General Fight Club
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
Grotag Night-Runner is cute but I doubt that he would get many hits in as a 2/3 that starts attacking on t4. He will get blocked if that is what you are hoping for.
Spikeshot Goblin on the other hand is quite sweet because the floor isn't too bad for lower power levels. Removing x/1s or pushing through the last points of damage in a boardstall can often be relevant. Once buffed or equiped it can become an engine on its own.
He also has some other friends at cmc1 that you might already be familiar with.
Spikeshot Goblin on the other hand is quite sweet because the floor isn't too bad for lower power levels. Removing x/1s or pushing through the last points of damage in a boardstall can often be relevant. Once buffed or equiped it can become an engine on its own.
He also has some other friends at cmc1 that you might already be familiar with.
VS
Shock Battle Royale. I don't think there is a wrong option here other than 7th edition white border. I like Mystical Archive the best but I wanted to know what you all thought.
Personally, my ranking is:
Mystical Archive>Stronghold>Aether Revolt~=M12>Onslaught>7th Edition.
Honestly I'm not a big fan of any Shock printing except for the Archive one, which is badass. Very cool comic-book-like cell shading style. Very dramatic lighting and composition. (Very) I don't dislike the border. Very "art-nouveau-esque". Very good.
If I was forced to choose one from amongst the others, I would probably also go with Stronghold.
Of the more modern borders, M12.
If I was forced to choose one from amongst the others, I would probably also go with Stronghold.
Of the more modern borders, M12.
Stronghold, no question. Great lightning, composition and pose. I also like the colours and it has a great flavour text.
7h Edition: Awful, clumsy and amateurish.
Onsalught: Like most of the block, ugly and poorly shaped. They didn't have an art director at the time and it shows. Funny flavour text, though.
M12: Not bad. However, the pose, coloring and details are not as good as Stronghold's. The bit of blood and the guy grabbing his heart.
Kaladesh: Forgettable. Seems to represent the weapon more than the actual effect. Ok flavour.
Mystical archives: Neat, but it does not fit the aesthethics of the rest of the game on any level. Also yet another card drenched in "cool factor", which is tired and overplayed. Dumb flavour text.
7h Edition: Awful, clumsy and amateurish.
Onsalught: Like most of the block, ugly and poorly shaped. They didn't have an art director at the time and it shows. Funny flavour text, though.
M12: Not bad. However, the pose, coloring and details are not as good as Stronghold's. The bit of blood and the guy grabbing his heart.
Kaladesh: Forgettable. Seems to represent the weapon more than the actual effect. Ok flavour.
Mystical archives: Neat, but it does not fit the aesthethics of the rest of the game on any level. Also yet another card drenched in "cool factor", which is tired and overplayed. Dumb flavour text.
Onslaught has some nostalgia, but choosing Psychatog, one of the least Shock'able x/2s of all time to depict was weird. The art also looks weird.
I don't like any of them much, but I'd probably run the Kaladesh one because it has a low-key vibe, which embraces the "worse bolt" stigma.
Mystical archives looks great to me in a vacuum, but it's too different from the rest of the cards for me to run. If you don't mind the different color scheme, that'd be the 1st choice.
I don't like any of them much, but I'd probably run the Kaladesh one because it has a low-key vibe, which embraces the "worse bolt" stigma.
Mystical archives looks great to me in a vacuum, but it's too different from the rest of the cards for me to run. If you don't mind the different color scheme, that'd be the 1st choice.
I don't really get all the hate for the 7th edition art?
It seems to be a cool painting of one wizard shocking his opponent in a magical duel. Most fitting. And it is dynamic and colorfully depicted. I know that people dislike white borders for some reason and I agree that 7th edition had a few really bad artworks, but this one? I'd give it a 7 out of 10 easily.
At least looks much much better imo than the skinnyfat steampunk dude leaning on a wall, showing off his weird weapon, while in the background, we see another wall.
It seems to be a cool painting of one wizard shocking his opponent in a magical duel. Most fitting. And it is dynamic and colorfully depicted. I know that people dislike white borders for some reason and I agree that 7th edition had a few really bad artworks, but this one? I'd give it a 7 out of 10 easily.
At least looks much much better imo than the skinnyfat steampunk dude leaning on a wall, showing off his weird weapon, while in the background, we see another wall.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Perhaps this lets us get past the white border issue
I don't really get all the hate for the 7th edition art?
It seems to be a cool painting of one wizard shocking his opponent in a magical duel. Most fitting. And it is dynamic and colorfully depicted. I know that people dislike white borders for some reason and I agree that 7th edition had a few really bad artworks, but this one? I'd give it a 7 out of 10 easily.
