MTG Salvation

Quote from wtwlf123

Only costing 2 mana is a big deal. Particularly in powered cubes. And the enchantments it can target are all clutch spells to remove. I think it's significantly better than putrefy for powered cubes. Green and black have a ton of answers to late game creatures and artifacts, and significantly less answers to fast mana and enchantments. I think this spell is more important than putrefy because it fills a more needed role.

I don't think it fills a needed role at all. Black has discard, that costs less than this, to deal with everything this can deal with and more and removal for permanents is not exactly rare in this color combination. I'm going to cut Putrefy for a dude and once this set is released G/B will be strong enough that I won't have to run this card as filler.

This card is bonkers, the only reason i wouldnt run it is that Golgari is bonkers already. This is a great card but is it better than vreska, lol troll, pulse, putrefy AND deed? golgari has no wrong choices in a <5 gold section.

Quote from BK »

I think your playstyle (or that of your group) lends itself more to this card - if i can see someone wanting to run Abrupt Decay, it's certainly you.

Ya, I have this weird thing about liking good cheap flexible cards that answer a ton of permanents. That does sound like me.

Quote from Donald »

I don't think it fills a needed role at all. Black has discard, that costs less than this, to deal with everything this can deal with and more and removal for permanents is not exactly rare in this color combination. I'm going to cut Putrefy for a dude and once this set is released G/B will be strong enough that I won't have to run this card as filler.

Black's discard isn't bountiful or reliable enough to assume you'll have a cheap answer to everything that Abrupt Decay can remove. Especially not in a powered cube. Even if I have an Inquisition, I can't stop a T1 Mox/Ring or Land Tax or something unless I'm on the play. This is a good answer to early, powerful cards that slip to the board.

Cheap removal for all types of permanents is rare in this color combination. It's the only card that costs less than 3 mana that can kill creatures, artifacts and enchantments (plus a few planeswalkers!) in that color combination ...hell, in pretty much any combination.

Small sections won't need to run this card, but I don't think it's "filler" at all. I think it's a very solid, very efficient card that I'll be stoked to have in my Golgari decks.

Quote from simpygdog

This card is bonkers, the only reason i wouldnt run it is that Golgari is bonkers already. This is a great card but is it better than vreska, lol troll, pulse, putrefy AND deed? golgari has no wrong choices in a <5 gold section.

No, just Putrefy, IMO. The other four I like more. This would be my 5th and final slot for BG, but I think it's a great card.

Being able to hit a few cheap walkers and some enchantments isn't a bad thing but not much of a selling point for me. Even in eidolon's small list there are quite a few enchantments that aren't cast on curve and the planeswalkers still 2 for 1 you. So it can hit slightly more targets than Putrefy early on but far less as the game progresses. I'd much rather run Putrid Leech, B/G has a lot of removal but few cheap beatsticks that are as efficient.

My ranking would be:
Abrupt Decay = Putrefy

Which card you ultimately chose depends on the average curve of your cube, how many cheap enchantments and planeswalkers you run (hopefully three in the case of the latter) and if you have a powered cube or not.

This would have actually been a tough decision if we wouldn't get Lotleth Troll and Vraska the Unseen in the same set. Now it is an easy one: Play both of those and neither of the removal spells.

/\ /\ /\ With 5 cards per guild, I can run Deed, Pulse, The Unseen, Troll and Decay, and be super happy to do so.

Quote from Donald

Being able to hit a few cheap walkers and some enchantments isn't a bad thing but not much of a selling point for me. Even in eidolon's small list there are quite a few enchantments that aren't cast on curve and the planeswalkers still 2 for 1 you. So it can hit slightly more targets than Putrefy early on but far less as the game progresses. I'd much rather run Putrid Leech, B/G has a lot of removal but few cheap beatsticks that are as efficient.

Your cube is unpowered. I'd probably run Putrefy over it in your cube too. But in my cube, it's not even close in my eyes. Costing 1 less mana is clutch against fast artifact rocks, and hitting the enchantments/planeswalkers is a super sweet added bonus.

Quote from Star Slayer »

My ranking would be:
Abrupt Decay = Putrefy

Which card you ultimately chose depends on the average curve of your cube, how many cheap enchantments and planeswalkers you run (hopefully three in the case of the latter) and if you have a powered cube or not.

I agree with this assessment. Powered vs Unpowered has a huge impact on the quality of this card. With the Moxen and fast mana, there's like 10 cards that are super clutch if you can answer them right away.

After thinking this over and reading the comments, I agree that this is better than Putrefy (especially in powered cubes). I'd run this as my 5th Golgari card if I didn't have such a woody for reanimator decks. Because of that, I'm keeping Life // Death over Abrupt Decay.

Cheers,
rant

I think powered vs. unpowered does make a difference here. I can only speak for unpowered, but I like Putrefy a bit more. Right now, I'm leaning towards not running either though with Deed, Pulse, Unseen, Troll and possibly Leech taking the slots.

What the hell? Yet another sick G/B card. I won't be running it though - with four other gold cards in contention for three slots, I think I like this one the least. That said, I have a low curve to my cube and this hits a ridiculous number of important targets for cheap, at instant speed. It's sickening, because this would be a windmill slam inclusion in probably every other guild section I have.

