Not much going on with HOU, but nonetheless here's what I'm looking at for my 360 unpowered Modern-frame cube.
WWW Angel of Condemnation - I support blink so this might be cool for a while but I don't expect it to last.
UUU Nimble Obstructionist - I really like this card. If I can find a reasonable cut for it, I'll probably try it out but my expectations are low. Supreme Will - I run one 3-cmc counter in Scatter to the Winds so this might replace that to add some flexibility and an easier casting cost.
UBR Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - I have Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in the cube now as part of a 5-card rainbow section, so this new Bolas will probably make a few rounds in place of that, if it doesn't end up replacing OG Bolas altogether.
Here are my inclusions from HOU. I am going to cut my human subtheme and reintroduce the 3-color section with 5 cards total.
Definite inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Thalia’s Lieutenant >> Adorned Pouncer - Mediocre on its own, but great with anthems and equips. Cool lategame bonus.
Eldrazi Skyspawner OR Aether Adept >> Nimble Obstructionist - Instant-speed threat and answer in one card? Yes please!
Scatter to the Winds >> Supreme Will - Another flexible blue card. And another splashable counter.
Abbot of Keral Keep >> Burning-Fist Minotaur - More discard outlets in red! Fine aggro beater, too.
Combustible Gearhulk >> Hour of Devastation - A potent red sweeper that deals with creatures and planeswalkers!
Collective Defiance OR ?? >> Abrade - I like maindeckable artifact destruction.
Mayor of Averbruck >> Ramunap Excavator - There are cool things you can do with repeated land recursion.
Adaptive Automaton >> Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - I love having Bolas represented in my cube. Good control wincon.
Possible Inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Secure the Wastes >> Angel of Condemnation - Another flexible blink effect.
Dragonlord Silumgar >> The Scarab God - Card seems fine.
All in all, a weaker set than most. Even though there is no real slamdunk for all sizes, HOU still has some decent cards. Though I have to admit that some of the inclusions only happen because I wanted to cut certain cards for a while now.
Yeah, that seems like a bad reason to get rid of Flickerwisp.
It is more a test cut than something permanent, have to try it on over something. Not so sure it will stick. Feel free to suggest other cuts from my list though.
It is more a test cut than something permanent, have to try it on over something. Not so sure it will stick. Feel free to suggest other cuts from my list though.
I'd cut Hallowed Spiritkeeper long before I'd cut Flickerwisp, even if this is just a temporary thing to test the angel.
Yeah, that seems like a bad reason to get rid of Flickerwisp.
It is more a test cut than something permanent, have to try it on over something. Not so sure it will stick. Feel free to suggest other cuts from my list though.
Anafenza, Containment Priest, and Angel of Sanctions would all be decent cuts too. If you need same cc, Spiritkeeper is the cut.
Been in Vegas all month for the world series so haven't had a chance to cube with new cards until yesterday.
While we only ran 3 cubes, got some initial impressions.
Ramunap Excavator - Was exactly as good as I hoped. Saw play as a key roleplayer in a GW agro/geddon/strip mine deck, and as a combo peice in a UG fastbond combo deck (fastbond + zuran orb + ramunap). I believe this guy may be the final piece to make fastbond combo worth supporting in small-medium cubes. It's a fun archetype and doesn't require too many unplayable cards to be supported. Crucible of worlds is by far the most important card to combine with fastbond and now we got another one...
Scorpion God- I played him a BR agro-midrange deck. I never got to cast him. But given the nature of the matchups, he wouldn't have been great.
Match 1 was against a Grixis through the breach/show and tell combo deck. Control the board, try to cheat emrakul/blightsteel in play. I needed to clock him and clock him fast or I would lose. Scorpion god was far too slow for that. Contrasting, Thundermaw hellkite was my other 5 drop, and was the MVP of the matchup.
Match 2 was against Bw agro. I was the "control" deck in this matchup. He had blood artists and dark confidants where the scorpion god's activated ability would have been good , but I was getting disrupted enough (or bob drew 4 cards) before scorpion god would have been relevant.
I tested scorpion god in place of cut//ribbons which would have been much better in this matchup.
Match 3 against a broken Jeskai control deck. Black lotus, ancestral recall, all the best cards in the colors etc. Yeah... a slow 5 drop is not what I wanted.
