This is the second of the Iconic Creatures series. The first being Genesis. In my oppinion no creature embodies better what red wants to do than Avalanche Riders. Its less flashy than many of the other 4 drops but of all of them, your likely to find Riders in every single maindeck. Avalanche Rider is a key role player in red, and makes up for a lot of reds downfalls by cutting off opponents resources.
However, to new players I think the power of a 4 mana Stone rain with a body might seem a bit underwhelming. I'd Like to begin discussion with a few extremely powerful interections that being a creature lets Avalanche Riders take over a game.
Yep, Avalanche Riders is a pretty sweet card. I like to equip him with Skullclamp and then not pay echo, that's some serious value right there (Skullclamp makes a creature better, shocking I know!). In addition to the cards that Happy mentioned he also goes well with Crystal Shard/Erratic Portal and flashing in Restoration Angel in response to the echo trigger seems really strong.
It seems so lackluster on paper; it always has, and even moreso in the cube. But it just plays so well. It always seems to find a good target, be it a powerful land or just taking their only access to a color away from them (or keeping them off of double-color access). It's one of those solid utility creatures that seems to make the cut in environments where the 4-drops are all really over-the-top, just because if it's solid contribution. 2 damage and a dead land is a fine investment for 4 mana, and it's infinitely abusable because it's a creature. Thumbs up from me.
Even with the great red 4-drops that have been printed recently, Avalanche Riders is still one of my favorites. It does a lot for the inverstment, even if you don't pay the echo.
As a lover of land-kill in general this is a card I'm very happy to see in a pack. Splashable, unbiased landkill on a hastey 2/2 for 4 mana is fantastic. Even if you don't pay the echo cost it still feels like you've gotten a great deal for your mana.
I virtually never pay the echo cost on this card. It's extremely easy to abuse with your own Mimic Vat, but is hosed by an opponent with a Mimic Vat on board.
Honestly, I only want to add a little more land death to red in cube, especially on bodies that can be abused with all of the creature-manipulation cards in the format.
I'd take a 2/2 2R that destroys target land in a hearth beat (Even a 1/1). Why couldn't they print this card? But honestly Riders has some serious benefits in a 4 mana body that this theoretical card doesn't have.
I'd take a 2/2 2R that destroys target land in a hearth beat (Even a 1/1). Why couldn't they print this card? But honestly Riders has some serious benefits in a 4 mana body that this theoretical card doesn't have.
Because Wizards has some absurd notion that 3cc LD is too good as is. They don't even want to print Stone Rain again. The only thing we may be able to hope for in the future is a 1RR 1/1 version (which I'd run) but even that is a pipe-dream at this point. They think Stone Rain/Goblin Settler is the fair cost for that effect. I disagree by cube standards, but new players whine too hard about efficient land destruction for them to print another good one. I could really go for a green Pillage too. It would be fitting, and good enough for the cube, but I don't think we'll get that either.
Wizards has the really understable notion that powerful land destruction strategies are disliked by their customers, based on their market researches.
Like I said in my post you quoted. New players whine too hard about having their lands blown up. They'd rather see a standard where 6-7cc monsters are typical. Yuck.
I love Avalanche Riders. Land Destruction gives red so much more identity than just burn and aggro, and its really crappy to see Wizards run away from the Ponza red that I grew up with. Lately my drafts involve me going deep into red and green just for the land kill and how off balance it makes your opponent play. I've struggled against the power of control in a lot of matchups and for Red, Avalanche Riders and his friends like Pillage, Molten Rain/Stone Rain and Aftershock really seal the deal and make for excellent matches.
One of the things that make people undervaluate Avalanche Riders is the "curving out" thought that's pretty dominant in our mind. Whenever we go to Magical Christmasland, we imagine sequences à la T1 1-drop, T2 2-drop, T3 3-drop, T4 4-drop, and when we speak of a five-mana creature, we usually refer to "dropping this on turn five". What we seem to forget in these scenarios is that it's not given that one has four lands on turn four, leave alone five on turn five. It's true that this is part of Magical Christmasland and most of us are aware of this, but it somehow leaks into the subconscious.
What I'm basically trying to say is: It's not uncommon that your opponent somehow gets stuck on three lands, or doesn't have a fifth one to replace the stone-rain'd one. There are surprisingly many games where the temporary screw from an LD randomly wins you a game, and randomly winning games is fine for hasty four-drops.
Specialities about the cube: U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
An illustration I'd like to make about how important LD is to magic relates to pre-banning modern. What happens when you do not have FoW or wasteland? T2 win.format. Nothing quite puts a wrench into someones plans like losing their only source of color X, or their 2 mana land, or a utility land.
And as said, some times they never find the next land, and it wins you the game.
Like I said in my post you quoted. New players whine too hard about having their lands blown up. They'd rather see a standard where 6-7cc monsters are typical. Yuck.
why can't i emptyquote on this stupid software
Private Mod Note
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"There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb
of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits"
-Karl Heinrich Marx Cube
Avalanche Riders was discussed here in the Random Cube Card of the Day thread. If you must snow I think this should have been "Rockslide Riders"; the way icy it there is no snow in the art. ("An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a sloping surface").
This is one of those cards that had “staple” attached to it in my head about 10 years ago, and for that reason it stuck around much longer than it should have. We were happy to have removed it, and it was a reminder to me to double check every single slot at a set release rather than skipping over the supposed staples.
This is the second of the Iconic Creatures series. The first being Genesis. In my oppinion no creature embodies better what red wants to do than Avalanche Riders. Its less flashy than many of the other 4 drops but of all of them, your likely to find Riders in every single maindeck. Avalanche Rider is a key role player in red, and makes up for a lot of reds downfalls by cutting off opponents resources.
However, to new players I think the power of a 4 mana Stone rain with a body might seem a bit underwhelming. I'd Like to begin discussion with a few extremely powerful interections that being a creature lets Avalanche Riders take over a game.
Combos and Interactions
GY Effects:
AR + Nim Deathmantle or + Recurring Nightmare or + Genesis+ Various other GY effects
+ Mimic Vat
Important Targets:
Thats all I have for now, discuss!
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Because Wizards has some absurd notion that 3cc LD is too good as is. They don't even want to print Stone Rain again. The only thing we may be able to hope for in the future is a 1RR 1/1 version (which I'd run) but even that is a pipe-dream at this point. They think Stone Rain/Goblin Settler is the fair cost for that effect. I disagree by cube standards, but new players whine too hard about efficient land destruction for them to print another good one. I could really go for a green Pillage too. It would be fitting, and good enough for the cube, but I don't think we'll get that either.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Word. A green pillage would be perfect.
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Like I said in my post you quoted. New players whine too hard about having their lands blown up. They'd rather see a standard where 6-7cc monsters are typical. Yuck.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
What I'm basically trying to say is: It's not uncommon that your opponent somehow gets stuck on three lands, or doesn't have a fifth one to replace the stone-rain'd one. There are surprisingly many games where the temporary screw from an LD randomly wins you a game, and randomly winning games is fine for hasty four-drops.
450, Peasant*, unpowered**
Specialities about the cube:
U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
And as said, some times they never find the next land, and it wins you the game.
http://hgcube.blogspot.com/ (help me Make my Custom CUBE!)
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=382498
The "Make a Proxy Thread
Redit Proxy Article "current gallery"
MY LEGACY ALTERS
why can't i emptyquote on this stupid software
of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits"
-Karl Heinrich Marx
Cube
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
This guy was recently off-splashed in a white/blue blink deck. Utterly Savage
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