Crystal Shard is extremely abusable, Commit // Memory is a very versatile blue spell, Repeal is a decent cantrip that's awesome vs tokens, Repulse is okay.
- 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!
Planning on putting in the new magus of the crucible for wickerbough elder, but i am worried about not having enough enchantment removal.
Any suggestions?
Please and thank you.
I like Magus of the Crucible more than Tireless Tracker in your 3-cmc section. Or Elves of Deep Shadow.
I think the card is good, but I don't like running Monarch cards because none of them say what the ability does, and newer cubists don't have exposure to it from other formats.
That, and I lost the emblem one time too many.
Palace Jailer sees regular play in Legacy.
If people can understand how planeswalkers work, I don't see how monarch can be a problem. Part of the fun of Magic is LEARNING.
Nice write up as usual, especially considering with what you had to work with...
One question I have: do you like Pouncer more than Trueheart Duelist? I haven't gotten a chance to test HOU and they are both very similar / different at the same time.
I've been testing Palace Jailer over Gisela and the testing has been quite positive. Monarch is powerful in any deck that can go wide and defend it and the exile effect is strong and re-usable. Has all the synergies in the world with Lark / Alesha / Recruiters and works well in Stax shells. Sometimes I'll put into my control deck vs the control mirror after game 1 if I know my opponent will have trouble taking monarch from me.
Just to check something, if he dies or I flicker him does the game forget about the "until an opponent becomes the monarch" clause? I scanned the thread and couldn't see an answer, sorry if its s silly question but I always forget how the game handles memory issues like this.
He seem a lot more solid that I first though if bouncing him exiles the creature forever.
The game does not forget about the "until an opponent becomes the monarch" clause. If you lose monarch and Palace Jailer was exiled a few turns ago or something, the creature that Palace Jailer exiled will still comeback.
Not necessarily: a normal cube probably has more acceleration and zombie generators like Death's Majesty / Grave Titan to make Dark Salvation more worth it.
Once I officially update my cube with HOU, I'll be running all the above cards except Ammit Eternal / Plague Belcher. I have two slots to spare for Dark Salvation and possibly Plague Belcher, was wondering how people are liking Dark Salvation if they're currently cubing it and how heavy they are into zombies. Wouldn't be surprised if my zombie saturation still isn't there yet for this, but I'm in the mood for experimentation.
I like Frenzied Fugue too, but I'm looking to add these in to support a BR sacrifice deck and it doesn't really work in that deck. I also think Conscripts is the best as well, but probably too good for my low power environment. And I don't play 'walkers in that list.
I'm really just looking for red threaten spells that can be used to snag a dude as a combat trick, or snag him, attack with him, and sac him to a sac outlet. I'm currently running Pillage and Molten Rain because I had hoped a Ponza style deck would work, but it just hasn't come together. I want to replace those two cards with two Threatens, but they're all worded differently for some reason so searching for them all on MagicCards.info is cumbersome.
I'd argue that the power of Zealous Conscripts scales so it shouldn't be too powerful in an lower power list.
Bazaar is definitely one of the most busted lands cards of all time and is definitely one of my favorite cards in Vintage. It's a powerful card, but the drawbacks of being a land that doesn't tap for mana and the card disadvantage is too steep for cube, IMO.
Also not a huge fan, but I'm adding the Minotaur because I'm a little light on discard outlets. While it isn't close to ideal for reanimator, it threatens a lot of damage and makes blocking awkward. Plus, I'm cutting a bad RR card that was rarely played (Ember Hauler) and I don't expect this card to stay for long.
Needs more Firestorm and Wild Mongrel / Noose Constrictor Minotaur being a discard outlet is definitely his tertiary because of the mana cost associated with it.
Crystal Shard is extremely abusable, Commit // Memory is a very versatile blue spell, Repeal is a decent cantrip that's awesome vs tokens, Repulse is okay.
2-1 Boros Aggro
3-0 Grixis Tinker Upheaval (no HOU cards drafted : / )
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!
I like Magus of the Crucible more than Tireless Tracker in your 3-cmc section. Or Elves of Deep Shadow.
Palace Jailer sees regular play in Legacy.
If people can understand how planeswalkers work, I don't see how monarch can be a problem. Part of the fun of Magic is LEARNING.
I like Geopede over Minotaur / Mauler.
One question I have: do you like Pouncer more than Trueheart Duelist? I haven't gotten a chance to test HOU and they are both very similar / different at the same time.
Just take a sharpie to Plated Crusher and cross out third G and write in "can't be countered."
The game does not forget about the "until an opponent becomes the monarch" clause. If you lose monarch and Palace Jailer was exiled a few turns ago or something, the creature that Palace Jailer exiled will still comeback.
Thalia 2.0 is amazing and I would not recommend cutting her for Angel of Condemnation.
Since EMN we've gotten the following cubeable zombie / zombie generators (not counting Embalm / Eternalize cards).
- Dread Wanderer
- Liliana, Death's Majesty
- Plague Belcher
- Never // Return
- The Scarab God
- Ammit Eternal
Once I officially update my cube with HOU, I'll be running all the above cards except Ammit Eternal / Plague Belcher. I have two slots to spare for Dark Salvation and possibly Plague Belcher, was wondering how people are liking Dark Salvation if they're currently cubing it and how heavy they are into zombies. Wouldn't be surprised if my zombie saturation still isn't there yet for this, but I'm in the mood for experimentation.
I'd argue that the power of Zealous Conscripts scales so it shouldn't be too powerful in an lower power list.
landscards of all time and is definitely one of my favorite cards in Vintage. It's a powerful card, but the drawbacks of being a land that doesn't tap for mana and the card disadvantage is too steep for cube, IMO.Goblin Game is pretty bizarre.
Needs more Firestorm and Wild Mongrel / Noose Constrictor