I think Imotekh has a LOT going for him and i think this is (alongside Sheoldred) one of the coolest most satisfying black 4's we've gotten in a looooooong time. I'd like to throw my prediction in the jar that, once the dust settles from this Warhammer 40k / Universes Beyond / etc stuff, Imotekh will be one of the most thrilling Cube designs it produces.
Let's read the card. Four mana 3/3 artifact creature. Not a t:zombie, sadly, but mechanically so indistinct that if it weren't for W40K flavour I'm sure all the Necrons would be Zombies on the typeline. Anyway, that doesn't matter too much, because I want to look at what this guy does OUTSIDE of gravecrawler/zombies.dec.
The 'level one' play (Grand Strategist) with Imotekh is to curve other artifact creatures into him, such that when you play him on curve, he gives your three-drop pants and evasion going into the combat step. Or, in an environment with artifact mana, on turn three, where he might buff your one-drop. The lack of ETB combined with the combat trigger puts Imotekh in the exciting middle between Tarmogoyf and Elvish Visionary (a lot of cards being designed in this space lately!); he can die to a bolt before combat, or he can represent a lot of evasive damage. Unlike other cards in Imotekh's 'leaves-your-graveyard' design space, his floor, thanks to Grand Strategist (when it applies; "another" artifact creature) is much higher than, say, Desecrated Tomb or Tormod, the Desecrator.
At 'level two' (Phaeron), Imotekh becomes a very different (and thrillingly stronger) card. Phaeron pays you off per instance of you removing one or more artifact cards from your graveyard. This might seem like a strangely-worded ask, but in Cube there are actually a lot of things we might already be playing that incidentally do this - Delve, reanimation spells, creatures who use cards in the yard as a resource, Emry, Welder nonsense, Scrap Trawler/Junk Diver effects, Regrowths, Bomberman combo (for which he's a pass-the-turn win condition), Scrapheap Scrounger (TWICE, for four 2/2 tokens), some eggs, Second Sunrise effects, Life from the Loam with an artifact land, the list GOES ON AND ON AND ON....
e: Not to mention:
Escape, graveyard hate, YawgWill, ANYTHING broken you happen to do with KCI, Greasefang, Metalwork Colossus, Glissa, the Traitor....
At level one, Imotekh rewards you for playing Magic. At level two, he rewards you a king's ransom for drafting well. But unlike similar cards we've seen lately, his floor is way higher! That makes me not only excited to test him in my environment, but cautiously optimistic that he'll enter the pantheon of Black's greatest four drops for cube. Order your copy now before the MTGS hivemind realize this.
Your thoughts?
Let's read the card. Four mana 3/3 artifact creature. Not a t:zombie, sadly, but mechanically so indistinct that if it weren't for W40K flavour I'm sure all the Necrons would be Zombies on the typeline. Anyway, that doesn't matter too much, because I want to look at what this guy does OUTSIDE of gravecrawler/zombies.dec.
The 'level one' play (Grand Strategist) with Imotekh is to curve other artifact creatures into him, such that when you play him on curve, he gives your three-drop pants and evasion going into the combat step. Or, in an environment with artifact mana, on turn three, where he might buff your one-drop. The lack of ETB combined with the combat trigger puts Imotekh in the exciting middle between Tarmogoyf and Elvish Visionary (a lot of cards being designed in this space lately!); he can die to a bolt before combat, or he can represent a lot of evasive damage. Unlike other cards in Imotekh's 'leaves-your-graveyard' design space, his floor, thanks to Grand Strategist (when it applies; "another" artifact creature) is much higher than, say, Desecrated Tomb or Tormod, the Desecrator.
At 'level two' (Phaeron), Imotekh becomes a very different (and thrillingly stronger) card. Phaeron pays you off per instance of you removing one or more artifact cards from your graveyard. This might seem like a strangely-worded ask, but in Cube there are actually a lot of things we might already be playing that incidentally do this - Delve, reanimation spells, creatures who use cards in the yard as a resource, Emry, Welder nonsense, Scrap Trawler/Junk Diver effects, Regrowths, Bomberman combo (for which he's a pass-the-turn win condition), Scrapheap Scrounger (TWICE, for four 2/2 tokens), some eggs, Second Sunrise effects, Life from the Loam with an artifact land, the list GOES ON AND ON AND ON....
e: Not to mention:
Escape, graveyard hate, YawgWill, ANYTHING broken you happen to do with KCI, Greasefang, Metalwork Colossus, Glissa, the Traitor....
At level one, Imotekh rewards you for playing Magic. At level two, he rewards you a king's ransom for drafting well. But unlike similar cards we've seen lately, his floor is way higher! That makes me not only excited to test him in my environment, but cautiously optimistic that he'll enter the pantheon of Black's greatest four drops for cube. Order your copy now before the MTGS hivemind realize this.
Your thoughts?
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), the Universes Beyond thing is a massive, massive turn-off. Absolutely a cool design. Not willing to reward Wizards for a limited print run no-guarantee-for-reprints FOMO fest by helping increase demand for this kind of product, especially considering how they've screwed over multiple local retailers who've supported them for years by not supplying them with this very product.
