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!

 

[ravnic]

Another one I would love a discussion about:



Besides being very hard to spell, how much worse is this than Day of Judgment? (it should be, as it's colorless)
Is it better or worse than a Day of Judgment for would be?
I thought it could help motivate people to draft mono blue control if there was a colorless boardwipe, but I also would not want it to be so good that people don't feel inclined to play an actual wrath they might open.

 

[Ecophagy]

I've been playing with it and it's interesting - it's obviously slow, and spending all of turn 4 to do nothing (or get Disenchanted) can be fatal. But after you untap with it, it works a lot like Pernicious Deed: if you don't need to pop it immediately it sits there as an instant speed safety valve. The opponent's game plan becomes "how do I force them to pop it without over-committing?", which is pretty interesting game play so long as you can actually pressure them enough without being run completely out of cards.

So in some ways, I'd say it acts more like a stabilising tool than a literal Wrath - playing it on a clear board is pretty great. Sometimes you need to push the button immediately, but since it announces itself I'd call it worse than a straight 5-mana Wrath. It does also go up a lot in value if you have planeswalkers since they survive.

 

[TekLazar]

I've played a lot of Magus of the Disk which is similar. It has some really interesting gameplay like, throwing it on an empty board, and then opponent is like... "do I play cards anymore?" I like the Disks a lot more than the 5 and 6 mana wraths that are usually played in lower-powered environments. Magus vs Nevinyrral would be an interesting fight club, I guess it depends on who you want having access with more interaction.

is also sick, but even more lower powered

 

[Erik Twice]

Another one I would love a discussion about:



Besides being very hard to spell, how much worse is this than Day of Judgment? (it should be, as it's colorless)
Is it better or worse than a Day of Judgment for would be?
I thought it could help motivate people to draft mono blue control if there was a colorless boardwipe, but I also would not want it to be so good that people don't feel inclined to play an actual wrath they might open.

I would say it's a cut below Rout or the other unconditional 5 mana wraths but also markedly better than the conditional ones. I think it's a good comparison since it's the most relevant aspect of a board wipe and plays quite similarly.

However, there are some key differences:

1) It's ALWAYS reactive since it cannot go off the turn it comes into play.
2) You will lose the game if it's destroyed or bounced at the wrong time.
3) It's very heavily symmetrical, while a wrath isn't.

Personally, I think Oblivion Stone might be better:

 

[Humpty_Dumpty]

Nevinyrral's Disk leaves planeswalkers untouched, which may be a good thing or not depending on your cube. Oblivion Stone destroys everything, and used to be good when I ran it in draw-go control decks: if your opponent didn't play something for fear of overcommitting/being countered you could put a fate counter on something of yours.

 

[Nanonox]

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!

Yeah army in a can is the wrong phrasing. I stand by my sentiment that it's too much for lower power. After casting your 6 drop (7 drop is the more realistic play pattern), you have no dead draws which is a problem ramp decks usually have. You are still happy to draw a land or ramp for a 4/4 token. If you draw something else, that is presumably action, which is good too.

---

I think Stone and Disk are pretty close, but I’m on team Disk for its synergy potential.

I like trying to maximize the synergies in any cube and the Disk opens up the potential for so many fun ones. Granted they are unlikely to come up, but seeding them in the cube opens possibilities of cool plays. Repeat for most of your cards and you'll often be surprised by novel card interactions.

Since Disk doesn't sacrifice itself, you can Bounce/Blink/Phase/Protect the Disk to use again



Protect a permanent from the Disk's ability



Untap it the turn it enters the battlefield for a big surprise and/or use Planeswalkers to break the symmetry



I am sure there are others, but these are the main ones that spring to mind. Chose Disk for the synergy potential!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Besides being very hard to spell […]

Adding something entirely different to the conversation, spelling Nevinyrral becomes really easy (or at least moderately easy) once you realize the card is an homage to Larry Niven, writer of The Magic Goes Away. The story's central idea is that magic isn't infinite but runs on "mana," a depletable energy source, much like oil or other natural resources (and what happens when you recklessly exploit that resource). Niven’s novella inspired Magic the Gathering’s mana system, and as a tribute, we find Larry Niven’s name spelled backwards on the card you wanted to discuss! Larry Niven, Nevinyrral, now you can spell the card too!