If it costed 1B I'd be all over Despoiler like a rash, as it is I think it's just OK. It's made its way in since black needed the aggro option at the two drop slot, between the very stacked 1 and 3 drops slots. The instant speed recursion is randomly fantastic if the game accidentally goes late. It's a cool foil, by the by.
LOL, that's half the reason I decided to give it a second look because I have a foil sitting around. The other half being is that I am probably cutting one of my really mediocre black Enchantress cards, Spiteful Returned for this that supports Mono Black Aggro and Devotion. Thanks for the feedback from both of you and yes it's a pretty cool foil. :3
I really wasn't impressed with it in Origins limited (T2 Dragon Fodder GG). It traded down most of the time and it's recursion was not nothing.
I've seen nothing but disgusting plays with Priest of the Blood Rite, both with it and against it (but mostly with). I'm really surprised some people aren't feeling him and considering to cut him.
Priest of the Blood Rite has been solid, but seemed actually fairer than I anticipated. I am definitely keeping him for now, since he is one of the best black 5-drops. I can see him getting replaced once a better option gets printed though. I haven't seen him abused with blink though. His best interactions where in a deck with both Smokestack and Whip of Erebos so far.
The cards I've seen the most of so far from Origins have been Relic Hunter, Whirler Rogue, Liliana, and Chandra.
Relic Hunter has been better than expected, it's no Stoneforge Mystic, but it gets its equipment or eats removal often enough. It's hard to ask for more from a 2-drop.
Whirler Rogue has been fantastic. It stabilizes the board quite nicely for a 4-drop, , plays nicely with blink and recursion shenanigans, and has also been great for pushing through Sword activations. I'd kind of expected it to be too fair, but it's pulling its weight in a really competitive slot.
Liliana, Heretical Healer has been surprisingly easy to flip and is great in value reanimator decks (I strategy I favor a lot in my own drafts, so I value it highly). It doesn't need the lifelink to be good, but any source of incidental lifegain is always welcome in black.
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh was way too hard to flip reliably, and its creature side just isn't good enough to justify keeping it if it can't flip. I cut it in my BFZ update.
Archangel of Tithes has also been cut. It was tabling, due to what I assume was the WWW in the casting cost.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I've seen nothing but disgusting plays with Priest of the Blood Rite, both with it and against it (but mostly with). I'm really surprised some people aren't feeling him and considering to cut him.
I have warmed up to him again recently (actually a good curve topper for aggro), but I can't agree with him being nothing but disgusting. The token being bounced/destroyed and being left with just a 2/2 that hits you for 2 each turn is a real thing.
I initially overlooked Hangarback Walker but it has really impressed me lately. Solid card.
Just wanted to add that bounce is really brutal against Priest of the Blood Rite. It feels like my opponents play way more bounce than usual whenever I have Priest in my deck.
Both Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Whirler Rogue have been really good. The last Commander set and Origins really pushed red as a color for the artifact archetype. I especially like Rogue, because she is an uncommon. It always makes me happy when a common or uncommon proves to be good in cube.
Speaking of the artifact deck: Thopter Engineer has been quite decent. Buys your slower deck time against aggro decks, works well in token or sacrifice decks and can be brutal if followed up with a bigger artifact creature. It doesn't fit into a normal aggro deck, but red has become so much more than a simple aggro color over the last few years.
I put Flameshadow Conjuring in a test slot. It is a really durdly card, but some players loved it. It seemed like a card that didn't make the decks it was in stronger, but made them cooler / more fun to play. It is a bit too fairly costed, but since some friends like it so much, I will probably include it for real.
I am still kicking myself for not preordering Hangarback Walker when it was still below $1.
I am still kicking myself for not preordering Hangarback Walker when it was still below $1.
You think that's bad, the first week Origins came out I threw both Hangarback Walker and Abbot of Keral Keep in the garbage because I thought that's what they were... garbage.
