If I recall correctly, a lot of cubes used to run Ancient Tomb, but it has fallen out of favor recently. I still run it at 360-unpowered because there are combo and ramp decks that can make serious use of the early mana acceleration. I'm sure if another couple of cubable colorless/utility lands get printed soon, Ancient Tomb will be one of the first to go. I actually use it less often in aggressive decks than in the aforementioned ramp/combo because I find that the aggro decks can be color hungry and tapping for 2 colorless mana is usually a risk.
I agree with everything said thus far. An attacking 3/3 first strike on turn two is bonkers.
Just as a thought experiment, I took at look at the other white one-drops I'm running at 360. I tried to rank them and thought to myself "Is Student of Warfare the best aggressive white 1-drop?". I think you could make an argument that it is.
I have no problem discussing how awesome a card is in its own thread. I don't think threads have to accomplish anything for any reason.
Anyway. I love Gideon. I think he and Reveillark are far and away the top two white five drops.
I get how players who haven't used him before can be confused by how good his +2 ability can really be. In reality, few cards can come down and stabilize your position from WAY BEHIND. Gideon is the focus of your opponent in almost any situation, and even then he's hard to take down without losing a lot of cards.
I playtested him at 360 this past week. I faced him down in match 3 and he was very good for my opponent. The 5/5 demon was a very scary threat and ob-nix immediately became my focus until I could remove him. I found I was willing to do whatever I could to get him off the board before that 2nd demon came. He seems to be an upgrade over Desecration Demon, who was just taken out.
I noticed in the Yasova Dragonclaw thread that you didn't have 'shard slots', which doesn't surprise me, but as I was looking at your list I then realized you don't run Sphinx of the Steel Wind or Inkwell Leviathan. Now I have to ask about your tinker decks. In my cube, Myr Battlesphere and Sundering Titan get tinkered into all the time, but those cards are also fought over by reanimator and ramp builds. I thought that it was nice to have Sphinx of the Steel wind in there as another card to offer. Do you find that your just the two giant robots are enough Tinker support despite being snatched up by other decks? Does the fact that your cube is powered mean that people are tinkering into more utility style artifacts that I'm just not used to? Have you been considering adding another giant artifact back?
I will test this at 360. I love aggressive green decks and my only decision now is where to slot it. I can see running in green as a dependable option.
I'm torn on this card. I really want another playable black wrath, but I'm not sure this is it. I'm not even sure if this is better than Black Sun's Zenith.
Well, the real worst case is it's sitting in your hand when you're dead on board with no way to use this card to kill your opponent. IMO cube is too picky to play these burn spells that can't hit the dome. I won't be testing it in 360.
Can't argue with that. There are times I miss when my cube was 450 and I could fit a larger variety of cards, but the added consistency to combos and certain archetypes (wildfire) keeps me at 360. This is what playing friends' cubes are for!
The more I think about this guy, the less I like him. Let's compare him to other similar 3 drops.
Soltari Priest - 'unblockable' anthem on a stick for an easier casting cost. This new guy doesn't seem as good.
Mirror Entity - an even better anthem on a stick that makes many games just unwinnable for your opponents. I can't ever see cutting ME.
Brimaz - Makes this new guy look plain terrible.
Kitchen Finks (even though it's GW) - similar base stats, with a death trigger, but can be abused with flicker effects that this new guy just lacks.
Flickerwisp - same casting cost, but an evasive 3 damage threat that can abuse ETB effects or remove opponent's blockers.
Blade Splicer - easier casting cost and the abusability of the ETB effect and the size of the 3/3 golem makes Splicer a better card.
Mirran Crusader - 2 color protection and double strike. completely bonkers with equipment. I think this is the closest to being cut for the new guy, but I still think the Mirran guy is on top.
I think this new guy is firmly behind all of the above. If you're still running banisher priest type guys and want some variation, that swap would make sense. But it really depends on how many white 3drop creatures you're looking for.
I'll probably pass at 360 and wait to be proven wrong by others' testing results.
At 360, the only noncreature kill spells I run in black are Snuff Out, Dismember, Hero's Downfall and the 2 edicts. Maybe if this was 1B I'd give it a shot, but otherwise I don't see it making it in.
Just as a thought experiment, I took at look at the other white one-drops I'm running at 360. I tried to rank them and thought to myself "Is Student of Warfare the best aggressive white 1-drop?". I think you could make an argument that it is.
Anyway. I love Gideon. I think he and Reveillark are far and away the top two white five drops.
I get how players who haven't used him before can be confused by how good his +2 ability can really be. In reality, few cards can come down and stabilize your position from WAY BEHIND. Gideon is the focus of your opponent in almost any situation, and even then he's hard to take down without losing a lot of cards.
Sick green aggro creatures I play:
Not to mention:
I also can't wait to see the rest of this cycle.
Soltari Priest - 'unblockable' anthem on a stick for an easier casting cost. This new guy doesn't seem as good.
Mirror Entity - an even better anthem on a stick that makes many games just unwinnable for your opponents. I can't ever see cutting ME.
Brimaz - Makes this new guy look plain terrible.
Kitchen Finks (even though it's GW) - similar base stats, with a death trigger, but can be abused with flicker effects that this new guy just lacks.
Flickerwisp - same casting cost, but an evasive 3 damage threat that can abuse ETB effects or remove opponent's blockers.
Blade Splicer - easier casting cost and the abusability of the ETB effect and the size of the 3/3 golem makes Splicer a better card.
Mirran Crusader - 2 color protection and double strike. completely bonkers with equipment. I think this is the closest to being cut for the new guy, but I still think the Mirran guy is on top.
I think this new guy is firmly behind all of the above. If you're still running banisher priest type guys and want some variation, that swap would make sense. But it really depends on how many white 3drop creatures you're looking for.
I'll probably pass at 360 and wait to be proven wrong by others' testing results.
I'm unsure if I'll run this card. I definitely like it, it's just a matter of seeing how well it will fit in my cube.