Onderzeeboot's Khans of Alara WUBGR Cube

[Onderzeeboot]

is the Jeskai guy being able to chain every spell you've played so far intentional?

That jeskai knight seems ridiculously powerful! See how it plays but you might need to reduce the toughness/increase casting cost.

Rewording it using the Spelltwine template did indeed save space. I think it's less nuts than you think Alfonzo. Not that it's not nuts, but you need an instant or sorcery card in your graveyard with converted casting cost less than the card you're casting. The number of instants and sorceries is, by the nature of limited, only a fraction of your deck, and you need to draw them in the right order as well with this card. It's also somewhat hard to trigger prowess twice naturally, so I felt it was a bit weak at 2/2. I am sure it's going to be part of some blowout stories though! ("In response, Warleader's Helix on your creature, copy Mana Leak?")

Going through my designs, there's still a few cards I'm not entirely happy with, namely Defiling Druid and Skull // Bones.

Spoiler: Cards

I'm just not feeling Defiling Druid. It's a by the numbers card that works in the color combination, but I just don't think it's very useful, especially not if you're not in both colors. Jund would like some sacrifice fodder, Sultai and Esper like card selection. I would like it to play nice with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as well.
I like Skull, and I like Bones, but I'm not sure the Bones part is worth playing in a deck without black. will be a lot better at getting cards in the graveyard than as well, so I might want to put the Bones half on the Skull side, but then what to put on the Bones side? I like that it's not a direct kill spell like the other colors. Maybe a Commune with Lava variant.

[tinkers]

Are these better?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Aw yeah!

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I'd put that in my champion of the parish deck

 

[safra]

that legit feels like a (good) common from some gold set we haven't seen, I love it.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Well, if I'm going to include Celestial Colonnade, Creeping Tar Pit and Raging Ravine, I need to whip up two more for the two enemy color pairs, right?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Huh, I keep on making customs... I have a feeling I won't have room to include everything I want at 450, so I'm going to have to make some hard decisions down the line. Anyway, I was inspired by the recent splicer discussion. I also found I enjoy Precursor Golem, but it's a bit too swingy. If not answered, it adds just a little bit too much power to the board for a colorless spell. Let's make it a bit more fair and tweak the ability to be more beneficial. Bonus: a red removal spell they should totally print!

 

[safra]

Water Splicer is sick.

 

[spicewitch]

Water and Swarm are neat. Especially together.

Flame Splicer uh... is a 3/3 with haste for 2R cool nowadays? ++a teeny lord body just in case?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Water and Swarm are neat. Especially together.

Flame Splicer uh... is a 3/3 with haste for 2R cool nowadays? ++a teeny lord body just in case?

There isn't a lot of precedent for these stats, no, though Boggart Ram-Gang and Dreg Mangler are both uncommons, so we've had 3/3 haste bodies before at this converted casting cost. There's enough 2-mana 2-power hasters and 4-mana 4-power hasters that I think think Flame Splicer is okay though. It would be rather unassuming at I think. No doubt though, it is definitely pushed at . I assume it would be immediately played in any red aggro deck and the card would definitely tempt me to go red in cube.

 

[Laz]

I am not sold on Harbinger Golem. The art is absolutely awesome, but Precursor Golem's ability being one sided seems like it could be really dangerous. I guess, be careful?

Given the theme, if it simply made 2x 3/3 Golems for , it would probably be a solid card, given Fated Intervention as a precedent.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Given the theme, if it simply made 2x 3/3 Golems for , it would probably be a solid card, given Fated Intervention as a precedent.

Yeah, you are probably right two bodies for five mana is already good enough as is. There's also a few splicers running around to spice them up. Good call, I'll drop the extra ability.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Okay so I'm a little late, but when I made water splicer, it was an 0/1 that couldn't block and it was really strong. It's possible there's a dearth of sac outlets here, but that usually doesn't excuse a U1 4/4 equivilent

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Okay so I'm a little late, but when I made water splicer, it was an 0/1 that couldn't block and it was really strong. It's possible there's a dearth of sac outlets here, but that usually doesn't excuse a U1 4/4 equivilent

Well, if there's a sac outlet, it becomes a 3/3, which is a good deal below 4/4. If there isn't a sac outlet, this is a pretty fragile "4/4". Better than Frost Walker, for sure, but still fragile. I would also hate to break the 1/1 human artificer mold all of these splicers sport Did your variant also grant the "illusion" ability to all Golem creatures?

Thanks for the warning though, I'll keep an eye on it to see if it's too strong!

 

[Chris Taylor]

Well, if there's a sac outlet, it becomes a 3/3, which is a good deal below 4/4. If there isn't a sac outlet, this is a pretty fragile "4/4". Better than Frost Walker, for sure, but still fragile. I would also hate to break the 1/1 human artificer mold all of these splicers sport Did your variant also grant the "illusion" ability to all Golem creatures?

Thanks for the warning though, I'll keep an eye on it to see if it's too strong!

It did grant the illusion text to all golems! What I want to emphasize here is that frost walker is mostly frustrating because of his low toughness: The phantasmal drawback is smaller than it appears since so many effects that target opposing creatures kill them anyways (And certainly would on a 1 toughness thing)

Regular Pump spells and Distortion Strike work, but emerge unscathed and it's new friend only target your creatures, and the way most dividable burn works these days (See arc lightning vs rolling thunder) you can't assign an idle 0 damage to them to kill them.

