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I'm running a split of Horizon lands and personlands. In my next update I'll probably custom up a B/R Horizon land and a better U/R personland. I think they're all better than the fastlands.
 
cycles? who does that anymore?

I kid, partially, but I do have a "cycle" of 10 that is just whatever lands I think work well for that color pair. Horizon canopy is one of them, so I can see switching a couple more color pairs to horizon lands.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
cycles? who does that anymore?

I kid, partially, but I do have a "cycle" of 10 that is just whatever lands I think work well for that color pair. Horizon canopy is one of them, so I can see switching a couple more color pairs to horizon lands.

Awefully perscriptive of you :p
 
Landwise I'm running double Fetches, single Shocks (except enemy b/c WOTC hates full cycles), Battlelands, and the last cycle is a mix of different types:



I really want a Canopy-Land for B/R, I feel like that's exactly what the archetype is missing. I like the manlands that I currently have, they're all around the same power level and the Esper ones see play pretty much all the time in those grindier strategies. I wasn't too big on the rest of the lands we got with BFZ block. They were solid, but nothing really impactful like the ones I have left. The Canopy-cycle is going to be excellent I feel. W/R and U/R were snap includes for me, and the green ones will be cool splashing in G/x decks that tend to run out of gas later in the game.
 
Also are the fastlands low tier? I get that they're not fetchable, but they're really good at all the points when you need them.
They are great. Coming into play untapped early on is a big deal. At worst, they are great because two colour lands are great. But I would rank them like this:

Duals
Fetchlands
Shocklands
Fastlands
 
I would like my blue section to be more than just an enabler for reanimator decks, but so far I only have Body Double.

I was eyeing



as a reanimator card of sorts. I'm not thrilled with the UUU casting cost, but my mana fixing is pretty good. I like that it scales and that it's a spell for the spell matter archetype. Do any of you have any experience with it?
 
I would maybe consider going in a different direction and make your blue section about more than just reanimator enabler and payoff and instead also let it bleed into other archetypes.

Such as
Miracle, Prowess, Spell matters, UW skies, Ninja, Sabateurs, counters, counterspells, artifacts etc.
 
I would maybe consider going in a different direction and make your blue section about more than just reanimator enabler and payoff and instead also let it bleed into other archetypes.

Such as
Miracle, Prowess, Spell matters, UW skies, Ninja, Sabateurs, counters, counterspells, artifacts etc.


Oh for sure. It's just that my blue section is already graveyard oriented and this is me trying to bleed into another archetype with little investment.
If I have Body Double, Vizier of Many Faces and Hour of Eternity, it opens up UB reanimator and UR artifact reanimator at little cost since all of those cards are decent on their own. UG is also a GY pair that has a bunch of creatures making it a fit here too.

Or do you feel that a small reanimator package is uninteresting or unnecessary?

Edit: Just saw why you said that my blue section should be more than a reanimator enabler...I wrote that. It was poorly worded. What I meant is that when blue is paired with reanimator, it's only an enabler. No payoffs are present. My bad!
 
If that is the case then I would 100 % test Hour as you, yourself, suggested because that card is cool. Show us what Eternals you get to bring to Ravnica! ;)
 


For the sake of argument, let's just say that Ugin's Conjurant is nowhere in sight. Does this get there?

In theory, no, but since you're trying to support a spirits archetype, I'd say yes. You'll need more than 23 spirits and 0 arcane spells to get there though. Remember, this doesn't need to be a repeatable board wipe, most of the time simply casting a single 2 or 3 drop spirit after this is enough to put you far enough ahead in the game to win. Also note- this kills your things, so one would need to manage their plays carefully with it.

I personally prefer Cloudhoof Kirin as a control wincon.
 
A 3/3 flying for four is a reasonable body. I'm afraid the ability is very hard to draft around (you can't really), but with a good enough density of spirits/arcane this can be sweet and lead to great stories. In low power with a strong Spirit theme, I'd give it a shot.
 


A little bookkeeping exercise; what is the casting cost for mikaeus?

I'm guessing it's mostly cast at like, 5 cmc? Since most people would probably build up some board and then cast it, rather than casting it for 2 cmc.
 
I would cast it for 2 mana (As a 1/1) because it can grow every enemy EOT.

In my cube list I have all X spells at the top of the curve if that is what you are asking.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb


A little bookkeeping exercise; what is the casting cost for mikaeus?

I'm guessing it's mostly cast at like, 5 cmc? Since most people would probably build up some board and then cast it, rather than casting it for 2 cmc.

I'ld cast it for 1W if I had no other two-drops in my hand, so that's where I have him at. Think of Mikaeus as a 1W spell with kicker X ;)
 
In my very short experience with the card it's played on the lower range of the scale far more than the higher. The reason is that playing it for 1W is the same as playing it for 2W one turn later. So you just tend to play him whenever you have the time for it.
 
It depends upon the deck. I've played him in aggressive decks higher up the curve at 2W or 3W and in tokens builds for 1W. Anything higher than that has diminishing returns. Pretty much you just want to generate as much value as you can with him early on, whether that be flooding the board with small aggressive bodies T1 and T2 and then topping it off or curving this into Lingering Souls and then Battle Screech before cashing him in.
 
I want to know. How powerful are the Diamonds compared to Signets? I know that coming into play tapped is not a huge downgrade vis a vis wrath effects and other big plays but not fixing your mana is.



I'm afraid the Ramos cycle is terrible, right?

 
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