Card/Deck One drops with late-game relevance

spicewitch

spicewitch

To put it in more precise language: "1-drops that remain relevant when unable to get through and deal dome damage".

Everyone loves a good 2/1 for 1, but by design those cards become less relevant if a 2/3 or 0/4 creature hits the board and doesn't get neutralized in some way. Even a Stromkirk Noble can theoretically remain relevant by repeatedly getting through enough times, but if the Noble faces too many big blockers and has too few ways to punch through, he becomes irrelevant even if he got biggish. Or, if he gets bounced even once by a simple Unsummon effect, he's irrelevant forever.

Anyway, after you put in the requisite amount of aggro and tempo one drops so that those decks can work, what are your favorite permanent one drops that a control, combo, or midrange player can employ that do relevant non-dome things?

Obvious ones:


Elvish Mystic
Noble Hierarch
Akrasan Squire
Disowned Ancestor



Less obvious:
Is Soul Warden actually a meaningful amount of life? Even a 0/2 might be better for your survival, and a 0/3 will certainly do more. How about Cloudfin Raptor... obviously, Raptor is desirable for tempo decks just like Noble. However, unlike Noble, Raptor can grow back up to size after being bounced without having to swing, which seems crucial. And it can block flyers, which is very relevant for durdlers facing down a Blue Skies sort of deck.
 
shamizy

shamizy



What you're looking for is some reach or cards that can scale with the amount of mana you have available to you. I suppose Lightning Berserker is primarily an aggro card, but it's strange in that it's one of the few really early aggressive cards that doesn't just turn into a terrible topdeck in the late game. It's not dead in the face of an opposing x/4 and can often force bad blocks or trades. It's quickly become one of my favorite new cards in my cube.

I remember one game where I held off a board post-Sarkhan Vol ultimate (5 dragons) with a Mother of Runes, a few spirit tokens, and an Archangel of Thune. Also, after playing against it just one time in draft, I'm a fan of Myth Realized. It's a sweet card that is great T1 and casually growing over the game, or can turn into a sink in the late game to punch through enough damage.

I'm a fan of Soul Warden. You don't realize just how useful that extra life off ANY creature ETB is until you find ways to abuse it or if you're playing against an aggro deck. I had a game the other day where I was getting wrecked by a BR aggro deck with a crazy amount of 1 drops applying pressure, but the combination of Warden, Finks and a Reclamation helped me build back up and survive. Additionally, have you ever curved a Warden into a Bitterblossom? It's dirty.
 
Lucre

Lucre

Rusalkas used to be good when combat damage stacked but now they are basically icecream that fell on the floor.
Frenzied goblin is probz more interesting than legion loyalist. Rootwalla is great in a bunch of decks, siren is kinda a piece of shit, but there isn't much better you get from lategame relevant than control magic+.

I like cheap creatures in control decks because they allow me to play an additional spell on the turn I cast them for protection etc. So cards that take an initial investment and then can be invested more later are much more interesting to those decks.

If you have good removal and efficient plays, you'll find your 2/1s for 1 have a lot longer of a shelf life #justsayin
 
Lucre

Lucre

Sol Warden is sooooo weird to me, I am always confused when I see that thin in draft.

I tend to take efficient power to mana cost creatures over other chafe in control and awkward decks because you can throw them away as passable removal spells in a lot of matchups early in. Think about how people usually use fleecemane in constructed midranged decks.

Doesn't work so well in black because nothing blocks lol
 
shamizy

shamizy

Lucre said:
I like cheap creatures in control decks because they allow me to play an additional spell on the turn I cast them for protection etc. So cards that take an initial investment and then can be invested more later are much more interesting to those decks.
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I think they made this card for you.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
GenericZero said:
Please. The Wither ability gives this guy much better late game play than Basking Rootwalla on its finest day. You chump their big guy, and suddenly their scary ol' 6/6 is half the beast it used to be.
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Normally yes, but people tend to have an emotional connection to rootwalla that makes twinblade slasher slide off lists.
I hate em both though. 3/3 champion 2 lands? fuck that
 
Lucre

Lucre

GenericZero said:
Please. The Wither ability gives this guy much better late game play than Basking Rootwalla on its finest day. You chump their big guy, and suddenly their scary ol' 6/6 is half the beast it used to be.
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I like rootwala because it encourages you to play creatures in control decks, creatures in combo decks, creatures in graveyard decks, it blocks pretty well and discourages attacks pretty well, it's very card efficient if you are giving blue draw-discards the same way you are giving black gravecrawlers (those two themes are great together btw) and lastly it encourages aggro decks to diversify and look toward expanded gameplay styles the same way graveyard aggro does.

What does twinblade do? Oh it's more awkz to block, thats kinda neat, but like it's just like not doing it for me as far as creating depth is concerned. Twinblade doesn't suck butts as a blocker but green can do better. Now give that sucker madness 0 and we are talking!
Chris Taylor said:
Normally yes, but people tend to have an emotional connection to rootwalla that makes twinblade slasher slide off lists.
I hate em both though. 3/3 champion 2 lands? fuck that
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Chris you know you are my bud and I respect you, but you remember cubing and peasant magicing with rootwalla you didn't have to spend that 2 half the time remember aqua amoeba and mongrel? Threat of activation man!
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Weren't we just talking about how 1/1s for 1 arent really worth a card?
threat of activation does jack if the creature isn't worth playing without it
 
Lucre

Lucre

I don't think that's true at all chris. Plus you are forgetting we are talking about what may well be a card that is playable at instant speed, costs no mana and enters the battlefield when would otherwise be discarded lol. This card's downside is that it is only sometimes a 1/1 for one that is capable of being more than that at instant speed for a low cost. Its not going to be for everyone's cube etc but its waaaaay better than most people are giving it credit for, and I feel sort of similarly about the people not willing to put in effort to flesh out themes as I do about cube purists who are unwilling to work outside traditional paradigms. It's a preference and effort thing, not a black and white thing.

The 1/1 for 1 thing is the product of a lot of informative associations and I think it's pretty obvs cards like rootwalla aren't obeying the sort of rules that tend to make 1 drops bad in limited formats.
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

The madness 0 on rootwalla is a world of difference for reasons stated. Swing with looter il-kor. Instead of filter a card, I get a straight draw a card no drawback if I have rootwalla in hand. Not for every deck obviously, but lots of synergy to be had there. Works equally well with faithless looting.

And nothing feels better than discarding to a draw spell and then sacing it to something like natural order.
 
Lucre

Lucre

yeah rootwalla rules if you are willing to make an effort to have sweet themes and tonnes of interaction. He's even a totally fair idiot on the ground because he's not hard to make sizable when you need it and you complicate their decisions whether you pay up or not.
 
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