General [WAR] War of the Spark

Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

I'm not sure that card is actually worse. Flying means you can cast am equipment, get the bonus, whiff on your next drafts and still get in for a ton of damage? I think it might be better actually.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Rasmus Källqvist said:
I'm not sure that card is actually worse. Flying means you can cast am equipment, get the bonus, whiff on your next drafts and still get in for a ton of damage? I think it might be better actually.
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I think it's worse at being Elusive Spellfist than Elusive Spellfist. It might be better in certain strategies, but I think the ability to be blocked by random 1/1 spirits and 1/2 spiders means that it will be worse in more dedicated spells decks. I also think the -1 toughness means that it dies to a lot more things. Being able to die to a disfigure, Firebolt, or unkicked burst lightning seems like a pretty big downside over Fisty Shades of Grey.

I see what you are saying though. It is better when your opponent can't effectively block or deal with it, as the upside with equipment is quite real on this card. It's a Storm Crow with Upside.

#StormCrowCore2020
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

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Velrun said:
Yeah it really, really is.

Can you see any cube card among those?
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It depends a lot on the power level of your cube, I'ld say. You have a fresh legendary theme in {G/W} that Blackblade Reforged will be very good in, though! Gideon Jura also is a very strong planeswalker for cube, I actually had to cut it from mine for power level reaosns. Path to Exile is another obvious one, but one that requires you to accept efficient removal as part of your cube (once again, not my cube). Shielded by Faith is a fun card that might work in a cube running a heroic theme. Finally, I could see Worship working in certain cubes that run sticky creatures.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

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I really like Bleeding Edge as a removal spell and a dude. It's like a less annoying Ravenous Chupacabra!
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Been testing a bit...

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This card is okay. Either you play it early and the proliferate doesn't do much, if anything at all, or you play it late, and the body doesn't do much.

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This card is very good. Like Thrummingbird, but in a much better color for the effect.

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This card is busted.

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This card is a great answer to Vengevine!

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This card runs away with games.

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This is a surprisingly solid combat trick. I have happily run Reap What Is Sown in the past, and this is better in every way, unless you specifically run a heroic theme (which I don't).
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

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Velrun said:
Was Sorin as horrible to play with/against as you had guessed?
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Honestly, pretty much, yes. I mean, I wanted to try him out because I was obviously the greatest doomsayer as to the new Sorin, but he ran away with games as I initially expected. In one game I was board stalling, without being able to attack, because I was at a really low life total. And then I drew Sorin, and all of a sudden I was able to swing in with some big guy, gained a bunch of life, plussed Sorin for another life, and then was able to minus him to bring back a flyer next turn. Never was in danger after that draw. I wouldn't say Sorin was horrible to play against, maybe, he does do some interesting things, but it was pretty much a hopeless game for my opponent whenever I drew him with any semblance of a board state.
 
Velrun

Velrun

I would give Sorin a + point for breaking board stalls like that! :)

But it might still have felt unfair for the opponent.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

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Velrun said:
I would give Sorin a + point for breaking board stalls like that! :)

But it might still have felt unfair for the opponent.
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I was testing against AI opponents, so you know they're not as good as a human across the table. Still, games like these do let me get a feel for how powerful a card can be. I think Sorin can certainly be a good options for a cube like yours, it's pretty fun to play with. I'm just worried that, in my cube at least, it's no fun playing against it :)
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

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Part two:

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Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome card! I am pretty sure this is finally, finally the card to convince me to cut one of those two Young Pyromancers in my cube!

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Magic 8-ball says: Ask again later. I had no way to pump him, so all he was doing was getting back cantrips. Not bad, but not great either in this deck.

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This was, unsurprisingly maybe, a very good source of card advantage. Needs to be dealt with stat, but Lava Axes your opponent (at the very least) if they do so. That's 5 damage not going at you, by the way, for a 10-point life swing! Might replace Daretti, Scrap Savant in my cube? Maybe? I think I will have to test some more to see if this isn't too swingy!
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

What I'm looking at:

Definitely Including:
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Including if I open:
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Definitely Testing:
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Testing if I open:
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Testing all three- Including a maximum of one:
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This set had a very high power level, especially in comparison to what we were getting even just over a year ago. What I like about most of the cards in this set is that they can be applied to environments of many different power levels, without necessarily being oppressive or unfun. I've been reading what some of the people with higher-powered environments over at MTGS have been saying about this set for a project I'm working on, and even many of them seem to like this set. Interestingly enough, they haven't been super high on some of the cards which I'm not going to test or include for being too good, such as Liliana, Dreadhorde General.

I was expecting this set wouldn't really be for us. Although many of the cards here were clearly designed with commander in mind, I think much of the "limited goodstuff" is going to be cubeable.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

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Some more testing...

