this is actually a potential worry of the card. with all the burn i run (and i HATE burn that can’t go face), i’m dangerously close to inadvertently supporting “Lava Spike Combo,” not really a deck i want people to be running. this shock is good, and i might even swap out Galvanic Blast for it, but it might also send the wrong signal to drafters. something to consider.
Sets (MID) Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
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This is about as close to "perfect +1 counter signpost" as I've seen. The luminarch aspirant trigger, but at a better price point IMO, and with card draw for mid-later game.... geez
i’m ok with burn as reach, but i want players to be going into combat. if someone can just snap up all the bolts and shocks and ignore the board, that tells me i need to swap out a couple burn spells.
I think until this actually happens you don't have much to worry about.
Yeah, there's not enough burn in most cubes to not have it get distributed pretty evenly among player. It'll get split between anyone in red, and the people that might speculate on a burn spell even if they're not in those colors yet.
Plus, unless you're drawing all burn and no creatures, in most cases it's more efficient to clear out blockers and attack than to trade your attackers and shoot face. Personally I don't mind if players occasionally get burned out from 8 or whatever.
Also I think a real thing that can happen with scry-shock is that you, as the aggro player, really need to draw a removal spell or a hasty attacker to get around the opponents blocker, and can toss this in their face before your draw step to get slightly better odds at getting an out.
it does cost half as much mana as magma jet which is significant. at the end of the day, while i’m glad it exists, my consideration for it is “does this edge out another shock?” which in my case is Galvanic Blast as my artifact stuff is mostly out of red at this point. it’s also competing with Tarfire, as that is Shock that delivers Delirium+2 on cast, which is a way more common synergy than metalcraft… there’s lot of good shocks out there
Even though I've never run Champion of the Perish, I've always liked the card, just thought it was a little too narrow for cube. However, when I saw Champion of the Perished, I got thrilled, and thought it an auto-include for my list with all the obvious synergies at the 1 and 2-mana slots in black.
But to check my gut on this, I did the simple creature type filter on my Cube Cobra list and....I only run 12 zombies? I have a few ways to make zombie tokens, but wow, I could've sworn it was more than that. Turns out, I run 90 humans, including 26 in white alone! I guess maybe I should've been on the Champion of the Perish train all along. Going to seriously consider inclusion for him and, even though the zombie synergies that I do support are better, maybe I'd need to pump up my zombie concentration before serious consideration of my undead friend in the fine hat.
But to check my gut on this, I did the simple creature type filter on my Cube Cobra list and....I only run 12 zombies? I have a few ways to make zombie tokens, but wow, I could've sworn it was more than that. Turns out, I run 90 humans, including 26 in white alone! I guess maybe I should've been on the Champion of the Perish train all along. Going to seriously consider inclusion for him and, even though the zombie synergies that I do support are better, maybe I'd need to pump up my zombie concentration before serious consideration of my undead friend in the fine hat.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about when it comes to synergy -- but those are only two cards out of 720. Definitely not unreasonable to consider ramping up the number of copies of either/both, but there's hardly any room in my cube as is.
I mean at 720 you can't really do any tribes, right?
Wow, I can't believe I missed two pages of a spoiler thread. Oh well, guess I can give my thoughts now.
This card is of an appropriate power level for a lot of Cubes. While it doesn't necessarily break into fairmaxed Cubes, it fits reasonably well into plenty of environments a step or two below that. The nice thing about this card is that it draws cards and defends itself as a base, but provides good synergy for lands and graveyard decks. I can't say whether or not this will be the best Cube card in the set, but it's definitely better in Cube than it is likely to be in constructed. Hopefully this Wrenn can go the Garruk Unleashed route and see minimal constructed play so she can be acquired inexpensively for Cubers.
This, by contrast, is probably going to be the literal best card in the set. Cantrips are great in most Cubes, and this one can be used to fuel the graveyard. Sometimes it basically reads
: Draw two cards, which is amazing. For people who aren't loading up on cantrips, this card still edges out a lot of the competition because it has so many unique synergies. Good card!
This card is Shockingly good. I was Shocked to see WOTC print a new Shock upgrade in 2021. The last time that happened was in 2015 with Wild Slash. With WOTC intentionally powering down red aggro since War of the Spark (save for the literal mistakes), I thought the days of good new burn in standard was behind us. Well, whoever is in charge of this set has good taste, and they printed a good card. I feel like most burn spells usually end up being used as removal instead of going face. This card helps encourage players to use burn a little more aggressively, as getting to scry can be a real boon to red decks. Good card!