At least looks much much better imo than the skinnyfat steampunk dude leaning on a wall, showing off his weird weapon, while in the background, we see another wall.
For me, it's a combination of the White Border and the art pool of Shock being surprisingly good. If the 7th edition art had a black border printing, it would be a compliment the art better, but it would only surpass the Onslaught art in my view.
I think the Mystical Archive shock has kind of an Art-Deco feel to it, which is something I am a big fan of. It also looks great in foil. However, I understand why people think it doesn't fit with other cards- the border is a bit outlandish. It's been nice for Strixhaven limited because it makes the archive cards stand out a bit during the draft and helps to emphasize the good ones during gameplay. However, the feel is a bit out there for Constructed purposes.
Also I realize I forgot to include the Japanese Mystical Archive version of Shock, which is cool, but I wouldn't consider it anyway since I don't run non-english cards.
vs. vs. Of these three, I think Quandrix Cultivator is the most fun and the most interesting, and probably the most powerful in a Cube context. Growth Spiral is a good card, but it's power level in Cube is not as high as it was in a Standard format with Bant Control and Wilderness Reclamation combo decks.
At the risk of sounding crazy... Eureka Moment would be my vote, assuming that you're doing top-deck or card draw stuff in 
.
Look at it this way — all three of these cards want you to play them as soon as possible, since ramping is best when it's early and Explore effects are best when you have more cards in your hand. But let's say you drafted one of the cards while otherwise drafting, and you want to splash green for it.
.Look at it this way — all three of these cards want you to play them as soon as possible, since ramping is best when it's early and Explore effects are best when you have more cards in your hand. But let's say you drafted one of the cards while otherwise drafting
, and you want to splash green for it.- Growth Spiral wants your deck to have available by turn 2. Since you're also going to want a source of , it really pressures you to pick up dual lands and play three colors (because otherwise having to have on T2 is a pretty big ask).
- Eureka Moment wants your deck to have available by turn 4. That's not terribly unreasonable, and it's much more likely that you might have made a treasure or dropped a mana rock by T4.
- Quandrix Cultivator wants your deck to have available by turn 4. At that point, you're more like a blue deck that's splashing red and green.
I think the value ETB of Cultivator is strongest.
I think Spiral and Moment complement each other very well. Some sort of GU Flash control where you can Leak/Spiral or Mystic Snake/Moment sounds cool. Counter them or ramp into your finishers. I've been intrigued with this idea lately for GU as I experiment with nonblack designs.
I think Spiral and Moment complement each other very well. Some sort of GU Flash control where you can Leak/Spiral or Mystic Snake/Moment sounds cool. Counter them or ramp into your finishers. I've been intrigued with this idea lately for GU as I experiment with nonblack designs.
I personally like Eureka Moment the best of the three because drawing two cards is a nice effect on a 4-cost instant, and then you get to drop a land in. I'm not certain that I rank it higher than the card that didn't make the list (because drawing 3 >> drawing 2), but instant speed is nice. I think the effect on the cultivator is pretty dang boring and an effect I'd rather let anyone toy around with via solemn simulacrum.
What I dislike about all those gold ramp spells is, that they don't fix your mana. Especially with land based ramp that is a nice bonus. That being said, if you wanted to support 2-color decks explicitly, stuff like Quandrix Cultivator might do a good job. As a comparable example, I run these to support mono green:
But I also have BoP, Rampant Growth and such, which appeal to more decks.
But I also have BoP, Rampant Growth and such, which appeal to more decks.
They fix your mana as much as seeing more cards and having more lands does, but I mostly agree. You could also argue that you aren't fixing anything in a monocolored deck, for what it's worth. I do think Rampant Growth is the much more flexible card. A lot of Gx decks want that and/or Farseek.
Like I said in my last post, I think the big deal here is that your blue deck can ramp at instant speed. If you don't have a GU deck that wants to take advantage of that, then Spiral and Moment's value goes down quite a bit and you're better off Farseeking into Cultivator or something.
Like I said in my last post, I think the big deal here is that your blue deck can ramp at instant speed. If you don't have a GU deck that wants to take advantage of that, then Spiral and Moment's value goes down quite a bit and you're better off Farseeking into Cultivator or something.
Farseek, Nature's Lore, Wood Elves, and Three Visits are all neat because they can fix for Typed Duals, making them some of the most powerful fixing ramp spells in the game if you have the correct land package. I especially love them with the Triomes!