General Spells Matter: Astonished With a Freedom
- Thread starter Karn Cuberated
- Start date
Does Narset do any job in cube? Someone called it disappointing, similar to Domri Rade. I didn't go deeply into reading why exactly, I was looking for some another piece of info
I think Narset is okay. Definitely weaker than, say, Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Garruk Wildspeaker from your list. I did a bit of testing with her and the most common use case is play her, +1 for at most a 1/2 chance to draw a card, and then rebound the next two-ish turns. She doesn't defend herself well but 7 is a lot of loyalty to pass the turn with, so you usually get to get value at least once.
Contrast to Chandra, the Firebrand which (pretty much) just can't be cast unless you're ahead on board.
Anyway so 4 mana to draw half a card and copy two spells is neat. They have to be seriously good spells for her to feel like a "good" planeswalker though. On top of that, the emblem she makes is simultaneously very narrow and extremely annoying to play against. The combination of her sometimes not being good and sometimes locking someone out of a game led me to not play her in my cube. (Though my cube also still contains zero planeswalkers, so...)
Contrast to Chandra, the Firebrand which (pretty much) just can't be cast unless you're ahead on board.
Anyway so 4 mana to draw half a card and copy two spells is neat. They have to be seriously good spells for her to feel like a "good" planeswalker though. On top of that, the emblem she makes is simultaneously very narrow and extremely annoying to play against. The combination of her sometimes not being good and sometimes locking someone out of a game led me to not play her in my cube. (Though my cube also still contains zero planeswalkers, so...)
Thank you for the explanation!
Sometimes I think, why not cut planeswalkers from the cube? Probably, the only one which is really needed in my cube, is Ajani Goldmane as an anthem. Probably, he can be cast only when you're ahead, too, but it doesn't seem to be a problem for a deck he goes in. Garruk was intended to support tokens, but he's just, probably, saying "I'm Garruk!".
Some guy said that Chandra is an anchor for Spells Matter. Why only spells matter? I think I should cut her, but I doubt whether or not this cut will decrease the power of Aggro.
And coming back to Narset... I intended to make a Tempo deck with Monastery Mentor and Myth Realized + cantrips + disruption + cheap token generating spells, and she's quite slow for it. I still don't know, what will be a result of this experiment)
This is good information. I guess my cube is slightly higher in spell count then yours. I used to run with more creatures but I have slower dialed back the creature counter over several iterations. Either way, conceptually I operate with the same frame work as you. I run:
White: 40 creatures/35 spells
Red: 40 creatures/35 spells
Black: 40 creatures/35 spells
Blue: 35 creatures/40 spells
Green: 45 creatures/30 spells
The spells-matters deck has always been a personal favorite of mine so I have probably pushed it a little harder than most in my cube. And I've honestly found that when I was running fewer spells that there just was not enough room to include a good suite of enchantments while also including enough instants/sorceries.
Additionally, and one of the reasons I started running more spells in other colors (not just blue) is that I really like the archetype as it can be built a few different ways and it makes the various spells something that multiple drafters might fight over. There is what I call the "incidental spell casting value" deck that has guys like:
whereby you have cards that allow you to gain value purely by casting an instant or sorcery.
Then there is a different flavor that centers around heroic. You use guys like
And make sure you include pump spells and all those white spells that function as temporary protection or whatever.
Lastly you use some prowess guys to sort of bridge the gap between the two:
IMO this allows this theme to sort of fit across three colors well (red, blue, and white) while also allowing for a few different flavors of this deck to come together. You can even let it bleed into to green a little bit with some of its pump spells. The best part is it makes drafters sometimes have to fight over the cards because they can fit into several decks across several colors (rather than being cards you know will wheel because they only fit into your deck). Furthermore, lots of the red/white cards go well with an equipment matters type deck so there is more tension in the draft. Not sure if all this makes sense.
