Sets The Hobbit
- Thread starter Velrun
- Start date
I will riot if there's no Secret Lair featuring screengrabs from the 1970's Rankin Bass animated movie.
I am a little annoyed how much I love both Bilbos because it means my blue two-drops will be so heavy on one character.
Legitimately planning to run the majority of the (EDIT) Hobbit-specific cards spoiled during the preview panel.
Legitimately planning to run the majority of the (EDIT) Hobbit-specific cards spoiled during the preview panel.
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Happy to see Sauron's Ransom that doesn't temp you, I've wanted that card since Ransom got spoiled.
Edit: The split and choose roles are inverted apparently. I think that makes it worse, but I don't think it greatly influences my desire to cube with it.
Edit: The split and choose roles are inverted apparently. I think that makes it worse, but I don't think it greatly influences my desire to cube with it.
I like FOF mini-game cards, they're always fun to play with, but giving your opponent the choice makes this more in line with Steam Augury which is less appealing to me. But at three mana and instant speed? Probably worth trying out and seeing what's up before writing it off.
I'll never understand how you can make all these cuts with dozens of changes every release
I'll never understand how you can make all these cuts with dozens of changes every release
The real answer? I just have 720 cards and do bot practice drafts 10x a week minimum. I have an ever-evolving sense for what cards I like and don't like in my list for various archetypes, and message the group regularly about it too.
There are about 40 cards that I am aware are not "right" for what I'm trying to do in my Cube. My gut sense of this is challenged regularly by my daily note-taking and the CubeCobra draft stats. I am constantly looking at the recommender algorithm for what my Cube is up to and what similar Cubes and/or Cubes by smarter people than me are doing. Of the 40, I haven't emotionally agreed to make half of those cuts, and often will double-down on them to see if I can't salvage them by adding more support before I actually cut them.
But yeah, it's very easy for me to have 20 cards removed at a moment's notice. When I cut more than that, it's usually more a matter of reversing some previous swaps I'd made.
It's like this is some kind of hobby for you instead of like a constantly forgotten wretched beast you keep in the woodshed and feed raw meat twice a year. Odd.
Hey, I take offense to that.
My wretched beast lives in my house and I'm the one in the shed being fed twice a year.
Much more relatable now!
I personally reduced my Cube Cobra bot-drafting a little bit. I once went through a period of serious over-design. Often I was adding cards and then cutting them again without ever giving them a chance in the draft. Sometimes I had three cards in the same slot in between drafts. Nowadays I keep my cube, especially the core module, much more stable.
The fact that a decent amount of magic cards these days look like shit does make it easier to restrain from too many changes too, though!
tbf with the pace of set releases, I feel more and more like Mr. Creosote (but in all actuality, I engage with maybe 2 sets each year at this point...)
I think at four mana, it's competing with things like The Flux and Origin of the Hidden Ones which help you get ahead, not just set the opponent back. It's fantastic if you can nab an artifact too, but if you just want to remove a critter and go to Reset Value Town, I'd rather have something slightly more mana-efficient like Glassworks or Outpace Oblivion.
I like this one for my bounce to hand theme. You upgrade a creature and reuse an ETB.
You can also save it from removal or have a weird late game anthem for your tokens/weenies.
edit: posted too fast
Another discard enabler in white. You are dependent on opponent so it’s not super reliable, but seems very hard not to trigger the ability. Getting Human tokens is a big plus. Also doesn’t feel UB in my books.
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I really like this one! I'm currently running Restoration of Eiganjo and they occupy a similar space.
This is a bit more front-loaded, which I like:
- you get a 1/1 immediately
- drawing a random card seems better to me than grabbing a plains in most cases
- MV 3 is obviously better than 2, permanent was more open ended for artifact and lands decks
- the creature on restoration is obviously much better but very slow
I don't have space for both so I might try out this new toy, because I like that it has more impact early on.
My wish for this set is to get some great limited bomb/good rare (white) cards with Recruit!
I don't normally do this but I was procrastinating so I made my early changes for this set in Cube from just what's been spoiled already. I'm really excited about this set and its mechanics, even if it is a small set.
Restoration of Eiganjo is indeed a good comp, but the thing that makes that card really feel like it's worth 3 mana is the big creature you get at the end of all that fiddling around with counters and tokens and cards. Still, not requiring an extra token type, making it much simpler, and the advantage of Recruit vs. getting a plains makes this quite appealing.
Still, I have a lot of similar white reanimation spells I like more than this, some of which I'm not currently playing. Maybe if I do end up adding a few more sagas/enchantment support, I'll come around to it, but right now I have these above it in my estimation in terms of small reanimator:
That said, I think this is pretty similar to Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer in terms of how it'll play out, which has over-performed my initial estimations, which were already reasonably high.
Last Light of Durin's Day reminds me of Yidaro, Wandering Monster and Tectonic Reformation. I kind of like it as a big red finisher, but, wow, six mountains is pretty impossible. In the typical Rx deck, that's almost every mountain you have in your deck. So why am I so drawn to it?
Iron Hills Blacksmith is interesting. The 1/1 double-strikers in white for 2 have been pretty close to good enough in the past, like Adorned Pouncer, Illuminator Virtuoso, and Quill-Blade Laureate. This coming into play with an artifact token is pretty good upside, and of course benefits a double-striker more than most. I think anyone who runs any level of equipment theme should consider this, and I'm going to pick one ups or the reject Cube.
Beorn the Fierce is pretty impressive. While I don't like keyword counters, this one feels fine, and I like how it's only a "tribal" card in that it sets up a timer for when you win the game from overrun damage, often of just one turn. I like the beefy green 5-drops that help you overwhelm the board, and this one feels more novel and exciting than most. Still, if you don't get to untap with it, which is vey likely, you're only up a trample token.
