Recent content by shamizy

Still a dumb card when it can get going, but I don't think it's nearly as problematic nowadays with how much bigger creatures are at lower CMC and how much more efficient removal has become. The real issue is how boring it is to play with. The window for interaction before it locks up a game has...

Rat King Verminister Ravenous Robots Casey Jones, Vigilante Chrome Dome Technodrome Nothing's really changed since spoiler season for me with these 5 cards being on my shortlist for inclusion. These all could be Magic cards; there isn't enough turtle stuff present to really turn me off to them...

The flipside would be getting overrun by a pile of goodstuff that can splash without worry which is the issue with high powered environments an increasingly splashier cards alongside great fixing options. I just don't think that there should be nonzero cost to a super greedy mana-base in most...

I think Wasteland and W&6 is fine; there should be some cost to playing too greedy a manabase when you're already running the greatest hits of Magic in most Cube environments. Strip Mine is a step too far, but you can play around Wasteland recursion with sequencing at least.

As long as a base version exists to explain the finer details, I'm in favor of the alternates making concessions for aesthetic purposes. For example, base set Sedgemoor Witch with Ward reminder text vs. a cleaner Extended Art:

I actually cut Young Pyromancer a while back which was hard due to nostalgia, but the limitations to instants and sorceries just became more of an issue over time. It's really difficult to hit that critical mass in a draft format unless you absolutely get the nuts like you could in Constructed...

If anyone is interested, Patrick Chapin is kickstarting his next Magic book diving into a bunch of stuff regarding Magic history and theory and design. It just reached a milestone that will lead to a chapter on Cube being included. He was away from Magic for a while but it looks like he's very...

I'm likely out on anything that references a Mutagen token since it's going to be a set specific token and not evergreen like Clues or Treasures, but there are a number of cool designs I'm interested in trying out from what we've seen: These could all just be Magic cards; there isn't...

I've been running Siege Veteran for years and while this is probably an upgrade, I think that card is just cleaner to play with. Not really feeling the flavor text of this one. Two +1/+1 counters is pretty pushed, did they really need to upgrade that ability so highly? Guess it really depends on...

This set will very much come down to art for me. If it isn't so egregious or cartoon-y that it feels overwhelming then I'm down to include whatever as long as it improves the gameplay and/or fills a need. This also extends to regular Magic cards; not a fan of any of the team-up cards they...

My friends and I did a prerelease at home with kits from the store and playing some round robin between us over the weekend. I ended up with a decent pool that was able to put together a solid Abzan Kithkin deck: Twos 1 Surly Farrier 1 Great Forest Druid 1 Feisty Spikeling 1 Thoughtweft...

It's a small list for inclusion, but I could see all of these sticking around for a long time to come: We already had the discussion about Moonshadow and the various ways you could consistently turn this into a threat, but this is probably my favorite card spoiled from the entire set. I loved...

The new Evoke cycle of elementals is pretty sweet, Vibrance and Wistfulness are both definitely getting runs in my environment. Love all the effects available to both of them. Great time to bring in the combo of: Nissa, Resurgent Animist Up The Beanstalk For Nissa, Resurgent Animist...

I'm reworking a slight self-discard archetype into my environment and Moon Shadow is a straight banger for it: I don't really like -1/-1 counters in general for an environment that has +1/+1 counters, but I think this synergizes with enough things that it might be worth inclusion. I'm...

I'm not sure if you can reach the critical mass with interactivity in green at a higher power level outside of certain Constructed formats so I think the best option is to focus on what should define a given G/x deck within your environment. For myself a mono-green deck should still be looking...