Attrition
One of my friends has a pretty fun 450 card Cube. He does not use forums to bounce ideas or view other Cube lists, so he has missed some good cards; that said, he also has a few spicy cards like Attrition that the majority of the Cube community does not run. He told me that it is a "bomb" and "an easy first pick." Does anyone else have experience with Attrition? It seems super sweet.
it was in my very first cube list, of 800+ cards. 1BBB and sacrificing a creature to kill your first target is a hefty cost, considering the non-black restriction and that you can get Murder with significantupside for 1BB. You would need multiple activations out of it, suggesting use in a token deck or something similar. I think if the non-black restriction was removed, you'd see a lot more of this card - however against creature-light control decks, you might not often see multiple viable targets, with the big finishers having hexproof. Getting around countermagic is nice though.
I think Attrition is a super cool card, but it didn't last very long into my testing. Although you potentially control a game if you have enough mana and disposable creatures, getting to that point can be a challenge. Like, turn 4, I probably don't want to tap out to 2-for-1 myself to deal with a single threat, when I could just as well do a full board-wipe or accomplish comparable results with a Braids or something else stronger. Plus, all that black mana you have to pay really limits you.
I think of Attrition as an EDH card nowadays. Maybe a cube on the slower end might like it?
it was in my very first cube list, of 800+ cards. 1BBB and sacrificing a creature to kill your first target is a hefty cost, considering the non-black restriction and that you can get Murder with significantupside for 1BB. You would need multiple activations out of it, suggesting use in a token deck or something similar. I think if the non-black restriction was removed, you'd see a lot more of this card - however against creature-light control decks, you might not often see multiple viable targets, with the big finishers having hexproof. Getting around countermagic is nice though.
I don't think comparing this card to targeted removal instants and sorceries is fair. When you compare it like that, Attrition is of course a more inefficient way to destroy creatures. In reality you should view Attrition as an engine card that keeps creatures off your opponent's board with all your recurrable black creatures and Bitterblossom. It also has great synergy with cards like Shriekmaw and Boneshredder. I'm going to make a list tonight of the creatures in my cube that "combo" with Attrition to see if the average black-based aggressive deck can abuse its effect.
Yes, definitely good in the slower EDH and Multiplayer cubes. It's not in mine, but I could see it in there fairly easily. It definitely wants Bloodghast and other similarly-recursive creatures in the list, though. Very good with red's steal effects, too.
I don't think comparing this card to targeted removal instants and sorceries is fair. When you compare it like that, Attrition is of course a more inefficient way to destroy creatures.
That's what I'm saying - to be better than those, it HAS to be utilised multiple times, requiring viable targets and a lot of creatures to sacrifice, which immediately pigeonholes it. It doesn't fit Pox/Stax decks as well in my opinion, since your creatures are very much a finite resource there and even with the requisite token generation, this can put a lot of strain on resources. It's pretty great in B/X token decks, but even then the non-black clause can prove an annoyance. I would probably start to consider Attrition at 6-700 or so as long as I had a very strong token theme. A lot has to go right for it to make my maindeck, based on my previous experience. When everything goes right, it can be a successful and oppressive engine card.
I don't think comparing this card to targeted removal instants and sorceries is fair. When you compare it like that, Attrition is of course a more inefficient way to destroy creatures.
That's what I'm saying - to be better than those, it HAS to be utilised multiple times, requiring viable targets and a lot of creatures to sacrifice, which immediately pigeonholes it. It doesn't fit Pox/Stax decks as well in my opinion, since your creatures are very much a finite resource there and even with the requisite token generation, this can put a lot of strain on resources. It's pretty great in B/X token decks, but even then the non-black clause can prove an annoyance. I would probably start to consider Attrition at 6-700 or so as long as I had a very strong token theme. A lot has to go right for it to make my maindeck, based on my previous experience. When everything goes right, it can be a successful and oppressive engine card.
Those are good points; I'm going to have to test it to see how it plays out. I like cards like this in theory because they can be high picks that you try to build your deck around.
The card is borderline insane if you have creatures that are good on their own but self-reanimate without spending significant resources. Bloodsoaked Champion, Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, Nether Spirit, etc.
The card is borderline insane if you have creatures that are good on their own but self-reanimate without spending significant resources. Bloodsoaked Champion, Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, Nether Spirit, etc.
That's BCS. WCS it sits out on your board with no creatures in play or they have black creatures or pro-black. ACS it murders something of your opponents that would have already killed the creature you're sacrificing, which is most-always what happens - I'm perfectly okay with this. Also you can do neat tricks with blocking their attackers.
But anything that makes tokens or has a persisting effect is just bonkers good with it.
This card lost a lot once when combat damage stopped using the stack. It was insane then, pretty much always a 2-for-1. You can still get good value out of it, and there are obviously some good creatures to use with it, but I think it falls short overall.
It's 2019! Is anyone still using Attrition? I'm considering adding an Aristocrats package to support black aggro in my cube, and Attrition (and Contamination) was mentioned a lot. Is Attrition too parasitic for medium sized cubes? I run 400 powered for reference.
I've tried it before and it was bad. Requiring three black mana if you want to play it and kill a creature is hard to do. Not killing artifact creatures was a big blind spot to the engine - Attrition is a card you have to side out against heavy black and/or creature light decks. Add to that the inherent narrowness of Attrition (requiring several disposable creature consistently) and it was an easy cut.
One of my friends has a pretty fun 450 card Cube. He does not use forums to bounce ideas or view other Cube lists, so he has missed some good cards; that said, he also has a few spicy cards like Attrition that the majority of the Cube community does not run. He told me that it is a "bomb" and "an easy first pick." Does anyone else have experience with Attrition? It seems super sweet.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I think of Attrition as an EDH card nowadays. Maybe a cube on the slower end might like it?
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I don't think comparing this card to targeted removal instants and sorceries is fair. When you compare it like that, Attrition is of course a more inefficient way to destroy creatures. In reality you should view Attrition as an engine card that keeps creatures off your opponent's board with all your recurrable black creatures and Bitterblossom. It also has great synergy with cards like Shriekmaw and Boneshredder. I'm going to make a list tonight of the creatures in my cube that "combo" with Attrition to see if the average black-based aggressive deck can abuse its effect.
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That's what I'm saying - to be better than those, it HAS to be utilised multiple times, requiring viable targets and a lot of creatures to sacrifice, which immediately pigeonholes it. It doesn't fit Pox/Stax decks as well in my opinion, since your creatures are very much a finite resource there and even with the requisite token generation, this can put a lot of strain on resources. It's pretty great in B/X token decks, but even then the non-black clause can prove an annoyance. I would probably start to consider Attrition at 6-700 or so as long as I had a very strong token theme. A lot has to go right for it to make my maindeck, based on my previous experience. When everything goes right, it can be a successful and oppressive engine card.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Those are good points; I'm going to have to test it to see how it plays out. I like cards like this in theory because they can be high picks that you try to build your deck around.
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That's BCS. WCS it sits out on your board with no creatures in play or they have black creatures or pro-black. ACS it murders something of your opponents that would have already killed the creature you're sacrificing, which is most-always what happens - I'm perfectly okay with this. Also you can do neat tricks with blocking their attackers.
But anything that makes tokens or has a persisting effect is just bonkers good with it.
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