Quote from Cythare »I don’t feel like rad counters are that much of an issue, even without the reminder text. It feels like it’s about as complex as the monarch (a little more complex, but goes away or can just end the game with this card). It’s definitely less complex than initiative/the ring tempts you/daybound.
That said, I dislike that they’re called rad counters but that the reminder card says “radiation”.
It's more that it's just another thing players have to internalize for a couple (at most) cards because the card doesn't tell you what it does. Monarch is extremely easy to internalize because the payoff is just draw a card and the swap condition is simple.
Initiative is not really easy to internalize (if you asked me what all the rooms in the dungeon do I honestly couldn't tell you), but it's easy to remember that it's very strong and there's enough density of high power cards with initiative that it's worth the squeeze.
Rads are another "upkeep" trigger (although it's main phase 1 like sagas for some reasons - I assume to avoid the feel bad of milling a card you scryed to the top?) to keep track of that will have no impact on the game most of the time, is not really easy to remember (you mill and then based on what you mill different things happen, oh and you have to mill a different number of cards next turn based on what you mill), and both players have to track the thing.
Now, if an absurdly powerful and unique card is in one of these decks that uses rads, will I run it? Yeah, and I'll probably consider running this at that point too. But while a scalable languish is certainly powerful, it's not powerful or unique enough to make me want to deal with the mechanic alone. And I'm further frustrated by the fact that this card could have just been in Modern Horizons 3 and completely omitted the rad text and still been great, the only reason it has the rad text is because it has to fit the flavor of the UB fallout decks.
Edit - I also don't run any of the "ring tempts you" cards for the same reason. There are certainly some that are on the edge power level wise, but the ring is annoying to remember and not worth it for me.
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While I absolutely encourage folks to look for interesting synergies in their lists, I think also having general-use cards like this supports a really fun cube environment.
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Teething Wurmlet is a card I completely overlooked but spied in your list before I saw this post go up - test drafting convinced me you're spot-on. I think it'll be a really cool addition in powered lists. Mine is unpowered, so I'm not too sure it'll work out, but I'm curious enough to see where its limits lie. Likewise, I had no idea Zephyr Sentinel existed - thanks for bringing it up! I've been waiting for this specific kind of bounce for a while.
Finally, I had reservations regarding Transmogrant's Crown, but you've made me give it a second thought. I think I fell into the trap of focusing too much on the 2 colorless equip cost - if I really just look at is a bonesplitter for 1 more mana and gaining card draw, yeah, that's a pretty desirable card.
Thanks for the (p)review!
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It seems like maybe there are differences in design philosophy here? It's like some people are looking for aggro cards to win faster, and others are looking for ways to give aggro decks endurance. I personally want my aggro players not to have a mentality of "I basically win on turn 4-5, or not at all". And I feel like if I adopted that perspective and front-loaded all my aggro cards, that would almost be a self-fulfilling prophecy? While the general plan of aggro is to beat the opponent before they get to enact their plan, I don't think I've ever played in a limited setting where aggro players simply never reach 6 mana or higher in their best-of-3s. It's uncommon that aggro plays the perfect curve-out, and it's uncommon that the control decks draw into all their tools or wincons precisely when they want them. Classic matchups can go incredibly long. And I anticipate this card will do well there.
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I wouldn't be super eager to play this in a deck that wants true-name. It could fit there, but I'm thinking more like a big control deck, WU/x style, that is light on creatures and whose early plays are mostly just roadblocks and disruption. While say a Wall of Omens gives you the value up-front and is always kind-of acceptable in off-matches, this takes a different route and provides a threat when a defender would otherwise look kind of dumb.
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I appreciate that unlike converge, domain just requires you to have the land types; a single triome does a lot for this card. And honestly, I love instant draw-2s, I love putting stuff in the graveyard. All that said, this is another one of those cards that I want to play, but not sure if it makes it. I think there are cases where you might just have only single basic type alongside painlands or pathways, making this a lot less impressive. That kind of variability leaves me a little worried and makes me want to look elsewhere for a comparable effect.
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