Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight



Does anybody have experience with this? Looks like a very cool EtB-Support without being broken, and it also needs some work to be put in, but isn't very bad alone. It also looks a bit weird, which is why I ask you, Riptidians.

Certainly fun to play this, get every creature onboard, then blink it to toss everyone out again for massive value™?
 
I've played with it and against it in draft and I'm not very sold on it. It's an awkard card in that it needs to be a threat but lacks trample. You want to putall your ETB dudes into the bus buf ,if you do, all you have is a big fattie getting blocked.
 

UR Burning Vengeance










I just play tested this deck, and it's a ton of fun. You mill yourself a little, play a "spells matter" card then go nuts with flashbacks.



With the context of the list above, I was pretty surprised at how well flame jab performed. Being able to pick a way random 1/1 tokens or x/1 creatues is good at the 'front' side, but at the flip you can easily use flame jab as a way to turn any drawn lands into resources to keep the spell velocity all the time. It works well with burning vengeance, as well as all the "spells matter".

Flame jab kicks ass!
 
I'd like some input on



I'm trying to add a bunch of cards that fit multiple archetypes and Nest Invader is great at that. It's blinkable, it ramps, it tokens and it sacs.

I was looking at other options and the Predator and Skyspawner don't seem half bad. They have all the same synergies than the Invader and provides some redundancy.

Predator in particular since green has access to Overrun effects, Earthcraft (for double ramp off the Spawns) and Glare of Subdual for some disruption.
I'm not happy with my green 4's except for Bramble Sovereign, Nightpack Ambusher and Wicked Wolf. So no painful cuts.

The Skyspawner goes with Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Bident of Thassa and U/W blink+tempo flyers. The cuts here are a lot tougher and therefore the card isn't likely to make it in.

TL;DR: I've theorycrafted myself into including at least the Predator, but is it too low powered for a higher powered cube that still wants some synergy?
 
I'd like some input on



I'm trying to add a bunch of cards that fit multiple archetypes and Nest Invader is great at that. It's blinkable, it ramps, it tokens and it sacs.

I was looking at other options and the Predator and Skyspawner don't seem half bad. They have all the same synergies than the Invader and provides some redundancy.

Predator in particular since green has access to Overrun effects, Earthcraft (for double ramp off the Spawns) and Glare of Subdual for some disruption.
I'm not happy with my green 4's except for Bramble Sovereign, Nightpack Ambusher and Wicked Wolf. So no painful cuts.

The Skyspawner goes with Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Bident of Thassa and U/W blink+tempo flyers. The cuts here are a lot tougher and therefore the card isn't likely to make it in.

TL;DR: I've theorycrafted myself into including at least the Predator, but is it too low powered for a higher powered cube that still wants some synergy?

A cautious yes to Eldrazi Skyspawner and no to Kozilek's Predator.

Eldrazi Skyspawner is pretty good as an evasive attacker that makes creatures. Although I think it may be a little below the power level of the rest of your cards, I'd surmise that it will do fine if people are playing Nest Invader with success.

Kozilek's Predator on the other hand is way to weak for a cube with a reasonably high power level. A 3/3 for 4 that makes two 0/1 tokens when it comes into play is just not where most green decks on to be. When stuff like Bramble Sovereign is around, there just isn't a home for Kozilek's Predator other than a bad ramp deck or a blink deck short on playables. If you were running a lower-powered environment it would be fine, but it's where we want to be at your current power level.
 
I used to like how this one played in draft. Mana sink that could always mentor if you wanted to spend the mana.

How do you guys feel about it in cube?



And what if you do not have a counters theme?
 
I used to like how this one played in draft. Mana sink that could always mentor if you wanted to spend the mana.

How do you guys feel about it in cube?



And what if you do not have a counters theme?

