Card/Deck Low Power Card Spotlight

ravnic

ravnic

How good is this girl?



I recently added her, but I fear she might turn out to be a little too good as a card advantage engine for just 2 mana that probably also has good evasion (I tend to undervalue Menace). And I am not sure I want to have better Dark Confisant variant than Pain Seer. On the other hand, I also run other 2-drops that can become must kills like Looter il-Kor
 
japahn

japahn

It's not that strong. It takes two turns to get the first card and at least one unblocked attack. Even though menace is evasion, any two blockers stop it. The best case is drawing a card every other turn, which is good but in a fragile body with caveats. Looter il-Kor is stronger.

Only reason I don't run Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is that I don't want to add singleton energy cards, but this is the card that tempts me the most to do so.
 
C

Clyde

I like cards that encourage attacking. Also works well with ninjas. Hasn't been too powerful over here.

ravnic said:
How good is this girl?



I recently added her, but I fear she might turn out to be a little too good as a card advantage engine for just 2 mana that probably also has good evasion (I tend to undervalue Menace). And I am not sure I want to have better Dark Confisant variant than Pain Seer. On the other hand, I also run other 2-drops that can become must kills like Looter il-Kor
Click to expand...
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

ravnic said:
How good is this girl?



I recently added her, but I fear she might turn out to be a little too good as a card advantage engine for just 2 mana that probably also has good evasion (I tend to undervalue Menace). And I am not sure I want to have better Dark Confisant variant than Pain Seer. On the other hand, I also run other 2-drops that can become must kills like Looter il-Kor for example.
Click to expand...

This card is not better than Pain Seer at being a dark Confidant beyond the first attack in my opinion. This card is a slightly better attacker than the other confidant variants on account of having menace, and it doesn't dome the player for as much every time it draws, but it is also just far worse at drawing cards. In the time it takes to draw two with this, a Pain Seer or Dark Confidant could have drawn 3 or 4 cards respectively.

I don't think this card is actually that good if you want a Dark Confidant type effect specifically. However, if you're in the market for a Goblin Trailblazer doing it's best Dark Confidant impression, this is fine. I would never run Glint-Sleeve Siphoner in a cube without at least a couple other energy cards for consistency's sake, but that is entirely a me thing.
 
ravnic

ravnic

This card just caught my eye:



Is cycling for 1 and the ability to graveyard hate enough flexibility to make this card worth it in a low powered cube environment? My gut says yes. Did anyone already play with it, in cube or retail limited?
 
Rowan_CB

Rowan_CB

Well, I have played it a lot in retail limited, but in Ikoria it's a Boros card. :D

I think it's definitely playable in a low power cube if you are looking for the effect. Cycling 1 means is never a dead card. It's not anything that's gonna excite your drafters but could be a solid utility card if you have space and are looking for these effects.
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

I think the flexibility is what makes the card. It's a pretty solid common from what I can gather. Cycling is really good on cards like this, and is a nice way to attack stuff like enchantments and planeswalkers.
 
ravnic

ravnic



Could this card be solid in an aggressive madness deck, as it will probably make blocking really, really akward? It also generates some extra damage and is a hard to remove discard outlet.

I wish it cost 2, but maybe I'm undervaluing it's impact?
 
Rowan_CB

Rowan_CB

Aggro decks can rarely afford to take essentially take turn 3 off, and this card chews up your tempo even after its on the board by forcing you to leave up mana to threaten activation.
 
ravnic

ravnic

I feared that. But the importat part is not the pump/on-board-trick, but the "aggressive" discard outlet. Interesting that you mentioned Deepwood Drummer, Onde, do you think he has really more chances to play well? And is he better than this guy?



My problem with the Driver is the 2-mana activation cost, but he might just be the next best option as he's really cheap and has a potentially impactful ability. I'll turn this into a fightclub: Stampede Driver or Deepwood Drummer?
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

I guess it depends on what you pair it with. +1/+1 and trample is potentially quite a lot of extra damage getting through if it's played in the same deck as some bigger creatures (like 3/3 and above).
 
Rusje

Rusje

Stampede for me since it gives all your creatures the boost as opposed to the drummer. That said, you have steep requirements. In the old days the aggro madness deck used the blue loot cards since they are cheap mana cost wise. This left mana to use on madness and in turn changed the looting into a draw with upside. The driver starts to be useful if you have 2 other creatures. That is likely on turn 4, which is a tad late if you want to use it as a discard outlet to spew arrogant madness creatures. The bonus of the driver is that it gives trample, which helps push the last damage through, but it is not that good as a madnessboardbuilder. You already run gurzigost which is turn 6 outlet/damage pusher, but maybe you could use the classic Masticore as a turn 5 outlet?

