As always, fantastic review. Right about on par with how I felt about the cards in this set. I'm very impressed with how many cards this "small" set gave me for my 540 cube!
All that aside, I think that Aetherling will end up being the single best card out of this set. We've played around 10 games with the guy and each time he's been just as advertised, an unstoppable force that pacifies his opponent with extreme prejudice. The only time an opponent was able to get ride of Aetherling was when they had 3 instant speed removal spells to dump at the Aetherling and then I still won because it was a 3 for 1 exchange.
I think the problem is that we are trying to justify it on the off occasions that you do happen to populate a fatty while with CGR you always know what you are getting and it's never bad.
I think it's the CGR and it's not that close actually.
CGR:
Makes 3 1/1s
Can hit for 5 flying
Can be blinked for added value
SVG:
Makes, at minimum, 2 1/1 fliers.
Is a 4/4 body without evasion
can possibly populate a creature bigger than 1/1 flier.
Cannot be abused via blink.
I think the marginal value gained from possibly making an elephant/beast/angel etc.. is out weighed by the fact that you cannot abuse it through blink effects and the general lack of evasion.
Got a few games with him as well and he basically annihilated my opponent each time I played him. Had him in a U/W control shell with a lot of good artifact mana and just killed my opponent like i was playing an aggro deck. Snapped him into play on turn 4 and ate my opponent's face. Other games revolved around less busted decks but he still did the same thing, bash for 7-8 then block their best guy, rinse lather repeat. Permanent staple no question about it for me.
The cards are comparable but Recoil has the added effect of hitting pesky permanents that Far//Away would otherwise never be able to hit. I'm not currently running Recoil so I don't really have a basis for this conjecture but I think you should check how relevant bouncing a pesky permanent and having them discard it is vs bouncing a guy and killing another guy.
It may end up being marginal, in which case i think Far//Away will end up being more valuable.
This guy kills your opponent in 3 turns after you cast him (assuming they are at 20 life). That is pretty big game! When playing your Blue finishers, you really need them to end the game quickly for you while also being resilient to their effects. This guy dodges them all and then pacifies your opponent with extreme prejudice. The only other blue finisher that gets the job done this quickly is Inkwell and that guy is only applicable as a tinker/reanimation target.
He may not block fliers like Morphling does but he blocks all the big ground guys that Morphling can't, and does a better job at it too. This guy actually kills 3/3s and 4/4s while Morphling would eat a bunch of your mana just to stay alive against those guys.
Morphling also cannot dodge your own wrath effects which most blue decks will be running.
Comparing a new card to an old card and using the worlds "iconic" and "nostalgic" as reasons to not include the new card is very disingenuous. I feel like these 2 guys are both good at what they do and Aetherling will probably end up being among the top blue closers. Using some baseball terminology here but just because Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer ever, doesn't mean that Craig Krimbel isn't a phenominal talent. Not all closers are created the same and the best part about cube is the fact that we can try them out.
This is quite accurate.
We have to see if he is better than Keiga/ Frost Titan. What are your opinions on this?
In terms of actually bashing and staying alive, he's going to be better at it than Keiga and Frost Titan. Both of these guys hit for less and try to dodge removal in different ways. Frost Titan makes spot removal cost 2 more and Keiga makes killing her a less than appetizing affair (depending on the quality of creature in opponents yard of course). Neither of these can dodge the actual removal spell and stay around, that warrants mentioning.
Aetherling also has "true" evasion in unblockable and that's a real ability.
In the end, they are all very unique in what they do and all warrant playing.
Keiga is highly splashable and a great reanimation target.
Frost Titan denies them of their most important resource/threat and charges a tax for targeting him.
Aetherling bashes for a ton and is VERY hard to deal with.
I really can't see if I could cut these 6 guys, I might just have to cut original Morphling for Aetherling.
Anyone else really pleased with what this set might give us? I'm seeing quite a few cards that I want to try out and even a couple of auto includes. So great after GTC left me so disappointed.
