Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Grillo_Parlante
- Start date
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
vitalize seems very combo-rific, in a elf-ball sort of way.
I was looking through spells that deal 3 damage and happened upon this gem. Actually...... not that bad?
This card is awesome. Never mind that it needs a creature on the battlefield, this is a really gratifying two-for-one if you pull it off! In my most recent 8-man the 3-0 deck ran this and commented that while it was annoying it couldn't be cast on an empty board, it was a super value play if there was a target. Also note that this comes online on turn 4, and most creatures that are cast before that are small enough to get fried.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Blastoderm is one block older than Jade Leech actually, and a common!
Power creep is clearly a creature thing!
Power creep is clearly a creature thing!
I have to admit, this one made me lol.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Anyone played this outside of peasant cube/AVR Limited?
Yeah, it was pretty alright, but mostly Briarhorn just offered more interesting lines of play.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Resurrecting old school rares... how playable is this guy and at what power level? I love the art and 4 toughness is beefy. The damage trigger is better in durdly environments I'm guessing?
hilarious for you, but he does have the interesting effect of making planeswalker loyalty abilities all kinda cost 1 more
Alright. FOr real this time. I did some math and everything:
Like the post just a few up where I astonish myself over Ulcerate and Co., this littel beauty hits 164 targets in my cube (tokens included), which ends up being over 86%. Eighty Six Percent. That's almost good enough for Frank Karsten
Just remember that any power pumping tricks, auras, or equipment will remove it since it checks the low power requirement continuously.
I've actually thought about including this multiple times in my regular cube, but have been talked out of it every time I ask for a second opinion. With how insane Wolfir Silverheart can be, Druid's Familiar should be pretty solid in most environments, offering a +2/+2 "aura" instead of Obstinate Baloth's lifegain, making him more aggro-slanting. The four drop slot is completely jammed in green, though, so I suppose it might take a lower powered environment for him to shine, where he won't be sitting side-by-side with Polukranos.
I've thought about Druid's Familiar, but I think I like Briarhorn better because it's a combat trick too. I know it's not a direct comparison though. I just love evoke as a mechanic since it feeds the yard in that capacity while still getting you an immediate effect.
And this guy mentioned in the Theros thread deserves discussion because of how much he does. You don't even need direct graveyard support IMO.
And this guy mentioned in the Theros thread deserves discussion because of how much he does. You don't even need direct graveyard support IMO.
This thread is really depressing; I am pretty sure I paid something like 5$USD/each for Jade Leech in 2000 and was happy about the purchase. Don't get me started on Sapphire Leech...
I usually think about Druid's Familiar in the context of equipment where Briarhorn is removal/combat trick. Evoke cards probably always feel better than non-evoke with similar stats-to-cmc. It's also unfortunate that 3-4 mana cards are so bad in great quantity because it's not until turn 6-8 when a player can normally cast 2 of them; expensive cards have a lot of spiffy abilities.
I am thinking about buying a Time Warp for a lower-powered format. My concern is that it might just be too underpowered. Who is/has cubing expensive Time Walks, and how have they performed?
I usually think about Druid's Familiar in the context of equipment where Briarhorn is removal/combat trick. Evoke cards probably always feel better than non-evoke with similar stats-to-cmc. It's also unfortunate that 3-4 mana cards are so bad in great quantity because it's not until turn 6-8 when a player can normally cast 2 of them; expensive cards have a lot of spiffy abilities.
I am thinking about buying a Time Warp for a lower-powered format. My concern is that it might just be too underpowered. Who is/has cubing expensive Time Walks, and how have they performed?
I might actually be pretty excited about Time Warp in a lower-powered format that supports blue temp - uh, fish. It's a little bit like Overrun in that you'd need a decent board position where you're slightly ahead before it does anything, but having one copy as a 'finisher' for an aggro-control deck might not be that far-fetched. There's also the whole angle of using Time Warp in an unfair way, to take multiple turns back-to-back, but I'm not quite Johnny-ish enough to figure out how to do that in a cube environment.
What do we think about this little piece? I was looking at Gnaw to the bone and asking myself "gee, I wonder if there's a white card kinda like this." Actually seems pretty decent! Also, link back to the discussion on lashknife barrier
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I feel like you were about to swear, then told me to shut the ffffffront door
Time warp is probably best thought of like a cantripping relentless assault. It's really good when you've got a million guys in play and another attack step would be good for you, but otherwise it's just explore. The Delta is really high compared to other cards we run.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
What do we think about this little piece? I was looking at Gnaw to the bone and asking myself "gee, I wonder if there's a white card kinda like this." Actually seems pretty decent! Also, link back to the discussion on lashknife barrier
I tried this and it didn't see much play. It's probably pretty nice in a heroic deck?
I'm stating the obvious but I feel this is being downplayed a bit.
Time Walk effects are considerably better than Explore. Taking an extra turn is magnitudes more powerful than putting an extra land in play and drawing a card. You get all your mana back for one. You can play a dude without haste and attack with him or tap to activate an ability before your opponent ever untaps (assuming you have the mana). You get an extra planeswalker trigger, etc. It's easily worth 5 mana for the effect and Time Warp in particular is abusable if you have snapcaster or regrowth effects.
