General "Looking for a card"-Thread

[Seeker]

Well, if it's an artifact there's also


and his more recent, more expensive version


(...and my beloved Push the Limit, which was only good in Aetherdrift, an otherwise awful set but it did have this, one of the most fun draft uncommons in years)

 

[Erik Twice]

Is there any actual use for a Howling Mine deck in cube or something similar?

 

[MilesOfficial]

Is there any actual use for a Howling Mine deck in cube or something similar?

If you're punishing your opponents for drawing cards like with these:



...but really it feels more multiplayer-focused.

I used to run it in 2011-2012ish, but it's not ideal for 1v1 unless it's an "archetype" you wanna support.

 

[Brad]

Is there any actual use for a Howling Mine deck in cube or something similar?

I was looking at Owling Mine earlier and wondering the same.

I don't really think so. Owling Mine as a concept has such a variable matchup spread and would require multiples to make it viable and the cards are pretty narrow. No one wants Vise or Owl except that one deck.

You might be able to make some sorta Improvise and Waterbending deck that taps it to break the symmetry. Static and Winter Orb also fit this category if you're a sicko.

It's a scary card to play and get it blown up as a -1. I think there's a lot of similar and more modern versions of symmetrical draw that you're better off running.

 

[PyreDream]

Is there any actual use for a Howling Mine deck in cube or something similar?

A Library of Alexandria cube where each player gets a copy of the titular card.

Wheels.dec is similar and sounded fun for me until I realized it doesn't use Nekusar or Underworld Dreams to punish the opponent but Hullbreacher, Orcish Bowmasters, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Leovold, Emissary of Trest and Narset, Parter of Veils.

Having been that idiot who Brainstormed into an active Narset, I can safely say I only ever want to experience that play pattern once.

 

[ravnic]

I wish there were more artifacts that turned off when tapped. Cards like Howling Mine, not like Winter Orb, so it can be a fun thing to do with stuff like Improvise, Warterbending, Ensoul Artifact+attacking and such.

 

[Nanonox]

To my surprise, my Dimir section is now home to a +1/+1 counter subtheme thanks to some new additions. These cards play really well in an assertive tempo deck



Emperor of Bones excluded (and maybe Yawgmoth too), I don't have any payoffs for counters except for these two colorless artifacts



I'd like maybe one or two more payoffs that the deck can play. Ideally colorless and cheap mana value-wise, but I am open to other suggestions!

 

[Seeker]

Here's mostly not what you asked for, but hopefully it sparks something else that sparks what you're actually looking for:

 

[MilesOfficial]

Piper Wright, Publick Reporter is on the weaker side of my Cube for sure, but it's proved much better and more interesting than I anticipated.

Danny Pink is a real payoff. It's a little EDH-core but I'm seriously considering it, it's that good.

I remember liking Soul Diviner when it first came out but it was too narrow, but O'aka, Traveling Merchant is a pretty good upgrade for modern design (feels weird to say this about a War of the Spark card but it's true).

 

[Seeker]

Counterpoint: add Soul Diviner and then you have an excuse to add Dreadship Reef all by itself and make all us grognards happy!

 

[Nanonox]

These are great suggestions from both of you and makes me realize, that I don't like many of them for this cube. Dreamtide Whale and Dany Pink are the closest and I will keep them in mind if I want more on the nose options.

For now though, instead of keying off on the actual counters, power matters is another interesting avenue to explore especially with equipment lying around in the cube. In Dimir specifically, I like



Shambler goes great with Obsessive Pursuit and Hatcher with Proft's Eidetic Memory.

I have no clue how The Aetherspark plays, I've never seen it in action in any format. That said, puts a counter and then gives you a dream to live. It seems fun. Does anyone have any experience in cube or elsewhere with it?

Symbiote Spider-Man is kind of perfect as a saboteur and would be in if not for the Spiderman aesthetics.