And I thought Power Word Kill was a Murderblade! This card is great. The most irritating part of Doom Blade effects is that they almost always have strings attached. They can't kill black creatures, or legendary creatures, or artifact creatures or creatures with counters or even just a random assortment of creatures by type. Infernal Grasp doesn't care- it will cleanly answer any creature for the cost of 2 life. Life is a resource, so having a universal removal spell is well worth the 2 life price of entry.
Multicolor flashback cards are neat. While we have had cards like Unburial Rites which are only fully usable with two colors, this is the first time flashback has been truly gold. I find this to be a little bit of a downside for Cubers, because most environments run a very limited selection of gold cards. However, I think these cards will do a great job of supporting archetypes in a clean and simple way. Join the Dance is a cool signpost for people supporting tokens, for example.
Champion of the Parish but better. Why is it better? Because Zombies, like Reindeer, are better than people.
While my fellow Riptiders have been running Human tribal for years to varying results, I find Zombies to be a more viable tribe. Many of the best Black aggressive cards are Zombies. Zombie synergy pieces such as Cryptbreaker tend to also have applications in archetypes other than Zombie tribal. Most Human tribal cards, by contrast, tend to only be useful in the Human deck. As such, payoffs for Zombies are just easier to bake into a Cube environment than payoffs for Humans.
Champion of the Perished pairs really well with the plethora of self-recursive Zombies. Even if this card is drawn on turn 10, it will still often be able to have a power of 3 or greater by the end of it's first turn on the battlefield. I love this card, it's making me reevaluate my entire Black section.
This card is of an appropriate power level for a lot of Cubes. While it doesn't necessarily break into fairmaxed Cubes, it fits reasonably well into plenty of environments a step or two below that. The nice thing about this card is that it draws cards and defends itself as a base, but provides good synergy for lands and graveyard decks. I can't say whether or not this will be the best Cube card in the set, but it's definitely better in Cube than it is likely to be in constructed. Hopefully this Wrenn can go the Garruk Unleashed route and see minimal constructed play so she can be acquired inexpensively for Cubers.
This, by contrast, is probably going to be the literal best card in the set. Cantrips are great in most Cubes, and this one can be used to fuel the graveyard. Sometimes it basically reads
: Draw two cards, which is amazing. For people who aren't loading up on cantrips, this card still edges out a lot of the competition because it has so many unique synergies. Good card!
This card is Shockingly good. I was Shocked to see WOTC print a new Shock upgrade in 2021. The last time that happened was in 2015 with Wild Slash. With WOTC intentionally powering down red aggro since War of the Spark (save for the literal mistakes), I thought the days of good new burn in standard was behind us. Well, whoever is in charge of this set has good taste, and they printed a good card. I feel like most burn spells usually end up being used as removal instead of going face. This card helps encourage players to use burn a little more aggressively, as getting to scry can be a real boon to red decks. Good card!
And I thought Power Word Kill was a Murderblade! This card is great. The most irritating part of Doom Blade effects is that they almost always have strings attached. They can't kill black creatures, or legendary creatures, or artifact creatures or creatures with counters or even just a random assortment of creatures by type. Infernal Grasp doesn't care- it will cleanly answer any creature for the cost of 2 life. Life is a resource, so having a universal removal spell is well worth the 2 life price of entry.
Multicolor flashback cards are neat. While we have had cards like Unburial Rites which are only fully usable with two colors, this is the first time flashback has been truly gold. I find this to be a little bit of a downside for Cubers, because most environments run a very limited selection of gold cards. However, I think these cards will do a great job of supporting archetypes in a clean and simple way. Join the Dance is a cool signpost for people supporting tokens, for example.
Champion of the Parish but better. Why is it better? Because Zombies, like Reindeer, are better than people.
While my fellow Riptiders have been running Human tribal for years to varying results, I find Zombies to be a more viable tribe. Many of the best Black aggressive cards are Zombies. Zombie synergy pieces such as Cryptbreaker tend to also have applications in archetypes other than Zombie tribal. Most Human tribal cards, by contrast, tend to only be useful in the Human deck. As such, payoffs for Zombies are just easier to bake into a Cube environment than payoffs for Humans.
