Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Nanonox said:
I just said I enjoyed it and one of those reasons was because in my view, green 6's aren't great. I was hoping the rest of my reasons would do the propping as well :p.
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Yeah I think I didn't make it clear enough that I didn't have anything against what you said about the Giant itself. All of your other points about it are fine points for why the card is at least worthy of consideration for a slot. I just really had a problem with using other sixes, two of which are very good given the right context, as the first reason as to why you like a card.
 
Velrun

Velrun

Trainmaster

I did not know that about Thragtusk. I remember them telling us Thragtusk was designed to work with Restoration Angel. Thank you for the throughough answer.

Regarding Oko.
Oko, Thief of Crowns wasn’t even in the meta long after it was released into Standard with Throne of Eldraine. In fact it was nowhere to be seen up until the moment Wizards banned the best decks in Standard (The many different versions of Field of the Dead. When you ban the best card, another card will be best. in this case the best card was so suppressing to the second best card that I do not think you could even argue that Nissa, Who Shakes the World was a mistake by any means.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Velrun said:
Trainmaster

I did not know that about Thragtusk. I remember them telling us Thragtusk was designed to work with Restoration Angel. Thank you for the throughough answer.

Regarding Oko.
Oko, Thief of Crowns wasn’t even in the meta long after it was released into Standard with Throne of Eldraine. In fact it was nowhere to be seen up until the moment Wizards banned the best decks in Standard (The many different versions of Field of the Dead. When you ban the best card, another card will be best. in this case the best card was so suppressing to the second best card that I do not think you could even argue that Nissa, Who Shakes the World was a mistake by any means.
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Actually, if you look at the "Oko" decks that won in the top 8 of mythic championship V, all of them were running the 4x Nissa 4x Hydroid Krasis win condition package. Simic and Bant decks didn't disappear after Oko was banned, and are still some of the most powerful decks in standard. In fact, most of my statements in previous post were based on Simic and Sultai lists from well after Oko. Plus, Oko wasn't even a big card played in the early pioneer decks that caused the banning of Leyline of Abundance. That was in no small part Nissa. If Nissa didn't exist, Oko decks would not have looked or played the way they did. Nissa is the card that enables unfair amounts of ramp for the mid game- that's why she was a mistake. Maybe she isn't as bad as Teferi, Time Raveler or some of our other friends from WAR, but that doesn't mean she isn't problematic.
 
Velrun

Velrun

I might misremember. Did I confuse with another tournament?

I feel like the top players were disregarding Oko at the tournaments because Field of the Dead was too strong back when they where both legal.

If I am wrong. Someone explain to me why why did Field of the Dead receive the banhammer the day after Mythic Championship 5?

On topic:
I still think it is bias to call Nissa a mistake and a problematic card since Wizards hasn’t said any of the sort. It sounds like you just don’t like the card. One could argue if it was super problematic it would have been banned during one of the banning rounds it has survived like the one that banned Field of the Dead or the one that later banned Oko and friends.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Mondschwein said:
Speaking of setting back land drops, there are some other cards I'd like to hear your opinion on:



I already play Living Twister, Deprive and Bounce Lands for triggering landfall/using lands for some other value. Like I said in the other posting of mine, I do play cards that care about this (looters mainly in R but also in U, other discard effects in BRUG, cards than enable more land drops in G, and now returning lands back to hand in U - landfall is something I'm still thinking about in which colours I'd put it in, G is safe but R also looks good).


To me, this looks like a more interesting way to approach Ramp in general and Lands.dec, where all the cards can be used in other decks as well, and you don't need to add narrow cards like Life from the Loam for the engine running.
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I know we kinda passed this topic already, but I feel like I have to defend my gild Soratami Cloudskater here. The card was something I tried for my {G/U} Landfall archetype, but it looked weak and narrow, so I had not much of an expectation. And then she delivered.

In any other blue deck, the ability to basically sac excess lands for new cards proved to be very useful. Also, looting is such a strong ability with many synergies (Dredge, Madness, Flashback, Drake Haven, Improbable Alliance, Rise from the Tides and many more), that she overperformed in 80% of the matches, even outside of her dedicate archetype.

However, IN that specific deck, she is basically a second Trade Routes, which works like an engine for this deck. She has great synergy with the (mostly) green cards, that let you put down extra lands (Wayward Swordtooth, Budoka Gardener), and is a package of a bunch of blue cards that bounce your own lands for extra tiggers:



Besides their main job, they are all fine playables to some degree by themselves. In the right deck, they can be nuts. The landfall deck is super fun and maybe the most crazy one I support. Games can go relatively long and you don't want to have turn without a land drop really, so a few effects like these can be crucial.
 
Nanonox

Nanonox

I'd like opinions/comments on the inclusion (or not) in my cube of



This feels fair with only Dark Ritual in the cube and would be a late game card for my format. I am trying to cement spells matter or at least spell velocity in black. Right now I have 3 cards that fit the bill and I would love another.



Now remember, I play in a MP environment, so extort is gas. Bolas's Citadel has been showing up in some sweet places, from aristocrats to Welder decks to spell matter decks. I am thinking that Will could complement this suite of spell velocity cards as well as be played in Sultai self-mill decks.

I am unhappy/unexcited with two of my black draw engines and figured maybe Yawgmoth's Will can take the place of one. So the cuts would probably be



Arena is a risky play on turn 3, as "aggro" decks can hit hard. It is also a slow way to gain resources rather than the one shot deal of Scrying. However Skeletal Scrying directly clashes with Will as it is essentially a delve spell.

So a couple of questions:
1. Would you add Yawgmoth's Will to the cube or is it too narrow?
2. If so, what would you cut for it?

Thanks for the help!
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

Yawghmoth's Will is surprisingly fair and even weak in cube. The reason is simple: It costs 3 mana. There are not a lot of spells that are worth playing at that cost, Regrowth is already kind of questionable.

Still, it's a fun card that is worth exploring. It's good enough with a Ritual, a fetchland and a 1-mana spell or two. It's fun to play it, get a couple lightning bolts and finish the opponent off. But in cube it's in fair mode, which is the last thing I would ever claim about Yawghmoth's Will! If you are trying to support "spells matter" in black, it's a good card to do it. Keep in mind it's not so much a card that makes a deck but one that you add to a deck that is already solid to make better.

Personally, I would cut Skeletal Scrying. It's a fun card, but I see it making its way into fewer decks than Phyrexian Arena. You can play Phrexian arena out of a mana dork in The Rock and other fair decks. It's a very easy card to include and the damage is not very relevant. Skeletal Scrying is cool, but I see it seeing less play.
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

Arcbound Ravager is such a cool card...sadly, I haven't been able to make it work. You need quite a lot incidental artifacts or a focus on artifact aggro/counters to make him worthwhile. In the end, I found he asked too much. Very neat card, though.
 
safra

safra

I wanted Ravager to be there for me but he just didn't work. I think in something like an artifact-based or themed cube he'd be a great addition though. I really wanted to make like, a berserker artifact deck possible, but I didn't have the density of available artifacts to do it. xoxo
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Rasmus Källqvist said:


Maybe a card to pair with that green artifacts +1/+1 package?
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That's really the only place I can see Arcbound Ravager being worthwhile. If you can proliferate counters or hardened scales the +1/+1 counters you are adding from sacking, then ravager is ok. Otherwise, it's just a 2-mana Sparring Construct.

I'd still buy a copy of Arcbound Ravager though once it bottoms out. Even though pure affinity isn't as good as it was now that Mox Opal is gone, I doubt the deck is actually dead and I can totally see WOTC either printing or unbanning something to resurrect it's corpse.

#FreeTreeOfTales
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice



How powerful or snowbally is this guy? I've never seen him in action because I've killed him on the spot every single time in Standard but it seems extremely strong with the proper support. Thoughts?
 
japahn

japahn

It doesn't seem too broken: the exile clause gets rid of a lot of broken stuff that would happen otherwise, and the 1/1 clause is a large "nerf" to the creatures that matter. I'm still having trouble to gauge its power level without testing. Safra, what cards are around the same power level?
 
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