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This card was cool and felt pretty balanced! That static ability did some work in my test matches, and building around the minus is pretty fun (I used it to splash blue in my {W/B} deck by sideboarding a Gilded Lotus and a Sharuum the Hegemon).

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This card is indeed the good replacement for Gideon's Lawkeeper I expected it to be. Fine if low profile inclusion.

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This card is pretty disgusting. Drew it a few times in the late game, where sacrificing 4 permanents for four cards is just peachy. The god clause didn't come into play a single time, turns out a 5/6 menace is pretty hard to deal with when you're refilling your hand with removal...

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This card feels less back-breaking than the Tragic Arrogance that's currently in my cube, and it also has the interesting "symmetrical" Cease-Fire effect that you can build around. This into The Immortal Sun would be pretty gross, for example :)

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This card is one of the too many five drops I was trying out in my control deck! Ob Nixilis overperformed though. Still not sure it should actually be in my cube, but I do like the card's effects. In this control deck it was mainly a removal tool and a slow clock while I controlled the board. In a more aggressive token strategy it can be card draw (Hidden Stockpile doesn't mind trading a Servo for two cards, for example) plus a bit of reach at the top end. I do want to test this card more!

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This card is utterly stupid, don't run it. I was running it in the wrong deck, basically, and it still was an auto-win button. If you're into effects that let your players go alpha without fear of retaliation, by all means, try this out, but I predict this is the single most aggravating card you will encounter at your War of the Spark prerelease, because you will lose to it, and there's next to nothing you can do about it.

I also re-tested some cards in this list:
Ob Nixilis's Cruelty: I really like this removal card. I've got some sticky threats in my cube, and this deals with those in a wonderful way.
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord: This was not as good in the control deck I drafted as in my previous {W/B} weenie build, but still did some work. Definitely not the powerhouse it was in my previous experience, so Sorin's definitely isn't a generic all star. I did get to bring back a Nekrataal twice with this in one of the games, which was kinda filthy.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Onderzeeboot said:
Some more testing...
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This card is utterly stupid, don't run it. I was running it in the wrong deck, basically, and it still was an auto-win button. If you're into effects that let your players go alpha without fear of retaliation, by all means, try this out, but I predict this is the single most aggravating card you will encounter at your War of the Spark prerelease, because you will lose to it, and there's next to nothing you can do about it.
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-Rally of Wings has entered the chat-


All jokes aside, this card looks so un-fun and swingy that I'm surprised they printed it. This seems like the type of card play design would weed out after your first day of limited play testing- yeesh.

I'm kind of considering adding a post-demonization Ob Nixilis planeswalker to my cube because he looks so freaking cool. I'm pretty sure the WAR one is too week for me, but Ob Nixilis Reignited seems a bit too good. I'm not sure.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

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TrainmasterGT said:
I'm kind of considering adding a post-demonization Ob Nixilis planeswalker to my cube because he looks so freaking cool. I'm pretty sure the WAR one is too week for me, but Ob Nixilis Reignited seems a bit too good. I'm not sure.
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I've cubed with Ob Nixilis Reignited, and he's a lot fairer than you'ld think! I cut him more to make space in black and because I was already running Liliana of the Veil (which I've since cut as well, for other reasons) and I wanted to reign in the number of walkers a bit, and because I was adding Phyrexian Arena together with Zur the Enchanter.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Onderzeeboot said:
I've cubed with Ob Nixilis Reignited, and he's a lot fairer than you'ld think! I cut him more to make space in black and because I was already running Liliana of the Veil (which I've since cut as well, for other reasons) and I wanted to reign in the number of walkers a bit, and because I was adding Phyrexian Arena together with Zur the Enchanter.
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What was your power level when you ran Ob Nixilis Reignited? When I do my rebuild, I want it to be a little bit more powerful than your list right now. If you weren't having problems with Ob at your current power, then I don't think I will either.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

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TrainmasterGT said:
What was your power level when you ran Ob Nixilis Reignited? When I do my rebuild, I want it to be a little bit more powerful than your list right now. If you weren't having problems with Ob at your current power, then I don't think I will either.
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I'ld say it was a little bit more powerful than my current list, mainly because I played more walkers and my top end creatures were more powerful.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Continuing my playtest...

I really wish Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord didn't grant lifelink to everything on your turn, because other than that he's great.

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This card is a great removal spell! This is going to replace Vindicate in my cube, which has been a bit annoying because of the random land destruction mode that sometimes leads to random game non-games (especially when the victim plays bouncelands in their list). Also, it exiles, which felt great when my opponent dropped a Genesis ;)

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This card proves that Lightning Helix would have been really solid at three mana and sorcery speed! The static ability isn't going to do all that much in my cube, probably, but the legendary rider is!
 
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