Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

ahadabans

ahadabans

The temples are great too. And it's probably no coincidence since cycling and scry are two of the best mechanics in all of Magic. I think I said this before somewhere, but the game itself probably would be better with a cycle or scry mechanic built right into the actual game. Once per turn, you may pay 3 at sorcery speed to cycle a card in your hand (remove it from game) or something like that. You'd only use this in desperate moments I'm guessing, but how many non-games would something like that prevent?
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
ahadabans said:
The temples are great too. And it's probably no coincidence since cycling and scry are two of the best mechanics in all of Magic. I think I said this before somewhere, but the game itself probably would be better with a cycle or scry mechanic built right into the actual game. Once per turn, you may pay 3 at sorcery speed to cycle a card in your hand (remove it from game) or something like that. You'd only use this in desperate moments I'm guessing, but how many non-games would something like that prevent?
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There's a reason you can scry 1 after a mulligan nowadays! :)
 
sigh

sigh

With all this talk about looting and card quality and other cool stuff... Is now the time for?

The neatest intersection of the "blink theme" and a card quality suite component. Neat.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

sigh said:
With all this talk about looting and card quality and other cool stuff... Is now the time for?

The neatest intersection of the "blink theme" and a card quality suite component. Neat.
Click to expand...


I need to say that I did a chaos draft once, and had a U/W control deck with both Vanish into Memory (out of... dissension, I think?) and Oracle of Dust out of BFZ. It was a pretty incredible beating whenever I landed it, and it's a pretty fun combo to make out of two cards that were never meant to play together.
 
Fulcrum

Fulcrum

sigh said:

Someone call me crazy, but I'm really getting tempted by the flexibility of these little charms tonight. My black especially might even benefit from a less-outright-powerful-more-utility component, as the color is just so powerful in GY formats naturally.
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I played Piracy Charm in U-Tron's sideboard in modern. I really like it as it let me do a lot of goofy things. Here are my most memorable moments with the card.

1. Killing Delver of Secrets and Glistener Elf(ves)

2. Using the +2/-1 to pump Wurmcoil Engine when my opponent was at 8 life.

3. Giving Sundering Titan islandwalk.

Additionally, I've seen 8-rack players use Funeral Charm at the end of the draw step when the opponent only had the freshly drawn card in hand.

I would probably try to evaluate these cards as removal spells first with the other modes being gravy. I guess the big question for a cube that wants these are, how much stuff dies to Darkblast? When I was playing Piracy Charm in modern it was mainly in there to handle things like Delver of Secrets, Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster Mage, and every creature that infect runs mainboard. I saw it primarily as a removal spell that sometimes let me do other stuff if the stars aligned.

Sidenote, these seem really good at getting stuff into your graveyard from your hand. Reminiscent of those, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize myself, take Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, cast Exhume starts in powered cube. Obviously you won't be doing stuff like that in a low power format, but anyways, a cheap discard outlet seems nice.
 
sigh

sigh

That's probably a useful way to look at it. The fact that Darkblast has a secret disfigure mode aside, I looked at every card in my cube that has a semi-decent chance of being hit with -1/-1:
Hangarback Walker
phyrexian revoker
epochrasite
Perilous Myr
Porcelaine Legionaire
mardu woe-reaper
Champion of the Parish
Kytheon, hero of akros
Mother of Runes
dryad militant
topplegeist
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Selfless Spirit
flickerwisp
recruiter of the guard
hypnotic siren
Delver of Secrets
dakra mystic
thought courier
snapcaster mage
Chasm Skulker
vendilion clique
carrion feeder
gnarled scarhide
gravecrawler
Bloodsoaked Champion
rotting rats
Blood Artist
golgari thug
bloodghast
dark confidant
Asylum Visitor
Fleshbag Marauder
Grim lavamancer
spikeshot elder
figure of destiny
Goblin bushwhacker
Mogg War marshal
Ashling the Pilgrim
young pyromancer
Abbot of Keral Keep
pyreheart wolf
TukTuk the explorer
gnarlwood dryad
birds of paradise
arbor elf
Avacyn's Pilgrim
elvish mystic
Obsessive Skinner
strangleroot geist
Satyr Wayfinder
ambush viper
reclamation sage
Eternal Witness
Baleful Strix
Now some of these have very narrow windows of opportunity, like Figure of Destiny.

Some of my favorite things that I see that -1/-1 can hit:

I especially like that you can take out problem utility creatures on T1 before they can start being troublesome (Mom, for example).

Veeeerry tempting....
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor


Considering this as a 'cog' with a unique effect that fuels graveyard synergies and late-game loops in control decks. How low does your power level have to be to make this a 'real' card?
 
Alfonzo Bonzo

Alfonzo Bonzo

I like this. It's colourless regrowth you can trinket for and recur with salvagers. It is pretty low power though, with fringe self mill and rare decking benefits. Not much more to it than that!
 
StormEntity

StormEntity

The problem case here is eats removal, which I often hear bandied about but is truly an awful outcome when you spend four mana on a creature. If this thing eats a Shock or Burst Lightning or whatever you've been blown right on out. I actually can hardly imagine a format where the removal is such that this is playable, unless you go full 2016 limited and start charging five mana to unconditionally kill a creature (which is fine, but boy am I not interested in formats like that)
 
Fulcrum

Fulcrum

I thought this card was super neat as a kind of Promise of Bunrei stapled to creature but as I read it more closely I realized that it has to di during combat for you to get the tokens. I agree with StormEntity that having this thing die to something like Shock would feel really bad. I'm all for including some cards that can die and not give you any value but I feel like they have to be a lynchpin of an archetype for that to be the case.

For example, I would be fine with Titania, Protector of Argoth because it's so unique and enables something entirely new even though it dies to Lightning Bolt and Doom Blade without giving you any value. I know you can play it one turn 6 with a fetchland in play but let's just ignore that for this example. Maybe a better example would be Braids, Cabal Minion as that's a pretty unique, powerful effect that costs 4 mana and can be answered pretty easily at no detriment to your opponent.

Those examples are pretty high powered but I think the difference between those cards and Mongrel Pack are that they don't really serve as a lynchpin for the archetype. It feels like there's a ton of cards that do what the pack does in a way that doesn't set yourself up to be blown out. Things like Sultai Emissary and Pawn of Ulamog might have a worse Best Case Scenario but I feel like their Worst Case Scenario is much better as well as the Average Case Scenario.
 
ColonelSanders

ColonelSanders

StormEntity said:
The problem case here is eats removal, which I often hear bandied about but is truly an awful outcome when you spend four mana on a creature. If this thing eats a Shock or Burst Lightning or whatever you've been blown right on out. I actually can hardly imagine a format where the removal is such that this is playable, unless you go full 2016 limited and start charging five mana to unconditionally kill a creature (which is fine, but boy am I not interested in formats like that)
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I was definitely envisioning a cube filled with premium riptide removal like volcanic hammer. Shock is now tier 1 playable in standard. We can't have that floating around in low power cubes.
 
Diakonov

Diakonov

I sort of like the idea of a format filled with creatures with activated abilities. Anti-Hearthstone (no offense Hearthstone luv u)

Chris, you've been on fire lately, no joke.
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

Any opinion on this weird aura? I can't really find anyone talking about it anywhere, and it looks pretty interesting. (Maybe I just have awful taste)

 
ahadabans

ahadabans

Looks like a cool card. If you have a ton of instant speed removal, the friendly aura 2 for 1 problem will make this very risky (maybe even unplayable - 4 is a lot to spend).

Reminds me a bit of Angelic Destiny. You trade some power, first strike and the return to your hand bit for shroud. Embrace is almost certainly the weaker card, but if you have a strong heroic or enchantress theme and have a compatible removal suite, I can see that working out. Nice find. I've never seen that one before.

Robe of Mirrors was a card that just didn't do enough despite how great shroud is. But +2/+2 and flying for 2U extra? Hmm...
 
Chriskool

Chriskool

My thought on Mongrel Pack is it is to be played and sacrificed on turn 4 (ideally), resulting in 4 tokens and flexibility moving forward. I've been exploring combat-oriented limited a lot, so removal is often temporary, more expensive or clunky (either due to restrictions, cmc or sorcery speed). I know some amount of it will make a card like Mongrel Pack feel very bad, but in theory, play-and-sacrifice allows aristocrats to get the token ammo before a 1-for-1 would ruin the line.

Originally, Symbiotic Elf was in this spot, but it seemed really lackluster. Unsure on best worst case / worst best case analysis for cards that are unexciting (and probably just archetype enablers), but the promise of bunrei-styled play is what I hope this card to enable.

Chastise is a perfect removal spell. :)

@RavebornMuse; Zephid's Embrace looks fun! I bet it'd shine in a format where Mongrel Pack is playable...
 
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