This thread was inspired by someone over on the subreddit, so props to them.
(Original thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/nvk2au/i_tried_this_in_my_cube_and_i_think_it_might_be_a/)
I would never play any cards with the "Partner With" ability in my cube, let alone "Partner." Aesthetically, it pisses me off to see completely irrelevant text on my cards; additionally, I feel like it would distract my drafters to have one card with "Partner With" and not its designated buddy. Unfortunately for me, some of these cards explore some pretty cool design space that I think would not only benefit my cube but might benefit yours! With this in mind, I want to use this thread to do two things:
a) talk about Partner cards, as facilitated by a primary tier list
and
b) serve as a dumping ground for custom de-Partnerified versions of these cards. This is to keep me honest in churning these out over the next month or so.
Without further ado, the lists!
I think these are especially interesting:
Cazur, Ruthless Stalker is Curse of Predation on legs! I love it! I am all for making enchantments into creatures as this opens up a lot more ways to interact with them. Do I swing with my engine? Do I sandbag it to wait for removal? Great card, and one of the secondary reasons for starting this cleaning project.
Ukkima, Stalking Shadow, a freaking WHALE WOLF, is also pretty nifty. Plays really, really well with Ninjas, and this is one of the primary reasons I have for cleaning these up. The LTB trigger is mildly obnoxious, but because it's a 2/2 for
I'm not too offended--and did I mention that it plays REALLY well with Ninjas??
Gorm the Great is cool in that Gorm is a great support card both for defensive Green and for offensive Green. If you have a lot of deathtouch or bigger critters then Gorm becomes a liability, but the idea is to put Gorm in a Green deck, which will be hoovering up most of those broccoli chunks anyways. On the low end of the power spectrum.
Regna, the Redeemer is obviously only good in a deck with lifegain, but she's pretty reasonable there. Can get moderate value on the turn she's played, which is how I like my 6-drops.
Nikara, Lair Scavenger is a counters lord in Black, which, while a little boring, has some hoops to jump through while serving a cool archetype that needs some love. Solidly B+.
Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel on the other hand provides some really interesting choices. What do you mortgage? How do you divide the counters? Cool card, though not necessarily the strongest.
Pir, Imaginative Rascal: See Cazur for my opinion on enchantments on legs. Not the most exciting, but still a decent option.
Silvar, Devourer of the Free is a bigger, somewhat easier to stop Falkenrath Aristocrat, which is a good thing in my book as the latter ends games really quickly. YMMV.
Trynn, Champion of Freedom is one of my other favorites here. Simple, effective, and easier to handle than Curse of Shallow Graves.
Armix, Filigree Thrasher feels very fair to me and does a great job of tying the room together between artifacts, discard, and aggro. Plus, it's a 3/2 for!
Dargo, the Shipwrecker is a secret favorite of mind, not only because he's a Giant Pirate but also because he's simultaneously a payoff and an enabler for sacrifice, as well as being a sneaky reanimation target.
Ghost of Ramirez DePietro is not fantastic, but is both sneaky and works with mill/discard. Like Dargo, he's great if the power level is appropriate.
Halana, Kessig Ranger FIGHT CLUB FIGHT CLUB.
Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer is a splicer. You know you like splicers. This one even draws people into sacrifice and artifact synergies in Green! Might be overcosted, though the ability says EVERY golem.
Krark, the Thumbless is best known for Storm but actually works in spell-based value decks.
Ravos, Soultender grinds really, really well, and gets just the right amount of value I want to see on a 5-drop's ETB.
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan does good things, but for some reason I'm a little medium on her. Nevertheless, she's a good card. I think I don't like that she passes her own counters.
TOGGO, GOBLIN WEAPONSMITH does everything I want a card to do. Intersections between lands, artifacts, and equipment at a rate that makes the opponent really think about whether it's worth spending a removal spell on this gobbo? Yes please, make more cards like that.
Tymna the Weaver. Saboteur triggers? In MY Orzhov section? It's actually more likely than you'd think! Still, her body is anemic.
I think these are pretty medium, either on grounds of interest or power level:
Brallin, Skyshark Rider is pretty boring and also kind of strong at the same time, so is a hard pass for me. He is the definition of a free lunch in that his ability just kind of happens in a deck build around him and it doesn't require much thought to maximize--do the thing as many times as you can, no matter when, no matter how. His stock goes up SIGNIFICANTLY for me if you have wheels or Changelings, however. Or if you have a way to make him a Shark Boy.
