I have never used it since I don't run a conspiracy module, but if I ever got around to building one I would defiantly include it.
I just wanted to check on TCG and the current foil multiplyer on this card is like 15x haha. Cool card and I could see it being really fun to play with other conspiracy cards
I wouldn't say it needs to be part of a conspiracy module, it's a cool and unique card that really shines in cube. I feels a bit gimmicky but feels much different than the conspiracies. There is a lot of excitement when you cast it and sometimes you find that silver bullet. I don't think I have ever whiffed or felt let down by my pack. One logistical issue is remembering to take the card out but its easily fixed if forgotten.
I think it makes it into pretty much every black deck and it is well worth splashing into most decks that have access to black. Cant see a world where I cut it.
Here's another card to hopefully get some discussion rolling after a couple of days. Apologizes if it's been up for discussion before, but if so it's been a while.
It's never dead, for sure, but does it do enough to make the cut these days?
Played a bunch of the modern cube where this is included this past weekend due to having some time on a weekend to play online, it was not bad but not insane. The faster the format the worst it is as the creature search mode is kind of middling/slow, but it's pretty versatile. Certainly not bad, a card I play in other cubes but not interested in for my own.
I'm still a fan of Primal Command. Each mode has uses and while it's not amazing value for the mana in any combination, it's green where 5's often feel more like they cost 4. Most common use is the search for a creature card one. Generally it gets coupled with the life gain since that acts as a bit of a fog and helps to mitigate the fact that you are spending 5 mana to not immediately impact the board (generally a deal breaker in cube). Tutors are really powerful though. A lot of matches come down to whether you can find the right creature for whatever the game state calls for. Have an overrun effect in hand? Well, Deranged Hermit might just win you the game if you can find it. Need something to block a flyer wrecking you? Need a life gain creature? Command does all that and buys you a little time while you fool around assembling your win condition. Unexpectedly Absent is a really powerful effect. At 5 mana, and trading creatures for lands as targets, it's not a deal by any stretch but it's still a really powerful effect. Worst thing I've seen it do was put Form of the Dragon back on top of a library. That won the game on the spot. I imagine in cubes with walkers, this mode is going to be useful even more often to prevent an ultimate or whatever. I very rarely see the shuffle effect used, but there are times a game goes long and all your win conditions are in the yard or you are in danger of decking. Primal Command to the rescue. That's a lot of stuff all on one card.
All that said, most high powered lists are probably just too efficient these days for this command. If you are running something a little lower in power though, I would definitely try this one out. It plays much better than it reads.
Primal Command is a fine card, and it'll always be a solid playable for midrange and ramp green decks. It just felt a little too fair after a long while playing it, and ultimately cut it when space considerations became a big concern.
The card is not powerful enough to cover its relative lack of playability. I think a cube will benefit more from just another green five drop creature or planeswalker, from which there are plenty powerful ones even at 720.
Unlike other creature tutors in green, Command is not good at fetching utility - both because you can never cast it early, and mostly because you'll only cast the creature in two turns. Therefore it is there mostly to fetch threats. Got Primal Command + a suite of multiple other creatures costing 5+? The command might be around the powerlevel of an average green five drop (debatable, probably still not quite there on average). If you do not though, and the command is your top end, it is a sad card. I do not want to play the command with one other creature five drop and one six drop - there is a high risk of drawing the targets with and/or before the command and not getting my mana's worth back. I also lose two top-end business spells if the creature is answered by a removal of any kind or a counterspell(already a bad matchup, and I telegraph my play which raises the chances of that scenario).
Today's card is another five drop, but it is certainly not lacking for power.
Arcane Savant goes infinite with Ghostly Flicker for infinite mana and infinite ETB triggers of your artifacts and/or creatures, but it can also just be a solid value card that allows decks to splash for off-color spells.
Which instant or sorcery would you most like to be able to cast for 3UU? I'm a Cruel Ultimatum fan, myself.
Savant is sweet. Attaching Upheaval to this is so killer. First time I played with it I both forgot to mention which card I had exiled + forgot to exile the card, didn't realize/remember until I drew it :S
I really like this card for splashing big off colour effects, but some of the combos and oppressive plays with this card in combination with the awkwardness of keeping a card out of your deck and revealing it and blah blah was too much so i cut it.
Interestingly, my group has mentioned similar concerns. What are everyone's thoughts on the logistical issues of conspiracy cards such as this, Caller of the Untamed, the conspiracies themselves, etc.?
Interestingly, my group has mentioned similar concerns. What are everyone's thoughts on the logistical issues of conspiracy cards such as this, Caller of the Untamed, the conspiracies themselves, etc.?
They're incredibly strong. I would not play them in unpowered cubes. Some aren't as egregious, but I'd rather play none than some.
I love Arcane Savant so much, definitely a card I'd first pick.
As has been mentioned, he can be bonkers with cards like Ghostly Flicker/Displace for infinite blink, but sometimes if you don't find the right cards to abuse him he can still provide a some value, like casting a Dreadbore in an UW deck or just putting legs on an expensive spell like Tidings/Opportunity.
My favorite card to cast with him was Cruel Ultimatium, but I've since cut that from my cube. So now it's probably one of those mentioned above.
Interestingly, my group has mentioned similar concerns. What are everyone's thoughts on the logistical issues of conspiracy cards such as this, Caller of the Untamed, the conspiracies themselves, etc.?
We don't mind the logistics, since the cards are exciting to us. That might change over time, but so far the novelty has not worn off. Personaly, I don't think they are that big of a hassle to handle, the unique play experience they bring far outweighs the logistical issues.
Today's card was a Standard all-star back in it's day, but does it make the cut in cube?
Ever had any pest problems? I once worked on a project in the southeastern US on a yard that happened to be absolutely infested with fire ants. That was not fun.
Pack Rat is a boss. For a 2 drop he it does a lot of work; supporting graveyard decks, mana sink, beating down and all that on a pretty resilient body.
It is great at coming down under controls counters and is a nightmare for them when its on board. It's threat of activation can be a pretty solid deterrent as well; if I have 3 tapped rats and 3 open mana you have to worry about another rat appearing to block at instant speed. The same is true for forcing blocks, if I swing with 3 rats and have the mana they could suddenly be 5/5s with 2 more on defense.
Even as a late game top deck its not bad at making an army fairly quickly if you have a few lands in hand. They need to kill all the rats to get rid of them as well so it can be a nightmare for decks depending on 1-for-1 removal.
Pack rats is probably my favorite black 2 drop, and ranks somewhere in the top 10 for black cards in general.
Slugs kept getting into my last house through an old fibre/cable hole, I would come down to silver trails and slugs slowly dashing towards the sofa when i turned the light on. Its fairly common in old damp houses in Belfast.
Pack Rat, the ultimate limited creature, and great in cube too. While not as dominant as it was in triple RTR/RTR block, it's still great and I think a staple down to 360 size.
Not me, but I had a friend who had a unique pest problem. He lived/lives in chicago in a cheaper (is that a thing in chicago?) giant apartment complex, it wasn't the worst but there were some sketchy potential every day. One day he was hanging out and he started getting kinda woozy/light headed and called the housing manager who called the fire department. They got there, ran some scans or whatever they do, and were kinda like 'so, what are you doing here?' and called the cops. The cops come, they look at what the fire department scanned, ask the same things and search my friend's apartment and are super suspicious.
It turns out that the fire department was picking up either the chemicals associated with manufacturing meth or actual meth vapors themselves, and after they cleared my friend's apartment they went around knocking on doors in the complex and found out that the apartment next door was completely packed as a meth lab and there were 30 people in there when they knocked manufacturing meth. My friend said not only did he never see anyone entering or leaving the place, but he never heard anyone either.
So, they clear all the ***** out of there, the vapors disappear, but after a couple days roaches start showing up everywhere. Apparently the meth vapors were keeping them away, and now that all the equipment was taken away they came back in full force. There were so many that if he ate his food sitting down they would scurry and jump in his cereal bowl; he had to eat standing up. At night when he walked to the bathroom, he would regularly step on them. There have been a couple times where he said he would've preferred to have the meth lab back. I don't know how he lived there as long as he did.
