General Fight Club

[TrainmasterGT]

I have the most difficult decision to make. I decided to go down on gold cards, which is more or less easy for me in 9/10 cases, but it also means I have to cut one card from my gruul section, one of two who work with gruul madness (as I don't think having both gold card be signposts for the same deck would do my cube's variance any justice). But which one?



I like Gallia since she lets me discard cards for free on turn three, that's Wild Mongrel-rate and enables agressive starts, which is cool. But Madness doesn't always have to be super aggressive, Stormbind has been very good in aggro too and I think it has more application outside of that specific deck.

Please help, I feel unable to make a decission here.

I was about to say Gallia of the Endless Dance since she seems broadly more applicable to a wider range of decks with more interensting synergies than stormbind, but I have a better hot take: you shouldn't play either of these cards right now.

Since you're shrinking your gold section, now would likely be a good time to test some new cards that fit with your archetypes instead of trying to choose a favorite among cards you've already played. Specifically, this guy:


This card is really popular because it scales, but I like it even more here than normal. Unlike Gallie and Stormbind, Kavu gives you the ability to discard the card you want to cast for madness, making it an extremely effective madness enabler. It can also be applicable to temur and jund madness builds since it grows with the number of basic land types you have in play. In addition, it provides a little bit of graveyard hate, which can be relevant against flashback spells and the like. It even comes in the cool retro frame!

Basically, Territorial Kavu has the positive aggressive atributes of Gallia without the Satyr flavor text, the discarding prowess of Stormbind without the random clause, and several unique glue elements in it's own right. This card is a great synergy piece and now is the perfect time to give it a try since you're already downsizing your gold section and need to cut a different madness enabler. Cut both and give this a try for now!

 

[Humpty_Dumpty]

I like Gallia since she lets me discard cards for free on turn three...

She has to attack with two other creatures, so you do need to curve out for this to work.

Despite this, I also run Gallia as a card for Jund madness, as she also overlaps with Naya go-wide. Xenagos, the Reveller and Satyr Wayfinder negate the trinket text.

 

[japahn]

Territorial Kavu is extremely wordy and the design is all over the place, but mechanically it does seem like the best option. I'd say try it if you can stomach it.

Do you really need an RG discard outlet though? Wouldn't a R or G discard outlet be more flexible, since the theme is in other colors as well?

If it's really between Gaalia and Stormbind, I prefer Stormbind because it has a much lower threshold to "activate". Attacking with 3 creatures is a high bar.

 

[LadyMapi]

...what?

 

[Velrun]

Train is right. Go with Train.

But don’t get the old border for this card. It doesn’t suit it. The design is way too modern for it to fit the old border.

A good choice for old border is this guy



Reading those card names like Shivan Dragon and Black Lotus just looks better on the original border.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

The old gold border will never look good to my eyes

 

[Velrun]

The old gold border will never look good to my eyes

That’s fair. Opinions differ. I always liked it. It feels like it belongs in Aladdin’s magical world.

 

[ravnic]

Thank you guys for all the responses. It's still tricky though

Kavu is cool, but I don't really like the domain in a format that wants ypu to play two or only one color even. I fear this might mislead drafters more than Gallia's Satyr line. If Kavu was had just the attack triggered ability, maybe as a 2/3 or 3/2, I would play him. Also, most of my fixing lands don't have basic land types, so he'd be super akward in a hand wittmh two mountains and a Karplusan Forest.

Currently I tend to pick Gallia. As @TrainmasterGT and @Humpty_Dumpty pointed out, she also synergizes with token/gowide strategies, which often crossover with other gruul aggro strategies incidentally. Also, she just seems more splashy and "draw two cards" is a wonderful thing to say.

I totally agree with Stormbinds advocats though that there are good arguments for it.

 

[TekLazar]

vs
I feel like duskshell is just the better and more pickable card,
but I don't particularly like the idea of a 2 mana 1/4 stalling the board while also playing backup

 

[sigh]

Duskshell Crawler from among those two I suppose. My "green creature that puts +1 counters on things" of choice is

 

[TekLazar]

Yeah I think Contortionist Troupe is a bit more my speed, thanks!

 

[ravnic]

vs.

which one is the cooler, more interesting token/sac topend?

 

[sigh]

IMO the Plaguelord. Fallen Angel is pretty one-dimensional (sac creatures to get thicc and crash in). Plaguelord even has the minigame of figuring out if you should sac the lord itself.

 

[inscho]

I prefer Fallen Angel, although Plaguelord was king when damage was stacked. It gives the sacrifice deck a different path to victory, and I like how it pressures the opponent once it hits play.….sometimes the sac deck feels like it’s only path to victory is death by a thousand cuts.

 

[Sheltem]

Plaguelord makes combat math incredibly difficult. If you have players with analysis paralysis you‘ll better take the Fallen Angel.
Though I prefer the Lord, too.

 

[Dom Harvey]

 

[sigh]

Do you want a huge flying beater or do you want the slow and potentially fragile card advantage on a respectable flyer?

 

[Dom Harvey]

Isn't that just reciting the text on the cards

 

[sigh]

yes, because they do two very different things. what style of card do you want?

Is blue/whatever a beatdown deck where getting the fattest dummies on the table and using your spells to push the advantage is the priority?

Is blue/whatever a recursive deck where you are trying to get as many Murmuring Mystic and prowess triggers as possible?

Is blue/whatever self mill and you just want more Tombstalker variants to mop up milled GYs?

Is blue/whatever a burn deck where you are just trying to get to the magical quality of burn pointed towards face?

 

[Jason Waddell]

I feel like Murktide is a lot of text for what will often functionally just be a 1-mana discounted, colorshifted Tombstalker.

I'd rather include forager of the two.

 

[inscho]

I kind of don't love either of these, but I'm running Forager over Regent.

I prefer Forager as it easily squeezes into my blue-based dredgey tempo decks as a UU 3/3 flyer. Exiling all your business spells from your graveyard is a real knock against Regent in my cube. With Forager you only need to exile one spell to get value. I also think it's the more interesting of the two since it forces you to meaningfully assess your position in a game. The more spells you exile with Forager, the more of a target it paints on its head.

 

[Humpty_Dumpty]

I’ve not played the Regent, but enjoy having the Whale in my cube. It fits in both blue self-mill and spells matter decks, and being able to recast spells is more interesting than being big. I prefer the art for the whale.

 

[Sheltem]

Do you want a huge flying beater or do you want the slow and potentially fragile card advantage on a respectable flyer?

Or potentially go with neither one.
I‘d prefer

It can do the same sort of tricks like the other cards by bringing back spells and getting cheaper but can recur itself, too.

 

[sigh]

Unless you have other experiences with it, that seems nigh impossible to cast from my perspective.

 

[LadyMapi]

I vote Forager, because I have a love and respect for the dumb flying whale (it's so happy).

Also, like, Murktide is currently $20-ish at the cheapest (it's very popular in Modern), while Forager is less than half a buck. And I'm not sure that Murktide would be 40 times better for your format.

My real vote is for Living Lore, but it's probably too weak for your format.