Sets Amonkhet (AKH) Spoilers

[Kirblinx]

This seems pretty sweet. I have really liked Garruk's Horde in lower powered environment and having it's effect stapled onto a creature half the cost is pretty sweet. Also pretty interesting that is says look at the top instead of reveal. Was Oracle of Mul Daya and Courser of Kruphix giving away too much information with their abilites (or just to save rules headaches with drawing multiple cards)?

That last ability is probably mostly just trinket text but could be useful in all those 5-colour pod decks I keep trying to build.

It is also really hard to tell what is a Naga and a snake these days. I want snake tribal to be a thing in cube

 

[sigh]

This card is very good! Might try and find a place for it. One thing I like is that the third ability says you may spend mana as though it were any type, which includes . Thats pretty dang cool, even though it doesn't really matter that much for cube.

 

[Aston]

I'm going to spend all mana as though it were the type generated by Cavern of Souls

 

[Aston]

Also pretty interesting that is says look at the top instead of reveal. Was Oracle of Mul Daya and Courser of Kruphix giving away too much information with their abilites (or just to save rules headaches with drawing multiple cards)?

I suspect it's because Courser especially slowed down games as players wrote down every card that was revealed. There are also issues with what happens if someone forgets to reveal, and drawing multiples isn't that intuitive either as you said.

It definitely seems like a cool card though. That last line is something that will get me in trouble with deckbuilding - I'm already putting Phyrexian Obliterator into 4 colour decks.

 

[sigh]

Wow.

 

[Salmo2]

It's not bad. I'm not blown away, but anything at X=3 or more seems alright.

 

[inscho]

I think Stroke of Genius is still more appealing for my list. Being able to target is important as well as being more splashable. I feel like most decks that like to bin cards want to do so at a cheaper cost....and we have so many valid options already.

If this targeted a player, it would've been an interesting corner case instant speed discard.

 

[Salmo2]

How often are people getting Stroked out in your cube? I think costing one less is worth *way* more than the potential win-con Stroke provides.

 

[psly4mne]

inscho is talking about targeting your opponent with X=0 for a blue Funeral Charm.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

No, he's right. Its really fun to have the stroke win-con as a utility option, and its a fairly unique effect that helps open up a format's lines of play. Blue already has lots of sifting options.

If we're just making a pure power argument, I don't think either card is sufficiently more powerful than the other to really quibble about.

 

[anotak]

Was Oracle of Mul Daya and Courser of Kruphix giving away too much information with their abilites (or just to save rules headaches with drawing multiple cards)?

the abundance of courser and thoughtseize was one of many the reasons theros standard was one of the most miserable formats i've played in magic, partially for this reason

i even like both those cards too!

 

[sigh]

I really like this card. This digs one deeper than either Stroke or Blue Sun's for the same total mana investment, and has a boatload of interactions, in my format at least. The interactions are slightly different than, say, careful study. These are going to be more like binning a Genesis to start the late game recursion engine, or a Devil's Play for reach.

And this can take over the role of Sphinx's Rev, which is almost a relief. Can put something cool there like Migratory Route

 

[psly4mne]

I don't think discarding Devil's Play to set up the flashback is ever going to happen, but this is a solid instant speed draw effect and the discard definitely has some uses.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I think the utility is kind of redundant, but I 100% understand someone wanting to try it in place of sphinx's rev.

These draw X spells are fairly narrow slots, and sometimes its healthy for a group to rotate certain cards out, just to keep the experience feeling fresh.

 

[ahadabans]

I feel like the life gain attached to Sphinx's Rev is what make the card. This new mono-blue version seems somewhat redundant (agree with Grillo) and not super exciting (even if technically the dig/discard has more applications). It's trash unless you have a ton of mana, and if you do aren't there better things to be doing than drawing cards and discarding something for 7 mana? Again, with Rev you are refiling your hand and probably getting out of burn range. So it functions as a semi-fog while you stabilize. This new card draws you stuff while you are still stuck in lightning bolt range.

If you want the discard, there are better choices. If you want the dig or raw CA, there are more efficient options that do more early in the game and more broken choices for later in the game. Might be overly harsh - and I know we aren't making purely power choices with cubes here so some objections I have might not be valid. Card isn't bad. I just don't think it's great and I think most will end up a little disappointed.

 

[Salmo2]

It's trash unless you have a ton of mana, and if you do aren't there better things to be doing than drawing cards and discarding something for 7 mana?

For the decks that want this card, that IS doing something. And something they want to do.

Breaking this card into the individual parts and saying there are better options takes away the strengths from this card--it is an option in all those points in the game when the 'better' options may not be, and frankly I think you're underrating the 6+ mana modes. I still don't know if it gets there, but costing 1 less than all the other cubeable options means something and the discard outlet aspects are more of a pro than a con to me.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Presumably the strength of it, is thats it can function something like a modal card in the decks that really want to gy pitch.

I can either use it as 3 (2?) mana instant speed way to pitch to the yard, or I can use it as a late game big draw engine.

Its just hard to get very excited about a card like that, though I appreciate having it as an option. The available options for reasonably priced blue X draw spells are kind of limited, and its nice to have a strong option besides stroke, if you are looking for a second effect like this. I never really liked the triple U on blue sun's zenith, or the sorcery speed on braingeyser. Thats a good enough niche for me to be happy to see it.

 

[Chris Taylor]

More cool stuff:

I mean it's not hard to sell me on a hero's downfall variant, and graveyard hate (like artifact hate) is a nice thing to staple onto a card as a bonus, however overcosted it may be. I like this card.

This seems like a not horrible 6 drop, and if you can mill/discard it, it ends up being Roar of the Wurm with trample. I'm going to give it a shot.

3BB
Enchantment
Zombies you control get +1/+1
ETB: Create 2 2/2 black zombies untapped

So if the new lilianna was putting you off with all that blocking, but you like the idea of some more zombie tokens in black, this could be sweet. 5 mana for a pair of 3/3s is nice, and given how many of us run gravecrawlers the anthemn effect might not actually be that narrow.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I believe someone was asking for a good black five drop too recently!

 

[ahadabans]

I want to like that enchantment for zombies, but 5 just seems too much. Even with the tokens. In heavy black decks, I'd much rather be dropping gary. And zombies aren't really a thing outside heavy black decks.

 

[anotak]

arent all the um, unearth 2.0, things, zombies

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I still Run of the Wurm. Great roleplayer. In the right decks its a cantripping 6/6 for 4. Honored Hydra is mostly upside. Doesn't trigger prowess and you can't have both out at once, but better cost when you topdeck it and trample are legit. I recommend it.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

This looks like another nice condender for helping an Orzhov guild identity? Drop this after a champion of the parish into xathrid necromancer. Yum!

 

[Chris Taylor]

I want to like that enchantment for zombies, but 5 just seems too much. Even with the tokens. In heavy black decks, I'd much rather be dropping gary. And zombies aren't really a thing outside heavy black decks.

Not gonna lie, this and Gary seem like the best of friends. It even gives him +1/+1.

And hey, 5 mana 6 power, could be a lot worse

 

[Fulcrum]

This is super neat. I really like how it scales with the game. The +2 and 0 seem so good at fixing your draws + providing a good source of gas. Super late game you can just cast this for X=6 and swing for 10. It doesn't protect itself, but it can come down on turn 2.