Digging this up! Copy artifact has always been a favorite for me and it performs well in my cube, just wondering thoughts out there on it. Lots of powerful equipment, creatures, and other cool shenanigans that this guy copies and makes for some fun game situations.
The moth is solid, but unfun? Absurdly broken?? Is it even in the top 200 Cube cards?
A card that brings any creature back to life automatically? I dunno, maybe it needs to be tested properly but seems absurdly broken and unfun. No reason to print such a creature really.
I feel like if you think taking one damage per turn from my own 2/2 is a "serious drawback" then we're speaking different languages.
Even if I'm on the draw and play Carnophage on turn one, I can still swing into and possibly trade with any bear my opponent might play on their turn two. This is a completely fine trade. I paid a single black and took one damage to kill your two drop. If I were on the play in that scenario, I probably also dealt two damage to my opponent. Pretty sweet deal for a single black mana, if you ask me. And if they do trade, I'm on the Carnophage deck. My two drop follow up is probably also aggressive and might even provide some card advantage.
I love Carnophage and aggressive black strategies in general, but I would hardly consider it or cards like it pet cards. A pet card is a card you tend to know deep down probably isn't good enough, but you keep it in because it's fun or your draft crew just really likes it. Desolation Angel is a pet card. Morphling is probably a pet card. Carnophage is an essential support card for black aggro decks.
It's hard to imagine Carnophage being much better than a card like Vampire Lacerator for example (in fact in some situations Carnophage is a strictly worse version), and yet Vampire Lacerator is gone from many cube lists nowadays. Why? It is a 2/2 for 1 mana with a drawback of taking 1 damage a turn, which according to your argument is enough for it to be a black aggro staple.
I started playing Magic in between Stronghold and Exodus. My first really competitive deck was mono black aggro with Carnophage, Dauthi Horror and the like, so my opinion on the little zombie might be a bit biased just from nostalgia. With that said, though, I have no intentions of cutting Carnophage any time soon for reasons other than I just like cubing with cards that really mean something to me.
He's a 2/2, which automatically puts him over several of the 2/1 options. Life is a resource, so the one damage a turn really isn't that big of a drawback. They're taking two, I'm taking one. I think I win this race. And lastly, he's a zombie which can be relevant in some instances.
All of that goes for Sarcomancy as well. I'd play them both over Carrion Feeder unless I was really pushing black sacrifice deck, but even then, I'd probably try to find room for all three.
In a vacuum the opponent takes 2, but in reality they often trade creatures or chump block and you are the one that ends up taking damage. Sarcomancy even worse because once the zombie is gone you are taking damage for the rest of the game most likely unless you happen to have one of the 6 or so other Zombie creatures in the cube in your deck and on the field. More often than not when I had them in my cube and an opponent played them I would be happy and watch them take damage more than they inflicted. Both just seem like super pet cards to me with really minimal upside besides being zombies and being 2/2 for 1 with serious drawbacks.
They can both be abused, and the growth of each effect can be modified by other cards. And red likes to attack just as much (if not more) than blue likes to sit back and wait. Except Krenko does it for free, and Kraken ties up your resources.
My concern with krenko is that in cube it is very easy to deal with a 3 mana 2/3 that's attacking by turn 4 (probably). On the flip side, lots of ways to abuse and grow kraken (and your army of 1/1s) before kraken attacks.
Could you elaborate on what makes this better than Chasm Skulker? Skulker gets counters for free and gives you wrath-protection.
Agreed. I also think Skulker is better for these exact two reasons. Kraken was disappointing for us because the activation cost was prohibitive and because all my eggs were in the same basket on the table at the same time. It's a fine card, but it didn't survive the testing process with us.
As a comparison, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin grows also grows the main body, grows the board wider, faster, has a splashable mana cost, in a less competitive color (where it's a better fit) ...and it does it for free.
Krenko has to attack to grow. This grows as much and as quickly as you can abuse it and sit back and wait like blue loves to do.
This guy is a slam include at the surface. Can someone explain why Carnophage is regarded so highly? I cut him ages ago but see him held on a pedestal everywhere like he is untouchable. Kind of similar question for Sarcomancy, although there have at least been more good Zombies printed over the years to help mitigate the 1 damage to the face.
No worries! I still think the card is great though. And the damage output goes through the roof with a power boosting card strapped to it, like a Rancor or Bonesplitter.
It's just a very slow card. Sure if it goes completely unchecked it is powerful, but so are a lot of cards. This is powered cube where there are answers immediately and it rarely even gets a chance to attack once.
A card that brings any creature back to life automatically? I dunno, maybe it needs to be tested properly but seems absurdly broken and unfun. No reason to print such a creature really.
Dang really? I feel like the sacrifice ability is unique enough to keep. I might cut one of the doom blade variants...
It's hard to imagine Carnophage being much better than a card like Vampire Lacerator for example (in fact in some situations Carnophage is a strictly worse version), and yet Vampire Lacerator is gone from many cube lists nowadays. Why? It is a 2/2 for 1 mana with a drawback of taking 1 damage a turn, which according to your argument is enough for it to be a black aggro staple.
In a vacuum the opponent takes 2, but in reality they often trade creatures or chump block and you are the one that ends up taking damage. Sarcomancy even worse because once the zombie is gone you are taking damage for the rest of the game most likely unless you happen to have one of the 6 or so other Zombie creatures in the cube in your deck and on the field. More often than not when I had them in my cube and an opponent played them I would be happy and watch them take damage more than they inflicted. Both just seem like super pet cards to me with really minimal upside besides being zombies and being 2/2 for 1 with serious drawbacks.
My concern with krenko is that in cube it is very easy to deal with a 3 mana 2/3 that's attacking by turn 4 (probably). On the flip side, lots of ways to abuse and grow kraken (and your army of 1/1s) before kraken attacks.
Krenko has to attack to grow. This grows as much and as quickly as you can abuse it and sit back and wait like blue loves to do.
It's just a very slow card. Sure if it goes completely unchecked it is powerful, but so are a lot of cards. This is powered cube where there are answers immediately and it rarely even gets a chance to attack once.