Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

[Chris Taylor]

I ran one for years. I don't think anybody cast him.

He was okay with the amount of pump I had in when I had double strike guys, kinda the closest thing you could get to a 1 drop double strike guy without being overpowered.
He didn't make a huge amount of maindecks, but when he did he did work, and I ended up cutting him for something more people would want more often.

Speaking of tokens and me trying to preemptively neuter some cards I'm adding in a new batch together with a desire to give red more clever cards as well as interesting 3-drops, is this a good pinger then? Electrode has been performing really well the games I've played with and against it, so having a mono colored slightly weaker version should be pretty alright?

He's quite solid, but remember he's not an aggro card. Few people actually have a red control deck, and if they do it usually involves wildfire, with which this guy is not bros.
He's a good card if he does have a home though, and If you've got him, gelectrode and goblin sharpshooter, your aggro deck might be hurting for the 3 drops it wants

 

[safra]

Hidden Un-Set Gems discussion?

promo Mise, accept no substitutions

 

[Jonas]

I like who what when were why, it is what you want it to be.

 

[CML]

the errata for ashnod's coupon depresses me.

as for the rest of it unglued >>> unhinged in terms of non-corporate humor

 

[Aston]

I play Frazzled Editor, he's kind of like a mini True-Name most of the time. We play the rules that he counts rules and reminder text but not flavour text.

 

[anotak]

are there any Fun Balances besides cataclysm? i should write a cataclysm post.

how do people feel about

 

[safra]

how do people feel about

Not selective enough to be really dangerous, and I really tried. The discard is cute but that's always the least interesting part of a Balance - I'd rather stick people back to 2-3 mana as a safety valve. FSR's experiment with curves has also been critical to Cataclysm being fun in the environment.

That said, its real strength and fun has come (for me and mine!) in the post-Theros environment. Keeping three dudes to their one, let alone a land, a dude, and Pod (ahahaha this was great) or even just after you stick a big threat to protect it. Sometimes it's aggro-control, some decks set it up enough it's basically aggro-combo, artifact or enchantment midrange decks break the synergy, and control can appreciate just how many things it kills for four mana.

The above is not the cataclysm post, it is the teaser to its foreword. I'm fucking loving this thing in Cube.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I experimented with balancing act a bit and it didn't work well. Even running Ruins of Trokair and friends in the ULD didn't really tip the scales in its favor. The situations rarely arise where tapping 4 mana to cast it generates you much value. Mostly it rewards you for playing non permanent spells that don't draw cards and permanents that you sacrifice for non-permanent gains, which is pretty narrow. Cataclysm is the real deal, though.

Maybe if you took balance, upped the cost to 3 or 4 and made it balance out everything (i.e. enchantments, artifacts and planeswalkers too), you could have an interesting card. Probably still sucks, though

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Worth running?

I like that it can act as a back up copy of build around spells. I like that it costs you a card to get that back up copy, so it isn't very profitable to use it to just grab utility cards. I like that when you include Mystical Tutor, you don't have to include second copies of narrow cards to get consistency.

Treasure Cruise made this card a lot more playable, giving it a decent back up mode of late game divination.

That said, the card is overall pretty weak when you aren't grabbing gamechanging stuff and if you are banking of Mystical Tutor being your second living death/replenish/cataclysm/blasphemous act or whatever, only one of those people will actually have the back up.

Hot or not?

 

[GenericZero]

I'd say it's hot but it really depends on what kind of powerful spells you're packing.

 

[CML]

as a narcissist i'm pretty into tutors

 

[Lucre]

I love drafting decks with

 

[ahadabans]

Lucre beat me to the punch. It's wonderful with miracles. I really need to wipe the board for stupidly cheap. Mystical Tutor Terminus.

 

[Dom Harvey]

 

[CML]

 

[Laz]

Well it doesn't have all of the normal protections that cards like this have. It doesn't exile itself or the creatures, which means strong ETB can be abused pretty hard with this plus E. Witness or some other creature that gets it back into your hand. It is probably at its best in a typical Birthing Pod style of deck, because of all of the ETBs, and Pod putting creatures into the yard for it. In its normal case it looks like it could cause a pretty serious mid-combat blowout.

All in all, I like the card more than when I started writing about it in the reply.

 

[Diakonov]

Seems extremely situational, though, outside of that sort of deck. I wish it could hit both graveyards.

 

[ahadabans]

Instant speed reanimation I think is very powerful. Even if all you got were a couple blockers for 4 mana, you could still get a 2 for 1 there. In the right deck with ETB duders, it's a potential blowout. I may have to try that card.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Seems extremely situational, though, outside of that sort of deck. I wish it could hit both graveyards.

I'm not picking on you Diakonov, but I really hate responses to cards that say "I wish it did this instead" or "I wish it had haste" or whatever. I don't know if it's a power maxing thing but it's pretty prevalent over at that other forum. It feels to me that it causes people to dismiss cards out of hand without considering fully what they actually do do.

On topic, wake the dead seems pretty good even without etb effects just making some surprise blockers. Warrants some further testing.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Really cute if one of the creatures you dig up is a restoration angel and the other a thragtusk. livning it!

 

[Laz]

You mean, really cute if one of the creatures you can dig up is a Restoration Angel... Then it is just regular reanimation.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Hey, I want 10 life and 8 power!

 

[Diakonov]

I'm not picking on you Diakonov, but I really hate responses to cards that say "I wish it did this instead" or "I wish it had haste" or whatever. I don't know if it's a power maxing thing but it's pretty prevalent over at that other forum. It feels to me that it causes people to dismiss cards out of hand without considering fully what they actually do do.

On topic, wake the dead seems pretty good even without etb effects just making some surprise blockers. Warrants some further testing.

Sorry if I was flippant, I was just comparing it to Necromancy in my head.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm not picking on you Diakonov, but I really hate responses to cards that say "I wish it did this instead" or "I wish it had haste" or whatever. I don't know if it's a power maxing thing but it's pretty prevalent over at that other forum. It feels to me that it causes people to dismiss cards out of hand without considering fully what they actually do do.

On topic, wake the dead seems pretty good even without etb effects just making some surprise blockers. Warrants some further testing.

Please don't chastise people for this, about half my card ideas come from this line of thinking

On Topic: how do people feel about this

Apparently it's one of the better green cards in MM15, and I've always loved a bit of green card selection (Sylvan Library, Mirri's Guile, Courser of Kruphix, etc) and it's certainly efficient enough at 1 mana, 5 cards

 

[Dom Harvey]

I'm running Commune with the Gods, but in my Cube I have a lot of enchantments and the graveyard clause matters a lot. I do wonder if the Commune(s) and their relatives (e.g. Ancient Stirrings if you support an artifact theme or Eldrazi) are a good way to give green some much-needed card selection.