With the release of cards like Thassa, God of the Sea, Master of Waves, and True-Name Nemesis, people have been talking about aggressive blue strategies in cube. Maybe we could discuss Grand Architect? Not only it is an anthem in those decks (making your 'Wave' tokens survive if if you kill their Master), but it can help with equipment, and can also be used in the artifact.dec.
Thoughts?
I recently noticed the great interaction with MoW, as it anthems both the Master and the Tokens while also providing two devotion, but I'm not sure that's quite enough. There's really not much else in the way of blue token generation, besides Talrand, Sky Summoner and Talrand's Invocation, neither of which are really played right now.
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He's ok. Just saving mana casting and moving equipment around is usually good enough for the blue aggro decks. The three drop blue creature slot is going to get pretty clogged though. I think he'd make it in an "All-blue-cube."
I can see the cube he goes in, but not mine at the moment. I think if I ran a larger cube I would try him, as his synergies run along multiple different lines.
Talrand is pretty fun and this guy would be good with him but they would never end up in the same deck. When I used the Sky Summoner he would be in decks with <10 creatures, and not a ton of artifacts. And the creatures would be Augur of Bolas, Guttersnipe, Young Pyromancer etc.
I used to play a Grand Architect deck when he was standard legal and I really want him to be good... BUt I can't even find room for him in my 720 cards cube.
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I've had a copy of him sitting in my on deck binder since SoM, but he's never quite made the cut. All of his abilities are pretty strong and relevant to our format. However you won't see many decks where you will maximise the use of all three. I do like him though.
It's hard to dedicate enough slots to both devotion tempo and the artifact.dec at the same time, and I don't think he's worth considering unless both of those decktypes are hugely represented in the cube.
It's hard to dedicate enough slots to both devotion tempo and the artifact.dec at the same time, and I don't think he's worth considering unless both of those decktypes are hugely represented in the cube.
However, if you run both archetypes, then Grand Architect is the perfect card, since it kills two birds with one stone slot.
Anyone running this card these days, for the artifact deck? Every time I browse my binder, I do see the potential in this card. It's cool to power out a 6 drop artifact on turn 4 with this guy, and he can mitigate his own cost by tapping to equip a Sword or play a Mind Stone the same turn he comes down. Plus, he makes your other blue guys into hasty Renowned Weaponsmiths, including the turn he drops. The random anthem is - well, random - but a weird combat trick for your artifact guys and a straight buff to your blue creatures. Blue doesn't typically have a ton of creature, but it only takes GA and maybe one guy to power out your big robots.
I run it and really like it. It provides some additional overlap for tinker. Sounds strange, but there are just so many really solid blue creatures you want to play in almost any Ux deck, and those creatures double as ways to power out artifacts when you don't draw tinker (and as an additional win condition since architect pumps them).
As long as Ux artifacts is a thing, I don't believe you even need to explicitly support blue devotion for this card to be good.
Ive been playing him in modern in blue devotion and his interactions with walking ballista and hangarback walker have been great and made me wonder about cube. This is in combination with master of waves of course but i do like the synergy with the ballista especially since it allows you to cast him for big or add counters easily.
With the release of cards like Thassa, God of the Sea, Master of Waves, and True-Name Nemesis, people have been talking about aggressive blue strategies in cube. Maybe we could discuss Grand Architect? Not only it is an anthem in those decks (making your 'Wave' tokens survive if if you kill their Master), but it can help with equipment, and can also be used in the artifact.dec.
Thoughts?
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Talrand is pretty fun and this guy would be good with him but they would never end up in the same deck. When I used the Sky Summoner he would be in decks with <10 creatures, and not a ton of artifacts. And the creatures would be Augur of Bolas, Guttersnipe, Young Pyromancer etc.
You can also view it here at Cubetutor <---- please draft my cube!!
and you can also see it at DeckStats
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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!
However, if you run both archetypes, then Grand Architect is the perfect card, since it kills two birds with one
stoneslot.Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
As long as Ux artifacts is a thing, I don't believe you even need to explicitly support blue devotion for this card to be good.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Of course our drafting format allows for very focussed decks, so YMMV.