Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight



Is anyone cubing this card?
What does it take to make it tick?
Are there sweet synergies beyond Genesis Chamber?
I'm likely to add it to whatever my next iteration is. It's a 3 mana rock for Eldrazi that has a higher ceiling. I don't think you need much synergy beyond a decent artifact density. If it adds 1, fine. If it adds 2+, great.
 
But a 3 mana colorless mana rock with downside is still a somewhat shitty floor, even for lower powered environments. I guess you would want nonartifact cards that make treasure/clue/food/blood tokens?
 
Started a new cube project. I already wrote down possible signpost gold cards where I choose from later. First, I'm going to determine my creature 2 drops since that's one of the most important slots in drafting, from then I'm choosing which 3drops will make the cut (another important slot), then 1drops et cetera

Here are some 2drops I never played with before so I wanted to ask if someone could share their experience, that would be really nice. :) I'm having a low/mid powerlevel in mind




Also how do people like patchwork crawler and battlewing mystic?
 
First, I'm going to determine my creature 2 drops since that's one of the most important slots in drafting, from then I'm choosing which 3drops will make the cut (another important slot), then 1drops et cetera
Woooow that's a nice very "scientific" way to do cube-building, probably it's a trivial thing but I have never thought of it that way. Now I feel the urge to build a cube from scratch with this strategy ahah.

Btw, of these 2-drops I have drafted only DMU, WOE and STX so my opinions on those:

Benalish Faithbonder is kinda meh, the enlist ability to me always felt like an almost-miss since the thing you really want it to work with (tapping creatures with summoning sickness) is prohibited as a special case from the rules. This is a bit a feel-bad. The faithbonder, in addition, has the additional feel-bad experience that she has vigilance, but the enlisted creature still gets tapped, so... it's another thing that works a bit counterintuitively. But maybe this is all because I don't like enlist as a mechanic.

Ratcatcher Trainee is a great great great card but... I wouldn't really consider it as a 2-drop. In the sense, that I would almost never want to cast it on turn 2, the best play pattern with this is: turn 3 adventure (maybe in eot or even better as a surprise block), and then t4 double spell with the trainee + another 2-drop (a real one). You can surely cast it on turn 2 if you have no other option, but it is steel some lost value...

Bayou Groff, again, not exactly a turn 2 card, like, okay there will be situations in which you curve out (in STX draft the "dream" –with common cards– was Unwilling Ingredient into bayou groff), but most of the times you want to wait to have something almost-worthless to sacrifice before playing the groff. Obviously, it all depends on how many disposable 1-drops you add to the cube. I still like it a lot as a card, and when I see it in a pack I always look for crazy ways to make it pop off. (I even played a witherbloom pest tokens lifegain pauper deck with 4 bayou groffs for some time)
 
I guess you have to start somewhere and since I like my powerband to be quite tight I think this is a good way to start a cube, especially if it's going to be so board-centric, at least that's one of my design goals.

Yeah bayou groff and the trainee aren't real 2 drops, you're right. I searched for cmc2 on scryfall and stumbled over them and got curious, but you're absolutely correct. The rat tokens can't block btw so no instant speed blocking here.

I guess enlist is nothing that I need to add, thank you.
 


I used to dismiss this card because it has the word random on it, but I got pretty desperate looking for the right izzet card here. I wanted something that would be nice in madness and spells matter decks alike. Other cards, like Rielle were so much better with one of these themes that you would never put them in a deck just focused on the other. But Ravings here ... I mean it's card advantage. And maybe the random hurts less when you either want to discard half your cards anyway OR you are fueling your Tolarian Terrors with it. And Flashback means you can either discard itself or double trigger your Heartfire Immolator.

But since I've never cast this card before, I wanted to hear from you if I'm just crazy.
 
The card saw play in triple innistrad. Still, I think there is more than enough other looting/sifting in blue and red that you don't need to use this card. If you want it to be an instant there are



If you wish the card to be an izzet signpost signaling madness as well as spellslinger it's a bit harder though. Personally, I find faithless salvaging to be a great signal for both in red.
 
If you wish the card to be an izzet signpost signaling madness as well as spellslinger it's a bit harder though.

That is exactly the problem. I just run one gold card per guild, which has many advantages for me, and I would like to have both major themes be represented by one card. Sometimes there are great fits, like Maja, Bretagard Protector for tokens and landfall in GW, but other guilds are a bit more difficult.
 
Because they are so committing in a draft. I have 4 hybrids per guild, which also in some cases representing themes, but they also go in more decks, including mono color, which I support. Honestly, I've been loving the low gold numbers in conjunction with many colorless and hybrid cards and I would've gone down to zero if it wasn't for ... Psychatog, essentially. maybe I should just pick some cards that all spark joy and no longer bother with whether they support themes.
 


Is anyone cubing this card?
What does it take to make it tick?
Are there sweet synergies beyond Genesis Chamber?

We've been on it for a while! It's a little tricky deckbuilding-wise, since it wants you to have a bunch of artifacts AND a bunch of spells which are not artifacts to cast with it. I have a lot of Thopters and Clues in my environment, so when it hums it sings. But I have had people build an "artifact deck" and then be bummed out not to cast their Torrential Gearhulk or Staff of Nin with it.

I should also not that while I always look at this card and see a cheat/ramp piece, it's also good at just letting you double-spell (e.g., casting Whirler Rogue and then a Thirst for Knowledge or something). And while it does actually nothing if you only have artifacts in hand, its typical floor is just "mana rock", which is ok.
 


Could this card maybe actually be a cool build around in a more fair environment? Discard it for value, then have some saccing going on an make a couple zombies before it goes away. Pretty good deal for 0 mana. Every now and then ot might pop and make like 5+ bodies for a real game changer, but it also requires some set up so that's unlikely to be too strong overall.
 
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