That being said do you really want it? You run only a few madness cards, none green, and not even the red or green wurm variant. Is a green aggro madness enabler really what you want/need? Likely I missed a bunch of madness cards, but what would your ideal madness agro deck look like?
 
ravnic

ravnic

Rusje said:
Stampede for me since it gives all your creatures the boost as opposed to the drummer. That said, you have steep requirements. In the old days the aggro madness deck used the blue loot cards since they are cheap mana cost wise. This left mana to use on madness and in turn changed the looting into a draw with upside. The driver starts to be useful if you have 2 other creatures. That is likely on turn 4, which is a tad late if you want to use it as a discard outlet to spew arrogant madness creatures. The bonus of the driver is that it gives trample, which helps push the last damage through, but it is not that good as a madnessboardbuilder. You already run gurzigost which is turn 6 outlet/damage pusher, but maybe you could use the classic Masticore as a turn 5 outlet?

That being said do you really want it? You run only a few madness cards, none green, and not even the red or green wurm variant. Is a green aggro madness enabler really what you want/need? Likely I missed a bunch of madness cards, but what would your ideal madness agro deck look like?
Click to expand...

Well, I already run basically all the cheap, free madness enablers in the archetypes colors ({R} and {G}). Of course a Wild Mongrel will always be better than something with a 2-mana activation cost, but I am sticking to singleton and there are only so many of these. Luckily, I am not restricted to cards with the actual Madness Keyword, because Anger and Roar of the Wurm work just as fine. An example deck looks like this:








Currently I'm only running Basking Rootwalla in green as a true madness card, but like I said, some other ones like Vengevine work similar (sometimes even better) in these decks and it has become a top choice to draft - after I put a lot of work in the archetype recently it won some drafts.

Now I want to expand to 500 (because there are so many cool magic cards), but I am missing a few things. I'm going to add Key to the City, but I want to have at least one more in green ... but maybe I should just wait for the next Gallia of the Endless Dance-like card printed and don't go up for now :oops:

PS. I already though about altering a Wild Mongrel by drawing him a mustache and add "'s brother" to his name :D
 
ravnic

ravnic

Is this a good Wildfire #3?



You obviously losevif it gets countered, but if not, a scaleable wildfire could be worth the risk? I've seen it in cubes and wonder if it could be better than it looks at first
 
inscho

inscho

I love it, and have run it for years as my second wildfire effect. Great overlap with madness/discard themes...since the wurms can survive It. X usually equals two or three, and can actually be pretty unfair depending on your support cards.
 
T

tbo

Is there anything to

I ran it back when my cube was just a pile of cards I owned and remember it being strong, now considering it as a cool effect in green for my graveyard cube
 
Brad

Brad

I like it if you have a GB sac deck. It's an under costed (unless you're at powermax) reanimation spell that makes you work for it. It can also act as a counter for a kill spell, which is a very green thing to be. It's an over costed blink, as well. Seems super flexible but needs a little set up. I'm actually going to go put this in my low power list right now! You could run Saffi Eriksdotter as a similar effect, too. Different effect, really, but it has similar vibes and shenanigans.
 
ravnic

ravnic

tbo said:
Is there anything to

I ran it back when my cube was just a pile of cards I owned and remember it being strong, now considering it as a cool effect in green for my graveyard cube
Click to expand...

It seems like a really nice way to make reanimator a golgari thing, as it is still a useful card in any deck. But with the right synergies it can be super sweet. I think that's exactly what cube cards should be like: Never bad but more rewarding with the right deck around them.

BUT if you don't support any reanimation/graveyard value things in green, you could maybe find something better for that slot.
 
T

tbo

Gonna Throw another one on here that I'm considering in my graveyard cube. Apologies if double posting is frowned upon, let me know if this isn't ok



I keep getting close to adding wildfire/Burning of Xinye, but have felt like they're too off-theme despite being cool in lands decks. This looks like a card that could be good with mana rocks, be an armageddon for aggro, or be good with crucible/ramunap excavator, but makes you really build around its restriction. Thoughts?
 
inscho

inscho

Sacrifice and putting lands in graveyards go hand in hand with graveyard themes Imo. It’s easy to increase the intentionality of Running cards like Wildfire, Xinye, Devastating Dreams, etc

Lower powered land destruction I like:


And I’m not sure if this is low powered but I also like:


Not a fan of epicenter......mass land destruction is pretty situational as it is and to require an additional hoop to jump through just doesn’t really appeal to me. I’d rather run



Or maybe



But I’ve never really had a cube that wants the firebombers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top