Sets (VOW) Crimson Vow

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Wow. Priest of Ancient Lore, eat your heart out. If, like me, you don't care as much about the lifegain and want to push Humans a little, I find it hard to imagine how one could do better. I'm loving all of these side grades. It's interesting that this makes aggro a little softer to 1-for-1 removal, which I like a lot as it evens out the matchup spread a bit.
 
A lot of the cards in this set aren't particularly great, and many of the cards with interesting abilities are way overcosted or mostly for multiplayer (I love that in-text citations for new cards work now, thanks @James Stevenson!).

Ulvenwald Oddity maybe doesn't have the most interesting text box in the world (it's certainly void of any words that specify "do thing X with me" à la cards such as Bannerhide Krushok), but it makes up for that by having really solid abilities and cool art and flavor.
See this is exactly why I get puzzled when you call cards like Red Dragon and Ulvenwald Oddity interesting, as opposed to some other choice word like exciting, impressive, compelling, what have you. Oddity is a strong card that probably plays well and is fun to cast, I just wouldn't call it very interesting since it's very forward with what it provides. Not that I'm gravely offended at your word choice or anything. I am however, as a proud Scandinavian, severely offended that you donated the card to Canada.
Wow this is a strong instant for limited, and a strong contender for replacement of Compulsive Research of all things O_o. Even my 2.5 color decks run 9-10 basics usually.
With this, Valorous Stance and Abrade, I am greatly appreciating that some artists who have previously only gotten the chance to flex their art style in showcases actually get to display their works on the regular card frames, and I really hope this is a trend that will increase even more moving forward.

I am still holding out hope for some playable cards that trigger on sunrise/sunset, starting to get pessimistic about my chances even though daybound is still featured.
 
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Can block, check. can trigger more than once per turn, check. Aggressive P/T, check. Zombie tokens can also block lol, check. This is a really solid card!
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor

Hey look, it's zombie Xathid Necromancer! Who was good, but zombies are harder than humans, so grain of salt.

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Okay, 2 mana 3/1, and you can tap it to take 2 and draw a card, then get a 4/3
That's solid! Bonus points if you can give it lifelink, both because the body is a good target for it and the tap ability will gain you two because of its red wording. This translation says "play" rather than "cast" as well, so if that doesn't end up changing, this lets you hit your 3rd land drop more easily.
I like this as a "this card is solid but in combination with other solid cards (Nearheath Pilgrim is where my brain goes for low barrier to entry lifelink but I am an old man)

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Looks like this was real! (now up on the mothership card image gallery)
Man this seems powerful. I'm currently running light up the stage, which is maybe more powerful on average?
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
3/1 is quite a bit more impactful IMO than the 2/2 of Necromancer, offsetting the rarer tribe. And it can still block! ;)

Also off the chains with Gravecrawler good lord
oh 100%, I do like the body better, buuuuut... zombies. Zombies are an issue on a conceptual level.
Here's the scryfall query of every nonblack zombie. There's just shy of 70 in all of magic. IF you can make a deck like this work, it's (mostly) mono black or bust. Even to someone like me who can just print whatever creature types I want, it's REAL hard. (I may be missing something in the query, nonblack instants that make zombie tokens for eg aren't showing up here)

Now FWIW, zombies being mostly limited to black as they are, I'd switched to 4x bloodsoaked champion, which does the same nasty things with Xathrid looping gravecrawlers does with this.
 

Hey look, it's zombie Xathid Necromancer! Who was good, but zombies are harder than humans, so grain of salt.

Voltaic-Visionary-VOW-672.jpg
Voltaic-Berserker-VOW-672.jpg

Okay, 2 mana 3/1, and you can tap it to take 2 and draw a card, then get a 4/3
That's solid! Bonus points if you can give it lifelink, both because the body is a good target for it and the tap ability will gain you two because of its red wording. This translation says "play" rather than "cast" as well, so if that doesn't end up changing, this lets you hit your 3rd land drop more easily.
I like this as a "this card is solid but in combination with other solid cards (Nearheath Pilgrim is where my brain goes for low barrier to entry lifelink but I am an old man)

I love 2 CMC 3/1s. Actually, organic three power is surprisingly rare on red's two drops, even rarer than on black or green if I'm remembering right, and the only ones that I've ever been interested in or cubed with before are, in order of preference:


This is all said with the explicit knowledge that Plated Geopede goes up quite a few tiers the fewer cards and more fetches you run in cube.

I think I like Voltaic Visionary more than most, or all of these? It reminds me of our new friend Falkenrath Pit Fighter for its ability to cash in an early-game aggressive card to dig through your deck for an answer, but instead of sacrificing it, it gets bigger. Wish it didn't require a tap though! On that note, the Visionary also gives me vibes of Generator Servant, which made for some explosive games but also had the 2/1 body ready to go worst case.

