Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

[vennythekid]

How do people feel about

It always seems like Thrun having hexproof is impossible to deal with, but Geist of Saint Traft or Sphinx of Jwar Isle seem perfectly fine?

 

[Dom Harvey]

Geist is far more obnoxious than Thrun IMO. Thrun is just a big dumb beater, which is often fine for what you want it to be, whereas Geist becomes GRBS very quickly.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Geist is far more obnoxious than Thrun IMO. Thrun is just a big dumb beater, which is often fine for what you want it to be, whereas Geist becomes GRBS very quickly.

That kinda depends on the enablers I would think? If you're following up Geist with an evasion suit, the sure, but otherwise it's really a game of "how long before my 2/2 can't attack anymore?

Edit: In short, if you want to run Geist, don't run Spectral Flight.

 

[Eric Chan]

Yeah, I feel like Thrun is actually on the weak side, with as many good green fours as we have to choose from. Most times I think I'd rather have Obstinate Baloth in my deck in that slot, and recently Polukranos has earned his place as the top dog at four.

 

[ahadabans]

I think Thrun is fine. He can be hard to get rid of, but you can chump him and he doesn't represent a super fast clock.

 

[Dom Harvey]

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Supercool card. Haven't played it. Try it out?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

If you're in the market for a Remove Soul // Pestermite (without the useful ability) split card, sure! I like the versatility, but I don't know how good it is.

 

[Lucre]

Guys I've been meaning to ask the double fetch crowd about one of my all time favourite cards for a long time now! Especially if you are also really into bad removal and banning powerful 4s.



If you are into shuffling, this card has a great lifetime. It's a 4 drop that rewards you for going long, it's decking insurance, it stabilizes games really well and it feeds spells matter. Anyone who has ever bought two turns with a beacon only to draw their beacon again knows what I'm talking about! <3

 

[Lucre]

A good question to ask about thrun is how are you #makingthrunfun or at least, how are you making him necessary?

 

[ahadabans]

I like that Thrun can't be control magic'd and can't just be doom bladed. It's something worth ramping into, but it's also not overpowered. It also happens to be a Shaman, and I'm pushing this semi-bogus shaman thing with Rage Forger. So there's that too at least for me.

I've started moving away from all the value guys that have literally overrun my cube in the last year or so (seems like everything is a 2 for 1 these days). I still run a fair amount of those, but I don't want every single 3+ mana card in my cube to just be ETB auto-value. I want some of them to do what the color does well without any real frills. This card is very green to me - it's a big dump beater that is hard to deal with. Flavor slam dunk in my mind.

 

[Diakonov]

I'm thinking maybe it's time to cut



to make room for new blood

 

[ahadabans]

I wouldn't fault you for cutting him. Master of the Wild Hunt is pretty slow. Then again, when he's online he is one of the few repeatable removal engines for green. He's insane with wolfir Silverheart, and it's always frightening when that combo comes online. I think that's why I remove him and he always seems to find his way back into my list.

 

[safra]

yo

 

[James Stevenson]

Safra, you're looking good. White and gold suits you.

 

[safra]

Safra, you're looking good. White and gold suits you.

since i acquired a kiora/elspeth duel deck i find myself in white control a lot more, the art is basically a home run for the character and it somehow looks even better in person

although tbf my colourway does rep cream and marigold

 

[Lucre]

I've barely cubed with master, I'd actually really love to cube with both master and hydra, they seem like they'd have a real impact on the way midranged green plays in a 360 if you had bof.

 

[ahadabans]

I've barely cubed with master, I'd actually really love to cube with both master and hydra, they seem like they'd have a real impact on the way midranged green plays in a 360 if you had bof.

I actually cut them because of how much they encourage durdly midrange decks (already prevalent with my group).

I've opted for a different suite at this point which pushes guys towards one end of the spectrum or the other. Thrun for example you really want to start beating down with because once bigger stuff comes out he's not doing much for you without equipment or some kind of evasion. Surrak, the Hunt Caller helps push guys aggressive (really liking this dude), as does Mwonvuli Acid-Moss (which is stellar on turn 3 and progressively less good as the game goes on). Natural order for "sac-an-elf-into-something-nasty" combo plan. I think those are my only must-run green 4's at this point.

