General Fight Club

Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
GenericZero said:
I don't like any of those selesnya cards. Knight of New Alara seems good. Slam good ol' voice of resurgence in there.
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Oh, these are not the only Selesnya cards. It's a multicolor cube after all. I want to make room for two anthem effects in Selesnya, so these are my options. Voice has a completely different effect. Also, I don't own a Voice. I don't own a Knight of New Alara either I guess, but that card is about the price of a Voice of Resurgence cheaper :)
 
Laz

Laz

Developer
Onderzeeboot said:
got another one...

knight of new alara
mirari's wake
collective blessing

Which one is going to win you more games in draft? Pick two for my new multicolor cube.
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In my experience (Scuttle-cube), Knight of New Alara simply reads 'Why not over-extend into a Wrath?', except when it reads 'Take somewhere between 7 and 9 extra damage'. I would need to know more about the cube to pick from them though, they are pretty different cards, and your choice will depend on what you are choosing to emphasise. I had Collective Blessing in a cube for a while, and sure, it smashed open mid-range mirrors, but didn't really do too much else. Mirari's Wake is a really evocative card to see in a pack, since it sets cogs whirring about what you could do with all of that mana. That said, usually the best use is dumping it into mana-sinks, since an archetype that relies upon doubled mana probably won't have the redundancy of effects available to be particularly consistent.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
There'll be about 16 creatures that share both colors with the Knight, though since I push five 3-color combinations, that includes both Bant and Abzan creatures, and 3 of those 16 (one each in Selesnya, Bant and Abzan) will be more expensive than Knight. Assuming you're sharing base GW with only one other player, and that player is in a different guild than you are, you'll end up with roughly 6 playable GW+ creatures that are 4 mana or less other than Knight of New Alara. I guess if you put it like that the card sounds a lot less awesome...

Edit: Oh yeah, derp. I already run GW Ajani. I guess Mirari's Wake is the best other Selesnya anthem then.
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
Without ever having played it, here's my vote for Collective Blessing! I'm a sucker for overcosted anthems that give huge bonuses, though.

From the second group, I like Smiter, even if it's essentially a vanilla 4/4 almost all of the time in cube.
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Yes, but if you had to pick one.

Goblin guide has been considered one of the best aggro one drops ever printed. Has it been dethroned by an uncommon from Khans?
 
FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
Goblin Guide gets unconditional 2 power and free information at the cost of sometimes giving out free cards. Giving out free cards is a pretty big deal, but getting an extra two power attack on top of your Isamaru is great.

Swiftspear gives you less reliable power, but never gives up card advantage. It also can attack with higher toughness or doubleproc to get past guys that goblin guide gets stonewalled by.

If your cube expects aggro decks to kill people still holding 4 cards in there hand, then Goblin Guide is the better card. Otherwise, Swiftspear is probably a little better. I think under most circumstances running both is the best choice, but if I had to pick, in general it would be Guide for monolith cubes and Swiftspear for others.
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
I think on raw power level, it's hard to top Goblin Guide. It's perhaps the most aggressive one-drop ever printed, and it fits into any ultra-aggressive deck that's predominately red.

That being said, it might not be what your cube environment is looking for. I actually cut it from my own list a month or two back, as I move red away from the burn archetype - I axed Hellspark Elemental and Hell's Thunder while I was at it - and towards RDW-style swarm aggro. Those decks tend to have a slightly longer clock than burn decks, so the card disadvantage from Goblin Guide can be a concern.

It's curious, because Swiftspear is more of a burn card than a swarm aggro card herself. But she fits pleasingly into a Delver / Young Pyromancer shell, so I think I'll give her a shot. If you don't support that particular archetype, though, I imagine Goblin Guide is still a better all-purpose beater.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Oh,I love Armadillo Cloak, from the (old) art to the flavor text! It doesn't help you if you're close to death though, so there's that.

Jason Waddell said:
Can you tell us a bit more about what you're trying to do with GW? Maybe that would help.
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Sure! Selesnya was the hardest guild to pick and choose for. I got various themes going on that I want to support, while at the same time wanting to offer powerful cards to lure you into drafting a multicolor deck. Themes I want to support and other considerations are:

1. +1/+1 counters. This theme runs through the whole cube, but is especially strong in Abzan colors. It's kind of hard to find good, playable GW effects for this theme though, but Ajani prevails.
2. Lifegain. There'll be two Ajani's Pridemate in the cube because I really like those fellers.
3. Humans. BW is especially good at this, and since GW pairs with those colors to form Abzan, I want a few humans in my Selesnya section to complement those Champion of the Parishes and that Xathrid Necromancer.
4. Enchantments. Abzan has an enchantment subtheme, including two Grim Guardian (who also happen to play nicely with Doran, the Siege Tower and the zombie tribe), Eidolon of Blossoms and a constellation version of Sigil of the Empty Throne. I want some enchantments in my GW section.
5. Vigilance. Stoic Angel is in my Bant section, and while a cool card on its own, it shines best when there is a little support.
6. Fun. I want cards that are fun to play with (though not necessarily fun to play against, as long as they're not miserable to).
7. Availability. I don't own every card, so if I have to buy a card it has to really add something to its colors. The most important cards I don't own in GW are Voice of Resurgence and Knight of the Reliquary.
8. Curve. On top of all that, I want people to be able to curve out. Mono-color (and hybrid) has to provide the one-drops, but the gold section should slightly favor lower mana costs. I want aggro decks to be able to exist, which means I want most of the cards at 2-4 mana to be playable in attacking (aggro) decks. I also want to support midrange and control decks a bit, so there should be some value for those decks at 4-6 mana.

Edit:
9. Blink. Whoops, almost forgot this one. Bant midrange has a blink theme (Venser, Roon, Brago), so I want some blinkable creatures.
 
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