MTG Salvation

Quote from wtwlf123 »

People in the rumor mill also said Jace, Vryn's Prodigy was garbage. So I wouldn't listen to that group when it comes to card evaluation. Especially not for a volatile pseudo-limited format like cube, where having a bomb//land split card is going to prove insanely valuable. I expect this entire cycle to be a slam-dunk. I mean, I can't imagine how unplayable the spell half would need to be in order to NOT run one of these mythic MDFCs.

man I think they would have to make like a 7 mana draw 2 or something.... oh wait

I think I'd play Dire Fleet Daredevil, Earthshaker Khenra, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Kari Zev, Skyship Raider, Lightning Mauler, and Young Pyromancer before this card, not to mention a few others. It's a fantastic aggro 2 drop, but I don't think it scales well enough into the late game to make it good in midrange decks too, but I could be mistaken. Most of the time I think you'll mostly just be activating the ability that makes him unblockable by a specific creature until eot to get in for 3 or to get a sword activation off, and although sometimes he'll make another creature you control unblockable as well, I don't think the upside sneaks him into any cubes below like 450 or 540. Cool card, just not that exciting for me unfortunately.

If you still have 4 or 5 cards in hand by turn 7 I think you've either already essentially won the game or the opponent has lethal on board, and this card is bad in both situations. I'm confidant I'd rather just play a basic island over this card every time, but on the bright side this might be the first time in years that in a cycle of anything the blue one was the worst. At least it's an emotional victory

This is so gross lol, as if blue midrange decks needed any more help generating value. I don't even understand why they added the attach equipment clause, as if it needed to do that to be good. Can't wait to steal Moxen Swords and Bomat Couriers, we're only like 50 cards in and this set already looks incredible

Yea this loos great. I don't especially like the white and blue ones, but this just seems incredible. Snap include for me

Lutri is good, and this has a pretty similar effect (although at a third of the cost but starts in your deck), and I don't think this is remotely good enough. If that kicker cost was like or something this would be sweet, but as is the floor is too weak and the ceiling isn't especially exciting. Card is just too inconsistent imo

Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary

Sorcery
Return target card from your graveyard to your hand

Other side is a green tapland

I'm not a fan of Regrowth since it's so weak in the early game, but this solves that problem for an extra colorless mana. I think this seems pretty good, and I'm certainly going to test this

Giving your opponents tokens just seems like a recipe for disaster, not to mention that this card is competing with other options at the same cmc that give you tokens to abuse. Cool card concept, but just doesn't seem especially good.

Seems alright, just feels like it only works in aggro decks as a 3/3 most of the time, and I don't its really that much better than most other 3s in those decks. Nighthawk might be a limited all-star but its pretty bad in non-peasant cubes imo, and although this is certainly way better I'm still not sure its good enough to make the cut. Still gonna test it, but I doubt it'll stick for us unless it turns out this thing is a 5/3 or bigger most of the time, in which case I'll be all over it.

The issue I always have with Fiend Hunter effects (or just creature removal in general) is that plenty of decks simply don't play creatures, especially not on curve. Exiling Sneak Attack/Planeswalkers/Opposition/mana rocks/Animate Dead effects/Moat, and even moxen and other 3 drops is going to be so strong strapped onto a creature. Absolutely going to test this card, and although the double colored mana cost is a little rough, I can't imagine this won't stick.

I've never played this card personally but I've seen it more than a few times in legacy, where it's certainly good. We don't have it in our cube, but if anybody were to recommend it and say its been great I'd take their word for it. Card is good and versatile but just not the most interesting and can't kill mana dorks/Thalia/Confidant on turns one and two and three, so I would assume that hampers its play-rate. I don't think it's good enough for 360, but I'd probably at least try it out at 450 as some above-average filler. Based on mere modality I'd also probably play Purphoros's Intervention first for its ability to be cast as a shock on turn 2, but I can't speak from experience since I haven't played either, and maybe I'm underestimating the power of this card being an instant.

