General Fight Club

As someone who doesn't lean as hard into flicker as a whole archetype, this ends up being a bailout upside more often than it becomes oppressive.
If you've got graveyard elements in your cube, some amount of your interaction exiles, and probably a healthy amount of it.

There's a decent risk to actually putting a 5 drop in your deck, I'm okay with giving them some insurance for that.

Obv this whole math changes if either a) flicker is a common occurrence or b) a 5 drop is just not a risky include at all.

Yeah that’s nice.
It’s such a minor difference unless you run blink. But it also feels weird that exile doesn’t prevent it from it’s triggered ability. It is one of the things exile is suppose to prevent.
 
Yeah that’s nice.
It’s such a minor difference unless you run blink. But it also feels weird that exile doesn’t prevent it from it’s triggered ability. It is one of the things exile is suppose to prevent.
Exile already messes with graveyard synergies, so having the triggered ability be retained with exile feels like a positive to me. That’s why you need phasing.
 
Okay, lets extend this question into a more general thing: Imagine you are a blue control deck, low on removal, maybe even mono blue, and you are facing an aggro deck. Would you rather have an aura like Spontaneous Mutation or a cheap road block like let's say Omenspeaker?
Depends on the creature density of my deck. If Omenspeaker is going to turn on all the cheap removal my opponent is holding, then I'd rather have Mutation, but in a more balanced context, I might opt for the creature. Mutation obviously lets me handle bigger threats which is also valuable, but just as a stop-gap I'd probably opt for Omenspeaker.
 
Ok, I'm having an issue here. I think I can only play one of these:

Pros and Khans for each:

Kairi Pros:
–Always does something when it dies.
–Always has Ward.
–Hard for the opponent to trade up with on mana by more than {1}.
–Ok Reanimation Target
–Unique and Flavorful

Kairi Cons:
–Costs 6
–Dies trigger doesn't account for being countered or exiled
–Not a Particularly Well-Known card.

Iymrith Pros:
–Basically a second copy of Dragonlord Ojutai.
–Very hard to kill when it's not attacking.
–Not too expensive.
–Very good at refilling hands.
–Generally good in Esper Dragons

Iymrith Cons
–Character from Non-Magic IP.
––Has weird flavor as a result.
–Very easy to kill when attacking.
–Ojutai at Home.
–Poor reanimator target.

I think Iymrith has more cons, but I think it has slightly better pros? What do you all think? I only want to keep one.
 
So... the 6 drop that can attack without going shields down or the 5 drop that draws cards when it damages a player?

Unless you think all creatures are ‘shields down’ when they are attacking then I think they mean the 5 drop that benefits from attacking. Not trying to sound spikey but I admit it might come off as a little harsh.
 
Unless you think all creatures are ‘shields down’ when they are attacking then I think they mean the 5 drop that benefits from attacking.
It's not that I think all creatures are shields down, most creatures just don't have shields in the first place! Outside of the limited scope of creatures with ward, hexproof, or protection abilities, most things are just kind of naked against opposing interaction. One of the reasons why the "mulldrifter good, baneslayer bad" meme emerged is because cards that provide immediate value tend to fair better against opposing removal, since you still will have gotten some value for playing it instead of a 4+ mana nothingburger.

This is one of the main reasons I like Siege Rhino so much: you're still mostly playing it for the body, but the ETB effect is good enough that you don't usually care too much if your opponent removes your creature. It's a very fine line most cards don't walk.

Not trying to sound spikey but I admit it might come off as a little harsh.
No no Spikey is perfectly fine in this context! My Cube has a very narrow power band, so if a card can't pull its weight, it's probably going to end up getting cut from a main deck 90% of the time. There are a lot of Blue cards I want to be playing, so I don't want to have the section full of sideboard warmers!
 
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