Now that we've had a year with all the cards of the Innistrad block, how have the cards held up compared to your initial expectations? Were there any hyped cards that didn't pan out for you? Hidden gems that have been overlooked by the cube community? Cards that were more or less fun than you expected?
I missed this card completely. Ten mana feels like an impossible number, especially in a fast cube. This guy has finished a surprisingly large number of games, and brings a fun "think two steps ahead" element to the game. Often the opponent will not want to waste removal on an early 0/3, and by the time you start putting counters on it you also have the ability to hold counterspell mana open. A flipped Test Subject often KOs an aggro deck in one hit. The instant-speed transformation and counter additions are great. Many times you can pass with 4 mana open on Turn 5 representing a counterspell, then end-step add two counters, untap, play a land and pump three more times for a 13/13 swing on Turn 6. Most importantly, control decks rarely have room for many dedicated finishers, so a two-mana creature that can block early beaters and finish off the game is a huge boon.
The Mayor had a short period of success. However, as the speed of my cube increased, he increasingly was relegated to being a 1/1. Somehow over the months Mayor of Avabruck managed to both exceed and not live up to my expectations. I do like the card though, and it is probably one of the most context-sensitive aggro cards I've ever played with. Mileage will definitely vary from cube to cube.
I know many people don't like this card due to its potency in constructed, but I've really come to love its design in cube. It provides incentive to build blue-white aggressive decks, which is a huge plus, and really requires a specific build to succeed. Any blocker trades with Geist, so you really need to shape your gameplan around getting the Geist safely into the red zone.
I missed this card completely. Ten mana feels like an impossible number, especially in a fast cube. This guy has finished a surprisingly large number of games, and brings a fun "think two steps ahead" element to the game. Often the opponent will not want to waste removal on an early 0/3, and by the time you start putting counters on it you also have the ability to hold counterspell mana open. A flipped Test Subject often KOs an aggro deck in one hit. The instant-speed transformation and counter additions are great. Many times you can pass with 4 mana open on Turn 5 representing a counterspell, then end-step add two counters, untap, play a land and pump three more times for a 13/13 swing on Turn 6. Most importantly, control decks rarely have room for many dedicated finishers, so a two-mana creature that can block early beaters and finish off the game is a huge boon.
The Mayor had a short period of success. However, as the speed of my cube increased, he increasingly was relegated to being a 1/1. Somehow over the months Mayor of Avabruck managed to both exceed and not live up to my expectations. I do like the card though, and it is probably one of the most context-sensitive aggro cards I've ever played with. Mileage will definitely vary from cube to cube.
I know many people don't like this card due to its potency in constructed, but I've really come to love its design in cube. It provides incentive to build blue-white aggressive decks, which is a huge plus, and really requires a specific build to succeed. Any blocker trades with Geist, so you really need to shape your gameplan around getting the Geist safely into the red zone.