Do people still use Abbot of Keral Keep? Or are the more recent 2-drops in the posts above preferred now?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Only begrudgingly
This has been pretty exciting, as it exiles stuff, tensions build up more and more. It's a slow card, but the ceiling is huge and there's plenty of counterplay.
Eldraine's adventure mechanic makes spells-matters much easier to support while maintaining a high creature count too.
Other recent cards at a low power level that are good in spells-matters.
i REALLY like pteramander and burning prophet.
why are people so cool on Abbot? just too generic or...?
personally i am very excited when i see him in a draft, but i may have some kind of bias?
why are people so cool on Abbot? just too generic or...?
personally i am very excited when i see him in a draft, but i may have some kind of bias?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
In short:
-1 toughness is a big deal, as you'll need 2 spells to be safe from bears
-Successfully drawing the card is really difficult. Sometimes you play a land off it and everything's gravy, but often you get stuck with something not quite castable, which just leaves is above-mentioned disappointing body. This also usually involves playing him off curve as well, frustrating in a tempo deck like most prowess decks.
I kinda want something that will beat down well, or disrupt my opponent, and this does neither. The card draw isn't good enough for it to do a passable elvish visionary impression, and in the decks where you would find it alright, there's just better things.
It reminds me of Explore, I should like it alot more than I do, but I don't.
the tempo hit is a really valid point. my cube tends to be a little slower, so he might have more value there, but then again maybe not. i think that burning prophet is just better overall though! definitely getting a wishlist together of all these nice new cards!
Yeah, Abbot was never particularly interesting or good for me either. It's quirky in that it's a bad T2 bad. You usually play it on T3 before land drop, but then you can't play a 3-drop, and 2/1 prowess is not very impressive. As Chris said, the 1 toughness means the prowess is not particularly interesting on it.
Burning Prophet is much better. As a 1/3 for 2 it's decent defense against aggro and the scry ability can actually take over a long game, and gets activated a lot since it triggers from artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers too. It's not good in aggressive decks though, since it's just a 1/3 attacker while you're playing creatures.
I haven't actually tried Pteramander yet, just got a copy. Looks good on paper.
Burning Prophet is much better. As a 1/3 for 2 it's decent defense against aggro and the scry ability can actually take over a long game, and gets activated a lot since it triggers from artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers too. It's not good in aggressive decks though, since it's just a 1/3 attacker while you're playing creatures.
I haven't actually tried Pteramander yet, just got a copy. Looks good on paper.
Offtop: isn't it possible to change names of threads here? That mistake in the title ("A Freedom" instead of just "Freedom") still puts me to shame even though several years have passed since it's been posted
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Don't beat yourself up, you made this archetype sound very poetic
yeah, i thought it was intentional and quite deftly crafted!
Haha, that reminds me of what's going on in modern art: messy blots on the canvas are thought to mean something deep and impossible/difficult to understand (if there're modern art lovers in the chat, don't be offended).
In fact, I edited the title like million times, and that, probably, made it possible for a tiny odd article to sneak into it. It is sad for me to ruin your bright poetic illusions with this bitter prosaic truth, but so it is)
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
It's okay, the greatest things are born from happy accidents
is there any way to encourage this deck in B or G? obviously you’re just GONNA be in U and/or R but i want to encourage the deck in 4 colors in my cube.... so URw_
Green can have a spell velocity component which works with it, which I run (also check DBS's cube)
Thanks! This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for! There’s an interesting guy in C19 i found and immediately forgot about who has a cool effect like this too.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Green also has some solid support spells:
M21 spoiler ahead, if someone is still avoiding those:
Dunno to what extent assuming all spells are cantrips works (because most obviously are not), but it's a route to consider. Most of the rest of the draw-twos aren't great, but Irencrag Pyromancer is viscerally tempting. Improbable Alliance and Faerie Vandal are at least not bad. Jori En, Ruin Diver is actively okay. These compliments sure aren't saying much but I thought it should be mentioned since "green" made me think the M21 card made me think the entire theme.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Oh also in the green prowess camp: