Vindictive Lynch into
Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a lot of damage.
From my experience in standard,
Fevered Visions is probably best in a deck that wants to be casting a lot of spells (Burn, Monastery Mentor, Jeskai Ascendancy Shenanigans) or be in a shell that wants to make turn cards into other resources. Some decklists for consideration.
Fevered Visions also just does so much damage if your opponent can't empty their hand.
okay but Cube isn't really the same as Constructed and your payoff for "getting there" is a cost-prohibitive
Howling Mine that does a poor
Sulfuric Vortex impression against Villain when they're already on the backfoot, by nature of being unable to keep less than 3 cards in their hand despite a constant stream of potentially cheap spells and lands to fix their mana screw off this cost-prohibitive
Howling Mine that you can in no way temporarily disable for them (which was, if I recall, always one of the huge constructed appeals of
Howling Mine, that was never particularly successfully translated to cube). Even setting aside the whole, Cube isn't Constructed thingie, I'm pretty sure most of those Constructed decks are hoping to draw multiples, where it certainly gets a lot better, which is
another thing that's not happening in cube.
Don't get me wrong, it looks like a great card in a best-case scenario of
Counterburn with enough unconditional counterspells and big burn to lock away any game, but I'm not trying to look for the best-case scenario.
When I look at cards, I'm asking:
- whether the card looks fun/exciting, or if it fills a nuts-n-bolts gap in the card pool (Fevered Visions passes the fun/exciting bar, but it's not filling a critical gap per se),
- what deck(s) the card fits well into (a Counterburn-style control deck, maybe, but I don't like handing out cards in a control shell personally, so Pass... or a "spells-matter tempo deck" that is too delicate as-is to be giving the opponent free cards, so Pass),
- and how the card might perform in a match when
- you're ahead (highly useful, low risk),
- at parity (useful, but high-risk),
- or behind (you know there's a "concede" option, right?)
The "ahead" scenario matters the least, and the "parity"/"behind" scenario's importance depends on the type of card it is. As an "engine"-style card, I'm more comfortable prioritizing how it does at "parity", since most engines suffer slightly when you're behind, but even at parity, I'm not impressed, and would likely never run it, personally. That's not to say that you can't, or another drafter might not! But knowing my group, it would go unplayed, and I can't imagine it working out well when it did get played, because it doesn't seem to have a home in my format.
As for
Vindictive Lich into
Gray Merchant of Asphodel, that's... 3 damage + 5 more once you find a sac outlet, but is mono-black
Gray Merchant of Asphodel combo really looking for that as a piece? I was under the impression that style of deck wants a lot of
symbols in their casting costs, and, given how troublesome that can be for a well-balanced cube to frontload into the 2- and 3-cmc slots, was a sure thing to look to fill at 4cmc, where you have spicy options like
Nekrataal,
Skinrender,
Entomber Exarch, or even
Braids, Cabal Minion. Why would I want
Vindictive Lich in this role? Because I already have a sac outlet? I guess that's a really quick way to end the game with recursive effects, but I'd rather do that with
Gray Merchant of Asphodel directly, personally; it seems far more stylish and fulfilling. That, and I don't particularly think
Lava Axe is a fun cube card effect, and being able to cast it repeatedly only makes it go
down in my estimation, not up.
Again: by all means - run what you'd like, it's your format. And if it's working great for you: I'm happy. At the end of the day, all that matters is if you're enjoying what you're doing. But "
Fevered Visions looks like a bad cube card and a draft trap" isn't really a hill I care to die on; it's just not that important of a card to keep out or get into a format. If you disagree with me, I heartily welcome anyone who runs it to PM me a decklist every time it gets drafted and does well. Maybe you can convert me in the long run!
That said, I've exhausted my interest in theorycrafting over it, so, I've said my peace, and I hope someone finds it illuminating as to my specific complaints.
vs 
