Lone Missionary is great card for control decks against aggro decks or aggro mirrors. It basically negates an attacking creature an one of their burn spells. However, outside of this use, Lone Missionary does not seem to do much. Control decks often wants to hold up two mana for instant spells or use them for ramp. Many cubes do not include many blink effects to abuse the life gain trigger, but even if they did, card and board control is often more important than life gain.
In our playgroup, Lone Missionary has never been picked since I started registering our draft decks in January this year (data currently includes 21 drafts or 93 decks in total).
Even as someone who likes it, I don't think it's ever been important. It's great with recursion/blink effects, but I could totally see cutting it for one of those.
It's a card I've been impressed with and others who have drafted our cubes have been pleasantly surprised with too, but I understand not running it.
I like it more than any of those cards. It's very versatile. I especially like it in Orzhov aggro to offset life loss from Bob, etc. That said, if your group is not happy with it, it's a fine cut to try those cards. I like Relic Seeker best, unless you are going with a heavy morph theme.
I use it in decks that can break the ETB trigger, and in the aggro mirror. And there's plenty of both in my playgroup. I could see myself cutting it in the future, but it would need to be for another 2-drop that can give me value in the 'Lark/Alesha/Vat/Recruiter and blink/bounce shells. There are a ton of cards in the typical cube that provide good value from Missionary. The effect seems innocuous, but there are a lot of matchups where it will warrant an audible groan from the opponent when it resolves. Not all 2-drops have windows where they can be as powerful as Missionary can in the situations it really shines in. It's a card that's played for it's ceiling, not its floor.
It's actually pretty decent in WB aggro, since it can offset a lot of the lifeloss drawbacks in black. But there are enough matchups and situations where the lifegain is relevant, and there are tons of ways to get multiple triggers from it.
Lone Missionary is great card for control decks against aggro decks or aggro mirrors. It basically negates an attacking creature an one of their burn spells. However, outside of this use, Lone Missionary does not seem to do much. Control decks often wants to hold up two mana for instant spells or use them for ramp. Many cubes do not include many blink effects to abuse the life gain trigger, but even if they did, card and board control is often more important than life gain.
In our playgroup, Lone Missionary has never been picked since I started registering our draft decks in January this year (data currently includes 21 drafts or 93 decks in total).
I am thinking about cutting it, probably for a more beatdown oriented card like Adanto Vanguard, Relic Seeker or Hidden Dragonslayer.
What do you guys think of Missionary? Is it still an important piece for cubes in 2017?
It's a card I've been impressed with and others who have drafted our cubes have been pleasantly surprised with too, but I understand not running it.
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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!