Konfusius, I totally agree with you on your points. The way I see it is that this guy is going to be a good way for a control deck to just close out a game quickly and use your other resources to protect this guy. I think he's going to be better than Frost Titan et al at doing that, but I don't think this guy will be the best blue creature by any means. He will be very good at getting the job of winning the game, from a damage perspective, done.
If by physically damaging them to death, this guy will do it rather quickly but at a cost of mana per damage beyond the 4 point. In a vacuum of not needing resources for anything but this guy, he'll kill them the fastest.
I describe best "finisher" as not just a card that kills via damage but through other means as well. I'm probably still going to say it's Consecrated Sphinx even though it can't protect itself.
I don't know, all the blue finishers are so different. Consecrated Sphinx is an engine that wins by burying your opponents in CA, Frost Titan locks them out of a resource and is hard to kill, Inkwell is a tinker target, and Keiga is just a big dragon that dissuades them from kiling her.
I think of the 4 i listed, Aetherling is probably better than all but Sphinx and only because Sphinx does something so unique.
I'm going to say he's cubeable. Passes all the tests, hits for a TON, and also blocks forever. Guy is good enough to be the sole creature in your U/x draw go control cube deck.
All that aside, I think that Aetherling will end up being the single best card out of this set. We've played around 10 games with the guy and each time he's been just as advertised, an unstoppable force that pacifies his opponent with extreme prejudice. The only time an opponent was able to get ride of Aetherling was when they had 3 instant speed removal spells to dump at the Aetherling and then I still won because it was a 3 for 1 exchange.
CGR:
Makes 3 1/1s
Can hit for 5 flying
Can be blinked for added value
SVG:
Makes, at minimum, 2 1/1 fliers.
Is a 4/4 body without evasion
can possibly populate a creature bigger than 1/1 flier.
Cannot be abused via blink.
I think the marginal value gained from possibly making an elephant/beast/angel etc.. is out weighed by the fact that you cannot abuse it through blink effects and the general lack of evasion.
The cards are comparable but Recoil has the added effect of hitting pesky permanents that Far//Away would otherwise never be able to hit. I'm not currently running Recoil so I don't really have a basis for this conjecture but I think you should check how relevant bouncing a pesky permanent and having them discard it is vs bouncing a guy and killing another guy.
It may end up being marginal, in which case i think Far//Away will end up being more valuable.
He may not block fliers like Morphling does but he blocks all the big ground guys that Morphling can't, and does a better job at it too. This guy actually kills 3/3s and 4/4s while Morphling would eat a bunch of your mana just to stay alive against those guys.
Morphling also cannot dodge your own wrath effects which most blue decks will be running.
Comparing a new card to an old card and using the worlds "iconic" and "nostalgic" as reasons to not include the new card is very disingenuous. I feel like these 2 guys are both good at what they do and Aetherling will probably end up being among the top blue closers. Using some baseball terminology here but just because Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer ever, doesn't mean that Craig Krimbel isn't a phenominal talent. Not all closers are created the same and the best part about cube is the fact that we can try them out.
In terms of actually bashing and staying alive, he's going to be better at it than Keiga and Frost Titan. Both of these guys hit for less and try to dodge removal in different ways. Frost Titan makes spot removal cost 2 more and Keiga makes killing her a less than appetizing affair (depending on the quality of creature in opponents yard of course). Neither of these can dodge the actual removal spell and stay around, that warrants mentioning.
Aetherling also has "true" evasion in unblockable and that's a real ability.
In the end, they are all very unique in what they do and all warrant playing.
Keiga is highly splashable and a great reanimation target.
Frost Titan denies them of their most important resource/threat and charges a tax for targeting him.
Aetherling bashes for a ton and is VERY hard to deal with.
I really can't see if I could cut these 6 guys, I might just have to cut original Morphling for Aetherling.
I describe best "finisher" as not just a card that kills via damage but through other means as well. I'm probably still going to say it's Consecrated Sphinx even though it can't protect itself.
I think of the 4 i listed, Aetherling is probably better than all but Sphinx and only because Sphinx does something so unique.