Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
ravnic said:
Channel is to discard mechanics what kicker is for kicker mechanics. Every other one is a variant on it, like said cycling or bloodrush.
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Yes and no. The thing with kicker is that it was invented first, and they found out "pay extra for an additional effect when you cast this crd" was way too open-ended because they want to do it so often. Channel wasn't the first self discard for an effect ability, cycling was, and there honestly haven't been a whole lot more. They've made more specific cyling (like basic landcycling and wizardcycling), grandeur, reinforce, and transmute (which is basically mana value-cycling), and that's it (madness doesn't count). In some way they made the opposite journey. Though note that grandeur, reinforce, and transmute all were printed after channel. I think the rule of thumb is that you want to keyword it with a specific keyword if you can keep it tight, e.g. "transmute = discard a card to tutor for the same mana value", but if you need to do a wide swath of effects you fall back on the broader keyword.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Yeah, and channel is, unlike kicker, not even a keyword, just an ability word. Therefore there are enough cards that could've been channel but didn't get it.
 
Mown

Mown

Channel used to have a pretty strong mechanical identity in original Kamigawa of giving an instant-spell version of the creature's in-play ability, but half of the channel cards in neo-kamigawa just do something thematically related to the card, so now it's pretty much a superset of every discard keyword.
 
ravnic

ravnic

I like it, but it looks so akward next to Drake Haven, which isn't just better but also in a much better color and it also only triggers from your discards, which, I assume prevents akward situations for the opponent.
 
K

Karshtakavaar

ravnic said:
I like it, but it looks so akward next to Drake Haven, which isn't just better but also in a much better color and it also only triggers from your discards, which, I assume prevents akward situations for the opponent.
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The "Awkward situation for opponent" is the entire reason it still sees any play in my cube, tbh.
 
ravnic

ravnic



Is it bonkers to consider this card in a cube where Nantuko Husk fulfills a similar role? The alternative I was about to add, however, was Dockside Chef. But I had Braids in some jumpstart games and she was really fun. Mostly, what I want out of this slot, was a sac outlets that bins creatures and artifacts alike.
 
B

blacksmithy

ravnic said:


Is it bonkers to consider this card in a cube where Nantuko Husk fulfills a similar role? The alternative I was about to add, however, was Dockside Chef. But I had Braids in some jumpstart games and she was really fun. Mostly, what I want out of this slot, was a sac outlets that bins creatures and artifacts alike.
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i think Braids is a very fun design, and should perform better, power wise, than the two cards you are currently using as sac outlets
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

blacksmithy said:
i think Braids is a very fun design, and should perform better, power wise, than the two cards you are currently using as sac outlets
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I’m Echoing what you say. The only thing that I would be concerned about is the fact that you can only sac once per turn with this— if that’s not an issue this card is really fun.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Yeah, but my concern wasn't, that she might be not good enough, rather that she would be too good in a Nantuko Husk Cube.
 
B

blacksmithy

Braids is probably in the same tier of sac outlet as… Oni Cult Anvil? like “Standard fringe playable” type of card.

if you like Nantuko Husk and don’t want to see me talk bad about it, skip the spoiler.
Nantuko Husk i may be underestimating but i wouldn’t want it over a french vanilla 3/3 for 3 unless i needed free instant sacs as part of an infinite or at least lethal combo, so i guess it depends how much better you want the sac archetype payoffs to look in your packs?
 
ravnic

ravnic

I assure you, Nantuko Husk is miles better than a three mana 3/3. It is very hard to block due to threat of activation but at the same time becomes a must block once they are at 8-10 life points. They also have a hard time attacking into it. Of course you need some amount of tokens/recurable bodies/threaten effects to make it really pop, but in a cube with a peasant-ish power level, where creature stats aren't outrageous, combat matters and a sac deck is supported, Husk can still be a key card for a winning deck.
 
B

blacksmithy

ravnic said:
I assure you, Nantuko Husk is miles better than a three mana 3/3. It is very hard to block due to threat of activation but at the same time becomes a must block once they are at 8-10 life points. They also have a hard time attacking into it. Of course you need some amount of tokens/recurable bodies/threaten effects to make it really pop, but in a cube with a peasant-ish power level, where creature stats aren't outrageous, combat matters and a sac deck is supported, Husk can still be a key card for a winning deck.
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i understand how Husk works, and i’m not saying i would rather have a textless 3/3 over it. i’m saying i would rather have Grimdancer or equivalent over it.
 
ravnic

ravnic



How powerful is this guy? I like that he connects the selfmill and sacrifice themes that can found in these colors. But free regeneration makes me a little anxious. So I would like to know how oppressive he is when a deck can't remove him, how easily/fast he can swing a game and how good he is in general.

As I only run one gold card per guild, I like that one to be juicy, so maybe he'd fit better than Nyx Weaver alongside cards like Tatyova, Benthic Druid or Psychatog?
 
landofMordor

landofMordor

Administrator
I think he's worse than Lotleth Troll, which I'd be much more concerned about r.e. regeneration. Troll sucks. Varolz, by contrast, is at least allowing your opponent to trade their attacker for your worst creature. Sure, it's free, but eventually you'll run out of creatures to sacrifice to him.

But, on the other hand, why risk it? selfmill and sacrificey stuff are literally BG's most common draft themes. Skyfisher Spider is one example of a BG card that does those things and is also powerful in a way that won't go sour as easily. I could also see Izoni or Charnel Troll or even Uurg fulfilling similar roles.

https://scryfall.com/search?q=id=bg+(o:sacrifice+OR+o:dies)+o:graveyard
 
ravnic

ravnic

landofMordor said:
I think he's worse than Lotleth Troll, which I'd be much more concerned about r.e. regeneration. Troll sucks. Varolz, by contrast, is at least allowing your opponent to trade their attacker for your worst creature. Sure, it's free, but eventually you'll run out of creatures to sacrifice to him.

But, on the other hand, why risk it? selfmill and sacrificey stuff are literally BG's most common draft themes. Skyfisher Spider is one example of a BG card that does those things and is also powerful in a way that won't go sour as easily. I could also see Izoni or Charnel Troll or even Uurg fulfilling similar roles.

https://scryfall.com/search?q=id=bg+(o:sacrifice+OR+o:dies)+o:graveyard
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Omg, you are a master of scryfall search. It never occured to me, that I could look for (A or B) + C ...
That being said, Charnel Troll and Uurg don't really fulfil the same roll, primarily they don't give you a sac outlet. And I don't like Skyfisher Spiders design, the lifegain ability feels randomly tacked on and isn't a sufficient payoff for dredging a bunch. Izoni is cool though, I could certainly imagine her in that spot.

However, I am gonna test the 3-drop first, since Teklazars and blacksmithys (!) posts about how clunky he is give me confidence he won't be that much of a power outlier in my environment :D
 
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