Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

[MilesOfficial]

Are these bad? Mastery is a C+ in TDM. I feel like they look decent to stop an early threat without being overly disruptive to an Eldrazi Titan.

I've recently seen some very new Cubers put Ringing Strike Mastery alongside what would otherwise be considered Vintage-level removal, and I've come to think of them as very savvy. It's not too far off from Swift Reconfiguration besides the flash, which is a pretty big difference, sure, but that's not an unreasonable downgrade to get on a blue version of creature removal. I agree @ravnic that it's a C-level card at best still, but the fact that it can be a C both in its retail draft environment and in pretty much any Cube you throw it in is both fascinating and true.

The biggest issue with Ringing Strike Mastery is the same issue with Swift Reconfiguration -- the card still has its abilities in the meantime, too. While ETB and attack triggers are the most pernicious parts of most creatures in modern magic, there's little value in using a card just to lock down someone's Suki, Courageous Rescuer.



I personally prefer Sleep Magic, which makes the "out" quite a bit harder, or the Witness Protection/Unable to Scream duo. I don't like the "face-up" text of Unable to Scream, but I do prefer it to Witness Protection otherwise.

I think the cards get much more meaningful at 2 mana, but then you have to ask yourself why you really need these effects in blue, instead of asking your blue players to use other colors if they want to do a creature removal. That said, I think these cards are all pretty good and Cubeable/scale to the environment well in most lists short of Vintage power-level:



(I'd never Cube Fresh Start for a similar reason many others would never Cube one of my favorite UB cards, Kylie Minogue)

Also Bubble Snare is cool, I played that card for a good few months IIRC.

 

[Seeker]

I've recently seen some very new Cubers put Ringing Strike Mastery alongside what would otherwise be considered Vintage-level removal, and I've come to think of them as very savvy. It's not too far off from Swift Reconfiguration besides the flash, which is a pretty big difference, sure, but that's not an unreasonable downgrade to get on a blue version of creature removal. I agree @ravnic that it's a C-level card at best still, but the fact that it can be a C both in its retail draft environment and in pretty much any Cube you throw it in is both fascinating and true.

also you can put it on A-Vivi Ornitier and go infinite

this is only appealing in the context of "an online cube that already has Vivi in it" but...

 

[ravnic]

I like blue auras that turn creatures into dinky little things. Unable to Scream and Eaten by Piranhas might be my favorites. I wish this one was just a tiny bit better:

 

[Brad]

I like the ones that let the Eldrazi untap later. I think they're pretty good.

I don't want a Titan going down for 1-2 mana.

I have Fresh Start for the same reason. At least you'll have a 5/10 left over or whatever.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

also you can put it on A-Vivi Ornitier and go infinite

this is only appealing in the context of "an online cube that already has Vivi in it" but...

Wait. What. Why did they remove the once per turn clause? Did Vivi really need more combo potential? o_O

 

[Chris Taylor]

Bootman is the original "once per turn" clause

 

[Seeker]

Yeah, it was supposed to be a nerf with specifically Agatha's Soul Cauldron, so that you couldn't go big enough in one turn with a bunch of creatures you just drew.

...ignore Draconautics Engineer already being in the deck (to be fair, it doesn't give itself haste)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Bootman is the original "once per turn" clause

I am very aware of that. You and I also know there are a million ways around that XD

 

[Tetrinity]

I am very aware of that. You and I also know there are a million ways around that XD

I got curious and went poking around on Scryfall. Oddly enough, none of the normal combo cards like Freed from the Real are actually on Arena as far as I can tell. The best I've seen is going infinite with four mana, five if you need to be mana-positive:



Everything else either costs more mana, or requires colours Vivi can't add:



Special shoutout to the worst Vivi combo card in the world, though:



I haven't played Arena in quite some time, so I have no concept of whether Staff of Domination still represents an oppressive combo or if it's slow enough that it'll never come together. I'd like to think that if they ever do add Freed from the Real et. al., they'd nerf Vivi again.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Huh. Weird!

 

[Seeker]

I like blue auras that turn creatures into dinky little things. Unable to Scream and Eaten by Piranhas might be my favorites.

Witness Protection is my favorite because the name "Legitimate Businessperson" is perfect.

It's like how nearly every time I activate Oko, Thief of Crowns I chuckle at the resulting mental image

Dragons' Rage Elk, Bill the Elk, Primeval Elk, etc

 

[ravnic]

Unable to Scream also has that going for it. Giving your opponent a toy ninja/dinosaur/whatever is fun too.

 

[Erik Twice]

Is Bazaar of Baghdad a complete trap?



Because, frankly, I'm increasingly of the opinion it might be. The fact that it doesn't produce mana is brutal and you need a massive amount of synergy just to end up at an even amount. Sure, Squee and Master of Death help but it's slow and janky.

Is it actually worth playing?

 

[Nanonox]

It’s not plug and play that’s for sure. You need specific decks for Bazaar to shine and therfore a cube with dedicated slots/archetypes.

As you said, Squee and Master are great, I’d add Monument to Endurance to that list.

Then the discard aggro deck puts it to great use sacrificing card advantage for pressure. This could be +1/+1 counters or Delve/Escape. With Madness cards, you might not even be down on cards.

Self-mill decks also love the card selection and GY growing. With enough Flashback and friends, you can mitigate the downside. Dredge is perfect in the archetype too. Your recursion needs to be on point here though.

Another aspect is that it gives White a discard outlet! The color has good recursion but garbage GY filling abilities.

You could run Urborg and Yavimaya to allow it to produce mana, but that seems like overkill. Exploration effects are good alongside it though!

It’s a powerful card that needs a lot of support to shine. I think it’s 100% worth it in my cube even if it doesn’t work every draft.

 

[Erik Twice]

I want to run some acceleration for Staxy or Big Mana decks, but I don't want neither City of Traitors or Ancient Tomb because they easy picks and, rather than help an archetype, they just make already good decks better. So what about Mishra's Workshop?



I hope it would enable more cards like:




I'm told people use green's ramp to make decks using these, is that true? Perhaps I already run the golem, I could add the Sphere and get a new, unique archetype:



Thoughts?

 

[Rusje]

In your cube can the decks (with some adoptations):
* sometimes win against a turn 1 or 2 stack piece?
* are the oppressive decks more vulnerable to staxx than the other decks?
* does it lead to more fun?

Only no to these questions means no. In between is up to you.

 

[Nanonox]

I want to run some acceleration for Staxy or Big Mana decks, but I don't want neither City of Traitors or Ancient Tomb because they easy picks and, rather than help an archetype, they just make already good decks better. So what about Mishra's Workshop?

If you are going with Workshop (which is a cool build around!), I would want some big mana rocks to convert that artifact mana into something else.



These would also fit with Upheaval and Wildfire.

Perhaps I already run the golem, I could add the Sphere and get a new, unique archetype:

Definitely a good package to add if going with Workshop since mana denial is already a thing in your environment.

I would like to add another piece to that package in



This lets you double dip on mana rocks or disruption giving you flexible redundancy. And if you are going there I would strongly consider these two cards as well



Jewel is a great payoff for going big and a great target for Metamorph. At 6 mana, I am less worried about a Monarch adjacent mechanic. If you have a bunch of more expensive artifacts, Synthesizer starts making sense and is another payoff alongside Workshop for jamming expensive artifacts into your deck.

I am not willing to dedicate the slots to these big mana decks, but if you are, I think it would play well.