Why do you partial quote--Particularly when it modifies the perceived meaning of what was said? The full quote was..."Honestly the biggest drawback to Purphoros is that there is no redundancy to the effect he offers. Having only one copy of this in your deck when he is the linchpin for the strategy is a bummer."
It didn't misrepresent or change meaning. The full quote says literally the same thing. No redundancy. He's the linnchpin for the strategy. I don't think either of those things are true. Go wide decks can be great with or without Purphoros.
Unless you're talking about a mono-red version maybe? IDK...
But if we both like him, great! It's a fine place for it to rest.
I've found Purphoros to be perfectly powerful on an existing board. Being able to battle cry trigger at will is great. Especially if you can do it twice a turn!
Maybe I misunderstood this somehow? Sounds like you're implying exactly that decks that want Purphoros fail without Purphoros... Isn't that what linchpin means? It all comes apart if it's missing?
I think I disagree with that assessment too. There's a boatload of redundancy for go-wide token strategies. If you build a token deck that folds without Purphoros, you have a bad deck anyways. Hell, a lot of the best token decks I build aren't even red... so to imply that you need Purphoros in order for token decks to win I think is blatantly false. Just my experience anyways.
I too would love to see an Impact Tremors strapped to a bear!
I've since cut Bombardment, but Purphoros has been stellar, and Tempt with Vengeance is a better card than most people think. I recommend adding those in, in addition to Greater Gargadon and Young Pyromancer as part of the red "token" package.
FTK isn't always the best aggro curve-topper, but it's really good at removing a midrange threat that's clogging up the board for your attackers. So when it's valuable, it's really valuable because it helps out in your worst matchup. I still think the hastey guys are better because they can close out a game or bring the defensive player into burn range before the wrath goes off, but FTK is definitely valuable, even in aggro.
Can I swap this guy in for Hero of Oxid Ridge? I am slightly concerned that there will be even more 4 cmc noncreature permanents with Chandra and Koth, but that deck building choice already existed with Hero (kind of)
I don't think they really compete with one another. And no, I wouldn't cut Hero for it anyways. As much as I love Purphoros, Hero of Oxid Ridge is a monster.
As soon as I can reliably make red a good token midrange deck support color without sacrificing its effectiveness in the other archetypes, this card will be godly (ha, derp). But with how things are currently configured, my typical red decks simply aren't engineered to make good use of his abilities.
Maybe red could use it as a catalyst to start pushing a token-esque strategy more. I'd like to have a bunch of cards in red that would make this card good, but sadly, my current composition isn't designed to take advantage of it. Hard aggro want's a more immediate impact from the 4-drop slot and big red uses too few creatures to take full advantage of the two abilities. And red isn't saturated with cheap RR-costed permanents to activate the god reliably. In constructed, it looks like it can be a powerhouse. But in the cube, I just don't see it.
Why not view him as a midrange and 'big' red support card?
Because I don't think it's a very good midrange or big red card. Those decks tend to be light on permanents (especially ones with lots of mana symbols) and light on creatures (which negatively impact both of his passive abilities).
Yes, but it's not the whole story. A majority of cards in the cube are suboptimal aggro curve-toppers, or even unplayable in aggro altogether.
Hence my posting the below in response to the same guy:
Because evaluating him solely as an aggro four-drop is not a very good idea, in the same vein as I wouldn't assess something like Sneak Attack as an aggro curve-topper. Because it isn't one, at least not in the traditional sense.
If it's going in a midrange deck, I think a global haste effect will get in for more damage than this ability will, and in a token deck, I think Hero and Hellrider are still better options.
So if there's better options for aggro, midrange and token/archetype decks, what deck is going to benefit more from this card than the current suite of 4-drops that are available?
He seems pretty mediocre as a curve topper. In the the above, example, I feel like if Purphoros were Hellrider or Hero of Oxid Ridge you wouldn't even need the Siege-Gang Commander to win that game.
It didn't misrepresent or change meaning. The full quote says literally the same thing. No redundancy. He's the linnchpin for the strategy. I don't think either of those things are true. Go wide decks can be great with or without Purphoros.
Unless you're talking about a mono-red version maybe? IDK...
But if we both like him, great! It's a fine place for it to rest.
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Maybe I misunderstood this somehow? Sounds like you're implying exactly that decks that want Purphoros fail without Purphoros... Isn't that what linchpin means? It all comes apart if it's missing?
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I too would love to see an Impact Tremors strapped to a bear!
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It's not an aggressive curve-topper. It's a midrange token/anthem archetype card.
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I don't think they really compete with one another. And no, I wouldn't cut Hero for it anyways. As much as I love Purphoros, Hero of Oxid Ridge is a monster.
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Because I don't think it's a very good midrange or big red card. Those decks tend to be light on permanents (especially ones with lots of mana symbols) and light on creatures (which negatively impact both of his passive abilities).
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If it's going in a midrange deck, I think a global haste effect will get in for more damage than this ability will, and in a token deck, I think Hero and Hellrider are still better options.
So if there's better options for aggro, midrange and token/archetype decks, what deck is going to benefit more from this card than the current suite of 4-drops that are available?
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This. This guy gets it.
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