MTG Salvation

Treasure Map // Treasure Cove

This is a really fun and flavorful card. And it's pretty good too, I think. It's cheap, provides some repeatable card selection, and then turns into a land that both ramps you and draws you cards. I think I might give this card a trial run, since it seems so cool, but I'm not sure if it's quite there powerlevelwise for smaller cubes.

It does seem interesting and fun, but power-level wise I don't know since you will need 3 turns to flip it. The ramping (Treasure tokens + land) is nice though, basically providing a Black Lotus + land when it flips, although a bit late in the game (T4-5).

Worth testing for sure.

Seems slow, but the flexibility of the Treasures after transformation is likely being overlooked right now. Reminds me a bit of Pyramid of the Pantheon but with a lot more versatility. Will likely test this.

It's definitely slow. But you can untap on T6 with like 10 mana, or use it to grind out more CA as the game progresses. Probably not good enough, but I wanted to discuss, since it's so fun and flavorful!

Very hard for me to evaluate.
Might be too slow before it does anything impactful, but when it transforms, it gives quite the boost.
Scry 1 isn't the worst.

I'll probably test because it's so cool and hard to evaluate, but I'm skeptical. Don't think it'll work out in the end.

interesting card for sure. i'll wait and see how it plays out for others. I'm not really looking forward to needing yet another type of token and having more DFC's in the cube.

I really wish this cost 1, but I'm still interested. Will keep an eye out for how it's testing.

Not a huge fan. Kind of slow, like it doesn't feel great that I need to go on a journey before this becomes a card that made my mana investments worth it. Pretty easy pass.

Very slow so easy pass, but I hope something else with this cardframe makes the cut.

This falls into the Fun/Sweet zone that I find generally gets short shrift on this forum. I'm generally pretty happy making small tradeoffs on power level for awesome flavor and fun stories.

It's like the opposite of Carnage Tyrant which is fine but so...very...boring...zzz.

Quote from guyincorporated »

This falls into the Fun/Sweet zone that I find generally gets short shrift on this forum. I'm generally pretty happy making small tradeoffs on power level for awesome flavor and fun stories.

Lately, I've been testing more cards like this than I had in the past. Like Angel of Condemnation is probably too slow for my cube, but what the hell, let's give it a go for 4 drafts or so, until the new set comes out. It's been nice having almost designated, long-testing spots. At 450 there is some room for that. This is exactly the kind of card I like to run there for a few months.

The base card is pretty measly:

Map 2
1,T: Scry 1.

Compare to Witches' Eye. If you do find treasure, this gets pretty sweet, but you've spent five mana and three turns doing it, making this likely too slow and unreliable even for a cube like mine.

I really like the card face, though, and I've been waiting for things that transform into lands. A giant whale or turtle that dies and becomes an island would be super flavorful.

Well, it looks insanely better than Witches' Eye as a base, that's for sure. Witches' Eye is unplayable garbage. I've also heard comparisons drawn to Crystal Ball, but Crystal Ball can't ever ramp me, fix my mana or draw me cards. Basically removing the appealing part of the card.

The base card is only marginally better than Witches' Eye, which is indeed unplayable garbage. Pyramid of the Pantheon is also pretty bad, and I cut Crystal Ball for being too mana-hungry. Sigiled Starfish is okay, but doesn't charge to activate. My point is that the front side is pretty close to unplayable, and that probably kills the back side. At 1 mana, I would play this.

It's a decent amount better than Witches' Eye, you don't need to equip it to a creature so you'll end up paying at minimum the same upfront cost every time and on average will always be paying less for Treaure Map.

But yeah, you're right that the front half is the reason no one here is gushing.

I think it's night and day better than Witches' Eye. Not even close to being close. You have to pay at least the same amount of mana, you need a creature to equip it to, the creature needs to be available early (which is going to be basically ...never, for the kinds of decks wanting this type of effect), and then it prevents you from using the creature for other tasks! No, Witches' Eye is a poor comparison.

But the time and mana investment will certainly be the thing that keeps it from being amazing. It may very well be fringe playable though, as repeatable scry is still a useful thing to be doing while building up to a really strong payoff. Reminds me a little of Thing in the Ice. There are far better blockers you could play ...if that was all the card did. But despite its speed, the payoff is pretty big, and the combination of marginal early game value and a payoff worth trying to reach makes it a pretty good card overall. Could be the same verdict for Treasure Map. It's something I want to test and find out. It's like debating that Thing in the Ice sucks because Giant Tortoise is a better blocker ...all the while ignoring the payoff that makes the card worth using in the first place.

Lol, why people are referring to Witches' Eye? Only scry speaking, the latest is so much worst than the map. And the map has a splitted Black Lotus (strap with CA) as an ultimate.

Yup. Darksteel Pendant is to Treasure Map what Thought Courier is to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy.

There are hardly any cards making our cube list so far, but this one definitely has enough upside to have a go. The flavour is off the charts and it just looks a ton of fun. Plus the frame is really neat. The cheap scry activations should fit in easily on the curve, which saves the card somewhat.

Did anyone end up playing Treasure Map? In a large Cube we enjoy having a number of grindy “trinkets” for Control decks that often have artifact synergies. This card does everything we want in that sort of deck, just wish it were slightly more powerful... we still might add it.

Card's good. I just re-added it into my 540, and it's a serviceable utility card for slower decks. High payoff, valuable utility, and it's a full-on flavor win. I'm a fan.

Oh wow I didn’t see that you re-added it! That sells it for me.

Quote from Patrunkenphat7 »

Did anyone end up playing Treasure Map? In a large Cube we enjoy having a number of grindy “trinkets” for Control decks that often have artifact synergies. This card does everything we want in that sort of deck, just wish it were slightly more powerful... we still might add it.

I love treasure map! Definitly a card I underestimated when it was first spoiled.
Been cubing with it for a long time now and it has solidified a long term spot at my current size.

It's a little "faster" than I first realized, because of how valuable the 1 time mana boost can be...
Sometimes the value of boosting out an expensive spell like an Ugin, Karn etc is more than worth sacrificing the future draw value.

When that acceleration isn't needed, getting 3 scrys, 3 cards and 1 land out of something that only requires a small investment is a very powerful card advantage effect.

I think I'd play it down to 450, auto-include at 720