Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

ravnic

ravnic

Itsa me again, ravnic!



How low-powered is this guy even? I mean it is a 7-mana gold card, so t should be good, but I fear the double draw could be a little harsh maybe?

The good points: I think this guy could make people add white to the mostly {U/B} or {U/R} control decks in my meta, as well as make people interested in go a more controlling route with their {W/B} lifegain deck and splash for blue. Also cool art.
 
psly4mne

psly4mne

I ran Drogskol a long time ago. At the end of the day, it's a fatty with no protection that usually needs to get into combat to do anything, so it's fairly safe in low-power. It stabilizes really well if it does make it to combat.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

japahn said:
These might be too low power, but I've seen some cubes run these cards that I find quite elegant:



They work well in artifacts and ramp, though the Lotus is card disadvantage, therefore it needs to be in a deck that can mitigate that disadvantage. If your cube has artifact destruction, be careful with them as you could get blown out by Thrashing Brontodon! Sol Ring isn't very good if the colored mana requirements are too high, but it's probably the most playable.

Some fun combos/synergies:
- Darksteel Citadel + Sol Ring + Frogmite - 2/2 on turn 1
- Mox Ruby + Shrapnel Blast - 5 damage to the face on turn 1, 66% better than a bolt
- Mox Pearl + Glint Hawk - free creature
- Mox + Manifold Key - filter mana
- Black Lotus + Divination - free sorcery speed Mental Note
- Black Lotus + Seasons Past - cast as early as turn 3 and get more value out of the cmc 0
- Black Lotus + Auriok Salvagers - infinite mana
- Mox Sapphire + Ensoul Artifact - turn 1 5/5! Probably too good, so don't run Ensoul.

Some issues are:
- These cards tend to be a bit expensive due to their scarcity, apart from Sol Ring.
- They don't come in foil, so they'll stand out like a sore thumb in a foil cube.
- They can lead to some crazy fast starts, like Mountain, Black Lotus, sac, Ravenous Giant.

Image.ashx


Though in a lower power cube you wouldn't be running a 5/5 for 4.
Click to expand...

This does illustrate an interesting point. Any card can theoretically be low-powered provided that the cards surrounding it are equally low powered.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
TrainmasterGT said:
This does illustrate an interesting point. Any card can theoretically be low-powered provided that the cards surrounding it are equally low powered.
Click to expand...
Hogwash. This is like saying any Ferrari can be cheap, provided that the high end racing cars surrounding it (like Lamborghini and Porsche) are equally cheap. They still cost a metric ton of money. They're expensive as fuck, any which way you look at it. Like how expensive cars can still be affordable for millionaires, Moxen can be of the appropriate power level, considering other cards in the environment, but they will never be low power. (Still a funny post by japahn though ;) )
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

Fact or Fiction is one of my absolute favourite cards, but it's fairly strong, especially in a cube that has a lot of graveyard action going on (like mine).
I don't want to miss the exciting mini game FoF offers, so I'm searching for alternatives. What do people think of:



This looks interesting as you could spend more mana for it to let bigger piles and therefore more interesting choices happen. The thing that balances this (in comparison to FoF) is that the player makes the pile while the opponent is free to choose which pile will go to the hand. For a lot of people, this makes the card unplayable, but I wonder if this is true? You can make the choice quite hard for your opponent, just like with Gifts Ungiven, another BIG favourite of mine.

The two sphinxes are way too strong to be alternatives, let me tell you.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Mondschwein said:
Fact or Fiction is one of my absolute favourite cards, but it's fairly strong, especially in a cube that has a lot of graveyard action going on (like mine).
I don't want to miss the exciting mini game FoF offers, so I'm searching for alternatives. What do people think of:



This looks interesting as you could spend more mana for it to let bigger piles and therefore more interesting choices happen. The thing that balances this (in comparison to FoF) is that the player makes the pile while the opponent is free to choose which pile will go to the hand. For a lot of people, this makes the card unplayable, but I wonder if this is true? You can make the choice quite hard for your opponent, just like with Gifts Ungiven, another BIG favourite of mine.

The two sphinxes are way too strong to be alternatives, let me tell you.
Click to expand...

Have you ever tried...



