Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I ran it for a long while, and at my power level it certainly was. Great card. I switched it out because I needed more instants and sorceries in blue at the time. It's looking like that theme will disappear from my new cube (no more Rise from the Tides, the sacrifices you make, am I right? :oops:), so I might just put it back in. I really like Lay Claim!
 
This card has broken pauper (in a good-ish way).
It has allowed 3 colour decks to actually stand a chance in the format now.
I am quite a big fan of the astrolabe, and I believe that wizards wouldn't be able to print this at {1} as it is just too efficient at fixing when it replaces itself.

If you allow snow-basics from your land box, wouldn't this just cost {1} most of the time anyway?
I don't know why you would need to errata it. Plus it is another card that works well with one of my favourite white creatures:


Also, if anyone hasn't seen Dom's post on introducing Snow Artifact aggro into your cube, you should, as it is a great read and makes you want to pick up some snow-lands next time you get the chance to give it a spin.

EDIT:
Heck, people run Chromatic Sphere/Chromatic Star in their lists as decent one-shot fixing. This would be the same as those but sticks around. That is obscenely efficient fixing.

Yeah I could just say "all basics are snow if you want" and be done with it, but should there be a cost to being able to play with this card? In MH draft you have to spend picks on snow lands to be able to cast the undercosted stuff, but I would just be giving it away for free. I don't really want to have to put snow basics in, especially as Astrolabe is currently the only snow card I want to run. Eh, I might just test it and see how it goes.

I was playing with it in pauper all weekend at GP Birmingham last week, that's what got me thinking about it in cube.
 
to be totally boring and normal i think the effect should cost 5-5.5 mana, and the thing that intrigues me about Dream Leash is that it has an any-permanent clause and is therefore splash damage against walker proliferation. i would rather cube Leash and would rather draft Mind Control/Persuasion so I think setting up some kind of situation where you have to let them get a swing in before you can steal the fatty / a Pod / Mystic Forge / etc activation, or play tappers, and be foiled by vigilance in exactly the way The Deck best abused Serra Angel, is interesting. there's probably no safe <6 mana cost you can put on a control magic imo, it's always going to be a backbreaking effect
 
to be totally boring and normal i think the effect should cost 5-5.5 mana, and the thing that intrigues me about Dream Leash is that it has an any-permanent clause and is therefore splash damage against walker proliferation. i would rather cube Leash and would rather draft Mind Control/Persuasion so I think setting up some kind of situation where you have to let them get a swing in before you can steal the fatty / a Pod / Mystic Forge / etc activation, or play tappers, and be foiled by vigilance in exactly the way The Deck best abused Serra Angel, is interesting. there's probably no safe <6 mana cost you can put on a control magic imo, it's always going to be a backbreaking effect

That's ultimately the problem with control magic effects. 4-5 mana is too cheap of a cost to steal something, 6+ mana is usually too late in the game to be really impactful. There's no good middle ground cost wise...

...hence why I Lay Claim. The cycling fixes the issue of having a dead card in hand for most of the game. When it's drawn late, you get a Control Magic, otherwise, you get a new card.
 
I agree with Onderz. I cut vortex from my cube because I didn't think aggro needed the extra boost. It is a card that I might bring back in the future, though.
 
That's ultimately the problem with control magic effects. 4-5 mana is too cheap of a cost to steal something, 6+ mana is usually too late in the game to be really impactful. There's no good middle ground cost wise...

...hence why I Lay Claim. The cycling fixes the issue of having a dead card in hand for most of the game. When it's drawn late, you get a Control Magic, otherwise, you get a new card.

You want scaling Control Magic effects?

 
I dislike Vortex because it punishes slower decks and leads to these situations where you'll lose simply because you cannot deal with it.

However, that's also part of the appeal. If you want to force decks to put bodies on the ground and win, it's a way of doing it.
 


Is there any reason to run this?

I do not have a life gain theme in my cube.

Not a fan of Vortex at all. If your aggro section really needs that big of a boost, I'd look into reforming the archetype as a whole and really see what isn't working. I just don't think this card is a good solution to any problem being so narrow and powerful in only one particular deck (Mono-red Aggro).
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I will say that it did lead to one of the funniest moments in any of my cube drafts (I did run the card in my first cube), where one of my players yelled "I hate Sulfuric Vortex, it's so dumb, please cut it from your cube!", as he was facing one of those mono red aggro decks, then yelled "I changed my mind, I love Sulfuric Vortex!" in the next game, when said mono red player died to their own Vortex :D
 
I will say that it did lead to one of the funniest moments in any of my cube drafts (I did run the card in my first cube), where one of my players yelled "I hate Sulfuric Vortex, it's so dumb, please cut it from your cube!", as he was facing one of those mono red aggro decks, then yelled "I changed my mind, I love Sulfuric Vortex!" in the next game, when said mono red player died to their own Vortex :D

So you’re telling me to put in



Gotcha!
 
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