Article Journey to Nyx: Cube Review
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
I think you're pretty spot on.
I still think crystalline nautilus has some potential, I know some of the guys are testing it out so would be good to hear from them. Also think dictate of erebos has some potential. I've been running gravepact and like it but can't decide over flash and five cost vs the cheaper but more restrictive cost.
I think you're right about harness by force, but can't get over the synergy and extra point of power mark of mutiny provides. Maybe run both?
I think ajanis presence might be a go-er too. Chris says its the real deal in the heroic thread.
How can you not love the scry fish?
I'm quite high on keranos at the moment. I know it's a bit dull but it's one of the first cards that makes me want to draft izzet and not just in a counter burn shell. Athreos is going to rock too.
Thanks for writing it.
I still think crystalline nautilus has some potential, I know some of the guys are testing it out so would be good to hear from them. Also think dictate of erebos has some potential. I've been running gravepact and like it but can't decide over flash and five cost vs the cheaper but more restrictive cost.
I think you're right about harness by force, but can't get over the synergy and extra point of power mark of mutiny provides. Maybe run both?
I think ajanis presence might be a go-er too. Chris says its the real deal in the heroic thread.
How can you not love the scry fish?
I'm quite high on keranos at the moment. I know it's a bit dull but it's one of the first cards that makes me want to draft izzet and not just in a counter burn shell. Athreos is going to rock too.
Thanks for writing it.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
- Nautilus really does have a pile of competition. The phantasmal keyword is more annoying than it looks, and if you really want a big dumb groundpounder, try wake trasher
- I run both Harness and Mark, though that might be a bit much at 360. If you mark a persisted kitchen finks and sac it, do you get it or does the owner?
- Ajaini's Presence sucks when your removal is insane. W to counter go for the throat sucks, W to counter Hero's Downfall is sweet.
- Scry Fish doesn't have power (There's a lot of 2/1s in cube) and takes a long time to be better than something like omenspeaker. In longer games it will be better, but if games are short stick with something like Auger of Bolas
- Keranos does seem like a B- in a sea of C+
I agree with the peanut gallery in the article comments that Dakra Mystic is worth a shot. She's mana intensive, but I love that you get a choice.
Oppressive Rays seems sweet if you're in the market for cheap, aggro-friendly white removal.
It might just be my love of all things Overrun, but Dictate of Heliod is the kind of five-drop I can see myself running in white weenie.
Also, I think this guy is miles better than Rampaging Baloths, for anyone who still runs him. Monstrosity, X-cost activations, and green go together like peanut butter and jelly. And sandwich.
Oppressive Rays seems sweet if you're in the market for cheap, aggro-friendly white removal.
It might just be my love of all things Overrun, but Dictate of Heliod is the kind of five-drop I can see myself running in white weenie.
Also, I think this guy is miles better than Rampaging Baloths, for anyone who still runs him. Monstrosity, X-cost activations, and green go together like peanut butter and jelly. And sandwich.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
You know, I would, but he's missing something ravenous baloths does have:
Trample
Trample
Dom Harvey
Contributor
kein Trample!
Chris Taylor
Contributor
kein Trample!
I am a derp. Man the commander art for that card is sweet
Shame too. Baloths usually give you life on the way in thesedays, not the way out
Let's talk about this card.
I don't like it. I never want my opponent drawing cards. Every Jace B. +2 is given grudgingly, and only because I know I'm eventually getting / already got more cards than them. Every time you activate this you are putting your opponent 1 card deeper into their deck.
This is how it has operated in all the games it's been in:
1. Check your top card for a threat so I can mill it, since I'm already ahead. (feels like fateseal 1 when you mill)
2. Check my top card for a threat/answer, compare it to your top card, draw it hesitantly or mill it sadly based on yours.
3. Know I don't want to draw my card, at your EoT mill us both because I can just mill you again if your next card is good.
3 Sure makes the card sound great, but it was in a future sight vs. courser of kruphix game. When you're activating blind it can lead to some awkward reveals. The card is a combination mill-your-best-card-randomly and let-me-stare-at-these-cards-for-way-too-long minigame. It slowed games down quite a lot and players ended up just milling more than I was comfortable with so it's out now. Mill leaves an awful taste in my mouth- you didn't actually have to deal with their threat/value card/answer to yours, you andomly 'beat' it just because it happened to be on top of their library instead of a card under it. Of course it can also act as "oh you missed your land? Guess what I'm making you mill!" if you're into that sort of thing.
And now, since this card mentions your opponent drawing, as always:
As far as the article goes I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention Heliod's Dic.
This is how it has operated in all the games it's been in:
1. Check your top card for a threat so I can mill it, since I'm already ahead. (feels like fateseal 1 when you mill)
2. Check my top card for a threat/answer, compare it to your top card, draw it hesitantly or mill it sadly based on yours.
3. Know I don't want to draw my card, at your EoT mill us both because I can just mill you again if your next card is good.
