Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

[japahn]

My cube is nowhere close to tribal, but this sounds like it's decent enough off a single activation, and with tokens it's sweet. I don't think I can get away with this card in my cube single it's singleton and it won't be worth drafting around a single copy, but someone here might make use of it.

 

[GalacticTraveler12]

This looks really fun with Delve, sacrifice effects, Emerge etc. How does it compare to Timely Hordemate? The body is weak enough that you might find yourself trying to find a way to get it killed, so the ideal situation probably is it trades with some x/2. If you go low power enough that the body becomes serviceable it seems like a real card though.

 

[RavebornMuse]

My cube is nowhere close to tribal, but this sounds like it's decent enough off a single activation, and with tokens it's sweet. I don't think I can get away with this card in my cube single it's singleton and it won't be worth drafting around a single copy, but someone here might make use of it.

It really doesn't take multiples or a specific theme to make it good; a 2/1 for is already an acceptable rate being colorless, and if you just pick your most common tribe in your deck, it can generate plenty of value to justify including. I don't think I've left it in the sideboard once, although I do have a surprising amount of tribal connections to make. It pairs so nicely with token producers and there's common tribes running through each color; I have a hard time thinking of a lower-powered environ where this isn't interesting enough to give a spin.

This looks really fun with Delve, sacrifice effects, Emerge etc. How does it compare to Timely Hordemate? The body is weak enough that you might find yourself trying to find a way to get it killed, so the ideal situation probably is it trades with some x/2. If you go low power enough that the body becomes serviceable it seems like a real card though.

The only thing really holding this back is that it forces players to keep their graveyard in order, which is extremely unpleasant if you're already running things with flashback/delve. If your playgroup is highly-skilled and "old school" I could see this being worth an include, but the fun factor isn't high enough to justify the added frustration of keeping a graveyard ordered for most groups imho

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Agree with RBM. Even if you just name your 3-drop's creature type, the Mimic is still worth it, though it obviously gets better with more tribal support.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Can we talk about



I kind of like this as an aggressive card that works for all colour pairings, and is evasive. But my magic senses can't get over how low powered it feels. Onderzeboot, I see that you play it, what's your experiences with it?

 

[GalacticTraveler12]

This card looks like a blast. Rebuy removal or a threat, prevent your opponent from topdecking an answer, or cast it in response to your opponent's Scavenge or Embalm. Plus, incidental Storm/Prowess support.

 

[ahadabans]

Yup. Noxious Revival is very good. Especially in Izzet Spells matters list. Phyrexian mana as it turns out is sort of like fast mana - sort of degenerate. Staple a good effect on it - particularly costed so that you can side skirt the color pie, and you've got a pretty useful card. I believe regrowth effects are generally better in combo/high powered lists (where specific cards end up being very key to strategies and/or the power gap is very large just in general). So YMMV. This might not be worth a card in a very midrange flat power type of cube list (regrowth probably isn't great there either FWIW).

 

[GalacticTraveler12]

I actually really like that it's card disadvantage. As basically a 0 mana instant, it offers unparalleled versatility, and that has to come at a cost. Card quality, rather than quantity, is especially important in slower formats, where topdeck wars are a danger, so I think this has a place at a low power level.

Plus, all the corner cases, and gauging the correct time to use it, makes it pretty high on the list of Spikiest cards (although Lim-Dul's Vault takes the cake there).

 

[ahadabans]

That's fair. I don't have extensive play with it to be fair. I really like the design though.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Can we talk about



I kind of like this as an aggressive card that works for all colour pairings, and is evasive. But my magic senses can't get over how low powered it feels. Onderzeboot, I see that you play it, what's your experiences with it?

Onderzeboot, why have you forsaken me?

Thanks for the reminder about noxious revival. I like being able to bleed effects into colourless as I think it enables more consistency and creative decks. See also pyrexian metamorph.

