Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

ravnic

ravnic

This sweet combo of two generally useful cards has already caught some attention on these boards:

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Now, there is some redundancy too for the Skyfisher in:




... which seems still playable on it's own in the right circumstances. Same is true for this card I'm already running:




Well, but that one doesn't really works with the bounce guys like the monument does, so it doesn't really give the combo redundancy. But then, lately, I saw this video:




That card seemed like a nice build around and caleb could go off pretty nicely with the Lion.

Could it be worth it, to go deep and include this whole package? There seems to be enough overlap with Tokens, Blink and Artifacts that this subtheme could be an easy inclusion. Also, I'm always looking for ways to make {W} more interesting. Maybe there are even more pieces for redundancy I don't know about? Do you guys think this is viable and fun?
 
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japahn

japahn

That seems pretty interesting, I would test it. It does have the Howling Mine problem of being usable by your opponent earlier than by you. Negating the ability seems like a fun goal for Johnnies too, but I can't think of much besides Improvise and Ghirapur Aether Grid that would allow them to do so.
 
sigh

sigh

Make sure you have some good counterpoints to the strategy, just like if you are including any other strategy. Give other decks tools to handle tokens and it shouldn't be problematic

Things like Pyroclasm etc.
Trample
Flying
Regular ol' wraths
A tweak of the "average" P/T ratio of other creatures. Tokens can be effectively combated via creatures that require either a lot of tokens to kill, or can block and kill tokens effectively. Like:
 
ravnic

ravnic

I'm not sure yet if I am going to add those slightly narrow cards, but yesterdays draft reminded me of this great answer for clogged up boards:



I feel like this card deserves more advertising. It is the most interesting sweeper in black and a great tool against tokens and aggro. Since it's inclusion it has constantly overperformed in our cube. In Addition to the board-wipe ability, it also fuels your graveyard like a boss and has potential for infinite +1/+1 counter synergies. Any way of removing or adding extra counters gives you a tool to get did of constantly whatever annoys you and/or get an evergrowing fattie. Dredge is also super sweet to rebuy all those abilities. And while providing all that, Necroplasm is never oppressive or unfair. I can't imagine cutting this card ever from either my cube or my Ravnica draft sim.
 
inscho

inscho

I've always been super intrigued by Necroplasm. I ended up sticking to Stinkweed Imp for the deeper dredge and to somewhat thwart creature-cheat strategies, but I should really test it out. I've never actually played with it before, but it'd be nice to have another answer to tokens that isn't simply a wrath...
 
japahn

japahn



Do you think this would be ever played? I need red cards that feed sacrifice outlets. Mana sinks are good to have, and I even have a minor pirates deck.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

japahn said:


Do you think this would be ever played? I need red cards that feed sacrifice outlets. Mana sinks are good to have, and I even have a minor pirates deck.
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As long as it doesn't immediately die when it comes in to play, I think this is serviceable in your list. I don't think your removal is efficient enough to make this a bad rate for a creature, and I think your size to cmc ratio looks approximately correct to support this.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

ravnic said:
I'm not sure yet if I am going to add those slightly narrow cards, but yesterdays draft reminded me of this great answer for clogged up boards:



I feel like this card deserves more advertising. It is the most interesting sweeper in black and a great tool against tokens and aggro. Since it's inclusion it has constantly overperformed in our cube. In Addition to the board-wipe ability, it also fuels your graveyard like a boss and has potential for infinite +1/+1 counter synergies. Any way of removing or adding extra counters gives you a tool to get did of constantly whatever annoys you and/or get an evergrowing fattie. Dredge is also super sweet to rebuy all those abilities. And while providing all that, Necroplasm is never oppressive or unfair. I can't imagine cutting this card ever from either my cube or my Ravnica draft sim.
Click to expand...

I've definitely been considering giving this a try. It plays well with both Graveyard strategies and +1/+1 counter strategies, all without feeling super oppressive.

It can't kill itself in conjunction with Hardened Scales, too.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT


How much worse is Faith of the Devoted compared to Drake Haven? Faith is clearly not as good, but both play the same role in "discard matters" decks. Faith also has the distinct advantage of being playable in B/R lists, which means it can be used as a means to help aggro strategies push through late damage, provided they have a repeatable discard outlet. Do you think that it might be worth the opportunity cost of a slot as a build around in a discard-heavy list?
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I've been running Faith for a while now, and I wouldn't say it's obviously not as good as Drake Haven anymore. Great card, plays much better than anticipated! I mean think about it, with a mere three activations, you've already created a twelve point life swing!

NB I do run both Squee, Goblin Nabob and a custom sorcery with Squee's "I keep coming back" mechanic to support the discard deck.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT


How do we feel about Favorable Winds. This really feels like a card that can give blue-based tempo (and god forbid aggro) strategies some teeth. It plays nicely with value flyers like Siren Stormtamer, Nightveil Sprite, and Warkite Marauder, Thopter token producers like Whirler Rogue and Pia and Kiran Nalaar, and it further powers up big blue haymakers like Serendib Efreet and Tempest Djinn. In addition to that, it gives all your Drake Haven tokens +1/+1, and plays nicely with some of white's weenie flyers like Selfless Spirit, Remorseful Cleric, and Aerial Responder.

That's all it does though. The rest of the time, Favorable Winds is a do-nothing. Thoughts?
 
ravnic

ravnic

Not a fan. It is just so narrow. Great in the deck full of fliers, but that is already good in some formats and the card doesn't seem strong enough to really make me build around it after a P1P1. If you want something that gives an extra punch to evasive tempo decks, maybe try these instead?:

 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

ravnic said:
Not a fan. It is just so narrow. Great in the deck full of fliers, but that is already good in some formats and the card doesn't seem strong enough to really make me build around it after a P1P1. If you want something that gives an extra punch to evasive tempo decks, maybe try these instead?:

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Rasmus Källqvist said:
I like that those cards pair kinda well with trample as well, pairing them fairly well with green and to an extent red!
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Yeah, I don't know... I've run both of those cards in the past and haven't been super impressed by either. I think Bident is super fun, but I found it to be a somewhat clunky card to cast sometimes.

I don't think I'm going to try Favorable Winds, either.
 
japahn

japahn

I don't like how snowballing and wordy Trident is, but I've run it for a long time. Favorable Winds is narrow, but there's no clearer signpost for the fliers deck, I'm pretty happy with it even though it's played maybe 25% of drafts.
 
ravnic

ravnic

I understand the dislikes for Trident and I honestly think the clear winner here is the Lookout. That card only got cut from my cube because blue aggro/tempo is almost completely nonexistent with {W/U} being mostly blink or artifacts, {U/B} control or sometiems dredge, {U/R} mostly spells or something like wildfire and {G/U} landfall/ramp. But when it was in, even without much support, it was always an exiting card. You just need 1 evasive creature to make use of it's ability, and when he get's through himself somehow, the advantage is not much smaller than a Trident could do. Another big point: It works with noncombat damage. That's sweet with all kinds of pingers and all kinds of cards (Zo Zu, the Punisher?), and also a combo piece with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. Also, just being a creature makes him less of a dead card when you're behind, since he can always block to gain you some life or take a piece of equipment after a sweeper etc.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

vennythekid said:
Why not
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I don't think I'm looking for an attacking-based draw effect. Generally my blue sections have more than enough ways to draw cards. I think I was looking more for a way for "fast" blue decks to increase damage output with what it already has on board. Now, Curious Obsession can add 1 power and 1 toughness to the board, but it doesn't stick around, which is kind of important.

(And yeah, I've looked at Unstable Mutation. I used to run the red version and it was fairly lackluster. I don't think shifting it to blue makes it any better).


How do you guys feel about Great Teacher's Decree as a double overrun for white weenie decks? Seems like it could be interesting, depending upon how I build my new White section.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I love Great Teacher's Decree. I thought it was a house, though it didn't really get picked up by my other players. I've since replaced it with Inspired Charge, which does get picked up because people are more comfortable running the effect at instant speed. I mean, I get it, since you can suprise your opponent with it, but I did love GTD, especially when I still had a prowess theme in white.
 
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