General [DFT] Aetherdrift

I confess that I'm kinda curious about how they're going to square his Just A Silly Little Guy appearance with any adult Fomori we might see.

At this time I find Loot to be a desperate producer's wet-dream to cash in on baby-yoda two years too late.

But if an inspired set director starts having Loot kick teeth in like Naruto accessing his red-chakra for the first time I am going to pop the fuck off with excitement
 
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@TrainmasterGT Looks like they listened to your cycling complaint :p
This genuinely looks like a good card for my Battle Box!
 
I feel like I'm being powercreeped.
also, theme giga sux

A couple cards I'm kind of interested in:

Vehicles are kind of funny blink targets. I try to stay away from brainless value targets for my blink spells and instead make the etb effects more contextually powerful, but putting them on vehicles gives you a tiny extra hurdle to jump through, which I think is fun. That said, not a big fan of Pathcruiser's crew cost, or Cruiser's vehicle trinket text.
Hoping exhaust can also deliver some cool etb targets.
 
One card that did not get much attention yet is this beautiful shark:


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At first glance it looks a bit like a commander plant but I think it has potential [for cubes that have some amount of looting/rummaging/self-discard].

The closest comparison is Rielle, the Everwise and that card has been either lackluster or very good. The problem with Rielle is, that you can rarely send her to the red zone and she dies to a stiff breeze. Ward two on the shark and 4 toughness is also nice, as it's not so easy to remove.

The trigger has a lot of words but is quite elegant in its applications. It can be used as a combat trick with instant speed discard (spells or abilities, I would LOVE to pair this with Wild Mongrel). The trigger is worded in a way, that Faithless Looting will give +4/+0 to one creature and draw a card on combat damage. With a wild mongrel you can discard three cards after blocks are declared and give up to three creatures +2/+0 and draw a card OR you give your thopter token +6/+0 and it will draw three cards, as three delayed triggers are generated. That's a lot of flexibility!

On paper it sounds great to me and I will take out Rielle over the shark, because it's more proactive and looks fun. Also look at that fish with its gold chains and tattoos.
 
knowing very little about the context or the character, to call an infant "loot", i feel like fits with the general societal bad attitude of thinking of children as property. it sucks but it's the status quo i guess. wesley crusher ass
 
knowing very little about the context or the character, to call an infant "loot", i feel like fits with the general societal bad attitude of thinking of children as property. it sucks but it's the status quo i guess. wesley crusher ass
well it's his name

...because he was locked in a vault for thousands of years because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 4/4s did it
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
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So this card is good in a way that probably makes it not so great :p

Like okay sweet, another 2/1 for B for your aristocrats deck which specifically wants to load up on as many copies (virtual or otherwise) of gravecrawler (Who got sweet new amonkhet art in the EDH deck btw).
I figure if there's any deck which can reliably get to max speed, it's the deck with blood artist effects and goblin bombardment effects, so that text is probably a lot more live than other max speed cards, especially by virtue of being on a 1 drop.

Dockside Chef is probably a lower floor higher ceiling (?!) version of this effect, and I will say the mana on a sac outlet really REALLY matters, like 2 is so much more than 1 which is so much more than free, the exact same way gravecrawler loops are so much more explosive than bloodsoaked champion loops

Now that all being said, what this does for your aristocrats player is give them more of what they already have, and the possibility of a "cheap" sac outlet depending on how their game goes.

I'm the kind of person where this name makes me go "Heh" and move on, but I know that aint everybody.
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On the other end of the spectrum, this seems like a neat little low power beater to me. Solid but not overbearing body, nice utility, it's not even that in your face with the car stuff.
 
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On the other end of the spectrum, this seems like a neat little low power beater to me. Solid but not overbearing body, nice utility, it's not even that in your face with the car stuff.

I really like getting artifact removal on my thopter. This is just a little too slow for my Cube but I'm really grateful to have this available as a design and may even have a place if my artifact theme becomes even more centered.

Finally! A new Riptide card!
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I like how this card has a high floor while still tying in nicely to a bunch of Artifact, Blink and Prowess synergies common to U/W. I think this is worth a test on my end!

