Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

[Tzenmoroth]

For a fair cube without cheap artifact mana and only a modicum of planeswalkers.



Can this be a fun card in an environment where it's harder to abuse the card?

I've been preaching that this card is fun where its harder to abuse for more than a year now, get on my level already

 

[japahn]

I run very few planeswalkers and a low-ish amount of artifact mana (only Mox Diamond below 2 mana). I had to cut Balance because nobody played it, and when they did, it sucked.

 

[Diakonov]

The only thing I would fear at this point is that it can be a 2-mana wrath.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

The only thing I would fear at this point is that it can be a 2-mana wrath.

If it is used in this fashion, chances are the caster will have to discard a few cards as an additional cost

I run very few planeswalkers and a low-ish amount of artifact mana (only Mox Diamond below 2 mana). I had to cut Balance because nobody played it, and when they did, it sucked.

Awesome! Looks like I can safely try this out then!

 

[ahadabans]

Balance is broken. No if's and's or but's about it. It takes very little energy to break symmetry on it even without walkers for an absurdly low cost.

But it goes back to the emotional spike discussion. This card could be just what your group needs so by all means give it a try. My group hates it because of how easily you can reduce a board state to rubble. IMO, it doesn't belong in a balanced cube (pun intended).

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Does anyone have any brewing ideas for this card?



First thing that went through my mind were the similarities to

 

[Dom Harvey]

 

[Peter LaCara]

This guy has archetypes designed around him in eternal formats. Can we do anything with it?

 

[genericco]

Probably not? The cost seems prohibitive. Sure it's a sweet play when you pull it off, but imagine you keep the mana open and they don't activate your trap card - your options are spend 4 mana on a EOT 3/1 or do nothing with it and fall a turn behind.

I guess it's not complete trash if you have a lot of instant speed interaction, but the rate is really bad for a trap that will be infrequently sprung.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

It turns Arcane Denial into one heck of a Counterspell though! Other nice interactions:

 

[Alphez]

Notion Thief is strong in formats where Brainstorm is ubiquitous. I draw three, you put two on top from your hand is a crippling play.

I think that, unless you run multiple Brainstorms, it is not really worth it.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

I'm a big fan of Notion thief. Huge. I've run him in both Legacy and Vintage, and he's an all-star in my dimir EDH deck.

That being said, imo he does too little to make the cut as anything but SB tech. Additionally, he's too easily dealt with to be a buildaround card. I prefer my buildarounds to be artifact or enchantments, so my opponents at least have to SB and go down a card to deal with it.

 

[sigh]

Notion thief seems very much NOT what I want to be doing.... ultra mediocre most of the time and potentially ultra feel bad the rest of the time..... no thanks

 

[Aston]

But imagine the emotional spike!

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

It dosen't actually do that though in cube because most of the time its just mediocre. In vintage, legacy, or edh though, it can easily do that, which is why people like it.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

But imagine the emotional spike!

There's always multiple layers to emotional spikes in cube. The one you are referring to, I assume, is the feeling of stealing a person's draw spell.

However, there is also the negative emotional spike during draft of picking Notion Thief early, putting it in your deck, and realizing that it's a 3/1 for 4 most of the time...

 

[Onderzeeboot]

In a vacuum, what do we think of fear and intimidate as a mechanic in our cubes? In general, I've been pretty down on uninteractive mechanics like hexproof, shroud and protection, unless they grant it temporarily to protect a creature/permanent. Intimidate basically reads "unblockable" except against one or two opponents. It's a very on or off mechanic, and I think Wizards was right to replace it with menace, however, the few cards with fear I run are pretty sweet and nostalgic.



How sweet would Shadowmage Infiltrator be if it had skulk, eh? Anyway, I don't think I can cut Shriekmaw, because that art and evoke are just too damn sweet!

Gorgeous...

 

[James Stevenson]

Would be neat if color changing was good. What was that mad cube we built a while ago...

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Would be neat if color changing was good. What was that mad cube we built a while ago...

Scuttlemut?

 

[Laz]

Someone rang?!

At the time there wasn't really a solid density of Intimidate effects at reasonable mana costs to make it interesting. The most exciting was probably Bellowing Tanglewurm, but past that you were looking at Spectral Rider and Highborn Ghoul. I haven't revisited it, but the takeaway was 'conditional unblockable is pretty sweet when both players have the ability to potentially mess with the conditions'.

Though I suppose that is how one could think of Flying. Colour-changing just had far more broad interactions.

 

[ahadabans]

I like fear mostly because of nostalgia. I don't get the uninteractive argument though. Just because it might be Unblockable? So is flying a lot of times and it's what we like about many creatures.

The real problem with fear versus stuff like flying is it's a lot less reliable.

 

[Aston]

Anyway, I don't think I can cut Shriekmaw, because that art and evoke are just too damn sweet!

Gorgeous...

Did you know this was originally meant to be the art for Aethersnipe?

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/lorwyn-elemental-swaps-2007-11-28

Anyway I don't actively avoid Fear/Intimate but I don't run a lot of cards with the ability just because it doesn't appear on very many good cards. I don't mind it as it's not quite as swingy as protection, and I think it tends to be "on" vs more decks than "off" so the cards are balanced as if they're always unblockable.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Did you know this was originally meant to be the art for Aethersnipe?

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/lorwyn-elemental-swaps-2007-11-28

As a matter of fact, I did! Those were some quality swaps!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Also, this has to be one of the coolest standard decks I've ever played, and it features all three of the fear cards I run! Man, that deck was pure gas!

 

[Eric Chan]

Did you know this was originally meant to be the art for Aethersnipe?

It has been <0> days since a thread was successfully diverted to Lorwyn art discussion.