She looks awesome.
Sets [DTK] Dragons of Tarkir Spoilers Thread
- Thread starter anotak
- Start date
I was just having this same thought as well. Assuming you already run something like Harness by Force, it seems like Jeering Instigator would be more interesting and versatile than a second straight up treason effect like Mark of Mutiny.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
I mean, I love the card and all, but did anyone think "Hey, Kitchen Finks hasn't been pulling its weight lately, we better make it better!"?
Fuck this guy
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Its like when a new ETB creature gets spoiled, someone will invariably say "This goes great with recurring nightmare" and I just think to myself in what fucking universe is that even relevant, you have recurring nightmare who the fuck cares if the new creature is 3% better with it then the old one, you're probably winning that game with either one who cares.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Its like Jitte in a Pridemate deck, on the surface Jitte is "supporting" Pridemates, but we all know what's really happening.
Ermm 3% better is better, so I care about it
Or should we just not print new cards
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
I love the new Anafenza, I'm just not sure why KITCHEN FINKS, one of the most color/theme/archetype agnostic cards imaginable needs to be better. Its not like we're trying to milk a little value out of Mark of Fury or some other marginal value enabler, this is a card that is P1P1 in plenty of cubes, that's getting maindecked 100% of the time in almost any cube and is potentially semi-oppressive in certain matchups.
Whatever, I like both cards and I'll probably run them both anyway, I just view the synergy as a negative rather then a positive, just like I do with archangel of thune.
Same. Anafenza seems like a contender for the best 
bear at this point, so anyone interested in white weenie is probably going to run her. Kitchen Finks is a sweet card, but because he's so ubiquitous - he's nearly colourless, in cubes with good fixing - I wouldn't be opposed to cutting him somewhere down the line.
So... Collected Company. This card reads really well. But the constraints it puts on deckbuilding are very real. You have to draft and then jam pack your deck with just about every small animal that comes your way. Taking a look at forty card decks, and busting out the ol' hypergeometric calculator:
# of creatures with cmc <= 3 ---> % success rate of hitting 2 or more when flipping 6
10 ---> 47%
11 ---> 54%
12 ---> 59%
13 ---> 65%
14 ---> 70%
15 ---> 75%
16 ---> 79%
17 ---> 82%
18 ---> 86%
Even in a nearly ideal situation where we manage to end up with 18 cheap weenies, we still come upon a 14% rate of failure on our four-mana instant, or roughly 1 in 7. (Hi Jason!) In a more common scenario, where we have 15 small dorks, our failure rate jumps up to 1 in 4. That's not what I'd call inspiring. You have to ask yourself if you're comfortable with this spell only spotting you one creature a good chunk of the time, and on occasion even whiffing outright.
bear at this point, so anyone interested in white weenie is probably going to run her. Kitchen Finks is a sweet card, but because he's so ubiquitous - he's nearly colourless, in cubes with good fixing - I wouldn't be opposed to cutting him somewhere down the line.So... Collected Company. This card reads really well. But the constraints it puts on deckbuilding are very real. You have to draft and then jam pack your deck with just about every small animal that comes your way. Taking a look at forty card decks, and busting out the ol' hypergeometric calculator:
# of creatures with cmc <= 3 ---> % success rate of hitting 2 or more when flipping 6
10 ---> 47%
11 ---> 54%
12 ---> 59%
13 ---> 65%
14 ---> 70%
15 ---> 75%
16 ---> 79%
17 ---> 82%
18 ---> 86%
Even in a nearly ideal situation where we manage to end up with 18 cheap weenies, we still come upon a 14% rate of failure on our four-mana instant, or roughly 1 in 7. (Hi Jason!) In a more common scenario, where we have 15 small dorks, our failure rate jumps up to 1 in 4. That's not what I'd call inspiring. You have to ask yourself if you're comfortable with this spell only spotting you one creature a good chunk of the time, and on occasion even whiffing outright.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Cutting Finks might be one of those "feels wrong, but is actually right" decisions for me. Or maybe not, its a rock.