Piper Wright, Publick Reporter hits the right notes (<3 clues), but if you say she is on the weaker side at 720 Miles, that doesn't bode well for my smaller cube.

Nashi, Searcher in the Dark fits the idea, but not my themes.

Towering-Wave Mystic is a card I've never seen. It's missing a little something for my main cube, but I expect to slot it in elsewhere it looks fun!

 

[MilesOfficial]

I think that's smart. Most of the cards I listed have left my Cube and even fell out of my on-deck binder, so I didn't think they'd be hits, but they're interesting as a thought experiment, if nothing else. I think Benthic Biomancer and Ingenious Prodigy are reasonably fine, but blue tends to be hard to make space for, even if there's little competition at the 1MV / XMV creature slot. You just don't actually need to fill those gaps in the mana curve with dudes in blue, really.

Nested Shambler is A+ card design, I think I might follow your lead there.

I would actually recommend sleeving up Piper Wright, Publick Reporter. Getting even a single hit feels really good. The power level is lower than your other blue 2s, sure, but like I said, she's exceeded my expectations enough that if she can be part of a synergistic build, she can hold her own. Looking at Drake Hatcher in comparison, the Hatcher has the same "threat of activation" thing implicit in its rules text so long as you have mana up and cards in your hand, but I think I'd rather generate tokens every time I make contact than a Drake every other time or so. That said, Drake Hatcher is *generically* stronger if you don't have as much +1/+1 or artifact or clue-specific things happening.

The Aetherspark is a must-kill threat and even holds its own in Vintage-level lists. It's like a super-equipment, really, and makes my boy Grafted Wargear look like a peasant's pitchfork. I don't like how hard to grok it is, but it's novel, unique, and very strong. I don't like it for complexity reasons, and because I don't like giving colorless one of the better midrange 4-drops, but if you ignore those, it's very fun to play with.

 

[Mown]

Most of the cards put +1/+1 counters on themselves, so adding cards that want to have counters put on them seems counterproductive for the gameplan. The XX creatures are solid since they have a strong floor, but I think cards like The Ozolith, Animation Module, Nikira, Lair Scavenger, Dreamtide Whale or The Aetherspark are better equipped to prop up your +1/+1 counter archetype.

Somewhat related as I initially misread the prompt, here are some more black creatures that grow.

 

[Nanonox]

The XX creatures are solid since they have a strong floor, but I think cards like The Ozolith, Animation Module, Nikira, Lair Scavenger, Dreamtide Whale or The Aetherspark are better equipped to prop up your +1/+1 counter archetype.

I forgot about this one, but it's one of the better colorless cards for my cube (mana value and artifact tokens), love it.

Stalactite Stalker is one I am also eyeing as a discard/gy/sacrifice glue piece, good suggestion!

I would actually recommend sleeving up Piper Wright, Publick Reporter. Getting even a single hit feels really good. The power level is lower than your other blue 2s, sure, but like I said, she's exceeded my expectations enough that if she can be part of a synergistic build, she can hold her own. Looking at Drake Hatcher in comparison, the Hatcher has the same "threat of activation" thing implicit in its rules text so long as you have mana up and cards in your hand, but I think I'd rather generate tokens every time I make contact than a Drake every other time or so. That said, Drake Hatcher is *generically* stronger if you don't have as much +1/+1 or artifact or clue-specific things happening.

With Proft's and Pursuit specifically, both Piper and Hatcher seem easy to trigger reliably since the counters stick. When you don't have them though, Hatcher is the clear winner as any cantrip or bauble will grow it to a 2/4 which isn't trivial to block, whereas Piper is still just a 1/2.

I'd rather have the clues than drakes from a synergy perspective, so it's tough. I just don't know if Piper's floor can cut it, will need to think more about it, appreciate the input.

 

[KeithCubes]

This little guy has been putting in some work in limited, and I could see it getting even stronger with a bunch of cantrips. It even hurts for your opponent to kill, as you just get value from it anyway. It's no Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, but feels a lot fairer.

