I never really understood the power of Life from the Loam outside of constructed dredge, anyone care to enlighten me?
In my cube, Life from the Loam has seen most of its use enabling combos. It plays very nicely with Strip Mine, fetch lands and the like and is also a nice complement to anything that has you discarding cards (like Wild Mongrel or looter effects). At least once, it has paired up with Raven's Crime to great effect. I certainly wouldn't say that Life is a top tier card or uncuttable, but it has some nice interactions and is usable in the same way that Squee, Goblin Nabob or Exhume is.
There aren't many cards I pick over Library. Jitte is one of them because Jitte is good at any moment in the game where you have a creature, while Library is only good in some situtations (opening hand and almost all the time in control). I was wondering if anyone disagrees with my logic.
Let's talk about first picking Library for a few pages shall we?
There aren't many cards I pick over Library. Jitte is one of them because Jitte is good at any moment in the game where you have a creature, while Library is only good in some situtations (opening hand and almost all the time in control). I was wondering if anyone disagrees with my logic.
To be honest I'm not sure how it ranks against Jitte. My first thought is that Library is better overall because it's harder to answer and doesn't require a creature, and this is enough to make up for how it can be dead mid or late game. Library has seemed less "fair" of the two when I face them.
I don't have all of the power nine in my cube but I could imagine Recall being the "first pick of first picks". What are your automatic first picks?
Library of Alexandria, Sol Ring, Mana Drain, Recurring Nightmare, Mind Twist, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Umezawa's Jitte.
That's a pretty good list; I've never really evaluated them much against each other as I don't cube enough. I guess Sol Ring is probably the right pick (being colorless is nice) but Ancestral Recall is a higher power level IMO.
All the swords are really high picks. SoFaI goes first a lot even though it has probably the worst protections (as all the Swords confer Pro:red to some degree by increasing toughness by two) as the abilities are so good. That said, the new SoFaF has been so, so good so far that I would have a hard time choosing.
I updated the OP with each card help post up to this one (through Eidolon's post 210). Let me know if I missed your post, and I will add it in. I decided to skip some helpful posts in cases where there were long discussions about a card, because the new player can always read the thread too.
No, Scroll Rack is not only good with shuffle effects. At its very worst, it's a colorless Brainstorm. Being able to dig X cards deep into your library is very good. Being able to re-organize the order in which you draw the rest is even better. In addition to using shuffle effects to tailor a perfect hand, you can also use it to hide critical cards from disruption, and dig for lands so you never miss a land drop.
No, the card is just bonkers. In cube, without something like the Counterbalance / Sensei's Divining Top (Legacy staple combo, plus Top only costs 1, which is relevant in Legacy) necessitating the need to reorder the top 3 cards more than once a turn, it can be better than Top, since you can simply replace your whole hand. It's the colorless Wheel of Fortune / Timetwister.
Stonecloaker is fine for larger cubes. He can save a good creature from removal, get another use out of a ETB ability, and remove something scary from a yard as an instant. Occasionally, you can play him out as a surprise blocker. I run him at 500 cards, but he's probably the worst white card I'm running. It can make the cut in cubes bigger than that.
And I agree with everything that's been said about Scroll Rack.
I don't see where this card slots in. Aggro red uses it as a finisher to...wrath all the aggro creatures while their opponent's grave titan laughs it off?
Aggro red uses it for nothing because it is bad in aggro. This is more of a ramp card and you break the synergy by playing mana rocks and 5 toughness monsters. Lands that tap for multiple mana are also good.
Wildfire decks are among my favorite decks to draft. Karoo lands, artifact mana, and ramp spells get you to 6 mana quickly, and often break the symmetry of losing 4 lands.
Sometimes it gets you back into the game by mostly resetting the board, most of the time it clenches the victory with wrathing them, blowing up up their mana, and not killing your dragon.
Aggro red uses it for nothing because it is bad in aggro. This is more of a ramp card and you break the synergy by playing mana rocks and 5 toughness monsters. Lands that tap for multiple mana are also good.
It's mediocre, it has some decent compatibility with fetches or man-lands, as well as with Wasteland-type lands. I don't see too many cubes with it.
Why do this outside of Reanimater?
Just draw on opponent's turn.
And yes it is broken. Even play in mono red aggro. It's that good.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=385729
Let's talk about first picking Library for a few pages shall we?
You can only really have one automatic first pick (Sol Ring for me), since by definition you'll pick that over any other card.
I prefer to think of the cards I think you are thinking of as cards that are 'better than a mox'.
Library of Alexandria, Sol Ring, Mana Drain, Recurring Nightmare, Mind Twist, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Umezawa's Jitte.
Any others?
To be honest I'm not sure how it ranks against Jitte. My first thought is that Library is better overall because it's harder to answer and doesn't require a creature, and this is enough to make up for how it can be dead mid or late game. Library has seemed less "fair" of the two when I face them.
That's a pretty good list; I've never really evaluated them much against each other as I don't cube enough. I guess Sol Ring is probably the right pick (being colorless is nice) but Ancestral Recall is a higher power level IMO.
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No, the card is just bonkers. In cube, without something like the Counterbalance / Sensei's Divining Top (Legacy staple combo, plus Top only costs 1, which is relevant in Legacy) necessitating the need to reorder the top 3 cards more than once a turn, it can be better than Top, since you can simply replace your whole hand. It's the colorless Wheel of Fortune / Timetwister.
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And I agree with everything that's been said about Scroll Rack.
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I don't see where this card slots in. Aggro red uses it as a finisher to...wrath all the aggro creatures while their opponent's grave titan laughs it off?
Sometimes it gets you back into the game by mostly resetting the board, most of the time it clenches the victory with wrathing them, blowing up up their mana, and not killing your dragon.
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Exactly. As do pro-red creatures.
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