If the Kavu is big enough to attack safely, you're rocking and rolling. Damage is good and looting is good.
If the Kavu is not big enough to attack safely, that's probably because it's in vanilla 2/2 or 1/1 mode, which will happen sometimes. Sometimes your land drops are Forest, City of Brass, Forest. This is not a good scenario.
The ceiling is high, the floor is low. (The real floor is having City of Brass and Mox Ruby in your opener and wishing you'd drawn literally any other 2-drop.)
The card asks you to jump through a lot of hoops.
(*) It's multicolored. That's always a hoop.
(*) You need a lot of domain, and you need it on T3.
(*) You don't get access to the utility abilities unless there's a profitable attack.
My guess is that aggro beaters need to demand less of their owners to be serviceable in the Cube (and looters in a reanimator deck should ideally be able to do the job during opponent's EOT -or- on your turn), but that anyone who runs it will find it to be amazing from time to time.
Cool card. What happens when you cast Animate Dead on it? Since it stops being a creature?
I think the following Oracle ruling covers that question. In this case, protection from black is analogous to not being a creature while on the battlefield.
If the creature put onto the battlefield has protection from black—or if the creature can’t legally be enchanted by Animate Dead for another reason—Animate Dead won’t be able to attach to it. It will be put into the graveyard as a state-based action, causing its delayed triggered ability to trigger. When the trigger resolves, if the creature’s still on the battlefield, its controller will sacrifice it.
(2016-06-08)
So, Grist will enter the battlefield and then be sacrificed before you have a chance to activate it.
you need to be playing a deck that (a) cares about having a Lotus Petal, (b) cares about casting Careful Study
What deck UR(x) deck (or any deck really) wouldn't care about mana ramp / fixing and card filtering? I'm confused to see people say things like "needs a deck that cares about the graveyard for Careful Study". They're looking too much into the graveyard aspect but completely overlooking the fact that it's also just card filtering.
It's not that having a Treasure or having access to card filtering is ever bad. It's that if you use Prismari Command to burn a small creature and make a Treasure, you're not getting a 2-for-1 the same way you'd be getting a 2-for-1 if you used KCommand to burn a small creature and make your opponent discard a card. You're getting a 1.5-for-1. I'm saying that Prismari Command was more cautiously designed than KCommand, and that it won't be as much of a no-brainer across all formats, not that it's worse in cube; cube is the one format where the two cards are similarly powerful and flexible because it's exactly in powered cube that you see a lot of mana rocks, use a lot of graveyard tricks, and run opponent-can't-draw effects.
Edit: I was being unclear/misleading when I wrote "narrow circumstances." I meant something more like "specific circumstances, which are more likely to arise in powered cube than in nearly any other format."
WotC seems to have learned their lesson with KCommand. The balance problem with KCommand is that it's nearly impossible *not* to achieve a 2-for-1 trade, especially since you can cast it in your opponent's draw step. With Prismari Command, the Lotus Petal mode and the Careful Study mode are worth a card only under narrow circumstances. You don't just automatically score a 2-for-1 --- you need to be playing a deck that (a) cares about having a Lotus Petal, (b) cares about casting Careful Study, or (c) uses can't-draw (Hullbreacher etc.) effects to feel sure you'll get as much value as KCommand.
Fortunately for Prismari Command, most powered cubes have an artifact theme, a graveyard theme, and a minor can't-draw theme. I can see why a lot of people are excited to use it in the cube, especially for powered cubes.
I've been working on a template that evokes the pre-8th Edition layout. My goal is to create high-resolution digital renders of some old cards with current Oracle wording. I specifically have tried to make sure images generated with this template could never be confused with images of actual MtG cards --- the layout is inspired by the pre-8th layout but is unmistakably different.
I haven't shared renders before, so here's a test.
#1 (8 creatures, 7 power of charge, -2/-2 to enemy creatures)
Reality Smasher
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Jungle Lion
Hero of Bladehold
Flesh Carver
Warden of the First Tree
Falkenrath Gorger
#2 (1 creature --- 5 planeswalkers though, too bad it doesn't hit them)
Geist of Saint Traft
#3 (good amount of stats, 3 power of conditional haste)
Emrakul, the Promised End
Warden of the First Tree
Angel of Invention
Elvish Mystic
Bloodghast
#4 (tons of stats, one free instant from graveyard)
Carnage Tyrant
Torrential Gearhulk
Gravecrawler
Isamaru, Hound of Konda
Deranged Hermit
Sylvan Advocate
Accorder Paladin
Heir of Falkenrath
#5
Custodi Lich
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Greater Gargadon
Heir of Falkenrath
Stoneforge Mystic
Grim Lavamancer
I did some more. As long as all you want is ~10--15+ power and a lot of random critters, this will usually hit. If you need better than that (haste, removal, lifegain, face damage), it's hit or miss. I got a nice one with Purphoros and Flickerwisp that amounted to 14 face damage though.
Question about digital rendering: For illustrations, how many pixels are necessary for the rendered card to not look shabby? Given a 4x3 aspect ratio, I assume that 1,000 x 750 pixels is more than enough. Would 600 x 450 still look fine? I'd be curious to know what quality of image you all are selecting. Thanks for any guidance.
