Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

[KhitriyKrab]

Let's gather some incidental token support here! Sorry if the power band is too wide.

Large threats:




Removal with good rate and Polymorph shenanigans:



Profit from tokens dying by going tall and tying it to the Counters theme or regaining the board:








Or generate an overwhelming card advantage:




I feel this can just leave some decks with no way to win the game with a gravestorm not too high:


Also, what a strange card. Does anyone feel it shouldn't be Blue?

 

[ravnic]

This card is cool:

 

[alvoi]

This card is cool:

How come I have never seen it? Now I have to add it to my Cube

 

[TekLazar]

This card is cool:

The more I think about it, the more I like it cuz it kinda kills all the mini creatures and it doesn't absolutely overwhelm the board. As someone who regularly plays Heartless Summoning -1/-1 is a lot, and it can do a lot of fun stuff.

 

[ravnic]

It also adds a dimension of buildaround. You either want to make sure to have creatures that stay relevant with -1/-1 or make sure that your things coming back just to die again is beneficial.

 

[LadyMapi]

I was browsing Scryfall, and I came across this little fellow that seems fantastic for a bar cube (or other format where having a bunch of throwaway creatures to feed to edicts is uncommon):



I don't have a good place to test it right now, but on paper the play patterns it opens up seem pretty interesting. I like that villain is saccing a creature to get the privilege of trading another creature with the Marauder, and like how it interacts with combat tricks more than something like Shakedown Heavy. I even like that it's a 3/1 instead of a 3/2, because that makes it really tempting to chump.

 

[ravnic]

I had a copy of this card when I was 11 yo and I thought it was broken. Sweet that it turns out that it is actually a cool design. Thank you, I'll put one into my battlebox!

 

[KhitriyKrab]

It's interesting to think that while it's actually strictly worse than 3/1 unblockable for , the fact that it gives the opponent an option to make a mistake makes it seem better.

 

[LadyMapi]

One of the cool things about designing a cube is that you get to realize that a card can be good and bad at the same time.

From a winning the game perspective (which is the one that playing Magic trains you to take), a 3/1 unblockable is 100% strictly better because there isn't much counter-play outside of "use removal, idiot". Slice from the Shadows is a strictly better version of Death Wind because it makes villain's decision to run counterspells or creatures with ward meaningless. Ogre Marauder is worse than a color-shifted Latch Seeker is worse than a color-shifted True-Name Nemesis, and so on and so forth.

From a designing a format perspective, your goal is to make sure that both players have agency over the game and both have a good time. Both players having to "negotiate" over whether or not Ogre Marauder gets to be a color-shifted Latch Seeker or a 2-for-1 trade opens up more room for skill expression and stories than if one player just gets to click the "do 3 damage a turn" button repeatedly. And that's a good thing! Ogre Marauder is worse than a color-shifted Latch Seeker, but is probably more fun for both players. If players need Slice to push through ward and counters, maybe you should cut some ward and counters.

That said, I wouldn't run it in a format where Cruel Edict wasn't a reasonable spell - if there are a bunch of 1/1 tokens running around to feed to edicts it's basically a severely nerfed Cursed Minotaur, and that's just disappointing.

 

[safra]

a 3/2 menace for 3 now that's a game piece. no comment on all this ogre business but it feels a little cute to me, not unlike all the other punisher mechanic spells

 

[Karshtakavaar]

Getting to take something 'cute', reveal its complexities and thereby make it mechanically interesting is engaging all on it's own, and lets you learn a ton about the game even outside that 'cute'-ness.
Look at the absolute insanity that is the success of Dandan as a format - I have watched people I was convinced would never improve at Magic become significantly better in 40-card limited games after playing Dandan before and between rounds for like two months. Is that because their only other regular Magic is EDH? Probably. But it's still valuable (In the context of understanding Magic. Not so much in the "Would shell out $100 for a playset of scuffed foils.").

 

[ravnic]

Is that because their only other regular Magic is EDH? Probably

It is really astonishing to me how many absolute basics of playing Magic are lost to people who only come from Commander. No hate. I love it when people come to this game and I don't care how good you are, but it's still fascinating how learning the game has changed over the years. In the most recent Cube Open tournament, I played against a guy in my very own Ravnica block cube. He was enfranchised. I could tell because he knew cards and Magic lingo, he even complained that I had a formerly banned now "game changer" because I was playing Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - annoying, but dies to Last Gasp and Galvanic Arc and Putrefy and Seal of Doom and others. And he had absolutely no concept of tempo and card advantage!

The first game against me he gave away because he constantly sacrificed real cards to Thoughtpicker Witch. He seemed to think that this was a mean play. But I already had a superior board position, because he was not hitting all his land drops and I had been developing my board decently. So it just made it so much easier that he threw away three real creatures he paid mana for, just to slightly manipulate my draws.

Game two was even more baffling. He cast Shambling Shell on three, followed it up with Moldervine Cloak swung for six, I took it. In my turn I Repealed the creature, so his aura fell off, a huge tempo swing. He continued to dredge it back, swing for six again. I knew I could take it one more time because I had drawn a real removal spell. When I got rid of his one threat (while also casting another creature) he even said "I will just continue doing that" like he was really giving it to me. I tried to be friendly and chill but still said something like "If you believe that will win you the game". He wasted two more draw steps and another six mana to rebuild his DIY Craw Wurm, which at this point, couldn't even attack into my board anymore.

After losing his third match he proclaimed: "I don't know what else I could have done!"

Maybe this has something to do with these pushed commander cards these days all generating tons of card advantage and enabling themself and snowballing with no investment needed. I believed my Ravnica cube was beginner friendly, but now there are players like this guy, enfranchised players, unable to win a simple 1 vs 1, 20 life, 40 card match.

 

[TekLazar]

 

[Karshtakavaar]

Maybe this has something to do with these pushed commander cards these days all generating tons of card advantage and enabling themself and snowballing with no investment needed. I believed my Ravnica cube was beginner friendly, but now there are players like this guy, enfranchised players, unable to win a simple 1 vs 1, 20 life, 40 card match.

Winning a draft with 3+ colour jank built around your draft chaff shouldn't-have-been-a-first-pick Legend used to be a way to dunk on your pod -now it just means you forgot which night was open table EDH, and they needed one more to get a pod of six.