Edit: MTGS seems to spell Purphoros's Intervention wrong, they have it linked as Purphuros's Intervention lol

Honestly it's starting to feel that way. It's terrible in all the MTGO cubes because Wizards literally refuses to support aggro decks at all, so most of the decks are either just piles of signets and fatties or piles of signets and storm cards or G/x ramp decks, but I've found that in basically any cube that actually supports playable decks across all the major archetypes, Show and Tell seems to be more than powerful enough to justify a slot and get picked early.

Edit: Just realized this thread was posted this year, which feels strange seeing as this card is well over 20 years old. If anybody has the time, it might actually be cool if somebody went back and made some threads for other already established cube cards that merely don't have a thread like Entomb or Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary....

I played a pretty jank GB Cryptolith Rites token deck back in Innistrad/Kaladesh standard that was pretty decent, and I remember Song of Freyalise being insane in Domainaria limited (although almost entirely for its third ability), not to mention Earthcraft still being banned in legacy (although it should have been unbanned like 10 years ago), but these cards don't tend to translate super well into cube. They seem pretty decent on the surface at first as ramp options, but typically you would just be better suited playing another random mana dork to increase your consistency in the early game. These cards don't really do anything unless you've already built a super wide board that your opponent is unable to interact with/clear, at which point cards like Craterhoof Behemoth/Garruk Wildspeaker/Overrun/Great Oak Guardian/Earthshaker Giant/End-Raze Forerunners/Decimator of the Provinces/Opposition/Glare of Subdual/Hellrider or even a lower opportunity cost cards like Xenagos, the Reveler would be far more useful and effective at creating plays and decks that are conducive to winning games.

Additionally, Gaea's Cradle is only so good because it's a land. It's a land that can tap for several mana (like Ancient Tomb or City of Traitors), so you only need 1 creature in play for it to be good and only 2 creatures in play for it to be great, meanwhile any more than that and it is completely broken, all of which is at essentially no opportunity cost. Meanwhile, Growing Rites of Itlimoc has proven to be bad in modern and legacy elves because you need to spend mana to cast it, it takes up a spell slot, and just like Cryptolith Rite/Earthcraft/Song of Freyalise it requires you to have a very large board already in play for it to really do anything powerful.

This isn't a knock on these cards per se or anybody's inherent interest to try/play them, but merely an explanation as to why these cards don't see all that much play (both in and outside of cube), and why most people don't really have all that much advice to give in regards to these cards. I don't personally think they're very good, but hey, Earthcraft must be banned in legacy for a reason, right?

Quote from IMorphling89 »

My experience is that this is actually a tier 2 counter spell on the level of Miscalculation. It's definitely above Negate and Spell Pierce, but certainly below Mana Leak.

We found it to be in that tier 4 of counterspells, on just about the same powerlevel as Negate. Hoped it would play like a better Spell Pierce but we found it to be worse. We haven't even played Spell Pierce in ages (because we didn't think it was cubeable enough) but the testing we got from that definitely outperformed the results we found from Force of Negation. Both are surprisingly narrow, but having to cast it for 3 or not having it find good targets often enough just felt terrible and we found it to be pretty bad in this format. I don't think it's at all on the same powerlevel as Miscalculation (a top tier counterspell in my experience), but if you guys all really felt it was that much better than something like Spell Pierce then maybe my playgroup missed something or just got unlucky and it deserves a second chance.

We tried this card even though we haven't played a Man-o'-War in years, and we found it to be just a little bit better than that. Card is fine in bigger cubes, but I wouldn't put it anywhere near even a top 5 of mono-blue 3cmc creatures, not to mention how far down the ladder it goes when competing with multicolored blue 3cmc creatures and mono-blue 3cmc non-creature spells. Even though it hits walkers and can even draw you a card late in the game, it has most of the same issues as other Man-o'-War variants in that it was just too low impact most of the time imo.