General Narrow Card Injection
- Thread starter Diakonov
- Start date
Tezzeret the Seeker is one of our faves in my cube. With Thopter Spy Network, Trinket Mage, a good artifact section, and artifact lands in the ULD, he comes together awesomely without trying too hard, offering to ramp or provide an alternate win-con at the very least. I will say that I think ULD with artifact lands is pretty key to enabling him easily (unlocking his hidden 4th mode, -0: Rampant Growth variant), but that's an easy enough include, and he's ridiculously fun, because so many decks can sprout up around him. I've now started pushing artifacts in my cube thanks to him, and my format is better for it. A+ one of my top blue cards
I agree, historically this has been the problem with awkward narrow cards.
With this method I'm piloting you can ensure that every other pack will contain exactly 1 card like this, so there won't be a build up of dead picks in any given pack.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Gray Merchant is absolutely worth a spot. You don't need to drain that much for it to be good. If you start draining 6 the card is insane. Its also a simple card to draft around. I find less experienced players tend to go for the devotion decks (so they tend not to end up in the 3-0 category), but they really like having something they can focus on that makes sense and the card is a real deal reward.
I really like Sidsi, but if the game gets grindy decking yourself is an extremely real possibility.
Corpse dance and Demonic Pact don't strike me as build arounds, but just play them, they are awesome.
Hedron Crab is pretty good, but building around a dies to everything creature is heartbreak waiting to happen.
I hate Venser, blink is the worst.
Academy Rector seems mediocre. Maybe its fine. I love me some enchantment themes and I have plenty of sacrifice effects and any card that puts chromanticore into play is ok by me. I'll give it a go.
I really like Sidsi, but if the game gets grindy decking yourself is an extremely real possibility.
Corpse dance and Demonic Pact don't strike me as build arounds, but just play them, they are awesome.
Hedron Crab is pretty good, but building around a dies to everything creature is heartbreak waiting to happen.
I hate Venser, blink is the worst.
Academy Rector seems mediocre. Maybe its fine. I love me some enchantment themes and I have plenty of sacrifice effects and any card that puts chromanticore into play is ok by me. I'll give it a go.
I found rector to be a pretty sweet card because it lets you fetch whatever it is you need. It's the kind of tinker versitality. You can use it for both util and to cheat something in.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Yeah I don't know what's holding me back there, probably just my inherent bias against tutors.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
That seems like a decent ammount, and I get most of these cards, but why is Triangle of War narrow? It's just colorless prey upon.
Is it for trinket mage?
Doesn't seem like it's in the same category as squee is what I'm sayin
Is it for trinket mage?
Doesn't seem like it's in the same category as squee is what I'm sayin
Yeah it's definitely borderline. It's fairly weak to be played on its own, but synergizes nicely with Trinket Mage, Trading Post, Academy Ruins, Goblin Welder, Auriok Salvagers, Sun Titan, and Daretti.
Choose one for each three-color combo:
Or write in your own ballot!
Or write in your own ballot!
I've decided to start with these and see how it goes.
Rafiq of the Many
Ertai, the Corrupted
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Destructive Flow
Marath, Will of the Wild
Butcher of the Horde
Sarkhan Unbroken
Siege Rhino
Jeskai Ascendancy
The Mimeoplasm
Rafiq of the Many
Ertai, the Corrupted
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Destructive Flow
Marath, Will of the Wild
Butcher of the Horde
Sarkhan Unbroken
Siege Rhino
Jeskai Ascendancy
The Mimeoplasm
vs I don't really like Rhino as a card, but it does a lot of what my cube is looking for. Gains life for black life payment and pod life payments. It's a Pod target. Doran is... a dude that nerfs everything else? So many cube cards have more power than toughness, and Doran is a brick against those aggro decks. It's a 3-drop though, which I like better than another 4-drop. I can't decide.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Butcher
JAscendancy
Sidisi
option D: Abzan Ascendancy
Sarkhan Unbroken
Rafiq
Sharuum, Dromar's Charm otherwise
Sedraxis Specter
Thrinax/Prossh/anything but Destructive Flow jesus christ
Marath
JAscendancy
Sidisi
option D: Abzan Ascendancy
Sarkhan Unbroken
Rafiq
Sharuum, Dromar's Charm otherwise
Sedraxis Specter
Thrinax/Prossh/anything but Destructive Flow jesus christ
Marath
My vote is for Siege Rhino, despite the fact that it's the epitome of Generic Good Stuff, and also a Four Drop, both of which I normally loathe. For one, it's actually easier to cast on-curve, as it's tough to cast CDE spells without perfect mana, but more realistic to aim for 1CDE on turn four. Second, from my own experience, people seem to love this card and will go out of their way to fix their mana to ensure they can splash him. I guess the last point in his favour is that mild ETB effects are awesome, because they're sweet for Pod/blink/bounce + recast/die + reanimate/etc, and his ability represents reach in three colours that don't easily get it.
