Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

ravnic

ravnic

I am running this card in my {R/W} section for aggro, tokens and everything inbetween, and I am pretty happy with it:



Two facts make my consider a swap though. First, I don't have any instant speed team pump left in my list. And second, Rally could work in the {R/G} Madness deck I'm pushing so desperately!

What you guys think, is the instant speed in general just better/cooler than the anthem effect?
 
ravnic

ravnic

It is, everyone loves it here as far as I can say. But I only have 3 Boros gold slots, and I also like my other cards quite a bit :S

 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

This is an endless debate, but I'm going to advocate for running flashback cards as monocolored. While they fit best in their color pair, they are so in a different league of splashability compared to actual gold cards that I don't see why the flashback card should use up a gold slot. I'd say, chuck out some white card you don't feel excited about and run rally the peasants in its stead!
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Rasmus Källqvist said:
This is an endless debate, but I'm going to advocate for running flashback cards as monocolored. While they fit best in their color pair, they are so in a different league of splashability compared to actual gold cards that I don't see why the flashback card should use up a gold slot. I'd say, chuck out some white card you don't feel excited about and run rally the peasants in its stead!
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Additionally, Rally the Peasants is completely playable as just a White Trumpet Blast, completely ignoring the re-cast.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT



So a lot of people here run Serrated Arrows in their lists, and I think that's pretty cool. How low of a power level does a cube need to have before it becomes a playable removal spell? Obviously, someone at the "legacy" power level as our friend Greater Gnoll puts it probably wouldn't want this in their cube, but what about someone running a cube that's equatable the power level of current Standard? Arrows has a bunch of fun interactions with proliferate and untap synergies, making it super useful for slower decks, especially in base green or blue, that need help removing creatures. I know Grillo runs this in his penny-pincher 2.0 list, and I seem to remember reading DBS has played with (or at least theorized about) the card at one point.

So, that begs the question: is this bad removal, or positive interaction?
 
Miasmir

Miasmir

I love Serrated Arrows to pieces. If proliferate is a deck I imagine the arrows to be both cute and good. Otherwise I think it has a lot to do with the size of creatures, and specifically how likely is the scenario where you kill a creature the turn you play the arrows.

However, the real glory is in environments where creature combat math is a real thing. Arrows work at instant speed, and come into play untapped. Attacking into them can be rough.
 
ravnic

ravnic

It is worse than Arc Lightning, but by an amount, that seems appropiate for a colorless card with lots of synergy potential. I'm really far from cutting it. Also, it is a good card from homelands!


Speaking of flexible artifact cards, what do we think of this crawling allrounder? It seems to work with blink/sacrifice/artifacts/token synergies, while also being a fine choice for control and ramp decks. Any experience?

 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

What are your
ravnic said:
It is worse than Arc Lightning, but by an amount, that seems appropiate for a colorless card with lots of synergy potential. I'm really far from cutting it. Also, it is a good card from homelands!


Speaking of flexible artifact cards, what do we think of this crawling allrounder? It seems to work with blink/sacrifice/artifacts/token synergies, while also being a fine choice for control and ramp decks. Any experience?

Click to expand...
I've never cubed with Pentavus.

What are our opinions on these two cards:
 
Alfonzo Bonzo

Alfonzo Bonzo

Pentavus seems bulky and expensive but wonder if it has some legs. Imagine it can be pretty funny with hardened scales.

I really like nantuko husk. Free sacrifice outlet and good threat. Hellkite is a great control finisher, particularly if red green control is a thing in your cube. Also a good reanimator target.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Nantuko Husk is awesome. The threat of activation is huge (kinda comparable to Wild Mongrel), makes combat difficult, weakens opposing removal/pump spells and has all the uses of free sac outlets in the best color for it while still being easy on the mana cost. It's not super busted. But it is a core card for my meta and one of the few cards, which has been in from day one and will most likely always be.
 
ravnic

ravnic

I haven't played GRN limited. What do people think of this card?




I'm looking for a card in each guild section, that doesn't promote thst color combination's main archetype but makes splashes tempting. Could this guy be a reason to add black in tokens or add green in lifegain?
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

ravnic said:
I haven't played GRN limited. What do people think of this card?




I'm looking for a card in each guild section, that doesn't promote thst color combination's main archetype but makes splashes tempting. Could this guy be a reason to add black in tokens or add green in lifegain?
Click to expand...

Short answer: no.

Long answer: This card is pretty clunky from my experience with it. There are far better life gain rates, even amongst the other GRN/RNA guildmages. The team pump ability, although interesting, usually isn't that great except for in token decks. Even then, I don't think it's worth the splash. I also don't feel great about including a niche gold card that doesn't support the color pair's main goals- even indirectly. It doesn't need to synergise with the rest of what the pair is doing, but it at least should be something you'd want to play in that deck.

Here are some "splashable" G/B cards that I like:

I picked out mostly low-powered cards or cards that can be played in low powered formats without breaking things.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Okay, you're probably right about the guildmage being clunky, but isn't to find a card, that's horrible in the main archetype, but to find something, that indicates a secondary theme in these colors. My philosophy for gold cards is, that they can be more narrow than mono colored ones, but they should be strong and guide players into archetypes. Like archetype indicators. I have 2 for the main theme in every guild section and one, that encourages a different approach in these colors.



Primary theme: Spells matter, Secondary theme: Artifacts (in {W}{U}{R} )




Primary theme: Lifegain, Secondary theme: Aristocrats (from {B/R} sacrifice and {G/W} tokens)


For golgari, something for ({G/W}-based) tokens would make sense, since it works so well with the sacrifice theme already in black. Also, green is a nice splash for lifegain. Something to make {B/G} Ramp more tempting would also be awesome.

I might just go with that new golgari kill spell that ramps ...
 
whydirt

whydirt

It can go in either, to be honest. Lots of monocolored cards work best in certain guilds, so there’s no shame in making it a Golgari-leaning green card. It can also fit into a guild section since even though it can go in any green deck, Golgari ones will value it higher.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Ray of Command is a good card, but I prefer temporary stealimg to stay in red. So what do you guys think of these cards? I'm running Act for a while and it's been awesome, so much that the other two are now peaking my interest as well:



They work on offense and defense thanks to instant speed and are obviously great with sac outlets.
 
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