Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

[ColonelSanders]

speaking of



Can this be fair in a lower powered format? Part of me feels that this is a bit of a boogeyman, and might be reasonable if a cube doesn't have a lot of combo support for it.

Maybe I lack imagination, but assuming you have no ways to "go off" with it, this feels like a very reasonable low power substitute to a control finisher like aetherling. It untaps lands so you can protect it from removal (assuming they don't kill it in response to the trigger. It has evasion. Its kinda big. It can fog an attacker if you're desperate. My only worry would be someone might pick it hoping to find a miraris wake when you don't support those kind of shenanigans.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

peregrine drake is absurd in my format: palinchron would be beyond broken. An effectively 0 mana 4/5 flyer that occasionally ramps huge amounts of mana, and can independently go infinite, is going to be the best card in a low power format by a mile, and should win every game in which its successfully resolved.

 

[Laz]

peregrine drake is absurd in my format: palinchron would be beyond broken. An effectively 0 mana 4/5 flyer that occasionally ramps huge amounts of mana, and can independently go infinite, is going to be the best card in a low power format by a mile, and should win every game in which its successfully resolved.

This was my thinking. If you want Palinchron without the combo potential, Peregrine drake would be my instinct.

 

[Modin]

Would probably need to cost 1 less, but the effect could be sweet.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Just found out that this card exists:



How do we feel about this card?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

It's probably on par with Astral Steel. If you want a surprise finisher in red, Rites of Initiation is probably more powerful.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Haze is orders of magnitude better than Astral Steel

I love the card way too much, the ceiling is incredibly high but you have to put the work in for it. I'm intrigued by the idea of a combo tokens deck in red that uses Haze and Rites, Bushwhackers etc.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Haze is orders of magnitude better than Astral Steel

I love the card way too much, the ceiling is incredibly high but you have to put the work in for it. I'm intrigued by the idea of a combo tokens deck in red that uses Haze and Rites, Bushwhackers etc.

I feel like in Cube, it functions a useful 'modal' spell, in that the aggressive decks can just cast it w/o the buyback, and the 'ramp' decks can turn it into semi-overrun. At least, that's how it looks on paper.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Haze is orders of magnitude better than Astral Steel

I love the card way too much, the ceiling is incredibly high but you have to put the work in for it. I'm intrigued by the idea of a combo tokens deck in red that uses Haze and Rites, Bushwhackers etc.

Well, Astral Steel makes you win combat unexpectedly, Haze of Rage makes you kill your opponent expectedly. The first problem with Haze is that they see it coming (it's a sorcery after all) and can block accordingly, the second problem is that it's hard to support storm in cube in a non-poisonous way. When you're using Haze as a two drop after a haste creature somewhere in the mid game, chances are it's worse than the cards below. It only comes into its own when you can chain it multiple times, at six or eight mana you're starting to get somewhere, but what deck is interested in both making so many land drops and a pump spell? Really, Dom's article sums it up pretty nicely, as he's build essentially a combo deck to make Haze work, and it's really hard to have a cube deck replicate that consistency.



That said, it's still a fun card, so by all means try it out if you're curious!

 

[Dom Harvey]

Yeah, you need a lot of low-CMC (ideally free) cards or cost reducers to make it work: Cloud of Faeries/Snap/Frantic Search, Manamorphose, Phyrexian mana, Gush etc

In Modern it's great with Goblin Electromancer: two mana -> Ritual -> 4 mana -> Haze + buyback, Haze again which was usually enough if you had anything else

 

[sigh]

I tried it and it didn't bite, but that might be because it is a pile of keywords my group didn't want to learn and deal with...

A card I've loved since the second I put it in the cube is one in Onders list:

It does something fairly unique in white, giving the color some reach/closing power, and the flashback puts it at a good enough power level to include. The flashback really makes the card, tbh. Being able to T1 faithless looting in a Jeskai/izzet-splash-white deck and then have a source of killing power still in the grave once you've got some board out is soo good.

Bonus points when you have something like a flipped curious homunculus out and it goes off.

 

[japahn]

Rally the Peasants is a cool and elegant card.



Is this playable? What would one need in their deck?

 

[Golvin]

Rally the Peasants is a cool and elegant card.



Is this playable? What would one need in their deck?

Battle cruiser magic? I am not opposed to getting back my Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger while you get your 2/2. Alternatively you could use it with The Cheese Stands Alone and Oblivion Ring.



That said, Dimensional Breach, while weird, is not likely to be playable in most if not all formats.

 

[Chriskool]

Dimensional Breach seems reallllly weird. Maybe, there is a green-white ramp strategy in a lower power format where it works. Or maybe some red-white Wildfire.

Speaking of red and low-powered, I am convinced that Magus of the Wheel is a wonky card.

 

[japahn]

I think of him as a 3/3 for 2R that will once in a while draw you reach EOT. I guess he is low power on average, though high variance..

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I love Magus of the Wheel. The best thing is you can activate him in your opponent's end step, so you get to cast the fresh hand first.

 

[Chriskool]

I love Magus of the Wheel. The best thing is you can activate him in your opponent's end step, so you get to cast the fresh hand first.

Magus has been underreceived in my Med Mage grid, probably due to lesser amounts of red reach and lots of instant speed answers (of which red wants to avoid while adding to 20). I am going to look at it again in another format (maybe fantasy set). I guess med mage grid occupies a power band below cubes that will be fireblasting but above peasant or traditional limited, and that might be why I've disliked magus.

Have you been playing it in Khans of Alara or another format, Onder?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Have you been playing it in Khans of Alara or another format, Onder?

Yep, Khans of Alara. My opponent thoroughly killed me with it one time, but that might also have something to do with the Scuttling Doom Engine in his hand and the Feldon of the Third Path on his side of the battlefield

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Magus has been underreceived in my Med Mage grid, probably due to lesser amounts of red reach and lots of instant speed answers (of which red wants to avoid while adding to 20). I am going to look at it again in another format (maybe fantasy set). I guess med mage grid occupies a power band below cubes that will be fireblasting but above peasant or traditional limited, and that might be why I've disliked magus.

Have you been playing it in Khans of Alara or another format, Onder?

I'm pretty skeptical too. That red three slot is incredibly competitive already, and I kind of want a card that is always able to be able to deliver in its utility role. Magus seems very inconsistent in how it plays, and also how effectively it can function as a utility piece. If it were competing in any other slot, I think that would be fine, but for a red 3 it seems like a tougher sell.

Keep in mind I want it to work, to run it alongside underworld dreams.

 

[safra]

I've quite liked Magus of the Wheel when I've been able to resolve it long enough to use its ability.

 

[Dom Harvey]

 

[inscho]

Looks like fun with delve...I forgot those cards existed.

There's also:

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

The black one is more interesting as a more unique effect on that colour, plus has more payable delve cards.

 

[japahn]

Looks like fun with delve...I forgot those cards existed.

There's also:

"then reorder your graveyard as you choose"

 

[Jason Waddell]

Just found out that this card exists:



How do we feel about this card?

Isn't that card with flashback just way better?