vs
Isn't Butcher of the Horde just a bad Falkenrath Aristocrat? They go in the same deck at the same CMC.
Abzan Ascendancy is interesting...
What do you guys think of Sarkhan Unbroken vs Savage Knuckleblade?
Sedraxis Specter. People are always losing their shit over Cruel Ultimatum. I like Specter more, but... you know how I feel about techy cards that can come out of the graveyard and be sacrificed.
Marath, Will of the Wild: isn't this card kind of dumb without the command zone?
re: Temur, Sarkhan Unbroken is powerful but boring, while Knuckleblade has the same hard-to-cast-on-curve problem as Doran, and RUG is very rarely an aggro combination in my experience. If you support ramp, Maelstrom Wanderer is the most fun finisher there is
+1 to Cruel Ultimatum, how can that not be the Grixis card, totally worth warping a mana base around
+1 to Cruel Ultimatum, how can that not be the Grixis card, totally worth warping a mana base around
Personally, Sarkhan more makes me want to go into RUG, whereas Knuckleblade is more like "I guess I'll play this since I'm already RUG".
yeah, I personally feel that all of the cards in these three-colour slots should pull you hard into those colours, rather than simply being efficiently costed utility dudes or spells
whether or not a card like this exists in each shard/wedge is another story
whether or not a card like this exists in each shard/wedge is another story
Tentative:
Currently I have Sidisi in a partial
slot, mostly because I want to increase the likelihood it shows up for testing purposes.
I could be convinced to cut a couple shards / wedges.
Went with Rafiq over War Monk because it's the "more exciting" card.
Currently I have Sidisi in a partial
slot, mostly because I want to increase the likelihood it shows up for testing purposes. I could be convinced to cut a couple shards / wedges.
Went with Rafiq over War Monk because it's the "more exciting" card.
Yeah, for whatever reason, Cruel Ultimatum just doesn't excite me. Nicol Bolas is more likely to land and I think has more play to it.
Marath is simply the most interesting card I've seen in Naya. Pitches to force and otherwise appears to be very versatile.
Destructive Flow could create some interesting games. I run so many non-basics now that it seems fair to have some pressure there, and I'd like basic lands to remain as a safe option. I really enjoy Smokestack math, but YMMV. If it doesn't work out I might try Broodmate Dragon.
Marath is simply the most interesting card I've seen in Naya. Pitches to force and otherwise appears to be very versatile.
Destructive Flow could create some interesting games. I run so many non-basics now that it seems fair to have some pressure there, and I'd like basic lands to remain as a safe option. I really enjoy Smokestack math, but YMMV. If it doesn't work out I might try Broodmate Dragon.
I find that people who draft grixis control would love to have both Nicole Bolas and Cruel in the same deck.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Crackling Doom is just a bad [generic removal spell] as far as I can tell.
A lot of the wedge/shard combinations don't have cards I'd want to play.
Crackling Doom is a card that excites me a lot and I get why maybe that's not universal but like aren't we all concerned about Planeswalker value? like, it reliably zaps their worst threat (getting around problem mechanics like hexproof or Frost Titan tax at the same time) and the shock often cleans up the board too. Like, if your opponent goes t2 goyf, t3 lili -2, and you Doom in response, the payoff is incredible. Doom scales to how hooped you are imo which is always great, but it can't get you out of anything truly unwinnable so you have to help it out. Not in my cube rn but it has been, and I jammed 2 in my 75 for that modern Team Italia Mentor thing. Plus if you run combat tricks there's techy counterplay.
I just don't think it's either "bad" or "generic"!
agreed 100%, it's a shame