Tested Ugin out a few times since his being spoiled and he has not disappointed. When Ugin resolved into a board position where his owner was way behind, he single handedly would either bring the board to parity or leave a battlefield with only him (as a relevant permanent) in play. In situations of parity, he usually came down, bolted something and created a board position that forced the opponent into bad plays to deal with him. When ahead, he either sealed it with bolts to the face or ran away with the game with an ultimate 3 turns later. He has never not had a HUGE impact on a board he was played into.
I'm a little confused at the negativity that this card is receiving. No one is saying that this is busted but I think it's pretty easy to see how this card generates value over the course of a game.
Comments about how you are "mucking" around in the early turns with this land seem somewhat skewed towards decks that actually have USES for that mana. The decks we are talking about this card being in are decks that traditionally don't get that much value out of the early turn lands. These type of decks, however, would greatly benefit from a ramp/fixing card that costs VERY little in terms of resources over the course of a game.
I'm 100% never going to want this card in a deck that is remotely aggressive but I see myself wanting this in 2 color control decks, big ramp decks, and midrange decks, to name a few.
I'm not sure where this card ends up but my 550 cube is definitely going to be wanting this.
I'm pretty impressed with what Garruk does this time around. His 3 "primary" skills are all very relevant and are incredibly good at protecting himself. 7 CC is a very high price to pay and that may ultimately be his demise but I doubt they could have pushed it with a 6CC. At 6CC he would be pretty devastating.
I'm going to be trying him out to see how often he's relevant and I'll decide if he makes the cut.
Not sure there is really anything to complain about here. This guy is just flat out nuts. Effectively 4 loyalty for 3 mana is pretty huge. I'm glad he doesn't have a way to defend himself as that would make him just too good. I'm going to be so happy with stealing my opponents mana rocks or swords or really any artifact! Auto include!
I can now remove D-Sphere from my UW section! These effects are always welcome and it's great to see that Wizards likes it enough to continue pushing it and to provide us with a functional (almost) reprint.
I'm interested in testing this. I think the ability itself is pretty powerful and deserves the testing. Now the question is, how often do I really see myself attacking with a 1/3. I think the 1/3 body will be a good blocking deterrent for a few turns at the least. What I'm interested in are the times I get to slap him in on turn 2 in the control mirror and just start tool boxing away my random creature removal for higher impact spells in a mirror situation. I also imagine that playing this guy off a mox is probably pretty nutty.
All this said though, I really wish it cost like UUB or 1UB and had intimidate because then I think it would be an auto include.
LOL, I totally misread the card.... I was wondering why everyone was so down on a RR creature that shocked your opponent whenever YOU played a CC 3 or less card. I was thinking, this guy has to be bonkers in the mono-red deck that basically has a curve of sub 3. Then I saw all the comments and reread the card and realized I am an idiot lol.
Not good enough for cube. 5CMC and can't immediately defend itself and requires significant board presence in order for it to change your board presence. Would you play it over:
Dryad Militant
Loam Lion
Voice of Resurgence
Qasali Pridemage
Selesnya Charm
Loxodon Smiter
Kitchen Finks
Knight of the Reliquary
Advent of the Wurm
Sigarda
Armada Wurm
...didn't think so.
I'd easily play it over Smiter, Charm, Advent of the Wurm, and KotR as my cube already doesn't consider any of these playable. But as I said, Selesnya is SUPER deep and it'll be difficult to fit Ajani in but I will definitely test him out and I think I'll be pleasantly surprised by him.
I think Omenspeaker is the easy pick here. It's got great ETB synergies and it's got a nice 3 toughness to hold the fort until our deck really starts ticking.
I'm utterly surprised that this player and knowledge base would draft this deck. Our deck is almost completely without acceleration (1 Monolith) and loaded up with 4+ drops. We also have 0 fixing and cards that are WW and UU (even UUU)! I feel like this is the deck that looks incredible on paper and then gets smashed by the R/G, WW, or Mono red aggro deck.
I'm cautiously excited about this God. The free Scry every turn is interesting and the activated ability is pretty decent too, not to mention cheap. I can't wait to test her out.
TLDR: auto include
Comments about how you are "mucking" around in the early turns with this land seem somewhat skewed towards decks that actually have USES for that mana. The decks we are talking about this card being in are decks that traditionally don't get that much value out of the early turn lands. These type of decks, however, would greatly benefit from a ramp/fixing card that costs VERY little in terms of resources over the course of a game.
I'm 100% never going to want this card in a deck that is remotely aggressive but I see myself wanting this in 2 color control decks, big ramp decks, and midrange decks, to name a few.
I'm not sure where this card ends up but my 550 cube is definitely going to be wanting this.
I'm going to be trying him out to see how often he's relevant and I'll decide if he makes the cut.
All this said though, I really wish it cost like UUB or 1UB and had intimidate because then I think it would be an auto include.
I'd easily play it over Smiter, Charm, Advent of the Wurm, and KotR as my cube already doesn't consider any of these playable. But as I said, Selesnya is SUPER deep and it'll be difficult to fit Ajani in but I will definitely test him out and I think I'll be pleasantly surprised by him.
Not to mention the fact that Selesyna is INCREDIBLY deep already and I'm not sure how to make room....
I'm utterly surprised that this player and knowledge base would draft this deck. Our deck is almost completely without acceleration (1 Monolith) and loaded up with 4+ drops. We also have 0 fixing and cards that are WW and UU (even UUU)! I feel like this is the deck that looks incredible on paper and then gets smashed by the R/G, WW, or Mono red aggro deck.