Shabraz, the Skyshark has, unfortunately, the exact same problem as Brallin in that he just gets bigger and gives you more life to use those cards you draw. However, by virtue of being a Shark Bird, he is much, much cooler than Brallin. The "give a Human flying" also seems like it could end games very quickly.
Toothy, Imaginary Friend is like Shabraz, but is not a Shark Bird. I really dislike death triggers that draw cards as it invalidates a lot of removal.
Krav, the Unredeemed requires you to not only untap but also to have a lot of creatures, and his floor is really low. I do like that his ability is instant speed.
Virtus the Veiled seems very hard to make work, but that's a cool effect. If he was a 1/3 I'd run him, I think.
Ley Weaver is here because I like untapping lands for ramp, but not like this. For it would be a slam dunk.
Alharu, Solemn Ritualist is fine and will probably be the first thing to die when you play it. If two +1/+1 counters or a single counter and a 1/1 flying spirit are a fair trade for a removal spell in your format and you want to spend the slot on this dude, go for it. I don't think I will, though, as it doesn't interest me much.
Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist needs a single keyword to go from "meh" to "love it," for me. I might do that. Ofc it's a lot better if you're doing auras as well as equipments, as I think most of us here have at least a few of the latter.
Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor is card draw for Aristocrats! However, saccing two creatures is a lot, though Priest of Forgotten Gods makes it work (though that is probably on the basis of the opponent-sac ability).
Kodama of the East Tree falls into the "fun but not realistic" category. If you can untap with a 6/6, you're probably already winning.
Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel protects himself and provides a reasonable Aristocrats payoff? However, 6 mana is a lot. This might go up if I'd played with it; however, plague.
Radiant, Serra Archangel protects herself at a reasonable-ish cost, but the fact that she's pseudo-unblockable makes her fall prey to the "win or die" trap that I like to avoid. She's unreasonable to cast and unreasonable to deal with once she's on the battlefield. Hard pass.
Rebbec, Architect of Ascension grants protection, which I don't like, but it's not for herself, which I do like. I'd test her out, but am dubious.
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa is actually pretty interesting, but can oftentimes read "your board is unblockable lol," and I'm not a fan.
Silas Renn, Seeker Adept needs Menace! As-is, a 2/2 deathtouch dies to way too much.
Slurrk, All-Ingesting is actually a fine top end for a counters deck. Again, 6 mana crosses the line for me from "probably castable" to "probably uncastable," though it's haziest in Green.
Tormod, the Desecrator is so cool! However, life is hard for a 4/2 for 4. As a 2/4, he'd be an insta-add.
I think these are significantly weaker than I want cards in my cube to be:
Rate is bad on Lore Weaver.
The Chakram Retriever is cute, but you need to have a lot of spells. Any deck running that many cantrips is going to be not only too strong for the hound but likely won't care about combat, which is unfortunate. I would probably be more interested if the doggy cost less and/or could work on an opponent's turn.
Impetuous Protege is neat, but pretty weak without tappers.
Proud Mentor is not Master Decoy. The father/son moment is adorable, though.
Soulblade Corrupter is another nice +1/+1 counter lord in Black, but without an Amass theme I'm not sold on it.
Akiri, Line-Slinger is difficult to make work unless you have, like, Moxen or something, and if you have Moxen and Akiri in the same cube I don't know what you're doing but I want in.
Alena, Kessig Trapper is cool ramp in a color that doesn't get it, but she's tied to creatures, which is enh. Combos nicely with Sneak Attack, but again, idk what you're doing if those two are in the same cube. Could be fun, but probably costs too much.
Eligeth, Crossroads Augur would be nifty if it had a smaller body because then you'd actually get to use the freaking ability before it dies/you win. I just don't get why Wizards insists on putting cool abilities on such big creatures. As it stands, it is a Baneslayer that is worse than Baneslayer.
Glacian, Powerstone Engineer is glacial at six mana. Don't @ me.
Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper is a big old question mark from me. Does fun things, but probably not enough. Plays nicely with Gorm.
Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is not as good as Glasspool Mimic, so . . . no.
Siani, Eye of the Storm is, in fact, better than Wind Drake and is reasonable if you support fliers. Scry is a good way to balance this sort of thing, and I actually like the card more than my ranking here would indicate.
I think these are not particularly interesting to play with or are overly specific:
Rowan Kenrith and Will Kenrith are fine. They're Planeswalkers and kind of expensive for what they do. Will is better than Rowan. Not much more to say here.
Blaring Captain and Blaring Recruiter are tribal. It's a fine tribe. They're overcosted for me.
