In most decks, discarding a card is a pretty heavy cost to pay for a card that doesn't actually answer the PW right away, unless you've also got enough extra mana to spare. This is useful to pick off PWs whose primary mode of operation is to start out with a - ability and then build back up (looking at you, T3feri), but it's not as good against general incremental advantage PWs. Expecting to get to play it and have it stick around through all the other cards a cube deck will have to deal with it, and then knowing that it may need to consume most or all of your mana the following turn, is a pretty poor proposition. Note that it also doesn't have protection from the tokens that so many PWs can poop out to defend themselves. The activated indestructibility helps, but again, that can consume your mana for a turn and will likely not be available immediately after you play this.
I do like that it provides a colorless option, but for discarding a card, I would have liked to see it just eat a PW on ETB.
This looks like a pretty easy include. Not sure which removal card it's going to push out for me... Doom Blade, Murderous Cut, Chainer's Edict... could see any of them going.
I think there is a risk that the novelty of companion exaggerates this guy's Cubeability as a creature in your maindeck. Obviously, if it is in your Cube it will make some decks but if you take away the companion ability, would this still be a Cubeable creature?
Since it is largely speculative right now as to the how onerous the companion condition will prove to be (and how often it will even be feasible), I think a little reservation is called for.
I get your point though, as a 4-drop or 5-drop creature, in a non-companion deck, it seems awesome, no?
Something like turn 4 Lurrus + cast Dauntless Bodyguard from your graveyard feels pretty solid...
I think it's still pretty difficult to assemble a deck where you can actually play this as a companion and it's an improvement over what you have to give up to get there. But it's extremely reasonable to just play this as a normal card, especially with the hybrid mana cost... tempting people to companion it is a nice bonus. Definitely going to consider this for inclusion.
The number of times this will be better than Selvala's Stampede seems pretty low, and I don't rate the Stampede as a must-have card even at 720. It might not even be as good as See the Unwritten, which digs one card deeper and can cheat out any creature regardless of keyword, with the possibility of hitting a second one as well if you have ferocious. The feel-bad factor of completely whiffing, combined with the six mana cost, makes this an easy pass for me. But I can see cube constructions where it would be more reliable and a lot of fun.
I'm a little surprised to see no mention of this card at all, not even in the almost-playables thread. Menace is no joke, and this is effectively hitting for three a turn, with one of it being unblockable... while also providing you with a second card a turn. While the card draw is symmetric, it's also simultaneous, and a low-to-the-ground aggro deck is likely to be able to apply the extra cards much faster than a midrange or control deck would.
Haven't played the Outpost in a while. Like the other Castles, the opportunity cost on this is very low; if you cube it, it will find its way onto a lot of decklists. But a vanilla 1/1 token doesn't do a whole lot to stop most strong cube threats.
I see a trend: "I'd always play this in my deck, and I'd happily draft if, but I can't justify a cut."
Since this is such an issue, it makes a lot of sense to me to have a utility land slot in each color. In such a way, this isn't competing with all your black cards, just all the black lands. We can all agree that utility lands are good in decks and good in draft, so that seems like the logical solution. I've been doing it this way for a while, and I think I'm ready to go up to a double cycle of mono-colored lands.
But I guess people don't want to add five slots, or make five cuts to do this.
Unless you're increasing the total size of your cube, it's still competing with your black cards. You as the cube designer are making the choice to reserve a slot for this rather than using that slot for a black card... worse, you're reserving five slots across all colors to put in cards that might not have been good enough to include over what you're running now, just to justify adding this one. That seems worse.
The good news is, Black's land offerings for the cube beyond Volrath's Stronghold have always been lacking. This is probably more useful than Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth or any of the other competing options. So if you want it in, just cut a black card and be done with it.
This sure seems worth a look at 720. For 3WW it's board wipe + draw a card, with that card being a big dumb idiot. But having that big dumb idiot attached to the card then provides some bonus value. Bounce or recur it to your hand and have your sweeper back? Yes please.
The obvious cards this leans on are Fumigate and Martial Coup. I'm kinda sorta interested in this over the Coup. It takes longer to get your creatures on the board after you sweep, but it's usable at < 7 mana in a way that Martial Coup isn't.
I agree that this probably misses the cut in anything smaller.
I'm not sure what to do with The Royal Scions, as I definitely don't want to go up to four PWs in Izzet and I'm not convinced it's better than Dack, Saheeli SA, or Saheeli the Gifted. If I had to cut one for it, it would probably be Sublime Artificer. I could see either Robber of the Rich or Wicked Wolf getting in eventually.
Cards I'm surest about sticking around for a long time: Charming Prince, Murderous Rider, Bonecrusher Giant, Once Upon a Time.
I do like that it provides a colorless option, but for discarding a card, I would have liked to see it just eat a PW on ETB.
Something like turn 4 Lurrus + cast Dauntless Bodyguard from your graveyard feels pretty solid...
But it is also an adorable Elemental Otter.
So I will be cubing this.
I'm a little surprised to see no mention of this card at all, not even in the almost-playables thread. Menace is no joke, and this is effectively hitting for three a turn, with one of it being unblockable... while also providing you with a second card a turn. While the card draw is symmetric, it's also simultaneous, and a low-to-the-ground aggro deck is likely to be able to apply the extra cards much faster than a midrange or control deck would.
I'm seriously considering this card against Falkenrath Aristocrat or Murderous Redcap at 720.
Unless you're increasing the total size of your cube, it's still competing with your black cards. You as the cube designer are making the choice to reserve a slot for this rather than using that slot for a black card... worse, you're reserving five slots across all colors to put in cards that might not have been good enough to include over what you're running now, just to justify adding this one. That seems worse.
The good news is, Black's land offerings for the cube beyond Volrath's Stronghold have always been lacking. This is probably more useful than Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth or any of the other competing options. So if you want it in, just cut a black card and be done with it.
The obvious cards this leans on are Fumigate and Martial Coup. I'm kinda sorta interested in this over the Coup. It takes longer to get your creatures on the board after you sweep, but it's usable at < 7 mana in a way that Martial Coup isn't.
I agree that this probably misses the cut in anything smaller.
Giant Killer (over Angel of Sanctions)
Charming Prince (over Precinct Captain)
Murderous Rider (over Midnight Reaper)
Rankle, Master of Pranks (over Bloodline Keeper)
Embereth Shieldbreaker (over Smash to Smithereens)
Bonecrusher Giant (over Earthquake)
Once Upon a Time (over Vivien's Arkbow)
Questing Beast (over Rhonas the Indomitable)
Garruk, Cursed Huntsman (over Vraska, Relic Seeker)
Oko, Thief of Crowns (over Coiling Oracle)
Watchlist:
Robber of the Rich
Wicked Wolf
The Royal Scions
I'm not sure what to do with The Royal Scions, as I definitely don't want to go up to four PWs in Izzet and I'm not convinced it's better than Dack, Saheeli SA, or Saheeli the Gifted. If I had to cut one for it, it would probably be Sublime Artificer. I could see either Robber of the Rich or Wicked Wolf getting in eventually.
Cards I'm surest about sticking around for a long time: Charming Prince, Murderous Rider, Bonecrusher Giant, Once Upon a Time.
Once Upon a Time for me, but this is still great.
I'll play this guy.