For all its wordiness, at least Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth gives you another bite of the apple, Karvanista, Loyal Lupari probably saved one of your dudes ahead of playing him out (and attacked for 5, and put +1/+1 counters on 1/3 of your board), and Balustrade Wurm can be cast one more time if you're playing proper Magic. And I'm not running any of those. As much as I personally love it mechanically, I wouldn't hate getting rid of the convoluted mess that is Vorinclex, but I think Beorn, as much as I love it, is a little too Magical Christmas Land for me to seriously replace it. I'd play this bear over Elder Gargaroth, though.
The Master of Lake-town has an effect we haven't seen before on a creature. I like the death trigger too. I don't think it does enough for me, but these self-mill cards are very exciting to me and I hope to see even more before this set is through.
Seems like a reasonably good card filtering and token engine that gets value the turn you play it so long as you can attack, feels like it's worth the extra mana over Searslicer Goblin or Ellie, Brick Master. The Lunar Whale was super interesting as this kind of "Planeswalker but not" card a la Kaito but this feels even more like a 'Walker, not requiring any crewing to get reasonable value. The second point of power required for crew seems reasonable considering it makes 1/1s, like Thopter Fabricator did.
I think this is a fine card, but blue is always so hard to squeeze things in. I'm not even running Agna Qel'a right now, a card I really like that fills a similarish role. Actually, the best comp I have is another Avatar card, The Legend of Kuruk, which again, I do like more than this. Still, I'd be happy to be wrong and find that this card is a real beater.
Restoration of Eiganjo is indeed a good comp, but the thing that makes that card really feel like it's worth 3 mana is the big creature you get at the end of all that fiddling around with counters and tokens and cards. Still, not requiring an extra token type, making it much simpler, and the advantage of Recruit vs. getting a plains makes this quite appealing.
Still, I have a lot of similar white reanimation spells I like more than this, some of which I'm not currently playing. Maybe if I do end up adding a few more sagas/enchantment support, I'll come around to it, but right now I have these above it in my estimation in terms of small reanimator:
That said, I think this is pretty similar to Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer in terms of how it'll play out, which has over-performed my initial estimations, which were already reasonably high.
Last Light of Durin's Day reminds me of Yidaro, Wandering Monster and Tectonic Reformation. I kind of like it as a big red finisher, but, wow, six mountains is pretty impossible. In the typical Rx deck, that's almost every mountain you have in your deck. So why am I so drawn to it?
Iron Hills Blacksmith is interesting. The 1/1 double-strikers in white for 2 have been pretty close to good enough in the past, like Adorned Pouncer, Illuminator Virtuoso, and Quill-Blade Laureate. This coming into play with an artifact token is pretty good upside, and of course benefits a double-striker more than most. I think anyone who runs any level of equipment theme should consider this, and I'm going to pick one ups or the reject Cube.
Beorn the Fierce is pretty impressive. While I don't like keyword counters, this one feels fine, and I like how it's only a "tribal" card in that it sets up a timer for when you win the game from overrun damage, often of just one turn. I like the beefy green 5-drops that help you overwhelm the board, and this one feels more novel and exciting than most. Still, if you don't get to untap with it, which is vey likely, you're only up a trample token.
For all its wordiness, at least Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth gives you another bite of the apple, Karvanista, Loyal Lupari probably saved one of your dudes ahead of playing him out (and attacked for 5, and put +1/+1 counters on 1/3 of your board), and Balustrade Wurm can be cast one more time if you're playing proper Magic. And I'm not running any of those. As much as I personally love it mechanically, I wouldn't hate getting rid of the convoluted mess that is Vorinclex, but I think Beorn, as much as I love it, is a little too Magical Christmas Land for me to seriously replace it. I'd play this bear over Elder Gargaroth, though.
The Master of Lake-town has an effect we haven't seen before on a creature. I like the death trigger too. I don't think it does enough for me, but these self-mill cards are very exciting to me and I hope to see even more before this set is through.
Seems like a reasonably good card filtering and token engine that gets value the turn you play it so long as you can attack, feels like it's worth the extra mana over Searslicer Goblin or Ellie, Brick Master. The Lunar Whale was super interesting as this kind of "Planeswalker but not" card a la Kaito but this feels even more like a 'Walker, not requiring any crewing to get reasonable value. The second point of power required for crew seems reasonable considering it makes 1/1s, like Thopter Fabricator did.
I think this is a fine card, but blue is always so hard to squeeze things in. I'm not even running Agna Qel'a right now, a card I really like that fills a similarish role. Actually, the best comp I have is another Avatar card, The Legend of Kuruk, which again, I do like more than this. Still, I'd be happy to be wrong and find that this card is a real beater.
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Now this is a cube card! I decided to not include sagas, because my cube is already very complex, and I also try to maximize instants, sorceries and artifacts instead of enchantments. But this is making me reconsider. Everything about it interacts with stuff I already do:
- draw your second card
- rare instance of discard in white
- humans
- sacrifice fodder
- reanimation
- counters
- proliferate for both saga counters and chapter III
For other cubes obviously add enchantment synergies and flicker/bounce. So much more interesting than the usual bunch of generic value.
This card is awesome. I'm a fan of passive hate and this does a great job of being a pest in fair W/x decks against a plethora of removal or counterspells ala Surrak, Elusive Hunter. Even in the face of a wrath you get to benefit by sculpting your hand for a rebuild. More ways to loot in white brings greater value and consistency to small reanimator ala Helping Hand or Sevinne's Reclamation as you get to churn through more of your deck while going wide on board. Might be the last bit of splash looting in my cube to make Abhorrent Oculus fully viable.
Relevant creature type, makes relevant tokens, and it's right on par stats-wise. Great art is a bonus.