Wow! Well, if you own a cube and make regular updates, you can probably afford to eat the cost*. The other option is to wait for rotation, which is a lot simpler and shorter now I think. Sometimes you don't have the time or money to stay on top of prices, so don't kick yourself over it. I'm sure you've gotten plenty of deals on other cards, so it all evens out in the end
*Except if it's Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, because paying Mind Sculptor prices was so much fun the first time around I really wonder how they're going to deal with making that mistake twice now (universal blue mythic in a shortpacked set) because last time, things did not end well.
I'm kicking myself over Jace. I ordered one on Pucatrade when it was 15 dollars and then when it was 35 I traded it away thinking I was getting value and I could always pick it up when it rotated out. Woof.
When did Jace jump so much? I was keeping an eye on Nissa on one of the sites over here (UK) and Jace had been sitting around $50 equivalent for ages, checked after reading this thread and he's now basically $100.
When did Jace jump so much? I was keeping an eye on Nissa on one of the sites over here (UK) and Jace had been sitting around $50 equivalent for ages, checked after reading this thread and he's now basically $100.
Its played as a 4 of in a bunch of standard decks, and sees some fringe Modern & Legacy play. I think it will see more and more Modern play as time goes on.
When did Jace jump so much? I was keeping an eye on Nissa on one of the sites over here (UK) and Jace had been sitting around $50 equivalent for ages, checked after reading this thread and he's now basically $100.
A store online was buying Jaces for $50. People freaked out and the price shot up.
On cube topic - are people still digging Priest of the Blood Rite? I tried it for a bit and wasn't really a huge fan as it didn't feel like it was worth the payoff/drawbacks/vulnerability.
On cube topic - are people still digging Priest of the Blood Rite? I tried it for a bit and wasn't really a huge fan as it didn't feel like it was worth the payoff/drawbacks/vulnerability.
I was a huge fan of this card during the spoiler and went through a cooling period after he proved to not actually be broken. And after I got over that, I saw the card for what it is - a really cool black 5 drop that synergizes with a lot of stuff. I've seen him win games in sac/recur combos. I've seen him kill his caster after the token got bounced (I've been the caster).
I'm still running it and I don't plan on taking him out. He's fun to play in much the same way Abyssal Persecutor and Dark Confidant are. There's this mini game you end up playing after priest gets cast (basically, can you kill your opponent or deal with the drawback before priest kills you).
It's a flavor win card for black IMO even if it isn't busted.
When did Jace jump so much? I was keeping an eye on Nissa on one of the sites over here (UK) and Jace had been sitting around $50 equivalent for ages, checked after reading this thread and he's now basically $100.
A store online was buying Jaces for $50. People freaked out and the price shot up.
On cube topic - are people still digging Priest of the Blood Rite? I tried it for a bit and wasn't really a huge fan as it didn't feel like it was worth the payoff/drawbacks/vulnerability.
I still think he's the best 5cc creature option outside of Shriekmaw / Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath. In my experience, the drawbacks are worth it, he's VERY easy to abuse.
And who knew a 2 CMC blue splashable PW named Jace would be so good and expensive!
I think Sidisi is better than Priest. I'm still running both (which still says a lot about what I think of Priest since I run a small cube) but would cut Priest first -- as much as I love synergies in cube the drawback really is a thing.
Edit:
On Jace: I've had my doh moments over the years (I sold foil fetches for $40-50 each and a foil Cradle for about $60) but got lucky with Jace. Picked up a couple SDCC Planeswalker sets and he pretty much covered those costs now.
