Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

Erik Twice

Erik Twice

I want a replacement for Exalted Angel to avoid having Morph.
- No First strike
- Strenght 4 or lower
- Simple design. I'm looking for something that comes across as being a bit classic.
 
inscho

inscho



I loved Sentinel in my Peasant cube back in the day. It's very powerful in lower powered environments, but is a pretty fair white control finisher.

Blinding Angel provides an unconventional asset to control decks, which you may or may not care for.

I have a soft spot for windborn muse. The most fair propaganda effect.

Less classic feeling, and more powerful:
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I always liked...



Even though I don't cube with it anymore. It was great when someone got in under their Mimic Vat that one time though :)

Nowadays I actually run one of the already suggested cards:



This is a great card for control decks really, still love it.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Highly recommend Sentinel
Angel of Sanctions is horrible though. Answered oblivion rings are really frustrating because their best creature is on the board again (instead of a random one they drew)
4 toughness just isn't the protection it needs, and it's expensive enough that you end up really down on this exchange.
 
inscho

inscho

What do people think of:



Sai, Master Thopterist didn't really make sense in my artifact archetypes, and I'm hunting for another blue card to support artifacts. I'm intrigued in its potential to further marry Show and Tell and Tinker as well as its utility in Birthing Pod/Intruder Alarm decks. It pivots into Izzet Sneak Attack's Gearhulks....it has some other fringe uses like making your Mesmeric Orb one-sided, reusing Ichor Wellspring/ Tangle Wire/Meteor Golem, sneaking out Mindslaver, making your Platinum Angel live forever....

I'm usually a little hesitant to bring in a 4cmc artifact support card as most artifact archetypes are reasonably top-heavy, but this one seems maybe worth testing.
 
shamizy

shamizy

It really depends on your removal suite and how fast your environment is. Transmuter will not be active until T5 in most scenarios, which is kind of late in many games unless you're able to drop something big ahead of the curve off of it. If you can get it out on T3 to speed it up by one, that will make a pretty big difference. Also that 1/2 body is just so flimsy that it'll die to most every piece of removal pointed at it. Transmuter is a cool card with a unique effect, but that body + CMC combination will keep it on the bench in most cubes I'd think.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Velrun said:
White 4 power creature without first strike and with a simple design that comes accross as a classic..


View attachment 2381
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mm165_queSerraSerra.jpg
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

How good is:


Could one get away with running this with a minimal amount of equipment? She seems pretty good regardless, but she isn't backbreaking without a lot of support. Seems like something a control deck could use as a bare minimum way to "gain 5" and make a dude.
 
shamizy

shamizy

TrainmasterGT said:
How good is:


Could one get away with running this with a minimal amount of equipment? She seems pretty good regardless, but she isn't backbreaking without a lot of support. Seems like something a control deck could use as a bare minimum way to "gain 5" and make a dude.
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I don't know if you want to just be making a 1/1 each turn at 5 mana. Maybe in a very low powered environment she can be average, but I'd probably just ignore her 9/10 times honestly. She's just not very threatening at all. Unless you've already got Batterskull or some sword out on the field to auto-equip the new bodies, I'm not worried at all.
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

Thanks for the suggestions. It's a bit surprising there isn't a "Exalted Angel withotu Morph" card around. I would run Dawnbringer, but having first strike makes her stupidly strong. I was mostly looking for a Lifelink flyer because I think BW control would benefit from it. It's an archetype I'm trying to build, which leads me to the following question. How good is Necropotence in cube? At a glance, it should not be overly strong



In my experience, Necropotence is not overpowering when you can't draw into 12 cards into a combo and the metagame is heavily creature-based. At a glance, it will see play in Bx Aristrocrats decks and BW Control which seems more than fair to me. Thoughts?
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Erik Twice said:
Thanks for the suggestions. It's a bit surprising there isn't a "Exalted Angel withotu Morph" card around. I would run Dawnbringer, but having first strike makes her stupidly strong. I was mostly looking for a Lifelink flyer because I think BW control would benefit from it. It's an archetype I'm trying to build, which leads me to the following question. How good is Necropotence in cube? At a glance, it should not be overly strong



In my experience, Necropotence is not overpowering when you can't draw into 12 cards into a combo and the metagame is heavily creature-based. At a glance, it will see play in Bx Aristrocrats decks and BW Control which seems more than fair to me. Thoughts?
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I like Yawgmoth's Bargain more. It costs way more to play, but is easier to splash, and has the upside of allowing you to draw cards right away. It's simpler, has less trinket text, and is just an all around more flexible piece save for it's mana cost.

