No, not even in Avacyn Restored. Enchantment themes are pretty uninteresting overall tbh, because it doesn't intersect with as many play-styles as artifacts, which are already hard enough to support (even in constructed) without being entirely linear. It's a miss for me.
In the era of draftable sets, which is about the last 25 years of Magic, we haven't had such wordy sets. Yeah, the earliest versions of the game had their Ice Cauldrons and the like, but this last year and a half has really accelerated the bookish qualities of Magic cards, and not in a way I think is positive.
On the note of overly wordy cards, Savior of Ollenbock is causing me a great deal of heartbreak. I am forever a fan of promoting reanimation strategies in white, and this is a nice balance of fair and powerful, and interesting hoops to jump through to maximize it. Theoretically, I should love this card.
But I dunno, Training seems too much like Mentor, and it's really easy to read this card wrong. I'm being too harsh maybe, as people didn't have issues with the similarly-worded Angel of Serenity for the nearly five years it was in cube, but I wish Savior removed the Banisher Priest text to make its use-case more obvious, even if it cut into its power quite a bit. Am I being dramatic here?
---
Sorin the Mirthless is certainly the best black Planeswalker at its MV, but that's not merit for inclusion on its own. I think some fair comparisons include Bloodline Keeper, who I cubed with for years, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, who has a better best case scenario but is too much of an aggro killer for my list and somewhat uninteresting overall. Those comps expose something interesting, though -- we just don't have a generic midrange value dude in black like Sorin. Cube darling Gonti, Lord of Luxury will similarly draw you a card and provide a 2/3 body (Sorin's average case scenario, by my estimation), but with less flexibility, and less flying. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician feels like such a different card that it's weird to compare them, but is the only other value engine at this MV in the color I could come up with.
As a result, I'm quite interested in stupid sexy Sorin. There's just not the kind of generic midrange card in the color at this power band that works as a bridge between a bunch of different archetypes. Fun!
---
Chandra, Dressed to Kill is a neat card. I've been looking for red's Phyrexian Arena for a decade, and used to use a Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded with the "at random" part of his plus ability crossed off to get at least halfway there before deciding I wanted to use "cards that are printed" as a core limitation of my cube.
But all the red Arena-likes have either been too expensive, like Vance's Blasting Cannons and Outpost Siege, or not consistent enough, like Valakut Exploration or Prophetic Flamespeaker. There are 4-drop Chandras that have this ability as a +1 or a 0, but the difference between 3 and 4 is huge. So while I have too many red walkers already by my own count, this fills a strong need of mine. The loss of playing lands off the top is a disappointment, but the excellent art and the other +1 ability looks like this Chandra's dressed to kill for my 720.
EDIT: I DIDN'T REALIZE IT SAID "IF IT'S RED" FOR HER IMPULSE DRAW
WHY
COMPLETE NONSENSE, WASTE OF (FINALLY) WONDERFUL CHANDRA ARTWORK
---
Olivia, Crimson Bride seems fine. The only creatures with an unrestricted ETB reanimate under 7 mana are Karmic Guide and Phyrexian Delver, and technically Nullpriest of Oblivion, which, as I'm writing this, makes this seem pretty weak in comparison. Huh. Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats is an underrated cube inclusion that also hits hard in the air with a hasty threat, but it usually comes down a turn or two earlier, even if Olivia will often hit for an extra damage or two. I like having finishers in my guild sections, and even with my realization I'm interested here, but the clause about losing the reanimated creature if you lose Olivia is what I think cuts this from serious consideration, as your day can get ruined by any removal without much recourse. Ugh.
tl;dr:
In the era of draftable sets, which is about the last 25 years of Magic, we haven't had such wordy sets. Yeah, the earliest versions of the game had their Ice Cauldrons and the like, but this last year and a half has really accelerated the bookish qualities of Magic cards, and not in a way I think is positive.
On the note of overly wordy cards, Savior of Ollenbock is causing me a great deal of heartbreak. I am forever a fan of promoting reanimation strategies in white, and this is a nice balance of fair and powerful, and interesting hoops to jump through to maximize it. Theoretically, I should love this card.
But I dunno, Training seems too much like Mentor, and it's really easy to read this card wrong. I'm being too harsh maybe, as people didn't have issues with the similarly-worded Angel of Serenity for the nearly five years it was in cube, but I wish Savior removed the Banisher Priest text to make its use-case more obvious, even if it cut into its power quite a bit. Am I being dramatic here?
---
Sorin the Mirthless is certainly the best black Planeswalker at its MV, but that's not merit for inclusion on its own. I think some fair comparisons include Bloodline Keeper, who I cubed with for years, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, who has a better best case scenario but is too much of an aggro killer for my list and somewhat uninteresting overall. Those comps expose something interesting, though -- we just don't have a generic midrange value dude in black like Sorin. Cube darling Gonti, Lord of Luxury will similarly draw you a card and provide a 2/3 body (Sorin's average case scenario, by my estimation), but with less flexibility, and less flying. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician feels like such a different card that it's weird to compare them, but is the only other value engine at this MV in the color I could come up with.
As a result, I'm quite interested in stupid sexy Sorin. There's just not the kind of generic midrange card in the color at this power band that works as a bridge between a bunch of different archetypes. Fun!
---
Chandra, Dressed to Kill is a neat card. I've been looking for red's Phyrexian Arena for a decade, and used to use a Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded with the "at random" part of his plus ability crossed off to get at least halfway there before deciding I wanted to use "cards that are printed" as a core limitation of my cube.
But all the red Arena-likes have either been too expensive, like Vance's Blasting Cannons and Outpost Siege, or not consistent enough, like Valakut Exploration or Prophetic Flamespeaker. There are 4-drop Chandras that have this ability as a +1 or a 0, but the difference between 3 and 4 is huge. So while I have too many red walkers already by my own count, this fills a strong need of mine. The loss of playing lands off the top is a disappointment, but the excellent art and the other +1 ability looks like this Chandra's dressed to kill for my 720.
EDIT: I DIDN'T REALIZE IT SAID "IF IT'S RED" FOR HER IMPULSE DRAW
WHY
COMPLETE NONSENSE, WASTE OF (FINALLY) WONDERFUL CHANDRA ARTWORK
---
Olivia, Crimson Bride seems fine. The only creatures with an unrestricted ETB reanimate under 7 mana are Karmic Guide and Phyrexian Delver, and technically Nullpriest of Oblivion, which, as I'm writing this, makes this seem pretty weak in comparison. Huh. Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats is an underrated cube inclusion that also hits hard in the air with a hasty threat, but it usually comes down a turn or two earlier, even if Olivia will often hit for an extra damage or two. I like having finishers in my guild sections, and even with my realization I'm interested here, but the clause about losing the reanimated creature if you lose Olivia is what I think cuts this from serious consideration, as your day can get ruined by any removal without much recourse. Ugh.
tl;dr:
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