Overall verdict: Too slow for midrange. Grixis Control has enough (better) finishers.
Reason//Believe- Sat in the sideboard of UG fastbond combo deck that had tons of library manipulation. Problem was he had no big expensive creatures. Even if I'm correct that it's good enough for some dedicated UG decks, It's still a subset... Needs a lot of library manipulation AND a few huge creatures that "believe" significantly cheats the mana on. His game enders were Upheavel/Timespiral/Karn/Fastbond Combo. Gonna be too narrow, but i'll test more.
Supreme will - Got happily main decked all 3 drafts and never went late in a draft. I saw it in action multiple times and was impressed with the utility. Literally everyone who played it was happy with the card.
It fits perfectly with the ideal draw go gameplay... As it guarantees you both have a counterspell or a dig spell at the end of their turn.
Having a less efficient modal spell increases the probability you will be able to do one or the other on the end of their turn. If you are composing a deck, you definitely prefer efficient spells to versatile ones. But the ideal control deck likely has a mix of the two, unless you have like 4 brainstorms and multiple fetch lands
Nimble Obstructionist - Hit sideboard of two U/G decks (one U/G semi-tinker deck, other was the GU fastbond deck), and saw maindeck play in a UW tempo/control deck. Honestly, I wasn't impressed. Small sample, but the stifle did almost nothing against the decks he was playing against and the 3/1 flash flyer felt underwhelming given the overall power of his strategy. I'm not sure it will see play outside of tempo strategies that focus heavier on agro with lots of counterspells. I'm much lower on this creature now, but will still test. Sample too small.
Quoting Wtwlf's article.
"When I cast it without Stifling something, it felt like a waste of a Stifle effect, and when I stifled an ability with it, I felt like I was throwing a body away."
Abrade - I decided I'm close enough to artifact destruction saturation that I wasn't going to test abrade , but I changed my mind at the last minute. Most other artifact destruction spells I was considering are oppressive against artifacts but meh outside of that. So a small cube having a card like ancient grudge significantly effects the power of artifact.dec. A 2 mana shatter much less so.
I think this card is very good and initial testing confirmed. Destroying artifacts in cube are generally even more powerful than killing creatures, because you can trade up in mana efficiency more consistently. Most creatures that cost more than 2 mana have ETB effects or protection, which you can't recuperate the value with cheap removal. There are many artifacts that do not meet that criteria...
One downside of artifact removal is there are matchups or situations where it's a dead card. Abrade can still trade 1 for 1 with expensive artifacts (IE batterskull, smoke stack) while being more versatile than doomblade. That's a great card.
The Scarab God - I didn't see it played, but my friend had a 4 color control good stuff deck where he said it felt very powerful. He brought back Grave Titan with it when he untapped. I heard him laughing a couple seats over from me when he did it. I'm quite high on scarab god. Power, fun, synergy and fits in weak slot for both blue and black colors. For my cube, I'm leaning towards this being the #3 Dimir (don't include lands/signets).
Overall Impressions relative to my initial evaluations:
Supreme will +
Ramunap Excavator +
Abrade +
The Scarab god +
The Scorpion God -
Nimble Obstructionist -
Reason//Believe -
- I saw it a few games but I always killed it. I was playing Boros Aggro and my I kept depriving my opponent of mana or just killing him outright before he could eternalize it. Not a good showing, but most 2-drops would've been just as dead in that scenario, I definitely see the potential though since 5 mana eternalize isn't bad for a 4/4 double strike
- Versatile but nothing special, saw it used as a Mana Leak most of the time. I like it more than Censor and Pull from Tomorrow from AKH since it has a higher impact than Censor and more mana efficient than Pull from Tomorrow. Plays well with Spells Matters type cards and is never dead.
- Saw it played once to steal my Hazoret (which wasn't active for him). Ended up just burning him out, so it really didn't matter. I drafted it in one of my Grixis control decks and was literally the last cut since I already had Control Magic / Sower of Temptation. I would've sideboarded it in vs the Reanimator player or somebody else who was heavy on artifact ramp. Needs more testing.
- Was the tournament MVP of the Naya deck piloted by Thunderwang that defeated my Grixis Upheaval / Ramp deck in the finals. He says he assembled Strip Mine lock 4 times throughout the tournament. Being tutorable with a bunch of green cards is pretty huge. Definitely exceeded my expectations during its debut.
- I didn't see it cast, but my decks definitely could've used it. Abrade really isn't a card that you need to test to see its potential, so no worries there.
- Played it in my Boros Aggro deck and it was never in my hand early, I usually cast it a turn or two before I was about to lose : / Regardless, it did have damage potential and if my opponent made a mistake, Minotaur could have killed them. Needs more testing, but it seems promising so far given its current position of the bottom ranked 2-cmc red drop.
- I drafted The Scarab God in one of my Grixis decks but never got a chance to cast it. There was one opportunity where I could have cast it and stole a Grave Titan, but I decided to go the Upheaval route instead. Needs more testing, but the potential is definitely there.
- I definitely made the play of the night with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh. One thing that nobody mentioned in the SCD is its application with Upheaval since you don't have to cast the card immediately with his +2 ability. So I had Bolas in play against my opponent who had an Inkwell Leviathan that was able to kill me in two turns. My first +2 with Bolas revealed a Tangle Wire which I chose not to play because my opponent had a Winter Orb. I don't exactly remember what the second +2 revealed, but EOT I cast Venser to bounce Winter Orb so I can untap for Upheaval because Inkwell Leviathan was lethal next turn.
My third +2 showed Hedron Archive, so I cast Upheaval with 4 mana floating. Post-Upheaval I played a land and cast Hedron Archive for free via Bolas and was able to recast Bolas, +2'd a fourth time and revealed Thran Dynamo, which I cast and used to play 2 other mana rocks which allowed me to play Ugin on my second post-Upheaval turn. Best debut for a card ever, and I only used one of his abilities!
Ran 6 more cubes since the last post and wanted to mention that Nimble Obstructionist has performed much better than the initial test, and is for sure going to last through multiple rounds more of testing.
I don't think it's a high pick or anything crazy.. I'd only happily play it in a deck that operates primarily on an instant speed axis, but giving your deck the ability to deal with many situations the rest of your deck can't deal with, at instant speed, is a powerful option.
I saw the following things stifle cantripped in the past week
Snapcaster ETB trigger, targeting ancestral recall
Hangarbackwalker (with 4 counters) death trigger on a board containing blood artist and goblin bombardment
Walking ballista with 2 counters trying to shoot down a flesh carver attempting to equip a sword of fire and ice.
Quarantine Field ETB trigger
Cast out ETB trigger
It's clear to me the stifle is a high variance effect, and the past week showed it's upside.. Don't think it will this commonly have a major battlefield impact, but I was certainly impressed with the value it generated. Comapared to disallow, the extra card you draw when you stifle is a huge deal.
At 450, I'm sure Abrade and Excavator are around for the long haul. Bolas too, as long as I'm willing to play at least a few 3 color cards.
I'm still testing Adorned Pouncer, Angel of Condemnation, and Nimble Obstructionist. Maybe none of them stick, but Pouncer has been decent and Obstructionist is a maindeck Stifle variant that's also an instant speed threat, and that's cool for me.
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
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At 450, I'm sure Abrade and Excavator are around for the long haul. Bolas too, as long as I'm willing to play at least a few 3 color cards.
This. Three cards for 450s that want a tricolored section. Two for those that don't. The rest was meh for this size cube. I didn't even want to test anything else, except maybe Pouncer.
The Scarab God really shone today in the U/B Control deck. Being able to drop a 5/5 on turn 5 feels great, and if allowed to untap simply takes over the game. I was reanimating my Baleful Strix and Venser, Shaper Savant, and stealing opposing Baneslayer Angels while draining/scrying as well. Great card, solid addition to the Dimir section.
The Scarab God really shone today in the U/B Control deck. Being able to drop a 5/5 on turn 5 feels great, and if allowed to untap simply takes over the game. I was reanimating my Baleful Strix and Venser, Shaper Savant, and stealing opposing Baneslayer Angels while draining/scrying as well. Great card, solid addition to the Dimir section.
Two months later and I've yet to personally see The Scarab God in any of my games : / Other drafters have had success with it though. It really sucks that Hostage Taker was actually spoiled before The Scarab God because he literally came in with an expiration date. I may come back to him later though just to shake things up / if Hostage Taker makes it feel the UB 4-cmc slot is too clogged.
