Sets (MH2) Modern Horizons 2 Previews

[japahn]

I played an abnormal amount of MH2 sealed and it was always mediocre. It was supposed to be a stopgap between the madness deck and the storm deck, and while it is serviceable it just never felt good when you cast it.
In the storm deck you needed to be able to play a couple more spells the next turn to bump up that storm count, but that spell gain isn't enough to make up for the card loss this produces.
In the madness deck you at least got to be up a card if you managed to discard a Skophos Reaver of Kitchen Imp. Plus the free one next turn lets you have plenty of mana to be able to madness out things like Hell Mongrel. There were just cheaper discard outlets that impacted the board more than Faithless Salvaging. It just never felt like a card you wanted to cast. Just just cast it because you had to, because you put it in your deck and drew it.

Is faithless looting too strong in cube? Because at least that one feels like you get half a card back with the flashback side and it costs half as much.

Hopefully this isn't coming off as overly negative, just sharing my experiences.

Thanks for the information!

I don't think Faithless Looting is too strong under most circumstances. Lower power cubes tend to be slower and more value-oriented, and the card disadvantage counterbalances Looting in these environments, so it's to a good extent scaled to power level. What's more dangerous about it are combos with stuff like Hollow One or enabling T2 reanimation, but then it's not Looting's problem, really... I do run Looting and was wondering if this could be Looting #2 with a significantly different play pattern.

While we're on topic, how do you rank the seven madness spells from MH2 in terms of power and how much you "like" them at a gut level?
https://scryfall.com/search?q=e:mh2+o:madness&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

Rootwalla seems to me like the most powerful one, and Hell Mongrel is really nice as a payoff-enabler, but beyond that I have no idea what to make of them.

 

[Velrun]

Yeah those two are the most interesting in my opinion as well. I like that Hell is both an enabler and a payoff.

 

[ravnic]

My personal opinion but without play experience with half of those.



If you can reliably discard it: 9/10
Outside a dedicated madness shell: 6/10 /edit



If you can reliably discard it: 8/10
Outside a dedicated madness shell: 3/10



If you can reliably discard it: 9/10
Outside a dedicated madness shell: 2/10



If you can reliably discard it: 9/10
Outside a dedicated madness shell: 8/10



If you can reliably discard it: 7/10
Outside a dedicated madness shell: 6/10



If you can reliably discard it: 9/10
Outside a dedicated madness shell: 6/10



If you can reliably discard it: 8/10
Outside a dedicated madness shell: 6/10

 

[Velrun]

@ravnic
I like this way of rating the cards. Please do this again in the future.

 

[ravnic]

Okay

On reevaluation though, I think Rootwalla is actually a 5/10 at least, outside of a dedicated madness deck, comparing to my other ratigs. A 1-drop that can hit for three damage with the miimal investment of a single mana is pretty decent in an aggro deck in lower-mid powered cubes.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Okay

On reevaluation though, I think Rootwalla is actually a 5/10 at least, outside of a dedicated madness deck, comparing to my other ratigs. A 1-drop that can hit for three damage with the miimal investment of a single mana is pretty decent in an aggro deck in lower-mid powered cubes.

I think Rootwalla is more in the 6-7 at least, possibly even a little higher. A lot of fairmax/other fair high power people have been playing Rootwalla because it's a fine 1-drop in it's own right that also has the insanely high upside of being a free spell when combined with discard effects like Faithless Looting. Blazing Rootwalla doesn't really need to be in a madness shell to shine as long as there is some efficient discard in the format. It really just needs the chance to highroll into being a free spell as part of another good card's effect.

That said, I agree that it is much better in an actual real madness deck, I think 9/10 when fully supported is completely appropriate.