Dom Harvey
Contributor
Also, it's just a very offensive card aesthetically. With cards like Obelisk or Trading Post, the versatility is a selling point; with Bow, it feels like someone in R&D just really likes semicolons.
Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Dom Harvey
- Start date
Like, this requires two posts. There is nothing about this card that is intuitive from a mechanical or flavor perspective. If you went back in time and posted an image of this card to a custom card forum you would be laughed out of town.
Of the five mechanical attributes of the card (ignoring the ridiculousness of it being a Legendary Enchantment Artifact), only one seems remotely bow like. Maybe you could make a case for deathtouch being bow-like, buuuuut.
I could have this card in my cube for a decade, and every time my opponent played it I would still have to turn it around and read the text. Then later in the same game they would activate it and my response would be "wait, it can do that?".
I could have this card in my cube for a decade, and every time my opponent played it I would still have to turn it around and read the text. Then later in the same game they would activate it and my response would be "wait, it can do that?".
In the field of data visualization, standard practice is to take some awful plot that was published in some publication and just lampoon the shit out of it by breaking down in great detail all the ways in which it is patently terrible.
If I ever taught an MTG Card Design course my first slide would be Bow of Nylea.
If I ever taught an MTG Card Design course my first slide would be Bow of Nylea.
Mark Rosewater : Hornet Sting :: Jason Waddell : _______
a) taxation without representation
b) restrictions breed creativity
c) seeded grapes
d) Bow of Nylea
a) taxation without representation
b) restrictions breed creativity
c) seeded grapes
d) Bow of Nylea
I hate the card so much that were I a famous Magic figurehead, people would send me copies of the card to sign. But unlike Rosewater, I wouldn't sign them and send them back. I'd just dump them into an industrial shredder, then take the remains and use them to line the bottom of my hamster cage. Which I would have acquired for the expressed purpose of dumping shredded Bows of Nylea.
In an alternate universe there is a world where the only redeeming quality of Bow of Nylea is that it legend rules other Bows of Nylea off the table. Sadly we don't live in that world.
I have never given that card more than a passing glance. Let me know if its play value outweighs how ugly it is.
My cube is very multicolor and I can say nightscape familiar in particular can be absolutely disgusting. One-mana mana leak? Three-mana turn and burn? Every version of incinerate becomes lightning bolt, etc. etc. My favorite play I've seen someone make in a control mirror is turn 3 familiar into an empty board, unified will their jace.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I don't think it works like you think it does on Turn//Burn, since it says "Blue and Red spells cost 1 less", not "Blue spells costs 1 less. Red Spells costs 1 less"
In the end, I'm less favorable on this kind of acceleration because people so often forget about it. Rampant Growth is just a lot more observable than emerald medallion, and Thalia your opponent keeps track of for you
In the end, I'm less favorable on this kind of acceleration because people so often forget about it. Rampant Growth is just a lot more observable than emerald medallion, and Thalia your opponent keeps track of for you
You guys are getting me pretty excited about Nightscape Familiar, I might have to give it a whirl.
Let's talk about this one:
A while a a number of cube articles convinced me this card sucked, so I took it out. Now I'm thinking it helps some graveyard/reanimation shenanigans I'm trying out. It also seems generally solid. Do any of you have any real experience with it?
Let's talk about this one:
A while a a number of cube articles convinced me this card sucked, so I took it out. Now I'm thinking it helps some graveyard/reanimation shenanigans I'm trying out. It also seems generally solid. Do any of you have any real experience with it?
It's pretty odd... it's a tutor that you can't really use to dig yourself out of a hole like most tutors. Besides reanimation enabling I've seen some pretty odd packages with it; I really like that you can get things like eternal witness and recollect along with the 'real' cards you want when you potentially have something even worse for your opponent in your bin, so they let you have the other cards instead.
IMO its potential is great but flops so often I hesitate to keep it. My players cried the one time I removed it, and they play it almost every draft it's in. Effectively? Not always, but they play it.
IMO its potential is great but flops so often I hesitate to keep it. My players cried the one time I removed it, and they play it almost every draft it's in. Effectively? Not always, but they play it.
I've tried it, and wasn't really a huge fan of it. The only cards you can really abuse with this are ones with flashback, like Unburial Rites and maaaaybe Dread Return. But if you're looking to assemble the pieces of a reanimator engine, and don't already have some of them in hand, casting a Gifts for fatty-fatty-spell-spell will just clog your hand with two uncastable creatures, which you then need to find a way to pitch.
I'd love for someone to chime in with their good experiences with Gifts, though, because I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably the least Johnny-combo player on this forum.