Priest of the Blood Rite
+ Has the most power spread out with 2 bodies
+ Highest ceiling of the bunch
+ Has great synergy with bounce, blink, reanimation, and the Reveilark / Imperial Recruiter / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death family
- Has the lowest floor, which leaves you with a 2/2 that bleeds you every turn
- The 5/5 being a token makes it vulnerable to bounce and Pernicious Deed sweeping type effects
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
+ Tutoring is always powerful
+ 4/6 body keeps it out of burn range, deathtouch makes it hard to attack through
- A single removal spell can ruin the exploit trigger
- Not the greatest value when you have nothing to exploit and you NEED to tutor for something or don't exploit at all
Bloodgift Demon
+ Has the highest floor out of the bunch
+ His drawback really isn't that painful and can be redirected to your opponent
- Highest floor also comes with lowest ceiling
- Has least synergy with other cards and can't really be abused
- 4 toughness puts him in burn range
Shadowborn Demon
+ Biggest single body that takes out your opponent's biggest creature
+ 6 toughness puts it out of burn range and is relevant when the skies are cluttered full of 5/5 angels, demons, and dragons
+ Has synergy with blink / bounce / reanimation
- Drawback is very relevant and not easy to mitigate
- Synergy can be moot if your opponent has nothing to remove or is planeswalker based
Looking at the four cards, I still prefer Priest of the Blood Rite. In the end, it's the easiest to abuse and is the most abusable of the bunch. When building both my cube and my decks, I look for synergy. Games that where priest is relevant usually comes out with the best stories, which usually involves an army of 5/5 demons or the most miserable Gray Ogre you've ever seen. This weekend I played a lot with priest, and got to abuse him most games. The game where he ended up costing me, my 2 demon tokens got walled by a Baleful Strix then got blown up by a Maelstrom Pulse. It sucked, but Priest still won me more games than he lost me and provided me with a fun experience that I will remember for a long time, a quality I highly value when evaluating what to put in my cube.
Priest is one of the clean-cut, no frills card, if you're looking for a simplistic option for your cube. There're merits which maybe some cubes can exploit (like Birthing Pod, sac outlets, etc) better than other cubes. Besides, as we keep getting more new cards, eventually we'll find many of them closer in power level than say, 5 years ago.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
LOL, that's half the reason I decided to give it a second look because I have a foil sitting around. The other half being is that I am probably cutting one of my really mediocre black Enchantress cards, Spiteful Returned for this that supports Mono Black Aggro and Devotion. Thanks for the feedback from both of you and yes it's a pretty cool foil. :3
I really wasn't impressed with it in Origins limited (T2 Dragon Fodder GG). It traded down most of the time and it's recursion was not nothing.
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Relic Hunter has been better than expected, it's no Stoneforge Mystic, but it gets its equipment or eats removal often enough. It's hard to ask for more from a 2-drop.
Whirler Rogue has been fantastic. It stabilizes the board quite nicely for a 4-drop, , plays nicely with blink and recursion shenanigans, and has also been great for pushing through Sword activations. I'd kind of expected it to be too fair, but it's pulling its weight in a really competitive slot.
Liliana, Heretical Healer has been surprisingly easy to flip and is great in value reanimator decks (I strategy I favor a lot in my own drafts, so I value it highly). It doesn't need the lifelink to be good, but any source of incidental lifegain is always welcome in black.
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh was way too hard to flip reliably, and its creature side just isn't good enough to justify keeping it if it can't flip. I cut it in my BFZ update.
Archangel of Tithes has also been cut. It was tabling, due to what I assume was the WWW in the casting cost.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I initially overlooked Hangarback Walker but it has really impressed me lately. Solid card.
Both Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Whirler Rogue have been really good. The last Commander set and Origins really pushed red as a color for the artifact archetype. I especially like Rogue, because she is an uncommon. It always makes me happy when a common or uncommon proves to be good in cube.
Speaking of the artifact deck: Thopter Engineer has been quite decent. Buys your slower deck time against aggro decks, works well in token or sacrifice decks and can be brutal if followed up with a bigger artifact creature. It doesn't fit into a normal aggro deck, but red has become so much more than a simple aggro color over the last few years.