Champion of the Perished pairs really well with the plethora of self-recursive Zombies. Even if this card is drawn on turn 10, it will still often be able to have a power of 3 or greater by the end of it's first turn on the battlefield. I love this card, it's making me reevaluate my entire Black section.
I found it very easy to support human themes tying in blink and recursion. On the other hand, I found it difficult to truly support Gravecrawler because zombies are usually only in black.
I'm honestly SO excited about revisiting a recursive aggro theme in WB that can lean into both human tribal and zombie tribal with these new cards.
I'm a little torn on whether or not I want to include Champion of the Perished as a singleton in my cube or if it should facilitate a change to my Duplicate Voucher system. I've had Gravecrawler and Bloodsoaked Champion available as duplicates in my cube environment for years now (either via two copies or voucher nowadays) and I've never regretted it. The issue here is that I don't want to add a 3rd option for black as it'll be oversaturated, but there are definite pros and cons to swapping it out in the Gravecrawler slot. Two Shieldz is kind of untouchable with how well it slots into recursive aggro, Humans and Aristocrats leaning builds but maybe I don't need to double up on Gravecrawler with the number of options we have nowadays?
On one hand I've had great success with double Champion of the Parish in my cube decks so I can clearly envision a similar outcome in B/x Zombie decks with the ability to go vertical and apply pressure if I were to double up. Carrion Feeder, Midnight Reaper, and options like Skinrender create a very natural curve and give this deck some staying power. For a long time a double Parish start was especially brutal in my cube and made sequencing decisions more interesting overall. I could see the same explosive potential here, especially with the number of cheap zombies we have nowadays. Back when Gravecrawler was by its lonesome it was easy to double up, but nowadays we have the likes of Cryptbreaker, Dread Wanderer, and this new option to give it the necessary low drop density. It's a far cry from when something like Sarcomancyor Diregraf Ghoul was the only game in town.
On the flipside, Gravecrawler recursion has allowed for B/x Recursive Aggro to define its own identity among aggressive strategies and give it resilience in the face of midrange beef or more controlling decks with tons of removal and boardwipes. The ability to branch into B/R decks alongside cards like Judith, the Scourge Diva, Goblin Bombardment, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and the burn-based removal suite has led to clear definition of the strategy and allows me differentiate from W/x Aggro. There's a lot of healthy bleed between aggressive strategies in my cube in W/B Humans, W/R Aggro, and B/R Aggro so I've found that the most important thing is to be able to clearly highlight what makes a particular strategy unique. Something like Knight of the Ebon Legion is an excellent aggressive one drop in black, but it gets especially impressive when you can slot it into B/R decks where burn lets you trigger its ability to permanently grow more more frequently. There's just a lot of nuance in how aggressive archetypes can be designed in cubes in 2021.
As of now I'm leaning towards keeping Gravecrawler as the voucher option. Double Parish alongside Thalia's Lieutenant gives the Human deck a unique way to approach Aggro with vertical development and double Perished might just be stepping on its toes. If we can get a recursive zombie threat at the two drop slot analogous to Gravecrawler, something like the equivalent of Thalia's Lieutenant to Champion of the Parish, it would be a dream come true for me.
On one hand I've had great success with double Champion of the Parish in my cube decks so I can clearly envision a similar outcome in B/x Zombie decks with the ability to go vertical and apply pressure if I were to double up. Carrion Feeder, Midnight Reaper, and options like Skinrender create a very natural curve and give this deck some staying power. For a long time a double Parish start was especially brutal in my cube and made sequencing decisions more interesting overall. I could see the same explosive potential here, especially with the number of cheap zombies we have nowadays. Back when Gravecrawler was by its lonesome it was easy to double up, but nowadays we have the likes of Cryptbreaker, Dread Wanderer, and this new option to give it the necessary low drop density. It's a far cry from when something like Sarcomancyor Diregraf Ghoul was the only game in town.