Chakram Slinger is not good, though 2>1.
Soulblade Renewer is not good.
Akroma, Vision of Ixidor costs a lot of mana for a Baneslayer while being worse than Baneslayer.
Okaun, Eye of Chaos and Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom are indeed nifty cards. Their base rate is not fantastic.
Khorvath Brightflame and Sylvia Brightspear--look, I'm a sucker for tribal cards, but these do not do it for me as you have to support not only one but two kind of niche tribes. They're not horrible on their own, but don't quite get there for me.
Breeches, Brazen Plunderer is a cool exploration of tribal. As much as I like stealing the opponent's stuff, however, it's really hard to make sure that cards are returned to their owner in a cube where they're all sleeved the same.
If Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder, professional 3/3 Double Strike Lifelinker is what you want, go for it. I like my gold cards a little spicier.
Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker is just going to die, I think. Or win the game. Either way, I don't like it.
Kamahl, Heart of Krosa--I would really rather just have Overrun.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus exists. The body is the only thing that saves this dude from EDH-only tier, but why not just run Hypersonic Dragon? Still, its defensive ability is fine-ish.
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator mentions each opponent and Pirates, but is actually not bad on its own. I might raise my opinion of it once I see it without the Partner text clogging up its text box.
Miara, Thorn of the Glade is costly, boring, and tribe-specific in a tribe that frankly does not need the help. Small points for it being an optional trigger, but that actually detracts from the tension for me. Pass.
Numa, Joraga Chieftain. See Miara but without the ability being in the least interesting.
Prava of the Steel Legion would like to be Always Watching or Thraben Watcher. It's not a 1:1 comparison, but I'd prefer having the help on the defense. Also, why not make it +1/+0 and indestructible? Just a weird card.
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh is a cool idea but kind of hard to make work, I think. Also impossible for me to say.
Vial Smasher the Fierce is actually down here because it's too strong of a card for me. Like, holy snot. Interesting, though!
I think these are quite literally
, but are still (mostly) adorable. This doesn't mean that they're bad, just that I don't see them ever being reasonable maindecks in a cube.
And that's a wrap! I'm going to start at the top and work the way down making de-partnerified cards and will post them here, in case any of you are interested in them. It's been fun going through these cards and working on my evaluation skills.
(Original thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/nvk2au/i_tried_this_in_my_cube_and_i_think_it_might_be_a/)
I would never play any cards with the "Partner With" ability in my cube, let alone "Partner." Aesthetically, it pisses me off to see completely irrelevant text on my cards; additionally, I feel like it would distract my drafters to have one card with "Partner With" and not its designated buddy. Unfortunately for me, some of these cards explore some pretty cool design space that I think would not only benefit my cube but might benefit yours! With this in mind, I want to use this thread to do two things:
a) talk about Partner cards, as facilitated by a primary tier list
and
b) serve as a dumping ground for custom de-Partnerified versions of these cards. This is to keep me honest in churning these out over the next month or so.
Without further ado, the lists!
I think these are especially interesting:
Cazur, Ruthless Stalker is Curse of Predation on legs! I love it! I am all for making enchantments into creatures as this opens up a lot more ways to interact with them. Do I swing with my engine? Do I sandbag it to wait for removal? Great card, and one of the secondary reasons for starting this cleaning project.
Ukkima, Stalking Shadow, a freaking WHALE WOLF, is also pretty nifty. Plays really, really well with Ninjas, and this is one of the primary reasons I have for cleaning these up. The LTB trigger is mildly obnoxious, but because it's a 2/2 for
I'm not too offended--and did I mention that it plays REALLY well with Ninjas??Gorm the Great is cool in that Gorm is a great support card both for defensive Green and for offensive Green. If you have a lot of deathtouch or bigger critters then Gorm becomes a liability, but the idea is to put Gorm in a Green deck, which will be hoovering up most of those broccoli chunks anyways. On the low end of the power spectrum.
Regna, the Redeemer is obviously only good in a deck with lifegain, but she's pretty reasonable there. Can get moderate value on the turn she's played, which is how I like my 6-drops.
Nikara, Lair Scavenger is a counters lord in Black, which, while a little boring, has some hoops to jump through while serving a cool archetype that needs some love. Solidly B+.
Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel on the other hand provides some really interesting choices. What do you mortgage? How do you divide the counters? Cool card, though not necessarily the strongest.
Pir, Imaginative Rascal: See Cazur for my opinion on enchantments on legs. Not the most exciting, but still a decent option.
