Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Grillo_Parlante
- Start date
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Yeah. You can reorder your graveyard however you like in formats where no cards care about the order, and they didn't want to have to issue format specific errata for how people would usually play this card.
Anyone got any lower power alternatives for Fact or Fiction? Preferably also at instant speed?
While I personally love Fact or Fiction, it's a little bonkers for
in a format with a relatively constrained power level. It's also super punishing to newer players: while veterans of the game like ourselves have a lot of fun with it, and are attracted to super Spike-y cards like this, my observation is that players with less experience are handing the game to their opponent as they make their two piles, without really understanding or realizing the ramifications of what they've just done.
While I personally love Fact or Fiction, it's a little bonkers for
in a format with a relatively constrained power level. It's also super punishing to newer players: while veterans of the game like ourselves have a lot of fun with it, and are attracted to super Spike-y cards like this, my observation is that players with less experience are handing the game to their opponent as they make their two piles, without really understanding or realizing the ramifications of what they've just done.
"Two pile" cards will always have a barrier to entry, I feel. It's just a hard operation to complete successfully. My top two contenders are probably:Anyone got any lower power alternatives for Fact or Fiction? Preferably also at instant speed?
While I personally love Fact or Fiction, it's a little bonkers for
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Also:
Not really a big fan of FOF either: it tends to slot too well into the those blue jund style decks, and control has a hard enough time as is in these midrange formats.
Not really a big fan of FOF either: it tends to slot too well into the those blue jund style decks, and control has a hard enough time as is in these midrange formats.
Careful Consideration and Stroke of Genius might be your best bets here, both of those are great.
I personally like Gifts Ungiven in that kind of role, though it requires a certain cube composition to work out. Looking over your cube it certainly seems close to supporting Gifts if not all the way there yet. Squee, Golgari Grave-Troll, and Life from the Loam go a long way. You just need a couple more flashback cards in my estimation, though getting Dread Return and some Gravecrawler/Reassembling Skeleton stuff is an interesting way to go. Prized Amalgam might be a good add, too (maybe in place of Ribbons of Night?)
I personally like Gifts Ungiven in that kind of role, though it requires a certain cube composition to work out. Looking over your cube it certainly seems close to supporting Gifts if not all the way there yet. Squee, Golgari Grave-Troll, and Life from the Loam go a long way. You just need a couple more flashback cards in my estimation, though getting Dread Return and some Gravecrawler/Reassembling Skeleton stuff is an interesting way to go. Prized Amalgam might be a good add, too (maybe in place of Ribbons of Night?)
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Also:
Not really a big fan of FOF either: it tends to slot too well into the those blue jund style decks, and control has a hard enough time as is in these midrange formats.
What do you mean by "Blue Jund" style decks? I get the feeling you're not actually talking about the specific color combination of
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Kind of like how the grixis control decks in modern sometimes get described as "blue jund"
You have a similar feeling grindy style of gameplay, but you're just running good blue cards like snapcaster.
You have a similar feeling grindy style of gameplay, but you're just running good blue cards like snapcaster.
Out of those I think I like Careful Consideration the most. I like that it has decisions that affect how good it is that avoids having the opponent make decisions for you which seems like it would be good for newer players.
I like Deep Analysis if you have a lot of Firestorm and Thirst For Knowledge type things going on.
This is just my opinion but it feels like Fortune's Favor is a card that would take forever to resolve.
Some people also like this but I've never tried it. It has trinket text which doesn't really bother me.
I like Deep Analysis if you have a lot of Firestorm and Thirst For Knowledge type things going on.
This is just my opinion but it feels like Fortune's Favor is a card that would take forever to resolve.
Some people also like this but I've never tried it. It has trinket text which doesn't really bother me.
Do not underestimate Deep analysis. It is a good performer in my cube, and surprisingly flexible. Even if you have no looting options in your deck, it's draw 4 for 6 (and 3 life), which is a reasonable rate. It's a lot of value tacked on to a single card slot and pulls more than it's weight in a 40-card deck.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Mildly obsessed with this card within the context of a lower power bounceland format.
