Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

[Schafkurai]

That's awesome, so much so that I feel kinda bad telling you that Krasis is spelled with a 'k'.

Dang, there had to be something. On the bright side, I'm certain my friends have no idea how to spell Krasis either!

Or that there's a Nickname frame intended for this exact purpose.

I tried the Godzilla nickname frame but there was a reason I didn't use it. Maybe it was the text box transparency or that changing it messed with the frame in some other way. Also, as @Humpty_Dumpty pointed out, I did alter type lines, types of tokens produced and other slight alterations like removing Planeswalker dice text etc.

In the end two of my friends read the cards and still asked where the backside was, as apparently not everyone knows all the names of cards by heart .

I'm reasonably happy with the layout for now but I might change it, if I get back to cubing more.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Or that there's a Nickname frame intended for this exact purpose.

Which I honestly like less than this solution, on the assumption you don't have transforming cards in your cube. I think this is easier to read and less obtrusive, but for the baggage.

I've been thinking about the best way to go about this sort of thing recently (don't have any conclusions yet)

Like I tokenshift a ton of cards, right? It sucks if you actually provide tokens and one card makes 1/1 soldiers, one makes 1/1 humans, and one makes 1/1 human soldiers and there's a reason to care, like human tribal or declaration in stone.

Recently we've joined up with some people from the Toronto cubing discord, so there's been a lot of new blood in my recent drafts, and one person commented that they got through it, but they would have been less confused if I just added the wandering emperor instead of my custom one which makes knights with no other changes.

People know (even tangentially) a lot more magic cards than they might think, and you are going to lose some people by not calling sharp eyed rookie by its original cringe name, wording change or not.

 

[Suicufnoc]

Yup. The less cards people have to read while scanning through packs, the better.

I'm thinking keep names and art original and just do any token shifts as highlighted errata. Ugly but WAY more functional

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Yup. The less cards people have to read while scanning through packs, the better.

I'm thinking keep names and art original and just do any token shifts as highlighted errata. Ugly but WAY more functional

Just bold and underline minor changes, and use the Arena treatment if the change is bigger (i.e. functionally different)!

 

[Schafkurai]

Just bold and underline minor changes, and use the Arena treatment if the change is bigger (i.e. functionally different)!

Using bold for slight changes is a nice idea, I might try that.

Yup. The less cards people have to read while scanning through packs, the better.

I'm thinking keep names and art original and just do any token shifts as highlighted errata. Ugly but WAY more functional

Keeping names and art is a no go for me personally, as that's the main reason I do these . I am dreading the number of universes within cards that I'll want to do for Final Fantasy though... White leaves the graveyard cards.. landfall..

 

[ravnic]

That's not a fight club per se, I'm sure both would be good enough but not too much for my cube. I just wanted to talk about these cards in fair contexts, as I don't have a lot of experience with either. In this case, fair context also means that there is no reanimator deck. Most of my fatties have a cost reduction build-in or an adventure or just aren't that exciting to get back. So both of these cards would probably just get back some mid size/value creatures (Phyrexian Gargantua almost being a premium target, lol). But sacrifice fodder is super easy to get (Bloodghast, Wriggling Grub, Reassembling Skeleton) and graveyards fill very very quickly (Stinkweed Imp, Hedron Crab, Satyr Wayfinder).

What I am curious about is how these cards would play in such a mid/lower powered environment. (How) would they fit into a grindy black-based graveyard value pile? How difficult is it really to get three bodies for DRs flashback? How painful is the word "tapped" on Victimize?

 

[Brad]

I have experience with Dread Return and I really liked it. The only concern with strong-ish reanimation in a fair and/or low power environment is that you'll sometimes come across a fatty that you shouldn't run because it will be very unfun on turn 3-4.

 

[Modin]

+1 on Dread Return. Super sweet card and the flashback always feels rewarding.

 

[Rusje]

I have experience with victimize in my urza block cube. That is a cube where phyrexian gargantua would be on par as a target.
The thing with victimize is that you need 2 targets, fodder, and since the targets enter tapped, you need to survive a turn. It might seem like a 2 for 1ish, but it is often either a dead or win more card. As fun as it seems, it needs a very, very specific card pool to not be a trap.

Often a simple zombify would be better due to the sacrifice and tapped. (I play diabolic servitude and that one is miles, and miles better than victimize. Seriously, victimize is on the brink of being cut.

 

[ravnic]

I have experience with victimize in my urza block cube. That is a cube where phyrexian gargantua would be on par as a target.
The thing with victimize is that you need 2 targets, fodder, and since the targets enter tapped, you need to survive a turn. It might seem like a 2 for 1ish, but it is often either a dead or win more card. As fun as it seems, it needs a very, very specific card pool to not be a trap.

Often a simple zombify would be better due to the sacrifice and tapped. (I play diabolic servitude and that one is miles, and miles better than victimize. Seriously, victimize is on the brink of being cut.

Do you think a lack of etbs (and 'dies' triggers) in your urzas block cube makes it worse? I am somewhat careful with etbs as well, but do run a decent amount of solid ones. Just in black:

 

[Rusje]

Do you think a lack of etbs (and 'dies' triggers) in your urzas block cube makes it worse? I am somewhat careful with etbs as well, but do run a decent amount of solid ones. Just in black:

My cube has a fair amount of etbs/dies. It is just that you lose a creature and get tapped one’s back. So returning regular creatures is often quite an opening to be attacked. This was also the problem of the precon tombstone.
However, if you return cards like

then you are in business. Getting them in the yard first is an issue.

 

[Mondschwein]

best reanimation spell imo

 

[Rusje]

best reanimation spell imo

Nice reanimation, but I raise you one:

For the grindy matchups

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

I really like fair Dread Return. The floor of just being a zombify is already pretty good for most low power fair stuff environments, and then the occasional splashy moments of flashing it back can be cool and exciting. I think it depends on how easy it is to generate tokens in an environment for how often you'll see the flashback come up.

 

[TekLazar]

For other low-power I also really like the duo of

elspeth is the much more reasonable and reliable card, but there is something very enjoyable for me about foreboding cards

 

[Seeker]

For other low-power I also really like the duo of

elspeth is the much more reasonable and reliable card, but there is something very enjoyable for me about foreboding cards

while it's a bit higher power, it's only a bit, and sometimes you really want to do it right away: