I think field of the dead is BROKEN. It has a very small opportunity cost and an insane payoff. It goes in any slow deck with good mana and essentially lets them totally invalidate most other late game grind options by giving you a lot of free tempo and resources. I think it scales to the power level of the format somewhat insofaras more fixing and especially fetch lands make the card much stronger but this card wasn’t banned from Standard, Historic, Pioneer and Modern just because it interacts well with scapeshift or primeval titan, you just freeroll it in late game decks and get crazy advantages for no real cost. It also has really polarizing play patterns where in slow mirrors the player with field is an overwhelming favorite and being a land, it’s often quite hard to interact with, especially in lower power formats that aren’t running mana screw lands.
Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Dom Harvey
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Dom Harvey
Contributor
Field generally plays better than it looks. That said, it's much weaker in a Limited format where (unless you have a very very high density of flexible fixing) you're going to have a lot of basics with the same name
How well has this fellow aged into 2021? Is it worth 5 mana and a bit of setup in a high powered fair environment?
I don't think so, you could do much better even when it was released, card is super mid.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I tested it way back when, and it's just so, so much worse than Tragic Arrogance, it's not even funny. The card never removes the things you need to remove on your opponent's side of the board.
How well has this fellow aged into 2021? Is it worth 5 mana and a bit of setup in a high powered fair environment?
Need a gut check on this card. I love it...it can do all kinds of crazy stuff in my cube, and is very skill testing and interesting. In an environment that is optimized to take advantage of discard is it too good? Or does the “additional cost“ criteria and the restriction of targeting X creatures/players make it reasonable?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I have no reference frame for this card. It's always card disadvantage, since you need discard at least 1 card to do something, and my gut feeling would be that you're too often discarding cards that are more valuable than the stuff you're killing, because the higher X gets, the more unlikely it is that you've got good targets for the full X, and the more likely it is you are throwing away relevant cards. That said, it's always one mana, so if you've got synergy in your environment, like Arrogant Wurm or Roar of the Wurm for example, suddenly you are incentivized to discard stuff, and the evaluation completely changes. Very hard to predict how often that is going to be relevant, and how often this is going to be stranded in your hand.
It does enable hellbent (if that was ever a thing) and just asks for life from the loam. Can also be pretty insane with picking up lands late game for the finishing blow (out). Idk it is definitely an interesting car but super dangerous (for either player). It can certainly shine in the right (insane) environment.
Also: It. Hits. Players.
Also: It. Hits. Players.
I'm leaning toward it being busted. The main reason being it is a one mana instant, it allows you to nuke the board and follow it up with a wheel of fortune, memory jar, or echo of eons.
There's a lot of unique sequences like discard your hand to wipe the board, binning your world shaper that is in play getting back all of the lands you discarded.
It's crazy with Rielle, the Everwise.
Glint-Horn Buccaneer and Archfiend of Ifnir stack onto the effect by going harder to the dome or killing more creatures more easily.
Discard several cards to fuel a follow up Treasure Cruise or flashbacked Deep Analysis.
I hope it's not too good, because the possibilities are enticing!
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Dom Harvey
Contributor
Firestorm is an incredibly powerful card that you need to work hard to get the most from. I love it but wouldn't recommend it for every Cube without context
I was hoping you would chime in!...I know you’ve almost always had it in your list. What do you think about it in my cube specifically?
Firestorm is a strong card, but it's also fairly demanding. As a design, it's fun, challenging and very skill-testing.
1) You need to discard a rather large number of cards to work. For example, to destroy two small creatures you need to play it and then discard two other cards, so it's mana disadvantage. In order to destroy a 3/3 or 3 creatures you lose a total of 4 cards. That's a very high cost! "Discard four cards, destroy three target creatures" isn't as broken as it looks!
2) You need to choose different targets, you can't discard 4 cards and target your opponent 4 times. Targetting yourself with it is not ouot of the question but if your opponent has a 4/4, you are going to have a hard time.
3) Firestorm is best when paired with Life from the Loam, Land Tax or in Pox-like decks.
4) While it's good with Wheel of Fortune, you are still discarding cards you could have used instead. It's also good with Rielle but, again, you could have used the spells in your hand. You also have to remember this is Limited and you don't have infinite recursion or a huge deck to run through. Reallistically speaking, if you have paid 5 mana for Memory Jar, saving a bit on your Wrath isn't game-breaking.
I would recommend to give it a try. It has been great fun in my cube and quite challenging to use. It enables some fun archetypes like Boros Land Tax control, Rakdos Pox and Gruul Control.
1) You need to discard a rather large number of cards to work. For example, to destroy two small creatures you need to play it and then discard two other cards, so it's mana disadvantage. In order to destroy a 3/3 or 3 creatures you lose a total of 4 cards. That's a very high cost! "Discard four cards, destroy three target creatures" isn't as broken as it looks!
2) You need to choose different targets, you can't discard 4 cards and target your opponent 4 times. Targetting yourself with it is not ouot of the question but if your opponent has a 4/4, you are going to have a hard time.
3) Firestorm is best when paired with Life from the Loam, Land Tax or in Pox-like decks.
4) While it's good with Wheel of Fortune, you are still discarding cards you could have used instead. It's also good with Rielle but, again, you could have used the spells in your hand. You also have to remember this is Limited and you don't have infinite recursion or a huge deck to run through. Reallistically speaking, if you have paid 5 mana for Memory Jar, saving a bit on your Wrath isn't game-breaking.
I would recommend to give it a try. It has been great fun in my cube and quite challenging to use. It enables some fun archetypes like Boros Land Tax control, Rakdos Pox and Gruul Control.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
It's mostly just much larger than it probably should be, swingy as hell, and hard to deal with.
too swingy and uninteractive for a low power cube, too costly and clunky for a high power cube
In my experience, it has an atrocious failure rate. If you draw lands or creatures for two turns or it gets killed then it's pretty terrible. On the other hand, you can get lucky, hit a cheap kill spell and get a recurring, bigger flying Nektrataal which is hard to beat.
I would look into other cards instead.
I would look into other cards instead.
if you are looking for a blue 4 drop i have been very happy at high power with curator of mysteries and i suspect it scales downward VERY well as the value is the modality.
Curator is great but sigh already runs it
If it helps, I love Kefnet. Worth a test imo
