Yes. They're far and away the least important effect of that type for Aristocrats shells. They're also the most parasitic, as they only really see play in that one deck (they have some backup uses in Persist Combo, but that's it).
One of the key parts of supporting Aristocrats is supporting black aggro. The best shell for the archetype in my opinion is black aggro because it gives the additional reach an extra layer of potency. I'm honestly debating cutting Zulaport Cutthroat because I think the deck is totally fine without it and don't need to have two blood artists.
I feel this is more of a do you want the entire aristocrats package or not. I do really enjoy drafting Aristocrats, but I will admit it is one of the less powerful archetypes and is a lot harder to draft, but the enablers and payoffs are extremely replaceable.
But in all honestly, I think Blood Artist is more or a cog card in decks like Pod, Tokens, BW Aggro, Stax etc. rather than a top end/ build around.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Falkenrath Aristocrat is slightly better for her pliability in aggro and aristocrats (not saying Butcher isn't great)
Cruel Celebrant is pretty cool. But in all honesty, I found the best Aristocrats payoff is BloodThrone Vampire. As an affinity player, I refer to her as the black Arcbound Ravager
I've actually been on Midnight Reaper as a payoff. (Honestly 3 mana for 3/2 that draws a card when itself dies is pretty good without having to be aristocrats)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I like Cruel Celebrant, but I feel like my BW section wants other cards first. My BR section handles most of the Aristocrats package, with W just providing incidental support. Butcher of the Horde seems solid, but I only run one of each shard/clan, and I've put Alesha, Who Smiles at Death in that slot. But, Butcher does seem appealing ... hmm ...
I actually completely forgot about Bloodthrone Vampire. I've been running Carrion Feeder to good effect, and I'm always on the lookout for more sac outlets; this is why I see a lot of appeal in the new Woe Strider, in fact.
Carrion Feeder is more ideal for zombie decks. Viscera Seer's scry could be better in smaller cubes that have more higher level payoffs.
BloodThrone Vampire has really been the black Arcbound Ravager. In all honestly, you don't win that much via going all-in most of the time, its the potential for the all-in kill that forces your opponent to block in awkward ways.
I've been incredibly impressed with BloodThrone that I've actually decided to play Nantuko Husk + Vampire Aristocrat despite how bad the stats look. I personally think Aristocrat's decks most important features is the deck needs a turn 1 acceleration/ Cryptolite Rites (prob your cube doesn't play)/ Gaea's Cradle for the deck to really use its full potential.
I'm actually not supporting a zombie archetype as of this moment. Therefore as of right now, I'll be on Nantuko Husk, Vampire Aristocrat and BloodThrone vampire for redundancy and no Carrion Feeder/ Viscera Seer and relying more on green mana dorks/ Crytolite Rites for the fast mana. In all honestly, Carrion Feeder just isn't doing enough for me. The potential to +2/+2 5 times for legal the following turn off something like Derange Hermit for legal or make the creature 7/7 to outrank a fatty cheated into play is just too important for me.
The other problem is that these aristocrat decks often struggle against a re animation fatty or just a ramp target hard casted. These creatures add a very exciting play patterns around these problems.
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I just want a Bloodthrone Vampire with two power so it isn't embarassing while developing a board state and that the threat of activation actually matters because getting in for two adds up, but getting in for one doesn't. I love myself an Atog-style creature, but I didn't have success with Bloodthrone Vampire.
I've found the best way to support aristocrats is to include black aggro and the persist combo package. As those are two generically good decks that can get real mileage out of blood artist variants.
I like blood artist a lot. I d9nt think you need a dedicated aristocrats deck for it to do s9me solid work.
Creatures die. Happens pretty regularly and unless your opponent is willing to spend a card to get rid of him, in most cases, he just does his thing.
Obviously it doesnt go in every deck but if your being agressive tacking a life payment 9n to your opponents removal/sweepers or chipping damage through chump blockers is useful.
It and judith are a nice way to add a bit of an ariatocrats flavour to agro/tokens without goimg all in.
We’re going to add Blood Artist plus Zulaport in the THB update. It also gives the extra boost to give Woe Strider a shot and consider some other cards on the cusp, specifically looking at Mogg War Marshal...
I just want a Bloodthrone Vampire with two power so it isn't embarassing while developing a board state and that the threat of activation actually matters because getting in for two adds up, but getting in for one doesn't. I love myself an Atog-style creature, but I didn't have success with Bloodthrone Vampire.
I've found the best way to support aristocrats is to include black aggro and the persist combo package. As those are two generically good decks that can get real mileage out of blood artist variants.
