I think this does enough as a 3 mana walker to warrant some testing. I like it as a support walker for more control-y builds, something bridge the gap to the late game. It's not really that strong, but I'm always looking for new blue cards to spice things up in a color that is mostly about redundancy of effects.
The five mana slot is kind of weak for blue cards, this has quite a bit of text but I kind of like it. A 5/5 flyer is a decent body for a finisher and I like the weird die clause. I don't know if it'll stick around for the long term, but it has enough weird abilities stapled together to give it a shot.
Initially I was meh on this comparing it to
Dig Through Time, but it's more like
Deep Analysis or
Treasure Cruise for 5 to be honest. I like it as a means to set up your big plays and to clean up the boardstate the following turn. Also, that fish on the right is definitely a penis. Like 100%.
Looks like a fairer version of
Upheaval, which I've never been all that interested in. This one seems to have a little more play to it so I'll give it a try. Blue needs more finisher type cards in the late game and I think this will do the job admirably.
I'm all about this card. 4/5 is great body, Lifelink + the conditional ETB can help stabilize the board, and the death trigger can give you some sweet additional value. I don't really like the majority of current options at 5 for black so this is definitely a snap include for me. Like I've mentioned in other posts around here, I do like how the CCC costs of this cycle nudge your drafters towards playing with fewer colors in their decks and playing less greedy. They're not anywhere near as strong as Titans (which is good), but they're very comparable to the Gearhulks.
I've got
Griselbrand in my list mostly as a concession to players who might want to do busted stuff every now and then, but I'm not a fan of the card in my environment. This is more my style. I like the interaction with any life loss and see this as a fairer version of Gris while still being a sizable threat and good reanimation target. The art is definitely inferior though.
I kind of like tutors for consistency in decks that are reliant on certain pieces to function, but I'm not a big fan of black's unconditional ones for the most part. This has a weird twist to it that should make it a little interesting to play with. There's more of a cost to the set up if you can't immediately gain access to the card you tutored for and your opponent gets the first look at their card.
I like this more than
Polukranos, World Eater as my big green boy at 2CC. This plays better with the counters themes I've been looking to deploy, has Trample to push through damage, and can function as a mana sink/removal + body in the late game. Nice clean design. You need signposts ever so often to tie themes together and this does a good job of pointing towards counters + green ramp as potential archetypes.
Speaking of signpots, this is a snap include and the perfect B/W signpost card for my aggressive decks. I like that it's a zombie for
Gravecrawler and
Cryptbreaker interactions, that it also pulls double duty in a B/W Tokens list, and that it falls so early in the curve so that you can really maximize multiple triggers as the games drags on. This card is excellent.
On a side note, I'm really happy with all the zombies we've gotten up the curve in the last 3 years since Eldritch Moon was released. I finally went back through my cube binder and found a slot for Cryptbreaker this time around and I think it'll be here to stay.
I don't know if anyone will ever get to activate that ability, but I'm into a bigger
Solemn Simulacrum that can tutor up my utility lands for the late game. Sweet card, I'm always down for more interesting artifact creatures to throw in.
10 is more than I was thinking I'd have to test a week ago, but seems decent for a core set. I think only 3-4 of them may stick around for the long term. I'm definitely looking forward to a break between now and the Fall set though, I'd love to finally get in a few cube sessions with everything I've added since WAR.
