Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

[sigh]

"Recursive midrange" is the best description of what my GW does that I've heard yet, and so simple!

IMO it's fine to have a color pair(s) that is more straightforward and transparent. If anything, it gives an easier path for beginners, and a getaway for people who don't want to think all that hard. I think my GW and RW can play decently well in this manner, allowing my more novice players access to the format (and respectable match records) without having to agonize over the proper Genesis-loops, or how to execute a seismic assault lock, etc.

One of my favorite GW cards for this recursive midrange plan has been

A 5/5 for 4 is always at least decent in G, and flash adds a ton of utility as removal and as removal avoidance. Importantly, it also bins the actual card portion, allowing for recursion/recasting. I also like Armada Wurm for similar reasons, kinda pointing a big arrow at using white blink effects in concert with green fatties to generate additional value.

 

[Dom Harvey]

The Bant Flash decks in Standard with Advent, Snapcaster, Resto, Sphinx's Revelation, and a bunch of Charms were really fun. Torrential Gearhulk on Advent is a Cube bucket list item

 

[Peter LaCara]

Since the change to the planeswalker legend rule, how do we feel about her? What sort of cool stuff can she fetch?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

What sort of cool stuff can she fetch?

Planeswalkers.

Honestly she's kinda slow though, maybe try



?

Also slow, but more of a presence, only one color, and guaranteed value.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I will say if there's one change ever that makes me cut down on planeswalkers it'll be this. There was a surprising ammount of balance that came from all my green planeswalkers accidentally being named nissa, all the red ones being named chandra, etc.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Has this card actually ever done something? I know people like it, but it seems super slow and kind of durdly? Anyone wanna sell me on it?

 

[sigh]

hard to really quantify, but it's just a cool card to let a variety of long-game decks play around with an effectively one-card engine. Stock goes up with cards like:

and others. These are largely qualitative examples. I've found that it's not run super often, but definitely enjoyed when it is run, for helping enable so many unique interactions all in one card.

TBH, your format could not have this card, and no one would likely notice. But it's cool, is all.

 

[inscho]

been very close to the chopping block for me, but I recently increased the artifact density in my cube so I'm giving it a little more time to prove itself.

 

[ahadabans]

I love Trading Post. It looks limp but it's got so many uses. All 4 modes do something useful. The first mode is the most abusable - 4 life is a decent amount and discard outlets feed a lot of broken strategies in many cubes. Don't discount the goat tokens. Sometimes you just need a body for something (pick up equipment or suicide block something big) and it's instant speed. Sacrificing an artifact I find really useful late game as it turns all your artifacts into Mind Stones once they are not doing anything for you. My favorite target is Pentad Prism, but any mana rock once you have 6+ lands is often just more useful turned into a card. Sacrificing a creature for an artifact is probably the least used mode over here. But cubes with a lot of token/egg support can probably get a ton of mileage out of it in the long game, and there are stupidly powerful artifacts it's worth losing a wall of omens to get back (Nevinyrral's Disk, Mindslaver, etc).

Flexible cards tend to be very good in cube since you need answers quickly, even if they are inefficient answers. It's often more important that you have some response now versus having to wait a turn or two for a "better" answer - by then you may have already lost the game. I feel like the higher powered your cube the more this holds true.

 

[wahoopride]

Anyone think its possible to make this guy work?

 

[Mondschwein]

It's quite playable, if you ask me, especially in BW aggro where it has great synergy with discard outlets, Gravecrawler and the knights you play in those colours. If you play enough outlets and knights then go for it!

I personally don't play enough knights in my list but I haven't played for months now and yet have to add cards from Ixalan. If some of those vampire knights will find their way into my list I'll definitely consider adding Haakon, too.

 

[ahadabans]

You really only need to run one knight technically. What makes Haakon good are discard outlets. You really don't need anything else. Being able to replay this from your yard at will is a very powerful ability that is much better in actual games of Magic than it might seem. You essentially always have access to a 3/3 creature (barring an exile effect). I ran this dude for a long time and he's great in reanimator and GB Rock/Survival decks. He's also good in pox decks and with recurring nightmare/birthing pod. You'll find a lot of uses for him.

 

[Peter LaCara]

Do we like this? It blows up utility and man lands but doesn't do much to mana screw your opponent. It quietly does an Evolving Wilds impersonation as well.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I love the concept, but I hate the activation cost of Tec edge, let alone this

 

[ahadabans]

Why not just run Ghost Quarter? You can't really mana screw anyone with it but you can deal with any utility/creature land that needs answering. It is also super janky tech you can use on yourself if you REALLY REALLY need a forest or whatever.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Why not just run Ghost Quarter? You can't really mana screw anyone with it but you can deal with any utility/creature land that needs answering. It is also super janky tech you can use on yourself if you REALLY REALLY need a forest or whatever.

Don't get me wrong, I'm tempted, but I'm suspect of the value of a card that is strictly for answering powerful lands.

