So anyone who has played Innistrad Limited knew how devastating Falkenrath Noble could be. Some of the appeal was in the 2/2 flying body though. As such, when Blood Artist was spoiled, I know many were skeptical, a 0/1 ground guy is a much less relevant body. His performance in AVR limited and standard constructed however has continued to hammer the point home: this ability is SO STRONG that even on an 0/1 it can cause serious problems.
So the question of the hour: is this guy good enough for Cube? I'm really starting to think the answer is yes. There is no question that by himself he does nothing but, in conjunction with an aggressive suite, it makes trades miserable for your opponent. Black has been getting more and more dudes that love to trade and keep coming back for more (Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, Geralf's Messenger , etc.), this card provides the perfect complement. The card is equally good in aggro mirrors/race situations or those situations where a slower deck tries to trade early + often. The card punishes mass removal hard; how often have you seen constructed matches where one play straight up loses if they sweep? The card is easy to splash so it slips into aggro decks of any black color combo. You are often saccing creatures for profit in black and this works great with that. "Tokens" is becoming an increasingly supported archetype; they are another subset of expendable creatures. He adds a free "drain 1" kicker to all your removal spells and we all know black has plenty of those. Just think about it, even with zero power, how much damage is this guy pushing through in an average match? I think you'd be surprised. IMO this gives black aggro a unique and powerful angle of attack. Has anyone else tried him out in the context of Cube?
So anyone who has played Innistrad Limited knew how devastating Falkenrath Noble could be. Some of the appeal was in the 2/2 flying body though. As such, when Blood Artist was spoiled, I know many were skeptical, a 0/1 ground guy is a much less relevant body. His performance in AVR limited and standard constructed however has continued to hammer the point home: this ability is SO STRONG that even on an 0/1 it can cause serious problems.
So the question of the hour: is this guy good enough for Cube? I'm really starting to think the answer is yes. There is no question that by himself he does nothing but, in conjunction with an aggressive suite, it makes trades miserable for your opponent. Black has been getting more and more dudes that love to trade and keep coming back for more (Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, Geralf's Messenger , etc.), this card provides the perfect complement. The card is equally good in aggro mirrors/race situations or those situations where a slower deck tries to trade early + often. The card punishes mass removal hard; how often have you seen constructed matches where one play straight up loses if they sweep? The card is easy to splash so it slips into aggro decks of any black color combo. You are often saccing creatures for profit in black and this works great with that. "Tokens" is becoming an increasingly supported archetype; they are another subset of expendable creatures. He adds a free "drain 1" kicker to all your removal spells and we all know black has plenty of those. Just think about it, even with zero power, how much damage is this guy pushing through in an average match? I think you'd be surprised. IMO this gives black aggro a unique and powerful angle of attack. Has anyone else tried him out in the context of Cube?