Seems okay to me, but wouldn't be my first choice for inclusion if I'm looking for aggressive 1 drops. The firebreathing creates a weird bottleneck where you can't really utilize it early to grow other guys and punish your opponent until T3 at best which is a little slow for me. I wouldn't really think counters theme when I see this, I just see another potential aggro inclusion and way to pump up tiny guys. For pure mentoring the best card for me has been Tajic, Legion's Edge because it's at the perfect place on the curve, but that would also require you go into a gold slot. If you need a mana-sink 1 drop, I've ran this guy in the past with success:



Good mana sink, not an awful topdeck because of dash, is a human for relevant typing, and it's firebreathing cost is very reasonable. Another cool thing is that Dash interacts very favorably with certain cards that care about creature ETB like Purphoros, God of the Forge or Champion of the Parish.
 
I used to like how this one played in draft. Mana sink that could always mentor if you wanted to spend the mana.

How do you guys feel about it in cube?



And what if you do not have a counters theme?

I've almost cut this guy like 3 times since I've added him, but I haven't yet. He's a fine mana sink and a decent beater who wears Bonesplitters pretty well. I'd say he's fine if you're trying to up your density of 1-drop red creatures, but he's only getting played as an aggro card. The counters theme synergy is usually not relevant in my experience.
 
Strong answers, very well put.

Gold slots are ‘free’ in my cube since people only get cards they can play. Going to test all three cards I guess :p Will report back after next tournament for each card that saw play.
 
Now onto something weird. I am much more interested in this subject.

Has anyone experience with this?



The card text and not the card (although they go together).

What questions can you ask that will force a difficult situation?
Can you mind fuck your opponent?
Can he mind fuck you?
What other interesting things can come from this ability in your experience? Brainstorm with me.

I want to use the card text on a custom card so I don’t really care about the casting cost/playability otherwise :p
 
I don't have experience with it, per se. However, as a fan of both Cosmic Encounter and Dune, which is where the effect comes from, I can tell you a bit about it.

This is a fun, surprisingly powerful ability that makes for amazing games, cool plays and laughter. It also takes significant skill to use, as it's surprisingly easy to end up in the terrible "Look at your opponent's hand" scenario. However, it's also open-ended and can't be contained by any reasonable ruleset. There are an infinite number of ways to phrase the question in such a way that you can pretty much force the opponent to do what you want. For example, you can use conditionals like "If the answer to this question is no, will you..." to create some fairy ugly scenarios.

But look, you are playing casually and you can just agree not to use paradoxes, complex questions (as in, it's one question, not 4 nested ones) and other obvious bullshit. It's extremely unlikely you end up in a situation in which you "break the game" if you don't try very hard to abuse the mechanic. We have never had a problem playing with this effect in Cosmic and Dune, it just doesn't come up if you don't try to. Most bullshit isn't even good anyways, and you are better off asking the opponent if he'll play a certain card type. Wizards has also been smart enough to make it last only until the end of turn, which prevents 90% of the bullshit from happening. So great effect, fun mechanic, just be wary that it's intentionally open-ended in ways that can't be contained within a ruleset.

PD: Play Cosmic and Dune, they are amazing games.
 
First of all: I also love Flame Jab! It's very strong in Spells Matter and Lands.dec, and also is a nice weapon vs some fragile engine pieces like Young Pyromancer.

@ Mentor: Tajic and Sunhome Stalwart are the ones I recently added to my list (but didn't test yet), while I also thought about the Banneret to add. As my environment is a bit slower, I think it can shine right there, but so far I'm not able to tell.
 
I don't have experience with it, per se. However, as a fan of both Cosmic Encounter and Dune, which is where the effect comes from, I can tell you a bit about it.

This is a fun, surprisingly powerful ability that makes for amazing games, cool plays and laughter. It also takes significant skill to use, as it's surprisingly easy to end up in the terrible "Look at your opponent's hand" scenario. However, it's also open-ended and can't be contained by any reasonable ruleset. There are an infinite number of ways to phrase the question in such a way that you can pretty much force the opponent to do what you want. For example, you can use conditionals like "If the answer to this question is no, will you..." to create some fairy ugly scenarios.

But look, you are playing casually and you can just agree not to use paradoxes, complex questions (as in, it's one question, not 4 nested ones) and other obvious bullshit. It's extremely unlikely you end up in a situation in which you "break the game" if you don't try very hard to abuse the mechanic. We have never had a problem playing with this effect in Cosmic and Dune, it just doesn't come up if you don't try to. Most bullshit isn't even good anyways, and you are better off asking the opponent if he'll play a certain card type. Wizards has also been smart enough to make it last only until the end of turn, which prevents 90% of the bullshit from happening. So great effect, fun mechanic, just be wary that it's intentionally open-ended in ways that can't be contained within a ruleset.

PD: Play Cosmic and Dune, they are amazing games.


Sort of like “If the answer to this question is yes, do you concede then?” ?

I can think of the following
Q1: “Are you going to block this turn?”
If the answer is no, you go ahead and attack with whatever you want. If the answer is yes, then you attack with your biggest dude to force a chump block.
Q2: “Are you going to counter my next spell?”
If the answer is no, you play your big spell. If the answer is yes, you either cast your small spell or cast no spells at all.

Can you link to a Dune or Cosmis situation/card that is using this mechanic? Or something similiar?
 
Yeah, stuff like that. The most obvious way is to use the effect twice and force an answer by asking "Will the answer to your next question be yes?". Which everyone can agree is trying to game it. In fact, it's how a similar card ended up being banned and in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. Note that this is not possible with Frankie Peanuts because his effect ends at the end of the turn and you cannot have two copies in play.

He also has the "if able" clause, which keeps potential problems at bay.

Still, the two examples you mention are very much how the mechanic works in practice. It's a lot of fun. The "baseline" use of Seeker, who is the alien with that power in Cosmic Encounter is similar.

Q1: Will you play an attack card of value 10 or higher this battle?
If no, you safely play your attack card to win. If yes, you can play a negotiate and punish them for winning by stealing cards from their hand.

Q2: Will you use your power in this encounter?
Useful against many "will he or won't he" powers, like one that exchanges the card you play with the one played by your opponent.

Q3: Do you have X card in your hand?
Very useful, though information in CE is more valuable than in Magic.

In Dune information is extremely valuable so the most common question is stuff like:

Q1: Is this guy one of your traitors?
Q2: Will you play a Shield in this battle?
Q3: Is your Bene Gesserit prediction that me or one of my allies will win on this turn?

Remember that not all "yes or no" questions have an answer. "Will you play your best card?", "Will you draw a land?" or "Will you screw me over"? would fizzle.

It's a lovely power, it just doesn't work in competitive play. So perfect for cube, in that sense. Now I'm tempted to run it too!
 
if it'll fit, maybe "a yes or no question relating to the game" just to cut off someone insisting they should be able to ask personal questions
I should be able to shoot you with a gun, because you were the bad guy in Counter-Strike.

Just don't play with those people, c'mon ;)
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I should be able to shoot you with a gun, because you were the bad guy in Counter-Strike.

Just don't play with those people, c'mon ;)

How about "innocent" questions like "are you gay?" It only takes one badly timed "it was meant as a joke" question to create awkward situations. Imagine that you are, but you weren't ready to come out yet. If you answer "no" you're lying, which is uncomfortable. We already established that you didn't want to answer "yes". That leaves "I won't answer that question" as the only course left, which, depending on the delivery might end up being a worse "yes". I can already envision the "Ha! I knew it!"-s. I mean, "just don't play with those people" is an easy thing to say, but Velrun is organizing tournaments in his local shop if I'm not mistaken, so you never know what might walk in or in what mood a player might be. If it fits, it's such an easy line to add, and if it even theoretically prevents one embarrassing situation like this it's worth it imho.
 
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