On the flipside, Gravecrawler recursion has allowed for B/x Recursive Aggro to define its own identity among aggressive strategies and give it resilience in the face of midrange beef or more controlling decks with tons of removal and boardwipes. The ability to branch into B/R decks alongside cards like Judith, the Scourge Diva, Goblin Bombardment, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and the burn-based removal suite has led to clear definition of the strategy and allows me differentiate from W/x Aggro. There's a lot of healthy bleed between aggressive strategies in my cube in W/B Humans, W/R Aggro, and B/R Aggro so I've found that the most important thing is to be able to clearly highlight what makes a particular strategy unique. Something like Knight of the Ebon Legion is an excellent aggressive one drop in black, but it gets especially impressive when you can slot it into B/R decks where burn lets you trigger its ability to permanently grow more more frequently. There's just a lot of nuance in how aggressive archetypes can be designed in cubes in 2021.
As of now I'm leaning towards keeping Gravecrawler as the voucher option. Double Parish alongside Thalia's Lieutenant gives the Human deck a unique way to approach Aggro with vertical development and double Perished might just be stepping on its toes. If we can get a recursive zombie threat at the two drop slot analogous to Gravecrawler, something like the equivalent of Thalia's Lieutenant to Champion of the Parish, it would be a dream come true for me.
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I love this new card but I can't get past the fact I have 7 Zombies in my entire cube versus *56* humans... Don't know what everyone else's cubes look like, surely different than mine, but that's quite the chasm in relevance. Recursion will help a little but I think I still have to pass, unfortunately.
Off to a good start with this first batch. Eager to see the rest!
I feel like in my current setup the new Champion is largely unnecessary. I'm sure it could slot into a deck, but that deck already has a fairly narrow definition and I don't think this helps it to diversify.
I think it's more a matter of what you're looking for from that slot. It's a card that obviously looks for a zombie theme, but I don't think you necessarily need a massive pool of incidental zombies. It's great for Humans, but I still find that most of my decks with Champion of the Parish still tend towards low to the ground 1s and 2s for the most part even with a plethora of other options. You also have to consider at what point is it "viable" in its role.
Like I see this as additional support for B/x Aggro instead of a need to go all in on a zombie archetype so my baseline for a good one drop is 2 power. If this can get to 3 power with additional sequencing that's great, anything higher that that is absolute gravy. If I can push through 4+ damage with a one drop, it's already done its job in most games. I'd definitely like to have more viable two drop zombies that slot readily into aggressive decks for curving out, but in general there's a solid number of zombies available nowadays:
I don't think it'll happen, but I'd love to see zombies bleed more into Red in the future. It would be stepping on the toes of vampires, but it would help a lot in fleshing out the tribe further with an aggro tilt. Not necessarily stuff like Dreadhorde Arcanist which is strong but isn't really an aggressive card, but even something like a zombie Bloodrage Brawler would be neat.
This is very good analysis and I think maybe I was looking at him wrong. I really do love this design and I really don't love my black one-drops at the moment.. Hmm..I think it's more a matter of what you're looking for from that slot. It's a card that obviously looks for a zombie theme, but I don't think you necessarily need a massive pool of incidental zombies. It's great for Humans, but I still find that most of my decks with Champion of the Parish still tend towards low to the ground 1s and 2s for the most part even with a plethora of other options. You also have to consider at what point is it "viable" in its role.
Like I see this as additional support for B/x Aggro instead of a need to go all in on a zombie archetype so my baseline for a good one drop is 2 power. If this can get to 3 power with additional sequencing that's great, anything higher that that is absolute gravy. If I can push through 4+ damage with a one drop, it's already done its job in most games. I'd definitely like to have more viable two drop zombies that slot readily into aggressive decks for curving out, but in general there's a solid number of zombies available nowadays:
I don't think it'll happen, but I'd love to see zombies bleed more into Red in the future. It would be stepping on the toes of vampires, but it would help a lot in fleshing out the tribe further with an aggro tilt. Not necessarily stuff like Dreadhorde Arcanist which is strong but isn't really an aggressive card, but even something like a zombie Bloodrage Brawler would be neat.
I literally pulled Skinrender *last week* to make room for Gelatinous Cube *face palm* Incidentally why isn't Skinrender a Horror or something? Not sure I understand!
I think it's supposed to be a phyrexian but in the "Sheoldred" faction, which based on her card I would assume is some kind of necromancy phyrexians?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Its creature type in Oracle is indeed Phyrexian Zombie!
I think it's supposed to be a phyrexian but in the "Sheoldred" faction, which based on her card I would assume is some kind of necromancy phyrexians?