For a less slow version of the Master/Polukranos fight mechanic, you can try Foe-Razer Regent. I have little testing results on this guy, but I think he might actually be a solid fight-on-a-stick dude. Finally. He's 7 mana, but if you are heavy green that's like 6 (or even 5). Also a natural order target.

 

[MCMcEmcee]

Polukranos and Master of the Wild Hunt let green decks interact with their opponent's stuff, which is way more interesting than... not letting them interact?

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Getting beat down by Thrum can't ever be enjoyable right?

 

[ahadabans]

I think the oppressiveness of Thrun is directly proportional to the power level of the equips and auras you run. If you have Angelic Destiny, all 5 swords, Jitte, etc. Yeah, hexproof creatures are just going to be really annoying (Geist of Saint Traft falls into this category as well). But if the best thing you can do is put a bonesplitter on it, it can be chumped all day long by every creature and token producer in the cube.

This is similar to the Tinker argument. If all you can tinker is a Razormane Masticore, tinker doesn't look all that powerful (versus Inkwell Leviathan or whatever).

I think you'll get wildly different views on many cards because so many are heavily meta dependent.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

You know, I'm not sure I'm convinced anymore that its strictly bad to run protection, hexproof, or shroud guys. I think it depends on your removal shell: specifically what its as-fan is, and the way its distributed.

Formats with a very high removal count need some resilient threats to force players to diversify their answer suites. If my format has an as-fan of 3 (three pieces of removal showing up per pack) do I really need to worry about thrun just taking over games? I purpose built my format (in that scenario) so people would have plenty of ways to interact with him. My real concern is going to be how that removal devalues creatures, forcing the format down a value ETB route, and smoothering the aggro decks who generally lack comperable ETBs. In that circumstance, hexproof, protection, or shroud creatures could offer a healthy alternative.

Of course, if I have a very low as-fan count, low-power removal, or a poor distribution of mass vs. spot removal, a card like thrun would be oppressive, since no one can interact with it, and it takes over the game.

 

[safra]

I really like the way you think about formats, Grillo!

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I don't like how the term "interact" is used in Magic.

Usually, people use it to mean "I can blow up their stuff".

Interacting is simply having your decisions effect the decisions of your opponent and vice/versa. If the only proper response to someone playing a card is "blow it up", that isn't really an interesting interaction, its a removal check.

The cards you play should enrich the game when they are being played. I hate when people justify a card that are awful for the game by saying "but you can blow it up!" That, to me, is basically saying the game is fun as long as the card isn't in play, but do you know what a much better way to ensure a shitty card doesn't come into play then providing removal for it? NOT PUTTING IT IN YOUR LIST IN THE FIRST PLACE! Removal should be a way you can gain tempo, force opponents to play around your cards and give you interesting choices on how to attack your opponent's board, not as scissor that you must have for your opponent's paper.

Also, I like Thrun, he's fun because he forces the opponent to interact on the green deck's level, but in exchange he's a 4 drop with unimpressive stats, no way of his own to interact with the opponent (other then attacking) and no useful trigger/graveyard ability.

I like the Theros block gods for related reasons.

 

[Lucre]

I actually cut them because of how much they encourage durdly midrange decks (already prevalent with my group).

I've opted for a different suite at this point which pushes guys towards one end of the spectrum or the other. Thrun for example you really want to start beating down with because once bigger stuff comes out he's not doing much for you without equipment or some kind of evasion. Surrak, the Hunt Caller helps push guys aggressive (really liking this dude), as does Mwonvuli Acid-Moss (which is stellar on turn 3 and progressively less good as the game goes on). Natural order for "sac-an-elf-into-something-nasty" combo plan. I think those are my only must-run green 4's at this point.

For a less slow version of the Master/Polukranos fight mechanic, you can try Foe-Razer Regent. I have little testing results on this guy, but I think he might actually be a solid fight-on-a-stick dude. Finally. He's 7 mana, but if you are heavy green that's like 6 (or even 5). Also a natural order target.

how have you been discouraging durdly green decks? Have you made the 4 section really bad or like make it into something other than the ramp + value guys colour?