I'm surprised you rate Duelist of the Mind so high. I thought the card is good, but outside draw 7 decks it doesn't hit that hard, and regardless of deck it isn't spectacular on defense, which kinda sucks when some of its best synergies cost you life (Sylvan Library) or need you to protect them (Jace, the Mind Sculptor). Also surprised by Sandstorm Salvager being so far down the list, that was one of the headliners for me this set.
This set I misread Caustic Bronco, thinking it triggers on dealing damage, and Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher, thinking it only lets you play the card until end of turn (and thus the variance between the two effects is horrible). Still not going to test those cards, but will be watching them.
Black has no shortage of 5-mana bombs, and this card's cheaper modes are really situational and hard to play on curve. The card's ceiling doesn't seem high enough to make up for its merely decent floor.
Better end the game before turn 5 or never cast another card again, lol. Instead of competing with it, this card is really good with Mystic Confluence too, if they don't cast anything you draw 3 or bounce their board.
6 mana is soooo much. Many white decks can't reliably hardcast this, at least without going a turn only playing a land. I like Guardian Scalelord more, that card can also pretty easily recur 4-drops.
I like this quite a bit. The more you flood out with artifact mana, the deeper you can dig and the more you appreciate the effect. It works even if you have less than three artifacts unlike something like Inventors' Fair, so it fits into way more decks too.
This has hideaway, but I think it's at its best played in white creature decks. If you go one-drop, two-drop, this and activate on your opponents end step, you are pretty certain to get it off turn four. In general, if you are going wide, this card is really easy to activate. Even if you can't get the hideaway off, the floor of one counter at instant speed per turn cycle for one mana isn't nothing.
This does seem like a hard card to evaluate without playing with it, but the ceiling here is very high.
This looks like an okay support card for red artifact decks, as an outlet to turn random artifacts into board presence with a solid floor.
I this most cubes would want this over other occasionally cubed 2-mana shocks like Invasion of Tarkir or Virtue of Courage. I have heavy support for grindy red artifact decks, so I expect this card to do fairly well in my cube environment, and will be testing this. I just really wish this was able to sacrifice itself.
I think this is incredible. If you play it early, they have to be very wary with letting it die, as you might just drop a 6/7-drop way ahead of curve. If you play it late, well, it's just going to bash their head in. This looks like the best (mono-)green X-creature by far, and I'm currently running multiple of those.
I don't know if people still run Kor Skyfisher, but this card is way better than that one. Blink support in the 1-drop slot is very nice. I'll give it a spin.
This card looks excellent in UR, but I don't have high confidence it will perform in any other colour combination (my cube is extremely creature heavy). I might just put this in as a UR card.
I'm surprised you rate Duelist of the Mind so high. I thought the card is good, but outside draw 7 decks it doesn't hit that hard, and regardless of deck it isn't spectacular on defense, which kinda sucks when some of its best synergies cost you life (Sylvan Library) or need you to protect them (Jace, the Mind Sculptor). Also surprised by Sandstorm Salvager being so far down the list, that was one of the headliners for me this set.
This set I misread Caustic Bronco, thinking it triggers on dealing damage, and Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher, thinking it only lets you play the card until end of turn (and thus the variance between the two effects is horrible). Still not going to test those cards, but will be watching them.
Includes:
Upd: also testing Hostile Investigator and Lively Dirge.
I just really wish this was an artifact iself.
This has hideaway, but I think it's at its best played in white creature decks. If you go one-drop, two-drop, this and activate on your opponents end step, you are pretty certain to get it off turn four. In general, if you are going wide, this card is really easy to activate. Even if you can't get the hideaway off, the floor of one counter at instant speed per turn cycle for one mana isn't nothing.
This does seem like a hard card to evaluate without playing with it, but the ceiling here is very high.
And now we get a great four. Green is just getting an extreme home makeover this set, huh?
I think I like this the fourth or fifth best among green four-mana creatures after Undermountain Adventurer, Caldaia Guardian, Doric, Nature's Warden, and maybe Questing Beast. I don't play with initiative, so it doesn't have to compete with the adventurer either.
This looks like an okay support card for red artifact decks, as an outlet to turn random artifacts into board presence with a solid floor.
I this most cubes would want this over other occasionally cubed 2-mana shocks like Invasion of Tarkir or Virtue of Courage. I have heavy support for grindy red artifact decks, so I expect this card to do fairly well in my cube environment, and will be testing this. I just really wish this was able to sacrifice itself.
I don't know if people still run Kor Skyfisher, but this card is way better than that one. Blink support in the 1-drop slot is very nice. I'll give it a spin.