I'm too lazy right now.  So I updated one of my other decks.)

The basic idea is to equip the snake with the Inquisitor's Flail, cast Berserk, Assault Strobe, or Double Cleave, and throw it with the Stone Giant for 20 damage.  There's other stuff going on in there, but I'll let you read.

Here's another point:

Skinrender has 4 1/2 stars on Gatherer.
Rotting Fensnake has two stars on Gatherer.

Here's another point:

Skinrender has 4 1/2 stars on Gatherer.
Rotting Fensnake has two stars on Gatherer.

Touché!  So I guess the popular kids in school really were better than me.