Silvar, Devourer of the Free is a bigger, somewhat easier to stop Falkenrath Aristocrat, which is a good thing in my book as the latter ends games really quickly. YMMV.
Trynn, Champion of Freedom is one of my other favorites here. Simple, effective, and easier to handle than Curse of Shallow Graves.
Armix, Filigree Thrasher feels very fair to me and does a great job of tying the room together between artifacts, discard, and aggro. Plus, it's a 3/2 for
!Dargo, the Shipwrecker is a secret favorite of mind, not only because he's a Giant Pirate but also because he's simultaneously a payoff and an enabler for sacrifice, as well as being a sneaky reanimation target.
Ghost of Ramirez DePietro is not fantastic, but is both sneaky and works with mill/discard. Like Dargo, he's great if the power level is appropriate.
Halana, Kessig Ranger FIGHT CLUB FIGHT CLUB.
Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer is a splicer. You know you like splicers. This one even draws people into sacrifice and artifact synergies in Green! Might be overcosted, though the ability says EVERY golem.
Krark, the Thumbless is best known for Storm but actually works in spell-based value decks.
Ravos, Soultender grinds really, really well, and gets just the right amount of value I want to see on a 5-drop's ETB.
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan does good things, but for some reason I'm a little medium on her. Nevertheless, she's a good card. I think I don't like that she passes her own counters.
TOGGO, GOBLIN WEAPONSMITH does everything I want a card to do. Intersections between lands, artifacts, and equipment at a rate that makes the opponent really think about whether it's worth spending a removal spell on this gobbo? Yes please, make more cards like that.
Tymna the Weaver. Saboteur triggers? In MY Orzhov section? It's actually more likely than you'd think! Still, her body is anemic.
I think these are pretty medium, either on grounds of interest or power level:
Brallin, Skyshark Rider is pretty boring and also kind of strong at the same time, so is a hard pass for me. He is the definition of a free lunch in that his ability just kind of happens in a deck build around him and it doesn't require much thought to maximize--do the thing as many times as you can, no matter when, no matter how. His stock goes up SIGNIFICANTLY for me if you have wheels or Changelings, however. Or if you have a way to make him a Shark Boy.
Shabraz, the Skyshark has, unfortunately, the exact same problem as Brallin in that he just gets bigger and gives you more life to use those cards you draw. However, by virtue of being a Shark Bird, he is much, much cooler than Brallin. The "give a Human flying" also seems like it could end games very quickly.
Toothy, Imaginary Friend is like Shabraz, but is not a Shark Bird. I really dislike death triggers that draw cards as it invalidates a lot of removal.
Krav, the Unredeemed requires you to not only untap but also to have a lot of creatures, and his floor is really low. I do like that his ability is instant speed.
Virtus the Veiled seems very hard to make work, but that's a cool effect. If he was a 1/3 I'd run him, I think.
Ley Weaver is here because I like untapping lands for ramp, but not like this. For
it would be a slam dunk.Alharu, Solemn Ritualist is fine and will probably be the first thing to die when you play it. If two +1/+1 counters or a single counter and a 1/1 flying spirit are a fair trade for a removal spell in your format and you want to spend the slot on this dude, go for it. I don't think I will, though, as it doesn't interest me much.
Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist needs a single keyword to go from "meh" to "love it," for me. I might do that. Ofc it's a lot better if you're doing auras as well as equipments, as I think most of us here have at least a few of the latter.
Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor is card draw for Aristocrats! However, saccing two creatures is a lot, though Priest of Forgotten Gods makes it work (though that is probably on the basis of the opponent-sac ability).
Kodama of the East Tree falls into the "fun but not realistic" category. If you can untap with a 6/6, you're probably already winning.
Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel protects himself and provides a reasonable Aristocrats payoff? However, 6 mana is a lot. This might go up if I'd played with it; however, plague.
Radiant, Serra Archangel protects herself at a reasonable-ish cost, but the fact that she's pseudo-unblockable makes her fall prey to the "win or die" trap that I like to avoid. She's unreasonable to cast and unreasonable to deal with once she's on the battlefield. Hard pass.
Rebbec, Architect of Ascension grants protection, which I don't like, but it's not for herself, which I do like. I'd test her out, but am dubious.
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa is actually pretty interesting, but can oftentimes read "your board is unblockable lol," and I'm not a fan.
Silas Renn, Seeker Adept needs Menace! As-is, a 2/2 deathtouch dies to way too much.