Excavator, Abrade, and God-Pharaoh have been performing very well over the past few months, I predict these 3 will be in my cube for the long haul. Supreme Will has also been a nice addition. I think it's the second best 3-cmc counterspell. I can see it being replaced as we get more blue cards, but I'm currently in no hurry to replace it.
Haven't seen Adorned Pouncer shine yet : / I like the cat over other existing options for now, but it's on the bottom of the 2-cmc white creature totem pole for now.
WWW
Angel of Condemnation - I support blink so this might be cool for a while but I don't expect it to last.
UUU
Nimble Obstructionist - I really like this card. If I can find a reasonable cut for it, I'll probably try it out but my expectations are low.
Supreme Will - I run one 3-cmc counter in Scatter to the Winds so this might replace that to add some flexibility and an easier casting cost.
GGG
Ramunap Excavator - This card has me excited to proxy Crucible of Worlds and try adding a new archetype to the cube.
UBR
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - I have Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in the cube now as part of a 5-card rainbow section, so this new Bolas will probably make a few rounds in place of that, if it doesn't end up replacing OG Bolas altogether.
Modern:
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My [360][Unpowered][Modern-Frame] Cube
I am going to end up trying these five:
CUT >> ADD
Smash to Smithereens >> Abrade
Ajani Goldmane OR Glorious Anthem >> Angel of Condemnation
Boreal Druid >> Ramunap Excavator
Repeal >> Supreme Will
Shadowmage Infiltrator >> The Scarab God
I'd love to try Nicol Bolas but not at 20 dollars.
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Definite inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Thalia’s Lieutenant >> Adorned Pouncer - Mediocre on its own, but great with anthems and equips. Cool lategame bonus.
Eldrazi Skyspawner OR Aether Adept >> Nimble Obstructionist - Instant-speed threat and answer in one card? Yes please!
Scatter to the Winds >> Supreme Will - Another flexible blue card. And another splashable counter.
Abbot of Keral Keep >> Burning-Fist Minotaur - More discard outlets in red! Fine aggro beater, too.
Combustible Gearhulk >> Hour of Devastation - A potent red sweeper that deals with creatures and planeswalkers!
Collective Defiance OR ?? >> Abrade - I like maindeckable artifact destruction.
Mayor of Averbruck >> Ramunap Excavator - There are cool things you can do with repeated land recursion.
Adaptive Automaton >> Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - I love having Bolas represented in my cube. Good control wincon.
Possible Inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Secure the Wastes >> Angel of Condemnation - Another flexible blink effect.
Dragonlord Silumgar >> The Scarab God - Card seems fine.
All in all, a weaker set than most. Even though there is no real slamdunk for all sizes, HOU still has some decent cards. Though I have to admit that some of the inclusions only happen because I wanted to cut certain cards for a while now.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
It is more a test cut than something permanent, have to try it on over something. Not so sure it will stick. Feel free to suggest other cuts from my list though.
I'd cut Hallowed Spiritkeeper long before I'd cut Flickerwisp, even if this is just a temporary thing to test the angel.
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Anafenza, Containment Priest, and Angel of Sanctions would all be decent cuts too. If you need same cc, Spiritkeeper is the cut.
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While we only ran 3 cubes, got some initial impressions.
Ramunap Excavator - Was exactly as good as I hoped. Saw play as a key roleplayer in a GW agro/geddon/strip mine deck, and as a combo peice in a UG fastbond combo deck (fastbond + zuran orb + ramunap). I believe this guy may be the final piece to make fastbond combo worth supporting in small-medium cubes. It's a fun archetype and doesn't require too many unplayable cards to be supported. Crucible of worlds is by far the most important card to combine with fastbond and now we got another one...
Scorpion God- I played him a BR agro-midrange deck. I never got to cast him. But given the nature of the matchups, he wouldn't have been great.
Match 1 was against a Grixis through the breach/show and tell combo deck. Control the board, try to cheat emrakul/blightsteel in play. I needed to clock him and clock him fast or I would lose. Scorpion god was far too slow for that. Contrasting, Thundermaw hellkite was my other 5 drop, and was the MVP of the matchup.
Match 2 was against Bw agro. I was the "control" deck in this matchup. He had blood artists and dark confidants where the scorpion god's activated ability would have been good , but I was getting disrupted enough (or bob drew 4 cards) before scorpion god would have been relevant.
I tested scorpion god in place of cut//ribbons which would have been much better in this matchup.
Match 3 against a broken Jeskai control deck. Black lotus, ancestral recall, all the best cards in the colors etc. Yeah... a slow 5 drop is not what I wanted.
Overall verdict: Too slow for midrange. Grixis Control has enough (better) finishers.
Reason//Believe- Sat in the sideboard of UG fastbond combo deck that had tons of library manipulation. Problem was he had no big expensive creatures. Even if I'm correct that it's good enough for some dedicated UG decks, It's still a subset... Needs a lot of library manipulation AND a few huge creatures that "believe" significantly cheats the mana on. His game enders were Upheavel/Timespiral/Karn/Fastbond Combo. Gonna be too narrow, but i'll test more.
Supreme will - Got happily main decked all 3 drafts and never went late in a draft. I saw it in action multiple times and was impressed with the utility. Literally everyone who played it was happy with the card.
It fits perfectly with the ideal draw go gameplay... As it guarantees you both have a counterspell or a dig spell at the end of their turn.
Having a less efficient modal spell increases the probability you will be able to do one or the other on the end of their turn. If you are composing a deck, you definitely prefer efficient spells to versatile ones. But the ideal control deck likely has a mix of the two, unless you have like 4 brainstorms and multiple fetch lands
Nimble Obstructionist - Hit sideboard of two U/G decks (one U/G semi-tinker deck, other was the GU fastbond deck), and saw maindeck play in a UW tempo/control deck. Honestly, I wasn't impressed. Small sample, but the stifle did almost nothing against the decks he was playing against and the 3/1 flash flyer felt underwhelming given the overall power of his strategy. I'm not sure it will see play outside of tempo strategies that focus heavier on agro with lots of counterspells. I'm much lower on this creature now, but will still test. Sample too small.
Quoting Wtwlf's article.
"When I cast it without Stifling something, it felt like a waste of a Stifle effect, and when I stifled an ability with it, I felt like I was throwing a body away."
Abrade - I decided I'm close enough to artifact destruction saturation that I wasn't going to test abrade , but I changed my mind at the last minute. Most other artifact destruction spells I was considering are oppressive against artifacts but meh outside of that. So a small cube having a card like ancient grudge significantly effects the power of artifact.dec. A 2 mana shatter much less so.
I think this card is very good and initial testing confirmed. Destroying artifacts in cube are generally even more powerful than killing creatures, because you can trade up in mana efficiency more consistently. Most creatures that cost more than 2 mana have ETB effects or protection, which you can't recuperate the value with cheap removal. There are many artifacts that do not meet that criteria...
One downside of artifact removal is there are matchups or situations where it's a dead card. Abrade can still trade 1 for 1 with expensive artifacts (IE batterskull, smoke stack) while being more versatile than doomblade. That's a great card.
The Scarab God - I didn't see it played, but my friend had a 4 color control good stuff deck where he said it felt very powerful. He brought back Grave Titan with it when he untapped. I heard him laughing a couple seats over from me when he did it. I'm quite high on scarab god. Power, fun, synergy and fits in weak slot for both blue and black colors. For my cube, I'm leaning towards this being the #3 Dimir (don't include lands/signets).
Overall Impressions relative to my initial evaluations:
Supreme will +
Ramunap Excavator +
Abrade +
The Scarab god +
The Scorpion God -
Nimble Obstructionist -
Reason//Believe -
Last Updated 02/07/24
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2-1 Boros Aggro
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2-1 Grixis Wildfire Upheaval
HOU card testing results (so far)
Adorned Pouncer
- I saw it a few games but I always killed it. I was playing Boros Aggro and my I kept depriving my opponent of mana or just killing him outright before he could eternalize it. Not a good showing, but most 2-drops would've been just as dead in that scenario, I definitely see the potential though since 5 mana eternalize isn't bad for a 4/4 double strike
Supreme Will
- Versatile but nothing special, saw it used as a Mana Leak most of the time. I like it more than Censor and Pull from Tomorrow from AKH since it has a higher impact than Censor and more mana efficient than Pull from Tomorrow. Plays well with Spells Matters type cards and is never dead.
Kefnet's Last Word
- Saw it played once to steal my Hazoret (which wasn't active for him). Ended up just burning him out, so it really didn't matter. I drafted it in one of my Grixis control decks and was literally the last cut since I already had Control Magic / Sower of Temptation. I would've sideboarded it in vs the Reanimator player or somebody else who was heavy on artifact ramp. Needs more testing.
Magus of the Crucible (Ramunap Excavator)
- Was the tournament MVP of the Naya deck piloted by Thunderwang that defeated my Grixis Upheaval / Ramp deck in the finals. He says he assembled Strip Mine lock 4 times throughout the tournament. Being tutorable with a bunch of green cards is pretty huge. Definitely exceeded my expectations during its debut.
Abrade
- I didn't see it cast, but my decks definitely could've used it. Abrade really isn't a card that you need to test to see its potential, so no worries there.
Burning-Fist Minotaur
- Played it in my Boros Aggro deck and it was never in my hand early, I usually cast it a turn or two before I was about to lose : / Regardless, it did have damage potential and if my opponent made a mistake, Minotaur could have killed them. Needs more testing, but it seems promising so far given its current position of the bottom ranked 2-cmc red drop.
The Scarab God
- I drafted The Scarab God in one of my Grixis decks but never got a chance to cast it. There was one opportunity where I could have cast it and stole a Grave Titan, but I decided to go the Upheaval route instead. Needs more testing, but the potential is definitely there.
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
- I definitely made the play of the night with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh. One thing that nobody mentioned in the SCD is its application with Upheaval since you don't have to cast the card immediately with his +2 ability. So I had Bolas in play against my opponent who had an Inkwell Leviathan that was able to kill me in two turns. My first +2 with Bolas revealed a Tangle Wire which I chose not to play because my opponent had a Winter Orb. I don't exactly remember what the second +2 revealed, but EOT I cast Venser to bounce Winter Orb so I can untap for Upheaval because Inkwell Leviathan was lethal next turn.
My third +2 showed Hedron Archive, so I cast Upheaval with 4 mana floating. Post-Upheaval I played a land and cast Hedron Archive for free via Bolas and was able to recast Bolas, +2'd a fourth time and revealed Thran Dynamo, which I cast and used to play 2 other mana rocks which allowed me to play Ugin on my second post-Upheaval turn. Best debut for a card ever, and I only used one of his abilities!
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I don't think it's a high pick or anything crazy.. I'd only happily play it in a deck that operates primarily on an instant speed axis, but giving your deck the ability to deal with many situations the rest of your deck can't deal with, at instant speed, is a powerful option.
I saw the following things stifle cantripped in the past week
Snapcaster ETB trigger, targeting ancestral recall
Hangarbackwalker (with 4 counters) death trigger on a board containing blood artist and goblin bombardment
Walking ballista with 2 counters trying to shoot down a flesh carver attempting to equip a sword of fire and ice.
Quarantine Field ETB trigger
Cast out ETB trigger
It's clear to me the stifle is a high variance effect, and the past week showed it's upside.. Don't think it will this commonly have a major battlefield impact, but I was certainly impressed with the value it generated. Comapared to disallow, the extra card you draw when you stifle is a huge deal.
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I'm still testing Adorned Pouncer, Angel of Condemnation, and Nimble Obstructionist. Maybe none of them stick, but Pouncer has been decent and Obstructionist is a maindeck Stifle variant that's also an instant speed threat, and that's cool for me.
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Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
This. Three cards for 450s that want a tricolored section. Two for those that don't. The rest was meh for this size cube. I didn't even want to test anything else, except maybe Pouncer.
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rant
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Two months later and I've yet to personally see The Scarab God in any of my games : / Other drafters have had success with it though. It really sucks that Hostage Taker was actually spoiled before The Scarab God because he literally came in with an expiration date. I may come back to him later though just to shake things up / if Hostage Taker makes it feel the UB 4-cmc slot is too clogged.
Excavator, Abrade, and God-Pharaoh have been performing very well over the past few months, I predict these 3 will be in my cube for the long haul. Supreme Will has also been a nice addition. I think it's the second best 3-cmc counterspell. I can see it being replaced as we get more blue cards, but I'm currently in no hurry to replace it.
Haven't seen Adorned Pouncer shine yet : / I like the cat over other existing options for now, but it's on the bottom of the 2-cmc white creature totem pole for now.
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