Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
Not only are there three great cards with the same cost as him, but he is extremely similar in functionality to Garruk Wildspeaker. He's clearly very good and if you want to take red/green into creature based ramp directions he's your go-to unless you are like one of my friends who hits cultivate with bloodbraid elf 90% of the time.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Xenagos is a fit for my Eldrazi cube but the functionally identical to Wildspeaker argument is pretty on point.
 
Jonas

Jonas

What are peoples thoughts on this guy? He seemed good in theory, but in practice, he hasn't been playing out too well.
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

I freakin' love kargan dragonlord. He's usually terrible in an average cube where removal and bounce are commonplace, but he gets there so often I'm not sure it matters.

Basically do you want your {R}{R} card to be a seal of fire in the form of ember hauler or a mana dump finisher?
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
It's really strong for us, too. Possibly because I run less removal than your typical cube, but it's pretty common for him to hit Air Elemental mode, and threaten to run away with the game. I daresay that he's been better than Figure of Destiny here - while the Kithkin almost never reaches flying avatar mode, there've been more than a few firebreathing dragons achieved.
 
Jonas

Jonas

All the raving reviews has convinced me to let him stay in the cube for a little while longer. On to more thinking and pondering.

Anyone tried this little wizard?



Seems a little bit more interesting, decision-wise, then stifle or trickbind, although horribly costed. Would be neat if it cost about two and could counter triggered abilities too :p
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

Completely depends on your cube. I tried it for a bit and it actually got too oppressive when combined with cheap spells. It's so crushing to counter say, a planeswalker ultimate, and can even make some turns for aggro/tempo really awkward. Counter your equip cost or something so you can't do that and play the haste guy in your hand, then block and unsummon another guy, returning husher; your unsummon just became a weird time warp and it only gets worse when you have mana to cast real kill spells in the same turn. Eventually I cut out enough cheap tempo cards that it got played less and less and was eventually cut.

TL;DR It's slow but lets you durdle hard. Having a free chump can be really annoying for some decks.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Goldenpineapple said:
Completely depends on your cube. I tried it for a bit and it actually got too oppressive when combined with cheap spells. It's so crushing to counter say, a planeswalker ultimate, and can even make some turns for aggro/tempo really awkward. Counter your equip cost or something so you can't do that and play the haste guy in your hand, then block and unsummon another guy, returning husher; your unsummon just became a weird time warp and it only gets worse when you have mana to cast real kill spells in the same turn. Eventually I cut out enough cheap tempo cards that it got played less and less and was eventually cut.

TL;DR It's slow but lets you durdle hard. Having a free chump can be really annoying for some decks.
Click to expand...

All of this actually sounds pretty awesome and memorable.
 
Jonas

Jonas

Goldenpineapple said:
Completely depends on your cube. I tried it for a bit and it actually got too oppressive when combined with cheap spells. It's so crushing to counter say, a planeswalker ultimate, and can even make some turns for aggro/tempo really awkward. Counter your equip cost or something so you can't do that and play the haste guy in your hand, then block and unsummon another guy, returning husher; your unsummon just became a weird time warp and it only gets worse when you have mana to cast real kill spells in the same turn. Eventually I cut out enough cheap tempo cards that it got played less and less and was eventually cut.

TL;DR It's slow but lets you durdle hard. Having a free chump can be really annoying for some decks.
Click to expand...

That sounds great, going straight in.
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

I'm not very keen on what I've dubbed "durdle cards:" cards that promote/suggest/allow you to just untap, land, pass because their activated abilities alone can slow or stop your opponent enough that you're comfortable doing absolutely or next to nothing with your turn (Azorius guildmage, skeletal vampire, obelisk of alara), and husher is very close to that, but I'll admit it makes some very interesting lines and single plays, especially since all spells and not just instants/sorceries bounce it.

As far as flash creatures it's generally less annoying than venser or restoration angel, which share the same CMC, the turn it comes down in exchange for being less annoying multiple times instead of just once.

Alright I know this pet card reads really badly but it actually plays pretty well unless your cube is really aggressive:

It tables constantly but as soon as someone drafts badly enough that they HAVE to play it they become an instant convert. We've all been in stalled games or had some mana floating around and this card gets there fast. Unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to play it that often; blue gets jammed so hard at my LGS that I've sat an 8-man in which I was the only non-{U} player to any extent. Absurd.
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

Recently one of my players had both of the following in his draft, and his curve was a little wonky so he had to cut one:


He ended up cutting Ob Nob because his team determined the entire other team was aggro, but what are you guys' thoughts on these cards? There was a small discussion about why they were even both in my cube, but I think they're both different enough that it's ok to have both.
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

I love Drana. If you untap with her, you don't usually lose. She just completely dominates the board with enough mana.

I also run this guy. Very few lists have him, but he's awesome in so many decks (though admittedly, I am partial to graveyard shenanigans and my cube is a little slower than most). He's a zombie too, so plays nice with that subtheme for the gravecrawler junkie crowd.

 
Jonas

Jonas

I just added Haakon again, I love the card and love the effect, played a lot with him when he was in standard.
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

Me too. I think people often think he isn't playable in a deck without knights. But that's not really what makes him good. He's a threat that never goes away, and he wants to be part of discard. Masticores like this guy. Smallpox is best buddies. Looters love him. Braids even likes him somewhat (there are clearly better options here, but in a pinch).

And of course you can always run Nameless Inversion if you want that removal combo (I run it).
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

Upheaval is broken good. But it does require some planning to get the most out of it. And if your cube is light on mana rocks and/or fast mana (moxen, etc.), then it is harder to break (but still really strong). It's best when you can generate a ton of mana, upheaval and still drop something really nasty afterwards. Then you have a fattie and your opponent has an empty board, 12 cards in their hand and they can't do anything about it.

The only negative about this card is that it can extend games out since it sort of functions like a reset button (especially prevalent when you are losing). It's not Shahrazad bad, but it can be annoying.

There is a really cool combo with Upheaval that I have been dying to do with this card.



Cast Parallax Tide, then next turn tap all your lands for mana, phase as many as you can out of play with Parallax Tide. Then play upheaval and all your lands will come back into play untapped, giving you a 4-5 land advantage on your opponent.

Parallax Tide should work the same way with Balance too, and I think it works well with tempo decks (which want to do mana denial while they get in the last points of damage). So it's not just a combo card.
 
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