I like this one. It being multi-color reduces its appeal but it's just so much value when you can recur it, and a 3/2 trample for 1G is quite a good rate.
Seems too situational for the average aggro deck... and I don't think there are other decks that want this card. Obviously good to take out planeswalkers, but I don't like sideboard cards in cube, I prefer to use my slots for more universally useable cards.
But regardless of targeting, it's still damage. Why wouldn't TNN's protection work? I'm confused...
Because of the first sentence in the card's text box: "Damage can't be prevented this turn." This negates protection preventing damage, True-Name Nemesis / Mother of Runes being the two biggest victims the non-targeted damage of this.
Ok, I guess it's a difference in cube environment then, because that first statement is not how things play out for us. All decks are capable of quickly generating a ton of damage if you let them, so all damage tends to matter. Finally, Palantir can do tons of damage even just milling a single card, so I don't think referring to this as 'chip damage' is accurate. Anyway. Feel free to skip this card. I'm going to test it. Happy cubing
Eh.... then it does effectively nothing for the first couple turns it's in play, since you likely have to do almost 20 damage of life with this card alone.
After that, it still takes a couple more turns to get truly great.
This doesn't make any sense to me. All decks I listed, even hard control, win through damage, so no, you don't need to do all damage just with the Palantir. More importantly, it's just impossible to do damage with it if your opponent doesn't want you to, so...
If my evaluation is correct, this will just be scry 2 + draw most of the turns, as people will likely not want to risk the post-scry millstone of death. That's a strong effect for 3 mana if you ask me, hence why I think it's a good card. The damage is mostly theoretical, it's merely the threat that forces your opponent to let you draw.
Aggro is clearly not the best home for this card. You need a deck that contains some nice and high mana value cards, like a welder or cheat type deck or anything with a lot of ramp in it. I could see this work fine in a classic control deck as well.
I think this card will be just draw a card + scry 2 a lot of the time. Damage for mana value is an insane threat, as Combustible Gearhulk has shown us.
IMO the above evaluations are way off and this is much stronger than it looks.
Arcane Artisan is quite good actually, we played it until just a few months ago, and I'd imagine it is much more consistent than this without a plethora of accessible topdeck manipulation. Respectfully, you aren't playing that or Show and Tell, maybe your environment/meta is just different.
Hmm not sure if that's the problem, I do support cheat archetypes (besides reanimator stuff also Eureka, Monster Manual, Selvala's Stampede, Channel, Tinker etc). I tried Show and Tell but cut it after testing data showed the card lost its caster the game about as many times as it won it. My issue with Artisan is how slow and fragile it is. Yes the power ceiling is very high, but I just don't like the kind of play where you need to hope you get to untap with a 3 toughness creature. And even afterwards the token STILL gets exiled if the 0/3 dies.
About Drifter, I do indeed think that it could be a decent fit not just in decks with giant monsters but also in tempo decks, simply by virtue of being a 2/4 flyer with upside.
I don't quite follow the logic that ramps beyond five is not useful, at the very least this is highly dependent on the cube environment in question. However having considered a bit more I do think that the mana only being useful for artifacts is too constricting. As first I saw a 5/5 for 5 with an in-built Tolarian Academy, but this Karn is not that that card.
I initially wrote off this Nissa but on second glance... I think I could use a second Lotus Cobra with extra benefits. Might give it a test run, thanks for posting.
I think Drifter is certainly a playable cube card as of a cube size of +-600, I could see testing it around 540 even. 2/4 flying for 2U is not a bad rate, peeking is worth something and the ability can be game-deciding. Arcane Artisan seems terrible to me, I wouldn't cube with it at any size.
Ah, I see - interesting. Thanks!
This doesn't make any sense to me. All decks I listed, even hard control, win through damage, so no, you don't need to do all damage just with the Palantir. More importantly, it's just impossible to do damage with it if your opponent doesn't want you to, so...
If my evaluation is correct, this will just be scry 2 + draw most of the turns, as people will likely not want to risk the post-scry millstone of death. That's a strong effect for 3 mana if you ask me, hence why I think it's a good card. The damage is mostly theoretical, it's merely the threat that forces your opponent to let you draw.
Stuff on my test shortlist (not sure to make it in):
IMO the above evaluations are way off and this is much stronger than it looks.
Hmm not sure if that's the problem, I do support cheat archetypes (besides reanimator stuff also Eureka, Monster Manual, Selvala's Stampede, Channel, Tinker etc). I tried Show and Tell but cut it after testing data showed the card lost its caster the game about as many times as it won it. My issue with Artisan is how slow and fragile it is. Yes the power ceiling is very high, but I just don't like the kind of play where you need to hope you get to untap with a 3 toughness creature. And even afterwards the token STILL gets exiled if the 0/3 dies.
About Drifter, I do indeed think that it could be a decent fit not just in decks with giant monsters but also in tempo decks, simply by virtue of being a 2/4 flyer with upside.