Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

[Onderzeeboot]

A great Mental Magic tool under a certain rule set if you want to do the Solfatara-Turf Wound chain with Squee but have run out of better cards

So... the casting cost has to be exactly the same in mental magic, right? So if you draw an Arrows of Justice, a Duergar Hedge-Mage, a Duergar Mine-Captain, a Hobgoblin Dragoon (as an aside, man, was Eventide the first D&D set or what?!), or a Scourge of the Nobilis, and you decide that stopping your opponent from casting a creature spell the next turn is the best move, more power to you! You can't cast Moonhold off of Squee, Goblin Nabob though, in mental Magic

 

[Rusje]

Aww, no love for RW "NO, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PLAY LANDS!!!1!", starring Pardic Miner and Dauntless Avenger?

Actually, I like it! Add the great polarizer:


This is not sarcasm. I think a bit of landdustruction once in a while is healthy. Especially if it is viable in your cube to have a deck that relies on many lands in play.

Or use it to negate .
Or add to negate the guide

 

[sigh]

Braids has always worked out great as a creature version of the 'stack. The less interactable permanent type combined with the ability to scale up has always turned me off from Smokestack.

 

[ravnic]

I'm more of a Starfield of Nyx + Worms of the Earth kinda guy

Man, the Dark had some awesome creepy art. Honestly, this is giving me the chills more than anything from any Innistrad set.

 

[Chris Taylor]

What happened to this thread today

 

[TrainmasterGT]

What happened to this thread today

Someone let Johnny out of his cage

 

[Dom Harvey]

How are these as flagship cards for UW Control in a Cube that otherwise doesn't have many planeswalkers?

 

[shamizy]

How are these as flagship cards for UW Control in a Cube that otherwise doesn't have many planeswalkers?

I'm a fan of Teferi as a U/W signpost card, not as big a fan of Elspeth due to how drastically she shifts a game on her own. I've had board states where deploying a Teferi on its own would have been bad but you run into way fewer of those with Big Elspeth. Unless the other side has an answer ready, Elspeth just shuts the game down but isn't actually quick at closing it out even though it was over 2 turns ago.

 

[Velrun]

Teferi yes
Elspeth, probably no

Elspeth works as a mega finisher but it doesn’t signal Azorius. Any white deck would want to pick it up because it’s so good unless you are a hyper fast white weenie deck.

 

[Sheltem]

What is our take on this?

 

[sigh]

quite slow. neat for recasting/re-ETB synergies I suppose but there are better options for that.

 

[Rusje]

What is our take on this?

You mean ?
It works great with your own etb, but also the opponents ones....
Furthermore, if most of your cards are cheap or grim monolith then it is a great card. However, it is only for slow cubes. It works well with stack synergies like
I think those strategies are great, but many do not share my sadomachochistic tendencies with respect to card games.

 

[Sheltem]

You mean ?
It works great with your own etb, but also the opponents ones....
Furthermore, if most of your cards are cheap or grim monolith[/ci] then it is a great card. However, it is only for slow cubes.

Funny! I didn’t realize that both of them are the same card!

 

[Rusje]

Funny! I didn’t realize that both of them are the same card!

Yeah, I am surprised they gave it a new name. Almost like they want you to build a cube with it...

 

[Nanonox]

How are these as flagship cards for UW Control in a Cube that otherwise doesn't have many planeswalkers

I’ll echo what others have said on Teferi, great signpost card.

I’ll push in favor of Elspeth though. Aggressive decks are becoming faster and more resilient (or at least can be if you want them to), so I am okay giving control powerful tools to fight back. Especially in White which is notorious for not having good 6+ mana value cards, I really like Elspeth as a control signpost and pull to the archetype.
Being mono White also opens the door to Boros and Orzhov control too.

All that being said, if your cube has so much ramp that you can cheat her out reliably, I’d avoid her. On turn 6 sure. Turn 4? Too much!

 

[sigh]

I don't personally think that white needs an overtly powerful control wincon of it's own. It can team up with other colors for that. And that said you can bring in fun minigame wincons via approach of the second sun etc.

The token spam from Elspeth is just not worth it IMO.

Teferi's cool though.

 

[MilesOfficial]

I’ll echo what others have said on Teferi, great signpost card.

I’ll push in favor of Elspeth though. Aggressive decks are becoming faster and more resilient (or at least can be if you want them to), so I am okay giving control powerful tools to fight back. Especially in White which is notorious for not having good 6+ mana value cards, I really like Elspeth as a control signpost and pull to the archetype.
Being mono White also opens the door to Boros and Orzhov control too.

All that being said, if your cube has so much ramp that you can cheat her out reliably, I’d avoid her. On turn 6 sure. Turn 4? Too much!

Agreed on all fronts. I wouldn't put Elspeth in a cube with a lot of artifact ramp in particular (Signets and Talismans included) unless it was a vintage-level cube, but she's beatable otherwise -- there are many more Dauthi Voidwalker and Selfless Spirit type cards that can get around her soldiers than there used to be to get in that last bit of damage if you're on the aggressive gameplay that still can avoid her pseudo-wrath effect, but they do stabilize enough boards that it's certainly worth playing for a control deck all the same.

More and more the last few years, my white cards have leaned more aggressive, so I'm happy to have at least a token (haha) nod to more controlling decks still in the list.

 

[Velrun]

Yeah, I am surprised they gave it a new name. Almost like they want you to build a cube with it...

When it comes to cards with identical card text, have you guys ever seen these two? I mean talk about a strange combination of abilities and costs and Wizards made two!

 

[Nanonox]

I don't personally think that white needs an overtly powerful control wincon of it's own.

If you support a White control deck, I think the color gains a ton from having one available. As I alluded to in my earlier post, having the tools to build non-Blue control decks leads to more diverse decks in your format which I value.
White control decks already need to go find card advantage in other colors, so having the option to have the other pieces present in the White directly means less need to add control win cons in colors that might not need one.

Now does it have to be Elspeth? No, but it works for high powered cubes (which I assumed since we are mentioning Teferi too). I love Approach and think it is a great win con at slightly lower power level.

 

[ravnic]

Damn, I searched so many times for vards with ci=wu or ci=w and fo:u even, but I never ever noticed that.

 

[blacksmithy]

elspeth is such an EDH/multiplayer card, i love her but she’s so grindy and slow

 

[Velrun]

She puts three creatures onto the battlefield each turn. Doesn’t that win fast enough?

 

[Rusje]

When it comes to cards with identical card text, have you guys ever seen these two? I mean talk about a strange combination of abilities and costs and Wizards made two!

Yeah I knew these two. Unlike the llanowar elves variant you most likely never want more than a few of these weird ones in your deck. For Umbilicus and the elves I can understand the desire to have more than 4 copies in your deck.

 

[blacksmithy]

She puts three creatures onto the battlefield each turn. Doesn’t that win fast enough?

not really. they’re 1/1s, you generally gotta block with 1-2 of them to keep her alive, and even after she emblems it can take a couple turns to swing for lethal

 

[Velrun]

That’s not my experience. Usually she either dies quickly to removal or she takes over the game in two turns. People usually concede if they see you with 6 soldier tokens the turn after you cast her.

Maybe this is one of those things where different cubes yield different results.