General Fight Club
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
What's the point of these cards? I don't really see a discard theme or anything that would lead players in a direction in which they would want a card like these options outside of a couple of reanimation spells in black. These cards aren't particularly great reanimation support so I don't think that's their purpose, but I'm not 100% sure.vs
Without context and just looking at your list, I like none of these and think the best option is either a cantrip or card with cycling. Perhaps Thought Scour or Mental Note would be cool options- they can both fill the graveyard for your reanimation cards and flashback spells at a very reasonable rate that isn't parasitic towards those archetypes.
yeah it really depends what you’re looking for out of the slot, and also what you’re already running
I've been impressed by Occult Epiphany as well if the goal is to discard, as it gives you some board presence too.
Otherwise, I agree with japahn, use the one that pushes the theme you are targeting.
Otherwise, I agree with japahn, use the one that pushes the theme you are targeting.
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To be honest, even at higher resolution on Arena I struggle to grok what's actually happening with the art on Thirst for Knowledge. If I read the flavor text for context, it looks like we have an underwater perspective looking up at somebody standing above the surface, maybe on a dock or something. And they're looking down on a trinket, some kind of drowned secret that's slowly sinking into the depths.
Now that I think about it, the art might also be homaging Make a Wish / Grapple with the Past.
EDIT: Wow, I managed to mix up Thirst for Discovery and Knowledge. Apologies to anyone who ended up even more confused.
Now that I think about it, the art might also be homaging Make a Wish / Grapple with the Past.
EDIT: Wow, I managed to mix up Thirst for Discovery and Knowledge. Apologies to anyone who ended up even more confused.
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i did not know this art existed, it is SO GOOD tho
The best TfK art was on Mirrodin anyways
It’s like the others don’t even put up a fight.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
The Tezzeret art looks so unnatural, might be Francisco's worst MtG art, honestly. The flat face, the spindly, elongated metal hand. Unlike the old art, it doesn't even imply thirst, Tezz is just waving (?) at the potion. I like the FNM promo art a lot better, but it's still inferior to the original art, because there's no real connection to the name, and the tie-in to the card mechancis is only tenuous. You can see the "knowledge" (supposing that is what's flowing in from the top) overflowing through the eyes, representing the discard part, but where does this art reference the artifact part? The original art nails it, in my opinion. Even though I find it aesthetically less pleasing than the FNM art, it matches the name the best, and it oozes artifact-related flavor with all of the stuff in the background.
Perfectly expressed!
My comment was a joke because we’re in the ‘Fight Club’ thread.
I'm switching gears on my cube rebuild and want to incorporate occasionals into the mix. The plan is to have 3x 16-card packs, with 360 cards from the main cube and 24 occasionals, 2 in the first pack, 1 in the second, and 0 in the third, just the way @japahn described and for pretty much the exact same reasons. To get there, I'm cutting cards down from the originally-420-friendly-sized cube and shoving the cuts into the occasionals (probably. We'll see. Some of them might just get cut.).
This has worked really well, but I'm having trouble with my green creatures and need to make three changes. Which three out of the following list do you think would work best as occasionals? I know, it's less of a fight club than a directed melee, but it didn't seem to fit elsewhere.
This has worked really well, but I'm having trouble with my green creatures and need to make three changes. Which three out of the following list do you think would work best as occasionals? I know, it's less of a fight club than a directed melee, but it didn't seem to fit elsewhere.
My immediate thoughts are Ghalta, Contortionist Troupe, and Augur of Autumn, but I can see arguments for keeping each of them in--Ghalta is a conditionally-playable reanimation target, the Contortionist is a generic value machine but can provide a fun subgame with Coven, and while the Augur is a nice bit of glue it's similarly generic. The cube features graveyard themes, lands, spells, and a splash of 5C incentives, which I understand is a little bit of everything. However, the idea is to keep decks emergent and to prune *towards* archetypes rather than starting *from* them.
Besides Ghalta, I would nominate Jolrael, Deeproot Champion, Woodland Wanderer and maybe Sylvan Safekeeper. Those seem the most buildaround-ish or to be something I wouldn't want to see every draft.
Whatever you do, don't just put cards into your occasionals that you couldn't fit into the core. If it just becomes "cards for your cube you like a little bit less", you'd be better off probably just making your cube bigger.
Whatever you do, don't just put cards into your occasionals that you couldn't fit into the core. If it just becomes "cards for your cube you like a little bit less", you'd be better off probably just making your cube bigger.
tbh i’m questioning why you’re not running a LOT of these in the main cube. but gun to my head it’s Jolrael, Mandrills, Excavator
Sorry, I think I must have explained things poorly--blacksmithy, these are currently in the main cube, but I'm shifting three to occasionals.
To your point about not just using occasionals as a dumping ground, ravnic, I totally agree! However, in a way, all the cards in a 360/384< cube like this one are already occasionals. The problem is that while I generally like the idea of cards showing up an uncertain amount of the time there are certain effects that I want to be certain I keep at a baseline--losing two B/R lands due to random chance seems like it would screw people in that color combo over unnecessarily and not in an interesting way. To avoid that I'm moving to a broad occasionals system, necessitating some shifts. Given that I've already vetted these cards, I figure I should start by moving some to the full-time occasionals slot rather than nuking it to the ground and starting over, especially as I've done that three times now and just want to start testing it already.
To your point about not just using occasionals as a dumping ground, ravnic, I totally agree! However, in a way, all the cards in a 360/384< cube like this one are already occasionals. The problem is that while I generally like the idea of cards showing up an uncertain amount of the time there are certain effects that I want to be certain I keep at a baseline--losing two B/R lands due to random chance seems like it would screw people in that color combo over unnecessarily and not in an interesting way. To avoid that I'm moving to a broad occasionals system, necessitating some shifts. Given that I've already vetted these cards, I figure I should start by moving some to the full-time occasionals slot rather than nuking it to the ground and starting over, especially as I've done that three times now and just want to start testing it already.
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Rootwalla, Archer, Constrictor, Mother Bear and Brawn seem significantly weaker than the rest, so if this is a sample of the average power level of the cube I wouldn't run them. Regardless, they are more roleplayers than directional.
In general you want cards that are going to be very good in the right deck. The best examples there are Sylvan Safekeeper, Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, Golgari Grave-Troll, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, and Ramunap Excavator. The others are good stuff in general and don't really push for a specific direction. They are alright in occasionals, though - they will just feel like variations of the core.
Which ones of those you include should probably take into account what you and your playgroup would be excited to build around. If I was in your playgroup, I would be excited to build around Jolrael, Ghalta, and Safekeeper.
In general you want cards that are going to be very good in the right deck. The best examples there are Sylvan Safekeeper, Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, Golgari Grave-Troll, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, and Ramunap Excavator. The others are good stuff in general and don't really push for a specific direction. They are alright in occasionals, though - they will just feel like variations of the core.
Which ones of those you include should probably take into account what you and your playgroup would be excited to build around. If I was in your playgroup, I would be excited to build around Jolrael, Ghalta, and Safekeeper.
vs These two cards aren't that similar. But which one do you like more? Assume Goblin Welder is already in.
I like Daretti more because he overlaps with archetypes other than just artifacts. I ran him for years primarily as part of a discard package, for example.
These two cards aren't that similar. But which one do you like more? Assume Goblin Welder is already in.
Daretti. It's an actual engine whereas Engineer is a support piece. If I see Daretti early in a draft I can slide into an Artifacts shell knowing I have the means to cheat out guys ahead of curve, but I'll only pick up Engineer if I'm already in the deck.
These two cards aren't that similar. But which one do you like more? Assume Goblin Welder is already in.