Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Dom Harvey
- Start date
Goblin Engineer is ok, but I would rather run two copies of Goblin Welder than a single copy of it.
Hi I'm gonna talk about Chivalric Alliance and how chill it is.
As someone who loves to violate the sanctity of the color pie and spread themes across colors I'm always on the look-out for white discard outlets. Unfortunately, the pickings are pretty damn slim, and the strongest options on power level are probably Seasoned Hallowblade and Seasoned Hallowblade Again. I don't particularly love the play patterns on Seasoned Hallowblade. I always put it in cubes because I'm like "hee hoo white discard outlet
" and then I play one game with it and everyone feels bad about it and I take it out of the cube. This has happened like three times.
Chivalric Alliance came out in MOM commander and I haven't seen many people talking about it yet. It's a white card advantage engine for creature decks that also makes bodies out of your lands and situational cards in the late game. And its a discard outlet so I can go "no see its a synergy piece" as I discard 3 Plains to it on turn 6. It probably doesn't get there in cubes where the pace is high enough that creature decks can't afford to play a 2-drop enchantment, but in a a more midrangey cube this thing just churns out value. The vigilance is particularly disgusting like the card would have been good without it but sure.
As someone who loves to violate the sanctity of the color pie and spread themes across colors I'm always on the look-out for white discard outlets. Unfortunately, the pickings are pretty damn slim, and the strongest options on power level are probably Seasoned Hallowblade and Seasoned Hallowblade Again. I don't particularly love the play patterns on Seasoned Hallowblade. I always put it in cubes because I'm like "hee hoo white discard outlet
" and then I play one game with it and everyone feels bad about it and I take it out of the cube. This has happened like three times.Chivalric Alliance came out in MOM commander and I haven't seen many people talking about it yet. It's a white card advantage engine for creature decks that also makes bodies out of your lands and situational cards in the late game. And its a discard outlet so I can go "no see its a synergy piece" as I discard 3 Plains to it on turn 6. It probably doesn't get there in cubes where the pace is high enough that creature decks can't afford to play a 2-drop enchantment, but in a a more midrangey cube this thing just churns out value. The vigilance is particularly disgusting like the card would have been good without it but sure.
Chivalric Alliance gives me Pack Rat vibes... and I'd honestly say that the decks that want it most are going to be control decks (where it's honestly a pretty legit finisher) rather than straight creature decks. Sure, they probably aren't going to be terribly interested in Military Intelligence, but they sure as heck will be into "all of your cards double as 2/2 for Hussar Patrols"
Hussar Patrols"I'll be honest I'm a total sicko I love Pack Rat.
You're probably right about it being a good control finisher! I've mostly been playing this card in jumpstart cube so far but I do want to start testing it in more drafted environments soon.
You're probably right about it being a good control finisher! I've mostly been playing this card in jumpstart cube so far but I do want to start testing it in more drafted environments soon.
chivalric alliance is nothing like pack rat. the problem with pack rat is that getting them to zero pack rats is the only way to turn off the possibility of making more rats. chivalric alliance does not put the other player in nearly the bind a Pack Rat does and honestly post-MH2, these days, I find the Rat to be a pretty middling card. not the beast it was in RTR-THS standard black devotion.dec by any means.
Yeah I haven't been terribly impressed with Pack Rat in high power cubes lately. 2 mana for a 1/1 is not great and 5 mana and a discard for 2 2/2s doesn't always feel great either. Obviously the card runs away with games if it's unchecked but it's pretty slow compared to the value generated by a lot of creatures these days. In that context, I think the decision between pitching your cards to Pack Rat and just playing them out becomes a legitimate one with some actual texture. I also enjoy the cat-and-mouse game of figuring out the best time to cast it and get your value off it.
Would never put it in a low power cube again though it is incredibly dumb if removal isn't efficient and plentiful. But in a world of Laelias and Tireless Trackers I don't think the card is that egregious.
Would never put it in a low power cube again though it is incredibly dumb if removal isn't efficient and plentiful. But in a world of Laelias and Tireless Trackers I don't think the card is that egregious.
Chivalric Alliance has nothing in common with Pack Rat, IMO.
I was on the Chivalric Alliance train from day 1 of seeing the card and I'm very happy with it, though I imagine it'll remain a somewhat late pick for some time. It's something of a trap for my more novice players, but there's a lot to like about the cards for multiple archetypes.
Pack Rat was removed from my cube for power-level reasons for years, but my eldest was born around the time the Year of the Rat SL came out and he's part Chinese so I thought it'd be cute to represent him in the cube with that version of Pack Rat, and it hasn't caused any issues since. It doesn't feel oppressive any longer, and even though the play patterns it provides aren't always ideal, it has some compelling interactions too.
I was on the Chivalric Alliance train from day 1 of seeing the card and I'm very happy with it, though I imagine it'll remain a somewhat late pick for some time. It's something of a trap for my more novice players, but there's a lot to like about the cards for multiple archetypes.