Slurrk, All-Ingesting is actually a fine top end for a counters deck. Again, 6 mana crosses the line for me from "probably castable" to "probably uncastable," though it's haziest in Green.
Tormod, the Desecrator is so cool! However, life is hard for a 4/2 for 4. As a 2/4, he'd be an insta-add.
I think these are significantly weaker than I want cards in my cube to be:
Rate is bad on Lore Weaver.
The Chakram Retriever is cute, but you need to have a lot of spells. Any deck running that many cantrips is going to be not only too strong for the hound but likely won't care about combat, which is unfortunate. I would probably be more interested if the doggy cost
less and/or could work on an opponent's turn.Impetuous Protege is neat, but pretty weak without tappers.
Proud Mentor is not Master Decoy. The father/son moment is adorable, though.
Soulblade Corrupter is another nice +1/+1 counter lord in Black, but without an Amass theme I'm not sold on it.
Akiri, Line-Slinger is difficult to make work unless you have, like, Moxen or something, and if you have Moxen and Akiri in the same cube I don't know what you're doing but I want in.
Alena, Kessig Trapper is cool ramp in a color that doesn't get it, but she's tied to creatures, which is enh. Combos nicely with Sneak Attack, but again, idk what you're doing if those two are in the same cube. Could be fun, but probably costs too much.
Eligeth, Crossroads Augur would be nifty if it had a smaller body because then you'd actually get to use the freaking ability before it dies/you win. I just don't get why Wizards insists on putting cool abilities on such big creatures. As it stands, it is a Baneslayer that is worse than Baneslayer.
Glacian, Powerstone Engineer is glacial at six mana. Don't @ me.
Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper is a big old question mark from me. Does fun things, but probably not enough. Plays nicely with Gorm.
Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is not as good as Glasspool Mimic, so . . . no.
Siani, Eye of the Storm is, in fact, better than Wind Drake and is reasonable if you support fliers. Scry is a good way to balance this sort of thing, and I actually like the card more than my ranking here would indicate.
I think these are not particularly interesting to play with or are overly specific:
Rowan Kenrith and Will Kenrith are fine. They're Planeswalkers and kind of expensive for what they do. Will is better than Rowan. Not much more to say here.
Blaring Captain and Blaring Recruiter are tribal. It's a fine tribe. They're overcosted for me.
Chakram Slinger is not good, though 2>1.
Soulblade Renewer is not good.
Akroma, Vision of Ixidor costs a lot of mana for a Baneslayer while being worse than Baneslayer.
Okaun, Eye of Chaos and Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom are indeed nifty cards. Their base rate is not fantastic.
Khorvath Brightflame and Sylvia Brightspear--look, I'm a sucker for tribal cards, but these do not do it for me as you have to support not only one but two kind of niche tribes. They're not horrible on their own, but don't quite get there for me.
Breeches, Brazen Plunderer is a cool exploration of tribal. As much as I like stealing the opponent's stuff, however, it's really hard to make sure that cards are returned to their owner in a cube where they're all sleeved the same.
If Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder, professional 3/3 Double Strike Lifelinker is what you want, go for it. I like my gold cards a little spicier.
Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker is just going to die, I think. Or win the game. Either way, I don't like it.
Kamahl, Heart of Krosa--I would really rather just have Overrun.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus exists. The body is the only thing that saves this dude from EDH-only tier, but why not just run Hypersonic Dragon? Still, its defensive ability is fine-ish.
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator mentions each opponent and Pirates, but is actually not bad on its own. I might raise my opinion of it once I see it without the Partner text clogging up its text box.
Miara, Thorn of the Glade is costly, boring, and tribe-specific in a tribe that frankly does not need the help. Small points for it being an optional trigger, but that actually detracts from the tension for me. Pass.
Numa, Joraga Chieftain. See Miara but without the ability being in the least interesting.
Prava of the Steel Legion would like to be Always Watching or Thraben Watcher. It's not a 1:1 comparison, but I'd prefer having the help on the defense. Also, why not make it +1/+0 and indestructible? Just a weird card.
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh is a cool idea but kind of hard to make work, I think. Also impossible for me to say.
Vial Smasher the Fierce is actually down here because it's too strong of a card for me. Like, holy snot. Interesting, though!
I think these are quite literally
, but are still (mostly) adorable. This doesn't mean that they're bad, just that I don't see them ever being reasonable maindecks in a cube.And that's a wrap! I'm going to start at the top and work the way down making de-partnerified cards and will post them here, in case any of you are interested in them. It's been fun going through these cards and working on my evaluation skills.
