Oh, and re: Throne of the God-Pharaoh: I run Ankh of Mishra in that slot. It's more of a burn spell that's as strong as your opponent's top end cards are expensive. I haven't tested Throne of the God-Pharaoh but it doesn't seem to solve any of the problems with aggro. If you're attacking unprofitably, you will still be attacking unprofitably. If your opponent wraths, you are still out of threats. It looks like a bad anthem to me (which are not the strongest cards already) - but this is all theorycrafting, so correct me if you've seen it work well in practice.
Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Dom Harvey
- Start date
Winter Orb is a card I happen to think is pretty well designed - denial strategies are sort of unfun but they add an interesting dimension to Magic too. I feel like a lot of cubes aren't doing enough with that mechanic. Winter Orb is a bit of a sledgehammer for that strategy though, but it inspires lots of strange deck ideas in my experience. People see it and they get inspired to try and break it. I'm super happy we got a reprinting with modern wording and mechanics so I don't have to explain what a continuous artifact is anymore.
That said, I don't feel like it should be run in pretty much any lower powered cube. It's too oppressive. And even in high powered ones, I think you really need a lot of ways to break the mana system (so fast mana or ways to generate burst mana) and/or you need a critical mass of cheap disenchant effects.
That said, I don't feel like it should be run in pretty much any lower powered cube. It's too oppressive. And even in high powered ones, I think you really need a lot of ways to break the mana system (so fast mana or ways to generate burst mana) and/or you need a critical mass of cheap disenchant effects.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
If you want "fair" resource denial, the card you're looking for is
Throne is just an anthem, but that's ok. It's a playable anthem for any color of aggro deck, with an archetypal focus on tokens and going wide. We weren't looking to "solve problems" anyways, we were "aiding" aggro. This isn't some critical hole being filled, it's just a card that helps aggro play it's own game.
Ankh is another good option for sure.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I've been thinking about that too, but more from the perspective of smallpox. With value discard already prevelent in Grixis, the self discard from it is already quite good. It makes me wonder if there isn't an avenue to focus on taking symmetrical resource taxing effects, and breaking symmetry with value plays. I've already been experimenting with that a little bit on the lands angle with cards like loam or sudden reclamation.
The original smallpox decks were about value generation, with cards like firemane angel or flagstones of trokair, and not about actively locking an opponent out of interaction.
This would seem pretty terrible in a bounce land environment.
Memnarch seems fine James. Not much fun for the opponent, but a fine win condition that should be deal able with with the right tools.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Smallpox specifically? I could see that, as it opens up a play sequence that just rngs the opponent out of the game turn 2.
Edict style LD effects though are fine in general. You can always aim them away from the bounce, and decks with those types of mana bases naturally break symmetry on cards like wildfire.
Edict style LD effects though are fine in general. You can always aim them away from the bounce, and decks with those types of mana bases naturally break symmetry on cards like wildfire.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Lay Claim is in my cube and sees play. Stealing a permanent is pretty devastating when it works, and the cycling makes this card flexible. Lovely card.
So my local store held a 'dino-sized' Ixalan draft (4 packs instead of 3) and 1st place won a FTV: Transform. I was literally the only person drafting merfolk in a 10 person pod, so I am now the proud owner of a bunch of weird shiny doublefaced cards. I have experience with most of the cards in here, but I'd like people's opinions on a few of them:
I'm most interested in the first two, since I haven't played with them. The question about Avacyn is whether she is at all a reasonable Magic card or if she's just as stupidly broken as she looks.
I'm most interested in the first two, since I haven't played with them. The question about Avacyn is whether she is at all a reasonable Magic card or if she's just as stupidly broken as she looks.
Archangel Avacyn just feels like a bad custom to me. They tried so hard to make it fit the flavor of the set (which I didn't think was any good so I may be biased here) and it just feels like a bad fan creation to me. It doesn't really feel fun to play and it's boring to play against.
Love Bloodline Keeper, but I'm not sure how I feel about Arguel's Blood Fast. I haven't played it yet, but I can't imagine wanting to flip it very often, which makes me feel a little skeptical about it.
Love Bloodline Keeper, but I'm not sure how I feel about Arguel's Blood Fast. I haven't played it yet, but I can't imagine wanting to flip it very often, which makes me feel a little skeptical about it.
Curious about these. Are they nuts?
Hangarback looks totally nuts. It's just so much value when it dies?
I really like Hangarback Walker but I didn't think it was healthy for my environment, so I dropped it - and this was before I went down in power level. It's one of those 1st-pick bomby artifacts like Myr Battlesphere, except it literally always makes the maindeck because it's good at any mana point and always poses some obnoxious board state. I would be a lot happier if it had colored mana somehow, if that makes any sense; they're just no opportunity cost to it and yet it complicates the board heavily and often contributes to a stall.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Balista is super solid tho
It looks kind of slow. How does it play?
super solid tho.
It's around 14 dollar price also speaks for it being solid.. hm. Is it the ability to repeatably ping stuff and having a threat that can grow bigger?