I put Flameshadow Conjuring in a test slot. It is a really durdly card, but some players loved it. It seemed like a card that didn't make the decks it was in stronger, but made them cooler / more fun to play. It is a bit too fairly costed, but since some friends like it so much, I will probably include it for real.
I am still kicking myself for not preordering Hangarback Walker when it was still below $1.
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
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StaffYou think that's bad, the first week Origins came out I threw both Hangarback Walker and Abbot of Keral Keep in the garbage because I thought that's what they were... garbage.
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Its played as a 4 of in a bunch of standard decks, and sees some fringe Modern & Legacy play. I think it will see more and more Modern play as time goes on.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/3pq
A store online was buying Jaces for $50. People freaked out and the price shot up.
On cube topic - are people still digging Priest of the Blood Rite? I tried it for a bit and wasn't really a huge fan as it didn't feel like it was worth the payoff/drawbacks/vulnerability.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I was a huge fan of this card during the spoiler and went through a cooling period after he proved to not actually be broken. And after I got over that, I saw the card for what it is - a really cool black 5 drop that synergizes with a lot of stuff. I've seen him win games in sac/recur combos. I've seen him kill his caster after the token got bounced (I've been the caster).
I'm still running it and I don't plan on taking him out. He's fun to play in much the same way Abyssal Persecutor and Dark Confidant are. There's this mini game you end up playing after priest gets cast (basically, can you kill your opponent or deal with the drawback before priest kills you).
It's a flavor win card for black IMO even if it isn't busted.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
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StaffI still think he's the best 5cc creature option outside of Shriekmaw / Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath. In my experience, the drawbacks are worth it, he's VERY easy to abuse.
And who knew a 2 CMC blue splashable PW named Jace would be so good and expensive!
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Edit:
On Jace: I've had my doh moments over the years (I sold foil fetches for $40-50 each and a foil Cradle for about $60) but got lucky with Jace. Picked up a couple SDCC Planeswalker sets and he pretty much covered those costs now.
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StaffLet's do an analysis.
Priest of the Blood Rite
+ Has the most power spread out with 2 bodies
+ Highest ceiling of the bunch
+ Has great synergy with bounce, blink, reanimation, and the Reveilark / Imperial Recruiter / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death family
- Has the lowest floor, which leaves you with a 2/2 that bleeds you every turn
- The 5/5 being a token makes it vulnerable to bounce and Pernicious Deed sweeping type effects
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
+ Tutoring is always powerful
+ 4/6 body keeps it out of burn range, deathtouch makes it hard to attack through
- A single removal spell can ruin the exploit trigger
- Not the greatest value when you have nothing to exploit and you NEED to tutor for something or don't exploit at all
Bloodgift Demon
+ Has the highest floor out of the bunch
+ His drawback really isn't that painful and can be redirected to your opponent
- Highest floor also comes with lowest ceiling
- Has least synergy with other cards and can't really be abused
- 4 toughness puts him in burn range
Shadowborn Demon
+ Biggest single body that takes out your opponent's biggest creature
+ 6 toughness puts it out of burn range and is relevant when the skies are cluttered full of 5/5 angels, demons, and dragons
+ Has synergy with blink / bounce / reanimation
- Drawback is very relevant and not easy to mitigate
- Synergy can be moot if your opponent has nothing to remove or is planeswalker based
Looking at the four cards, I still prefer Priest of the Blood Rite. In the end, it's the easiest to abuse and is the most abusable of the bunch. When building both my cube and my decks, I look for synergy. Games that where priest is relevant usually comes out with the best stories, which usually involves an army of 5/5 demons or the most miserable Gray Ogre you've ever seen. This weekend I played a lot with priest, and got to abuse him most games. The game where he ended up costing me, my 2 demon tokens got walled by a Baleful Strix then got blown up by a Maelstrom Pulse. It sucked, but Priest still won me more games than he lost me and provided me with a fun experience that I will remember for a long time, a quality I highly value when evaluating what to put in my cube.
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
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UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG