Sets (TDM & TDC) Tarkir: Dragonstorm Testing/Includes Thread!

[inscho]

Anyone have success with Cori-Steel Cutter yet in their cubes?



I see it making waves in just about every Constructed format where it's clearly very powerful, interested in seeing what kind of cube lists can benefit the most from it before picking up a copy in the next week or two.

Not yet, but I’ve been trying to decide what to cut for it for a couple of weeks lol

 

[Nanonox]

Not yet, but I’ve been trying to decide what to cut for it for a couple of weeks lol

This! I’ve been toying with cutting Rabbit battery. They don’t necessarily go into the same decks, but I haven’t found my Red artifact decks really needing it (I like the card don’t get me wrong).

You keep your equipment count up, you still have a haste enabler and now you get a token maker.

 

[wahoopride]

@Nanonox (or anyone who has an opinion), is Aligned Heart really lower power than Monastery Mentor?

I guess over the course of a game you are probably less likely to create fewer monks with the enchantment. But in my cube it’s a lot harder for the opponent to interact with enchantments than a 2 toughness creature who is susceptible to basically every piece of removal except dark blast. And actually it can’t even really avoid dark blast if you use the right tech

 

[ravnic]

I've been cubing a little bit now with Aligned Heart and it has been ... fine. It sometimes has it's high notes, but triggering from double spelling on a three drop is not trivial – best outcome so far was a game where someone got five monks from a trigger.

The biggest downside is probably, that it gets rapidly worse later in the game. Where Monastery Mentor is still a 2/2 prowess guy and also triggers when you just topdeck one noncreature spell, you need a little more to trigger the enchantment in the later stages of the game, like card draw or adventure creatures.

Take all that with a grain of salt, pretty limited experience here still.

 

[wahoopride]

I've been cubing a little bit now with Aligned Heart and it has been ... fine. It sometimes has it's high notes, but triggering from double spelling on a three drop is not trivial – best outcome so far was a game where someone got five monks from a trigger.

The biggest downside is probably, that it gets rapidly worse later in the game. Where Monastery Mentor is still a 2/2 prowess guy and also triggers when you just topdeck one noncreature spell, you need a little more to trigger the enchantment in the later stages of the game, like card draw or adventure creatures.

Take all that with a grain of salt, pretty limited experience here still.

Thanks for the insight. So is your feeling that Aligned Heart is a better, less busted, fit for the spells matters archetype in white? Or is Aligned Heart too underwhelming?

 

[ravnic]

I think for mid/lower power level cubes, it is the fourth or fifth most fitting payoff for casting noncreature spells specifically. But it's tough to say how strong it really is imo.

The top three are pretty clear to me, although I could see an argument for switching 1 and 2.

1. Seeker of the Way
2. Myth Realized
3. Ojutai Exemplars

Then you have Aligned Heart and Rally the Monastery that make tokens that trigger of noncreature spells and I chose the enchantment because I don't like the "kill a big thing for cheap" removal effect.

I can't say much to the other flurry and magecraft cards in white, as I try to really focus on noncreature spells. I want my payoffs to trigger from Barbed Spike and Niveous Wisp.

 

[Nanonox]

The fact that Heart is capped to once per turn limits how high the ceiling can be. So if you have a bunch of zeros and free spells, Mentor is stronger. Being a creature with mana < 3 also means you can Unearth it (and all the similar effects in White).

That said, Heart is still good IMO and let’s you have fun with proliferate effects.

I’ll add Builder’s Talent for mid powered cubes. It’s pretty limited with what works with it, but it can really pop off with all the various artifact tokens.

For a stronger noncreature payoff, Summon: Good King Moogle XII is really good! Lifelink on both him and his tokens helps stabilize. Your opponent can mess up your plans for sure, but you can also go nuts with some spicy tokens too.

 

[ravnic]

Fwiw, I think Summon: Good King Mog XII is above what I call lower/mid power personally. It's a 4/4 lifelink flier for two attacks/three blocks, and it leaves behind up to 8/12 worth of stats – with lifelink too. And potentially even more, if you happen to have some large tokens laying around.

 

[Nanonox]

100% agree that’s why I said for a stronger payoff. But I see how people would interpret that as stronger for mid power. My bad!

 

[safra]

in

@Nanonox (or anyone who has an opinion), is Aligned Heart really lower power than Monastery Mentor?

I guess over the course of a game you are probably less likely to create fewer monks with the enchantment. But in my cube it’s a lot harder for the opponent to interact with enchantments than a 2 toughness creature who is susceptible to basically every piece of removal except dark blast. And actually it can’t even really avoid dark blast if you use the right tech

in even higher powered formats one of the strongest things Monastery Mentor does is land on the board, get protected by a free counterspell (make a monk), and then make a second monk on the opponent's turn with a lightning bolt or whatever. and then you untap with three prowess threats that swing for lethal. etc. making more monks seems good but the most dizzying strongest fastest starts in Mentor decks involve 'i make mentor, next turn you lose'; i don't think the enchantment is capable of this.

 

[StrionicAdventurer]

I added 9 dragons with Omen spells to my Peasant cube (which also features over a dozen Adventure cards), and I'm afraid they're all coming out. Over the course of explaining the difference between Adventure and Omen to my drafters, I realized I sounded insane.

I'll really miss the red/white and red/blue ones the most.