Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

ravnic

ravnic

I convinced myself to test the dragon. But I am still outside the box thinking about unconventinal cards. See, I don't have a soldier theme. And I don't have a +1/+1 counter theme. I do have, however, quite a lot soldiers and a bunch of cards that put counters on creatures.



I mean it is basically Chronomaton ++, which doesn't seem to be a bad position. And it would get some non-parasitic tribal in the cube, that changes how players draft!
 
LadyMapi

LadyMapi

What are people's thoughts on this little druid?



It dodges burn and threatens to be a beefy or evasive attacker as long as you have {G} open. And, hey, it's a potential source of flying in Green.
 
ravnic

ravnic

He's a nice 2-drop for both aggressive and midrange decks. But I cut him for being too generic. Green just has many cool 2-drops that actually synergize with some more strategies. (I guess he can survive wildfire at least or work in a Doran deck?)
 
ravnic

ravnic

I have a lot of nostalgia for this card. And still seems strong if you're not fighting aggro. Anyone ever played the card?

 
sigh

sigh

The issue is that "if you are not fighting aggro" is really quite the downside. Aggro is already primed to beat control in the triangle of major play theaters, running a card for a control deck that is specifically weak to aggro probably isn't the best. Not necessarily the same power level, but it would have to compete against powerful dig spells like drawn from dreams and careful consideration. I don't think it even stacks up great against deep analysis unfortunately. I'm sure you can craft an environment where it can do neat things, but it would have to be a fair bit slower than most.
 
japahn

japahn

I had the same experience with Archivist, several years ago. It's really bad against aggro, and there's a pile of cards that are sweet in slower decks but you can only run a handful of them because they don't affect the board enough, and you have to interact with aggro. Thieving Magpie is an alternative at a similar power level that is a bit better against aggro. Enclave Cryptologist isn't as elegant but keeping it as a looter for 1+2 mana helps draw into removal, blockers and board wipes and it can go full Archivist in long games for 1+2+2+2 mana.



I've just come across this card, has anyone tried it? I was looking for white card advantage and it seems like a legit, resilient finisher at low power with an effect that might turn a game.
 
sigh

sigh

Twilight Shepherd can be really awesome. Probably the biggest potential is off a wrath while she's on the battlefield. Not only do you get every other card put in the grave that turn, but you also keep a 4/4 vigilant angel.
Even in a much more tame situation like fetching -> casting Shepherd, you get the fetchland back, which is pretty nifty.

Honestly, sky's the limit. Reanimate her via apprentice necromancer etc? Get the necromancer back (and keep the 4/4 angel angel off persist too!). Pretty nifty card
 
ravnic

ravnic



Is this good? Can you throw this into most decks with a great mana base (or monocolored ones) or does it need quite a few discard/graveyard synergies first?
 
Aston

Aston

I'd say most "normal" decks wouldn't want this unless they're playing against an opponent who gets empty-handed very quickly, and even then once they realise they can keep 1 card to filter it becomes neutral to actively bad.

You need some way to break the symmetry on this otherwise you're both getting the same upside but you have to pay 3 mana for the privilege, which doesn't feel like a winning proposition to me.

It does become funny/oppressive (YMMV) with Narset, Spirit of the Labyrinth. Hullbreacher etc
 
ravnic

ravnic

Okay, I have another lesser known, colorless archetype support card, that I want to talk about. This one supports blink, landfall and can reset sagas or Demonic Pact. All while - hopefully - disrupting the opponent, who build a not nearly as synergistic deck for it. Maybe it even works as an aggro curve topper?

 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

At a glance, allowing your opponent to do it as well may prove to be a big drawback. A single ETB on your opponent's side of the table can become a serious problem.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Yeah, you two are probably right. It's not worth the risk I guess.

From cards that are most likely too good, let me switch to cards which might be too much for low power levels.



While Sporemound is for sure among my weaker 5-drops, both landfall and token decks play it for the synergies. What fors that say about that 6-drop?
 
ravnic

ravnic

Nice self-sufficient tribal card you got there. It is a really sweet lower powered 5-drop as well and I like that it opens up for different synergies. It works with: heroic, enchantments matter, blinking or bouncing (enchantments or permanents), enchantment recursion, tokens, ferocious (power matters), and potentially wolves.

I'd definitely try it out. Just make sure your meta isn't flooded with cheap, instant speed removal, so players can actaully expect this to hit the field.
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

Yeah, I'll be damned if that card doesn't require a very particular kind of removal suite. Essentially you have to have instant speed unconditional removal at 4 cmc at the cheapest, or else you'll probably never have an open window to cast that card.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Rasmus Källqvist said:
Yeah, I'll be damned if that card doesn't require a very particular kind of removal suite. Essentially you have to have instant speed unconditional removal at 4 cmc at the cheapest, or else you'll probably never have an open window to cast that card.
Click to expand...


Well, it's not like people are never tapping out, right?

I wouldn't want to have a bunch of doomblade variants around, but a Murder or two alongside Mire's Grasp and Sever the Bloodline should be fine.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

LOL
wait until you see my cube
especially rremoval gives me some headache because it is pretty hard to balance with every little detail in mind :D
 
ravnic

ravnic

Now that he has a nice looking frame ...



How much better than Zombify is this card when the reanimator targets in the cube are tame and the EtB triggers aren't super brutal either?
 
sigh

sigh

Hard to directly compare, as they operate quite differently (besides being in different colors). Feldon is certainly more flexible throughout a game, as each turn you get to pick the best option for the current situation, but you don't get to keep that creature because it sacs at EOT. Really cute with death triggers. I run both varieties of effect and they don't really compete for space in my environment or mind.
 
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