I've found Yawgmoth, Thran Physician[/card] and Living Death to be the better payoffs in this archetype, but in all honesty, this entire archetype is built off a critical mass of mana dorks, sacrifice outlets, sacrifice fodder
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Essentially the deck drops the aristocrats half of the deck and becomes more or less of a sacrifice deck. I been finding winning through blood artist damage to be unreliable and the card becoming too parasitic.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
blood artist, zulaport, cruel celebrant(?), falkenrath noble(?)
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
Social Media: Twitter, Twitch
MTG Articles: 200+ Articles on StarCityGames.com, MTG Draft AI Article
MTG AI Code: Limited Draft Bot, CubeCobra Recommender System
But in all honestly, I think Blood Artist is more or a cog card in decks like Pod, Tokens, BW Aggro, Stax etc. rather than a top end/ build around.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
Also, has anyone run Butcher of the Horde? It’s an incredible payoff if your manabase is good.
Falkenrath Aristocrat is slightly better for her pliability in aggro and aristocrats (not saying Butcher isn't great)
Cruel Celebrant is pretty cool. But in all honesty, I found the best Aristocrats payoff is BloodThrone Vampire. As an affinity player, I refer to her as the black Arcbound Ravager
I've actually been on Midnight Reaper as a payoff. (Honestly 3 mana for 3/2 that draws a card when itself dies is pretty good without having to be aristocrats)
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
I actually completely forgot about Bloodthrone Vampire. I've been running Carrion Feeder to good effect, and I'm always on the lookout for more sac outlets; this is why I see a lot of appeal in the new Woe Strider, in fact.
Maybe I should consider some of these cards.
Carrion Feeder
BloodThrone Vampire
Viscera Seer
Nantuko Husk/ Vampire Aristocrat
are all reasonable options.
Carrion Feeder is more ideal for zombie decks. Viscera Seer's scry could be better in smaller cubes that have more higher level payoffs.
BloodThrone Vampire has really been the black Arcbound Ravager. In all honestly, you don't win that much via going all-in most of the time, its the potential for the all-in kill that forces your opponent to block in awkward ways.
I've been incredibly impressed with BloodThrone that I've actually decided to play Nantuko Husk + Vampire Aristocrat despite how bad the stats look. I personally think Aristocrat's decks most important features is the deck needs a turn 1 acceleration/ Cryptolite Rites (prob your cube doesn't play)/ Gaea's Cradle for the deck to really use its full potential.
I'm actually not supporting a zombie archetype as of this moment. Therefore as of right now, I'll be on Nantuko Husk, Vampire Aristocrat and BloodThrone vampire for redundancy and no Carrion Feeder/ Viscera Seer and relying more on green mana dorks/ Crytolite Rites for the fast mana. In all honestly, Carrion Feeder just isn't doing enough for me. The potential to +2/+2 5 times for legal the following turn off something like Derange Hermit for legal or make the creature 7/7 to outrank a fatty cheated into play is just too important for me.
The other problem is that these aristocrat decks often struggle against a re animation fatty or just a ramp target hard casted. These creatures add a very exciting play patterns around these problems.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
I've found the best way to support aristocrats is to include black aggro and the persist combo package. As those are two generically good decks that can get real mileage out of blood artist variants.
Social Media: Twitter, Twitch
MTG Articles: 200+ Articles on StarCityGames.com, MTG Draft AI Article
MTG AI Code: Limited Draft Bot, CubeCobra Recommender System
Creatures die. Happens pretty regularly and unless your opponent is willing to spend a card to get rid of him, in most cases, he just does his thing.
Obviously it doesnt go in every deck but if your being agressive tacking a life payment 9n to your opponents removal/sweepers or chipping damage through chump blockers is useful.
It and judith are a nice way to add a bit of an ariatocrats flavour to agro/tokens without goimg all in.
I've found Yawgmoth, Thran Physician[/card] and Living Death to be the better payoffs in this archetype, but in all honesty, this entire archetype is built off a critical mass of mana dorks, sacrifice outlets, sacrifice fodder
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
Benefits from sacrifice/ small creatures:
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- Flesh Carver
- Midnight Reaper
- Braids, Cabal Minion
- Smokestack
- Rankle, Master of Pranks
- Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
- Judith, the Scourge Diva
- Grist, the Hunger Tide
- Bloodthrone Vampire
- Spiteful Prankster
- Purphoros, God of the Forge
- Skullclamp
- Evolutionary Leap
- Embercleave
- Liliana, Heretical Healer
Essentially the deck drops the aristocrats half of the deck and becomes more or less of a sacrifice deck. I been finding winning through blood artist damage to be unreliable and the card becoming too parasitic.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i