If you want an aggro version of this card there's final fortune. My group didn't like it but YMMV.
Time Walk effects are considerably better than Explore. Taking an extra turn is magnitudes more powerful than putting an extra land in play and drawing a card. You get all your mana back for one. You can play a dude without haste and attack with him or tap to activate an ability before your opponent ever untaps (assuming you have the mana). You get an extra planeswalker trigger, etc. It's easily worth 5 mana for the effect and Time Warp in particular is abusable if you have snapcaster or regrowth effects.
If you want an aggro version of this card there's final fortune. My group didn't like it but YMMV.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
What do we think about this little piece? I was looking at Gnaw to the bone and asking myself "gee, I wonder if there's a white card kinda like this." Actually seems pretty decent! Also, link back to the discussion on lashknife barrier
That's interesting, I was actually thinking of posting prismatic strands, but thought it might be too narrow. Obviously its a different kind of combat trick.
I think I don't like embolden as much as other choices for turning on heroic, but I hadn't really thought about it.
I concur. There was a blue-green ramp deck in Standard circa Worldwake that ran Time Warp with Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Oracle of Mul Daya and Avenger of Zendikar to good effect. I am a bit worried in my case that someone will take Warp and then be disappointed that there is nothing "cool" to do with it. (The fantasy set is a mashup of Rise of the Eldrazi and Scars of Mirrodin Block retail draft formats with supporting cards from many other sets to build on the themes.) I already have had competitive-level players lament about drafting Tinker and then their best target being half of Soliton + Heavy Arbalest (which I am happy with, but drafter perception is so important to get player buy-in). It would be remiss to fail mentioning a big reason that I am including Time Warp is that the format has an Ugin's Nexus (with Lighthouse Chronologist) that yearns to stop extra turns from happening when it should not be immediately sacrificed for a turn itself.
Amusingly, I also run Final Fortune in another fantasy set "format": it's almost always the bummer pick (and I've received a lot of flak for including it). I'm patiently waiting for some Young Pyromancer deck to play it in a big turn and impress all witnesses...
Embolden was great in Odyssey Limited, but that was when damage stacked, so it may have lost some play (but I doubt it). Seeing it, I love it as a heroic enabler. My suspicion, however, is that the average cuber (and myself) would not be thrilled to take it and/or end up leaving it in the sideboard. Older retail draft formats were lacking playables and had a dubious power band so a card like Embolden could shine. It could still shine in a lower-powered cube environment, but I believe the biggest hurdle would be finding players that were willing to cut powerful standalone cards from their decks to gain the possibly tactical advantage and synergy of including Embolden.
I am still struggling with setting up environments that facilitate cards of which we might post in this thread being played and found to be worth playing. My gut tells me that the root of this cause is part experience (players are more used to raw power in cubes than synergy, especially at the lower skill level) and part commitment (despite our hours and days obsessing over our Limited babies, many of our drafters don't invest themselves in the entire draft and play experience- there isn't much to gain or lose... except losing time. I imagine that the entertainment value to be had by cubing is fairly elastic for Magic players.). Since I am at the point where I have an unreasonable amount of fantasy sets/cubes, I am going to save draft pools from the next draft(s) I manage to fire and rebuild them to play some duel deck style matches (including cards to expand the range of in-game experiences, even if the competitive part of me says to cut them for removal/creatures). I guess you could say that I will be socializing combat tricks and wonky cards with my prospective cube audience.
After all, I will need to get a lot of buy-in to get someone excited about drafting and playing cards like this... (in the same format mentioned above as Time Warp). Just imagine it in a format where some decks may play as many artifact creatures as non-artifact...
After all, I will need to get a lot of buy-in to get someone excited about drafting and playing cards like this... (in the same format mentioned above as Time Warp). Just imagine it in a format where some decks may play as many artifact creatures as non-artifact...
I love me some Rite of Ruin, just brings me back to the days of my roommate at the time cracking like 6 of these instead of, you know, better stuff. This would be very good in an artifact creature heavy format, as some sort of counter-play in a "Rebel against the artifacts" deck.
I really like messing around with cards that are effectively by their very nature based around synergy. Sure, Embolden can be (effectively) gain 8 life for
, but when are you straight up using it like that, not using it to make combat go down the toilet for your opponent? One of the more complex and lenticular sort of cards out there. A newer player might look and see that it can prevent damage to themselves, and value it just for that, but as you get more experienced you realize the power in saving multiple pieces of your board in combat. Good Stuff.I don't generally care for super linear tribal stuff, but what about this guy for some incidental extra value on gobbos?
I like that it's not quite as swingy as traditional lords. The WCS isn't the greatest in terms of mana efficiency, but is still 4 damage at instant speed. Likewise, the BCS can clear out your opponent's side, but requires some tangible investment on your end. I don't see it making a final 40 without at least a few other goblins in the deck, but it doesn't require you to go all in to be good either.