General Pick 3: Cards Since Battle for Zendikar

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb

This is the most satisfying spells matter payoff I've ever cubed with. Period. Flood the board with zombies!


The Swiss Army knife of black removal, this is a great tool. Not only can it deal with small creatures and spells, but it's also a great discard outlet!


I've found Convergence to be a sweet, sweet payoff for green-based ramp decks. It nicely shores up one of green's weaknesses (flyers), while steadily building an army of wurms to crush your opponent with. Moreover, it strengthens a green-based control build, which is awesome!
 

By far my favorite clone variant, it's kinda a mashup of actual clone and body double

(If you want to support "big reanimator")

Swapped him in to replace Griselbrand, and haven't regretted it for a second. Very powerful finishing body (trample!), but the ability is much fairer in it's power. The sac and life pay are real resource decisions.


Crucible of Worlds! And you get a decent body for the price too. Obviously great with fetches, very great with double fetches, and ultra great with any land-shenanigans.

Huh. Interesting I also ended up with a Sultai trio. Runner up:
 
Well these blocks have given us enough artifact support to easily incorporate it as a subtheme with little effort.



All of the Gearhulks are pretty cool.

As well as cubable artifact removal:


EDIT:It's also made the Hellbent archetype much easier to support:


Alright, sorry I can't follow instructions.
 
I just saw that she says "power or toughness". Wow, that is significantly better than I thought.

All Young Pyromancers and their elemental buddies are unblockable :).
 
How is a lock a desirable thing to put into a cube? Especially when it costs 2 mana. I am honestly curious because I will personally allow soft locks and other game-winning comboes if they either require four cards that cost almost no mana or three cards that require 4+ mana each. Not 2 in a single card + almost anything :p

Also I am against un-interactivity although I do not mind breaking that rule in small degrees.

Tell me why I am wrong. Teach me :)
 

This is the most satisfying spells matter payoff I've ever cubed with. Period. Flood the board with zombies!


My UR has a Flashback / Aftermath Burning Vengeance theme, which is opposite of what this does, but the "lots of spells in your graveyard" was a close 2nd place. Do you think it's worth switching?
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Tell me why I am wrong. Teach me :)
Yeah, what sigh said. I was not referring to Tetsuko being a lock piece, I meant that the card is going into my cube for sure.

My UR has a Flashback / Aftermath Burning Vengeance theme, which is opposite of what this does, but the "lots of spells in your graveyard" was a close 2nd place. Do you think it's worth switching?
Burning Vengeance is also a very cool payoff card, but it is indeed at odds with Rise. I think both are great fun, and if your spells from the graveyard theme works and players are both playing it and having fun with it, I wouldn't switch.
 
Burning Vengeance is also a very cool payoff card, but it is indeed at odds with Rise. I think both are great fun, and if your spells from the graveyard theme works and players are both playing it and having fun with it, I wouldn't switch.


I'll keep it for now, the cube hasn't been drafted enough to get a good feel for it yet.
 
Gonna go with 3 cards that haven't been mentioned:



I love BW Humans as an archetype, and the Lieutenant gives you another copy of Champion of the Parish that can also be played as an anthem for your team if you've gone wide enough. It's an excellent card to push yourself vertically after going horizontal, can generate the same lines of play as the Champ, and it's just a clean design. Probably the best tool that aggressive W/x archetypes have gotten in a long time.



This card has such a weird body but it plays very uniquely. I've found in my time playing the game that players hate trading down and will often end up racking way more damage than they should because they refused to lose out on "value" by giving up creatures for something lesser. Kari's body makes her kind of awkward to block and commit resources towards, often times players will just let themselves get nugged for 1 because hey, it's only one point of damage right? That line of reasoning does fall apart when they let the monkey continuously get in for two as well though. If they have something to just eat the monkey each combat, alright no problem. But if they actually are forced into thinking about trades? I've seen a lot of players just take the full 3 damage across two bodies because they deemed no good blocks. She's evasive, leads to interesting attacks, wears buffs and equipments like a champ, and plays even better with any way to maximize the multiple bodies (Purphoros triggers, anthems, etc.). Just a fantastic card.



Other people might find it to be a bit too much value generated, but I just love the steady card advantage that it helps to generate to grind away in the late game. 3/2 is a fine base body, and when you start creating multiple clues you open up so many new lines of play. The biggest issue with ramp decks is running out of gas or having your big ramped threats answered easily and then being left with nothing. With a Tracker out, you have the chance to stockpile some clues to crack in the later game and recoup resources. It's just another clean design that I really love and it has quickly become one of my favorite cards to play with.

Bonus because this card is too much fun:



Big old body with Deathtouch, Exploration effect, and a way to draw cards and churn through your deck in the later game. Finding ways to trigger multiple draws is the best, nutty with fetches and anything that self-mills and puts lands in the bin. I've found this to be an incredibly fun and interesting creature for drafters to play around with, and it creates an interesting little game of eating away at your own resources unless you can somehow maximize its presence on the battlefield and take advantage.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Once upon a time James thought of Brushwagg for the Grey Ogre (2/2 for 3) thread.

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Sick, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive makes Brushwagg unblockable when it blocks.


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I hereby make a movement to ban James from posting about a card he's never even looked at.
 
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