Gun to my head, I'd put it around the same level of Stormblood Berserker on this tier-list, which would be right on the cusp of inclusion, since I only am currently running the top two of the cohort. The competition, though, is not with red's two-drops with three power, but rather, with all of red's cards, its two-drops in particular. Considering I still haven't made a cut for Conspiracy Theorist.......
 
oh 100%, I do like the body better, buuuuut... zombies. Zombies are an issue on a conceptual level.
UB zombies is pretty workable. I already run Gisa and Geralf (who make this pretty obnoxious on it's own) and they work just fine.

Now FWIW, zombies being mostly limited to black as they are, I'd switched to 4x bloodsoaked champion, which does the same nasty things with Xathrid looping gravecrawlers does with this.
Gravecrawler does it with this for half the mana ;)
 
Reckless-Impulse-VOW-672.jpg

Looks like this was real! (now up on the mothership card image gallery)
Man this seems powerful. I'm currently running light up the stage, which is maybe more powerful on average?

I think I like this a bit better. It works in non-beatdown decks. For example, I'd like this in {R/G} ramp decks or value-oriented {U/R} spells decks, both which will often play the defensive role for quite some time. And three mana is just a little too much for this effect.

I think I'll cube Reckless Impulse. VOW is becoming a better and better set for me every day now.
 
red gettin treated RIGHT this set, my goodness. the 3/1 for 2 that draws a card and becomes a 4/3 just seems NUTS and i am super happy to get another Light Up the Stage ish effect.
and yeah the UR brain is an easy slam dunk in basically every cube ever
 
6 is pretty dang deep to dig, and this can dig for anything noncreature (nonland), so helps artifact decks, can dig out a PW, etc. And on top of it all its a flier. I like it!
What's interesting is that MID used all "instant or sorcery" triggers, while VOW is using "noncreature." Maybe it's telling for the sets to come (e.g. artifacts in Kamigawa and Brother's War), but either way, hoping to see more noncreature support to help bridge spell and artifact decks. This card is some good archetype glue.
 
See this is exactly why I get puzzled when you call cards like Red Dragon and Ulvenwald Oddity interesting, as opposed to some other choice word like exciting, impressive, compelling, what have you. Oddity is a strong card that probably plays well and is fun to cast, I just wouldn't call it very interesting since it's very forward with what it provides. Not that I'm gravely offended at your word choice or anything.
I mean, most of those words are just synonyms for interesting. I guess I could use a different word but it doesn't really change the meaning at all beyond some small semantic differences. Ulvenwald Oddity looks like it's going to have some really great gameplay patterns and fills a hole that currently can't be filled with a clean card, so it definitely makes sense to highlight especially because people have been dismissing it as boring. I don't think a card needs to have some weird combo/synergy potential to be a card of interest for a set, thematic and gameplay concerns are also pretty important. I think the actual most interesting card in this set right now is probably Dread Fugue, which is appealing because it's a good 1 mana discard spell.

As for Red Dragon, I think that may have just been a bit of hyperbole on my part given the fact that Adventures in the Forgotten Realms was such an underwhelming set. The Dragon was a really clean, reasonant design in an otherwise bland and overly-wordy set. I must have thought it was a worthwhile thing to discuss.

I am however, as a proud Scandinavian, severely offended that you donated the card to Canada.
Scandanavia just got a whole set earlier this year, Canada needs some love too ;).
 
So my base assumption for people on these forums is you live in Scandanavia/Europe somewhere unless I specifically know otherwise. Are you Canadian?

Like no shade if you just really love Canada, don't live there, and think this is super sweet, it just seems like a funny point to zero in on if this is all coming from experience in Civ 6 :p
I'm from the United States, but from a state that's just South of the Canadian border.
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I'm actually closer to Canada than any of the other major US states (unless you want to count Wisconsin as major). Culturally, Minnesota is closer to Canada than a state like Texas or Florida, being known as the state that is overly polite. The primary difference is that Minnesotans are more passive-aggressive than most Canadians.

Now, my interest in Wilfred Laurier definitely comes from Civilization 6, although my respect for the nation of Canada can be drawn back to the Loadingreadyrun sketch "The Canadian" (which is currently unavailable due to some issues with the LRR Youtube channel), as well as the Wierd Al Yankovic song "Canadian Idiot."
As it turns out, good national healthcare, cheaper meds, low crime rates, and Celine Dion are all really great things for a nation to have.

There are other things to like about Canada, but those are the main sources of my interest in the nation.

10/10 country would visit again.
 
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