Great subgame, similar to FoF, but definitely less powerful. For one, the caster doesn't have perfect information when choosing, and also, it's four cards instead of five. Very fun!
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

Ah, forgot about that one, but I knew it existed. I don't know, looks a bit more random with a face-down pile. Especially in Cube, where decks usually are singleton. Will have to try them both, thank you. Can you tell something about Epiphany, too?
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I have never tried Epiphany, but it seems more swingy. It seems bad at 4 mana, since you will pretty much draw the best card of your top 3 most of the time, but you're entering better than Dig Through Time scenario's at X > 6, and that is a very, very powerful card draw effect, even disregarding casting cost.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

X plus one makes it better at 4 mana (it's the top 4 cards) and being powerful at X > 6 definitely isn't a problem for me.
Will try them both and see. :)

Talking about cards that make piles and let you choose:



More interesting than Twilight's Call as conditional mass reanimation? Or just trash?
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Onderzeeboot said:
Hogwash. This is like saying any Ferrari can be cheap, provided that the high end racing cars surrounding it (like Lamborghini and Porsche) are equally cheap. They still cost a metric ton of money. They're expensive as fuck, any which way you look at it. Like how expensive cars can still be affordable for millionaires, Moxen can be of the appropriate power level, considering other cards in the environment, but they will never be low power. (Still a funny post by japahn though ;) )
Click to expand...

I worded that poorly. What I meant to say was closer to the "Moxen can be of the appropriate power level, considering other cards in the environment" line.

Obviously something that gives you 3 mana on turn one is never going to be as weak as Charging Badger.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

As I support +1/+1 counters, I have to be aware of adding Persist creatures to my cube. This one actually looks very playable, for mentioned reasons. Need to test If it's actually TOO good, but thanks for pointing it out!
 
Swoopydo

Swoopydo

Mondschwein said:
Need to test If it's actually TOO good, but thanks for pointing it out!
Click to expand...

I fear it is probably too good or just "" too good value" : i mean its floor is being another creature that nets 'boring' card advantage.
Wish it was a cheap artifact/enchantement or without persist himself.
Now that i think about it a cycle of Burning Vengeaces scattered in all colors would be so cooool.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein



I find this to be way more boring, and I'm personally going for creatures with the same type of effect instead of enchantments/artifacts if I'm able to. Creatures are easier to handle and I HATE that there's so little enchantment/artifact removal that isn't blank half of the time, like Forsake the Worldly, Collective Effort, Putrefy, Mortify, Anguished Unmaking, Kolaghan's Command, Thopter Arrest, Beast Within, Generous Gift, Thornscape Battlemage and Thunderscape Battlemage, if we stay at low-mid powerlevel.
 
ravnic

ravnic



I always justified this card in my cube with "you need to build around this to make it really busted", but last weekend my friend who manages this cube with me claimed, that it was too good. I had drafted what I thought was a good dredge deck (but didn't perform great when I didn't draw Living Death) and I had Den Protector as well as Nyx Weaver to get it back and Nantuko Husk to not lose any board.

I had first picked Living Death and build around it pretty well. I went 2-0 against that friends really strong life gain aggro deck, where I always won with the card (first game it decided alone, second I probably was already winning anyway), but I didn't draw it against my other friend (we were only 3 drafters) and went 0-2 against his not that strong blink deck.

So I was wondering now if I should try to find other ways to make dredge a little stronger and replace Living Death with Twilight's Call. But cutting a pet card is never easy, so I'm asking for your qualified advice :p
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

Living Death is a very powerful card even if you don't build around it. You can slam a copy in the average deck of The Rock and have it win games. In fact, it was played in The Rock back in the day, without any graveyard shenanigans whatsoever. The trick is that it's strongest when you are losing and you can always chose to "lose" in order to play this afterwards. Love the card, but it's true it's very strong.

However, it doesn't seem stronger than the other cards in your cube. It's certainly not stronger than Upheaveal powered by signets or elves and, at a glance, I don't think it's stronger than Red.dec or Aristocrats powered by Goblin Bombardment.
 
astraedm

astraedm

I play Living End instead of Living Death. Makes you work to cheat it out for free (I run As Foretold, Electrodominance, and a few cascaders) or set up a telegraphed turn that lets you leave mana up afterwards.
 
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