 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Erik Twice said:
Thanks for the suggestions. It's a bit surprising there isn't a "Exalted Angel withotu Morph" card around. I would run Dawnbringer, but having first strike makes her stupidly strong. I was mostly looking for a Lifelink flyer because I think BW control would benefit from it. It's an archetype I'm trying to build, which leads me to the following question. How good is Necropotence in cube? At a glance, it should not be overly strong



In my experience, Necropotence is not overpowering when you can't draw into 12 cards into a combo and the metagame is heavily creature-based. At a glance, it will see play in Bx Aristrocrats decks and BW Control which seems more than fair to me. Thoughts?
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I mean there's not a ton of creatures that let you curve into XAngel the way morph lets you, but if you want a 6 mana lifelinking flier:
9211c0e1-b314-495f-9c43-9a0e95c9efb9.jpg
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara



So, I was off Pod for a while due to it being tough to draft good creature chains. Then I saw this:


Now I want to put it back in. Talk me out of it.
 
Velrun

Velrun

I love Pod in my cube.

It has two special features in my cube: You get two when you pick it from a booster pack (This is clearly visible to the players because each draft pick is two cards) and it has Alpha. A custom keyword that I use stickers to visibly represent on the card. Alpha means it can only appear in Pack 1.

I am not running Prime Speaker Vannifar but I suggest adding that too for consistency.
 
CaptnIrony

CaptnIrony

Velrun said:
I love Pod in my cube.

It has two special features in my cube: You get two when you pick it from a booster pack (This is clearly visible to the players because each draft pick is two cards) and it has Alpha. A custom keyword that I use stickers to visibly represent on the card. Alpha means it can only appear in Pack 1.

I am not running Prime Speaker Vannifar but I suggest adding that too for consistency.
Click to expand...


Do you have a cube list or a list of Alpha cards?
 
Velrun

Velrun

CaptnIrony said:
Do you have a cube list or a list of Alpha cards?
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White

(Paired with a Basic Plains)

Blue

(Paired with a Basic Island)

Black

(Paired with a Basic Swamp)

Red

(Paired with a Basic Mountain)

Green

(Paired with another Birthing Pod)

Colorless/Generic
A custom card called Pools of Becoming. It is a draft ability that says: “Draft Pools of Becoming face up” and “Whenever you draft a card from a pack with five or fewer cards from it, you may turn Pools of Becoming face down. If you do, reveal that card and add a copy of it to your draft pool.”
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Onderzeeboot said:
?
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tenor.gif

ravnic said:
I can barely count the reasons I wouldn't cube with this in a (noncomander) cube.

It's not really good but still unfun.
It doesn't offer any kind of synergy or depth.
It mentiones a totally different format I personally dislike.

Why are you even considering it?
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See above.

I agree with the sentiment that Crimson Honor Guard just kind of generally sucks. It really loses hard to something as simple as a vindicate, isn't fun, and mentions something that isn't even relevant in cube. Sure, it does a lot of damage, but at what cost?
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
ravnic said:
Why are you even considering it?
Click to expand...
I currently run Demanding Dragon, which is serviceable but a) not all that interesting, and b) can be a bit overbearing sometimes. My other five drop of choice in red is Neheb, the Eternal, which is way more exiting to me. I run two Wildfires though, so I picked those drops because hey could survive a Wildfire, but maybe I should just ignore that wish and add either Siege-Gang Commander or Goblin Dark-Dwellers back in? Those were both more exiting to me than the dragon when I ran them.

Anyway, I was looking for alternative five drops with 5 or more toughness, and came across the Honor Guard, which struck me as kind of a Sulfuric Vortex on Wildfire-proof legs.

TrainmasterGT said:
It really loses hard to something as simple as a vindicate
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This isn't usually a valid argument, since everything dies to Vindicate in my cube (well, apart from Experiment One, I guess), but I get what you mean. This would have been a lot better as an upkeep trigger, so you don't get damaged first. I imagine this way is preferable for Commander, since you can play it while you have your commander out and be safe for this turn.
 
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