Thanks to all of you for the content you post. I've especially liked Kentu's pre-8th style renders.
Somebody above quoted LSV saying that Death Cloud is one of the most fun Cube cards when it works. From my experience, I agree with that. My Cube was already janky and unpowered when I ran the card 12 years ago (I included Goblin Charbelcher "for value"), and most people now run cutthroat lists with more powerful creatures. But the support cards have also gotten better. Pulling off a big Death Cloud feels great. It's one of those cards where the effort of making it work justifies the fact that you just wiped out your opponent with a single card.
Edit: Someone should make a "Death Cloud Cube" with a black theme where every player has the emblem "BBBX: Cast a Death Cloud".
This version tries to be more elegant in its wording. (It doesn't break the game if the artifact has two instances of vanishing, or one instance each of vanishing and fading.) The reason I used X is to differentiate between this vanishing-based mechanic and the Sneak Attack mechanic. This card is stronger overall than in the previous post, but when I compare it to Unburial Rites it doesn't feel unfair. [Pro: One color. Con: More color-intensive. Pro: Can cheat from hand as well as graveyard. Con: Gives vanishing (4 mana is worth one attack, 5 mana is worth two attacks, etc.). Con: Limited to artifacts --- more narrow than creatures.]
Cobble Together XRR
Choose an artifact card from your hand or graveyard and put it into play. Put X time counters on it. It gains vanishing.
Flashback XRR
Cobble Together 2RR
Sorcery
Put an artifact card from your hand or graveyard onto the battlefield. If it doesn't have fading or vanishing, it gains vanishing 2.
Flashback 3RR
Artifact-only cards are narrow, so I tried to make this one as flexible as possible. Wizards probably wouldn't print it, but I was aiming for a card that would be fun in any cube that supports big-creature shenanigans.
Horde's Maneuvers R
Enchantment R: Creatures you control gain flanking until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn. 1R: Creatures you control gain provoke until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn. 2R: Creatures you control gain battle cry until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
Giving all your creatures battle cry creatures means that X 1/1s attack for X^2 damage, which might be kind of crazy. But the card does nothing on its own. Fair? This card is also pretty narrow... it only hits its stride in a token deck.
Ah - cool, thanks for replying! If you end up working on that content, I'll be sure to check it out.
So it sounds like the Sapphire is your favorite Mox and SoFI is your favorite Sword. Just to disambiguate: does that mean you'd pick Sapphire over all 4 non-preferred Swords, and SoFI over all 4 non-preferred Moxen? I was curious which cards topped the collective list of 10, or put another way, whether you liked Swords better or Moxen better. I ask because I read someone saying something like "an experienced cube player would never first-pick a Mox over a Sword of Fire and Ice", and I was curious how you thought they stacked up against each other.
(1) I like your cube a lot. Are the drafts you put on Cubetutor representative of the decks that happen in real life? How would you feel about doing a draft report once in a while where you mention which decks were drafted and how they fared against each other? I think that would be a fun read, although I understand that maybe you don't do it because of time constraints.
(2) Stupid question time: how would you rank the Moxen and Swords relative to each other as first picks? If you're having a hard time visualizing, see spoilered narrative.
You're highly incentivized to win an 8-person cube draft using your cube against experienced players who each want to win. Nobody can cheat, but there's one special game rule for you and only you know about it: You may guarantee that one specific Mox or Sword will show up in your opening pack. The pack will still contain 15 cards, and every other card in the draft is random as usual. (You won't be *forced* to pick that Mox or Sword if you see something you prefer.) Which Mox or Sword do you guarantee yourself, and if you couldn't have that one, which would be the next one, and so on?
(3) Despite what you may say, it's clearly "what the wolf". Just saying.
If the Kavu is big enough to attack safely, you're rocking and rolling. Damage is good and looting is good.
If the Kavu is not big enough to attack safely, that's probably because it's in vanilla 2/2 or 1/1 mode, which will happen sometimes. Sometimes your land drops are Forest, City of Brass, Forest. This is not a good scenario.
The ceiling is high, the floor is low. (The real floor is having City of Brass and Mox Ruby in your opener and wishing you'd drawn literally any other 2-drop.)
The card asks you to jump through a lot of hoops.
(*) It's multicolored. That's always a hoop.
(*) You need a lot of domain, and you need it on T3.
(*) You don't get access to the utility abilities unless there's a profitable attack.
My guess is that aggro beaters need to demand less of their owners to be serviceable in the Cube (and looters in a reanimator deck should ideally be able to do the job during opponent's EOT -or- on your turn), but that anyone who runs it will find it to be amazing from time to time.
I think the following Oracle ruling covers that question. In this case, protection from black is analogous to not being a creature while on the battlefield.
If the creature put onto the battlefield has protection from black—or if the creature can’t legally be enchanted by Animate Dead for another reason—Animate Dead won’t be able to attach to it. It will be put into the graveyard as a state-based action, causing its delayed triggered ability to trigger. When the trigger resolves, if the creature’s still on the battlefield, its controller will sacrifice it.
