Eh, I'd generally rather have some Phantom Monster variant in play + keep my 2-drop around than have a slightly better 3/4 Eldrazi thing and an extra card in hand
Curious Homunculus looks pretty sweet. I do love a good 'spells matter' card. It is quite narrow but will be great in that deck. Ramping into Fact or Fiction seems fun.
Curious Homunculus looks pretty sweet. I do love a good 'spells matter' card. It is quite narrow but will be great in that deck. Ramping into Fact or Fiction seems fun.
Totally agree. Spells Matter is one of my favorite decks to draft and pilot. This card fits right in.
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So, now we have Ingenious Skaab and Haunted Dead as well. I still really like the design of uncommons (and many commons) in this block, even if the raw power level might not suffice to justify the inclusion of the cards. They just allow so many more venues for durdling without being hopeless.
Yeah I like that homunculus a decent amount but I worry that it is too reliant on a spell heavy deck. You can run young pyromancer in a deck with 5 or 6 spells, but you can't reall do that with this guy,especially if one of those spells is counterspell or lightning bolt.
Blessed Alliance 1W
Instant (U)
Escalate (2)
Choose one or more
- Target Player gains 4 life
- Untap up to two target creatures
- Target opponent sacrifices an attacking creature
a) Hooray, uncommon Escalate cards (Escalators?) with 3 options.
b) I think this could be good. Fine early as an easier-to-cast defensive Celestial Flare and scales up well into the late-game.
Seems about as good as Immolating Glare, so not really something I'm interested in. Trades flexibility / blowout potential for the times when an Edict is so much worse than targeted removal.
A: I. Glare is awesome and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. *rolls up sleeve*
B: Maji has this right. It's a less color-intensive C. Flare that scales up into a blowout combat trick. I'm super down.
I'm pretty stoked for Blessed Alliance too. ... I'd never think of running each effect separately, but the charm-like flexibility combined with the ability to use all three concurrently?! Sold. I hope there are plenty of other good escalate cards. I'm cautiously optimistic.
It's flexible enough to be about as good as Vapor Snag, but I cut Snag and haven't really missed it
It's also says "creature" where it really should have said "(nonland) permanent" instead.
All these drawbacks really kill its playability in my book. Had it been printed in an era where design was still wiling to let us target lands, or if it had at least offered some other upside besides "versatility" (like drawing or scrying), I might have considered it. As is, it's just an overcosted Unsummon that can occasionally be a poor man's Remand. Neither of those options look good (especially since neither of those cards are staples in my book).
Well, I should correct myself. I clearly see HOW it could happen, but I don't think it will happen often enough to make up for the somewhat frequent worst-case of the card being two mana, kill a 1/1 Goblin token.
The "untap and ambush block!!!" idea just... doesn't play out that often. Nobody cubes To Arms!. I've had Pestermite in for a long time, and that card has successfully orchestrated an ambush block like... 15% of the time, at most.
I like Watercourser + prowess Skaab a good amount. Not sure what the cut would be, but blue getting some beefy early drops without drawback is nice.
The Zombie-make-a-spirit is... meh. I love Sandsteppe Outcast, but four mana kinda kills it. The recursion is all upside, obviously, but I think it's much less likely to do anything on T10 compared to Stitchwing Skaab for the same mana/card cost. (Yes, it nets an instant-speed Spirit for blocks... which'll sometimes snag a Flickerwisp or something, at least).
Curious Homunculus: meh. Floor on this guy is a 2-drop colorless mana dork who can't actually help you cast any spells. And when you draw it late with enough spells in the GY to make a beefy Eldrazi, it still has to wait a full turn before flipping.
Blessed alliance is looking to me like a really easy include. It's a flexible removal spell/combat trick with powerful anti aggro potential. It can even kill played crusher and other hex proof creatures.
Do the Blessed Alliance supporters (members of the Alliance?) realize that you choose your untap targets before your opponent chooses what to sacrifice? Whatever is going to get blocked profitably is going to be what they sacrifice.
I just can't remember the last time someone was attacking three 2/2 non-evasive creatures into two tapped 3/3s, which seems to be the best-case scenario everyone is imagining here. Yes, once you have Alliance in hand you can make your attacks in such a way to help set it up, but in that case it's still incredibly easy trick to spot for people who know the cube's contents (and ALSO still unlikely that the incoming attack force is all small and non-evasive).
--
Plated Crusher is the only playable Peasant card with Hexproof.