Pack Rat was removed from my cube for power-level reasons for years, but my eldest was born around the time the Year of the Rat SL came out and he's part Chinese so I thought it'd be cute to represent him in the cube with that version of Pack Rat, and it hasn't caused any issues since. It doesn't feel oppressive any longer, and even though the play patterns it provides aren't always ideal, it has some compelling interactions too.
I disagree, I think it just means high-power Cubes have matured to the point where there's enough interaction to deal with a two-mana 1/1."I'm not impressed with Pack Rat in high-power cubes lately" sounds to me like a good argument against playing high power cubes.
It took a decade and a half, but people are finally learning how to design a good Cube with good cards instead of just throwing a bunch of constructed staples and limited bombs in a box and hoping it works.
A lot of it is fueled by the cards printed in those 15 years. There's much more complexity, nuance, and variety available at higher power levels than ever before. It allows for substantially more refined levels of curation and theory. In the past, you had to dip down to lower power levels, break singleton, or use customs to have that degree of selectivity.
That is 100% true. The wider card pool has made constructing a Cube with a tight power band easier at every power level.
I do think that people’s willingness to actually play more cheap cards beyond just the best 2 or 3 options per color has increased in recent years, though. For example, Ulcerate’s popularity is on the rise even though it wasn’t met with much fanfare when it was released. 1 mana to kill most early game threats is really good and more people are realizing that as time goes on.
Realized that Ulcerate was good recently. I had a buddy go "What the hell is this?" I think it's a really good thing for sure.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I'd say only cube. Maybe duel commander, I know very little about that format, but modern/legacy have more powerful options available, less color restriction, and some matchups flat do not involve creatures.
Expanding on this a bit, in Modern and Legacy, you get to play four copies of Fatal Push. As a result, you don't really need Ulcerate on top of that because push in conjunction with a fetchland mana base can basically kill everything you'd want with your one-mana removal spell. In Cube, even if you're non-singleton, there's still a benefit to diversifying your one-mana removal. Fatal Push can't kill a lot of important three-drops like Goblin Rabblemaster or Tireless Tracker unless revolt has been triggered. That's not a problem in Constructed, but in Cube you might not have the density of self-sacrificing to make it work. As a result, having Ulcerate around to deal with these threats can be hugely beneficial. You could also add Cut Down to the mix. It can kill many of the same things as Ulcerate, but it misses 3/3s and the like.
Hell yeah, I love this card. It's hard to find interesting discard in White, and it's also hard to find value-engine enchantments that cost less than 4 mana. I want to play my do-nothing cards early!
Played with and against this in a LOTR paper draft the other day. I knew it was gonna be good in retail but it really overperformed for me and created a fun subgame. I am not sure it cuts it as-is in my own cube but would highly recommend this as a control engine/finisher. Definitely domed someone who didnt want to give me draws for 11 in one shot once.
I have seen way too many examples of people jamming this card in legacy, so it probably has some promise. Skeptical of how much staying power it has though. Being colorless makes it quite useful in a draft environment.
Played with and against this in a LOTR paper draft the other day. I knew it was gonna be good in retail but it really overperformed for me and created a fun subgame. I am not sure it cuts it as-is in my own cube but would highly recommend this as a control engine/finisher. Definitely domed someone who didnt want to give me draws for 11 in one shot once.
It's a neat subgame ala Mesmeric Orb. Being able to play it early and get multiple triggers over a game makes it way more attractive than the one-shot from Combustible Gearhulk which always felt very boom or bust. Being able to play this in something like a U/B Reanimator shell where you can scry away redundant reanimation effects and pitch fatties to the grave makes it super attractive as an inclusion if you've got the space.
Honestly, the best comparison I've found is to Coercive Portal. It feels like what Coercive Portal wanted to be: a little subgame between players where you angle for a card draw each turn. Whereas Portal is so obvious that you basically draw a card each turn, Palantir is much more interesting IMO in that there is a lot less information.
General play pattern: you mill 1-3 times depending on the hits and how aggressive the players are with their life total. Eventually, you may get to a point where the player has scried all the lands to the bottom and you mill them for like 11 but take 4 damage (speaking from personal experience, got decked like that).
Overall, as a cube designer I really love Palantir. It's cheap, interesting choices, a surpringly deep learning curve, and has lots of synergies/crossover with different archetypes.
General play pattern: you mill 1-3 times depending on the hits and how aggressive the players are with their life total. Eventually, you may get to a point where the player has scried all the lands to the bottom and you mill them for like 11 but take 4 damage (speaking from personal experience, got decked like that).
Overall, as a cube designer I really love Palantir. It's cheap, interesting choices, a surpringly deep learning curve, and has lots of synergies/crossover with different archetypes.
Yeah the design is awesome! The scrying changes depending on how many counters it has on and how low opponent is. Really interesting design.
But it doesn’t go into a low or medium power cube. It’s the bombest of bombs. This card is for @blacksmithy and eternal formats.
But it doesn’t go into a low or medium power cube. It’s the bombest of bombs. This card is for @blacksmithy and eternal formats.
I think you could probably play it in a medium power Cube depending on what that means to you. The card is good but it’s not so far away from something like Phyrexian Arena as to be completely broken.
It’s a cool design so if a designer finds it fun I think there’s a fair bit of leeway for inclusion.