Sets Battle for Baldur's Gate: Testing and includes

ravnic

ravnic

People here prefered the extra testing thread for new sets, so someone has to do it. And since Trainmaster seems busy and I want to share what I'm eyeing (and thereby have a note for myself), I'll try my best to do his part.

For my Casual Champions Cube, I like some of the elegant designs, mostly at lower rarities, and the overall more core fantasy flavor that comes with D&D sets.

Certainly:



Horn of Valhalla is a nice token enabler+payoff in one and also allows me to add another equipment for the W/x voltron decks.
Guardian Naga is just a cool Disenchant variant that comes with an expensive body. I like adventures.
Bonecaller Cleric is a 4-mana reanimation spell (exactly where I wanna be) that can attack or block as a 2-mana creature.
Ghost Lantern is just a cooler and cleaner version of Malefic Scythe, but I might be biased towards adventures.
Inspired Tinkering is a cool draw spell for all kinds of sweet non-aggro red decks. Can also ramp you up to 8-9 mana.

Maybe:



I like Sailor's Bane, but I don't want all my spells payoffs to care about spells in the 'yard, as cast triggers synergize with different things.
Patron of the Arts and Zhentarim Bandit are solid treasure-making dudes, but maybe a little too vanilla-ish.
Split the Spoils is one of the coolest designs in the set imo, but only counting permanents will make it a dead card before your even have 5.
The Myconid is packed qith quite a bit of value but somehow still feels clunky.
 
B

blacksmithy

paper cube:

Notes:
My group specifically requested initiative and it looks cool at least as an occasional thing, so more than willing to try out most of the init cards as they’re clearly crazy strong in 1v1.
Archivist seems very easy to trigger with triple fetches at 384 and i love hatebears that give you cookies better than ones that take the opponent’s cookies. Also love flash spells!
Gale is another drafter request and seems like a really unique spin on the “flashback your spells critter” type card.
DARGON TURT BEEG
Cloakwood Swarmkeeper may be my favorite card in the set. Big glow up for Woodland Champion and i can’t get enough strong 1s.
Baba and the walkers are speculative tests, but they all have cool designs so i want to see how they play before dismissing them.
 
Mown

Mown

PROBABLIES​


Rescuer Chwinga is an open-ended tool that is useful both to protect key cards and reuse useful etb effects across the spectrum, and it also has flash, which is an ability I value highly.
Gut is a neat sacrifice engine that pulls you into red, and I'm honestly worried it might be a bit too oppressive. 4/1 menace is a pretty nasty statline even if you're only turning your random aggro 1-drops into it, and actually building around it might make it overwhelming.
Inspired Tinkering has grown on me. It's an expensive card that cheats on its own mana cost, and it's probably one of your better options for setting up big turns, which is something my format needs more of to justify the existence of storm.
Livaan is a bit mopey, but I think it does do something I want. I like how incredibly scary this card is, choosing to let an attacker through with this in play opens you up to getting wrecked by a delve spell at instant speed, and I think that kind of tension is a good thing. I am a bit concerned that she might not play out as well in practice, but a simple 3-mana spell turns her into a 4/3 attacker, which is a reasonable statline even before you start cooking. Art sux though.
Baba Lysaga is a fun golgari card that makes you pay more attention to the cards you draft, which is something I like when my cards do. Slightly concerned about play patterns, but I think it will work out.

MAYBIES​


I don't think the Gith has a home currently, but it seems like a "put it in the mayeboard and re-evaluate it later" type of card. Not working with other permanent types is a big detractor from her chances of getting included though.
Altar of Bhaal is pretty cool, not sure where I lean on it. I like that it exiles the creature so some of the tedious play patterns of Recurring Nightmare don't exist here, but it's still the type of grindy card I don't want all that much of in my cube, and the adventure half is sadly a bit boring.
Lantern I want to play just because of Stoneforge Mystic, I love expanding the toolbox she provides, but sadly I don't think can make the cut on that alone, and the card in isolation just doesn't excite me.
Pact Weapon is similarly another card that appeals to me to some degree because of mystic, tutoring for a discard outlet is similarly cool. That said, while there are a lot of neat things going on with this card, I don't like the random P/T boost when attacking, and it's just overall kind of expensive even if the design as a whole sells a good story. I will probably test this.
Zhentarim Bandit is very close to getting there, I wish it just had menace or triggered on upkeep or something else going for it.
Reckless Barbarian is too dorky to be played in any decks that aren't looking for a random burst of 2 mana, which I think just makes it too narrow. Make it actually appealing to draft as an aggro deck and I would've been a big fan.
Jaheira is a big maybe. I've been looking for an open-ended token payoff, and this girl can make a ton of mana. I'm just not sure I have room for her in my green section.

OVERALL THOUGHTIES​

With adventures, dragons and treasures as major components of the set I really hoped it could deliver more in those areas, and I'm incredibly disappointed with how safe they designed a lot of them, especially in a set that is less limited by the typical power level considerations of 1v1 formats.
also as an edh players the designs of the backgrounds are really underwhelming an uninspiring, and the reprints leave a lot to be desired.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I have no interest in the background or initiative cards, and neither does my cube care for multiplayer specific mechanics or draft chaff. Also, I still hate the d20 cards. With a passion. I fear the number of interesting cards in this set is going to be very, very small for me.



I'm unlikely to run Winter Eladrin, but I do want to point out that it's a Man-o'-War without downside! Unlike most modern variants, it can be used on your own creatures, and unlike old variants, you can play it on an empty board if need be. Pretty neat!
Young Blue Dragon looks like a good fit for my cube, since I like to run my cantrips at two mana anyway. This one draws you a card and a dragon!
Altar of Bhaal I'm unsure about, but it looks like a nice engine piece. It is contributing to token bloat, but this token is pretty good. With 4 power, it should often trade for two creatures or eat a removal spell. Worth testing, I feel.
Guildsworn Prowler is a neat black two drop. You can keep attacking with it, killing most blockers and replacing itself with the draw, or you can use it on defense, in which case it's mostly going to trade up. Unsure what should leave for it, but it's a very cute common!
I'm unsure if Insufferable Balladeer is going to make the cut, because it would be the only instance of goad, but what an excellent aggro creature this is. It removes a blocker for two turns, and/or you can set up an ambush for an opponent's creature. Pretty sweet!
Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter, finally, looks like it might have some actual appeal to Mardu drafters. Currently I'm on a custom, color-shifted Wild Nacatl (which is very nice), Fervent Charge (which is criminally underrated), and Smiting Helix (for lack of alternatives). The 3/3 haste body is decent in aggro decks as a baseline, and there's enough synergy to play around with elsewhere, in cards like Hidden Stockpile, Marionette Master, and the aforementioned Fervent Charge.


looks really fun too, by the way. If only it followed the Fact or Fiction template!
 
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Zoss

Zoss

Include:


It's rough adding two red 3s, as that's one of my tightest slots, but these are both great. Gut makes aristocrats work on his own and Patron is ETB/death triggers aplenty, helping blink extend into red, while being a 1-mana 3/1. Artifact triggers, ramp, she does it all at a variety of lower power levels.

Sailors' Bane works as a reanimation target that can also be a topend for certain decks, and I love that flexibility.


Testing:


The Swarmkeeper is like Woodland Champion but gets started earlier. I like tokens as a green-centered archetype, but it's been a couple pieces short of working out. Hopefully this + the champion + Fae Offering can make junk tokens the real deal.


Maybeboard:


I will probably include one of these as a fun multicolored treat depending on how they perform in constructed.


Keeping in mind:


Gray Slaad is nutty when it's active, but is lower power than where I am at the moment. If I downshift, it'll become a consideration.

Alora is a fairer version of Whirler Rogue, which has an uncomfortable tendency to win games on the spot, and the addition of some risk while slipping down the mana curve is the frosting on the cake (icing is terrible, you hear it here first. #buttercreamgangriseup).

Vrock can end games nicely in a variety of decks, but doesn't have a real home at the moment. Same with the dragons, and I may very well wind up including any number of them.




Weirdly enough, this set makes me want to include a Heroic package.

 
MilesOfficial

MilesOfficial

Looking at 5 cards seriously right now. Most of these will probably make it in, not sure about any of the others, though I am open to a few others. I don't support venturing at all, and don't want to needlessly complicate cube on several vectors to squeeze it in for the two cards I like with the ability.



Crystal Dragon is a bit bland at first sight on both ends and the least impressive of my new additions, but a regrowth effect that hits the majority of white cards and doubles down on the legendary-matters and GY-matters themes I'm working towards in the color makes this a suitable pick. Happy to get more Adventure cards in any case!

Altar of Bhaal is what I wanted Whip of Erebos to always be. I wish it didn't exile the sacrifice, but this is a great way to support value reanimator, and can get the party started on its own if you've neglected to fill up the battlefield with fodder already.

Gut, True Soul Zealot is the winner of the set as far as I'm concerned. Its intersects both the Jund tokens deck and the RB sacrifice deck quite nicely, and offers a very unique play pattern relative to other 3 MV token generators in red. Very excited for this gobbo.

Wilson, Refined Grizzly is keyword soup and not there when it comes to power level, but this is the kind of card that inspires my playgroup. Don't let your memes just be dreams, let your friends draft Wilson. Wish it didn't have the background text, but what can you do?

Nalia de'Arnise is a card I discussed well enough in the main thread. I don't think she's strictly better than General Kudro of Drannith but the power level is real, and I think she'll be an exciting build-around card for my drafters. As much as I love him, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad isn't inspiring folks the same way he used to.
 
froggy

froggy

I think for now I'll just be testing these three:



Minsc & Boo replaced Arlinn, Pack's Hope as a solid aggro topend/midrange threat in GR that is also not a dfc
Jan is a fun Eggs dude I'm excited to test
Archivist is a neat hatepiece, iunno if it'll be good or feel fine to play against but it seems testable
 
ellogeyen

ellogeyen

Jeskai Cube Includes:


Greatsword of Tyr is an amazing offensive equipment. It contributes to the minor +1/+1 counter theme that runs through the cube, but is primarily a nice pickup to win a temp race. It will replace Dancing Sword, which is mainly a big wall of text with some memory issues.

Ascend from Avernus is a nice payoff for a low-mana value deck, and an excellent backup plan when the aggro deck is hit with a boardwipe. It's much more immediate and effective than Imperial Recovery Unit, wich it will replace.

Blessed Hippogriff is the first of many adventure cards that will enter the cube with this set. I might really like adventure :). I'm trying to find similar cards for each adventure to replace. The hippogriff replaces Emerge Unscathed. Guardian Naga replaces Oblation. Sapphire Dragon replaces Mirrorshell Crab. Sword Coast Serpent replaces Baral's Expertise. Amethys Dragon replaces Mizzium Tank.

Candlekeep Inspiration is a nice payoff that includes these adventure cards and isn't hampered by the many flashback(-like) effects in my cube. It has also more of a sudden impact than Soulblade Djinn, which never really shined as much as I wanted it to.

Javelin of Lightning is better as a combat trick than Duelling Rapier, even if it is limited to your own turn. If like how it incentiveses aggression and attacking and is less of a defensive card.



Crystal Dragon, Moonshae Pixie, Sea Hag and Illithid Harvester are nice adventure cards that just don't quite fit in the current cube setup, although I could easily see them fitting in the (near) future or with slightly different themes.

Kenku Artificer is one of the strongest cards of this type I believe. It's just that I don't have a focus on artifacts in blue at the moment.

Inspired Tinkering I want to find room for but haven't been able to at first glance.

Clockwork Fox and Rug of Smothering seem really good for 3 colorless mana?

It's crazy that a set with so many things I won't add to my cube (dice rolling, venturing into dungeons, backgrounds + commanders, multiplayer focus) has so many includes and maybes for me. It's mainly due to the focus on adventure this time around, but still. Amazing.
 
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Velrun

Velrun

Thank you @ravnic for creating the topic in Train's place (But Train, do come back please)

So appearently spoiler season isn't over but that won't stop us. This set was not made for me but it has so many themes that is shared in my starter set that I feel like it's christmas and I won't see a better set in a long time.

First I can ignore all cards with
- Choose a Background
- Backgrounds
- Myriad
- Goad
- Roll a d20
- {I} can be your Commander
- Cards that care about how many opponents you have
- Cards that specifically mentions Commanders or the command zone.

Not a lot of cards left in the set :p

I have chosen to also ignore initiative even though I run dungeon in my cube. I have asked @blacksmithy if he would like to make some custom tweaks to some of those initiative cards for me. He has kindly accepted.