Like wasteland can stop people from playing their 4 drops (Or some might argue, magic) but if you take away that angle entirely, is the resulting card even worth running? (And it'll depend on what lands you have to deal with, but still)

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I'm a dumbo and feel like I don't get this card; is the dredge or the repeated pinging the good part of it? How useful is it to be able to ping something once? It still costs you a draw step to get it back. I wanna maybe run more self-mill support, is the inclusion kind of a no-brainer?

 

[inscho]

It's not a no-brainer. Some things are important for it to make a lot of sense in your cube:

1) Prevalence of graveyard synergy and value. Obviously this is the main reason you run it.
2) Restricted creature stats to cmc. If your cube isn't running a lot of cheap 3 toughness bros at 2-3cmc, Darkblast can be a real house. You can use it before your draw step, dredge, and use it again to kill something with 2 toughness.
3) Density of utility one drops: Grim Lavamancer, Mother of Runes, Noble Hierarch, etc.

Some cards that I really enjoy running Darkblast alongside in my cube:

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

The trick with darkblast is that you cast it on the upkeep, dredge on the draw, than cast it again. You use it to kill two toughness creatures, repeatedly. If you have draw effects like looters, it can scale up to kill three toughness creatures or bigger. Alternately, you can use it as a combat trick to shrink down enemy creatures.

It should be thought of as a finesse removal spell first, and a dredge engine second--though its very good as a dredge engine, since its easy to get into the graveyard.

 

[Dom Harvey]

The threat of it plays a big part - it effectively 'locks out' X/1s since you can always pick them off if it's worth spending a card on that, and if you have enough graveyard interactions the dredge can be roughly equal or even better than a card (also, decks that have a lot of cheap creatures are rarely fighting you on the card advantage front). It can team up with itself to take down X/2s or even bigger stuff if you can draw multiple times in a turn. It's great if you have anything that cares about spell count as all you want in those spots is 1-mana spells on demand.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

So in conclusion, Rasmus is dumb but not dumb enough to stay unconvinced. I'll defintely slot it in before next draft.

 

[ahadabans]

What everyone said on Darkblast, but I would caution you it doesn't work in every cube. If your format is defined by 2+ toughness creatures, this will be a very clunky removal spell. The cast during upkeep - dredge - cast main is really inefficient if you have to do that multiple times. Because without another draw effect to replace, it's not actually something you can do each turn. And you are giving up draw steps to get multiple uses, which is a big cost. I like Darkblast as much as the next guy, but if your list is higher powered it's going to feel like a weak card.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

What everyone said on Darkblast, but I would caution you it doesn't work in every cube. If your format is defined by 2+ toughness creatures, this will be a very clunky removal spell. The cast during upkeep - dredge - cast main is really inefficient if you have to do that multiple times. Because without another draw effect to replace, it's not actually something you can do each turn. And you are giving up draw steps to get multiple uses, which is a big cost. I like Darkblast as much as the next guy, but if your list is higher powered it's going to feel like a weak card.

According to CT, 66/360 cards in his cube have a toughness of 1, 6 of which don't usually enter the battlefield with 1 toughness (e.g. Rakdos Cackler), one can't be targeted (Lumberknot), and two will often die without help from you (Bone Shredder and Fleshbag Marauder. 12 more can grow out of range (e.g. Figure of Destiny), but would be excellent targets if you can use Darkblast on time, so I'm still counting them as eligible targets. That leaves 57 targets, almost 16%! And I haven't even counted the 2 toughness creatures, that you can also "get" with Darkblast in a pinch. So targets enough. There's also a healthy graveyard component, with stuff like Rise from the Tides, double Unburial Rites, some delve cards, Life from the Loam, etc. I think Darkblast will be a pretty snug fit here.

 

[ahadabans]

50 targets out of 150(ish) creatures. So 33% roughly. That's pretty bad for a removal spell which is where I was going with the post I made. It can in a pinch hit 2 toughness and if you have some draw/looter mechanics, you can get it to do a three mana last gasp impression but that's not going to be a normal thing. Disfigure is a fairly low powered 1 mana black removal spell that requires no setup to hit 2 toughness creatures and doesn't make the cut in many cubes. So with Darkblast being worse in most scenarios, I think you really need that dredge component to be a strong reason for it's inclusion in your cube. If that's mostly flavor text, this card isn't going to be good enough IMO.

My personal experience with Darkblast is that it can be good but can also wind up being underwhelming especially in midrange cubes with decent stat'd creatures. It's dead in more situations that you might expect, and even when you can get value you are sacrificing a lot for it. Keep in mind that 2 toughness trick requires two black mana sources on the same turn. And to make it a last gasp, you need BBB. So it's not working in those modes outside stellar fixing or a heavy black deck. What the card can theoretically do and what it will be able to do in a typical Magic game will not always jive.

Long story less long, it looks better on paper than it will play out in many lists. Go in skeptical is my advice.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Thanks keeping us grounded ahadabans, I'll test it as part of a graveyard/laboratory maniac update, and see how it plays out. Most of my lower cmc creatures are pretty small, especially the aggressive ones.