This set continues to NOT disappoint! I feel like this is pretty much a slam dunk even though white 3's are among the most competitive slots in cube. Beating for 5 with lifelink on turn 4! Hard to kill! Plays well in literally every archetype! This card is crazy!
Yeah I love this card. It's a cheap threat that I can either protect with my own spells or use its built in abilities, along with being good on offense and defense. Great card is great, right? I'm very excited for this set.
I don't like how aggressive it is, but it is stupidly good. It's worth noting that it's hard to get as much value out of a mana sink on turn four than it is on turn six.
Personally, I don't think I really want this card. It's one of those that would push my cube in a direction that I don't really want to push it. I think Aerial Responder is as pushed as I want to get with lifelinking three-drops.
Really cool card, but evasion is key and this doesn’t have any.
I'm a little more lenient for the three drop to not have evasion, all the other keywords + the not dying ability seem really good rolled in together.
No evasion means it can get chilled all day and its way of protecting itself means you need to re-cast it every time. This card has potential, but it’s fairly slow. I like Gideon of the Trials much more.
Really cool card, but evasion is key and this doesn’t have any.
I'm a little more lenient for the three drop to not have evasion, all the other keywords + the not dying ability seem really good rolled in together.
No evasion means it can get chilled all day and its way of protecting itself means you need to re-cast it every time. This card has potential, but it’s fairly slow. I like Gideon of the Trials much more.
Yeah I think it might be more of an aggro-control card where you drop it and protect it until its gets in. It is a little clunky, but it's also really tough to remove if you have mana open.
Cards like this I think are great for the cube because its good in multiple archetypes and it rewards good game play. Although fine on turn 3 as an aggro play, brightling excels later in the game and can single handily stabilize you. It's very far from unbeatable but it is able to change the flow of the game all on is own. Seems like an excellent three drop to me.
I'm a bit lukewarm on this and don't think it's necessarily an obvious slam-dunk. I don't see this competing with white 3s but white 4s - the fact that I could technically cast this on turn 3 with no white open does not matter that much because there's really no reason. It also goes only into a very heavy white deck, and white has no shortage of crazy midrange beaters with less demands for colored mana. I love the design and this type of card in general, but the way they costed the abilities hurts it. I wish they'd given it a blink instead of a bounce ability, but that would probably have been game-breaking in limited and too close to Aetherling.
Then again, it does win the game very quickly on its own, a bit like Geist of St Traft. It's a "kill me now or suffer" kinda card like Mirror Entity or Eldrazi Displacer, but I'm not sure if it can create as much value. I'll probably test it.
Cards seems bad unless you forgo casting spells just to maintain the threat level. I don't think any other 3 of 4 drop I play in white is worse than this.
My initial reaction to a 3 drop "morphling" is an autoinclude, but as I was thinking what to take out, it is really indeed a difficult choice.
This card does not support white's aggro strategy or curving out. You don't necessarily need to leave mana out if you are in the offensive, and at turn 3 and 4 you may still need to exert full pressure. It also does not help white's go wide strategy of adding tokens or mass pump.
It also is not a good finisher without the evasion, and the protection really is mana intensive (recasting).
My gut tells me no based on my experiences with similar cards that requires a significant mana investment to be good.
Only because of how mediocre it is unless you are investing mana into it every turn... however even if you are doing that, it can still get outclassed by decks that go bigger (or trade off with bigger creatures)
^^^^ Yeah, I think not supporting any defined archetype is the biggest knock against this card. There's only so many spots for "good creatures" and they still often underperformed.
I don't think I like it, not having any evasion is what spoils it for me. In theory it swings T4 ad a 5/1 life linking vigalent threat but it can be easily chumped so you need a clear board to really have this thing pay off. It could play a lot better than it looks since they can never really kill it, but having to recast it each time feels bad and basically means it costs 1WWW each turn.
I kinda wish it got first strike, but maybe that would that have been too pushed?
Probably a pass for me unless I happen to open one.
Yeah Im not as high as I was on it, but I think this is more of a control card than it is an aggro/midrange one. I think it's at min fine everywhere, but I think you want it in a deck where you can protect it with counterspells and return it to your hand before you wrath.
It's still pretty versatile. I wouldn't be embarrassed to run this in any creature-based deck, as if you have the mana it's going to be the card you need it to be in that moment.