Pack Rat is a great card. It is a good discard outlet for graveyard decks, it can present the opponent with complicated and difficult combat choices, and sometimes you can just go "all-in" on the Pack Rat plan and it can win the game on its own. Really cool creature. I think it's good enough for even the smallest of cubes.
In my dad's house when I was younger we went through a summer season with a scorpion infestation problem. We killed 64 in and around the house that summer.
Speaking of Standard all-stars, today's card should be familiar to anyone playing Standard today.
Has this new kid on the block performed well for those who have picked it up?
How do you feel about running cards with non-evergreen abilities that don't have reminder text, such as the Game Day Glorybringer or Greater Gargadon? Does it influence your decision to run the card, or which version to run?
Glorybringer is a good card, and the more combat-centric your cube is, the better it'll perform. The only real knock against the card is that it doesn't support any specific archetypes/strategies ...it's just kind of a good dude. I think the slot is relatively crowded, and full of options that are both powerful and synergy-driven, which is what keeps Glorybringer on the bench ATM.
I prefer functional reminder text, but it's not a deal-breaker if it's missing.
I don't really like the stats of a 4/4 flying haste for five: it's too easy. I've held Stormbreath Dragon out in favor of other types of five drops, and Glorybringer is even worse than Stormbreath. Hyper efficient bodies without lots of synergies don't thrill me. Removing "fun police" cards like this helps to create a more forgiving format.
I strongly prefer reminder text, as those in my playgroup are often not all that well-versed. I don't like the power dynamic when people have to ask me what some scarcely-used keyword means. It's not a dealbreaker for me, but it is a strike against a card. I explicitly don't run the Monarch mechanic, as it is kind of obscure, and features no reminder text.
Love Glorybringer, love the game day art, can't imagine removing it from my cube anytime soon.
I don't really factor in reminder text when deciding on a card's version; mostly I care about the artwork. That said, I have an aversion to completely textless cards; the only one in my cube right now is Damnation, a card that's easy enough to explain.
I just wanted to check on TCG and the current foil multiplyer on this card is like 15x haha. Cool card and I could see it being really fun to play with other conspiracy cards
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I think it makes it into pretty much every black deck and it is well worth splashing into most decks that have access to black. Cant see a world where I cut it.
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It's never dead, for sure, but does it do enough to make the cut these days?
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
All that said, most high powered lists are probably just too efficient these days for this command. If you are running something a little lower in power though, I would definitely try this one out. It plays much better than it reads.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Unlike other creature tutors in green, Command is not good at fetching utility - both because you can never cast it early, and mostly because you'll only cast the creature in two turns. Therefore it is there mostly to fetch threats. Got Primal Command + a suite of multiple other creatures costing 5+? The command might be around the powerlevel of an average green five drop (debatable, probably still not quite there on average). If you do not though, and the command is your top end, it is a sad card. I do not want to play the command with one other creature five drop and one six drop - there is a high risk of drawing the targets with and/or before the command and not getting my mana's worth back. I also lose two top-end business spells if the creature is answered by a removal of any kind or a counterspell(already a bad matchup, and I telegraph my play which raises the chances of that scenario).
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Arcane Savant goes infinite with Ghostly Flicker for infinite mana and infinite ETB triggers of your artifacts and/or creatures, but it can also just be a solid value card that allows decks to splash for off-color spells.
Which instant or sorcery would you most like to be able to cast for 3UU? I'm a Cruel Ultimatum fan, myself.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
They're incredibly strong. I would not play them in unpowered cubes. Some aren't as egregious, but I'd rather play none than some.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
As has been mentioned, he can be bonkers with cards like Ghostly Flicker/Displace for infinite blink, but sometimes if you don't find the right cards to abuse him he can still provide a some value, like casting a Dreadbore in an UW deck or just putting legs on an expensive spell like Tidings/Opportunity.
