I agree, but i don't think that means its impossible. Ajani Goldmane was pretty good in cube for a long time. I think a super pushed pw that needs outside help could be fine. domri, anarch of bolas had a lot of people thinking about including it recently.
As an aside, I want more AGGRO planeswalkers. I really feel like Sarkhan vol is the only PW that fits into aggro, that won't just get grabbed by a durdly superfriends deck.
I played a cube draft last night, where the combo decks just happened to get amazing opening hands, and had several turn 2 or 3 wins based on opening hands. Meanwhile, I had a subpar lutri, the spellchaser deck, and played her several times as a 3/2 flash vanilla creature, to apply pressure or kill a problematic planeswalker. Which honestly didn't feel fair, but definitely felt like magic... I understand what some companions have done to magic in other formats, but I'm really not feeling like they are all too broken in cube. Jegantha, the wellspring , umori, the collector and lutri, the spellchaser have all been at an OK power level in our two in-person drafts. Gyruda has been maindecked twice, and been reanimated pulling out a turn wurmcoil engine as well in his most "broken play". Yorion still hasn't seen play, so i can't say, and i dont own the other 5 yet, so I can't say how they will do, but i can't imagine the hippo to be unfair in a format with turn 2 reanimated blightsteel collosus, and splintertwin combos...
Yes, the companion ability is destroying a lot of magic formats right now, but I still feel like in cube the deckbuilding restrictionsare impactful + average power level is high enough that they aren't just unsalvageable. In 400 powered, individual cards feel like bombs, while others feel like 8-15th picks. A pack 3 gyruda, or yorion might be a hard sell.
Every regularly cubed conspiracy is stronger than companion. I run power play and sentinel dispatch. One drafter remarked, "the strongest companion at the table today is my 1/1 artifact defender"
As for other ikoria cards, Vivien, monster's advocate still seems like a strong, but not broken tool in green midrange decks.
Parallax wave is in one of the most competitive slots in cube, so I've never actually tried it, but it looks pretty good.
The weirdest deck that has ever been drafted in my cube was a 33 land 7 card deck that was made for a free for all game, it did nothing while other people fought, played knight of the reliquary into Armageddon then murdered everyone, it objectively wasn't a good deck by any means, but that doesn't matter if it won.
Wraths were great cards before planeswalkers were a thing, so I don't buy the "this kills my planeswalkers so I can't get value out of it" argument. Killing planeswalkers is a plus to me, with all the token producing planeswalkers nowadays there are a lot of boardstates where this card will be really good.
Having bolas in an izzet deck splashing black just adds so much to the card. This card is weaker, but it costs less and is unplayable less often, seriously even in dedicated grixis decks there were games without double black available and it felt bad.
10/10. My favorite simic card, a resilient finisher, a cheap card advantage engine, a card that works together as the spikiest card I've ever seen, I love it.
Kinda neat that her 0 is basically an ultimate ability if she has scryed a bit.
Bonfire got taken out at one point, not for underperforming, just to test other cards, and then i put it back in when i remembered how insane it was sometimes. Its main detriment is the stigma of not miracling it, but honestly its probably a 80-20 split in favor of miracling it, and its serviceable in its bad mode.
A lot of people have nostalgia around certain cards for being "moments in magic history" and Id say this is definitely one of those cards. That topdeck Bonfire on Kibler.
I love X spells, black sun'z zenith was probably my favorite cube card until toxic deluge and Languish appeared.
Can i just say something that hasn't been pointed out yet? This card is basically acting as ALL 3 creatures at one time when lategame. Say i was going gruul midrange and got pushe by the draft into boros aggro. I picked Thrun and lets say atarka, then i saw a random fatty, and i picked that rather early. In response to removal after this becomes atarka, I just shuffle the dice and try to get thrun, dodging removal.
it seems SUPER cute. The times this card is just a 3/2 vanilla definitely arent zero, but I originally thought scute mob was the nuts, so im trying to learn my lesson, value is not >> efficiency. This card should be tested by everyone though.
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As an aside, I want more AGGRO planeswalkers. I really feel like Sarkhan vol is the only PW that fits into aggro, that won't just get grabbed by a durdly superfriends deck.
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Yes, the companion ability is destroying a lot of magic formats right now, but I still feel like in cube the deckbuilding restrictionsare impactful + average power level is high enough that they aren't just unsalvageable. In 400 powered, individual cards feel like bombs, while others feel like 8-15th picks. A pack 3 gyruda, or yorion might be a hard sell.
Every regularly cubed conspiracy is stronger than companion. I run power play and sentinel dispatch. One drafter remarked, "the strongest companion at the table today is my 1/1 artifact defender"
As for other ikoria cards, Vivien, monster's advocate still seems like a strong, but not broken tool in green midrange decks.
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The weirdest deck that has ever been drafted in my cube was a 33 land 7 card deck that was made for a free for all game, it did nothing while other people fought, played knight of the reliquary into Armageddon then murdered everyone, it objectively wasn't a good deck by any means, but that doesn't matter if it won.
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Kinda neat that her 0 is basically an ultimate ability if she has scryed a bit.
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A lot of people have nostalgia around certain cards for being "moments in magic history" and Id say this is definitely one of those cards. That topdeck Bonfire on Kibler.
I love X spells, black sun'z zenith was probably my favorite cube card until toxic deluge and Languish appeared.
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it seems SUPER cute. The times this card is just a 3/2 vanilla definitely arent zero, but I originally thought scute mob was the nuts, so im trying to learn my lesson, value is not >> efficiency. This card should be tested by everyone though.
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If i did run it I'd include it in most blue decks including tempo, my blue decks love red burn as removal.
I like doing mudruns(tough mudder, Spartan run) and I officiate sports as a hobby/job.