Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
was this term coined on this forum? for some reason i thought it was actually common magic vernacular but after seeing this question asked twice in the last month, i'm realizing it might be a Waddell-ism
 
So FNM is tomorrow and I've been testing like a maniac these last few days. Wanted to report back on Temur Sabertooth.

It's... ok. I got a shriekmaw removal engine going with it. But the return to hand cost is actually pretty high, and the 3 toughness on this thing is a real liability when you can't go indestructible mode. I'm slightly disappointed truth be told, but I'm keeping it in because I really think a lot of guys will see it and want to try to abuse it. I see a ton of really cool potential there. Like returning BBE back to your hand to continually reuse him and still swing with it. It came in for Oracle of Mul Daya, and while oracle is the more powerful card, it can sometimes piss me off when I continually whiff on lands and it just sits there telling my opponent what I'm playing while being this useless 2/2 elf. Other times, it's Future Sight and Exploration rolled into one and just incredibly valuable. So I don't know. I'm conflicted.
 

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
i agree, Oracle of Mul Daya is really swingy without the package of nine Brainstorms that's common around here - sometimes you play a 17 or 18 land deck and can't reveal a land to save your life, then next week your opponent runs it with 16 lands and is drawing two free cards a turn. ever since Courser of Kruphix has been out though i've been more than happy to cut Oracle for other four drops with unique effects
 
Yup. I've won my fair share of games with Oracle by luck sacking a bunch of lands. And then there was a game yesterday where I dropped him and then a Dakra Mystic got played against me and is was all down hill from there.

Speaking of Dakra Mystic... that card is actually pretty cool. It's a little on the durdly side, but I quite like it. I don't know if this goes in a really fast or high power cube, but in my cube it's a card I'm not unhappy to see in my opening hand. Even as a top deck it's not awful since the next turn you can get two cards instead of one.

It's kind of hard to use correctly (by that I mean when to use the ability and when not to), which is something I really like about it. You have to think about what you can do on your turn and if losing one mana will hamper you too much. Early in the game, this little guy is often a very good use of a single blue mana though as it can really control the game by dumping cards your opponent wants or mana hosing them potentially or just getting you an extra card (which again you only take if it helps you more than them so it's better than a howling mine effect).

You know, funny thing about the mana hosing scenario. This is a LOT more effective than you might think at least in casual circles, because guys very often talk a lot when they play. And one thing everyone jokes about is getting mana hosed. So you often know if dumping a revealed land is going to be a good play or not simply because last turn they flipped their draw card while saying "come on... land! Fuck!".
 
Guys, I think we are a cycling, evoke or exploit set away from this but I feel like many if you nerds (especially those who love land death themes as much as I do) might be on the verge of revisiting this bad boy:



I'll remind you hard we go on GY and attrition based strategies, we want to mitigate the potency of efficient 1for1 trades and how we are excited to give red and green more access to disruption without making land destruction too back breaking.

Golly I love shriekmaw, mulldrifter and Gy combo decks. Like recursion is so much more satisfying in singletonish formats.
 
Guys, I think we are a cycling, evoke or exploit set away from this but I feel like many if you nerds (especially those who love land death themes as much as I do) might be on the verge of revisiting this bad boy:



I'll remind you hard we go on GY and attrition based strategies, we want to mitigate the potency of efficient 1for1 trades and how we are excited to give red and green more access to disruption without making land destruction too back breaking.

Golly I love shriekmaw, mulldrifter and Gy combo decks. Like recursion is so much more satisfying in singletonish formats.


I just put my copy in the on-deck pile a few days ago! I'll make it part of my origins patch i think.

I like that of the cards like it it's the strongest, and the cheapest, and I think it might already be okay, or will with Origins. Regrowth is a great card, and was even once restricted; I've cast Eternal Witness for a fetchland before and been fine with the exchange, and situationally this is pretty bonkers. imagine rebuying quicksand, or even cephalid colosseum! Plus a creature.

What about comparing it with (running it with) Restore? I remember it was one of the cards WOTC tried to push a little for eternal formats but nothing ever came of it. I'm more excited about Grim Discovery than Restore, which I think bodes well. LD doesn't really do a lot more than destroy lands; if it could allow you to steal them too it might be more versatile late-game.
 
Omg guys, I lost a great (if beer fueled) post about recursion vs fresh card advantage to page reloading and if I can't remember it when this bus gets me home I'll make a note document about it for tomorrow lol.

Honestly recursion is way more fun to draft around in our curated formats and it only gets out of hand with some effort, it's not like trading to get rid of your two drop and then getting it back 2-3 turns later is overwhelming the way being ahead on cards is when you haven't necessarily experienced significant loses is.

Like if I win the game because I got shit back from my compulsive research with my crucible or discovery I'll be prouder than I am ashamed like despite most in game advantages.
 

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Anyone play with this, is it any good?



I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of a bouncland + cycling land, and invasion sac. land based mana base.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I think the consensus of those who did was that it was ultimately shy of being good enough. It's just too inefficient at four mana.
 
I feel like, like, I wana use my valley girl thing here, more than other places?
But like, honestly, I feel like it might be getting less cute than it is totes annoysville.
Sorry fam (omg im so sorry did I say that?)


I feel like anything I can do to improve the stock of this card in a variety of decks (especially green and white decks) will be worth while.
I think the consensus of those who did was that it was ultimately shy of being good enough. It's just too inefficient at four mana.

maybe at 1B?
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Guys, I think we are a cycling, evoke or exploit set away from this but I feel like many if you nerds (especially those who love land death themes as much as I do) might be on the verge of revisiting this bad boy:



I'll remind you hard we go on GY and attrition based strategies, we want to mitigate the potency of efficient 1for1 trades and how we are excited to give red and green more access to disruption without making land destruction too back breaking.

Golly I love shriekmaw, mulldrifter and Gy combo decks. Like recursion is so much more satisfying in singletonish formats.

I think I ran this in E-Domain and it was fine, it's not really a "game winner" by any means, but can be an acceptable value card. I can't recall, did it see any play during Zendikar Standard?
 
?

I'm looking at bolstering white's enchantment count a bit for completely arbitrary reasons (I'm a creature of inexorable whims), and I stumbled across this ol' beauty. Blanks one removal spell of your choice for 2 mana, or turns your Wrath of God into a mean parody of Day of Reckoning - but is it actually any use? I'm having a hard time seeing this ever being a disappointing pick since removal is pretty generous over here, but I'm not sure if it's just too boring.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
?

I'm looking at bolstering white's enchantment count a bit for completely arbitrary reasons (I'm a creature of inexorable whims), and I stumbled across this ol' beauty. Blanks one removal spell of your choice for 2 mana, or turns your Wrath of God into a mean parody of Day of Reckoning - but is it actually any use? I'm having a hard time seeing this ever being a disappointing pick since removal is pretty generous over here, but I'm not sure if it's just too boring.


 
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