Cool card, but white 3cc creatures are insanely competitive, and I think this is a bit too W-intensive. It's good, and the combination of abilities will make it hard for some decks to break through it, but it requires a lot of mana to stay threatening, and casting it + protecting it in the same round requires a 1WWW cost, which is a lot of white mana for the kinds of decks that would want to play this kind of creature. Oddly enough, an giant 6cc creature with this same suite of abilities might have been better.
But if your cube is still playing some of the generic 3cc creatures like the double-striking beaters or whatever, I'd give this a spin and see how it does.
I think the time of 'ling creatures being good in cube is past. Even at 1WW, I don't want this. It can't win combat against 3/3's, protects itself very expensively, any only really shines when you can attack with it as a 4/2 or 5/1, or get to continually block as a 2/4 lifelink, all oh which costs mana mana mana.
I think it's testable over sivlerblade, but that's been out for us for awhile.
I feel like this set is full of cube traps. There are so many cards that look insane on their face but when you step back and evaluate the cards in the context of various cube archetypes or its strength relative to current inclusions in your cube you realize this isn't what you're looking for.
I feel like this set is full of cube traps. There are so many cards that look insane on their face but when you step back and evaluate the cards in the context of various cube archetypes or its strength relative to current inclusions in your cube you realize this isn't what you're looking for.
That isn't to say I don't think a few of these still merit testing, but so far the only slam dunk is Will Kenrith IMO.
I agree with the sentiment but for me Will is the poster child of traps. Not that I don't love a lot of these cards but after testing I think it will come done to taste. Brightling barely got my notice as my group would probably be last picking it.
For me aggro creatures should be doing above the curve damage, get immediate value, or bonus durability. This has that durability but at the cost of tons of mana and time. So it is more of a control/midrange creature and I really don't look to support midrange and my control early drops aren't this mana hungry.
This set continues to NOT disappoint! I feel like this is pretty much a slam dunk even though white 3's are among the most competitive slots in cube. Beating for 5 with lifelink on turn 4! Hard to kill! Plays well in literally every archetype! This card is crazy!
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I don't like how aggressive it is, but it is stupidly good. It's worth noting that it's hard to get as much value out of a mana sink on turn four than it is on turn six.
Personally, I don't think I really want this card. It's one of those that would push my cube in a direction that I don't really want to push it. I think Aerial Responder is as pushed as I want to get with lifelinking three-drops.
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I'm a little more lenient for the three drop to not have evasion, all the other keywords + the not dying ability seem really good rolled in together.
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No evasion means it can get chilled all day and its way of protecting itself means you need to re-cast it every time. This card has potential, but it’s fairly slow. I like Gideon of the Trials much more.
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Yeah I think it might be more of an aggro-control card where you drop it and protect it until its gets in. It is a little clunky, but it's also really tough to remove if you have mana open.
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Then again, it does win the game very quickly on its own, a bit like Geist of St Traft. It's a "kill me now or suffer" kinda card like Mirror Entity or Eldrazi Displacer, but I'm not sure if it can create as much value. I'll probably test it.
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This card does not support white's aggro strategy or curving out. You don't necessarily need to leave mana out if you are in the offensive, and at turn 3 and 4 you may still need to exert full pressure. It also does not help white's go wide strategy of adding tokens or mass pump.
It also is not a good finisher without the evasion, and the protection really is mana intensive (recasting).
I feel it's a pass for me.
Only because of how mediocre it is unless you are investing mana into it every turn... however even if you are doing that, it can still get outclassed by decks that go bigger (or trade off with bigger creatures)
Certainly a fine card, no doubt.
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I kinda wish it got first strike, but maybe that would that have been too pushed?
Probably a pass for me unless I happen to open one.
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But if your cube is still playing some of the generic 3cc creatures like the double-striking beaters or whatever, I'd give this a spin and see how it does.
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I think it's testable over sivlerblade, but that's been out for us for awhile.
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This is true for Brightling, Arcane Artisan, Spellseeker, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, Bramble Sovereign, Arena Rector, and Mindblade Render.
That isn't to say I don't think a few of these still merit testing, but so far the only slam dunk is Will Kenrith IMO.
I agree with the sentiment but for me Will is the poster child of traps. Not that I don't love a lot of these cards but after testing I think it will come done to taste. Brightling barely got my notice as my group would probably be last picking it.
For me aggro creatures should be doing above the curve damage, get immediate value, or bonus durability. This has that durability but at the cost of tons of mana and time. So it is more of a control/midrange creature and I really don't look to support midrange and my control early drops aren't this mana hungry.