Hard casting it is pretty mediocre, but casting it for free averages it out since that's pretty awesome. It's extremely similar to Oath of Nissa if you have experience with that, especially their limitations. Currently running both at 540, but can see myself cutting one or the other in the future if I need space.
How good is casting it for free actually? Like I’m not arguing that it’s not good, but is a better-than-average opening hand (created from the free cast) worth drawing this worse Impulse at other stages of the game?
How good is casting it for free actually? Like I’m not arguing that it’s not good, but is a better-than-average opening hand (created from the free cast) worth drawing this worse Impulse at other stages of the game?
It's nothing game breaking, but it's really nice. The fact that Impulse is already a pretty decent cube card makes the ACS of this card pretty cubeable. Like Impulse / Oath of Nissa, you're not missing out on much for not running them, but I do have a good amount of combos / interactions that I like to dig for.
I have been very happy in the few games I've gotten to draft this card so far. For reference, I am 540 powered cube, and I don't and didn't run Oath of Nissa.
Casting this for free is really, really good. Its pretty easy to cast it turn 2 after your first/second card draw to dig really deep and help ensure your gameplan comes together. If you want my anecdotal evidence, here it is:
I played it in a green based Sneak/Show deck, where it functioned to either dig for a mana dork/land of the missing color early when I had my combo pieces in hand, or to dig for a fatty to cheat in when I had mana and the cheat cards but no fatty. It was really great there, even as a late topdeck where it essentially turned my topdeck into a dig 5 deep for another fatty.
The other deck I had it in was a low to the ground simic tempo deck. Here it also did an amazing job of digging early for that Edric or that Hexdrinker that I really want to play on curve, or being a great topdeck even late where I can look at the top 5 and get the best bit of gas from among them to keep applying the pressure.
Any deck where you want (even if its just want, and not need) a key piece to have that ideal curve out and that piece is a creature or land (pretty easy if you are in green to meet that requirement). And in power cube that comes up a lot; it just raises the chances for you to get that ideal opening quite a bit, and in cube the difference between the ceiling of what your deck can do and what it does on average can sometimes be very high. It's nice to have something that helps close that gap in green.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
It's nothing game breaking, but it's really nice. The fact that Impulse is already a pretty decent cube card makes the ACS of this card pretty cubeable. Like Impulse / Oath of Nissa, you're not missing out on much for not running them, but I do have a good amount of combos / interactions that I like to dig for.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Casting this for free is really, really good. Its pretty easy to cast it turn 2 after your first/second card draw to dig really deep and help ensure your gameplan comes together. If you want my anecdotal evidence, here it is:
I played it in a green based Sneak/Show deck, where it functioned to either dig for a mana dork/land of the missing color early when I had my combo pieces in hand, or to dig for a fatty to cheat in when I had mana and the cheat cards but no fatty. It was really great there, even as a late topdeck where it essentially turned my topdeck into a dig 5 deep for another fatty.
The other deck I had it in was a low to the ground simic tempo deck. Here it also did an amazing job of digging early for that Edric or that Hexdrinker that I really want to play on curve, or being a great topdeck even late where I can look at the top 5 and get the best bit of gas from among them to keep applying the pressure.
Any deck where you want (even if its just want, and not need) a key piece to have that ideal curve out and that piece is a creature or land (pretty easy if you are in green to meet that requirement). And in power cube that comes up a lot; it just raises the chances for you to get that ideal opening quite a bit, and in cube the difference between the ceiling of what your deck can do and what it does on average can sometimes be very high. It's nice to have something that helps close that gap in green.
My 36+ Commander Decks: TAPPEDOUT
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.