Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

[Brad]

There's probably some potential for deathtouch plus pingers in the right cube. Doesn't have to happen all the time, but those equipment are all fine and so are quite a few pingers. I thought about it because I have Cunning Sparkmage, but it felt stupid to have a dude wearing a collar able to kill Kozilek.

Could be as simple as some of Vorpal Sword, Collar, SFM, Cloud, Cunning Sparkmage, Grim Lavamancer, Spikeshot Elder, Ballista off the top of my head. Nothing wrong with any of those.

 

[ravnic]

This card is like... aggressively ok. It reads well, but in practice the type of deck that would want a card with this set of synergies at this cost would prefer a card which is better at pushing damage like Dragons Rage Channeler.

But in an environment where DRC would be too powerful for a 1-drop, the less aggressive version could work out just fine, right?

 

[LadyMapi]

Vindictive Flamestoker has been basically been the following every time I've tried playing with it:

Vindictive Flamestoker -
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put an oil counter on Vindictive Flamestoker.
It's A Trap! - When Vindictive Flamestoker has three or more oil counters on it, an opponent hits it with a removal spell at their nearest convenience.
1/2

 

[ravnic]

Vindictive Flamestoker has been basically been the following every time I've tried playing with it:

Vindictive Flamestoker -
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put an oil counter on Vindictive Flamestoker.
It's A Trap! - When Vindictive Flamestoker has three or more oil counters on it, an opponent hits it with a removal spell at their nearest convenience.
1/2

But if they use their removal spell on my 1-drop, that's a good thing in my book!

 

[Seeker]

There's probably some potential for deathtouch plus pingers in the right cube. Doesn't have to happen all the time, but those equipment are all fine and so are quite a few pingers. I thought about it because I have Cunning Sparkmage, but it felt stupid to have a dude wearing a collar able to kill Kozilek.

Could be as simple as some of Vorpal Sword, Collar, SFM, Cloud, Cunning Sparkmage, Grim Lavamancer, Spikeshot Elder, Ballista off the top of my head. Nothing wrong with any of those.

Vithian Stinger! I love Vithian Stinger!

(this is not a power level endorsement relative to all those cards.)

 

[LadyMapi]

What a weird card. It's both a repeatable flicker engine that's tied to attacking (great if you want to encourage aggression!) and a pseudo-Pacifism because villain probably isn't too keen on attacking into the Mirror. It also very briefly gives you a token to mess with, which could be interesting?

 

[MilesOfficial]

I ran it for two or three years.

It usually went super late, but when it was played, it copied a ton of Thragtusks. It was always a high-risk/high-reward card, but in the modern day, it's just hard to justify a card that can be so easily undermined, and that struggles to survive a turn cycle just from blockers. Then again, it's really not meaningfully different from Molten Duplication, which I've seen some folks play to reasonable success.

Neat card!

 

[safra]

i really like molten duplication it's just so much more flexible than you expect. when the effect is so feast-or-famine you need that floor yknow

 

[StavGold]

Molten Duplication effects are among my favorites. I tried Electroduplicate in my Temur desert list for a while, but it fell short of expectations sadly.

 

[ravnic]

A 6-drop with ramp will always feel underwhelming or at least not super high powered to me – but I also notoriously undererstimate landfall cards.

Is it crazy to run Baloths at lower power?
Would you say it is worse/better than Honored Hydra?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Uh… that depends on your cube’s angles, I think. If you can reliably put out the Hydra on turn 3 or 4 from the graveyard, that’s better than the Baloth, I think. But Baloth shines in slower cubes where getting to 9-10 mana isn’t an exception and board stalls are common.

 

[TekLazar]

It looks really flipping strong, but in cubes where the floor is murder it's fine. It looks overwhelming and strong (I mean, it's rampaging baloths!) but the 4/4s tend to get chumped (notably no trample on the 4/4) and they're better as blockers but if you're coming from behind it's like... Myr battlesphere that spits out more tokens. And Myr battlesphere arguably is the better card because four 1/1s is way better than a single 4/4, even if it is only once. I would just say baloths is worth testing if you feel like green decks need that kind of overwhelm effect to win stalls sooner but ime, it's only okay. I would rather run stronger 7 drops and keep honored hydra as needed glue. (Like Giant Adephage or Garruk's Horde or Pellaka Wurm or even hornet queen)
oh, but I have only tested it with cubes that don't have fetches, so getting out two 4/4s might weave it into playable? Still doubt it.

 

[Nanonox]

Is it crazy to run Baloths at lower power?

I think it would invalidate what has happened in a game a large amount of the time. You or your opponent built a cool engine? Nice! But now it doesn't matter because here is an army in a can with almost no work involved.

I think it also overshadows some of your cool threats too like Verdant Force.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I think it would invalidate what has happened in a game a large amount of the time. You or your opponent built a cool engine? Nice! But now it doesn't matter because here is an army in a can with almost no work involved.

I think it also overshadows some of your cool threats too like Verdant Force.

Unless you build your deck around it, it’s not an immediate army in a can, cause you can only make one land drop a turn… if you draw a land every turn. I think it feels like a reward if you get to Do The Thing!