The mana requirements are infinity too steep for any other type of format, but it seems perfect for a slower, more controlling style of R/W deck that cares about spells, generating the needed ramp through bouncelands. The tutoring effect provides a form of inevitability that can be coupled with prowess creatures in red and white, and that color combination is already pretty good at benefiting from artifact as a permanent type.
The mana requirements are infinity too steep for any other type of format, but it seems perfect for a slower, more controlling style of R/W deck that cares about spells, generating the needed ramp through bouncelands. The tutoring effect provides a form of inevitability that can be coupled with prowess creatures in red and white, and that color combination is already pretty good at benefiting from artifact as a permanent type.
I know it's not low power but torrential gearhulks focus on instants makes other instant only cards like sunforger more interesting. I guess you also want to consider number of first/double strike cards as well?
Sunforger and Godo, bandit warlord were made for one another. And I love reasons to play open the armory.
You don't necessarily need bouncelands, I would reckon. Any format that stalls out with players at moderate life totals will appreciate mana dumps. I would imagine Sunforger with some of the living weapon equips to add to RW midrange strategy (and allow the card population to include a healthy amount of ways to kill equipment).
You don't necessarily need bouncelands, I would reckon. Any format that stalls out with players at moderate life totals will appreciate mana dumps. I would imagine Sunforger with some of the living weapon equips to add to RW midrange strategy (and allow the card population to include a healthy amount of ways to kill equipment).
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Yeah, I haven't fully parsed out all of the places where it can fit, but it seems like a strong enabler for some pretty spicy R/W control/midrange combinations in slower, slightly lower power formats. The grid formats were also at the back of my mind when I posted, or maybe a cube used more for sealed.
I also thought this might be kind of neat with it:
I don't have an enchantment theme, but this seems to hit a lot of the right notes if one were to exist.
I also haven't fully thought out all of the possible cards it could grab, but I rather like:
The massive boost in power, is also nice for
Usually RG is the color for big permanent power boosts, so this is nice to see in RW
I also thought this might be kind of neat with it:
I don't have an enchantment theme, but this seems to hit a lot of the right notes if one were to exist.
I also haven't fully thought out all of the possible cards it could grab, but I rather like:
The massive boost in power, is also nice for
Usually RG is the color for big permanent power boosts, so this is nice to see in RW
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Grabbing Starstorm is a horrendous idea, since you get to cast the spell for X = 0I also haven't fully thought out all of the possible cards it could grab, but I rather like:
sigh's suggestions are wonderful though. It also interacts hilariously with split cards, allowing you to cast either half, even if the side that's red or white had a cmc > 4 and the side that has a cmc <= 4 isn't red or white Edit: You can only fuse a split card if you cast it from your hand, so that doesn't work. My bad!
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I'm a big fan of Sunforger, and I think it might be going into the new cube I've been brewing! Can't wait for Aether Revolt to arrive, super excited to see if this new cube has what it takes to get there off the back of these new cards!
The granddad of this sort of "big" activated ability is of course Griselbrand. Not super low power though. One card I've been looking at for a Blue 4 slot is
Puts some of the blue draw into the creature base, and combos with Jeskai Ascendancy pretty hard, as well as the ooze.
Puts some of the blue draw into the creature base, and combos with Jeskai Ascendancy pretty hard, as well as the ooze.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I've been looking at these....not sure if it's exactly great with the necromancer, but it does recur it for reuse.
Is there a low powered self-exiling creature like aetherling? It would be great to give ooze some resilience and to dodge the sacrifice clause on necromancer.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
The closest thing I think is using blink effects to avoid the sacrifice clause on necromancer, which admittedly seems like an interesting way to do reanimator/blink in a format.
These two seem interesting in that regard:
And of course, morphs work well with blink effects.
These two seem interesting in that regard:
And of course, morphs work well with blink effects.