3 Sure makes the card sound great, but it was in a future sight vs. courser of kruphix game. When you're activating blind it can lead to some awkward reveals. The card is a combination mill-your-best-card-randomly and let-me-stare-at-these-cards-for-way-too-long minigame. It slowed games down quite a lot and players ended up just milling more than I was comfortable with so it's out now. Mill leaves an awful taste in my mouth- you didn't actually have to deal with their threat/value card/answer to yours, you andomly 'beat' it just because it happened to be on top of their library instead of a card under it. Of course it can also act as "oh you missed your land? Guess what I'm making you mill!" if you're into that sort of thing.
And now, since this card mentions your opponent drawing, as always:
As far as the article goes I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention Heliod's Dic.
The thing is that milling away a land doesn't really take away from their probability of drawing another one.
A 1/1 creature isn't really worth a card. How many times do you need to activate the Mystic before you've gotten your card / mana's worth?
Heliod's Dictate is fine, but it'd probably be bad in my cube. I really need my 5-drops to not suck on an empty board / after a wrath. Maybe I'm just being curmudgeony.
A 1/1 creature isn't really worth a card. How many times do you need to activate the Mystic before you've gotten your card / mana's worth?
Heliod's Dictate is fine, but it'd probably be bad in my cube. I really need my 5-drops to not suck on an empty board / after a wrath. Maybe I'm just being curmudgeony.
I really like the mystic. It provides really interesting decisions and provides info. Stock rises when you push a graveyard theme in your cube too.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
He plays mostly like a controllable howling mine, but the constant mana in is annoying. You'd hate it.
Yes! I'm kind of face-palming, now that I realize I didn't mention what I thought was obvious, but I don't think you want Dakra Mystic unless you're mucking around with the graveyard. I assume he works best if you're interested in looting-type effects, with the caveat that you can't, you know, pitch stuff from your hand. But if you're looking to fill up your yard for some sorta shenanigans, I feel like this guy could enable you as well as an Enclave Cryptologist.
That's a pretty goddamn big caveat. And I really can't see a Bloodghast deck playing this card in the hopes that it (semi) profitably mills one of the ~5 cards in the deck that actually want to go to the yard.
Is it, though? I think the decks that could make room for something like Faithless Looting would be interested in Mystic. I mean, you're not always milling cards. You can draw them, too. But when the milling is potentially profitable, too, hey, you might have a card.
It's super huge. The great thing about Faithless Looting (and looting in general) is that you can bin cards that are either in your hand or on the top X cards of your deck. The "in hand" but is much more common, and unless you are going off the top in huge numbers (ala Dredge), there's not really a comparison.
Also Faithless Looting works so much differently in those decks. Those decks do something like T1 Crawler, T2 Looting, discard Bloodghast, land, another 1-drop. The Mystic doesn't suit that style of gameplay at all.
The thing is, I don't even run Faithless Looting because I don't have much (any?) graveyard interaction in red, and I think the same is true for most people on here. Like, I don't get the sense that red looting is an important part of the graveyard decks that people are looking to support.
Blue, though, already does a lot of good work with filtering, which makes it more suited to supporting niche graveyard strategies. I know I can't be the only one that runs Merfolk Looter, and I feel like Mystic is an upgrade. No, you probably don't want Mystic in the same deck as triple Gravecrawler. But I'd be happy with it in a deck running Enclave Cryptologist, Thirst for Knowledge, and Forbidden Alchemy, with either dredge cards or reanimation as the end goal. I agree Mystic isn't an aggro card, but it seems like it could be viable in any other archetype.
Blue, though, already does a lot of good work with filtering, which makes it more suited to supporting niche graveyard strategies. I know I can't be the only one that runs Merfolk Looter, and I feel like Mystic is an upgrade. No, you probably don't want Mystic in the same deck as triple Gravecrawler. But I'd be happy with it in a deck running Enclave Cryptologist, Thirst for Knowledge, and Forbidden Alchemy, with either dredge cards or reanimation as the end goal. I agree Mystic isn't an aggro card, but it seems like it could be viable in any other archetype.
I think you may be underestimating the power of Faithless Looting without any graveyard interactions.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Not really from my expectation.
My thoughts are: At it's base, it's a selective howling mine. I don't know where I'd want that
CML
Contributor
nah it's useless without those, but it's a moot point because GOOD GOD MAN PUT THE GY INTERACTIONS BACK IN
I agree with this. Dakra Mystic is my sleeper pick for the set. It can act like a baby Jace/Howling Mine. It can act as a discard outlet for graveyard shenanigans. It can be used to hose your opponent by taking away something they really want/need and/or something you don't have an answer for (at worst, it gives you a little insight into what they are playing). It also comes down turn one which is typically not a productive turn for Ux control decks.
The only downside is it costs mana to use the ability, but I don't think that is a huge issue since you can just use it at the end of your opponent's turn when you have free mana.
Maybe I'm wrong and this thing sucks, but I'm really excited about it.