Outside of that, here's a few others I'm running to give U some hidden counter support that I haven't seen mentioned yet:


Also shoutout to Pip-Boy 3000 (if you can stand the flavor)

 

[ravnic]

What are some cool gold cards that could be fun in low/mid powered cubes? I currently have these three that I like:



I am also on Goblin Anarchomancer and Territorial Kavu, but neither one does really spark joy. And since all my gold cards are occasionals at this point, sparking joy is the most important part, THAT being said, I would give bonus points if something works with madness. But everything that is FUN can be spammed here please.

 

[Seeker]

You said RG and discard!

(the Saga bit is an additive distraction. maybe you have Summon: Fenrir? that one's strong, there's some value here if you do have any, but she's here to be Rummaging Goblin+++.)

Plus here's everything else I know, which I would recommend far less highly than Rydia:

Probably too powerful, but maybe not.


This is strong when it's strong, but when it's not strong it's practically blank. I had a lot of fun casting it in retail Limited.


Delirium made me think of card types made me think of battles made me think of the RG battle (card types matter!) that's also a discard outlet (madness!) and a Treasure token creator (all sorts of stuff!). I know the backside must exist, logically. I have no idea what it is. Wow that doesn't make a lot of sense at all, huh. What are you doing there, Truga Cliffcharger?


Not a madness enabler, but does work with "discard matters" if you have any of that. Also, maybe too high power. But I love it.


"...at random" sinks this for me. But the base rate's acceptable and it's a dream to live, which I always comment on because it is the kind of thing I like to have in my cube.

 

[MilesOfficial]

As usual, @Seeker beat me to the punch on some of the cards I thought I was clever for playing with, like the delightful Gallia of the Endless Dance, who we played for 2 years and were reasonably happy with. Rydia is great, too.

I really like Anzrag, the Quake-Mole and Kogla and Yidaro



They're both kind of a big dumb things that don't synergize much, but they're so much fun that I think they'd both be compelling occasionals.



Deathleaper, Terror Weapon is so cool. Combat trick, haste-matters man, incomprehensible art.



Stonebrow, Krosan Hero was my second commander back before pre-cons. Who doesn't like making your drafters focus on trample? Trample is great.



Wildsear, Scouring Maw is a card I tried out for a while but I just don't have enough enchantments to really justify it. But it's conceptually fun! It being a 6/6 trample for 5 is kind of weird since it'll be a little too good at killing your opponent on its own / a little too late for playing cards after it butI still feel like it has some juice.

 

[inscho]

I was coming in to suggest kogla and yidaro as well. Such a fun card

 

[LadyMapi]

Fires because it's a classic, Hatchling because it's cute, Rebirth because the art is gorgeous, and Wort because she's just plain fun.

 

[Erik Twice]

I'd like maybe one or two more payoffs that the deck can play. Ideally colorless and cheap mana value-wise, but I am open to other suggestions!

In my experience, The Ozolith is the best "pure payoff" simply because it's colorless and a single mana. The other is this:



Powerful, inherently fair as a non-trample creature and just plain fun. It works with both tokens and counters, making it widely playable, yet it does require some work from you in both play and draft. Moreover, it's one of the few cheap green creatures that are worth attacking with. Almost all green "aggro cards" are just bad, Tchotchke is the only one I haven't been dissapointed by so far. It also works well in midrange, which is important to make it worth the slot.

Sure, it's off-colour. But it is splashable and UGB is a good colour combination for this kind of decks.

Something I like is that, once you get rid of the "funny text" and make it work like a normal card (which I plan to with a proxy), it's actually an elegant design. It has inherent limitations (needs to be played first, lack of trample) and overcoming those limitations is interesting. For example, you may play a token at instant speed, you might play a tempo-removal game so it swings, trick your opponent into losing with The Emblerclave or Berserk

It is green. However, it is splashable and UBG is good colour combination.