Eh. I will almost definitely play Smoldering Werewolf and could consider Vildin-Pack Outcast. The latter is probably worse than Gatstaf Arsonists and as such, not really worth including, but for a common, it is still nice. However, Kessig Prowler is an auto-include for me. So excited because this means they are willing to support green early aggro.
15 castable spells off Homunculus seems insane. You need actual creatures, 1-drops that can't be cast with 1, and powerful artifacts/enchantments. Even the most spells-y UR deck I have jotted down from draft nights topped out at 10, and the vast majority of blue decks that could want Homunc have somewhere around 7-9 spells that it can cast.
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Jeeeeez... flip Eldrazi wolves. So long, Jungle Lion. I also really like the 4-drop. The common 5-drop probably isn't good enough.
The thing I like about Blessed Alliance is that with Celestial Flare, the right play was often to block the other guy's crappy creatures to trade with your own, soak the damage of their scariest monster, and make them sacrifice it at the end of combat, but Blessed Alliance's first two modes specifically make that scenario less bad when they're taggedmon the third.
I don't think I could have Smoldering Werewolf in my cube alongside Flametongue Kavu. Maybe the double ping is better than I give it credit.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
CubeTutor
Forum
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Totally agree. Spells Matter is one of my favorite decks to draft and pilot. This card fits right in.
My 720 Peasant Cube
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
A: I. Glare is awesome and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. *rolls up sleeve*
B: Maji has this right. It's a less color-intensive C. Flare that scales up into a blowout combat trick. I'm super down.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
It's also says "creature" where it really should have said "(nonland) permanent" instead.
All these drawbacks really kill its playability in my book. Had it been printed in an era where design was still wiling to let us target lands, or if it had at least offered some other upside besides "versatility" (like drawing or scrying), I might have considered it. As is, it's just an overcosted Unsummon that can occasionally be a poor man's Remand. Neither of those options look good (especially since neither of those cards are staples in my book).
I couldn't disagree more. And I imagine most tempo players (especially Delver fans) would side with me.
Indeed.
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
Cubes:
Modern Banlist Cube
Monocolor Budget Cube
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
Cubes:
Modern Banlist Cube
Monocolor Budget Cube
Well, I should correct myself. I clearly see HOW it could happen, but I don't think it will happen often enough to make up for the somewhat frequent worst-case of the card being two mana, kill a 1/1 Goblin token.
The "untap and ambush block!!!" idea just... doesn't play out that often. Nobody cubes To Arms!. I've had Pestermite in for a long time, and that card has successfully orchestrated an ambush block like... 15% of the time, at most.
I thought cryptolith fragment was a land the first time I read it and flipped out...
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
The Zombie-make-a-spirit is... meh. I love Sandsteppe Outcast, but four mana kinda kills it. The recursion is all upside, obviously, but I think it's much less likely to do anything on T10 compared to Stitchwing Skaab for the same mana/card cost. (Yes, it nets an instant-speed Spirit for blocks... which'll sometimes snag a Flickerwisp or something, at least).
Curious Homunculus: meh. Floor on this guy is a 2-drop colorless mana dork who can't actually help you cast any spells. And when you draw it late with enough spells in the GY to make a beefy Eldrazi, it still has to wait a full turn before flipping.
I just can't remember the last time someone was attacking three 2/2 non-evasive creatures into two tapped 3/3s, which seems to be the best-case scenario everyone is imagining here. Yes, once you have Alliance in hand you can make your attacks in such a way to help set it up, but in that case it's still incredibly easy trick to spot for people who know the cube's contents (and ALSO still unlikely that the incoming attack force is all small and non-evasive).
--
Plated Crusher is the only playable Peasant card with Hexproof.
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
Cubes:
Modern Banlist Cube
Monocolor Budget Cube
--
Jeeeeez... flip Eldrazi wolves. So long, Jungle Lion. I also really like the 4-drop. The common 5-drop probably isn't good enough.
And yeah I haven't played 15 instants and sorceries possibly ever. Maybe 10. I don't know what decks phitt is brewing.
I can say that if the card is good it makes the b tier cantrip spells better
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Im all in on the red and green werewolf/eldrazi. I also am still on the hype train about the emerge bird.
I don't think I could have Smoldering Werewolf in my cube alongside Flametongue Kavu. Maybe the double ping is better than I give it credit.
Same. It would be solid as hell if all the costs were reduced by 1. As is, it's just too weak for its cost(s).
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
Cubes:
Modern Banlist Cube
Monocolor Budget Cube