Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

Seeker

Seeker

I do love me an Arena of Glory. And lands in general, really! That's going in for sure.

Claim the Firstborn I hadn't even considered but since I've been raising the power level so high it's actually going to hit the majority of, well, everything (same as Stern Scolding). Okay, sure, I'm convinced.

I think Underworld Breach tells people that Brain Freeze+Lion's Eye Diamond are in. I try to avoid stuff like that. But maybe? Like, you can absolutely just play a Value Breach and feel good about it. But I definitely don't want to add storm.

As for Glimpse the Impossible, honestly I'm unconvinced. It was fine in MH3 retail limited, at common, but like... is this really the best I can do with a red three-mana spell? It's not awful or anything, it just doesn't excite me on almost any level.
 
MilesOfficial

MilesOfficial

Seeker said:
I think Underworld Breach tells people that Brain Freeze+Lion's Eye Diamond are in. I try to avoid stuff like that. But maybe? Like, you can absolutely just play a Value Breach and feel good about it. But I definitely don't want to add storm.
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I run and love the heck out of Value Breach. While you're shuffling up, you can talk about individual cards like that.

I'm glad you're interested in Snort, I love it. I know most burn spells are a bit boring, but ay I also recommend Dead / Gone and Fire Magic?



Being able to get a burn spell OR a bounce spell as needed is really nice, and I've used Gone more times than I can count. Fire Magic, on the other hand, is so flexible and cheap that you can use it to finish off a dude you damaged mid-combat, ruin your token-making opponent's life harder, or clear the field.



I've admittedly not played this one in my Cube yet, but Usman swears by it and I knew it was a winner the moment I saw it, only to have it validated by a ton of reps in FIC retail limited. In Cubes with a lower curve like yours, it's essentially a 1R draw two at instant speed, and can also pump most of the board when you need it. And who could forget my beloved Untimely Malfunction! Perhaps the most underrated card of last year.

Some other cool red instants and sorceries that are in my on-deck binder:

 
Seeker

Seeker

If I'm going to Call Forth the Tempest I'd better also be Mizzix's Masterying, which sets up an expectation of Cruel Ultimatum, Magma Opus... That's a no, and not a yes, don't be fooled. But I'm tempted.

In return, just to make sure you saw it in the EOE spoilers - Molten Duplication may be one mana less, but the ceiling on Devastating Onslaught has got to be at least twice as fun.

Much more interested in Opera Love Song than most of the draw-twos because it lets you do stuff next turn by virtue of being an instant. Dead/Gone is fine, I guess, but it doesn't really... excite me. Which I guess is okay, so I'll at least consider that. Fire Magic is just a Pyroclasm but probably a bit better. Maybe I should make that swap.
 
Zoss

Zoss

Fair Breach is a really good time; I'd like to pile on to the group suggesting it.

What about Saheeli, Sublime Artificer?



It's technically U/R, but it's perfectly legal to run in mono-R decks! Card's really really really good and can accidentally make some silly combos happen.





It's fun!



It's very strong! I don't like Foretell, but there's no denying that the card works.



Dunno how you feel about pump spells, but they're definitely exciting.



Maybe a little weak for you, but definitely something that encourages a different playstyle.



Look, I hate the exclamation point, but these are a major problem for opponents to deal with. Might be too much mana for your cube, though.
 
Seeker

Seeker

Zoss said:


It's fun!
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This. Right here. You're speaking MY LANGUAGE. Not that I'm going to add it, it's just fun as hell.

Delayed Blast Fireball's a great one I hadn't considered also - I think it's too durdly for Vintage cube and they should have removed it on MODO but I'm very from that power level so I think it's good. Saheeli, Sublime Artificer is already in, hiding under UR.

Everything else... eh, I worry that 0-1 people in a draft will want something like Fists of Flame and I try to aim for 1-2 most of the time, which is probably wrong. I'm not sure.
 
Zoss

Zoss

Out of the combat tricks, that's probably the least fun...unless you're adding Wheel. In which case, hell yeah.

And sorry about missing Saheeli! Out of curiosity, why do you arrange things the way you do on CC--no distinction between instants and sorceries, multicolor cards in one big bucket, etc?
 
Seeker

Seeker

Zoss said:
Out of the combat tricks, that's probably the least fun...unless you're adding Wheel. In which case, hell yeah.

And sorry about missing Saheeli! Out of curiosity, why do you arrange things the way you do on CC--no distinction between instants and sorceries, multicolor cards in one big bucket, etc?
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The long story short is that I am dumb and this inspired me to tinker further and find what I want. It's different now.

I'd prefer the multicolored to be sorted by color, but if you do "Color Category Full" instead of "Color Category" you get this:
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and I don't know a way to collapse 13 totally unnecessary horizontal spaces into one normal vertical column without using "Color Category" to make them one homogeneous blob. That's the lesser of two evils.

As for creature/noncreature, honestly, I've always preferred it that way and just genuinely never given it a lick of thought. I don't hate changing that to Type... but also I'd still keep Stormchaser's Talent and Kumano Faces Kakkazan under creatures even if Esika's Chariot and Glimmer Lens aren't, because none of this is an exact science and I go on vibes. Glimmer Lens is totally getting moved right now to creatures.

...so I tried out changing it to Type and now I have two Esper Sentinels visible.

...But! Turns out that Types-Multicolored (what the hell is that as a name?) gets you exactly what I want - zero displayed duplicates, Esper Sentinel in with the creatures, one Multicolored column of 33 cards + the four companions in their own "hybrid" column (which is not mandatory, but does seem to make intellectual sense to me, because they are much more different-feeling)
 
Zoss

Zoss

Seeker said:
The long story short is that I am dumb and this inspired me to tinker further and find what I want. It's different now.
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No, please, by all means continue doing this! I asked because I was wondering what I was missing out on by not sorting things this way. If it's what works best for you, do it!

But yes, I change equipments and enchantments with prepackaged tokens to the creatures section too. That makes a ton of sense to me.

Glad you like Twinferno's vibes--I've been a big proponent of the card as a way to strap two situational effects together in Red.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Seeker said:
And the fond memories I have of playing with Temur Battle Rage in Constructed have me convinced that maybe I should try out Twinferno - I like trample, but I'd prefer to be able to give a 3/3 double strike when it does not have a larger friend or have a Fork buyout. Er, not Fork. Galvanic Iteration? What the heck is the generic name for that?
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Twinferno works super well with drakes style spells decks if you're into that:


Obv wide bredth of power level across these cards, mix and match as needed.
Personally I found the trample on Temur Battle Rage IS huge :(
Embercleave has the same text but incentivizes a very different thing

It's in a way worse color for this sort of deck, but berserk is actually sick for this sort of thing
 
Seeker

Seeker

Chris Taylor said:
It's in a way worse color for this sort of deck, but berserk is actually sick for this sort of thing
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Another card on the list of "I was not able to make this work in like 2014 so I assumed I couldn't make it work in 2025", but I am trying out Tifa Lockhart... it's more tempting than you'd think.

I did have Murktide Regent in before thinking that The Inevitable Durdle Blue Deck should have to work harder to kill their opponent, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.
 
Nanonox

Nanonox



I had forgotten about this card, but it's time to revisit her as I think she is a great glue card for a lot of themes in the right context. I know there are some Blue equivalents (Mischievous Mystic, Emrakul's Messenger), but Green doesn't get that effect as much and this can enable some themes for different color combinations. I'll be drawing from examples from my higher power cube, but most of this applies at lower power level too!

First thing to notice is that she triggers both on your turn and your opponent's turn.



Drawing at instant speed is mostly a Blue thing, unless you combine a couple of effects (Manamorphose + Reprieve, Chromatic Star + Tireless Tracker) which are more and more commun, especially if you have Clues, Blood, cycling, looters and others.

The more common line of play is going to be triggering her on your turn though and this is where she really pops off.

She is an artifact payoff, but not in the traditional sense.



With all these cantripping pieces, she actively shines alongside other grindy artifact payoffs



Turning your trinkets into board presence is a proven strategy (Third Path Iconoclast, Monastery Mentor, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer) and while she isn't as explosive as other options, she makes up for it with the diverse shells you can slot her in.

Spells matter decks can also benefit from turning cantrips to board presence (Young Pyromancer, Sedgemoor Witch)



Jolrael doesn't look like a discard matters card at first glance and won't fit into every shell, but it does work with looters and gives Green more ways to interact with that archetype (alongside Basking Rootwalla, Vengevine, Hogaak, Survival of the Fittest, Fauna Shaman, ...).



This does cement the trend of Jolrael working best in Temur colors. That said, Bant decks can support her just fine too if you lean into the token aspect.



What about if you stay in Green? Some land packages can get you there



So can some more generic effects



These are solid roleplayers that most decks will play and make Jolrael tick.

Space is tight in my cube, but I'll be trying her out again as a card that lets you stay open to various themes.
 
shamizy

shamizy

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I opened up a foil copy of this guy in my prize packs at EOE prerelease and I think I'm going to give it a run in my next cube session. Partially because it looks beautiful, but also because I think the possibilities are very interesting.

I missed that it itself had flying when I first read it over which means at bare minimum you have a 3/3 flier for 2 ready to go. Once you start playing with fetches it can get going with innocuous things like a Thopter token from Whirler Rogue or Faerie token from Mischievous Mystic to a 3/3 early on to something much more threatening like a Tifa Lockhart to surprise people out of nowhere for a massive hit in the later game. Also just stacking the landfall triggers on Tifa can have you go from 3 to 6 to 12 to 24 off a fetchland.

If you can pull off any wonkier combos ala Aftermath Analyst, the 2nd chapter of Summon: Titan, or just getting to untap and swing with a Primeval Titan it feels like you should be able to close things out in short order or at least simplify the board state. Makes me want to revisit Berserk and find a slot to give it a run as well.
 
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