My favorite card to cast with him was Cruel Ultimatium, but I've since cut that from my cube. So now it's probably one of those mentioned above.
We don't mind the logistics, since the cards are exciting to us. That might change over time, but so far the novelty has not worn off. Personaly, I don't think they are that big of a hassle to handle, the unique play experience they bring far outweighs the logistical issues.
Ever had any pest problems? I once worked on a project in the southeastern US on a yard that happened to be absolutely infested with fire ants. That was not fun.
It is great at coming down under controls counters and is a nightmare for them when its on board. It's threat of activation can be a pretty solid deterrent as well; if I have 3 tapped rats and 3 open mana you have to worry about another rat appearing to block at instant speed. The same is true for forcing blocks, if I swing with 3 rats and have the mana they could suddenly be 5/5s with 2 more on defense.
Even as a late game top deck its not bad at making an army fairly quickly if you have a few lands in hand. They need to kill all the rats to get rid of them as well so it can be a nightmare for decks depending on 1-for-1 removal.
Pack rats is probably my favorite black 2 drop, and ranks somewhere in the top 10 for black cards in general.
Pro Tip: Use Plague Rats as your tokens.
Slugs kept getting into my last house through an old fibre/cable hole, I would come down to silver trails and slugs slowly dashing towards the sofa when i turned the light on. Its fairly common in old damp houses in Belfast.
Not me, but I had a friend who had a unique pest problem. He lived/lives in chicago in a cheaper (is that a thing in chicago?) giant apartment complex, it wasn't the worst but there were some sketchy potential every day. One day he was hanging out and he started getting kinda woozy/light headed and called the housing manager who called the fire department. They got there, ran some scans or whatever they do, and were kinda like 'so, what are you doing here?' and called the cops. The cops come, they look at what the fire department scanned, ask the same things and search my friend's apartment and are super suspicious.
It turns out that the fire department was picking up either the chemicals associated with manufacturing meth or actual meth vapors themselves, and after they cleared my friend's apartment they went around knocking on doors in the complex and found out that the apartment next door was completely packed as a meth lab and there were 30 people in there when they knocked manufacturing meth. My friend said not only did he never see anyone entering or leaving the place, but he never heard anyone either.
So, they clear all the ***** out of there, the vapors disappear, but after a couple days roaches start showing up everywhere. Apparently the meth vapors were keeping them away, and now that all the equipment was taken away they came back in full force. There were so many that if he ate his food sitting down they would scurry and jump in his cereal bowl; he had to eat standing up. At night when he walked to the bathroom, he would regularly step on them. There have been a couple times where he said he would've preferred to have the meth lab back. I don't know how he lived there as long as he did.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
In my dad's house when I was younger we went through a summer season with a scorpion infestation problem. We killed 64 in and around the house that summer.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Has this new kid on the block performed well for those who have picked it up?
How do you feel about running cards with non-evergreen abilities that don't have reminder text, such as the Game Day Glorybringer or Greater Gargadon? Does it influence your decision to run the card, or which version to run?
Glorybringer is a good card, and the more combat-centric your cube is, the better it'll perform. The only real knock against the card is that it doesn't support any specific archetypes/strategies ...it's just kind of a good dude. I think the slot is relatively crowded, and full of options that are both powerful and synergy-driven, which is what keeps Glorybringer on the bench ATM.
I prefer functional reminder text, but it's not a deal-breaker if it's missing.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
I don't really care about rules text reminders.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
I strongly prefer reminder text, as those in my playgroup are often not all that well-versed. I don't like the power dynamic when people have to ask me what some scarcely-used keyword means. It's not a dealbreaker for me, but it is a strike against a card. I explicitly don't run the Monarch mechanic, as it is kind of obscure, and features no reminder text.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
I don't really factor in reminder text when deciding on a card's version; mostly I care about the artwork. That said, I have an aversion to completely textless cards; the only one in my cube right now is Damnation, a card that's easy enough to explain.
I also dont run monarch or goad for these reasons.
Anyone ever tried fencing, or swordfighting for acting or roleplay, or just own a sword for decoration?