Now on to the fun stuff.

The following will be tested in my lower power starting set:












I really enjoy having adventure cards in my cube and looking forward to some more.
I also enjoy the named abilities. It's a little extra flavor.

The dragons are part of my high end of the starter set along with the original five high end dragons. I might not include Guardian Naga, Sword Coast Serpent and Dread Linnorm for stepping on the dragon's toes and being too bomby.

I am usually not into the 1 mana tricks like Boon of Safety, Brave the Elements, Gods Willing or Sheltering Light but with Blessed Hippogriff I think you're getting a lot of bang for the bucks and it's a lot more interesting with ninjutsu etc.

Some of the themes affected by these additions:
Human tribal
Party tribal
+1/+1 counter modified
ETB ninjutsu
Gate tribal

I have not found the cuts yet. This will be tough this time.

Finally I just want to say that I really like the design of Bonfire.
 
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froggy

froggy

froggy said:
I think for now I'll just be testing these three:
Click to expand...
From having seen some interesting analysis online that I hadn't considered, I'm going to test a couple more cards, I think. Looking at doing:



Fireball is a fucked up one sided Pyroclasm, Terramancer is a really screwed up bear in a fetch heavy environment, and the other two cards are solid shouts for artifacts.dec. No idea how long these cards will stay in the cube for and if they'll be where I want them to be, but I think they'll all be solid tests. Seven cards is pretty good servings for a set I didn't expect much from, that's something I'm quite happy with tbh.
 
Velrun

Velrun

froggy said:
From having seen some interesting analysis online that I hadn't considered, I'm going to test a couple more cards, I think. Looking at doing:



Fireball is a fucked up one sided Pyroclasm, Terramancer is a really screwed up bear in a fetch heavy environment, and the other two cards are solid shouts for artifacts.dec. No idea how long these cards will stay in the cube for and if they'll be where I want them to be, but I think they'll all be solid tests. Seven cards is pretty good servings for a set I didn't expect much from, that's something I'm quite happy with tbh.
Click to expand...
You do you, but if I may :)

I don't think your players will like playing with Noble's Purse. For the player who controls it, it will feel bad when it has run out which it does by turn 5. For the players on the other side of the table it will feel bad to receive an attack from a massive 8/8 hexproof by turn 6 or something. Just an example. It is one of those super swingey cards that is either incredibly game winning on the spot or a mega let down. I am only writing this because I feel like this is how my group would see the card.

On the other side.. It probably creates some good stories/memorable conversations the first few times you test it :p

Also it doesn't have any play to it. You simply tap it every turn automatically because there is no reason not to.
 
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froggy

froggy

I think we have very different environments, and there will probably be some pretty different scenarios happening - Noble's Purse is much less likely to enable some big threat (and if it does, its not going to be accelerating by more than a few turns, I curve out pretty low) and instead be a repeatable token creator for the artifacts deck. I'm excited to play it with affinity style payoffs like Thought Monitor, tokens payoffs like Jinnie Fay, Jetimir's Second and the general artifact synergy package as a whole. It definitely seems like the type of ritual-style card that can lead to some feel bads in lower power or slower environments, but in my context I don't see it being a particularly egregious card.
 
Velrun

Velrun

froggy said:
I think we have very different environments, and there will probably be some pretty different scenarios happening - Noble's Purse is much less likely to enable some big threat (and if it does, its not going to be accelerating by more than a few turns, I curve out pretty low) and instead be a repeatable token creator for the artifacts deck. I'm excited to play it with affinity style payoffs like Thought Monitor, tokens payoffs like Jinnie Fay, Jetimir's Second and the general artifact synergy package as a whole. It definitely seems like the type of ritual-style card that can lead to some feel bads in lower power or slower environments, but in my context I don't see it being a particularly egregious card.
Click to expand...
Withdrawn. I was wrong.
 
froggy

froggy

Yeah, that's what I'm looking at it for - it's not as consistent as something like a Mind Stone, but you get a lot more explosiveness and it super solidly fuels the artifact tribal deck, which is more valuable for my environment than the 2mv ramp effect.
 
inscho

inscho

Didn’t realize there was cards left to spoil when I made my test list. I’ll definitely be testing the purse
 
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