Dreamtide Whale seems like a fun design, and it's a 7/6 so it has potential as a Rotting Regisaur. My issue with it is that it's...a surprisingly "selfish" card. It demands - two spells per turn, other creatures to proliferate, a tempo shell - but doesn't reciprocate as much as it takes. It's bad tempo as a 3 mana card, non-disruptive and it doesn't really make or break the +1/+1 counters deck. Sure, it's good, but it left me wishing it was one of those "pig"* cards where every single part of it is useful.

It also has a minor annoyance: It uses Vanishing tokens and Parallax Wave uses Fading counters. Both may go into the same deck, even, since they actually have synergy! But they are different and you can't convert one to use the other's counters.

*I don't remember the proper English idiom. To use the whole horse?

 

[KeithCubes]

What are some cool gold cards that could be fun in low/mid powered cubes? I currently have these three that I like:

Both great cards from EOE.
The specialist might be your only source of lander tokens, but they're great for smoothing out mana-screw, and he synergies super well with anything that creates treasure or blood (which plays into your madness theme).


Plays great into the haste theme some others are suggesting. It's no Ouroboroid for sure, but has a lot of the same synergies with boosting their power and such.

 

[alvoi]

It also has a minor annoyance: It uses Vanishing tokens and Parallax Wave uses Fading counters. Both may go into the same deck, even, since they actually have synergy! But they are different and you can't convert one to use the other's counters.

Well, technically the kind of counters is the same (time counter) but vanishing sacrifices when the last is removed while fading sacrifices when you cannot remove anymore (so fading N is kinda like vanishing N+1)

EDIT: no, I am bad, fading uses "fade" counters that are different from time counters. My whole life has been a lie

 

[Seeker]

*I don't remember the proper English idiom. To use the whole horse?

Americans typically use "every part of the buffalo" (indigenous to America) but the British equivalent I've heard (and Terry Pratchett used) was "every part of the pig but the squeal" - I think you can get away with most animals that can be eaten, honestly!

(this is the kind of post I'm absolutely here for, I really love stuff like this)

actual magic discussion: would recommend against Halana and Alena, Partners if you're trying to keep to low/mid power. Those ladies are burly and they make it hurt.

 

[ravnic]

You said RG and discard!

(the Saga bit is an additive distraction. maybe you have Summon: Fenrir? that one's strong, there's some value here if you do have any, but she's here to be Rummaging Goblin+++.)

Plus here's everything else I know, which I would recommend far less highly than Rydia:

Probably too powerful, but maybe not.


This is strong when it's strong, but when it's not strong it's practically blank. I had a lot of fun casting it in retail Limited.


Delirium made me think of card types made me think of battles made me think of the RG battle (card types matter!) that's also a discard outlet (madness!) and a Treasure token creator (all sorts of stuff!). I know the backside must exist, logically. I have no idea what it is. Wow that doesn't make a lot of sense at all, huh. What are you doing there, Truga Cliffcharger?


Not a madness enabler, but does work with "discard matters" if you have any of that. Also, maybe too high power. But I love it.


"...at random" sinks this for me. But the base rate's acceptable and it's a dream to live, which I always comment on because it is the kind of thing I like to have in my cube.

Oh, right, I would love (!) to run Rydia. So far I only have not because I run 0 sagas currently – there are some cool ones but surprisingly few that do something with multiple themes in my cube. I guess I would like to change that before I add her.

Or I could proxy a version without the second ability, I guess, since it's a blank anyway.

Painful: I was cubing Galia of the Endless Dance for a while – I even had a selfmade full art altered version. But I cut it when I realized that I liked Stormbind more. I was down to only one gold card per guild for a long time. Now that I am doing the occasionals thing, I would probably just bring her back – if I hadn't sold her
But the Satyr tribal line is at least as ugly as the saga text on Rydia.

I'll make Rydia work either way.

And after thinking about this slot for a couple days now, I guess I like Goblin Anarchomancer more than I thought and I should give him another whirl – before looking back at your suggestions