In any case, I've swapped in Careful Consideration in its place, and I prefer that in most situations. It's not the worst card for pure control decks, doing a reasonable impression of Foresee, but decks looking to fill their graveyards can get some real mileage out of the digging and filtering.
I'd love for someone to chime in with their good experiences with Gifts, though, because I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably the least Johnny-combo player on this forum.
In any case, I've swapped in Careful Consideration in its place, and I prefer that in most situations. It's not the worst card for pure control decks, doing a reasonable impression of Foresee, but decks looking to fill their graveyards can get some real mileage out of the digging and filtering.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
I'd give you a run for your money.
I'm not looking for Reanimate type combo things, I'm looking for durdly Rescue from the Underworld, Snapcaster Mage, All Sun's Dawn value type things.
Now that I'm looking to add Gifts Ungiven I need a cut. Shall we talk about these?
Capsize is amazing. But is it any fun? I've never been on the receiving end, but it's tough to beat. It does make me think of trying to pay against Sprout Swarm, which is not fun at all. What do you chaps think?
As for El Tamillo, I love this card. I love Kamigawa and I love her art. Her ultimate is awesome. I am always happy to see this card. It's quite nice to have a female card that's very pretty but not sexualised at all. But these things don't have to do with her effect on the game. As far as I recall she taps stuff down for a few turns and then you win anyway because your blue control deck is awesome.
I don't really know what to do. Here's my list: cubetutor.com/viewcube/1461. If you don't think cutting one of these for Gifts is good, a suggestion would be welcome.
Capsize is amazing. But is it any fun? I've never been on the receiving end, but it's tough to beat. It does make me think of trying to pay against Sprout Swarm, which is not fun at all. What do you chaps think?
As for El Tamillo, I love this card. I love Kamigawa and I love her art. Her ultimate is awesome. I am always happy to see this card. It's quite nice to have a female card that's very pretty but not sexualised at all. But these things don't have to do with her effect on the game. As far as I recall she taps stuff down for a few turns and then you win anyway because your blue control deck is awesome.
I don't really know what to do. Here's my list: cubetutor.com/viewcube/1461. If you don't think cutting one of these for Gifts is good, a suggestion would be welcome.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Agony Warp or Mystical Teachings
It could be time for Agony Warp to go. When it works it's such a good feeling though!
Yeah, I'm not so keen on Gifts Ungiven. Capsize is kind of a fun card in that tension zone between three and six mana where sometimes people cast it because they really need a bounce spell. I've even seen it get cast without buyback when the player was at 6 mana because they needed to do two things that turn. It's a slow win condition that technically can feel bad, but it's less of an issue if people play and scoop faster.
CML
Contributor
I am not sure how I feel about Gifts and its sister Intuition. In theory it's this very interesting quadruple tutor that severely tests the skill of pilots and deckbuilders, in practice it often either just combos (the crude versions with Rites + fatty or whatever) or isn't worth it, as getting your 3rd and 4th best cards at the expense of your best and 2nd best is a steep cost. Cube does seem like the perfect place for sweet "value" piles like Loam / Crucible / Snapcaster / Gravecrawler, but, even if you can build this kind of deck, you also have to not draw those cards, and so on.
Another idea is that tutors of this restrictive and multi-card variety suffer in 40-card decks. There's not enough room for your targets, you'll draw them, and so on. GSZ for example is a pretty strong card in Cube, but in Constructed it's the strongest tutor printed since ... Gifts, or if it's stronger than Gifts, since Intuition.
edit: fuck capsize though. no conflict there
Another idea is that tutors of this restrictive and multi-card variety suffer in 40-card decks. There's not enough room for your targets, you'll draw them, and so on. GSZ for example is a pretty strong card in Cube, but in Constructed it's the strongest tutor printed since ... Gifts, or if it's stronger than Gifts, since Intuition.
edit: fuck capsize though. no conflict there
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Capsize is despised at my table with a passion. I run it anyway because its just the bluest way to win a game possible. I am surprised I'm not dead.
gifts is straight up insane in my cube.
"Gifts for Firemane Angel, Think Twice, Mystic Retrieval, and Desperate Ravings" is something that won my cube
if your cube is both slower overall than average cubes and has durdly graveyard interactions then gifts is absolutely nuts. good if stuff like creeping renaissance is good in your cube. that's not typical though, which is why it typically has a reputation of being awful
edit: i love capsize but yeah it is so widely hated lol
"Gifts for Firemane Angel, Think Twice, Mystic Retrieval, and Desperate Ravings" is something that won my cube
if your cube is both slower overall than average cubes and has durdly graveyard interactions then gifts is absolutely nuts. good if stuff like creeping renaissance is good in your cube. that's not typical though, which is why it typically has a reputation of being awful
edit: i love capsize but yeah it is so widely hated lol