This works really well with everything Azorius is trying to do. The prowess gives this some pretty wild threat-of-activation I normally wouldn't expect or want on a 5-drop, but because the ETB is so strong here, it feels like a boss battle where you get past one stage and then you say "oh shit" when you finally realize what the second stage is capable of. A Ponder and a Path makes this hit for 8!
 
This works really well with everything Azorius is trying to do. The prowess gives this some pretty wild threat-of-activation I normally wouldn't expect or want on a 5-drop, but because the ETB is so strong here, it feels like a boss battle where you get past one stage and then you say "oh shit" when you finally realize what the second stage is capable of. A Ponder and a Path makes this hit for 8!
Want to know what other card goes nuts with this?

 
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I like these style of cards. At a glance, it just gives your team vigilance at a good rate. But some activated abilities really benefit from it. Knight of the Reliquary or Fauna Shaman really pop off for example. If you have flash threats, your mana dorks can tap for double mana. Maybe you convoke twice?

Double strike is an exciting ability and will probably lead me to terrible decisions like splashing Rancor in my UW control deck to give this trample... Unclear if this is a good fit for my cube, I am not used to having pure 5 CMC good stuff creatures that I actively want to include.
 
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They are giving us so many good 2 mana blue flyers these past sets. This one is great in a GY cube where you might care about Delirium. It even bins itself for you!

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I am a sucker for big flying Demons/Dragons/Angels and would have loved to fit him into a cube project. I like that you get value that gradually kills you and you can do nothing to stop it. Feels very Black and Demonic. That mechanic though! Ouch!

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Yo dawg! We heard you like speed...
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
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They are giving us so many good 2 mana blue flyers these past sets. This one is great in a GY cube where you might care about Delirium. It even bins itself for you!

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I am a sucker for big flying Demons/Dragons/Angels and would have loved to fit him into a cube project. I like that you get value that gradually kills you and you can do nothing to stop it. Feels very Black and Demonic. That mechanic though! Ouch!

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Yo dawg! We heard you like speed...
Teehee funny blue shell card

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I am a sucker for big flying Demons/Dragons/Angels and would have loved to fit him into a cube project. I like that you get value that gradually kills you and you can do nothing to stop it. Feels very Black and Demonic. That mechanic though! Ouch!
This is gonna kill so many casters and opponents and I love it
Racing people with this be like

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Dang…I wish Diversion Unit said noncreature like Malevolent Hermit. Even if it was a pay {2}. As it stands, I’m not sure it gets there for me. But I love the idea of of recurring it with Goblin Engineer or Emry, Lurker of the Loch or Scrap Trawler etc etc

Yeah, it's an artifact creature and it flies now? Malevolent Hermit was looking nervous until I looked up just how many of my non creatures were artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers. Graveyard shenanigans win out over artifacts this time!
 
Yeah, it's an artifact creature and it flies now? Malevolent Hermit was looking nervous until I looked up just how many of my non creatures were artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers. Graveyard shenanigans win out over artifacts this time!

Yeah, it makes it quite a bit less useful. Then you factor that blue is traditionally the most instant/sorcery oriented color and you’re in that color leaving even less spells for your opponents to target
 
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Hmm...

I have to say, I'm a little bummed that our first proper visit to Muraganda is during the silly Wacky Races set.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Before anyone says it I don't think there's much to be gained from these being any good other than to say that you did it :p
Like yeah that red one's still bad (Frost Walker) but would a 5/1 be enticing? Would a 6/1?
I think these are a bad place to put the "lets print enticing cards for constructed" points


Also! Let it be known I was too lazy to patch my cube this week and it lost me round 1!
Sat there with my thumb up my bum staring down a Lurrus with a Ghastly demise in my hand instead of this:
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You heard it here first everyone: Patch your cubes!
 
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All creatures and Vehicles lose indestructible until end of turn. Then destroy all creatures and Vehicles.
Cycling 2

Wow! A cycling wrath is so good! Wraths are really match up dependant, but also a necessary tool for most formats. Being able to main deck one and cycle it away if it isn’t the right situation for it is very powerful (especially for most blue based traditional control decks). It does remove the opportunity cost of having the wrath though and for that reason, I could see it being a negative. That means midrange decks can play it as a beating against aggro. I personally want to bolster slower decks a little, so I’m fine with that aspect.

I’m definitely going to test it over the original. Hopefully the 5 mana isn’t a deal breaker!
 
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