Now, given that most creatures die to removal, ( ) the other big downside of frost walker is he gets absolutly bricked by Gather the Townsfolk, or Thalia, or Hordeling Outburst, etc etc etc

Water Splicer has no such qualms, and kills just as fast unopposed That's a lot of upside on a creature held back by synergy and context. (Sorry if I'm coming off ranty here)

Now, if I wanted a blue splicer, I'd give blue an enchantment splicer:

2U
Enchantment
When ~ ETB, make a 3/3 golem
Golem creatures you control have iunno shroud or something

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I know not to get married to your custom cards, but I do like the design, I can appreciate it's stronger than Frost Walker, but Frost Walker hardly is the cap on what a blue aggressive creature could look like. I don't want blue to get enchantment splicers either, because that makes the "lord" effect a lot harder/impossible to deal with for black and red decks. I have another solution though, and I will try it at that.

Oh, I definitely would put the shroud on a creature, so other colors than green and white can also deal with it. I was actually thinking about making one, at or probably. But I gotta look if I have room in the Azorius section

Speaking of the Azorius section, what do you guys think about this?

 

[Chris Taylor]

I Like force piker! Though he probably needs a good name (He is really strong though, FWIW)
Blue deserves a good 1 drop tho

RE: Enchantment Splicer, shroud was definitively <Random Blue Keyword> and flying was taken. While itself problematic, if there's any color I figure has falvor problems with getting 3/3s and would probably be the color to have a harder to kill lord, I'd pick blue.

Maybe like, a creature with divine shield or something?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I don't know, I'm okay with souping up blue's almost nonexistent aggro section a bit I'm just going to try out the card as is and find out the hard way if it's overpowered

Force Piker is never getting another name. I mean, coming up with the super cheesy name wasn't that hard, given its channel ability, but finding art so perfect for the name it hurts? That is a sign, a sign you don't simply ignore in favor of a less cheesy name!

 

[Chris Taylor]

I don't know, I'm okay with souping up blue's almost nonexistent aggro section a bit I'm just going to try out the card as is and find out the hard way if it's overpowered

Force Piker is never getting another name. I mean, coming up with the super cheesy name wasn't that hard, given its channel ability, but finding art so perfect for the name it hurts? That is a sign, a sign you don't simply ignore in favor of a less cheesy name!

I've been there, but I'm still interpreting it as a placeholder name, the same way Sperling complained about "War Name Aspirant"

"So what's the deal with this card, are we supposed to name it after a battle or something?"
"Well actually, the mardu go on a quest to earn their war-name..."
"Nobody cares, ship it!"

Also I'll voice my concern about force piker the same way I do about all hybrid cards: If you're adding it to prop up a specific color, don't rely on that because the other color of the hybrid will pick that card waaaay more often.

IE: the "It doesn't matter how many red 1 drops I add, no black drafter is ever getting a Rakdos Cackler"
Same with green and kitchen finks, and green and Dryad Militant

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Love the splicer designs. How about a spicer whose ability is the same "copy" effect from precursor golem? That way I can have the fun of copying a kicked vines of vastwood across a golem board

Force piker looks great, but maybe make him a 1/1 so that people will be more inclined to use him as a spike? It also has an oddly pleasing symmetricality to it.

How about a series of "chant splicers" that put "enchantment <insert creature type>" into play and confer a bonus? Would be a nice shot in the arm to enchantment based themes. You could have a really sweet midrange deck built around enchantress procs off of chant splicer castings.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Love the splicer designs. How about a spicer whose ability is the same "copy" effect from precursor golem? That way I can have the fun of copying a kicked vines of vastwood across a golem board

Force piker looks great, but maybe make him a 1/1 so that people will be more inclined to use him as a spike? It also has an oddly pleasing symmetricality to it.

How about a series of "chant splicers" that put "enchantment <insert creature type>" into play and confer a bonus? Would be a nice shot in the arm to enchantment based themes. You could have a really sweet midrange deck built around enchantress procs off of chant splicer castings.

As much as I dislike the name, I'd rather not remove the creature half of the card!
(Seriously when's the last time you cast Mon's Goblin Raiders?)

Trust me, no encouragement is needed for people to cast force spike, the blowouts that card causes feel great enough already

As for the "enchantment splicers", interesting idea! Some overlap with contesllation could be interesting, and we've already got a golem token ready to use:

 

[safra]

How's this for a 1R splicer?

 

[Chris Taylor]

That card seems absolutly horrible without some synergy

You could do an 0/1 that has "Your Golems can't block"

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I would cube the shit out of that.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Get really ambitious and make the base splicer an artifact too, run shrapnel blast!
That's probably a bit much

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Love the splicer designs. How about a spicer whose ability is the same "copy" effect from precursor golem? That way I can have the fun of copying a kicked vines of vastwood across a golem board

Force piker looks great, but maybe make him a 1/1 so that people will be more inclined to use him as a spike? It also has an oddly pleasing symmetricality to it.

But then why would I ever want to cast the creature half? I think it's fine as a 2/1 (well, very good actually), because both halves are relevant then.

Also I'll voice my concern about force piker the same way I do about all hybrid cards: If you're adding it to prop up a specific color, don't rely on that because the other color of the hybrid will pick that card waaaay more often.

I assume it's going to end up in white more often, as it can utilize the creature mode better than blue, and because blue has other counterspells whereas this effect is pretty unique in white.

How about a series of "chant splicers" that put "enchantment <insert creature type>" into play and confer a bonus? Would be a nice shot in the arm to enchantment based themes. You could have a really sweet midrange deck built around enchantress procs off of chant splicer castings.

As much as I dislike the name, I'd rather not remove the creature half of the card!
(Seriously when's the last time you cast Mon's Goblin Raiders?)

Trust me, no encouragement is needed for people to cast force spike, the blowouts that card causes feel great enough already

As for the "enchantment splicers", interesting idea! Some overlap with contesllation could be interesting, and we've already got a golem token ready to use:

... Holy crap. I run a constellation theme in several colors. Using that token and just modifying all the splicers would be awesome!