Thirst for Knowledge with legs, not bad
Sets [EOE] Edge of Eternities
- Thread starter Morphling
- Start date
It's a shame they made affinity so busted. The artifact lands are objectively cool and very clean designs.
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So, new cube project: the basic land box only has copies of Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod, Vault of Whispers, Great Furnace and Tree of Tales, no basic lands
long as your red section has 5+ copies of Price of Progress I'm there
got some pretty sick leaks for this set, although I don't really know how to evaluate one of them (the best kind of leak). putting this all in spoiler tags in case anyone's anti-leak (is that a thing here? do I have to care?)
limited uncommons! never mind that one's a rare and one's a common! you get what I mean! huge fan of the Shepherd, like not even "for a modern limited uncommon", but in actual formats. just feels like a pretty good rate to warp, get Plains, recast on 5 + get a one-drop (and sometimes you get two one drops because you don't need a land!)
yep, it's not Springbloom Druid
especially this last one, but all three of these feel like "we made some rares for edh where when you [DO THING] you get to [DO OTHER THING]" and honestly I'm kind of sick of that kind of design, but people must love it because they go right in my Blurglenoth deck and so on, and I'm just... kinda tired. maybe it's just anhedonia or depression. you know how it is.
...and I perk riiiiiiiight back up when I see something like this. I had a buddy immediately say "wow they already obsoleted Stock Up" and no, not even close, this is worse with nonland ramp, this is worse on turn 3, this is probably even worse on turn 5 even though it's an instant, this is worse in a deck with sketchy mana because you have to pay the second U to get the second card. it does make Pillage the Bog look stupid most of the time by virtue of being an instant even if it costs more and sees less, and even there it's a conversation worth having and I just really enjoy when we get new, and different, and neither better nor worse than!
limited uncommons! never mind that one's a rare and one's a common! you get what I mean! huge fan of the Shepherd, like not even "for a modern limited uncommon", but in actual formats. just feels like a pretty good rate to warp, get Plains, recast on 5 + get a one-drop (and sometimes you get two one drops because you don't need a land!)
yep, it's not Springbloom Druid
especially this last one, but all three of these feel like "we made some rares for edh where when you [DO THING] you get to [DO OTHER THING]" and honestly I'm kind of sick of that kind of design, but people must love it because they go right in my Blurglenoth deck and so on, and I'm just... kinda tired. maybe it's just anhedonia or depression. you know how it is.
...and I perk riiiiiiiight back up when I see something like this. I had a buddy immediately say "wow they already obsoleted Stock Up" and no, not even close, this is worse with nonland ramp, this is worse on turn 3, this is probably even worse on turn 5 even though it's an instant, this is worse in a deck with sketchy mana because you have to pay the second U to get the second card. it does make Pillage the Bog look stupid most of the time by virtue of being an instant even if it costs more and sees less, and even there it's a conversation worth having and I just really enjoy when we get new, and different, and neither better nor worse than!
now, my entire large post about it aside, I'm definitely going to be grabbing a foil Consult the Star Charts sooner rather than later - though I think it's more of an Astrologian's Planisphere "get one several weeks after prerelease" (i.e. buy yours right now friends while they're still like $3) and not a Cori-Steel Cutter "already missed the boat if you didn't slam the preorder button" (buy those too they're like $7 and could be way, way higher in two years)
My problem with that kind of card is that WotC has been printing so damn many of them (because they go right in someone's Blurglenoth deck) that they don't really feel special or interesting anymore.
This thing is absurdly aggressive. A 2/2 haste for
that's immune to sorcery-speed removal for a turn and that you can cast from your graveyard is a lot, and 2 life is pretty cheap.Dang, I like that one. Reminds me of Reinforced Ronin. It's better in some ways, worse in others, better on balance I think. I'm sad it's BB, two pips always kills stuff like that for me, but that's just my personal dislike. Would much rather have had 1B 2/1 for instance!
I dunno, I kinda like the idea of it being a super-aggressive 1-drop that rewards heavy black investment by letting you play it defensively. Think of it kinda like...
suicide black 1-drop -
Creature - Example Creature
Kicker
Haste
When ~ enters, if it wasn't kicked, you lose 2 life and ~ phases out at the beginning of the next end step.
You may cast ~ unkicked from your graveyard.
2/2
suicide black 1-drop -
Creature - Example Creature
Kicker
Haste
When ~ enters, if it wasn't kicked, you lose 2 life and ~ phases out at the beginning of the next end step.
You may cast ~ unkicked from your graveyard.
2/2
Huh, I don't think they have. That's cool!
I honestly quite like this one! I understand that it's a self fueling design and am not the biggest fan of those either (mostly the ones the are draw engines) but I feel like the mill is minor enough, that it only contributes a bit to the power of the card. I like Oracle of Mul daya a lot but the 2/2 stat line has kept me from including it. A 2/4 for 4 mama is by no means a strong body but at least it can do something in combat.
especially this last one, but all three of these feel like "we made some rares for edh where when you [DO THING] you get to [DO OTHER THING]" and honestly I'm kind of sick of that kind of design, but people must love it because they go right in my Blurglenoth deck and so on, and I'm just... kinda tired. maybe it's just anhedonia or depression. you know how it is.
When does the landfall trigger really matter? If you play fetches, you don't technically need it, as you can always replay the fetch. If you are a graveyard deck (which admittedly almost all decks in my cube are), then the mill is a nice upside, but you probably already have lands in the grave. I guess the mill is most relevant, if you are a deck without fetches or other self-mill, where it has to fuel itself.
And it does fit very nicely in some of my archetype, that have cards like these:
Overall I'm looking forward to this one
.It feels awful to mill the thing you were gonna fetch so it encourages some fiddly bullshit with fetchlands responding to the self-mill trigger Hedron Crab style*. That's my only actual mechanical complaint about the card - and it does a lot of stuff, I can see why you're looking forward to it! - but my feelings-based complaint stands, I'm just so tired.
Although, worth thinking about: Is it a self-fueling draw engine? How close is your cube to "mill a card" being "draw a card"? Obviously no cube, heck, not even most Constructed decks, hit that line... but closer every day, right?
*am I the only one here who played Hedron Crab with Crypt of Agadeem + Extractor Demon + Fatestitcher in Standard in 2010? yes?
That Icetill Explorer would be incredible for the cube I'm designing right now, except I'm filtering for "usd<=1" so I can play unsleeved. I get the feeling this big bugfolk is going into every Muldrotha, every Windgrace, every Gitrog, and dare I say every Hazezon deck on planet Earth, so I might have to wait for a second printing, lol.
this is the true essence of cube and I salute you
(got a couple buddies who play $30 Vintage and it's amazing how cheap all the stuff that's been reprinted a few times + isn't good in edh is)
Is it really that bad though? If it mills your last fetchable land then it definitely sucks. But otherwise you can just replay the land from the bin!
You're definitely right here and I think I underestimated the landfall trigger. One fetch alone means 4 cards milled, every turn! It still is kinda similar to Oracle of Mul Daya in a way. The Oracle is so cool because it "draws" you lands off the top and makes it much more likely that you draw gas. While the mantid does thin out your deck it does not improve your top deck, so you are more likely than with the Oracle to draw more lands, which you don't really want anymore since you'd rather have them in the graveyard.
To be fair, you're not wrong and replaying the milled land from the bin is a failsafe... but I'm always thinking in the "need this land drop to provide a mana this turn, and I only have one fetchable source of X color in my deck for this fetch" mode that is not necessarily the one that comes up most often!