Collected Company is going to do work for me in the same decks that run Return to the Ranks, but seriously after those two cards you can fit like 2 removal cards, 1 utility card, a four drop and then 19 1-3 cc dudes? It remains to be seen if that's a deck, but I think it is.
Collected Company is going to do work for me in the same decks that run Return to the Ranks, but seriously after those two cards you can fit like 2 removal cards, 1 utility card, a four drop and then 19 1-3 cc dudes? It remains to be seen if that's a deck, but I think it is.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Look at all the fresh blood! I don't think sick combo's with persist are particularly satisfying. Then again, I don't think combo decks are very fun in cube. I get that it's awesome to cast a combo, but wins off of a combo are usually pretty no interactive. Like, oops, I found the Pestermite and the Kiki-Jiki, guess you lose! I'ld rather foster an environment with a little more interaction than have them goldfish.
So, bottom line. Anafenza is cool, but gaining infinite life (or dealing infinite damage with Muredrous Redcap) makes for boring gameplay. Depending on which card is more interesting for cube, I would cut the other half of the combo. Melira isn't even interesting as a standalone card, so she's never getting anywhere near my cube. Anafenza certainly looks like she's fun, so it might be time to cut Finks and Redcap from your cube if you add her. (Or, if you think combo decks are healthy for your cube, you can disregard anything I've said here.)
So, bottom line. Anafenza is cool, but gaining infinite life (or dealing infinite damage with Muredrous Redcap) makes for boring gameplay. Depending on which card is more interesting for cube, I would cut the other half of the combo. Melira isn't even interesting as a standalone card, so she's never getting anywhere near my cube. Anafenza certainly looks like she's fun, so it might be time to cut Finks and Redcap from your cube if you add her. (Or, if you think combo decks are healthy for your cube, you can disregard anything I've said here.)
CML
Contributor
kitchen finks is seriously insanely good in cubes like ours. one of the best first picks in my cube, i think. hard-pressed to think what i'd want over it. i think it's better than JTMS
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Somehow I typed isn't when I meant is. Anafenza (as a spirit) is interesting. Anyway, Finks is really good value. I don't know about JtMS, but Finks will always end up in your maindeck, provided you play one of its colors, and it will be one of the best cards in your deck. So, I agree with what I think CML's point is, which is that Finks is not a card that needs support cards that make it even more bonkers than it already is.
Decks with so many small critters often need space for anthems and combat tricks too, though. Not to mention it's a stretch for someone to even draft that many weenies, let alone run all of them.
As promising as it reads, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Collected Company isn't a card. At least, not any more than this is a card, which at least can never whiff completely
We should just not cube broken cards like recurring nightmare
Now that's just wrong. You most definitely can draft broken cards. If people in your community enjoy it and as do you, it harms no one.
On collected company, I'm in the camp that it's not reliable enough. Maybe it can be good in a constructed format where all your low drops are houses, but in cube its just to high variance.
On collected company, I'm in the camp that it's not reliable enough. Maybe it can be good in a constructed format where all your low drops are houses, but in cube its just to high variance.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Given a typical Riptide cube, I'ld say Rasmus's comment is spot on. I'll concede that Recurring Nightmare is fine in a power max cube, but if you like to talk about power max cubes you've come to the wrong forum
Ah, I wouldn't go that far. While it's true that the large majority of cubes on this site don't subscribe to the power max doctrine, I'd actually love to see more people experimenting with that segment of cube design. While I haven't liked any of the high powered cubes that I've seen or played - e.g., ones that includes the likes of Recurring Nightmare, along with some of the other hits on CML's list - that doesn't preclude the possibility that a high quality list exists out there and just hasn't been discovered yet. You'd probably just need to do some radical design to make playing those unfair cards a little more fair, and strip out the bulk of the fair strategies that are wildly outclassed.but if you like to talk about power max cubes you've come to the wrong forum
As long as a cube has solid design principles behind it, and isn't just haphazardly slapped together, or following some cookie cutter template (i.e. "third strongest Boros card in a 630 list, therefore it's in"), it's more than welcome in these parts.
I like running nutty cards for a little. They're a different kind of fun that gets old fast, but they're still fun.