Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Restoration Angel says non-Angel creature??
General Jitte and assorted GRBS, P1P1, etc.
- Thread starter ahadabans
- Start date
I was more referencing the old junk reanimator deck : )
I don't really mind this one too much in cube. I feel like recurring your thragtusks etc are kinda essential to making your wonky value reanimator decks work.
I just think thragtusk is such a GOOD LUCK, NERD card and enough decks struggle to fight through that it's just not worth having, much less anyone doing anything grotesque like flickering or reanimating it.
I mean sure, I've played my fair share of the 5-land thragtusk plan (and lost to it, sigh...) to know it isn't the end-all be-all or anything, but if you have even some amount of board presence against a fairly aggressive deck (walls, cycling guys?) and drop thragtusk three turns in a row off your value cards, whatever they may be? Good luck...
Thragtusk seems like that kind of card that is oppressive-ish and gets better or worse depending on the context. Like, if you include Thragtusk, how far do you push reanimator and flicker while still keeping aggro up to speed and feeling like it still a chance? (How fast is aggro, how disruptive?)
If your aggro decks are very strong, can generate a lot of value (zombie plan, equipment, strong mana sinks) or have a lot of access to multiple colours I don't think thragtusk is backbreaking anymore. I think it's important to have stablizers like thragtusk if you are limiting the availability of premium removal or not thinking about how much premium removal is actually making it around to the control deck. The cards that table for the aggro decks are Gore-house Chainwalkers, the cards that table for the control decks are Careful Considerations and Akroma's Vengeance. These don't really line up and control decks often have to fight uphill battles from middle turns.
That's how I feel about it. 8 power and 5 life with combo potential AND it's totally splashable. It just does too much for too little.
I get that you can make "insert arch type here" strong enough in cube so that mini-Titan is not oppressive, but personally I just don't want to have to do that.
CML
Contributor
5-drops are in an awkward spot (neither curve-topper nor finisher) and the Thragtusk effect is 'at odds' with what 5-cost guys 'should do' that I'm fine with it. It's obviously super-powerful but so are Reveillark and Baneslayer Angel, it's not really more powerful than them, and they fit that spot on the curve somewhat better. Also I like Green cards and things that come into play so.
I expected Thragtusk to do a lot of damage when I threw it into my cube, but I was as surprised as anyone that it's merely been good, but fair. Unlike fives like Baneslayer Angel or Wolfir Silverheart, Thragtusk doesn't represent a must-answer threat that takes over the game within two turns. He's just a solid pile of value, but you can leave him on the board to do his thing while you continue to execute your game plan of swarming little animals around him. That can't be said of Baneslayer Angel, who pretty much halts your entire strategy until you draw a card to answer her. There was one time a player assembled Tusk with Galepowder Mage, which was cute enough that I was more amused than aghast.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that with the speed of the typical riptide cube, ol' Tusky isn't as bad of a beast as he was in Standard. It's mostly that he isn't backed up by a quartet of Restoration Angels (though that is an interaction that can happen in cube).
I guess what I'm trying to say is that with the speed of the typical riptide cube, ol' Tusky isn't as bad of a beast as he was in Standard. It's mostly that he isn't backed up by a quartet of Restoration Angels (though that is an interaction that can happen in cube).
I don't think Thragtusk is "too strong" or whatever. It even plays well with other colors, doesn't brick wall aggro nearly as badly as, say, Archangel of Thune, etc. Along the lines of CML's comment, it plays a bit like a 4-drop in that it's more of a value machine than a proto-finisher. It's a little too easy to get value but that's not a massive problem (not exactly hard to get value of 'lark, for example).
That said, I cut it pre-Conspiracy to try out some other green 5's and with Nissa also holding up a 5-drop slot I don't see it coming back for a bit. It'll probably replace a random 5 or 6 drop once I start cutting M15 underperformers.
I wouldn't fault people for keeping it out due to Standard fatigue from last year but eventually we gotta get over these kinds of things.
That said, I cut it pre-Conspiracy to try out some other green 5's and with Nissa also holding up a 5-drop slot I don't see it coming back for a bit. It'll probably replace a random 5 or 6 drop once I start cutting M15 underperformers.
I wouldn't fault people for keeping it out due to Standard fatigue from last year but eventually we gotta get over these kinds of things.
CML
Contributor
sure what the hell. you don't need to run it of course and i'd argue that only high-powered cubes want a card like that. can you imagine it battling with Grizzly Fate?
You actually have a very valid point in that thragtusk isn't going to be played in a as consistently thragtusk-reliant deck as jund midrange or bant control, so maybe the actual times you do get to recur thragtusk it should be seen as something triumphant. I'm not sure at what power level my cube'll end up at (somewhat low-power to unpowered?) but I think I'd rather keep thragtusk in and make the other decks faster than keep thragtusk out.
CML
Contributor
People forget the Thragtusk decks were not that great against aggro (I guess Jund was, but Junk Reanimator had a pretty bad matchup with "RDW" if you will and slaughtered most everything else). I'm not saying the card fits everywhere and ffs it was $20 in Standard! but it's great fun in more Cubes than we give it credit for.
Laz
Developer
I just miss Aristocrat-era standard...
Does anyone else remember an LSV video in which he piloted Bant control to victory against a Rakdos aggro-deck which managed to deal more than 200 damage in a single game? Thragtusk gaining 40 life off of triple Rhox Faithmender was kind of sweet.
CML you are a man of my own taste.
I think sphinx rev has sort of turned into what thragtusk was during INN-RNR, at least in the sense that it sort of dictates what decks can exist in the format, because eventually control is going to fire off a huge huge rev and if you can't beat that you should reconsider your deck. Luckily, we being cube builders, can decide to include both boogeymen in our aggrocubes as a joke as we pile up on fast duders and burn and make pitiful revenges on those card whenever anyone picks up and build dorky control decks with them.
Rev in Cube is so much more fun than Rev in Standard. Probably because you're only facing one of them.