Quote from Goodking

What the hell? Yet another sick G/B card. I won't be running it though - with four other gold cards in contention for three slots, I think I like this one the least. That said, I have a low curve to my cube and this hits a ridiculous number of important targets for cheap, at instant speed. It's sickening, because this would be a windmill slam inclusion in probably every other guild section I have.

I know right? Is it just me or is GB the new GW?

It is even beyond selesnya in my opinion. Which means Doran is the new wedge to draft. Or not.

I personally hate running main deck naturalize in a lot of decks, because it is super swingy. VS some decks it is a house and other decks it is close to a dead card.
I don't want to include many effects like that in the cube. Unfortunately, you have to have SOME at the least for side boarding.

From my experiences the deck's that naturalize is dead to the most are the hyper agro decks. Two mana removal is a perfect substitute against these decks.

A card that answers 90% of the broken art/enchants AND is a live card against agro is exactly an option I want available to draft.

Besides naturalize and it's clones there are 0? cards that permanently deal with artifacts and enchantments on turn 2.
1 mana cheaper than putrefy is VERY significant and the uncounterability is not irrelevant.

Since there aren't close to enough cards like this in my cube, I would much prefer to run it over putrefy even if its less powerful. Whether it is a better card or not is environment sensitive , but agree with everyone above that in a very fast format this seems significantly better.

Golgari #5 (could rise to #4 if enough good 5 mana planeswalkers get printed, really like unique fast effects)

I like decay more than Mortify FWIW (not much now that Mortify no longer seems good enough). Cheaper and hitting enchantments like Nightmare, Vortex, Survival, and O-Ring seems pretty dang good for the trade off.

Well, it shouldn't ever kill a Nightmare, but ya.

Most artifacts you want to kill are generally 3 CMC or under (Swords, Jitte, Tanglewire, Etc).

A lot of creatures you want to kill are also 3 CMC are Less, and if you're in black you probably have the ability to kill the bigger ones with other removal spells like Dismember, Slaughter Pact, Snuff Out, Etc.

The fact that this is two mana is pretty good as going first and killing a Sol Ring before they can use it to ramp into a 4 drop or beyond is good. Being able to kill Survival of the Fittest is also pretty major because that card just creates so much advantage if left uncheck that it's not even funny. The same goes for things like Sylvan Library and Sulfuric Vortex.

The uncounterable aspect is also important... It's a pretty crummy feeling sitting across from the UW tempo deck and having your removal for their Jitte being countered off of one spell or another.

I just read mike flores' article about the card, and in it he listed the format defining cards of magic, and this card hits pretty much all of them except jace the mindsculptor. This is like the best removal spell early in the game they've printed in a long time.

Quote from MrDumpkins

I just read mike flores' article about the card, and in it he listed the format defining cards of magic, and this card hits pretty much all of them except jace the mindsculptor. This is like the best removal spell early in the game they've printed in a long time.

Yup. This card is really, really good.

OMG LEGACY BOOMMMBBB, this card kills delver, goyf, knight of relicuary, lilliana, jitte, stone forge, Master of the Pearl trident, lord of atlantis, merfolk rejery. Im hoping this goes into a version of bug delver BUG DELVER.

there's a lot of cards you really need to kill that this doesn't hit and something like putrefy or mortify (or doom blade) does hit. i can see how it would be better in a powered cube, for sure.

Quote from Addison Davis

OMG LEGACY BOOMMMBBB, this card kills delver, goyf, knight of relicuary, lilliana, jitte, stone forge, Master of the Pearl trident, lord of atlantis, merfolk rejery. Im hoping this goes into a version of bug delver BUG DELVER.

this is an odd post for the cube forum.

I'm pretty excited about this card and I have a large unpowered cube. It will be hitting cards like Savannah Lions, Izzet Signet, Liliana of the Veil, and Sulfuric Vortex in different matchups...very powerful and efficient card.

Once again, GB is really going to need evaluation in light of all these new powerful cards.

-AA

Quote from mook1e

Also the > CMC 3 limitation is a real consideration. My Cube average cmc is > 3, so that means this 1 card can't touch more than half the cube. Pass for me!

umm...Average doesn't mean that half is above that number.

Anywho, I think that this card is better than Putrefy in a powered cube or a cube that takes aggro to the extreme. Golgari is definitely getting love in this set.

I'm with wtwlf123 I think this card is a bomb. It kills almost all things early and has the plus side of hitting 3 planeswalkers. (which putrefying cannot) also it can get enchantments which is big, while still hitting almost all relevant equipments. I think this card should be ran over putrefy in all cubes except cubes large enough to contain both or dragon cubes.

The fact that this spell can't be countered is also very good. It can destroy something like shackles that a lot of decks would just lose to with out worrying about counters.

Edit -- And Kira!!!

Right now at 360 you could either run a completely aggressive setup

Putrid Leach, Troll, haste zombie

or

Pernicious Deeds, Abrupt Decay, Malestrom Pulse


crazy sauce.

Quote from MagicFever

How would you compare this card to Life/Death? I know they play different roles, but in general?

In general, I think Decay is a LOT better. But, Life // Death is important for the critical mass of reanimator decks. I'm going to cut Life // Death for Decay for a while, and see if it has a significant impact on that archetype. If it does, I'll undo the swap. But if reanimator continues to be a strong archetype even without the L/D, I'll be stoked to play Decay for the foreseeable future.