(2016-06-08)
So, Grist will enter the battlefield and then be sacrificed before you have a chance to activate it.
It's not that having a Treasure or having access to card filtering is ever bad. It's that if you use Prismari Command to burn a small creature and make a Treasure, you're not getting a 2-for-1 the same way you'd be getting a 2-for-1 if you used KCommand to burn a small creature and make your opponent discard a card. You're getting a 1.5-for-1. I'm saying that Prismari Command was more cautiously designed than KCommand, and that it won't be as much of a no-brainer across all formats, not that it's worse in cube; cube is the one format where the two cards are similarly powerful and flexible because it's exactly in powered cube that you see a lot of mana rocks, use a lot of graveyard tricks, and run opponent-can't-draw effects.
Edit: I was being unclear/misleading when I wrote "narrow circumstances." I meant something more like "specific circumstances, which are more likely to arise in powered cube than in nearly any other format."
Fortunately for Prismari Command, most powered cubes have an artifact theme, a graveyard theme, and a minor can't-draw theme. I can see why a lot of people are excited to use it in the cube, especially for powered cubes.
IMHO the box for the card name and the box for the type line could both be darker to help with readability.
Here is a green critter friend to help it ramp mana:
I haven't shared renders before, so here's a test.
Cheers!
#1 (8 creatures, 7 power of charge, -2/-2 to enemy creatures)
Reality Smasher
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Jungle Lion
Hero of Bladehold
Flesh Carver
Warden of the First Tree
Falkenrath Gorger
#2 (1 creature --- 5 planeswalkers though, too bad it doesn't hit them)
Geist of Saint Traft
#3 (good amount of stats, 3 power of conditional haste)
Emrakul, the Promised End
Warden of the First Tree
Angel of Invention
Elvish Mystic
Bloodghast
#4 (tons of stats, one free instant from graveyard)
Carnage Tyrant
Torrential Gearhulk
Gravecrawler
Isamaru, Hound of Konda
Deranged Hermit
Sylvan Advocate
Accorder Paladin
Heir of Falkenrath
#5
Custodi Lich
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Greater Gargadon
Heir of Falkenrath
Stoneforge Mystic
Grim Lavamancer
I did some more. As long as all you want is ~10--15+ power and a lot of random critters, this will usually hit. If you need better than that (haste, removal, lifegain, face damage), it's hit or miss. I got a nice one with Purphoros and Flickerwisp that amounted to 14 face damage though.
Thanks to all of you for the content you post. I've especially liked Kentu's pre-8th style renders.
Edit: Someone should make a "Death Cloud Cube" with a black theme where every player has the emblem "BBBX: Cast a Death Cloud".
Cobble Together XRR
Choose an artifact card from your hand or graveyard and put it into play. Put X time counters on it. It gains vanishing.
Flashback XRR
Sorcery
Put an artifact card from your hand or graveyard onto the battlefield. If it doesn't have fading or vanishing, it gains vanishing 2.
Flashback 3RR
Artifact-only cards are narrow, so I tried to make this one as flexible as possible. Wizards probably wouldn't print it, but I was aiming for a card that would be fun in any cube that supports big-creature shenanigans.
Horde's Maneuvers R
Enchantment
R: Creatures you control gain flanking until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
1R: Creatures you control gain provoke until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
2R: Creatures you control gain battle cry until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
Giving all your creatures battle cry creatures means that X 1/1s attack for X^2 damage, which might be kind of crazy. But the card does nothing on its own. Fair? This card is also pretty narrow... it only hits its stride in a token deck.
So it sounds like the Sapphire is your favorite Mox and SoFI is your favorite Sword. Just to disambiguate: does that mean you'd pick Sapphire over all 4 non-preferred Swords, and SoFI over all 4 non-preferred Moxen? I was curious which cards topped the collective list of 10, or put another way, whether you liked Swords better or Moxen better. I ask because I read someone saying something like "an experienced cube player would never first-pick a Mox over a Sword of Fire and Ice", and I was curious how you thought they stacked up against each other.
Long time lurker with three orders of business.
(1) I like your cube a lot. Are the drafts you put on Cubetutor representative of the decks that happen in real life? How would you feel about doing a draft report once in a while where you mention which decks were drafted and how they fared against each other? I think that would be a fun read, although I understand that maybe you don't do it because of time constraints.
(2) Stupid question time: how would you rank the Moxen and Swords relative to each other as first picks? If you're having a hard time visualizing, see spoilered narrative.
You're highly incentivized to win an 8-person cube draft using your cube against experienced players who each want to win. Nobody can cheat, but there's one special game rule for you and only you know about it: You may guarantee that one specific Mox or Sword will show up in your opening pack. The pack will still contain 15 cards, and every other card in the draft is random as usual. (You won't be *forced* to pick that Mox or Sword if you see something you prefer.) Which Mox or Sword do you guarantee yourself, and if you couldn't have that one, which would be the next one, and so on?
(3) Despite what you may say, it's clearly "what the wolf". Just saying.