Heres some bonus content



Was looking for more fight cards to go with ripjaw raptor and ranging raptors and remembered this. Seems dorky, but works with auriok salvagers, Trinket Mage and other artifact synergy. Might give it a whirl.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Can we talk about



I kind of like this as an aggressive card that works for all colour pairings, and is evasive. But my magic senses can't get over how low powered it feels. Onderzeboot, I see that you play it, what's your experiences with it?

I haven't forsaken you! I was just a little slow

I feel that red aggro decks would pick up a 3/2 haste, flying for if it came up in a booster, simply because it is a consistent source of evasive damage with immediate impact, but somehow people consistently disregard Snare Thopter. Like, the direct comparisons are Mirri the Cursed, Mantis Rider, Lightning Angel, and Sewn-Eye Drake, which are all color-intensive but playable cards. The fact that it's colorless makes it a very flexible slot for multiple decks, and it being an artifact carries additional perks as well (besides the obvious artifact synergy (think Thopter Spy Network), there's also delirium). It does usually get picked up late, but it also makes the maindeck often enough that I'm not close to cutting it.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

You're a good egg.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Wait, is that what his avatar is supposed to be?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Wait, 8s that what his avatar is supposed to be?

What, my avatar?

 

[Chris Taylor]

What, my avatar?

Nah the other good egg in this thread

(Yes)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

It's a crescent moon in a Celtic knot pattern that I colored myself a long, long time ago. I still like the pattern, so it survived all these years as my go to Avatar

 

[ravnic]

This card looks like a blast. Rebuy removal or a threat, prevent your opponent from topdecking an answer, or cast it in response to your opponent's Scavenge or Embalm. Plus, incidental Storm/Prowess support.

But you can't respond by putting the scavange/embalm card back, because the exiling is a cost. Revival would fizzle.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I think it's just an illegal action. Priority is passed after you pay the cost of exiling the card, so the opponent never gets the chance to target the embalmed card.

Does look like a pretty nice techy card. I'm kind of intruiged by this idea of grave tutoring in selfmill decks (mill a large portion of your library to turn recursion into tutoring). Noxious revival seems really nice since it targets any card at instant speed? Too bad it's not to the hand but that would've probably been nuts.

 

[GalacticTraveler12]

But you can't respond by putting the scavange/embalm card back, because the exiling is a cost.

Shh

Yeah my mistake. I still like the idea of using it as impromptu graveyard hate, maybe to prevent a reanimation spell or to delay them recovering a key card off Mnemonic Wall.

 

[sigh]

Revival is really flexible and tech, card is cool.

Think there's like a 90% chance you can just put this in the section, right? Any deck can use it, and it might even be more useful in some non-G decks (UR, UB, etc)

 

[RavebornMuse]

Was looking for some lower-powered green beaters and thought I'd share the ones that stuck out for anyone else in the market for them. Kind of surprised Ursapine hasn't been mentioned once in this site's history! Seems like an interesting on-board combat trick that looks nasty in token decks, but I recognize it's still rather low power.

 

[Peter LaCara]

There is no universe where I would describe Ant Queen as “lower powered.” I have a couple friends with traditional power max cubes and Ant Queen makes the cut in both of them. Granted, you can generate stupid amounts of mana to really abuse it in those environments (Gaea’s Cradle, anyone?), but even in a lower powered environment if you ever untap with it she gets out of hand fast.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Ursapine is super cool. If they don't have removal, combat becomes atrocious for your opponent.

 

[Dom Harvey]

My instinct is that these abilities cost too much to do anything with, but I can imagine some fun stuff with Izzet Guildmage + Ancestral Vision/Firestorm or similar. Has anyone tried these?

 

[japahn]

I realized I have lots of ways to pay life or damage myself and this might be a fun workaround without any other additions. Spellskite with it is an amazing combo - both it lets you go directly to 1 life from any odd life total and protects you from instant burn to face (as long as it's versatile burn that can hit Spellskite).