I find cubes that feel the need to cap planeswalkers due to them being perceived as overpowered tend to have underlying issues in their cube metas (similar to the "signets and bouncelands are too good" thing.)
It's something that I may write an article about. Someday. Maybe.
The conspiracy cards themselves are fine and tried a whole bunch when Conspiracy 2 came out, but I ended up cutting them because they felt gimmicky and awkward. It could also be because it's harder to write reviews and whatnot when a card is paired and gauge cards power levels.
But they overall just felt... weird. I take them quite highly when I draft other cubes and when I see people post p1p1s online, people generally underrate conspiracies, but I dunno. It's one of those YMMV things, but... eh.
The draft-impacting cards like Canal Dredger, Cogwork Librarian, Agent of Acquisitions and Lore Seeker are great and likely will stay in my cube forever.
I'm in a similar boat with being meh on it with trying it again. I push artifacts likely harder than most (I run things like Cranial Plating and whatnot, FWIW) and haven't been super huge on it. Will keep trying it for the time being, though.
I was around when this card came out but missed it's rise to sleeper status. Does anyone still run Palace Jailer? Looks like it could be a good 4th white 4 drop creature in my 540 and seeing it perform in Legacy has been very interesting.
Yes, it's very good. Sometimes the feel-bad moments of awkward board states where playing it out is bad can happen, but for the most part it tends to work out well.
Is Skymarcher Aspirant better than any of my current non-top tier white 1-drops?
Nah on bodyguard.
Yeah on Woe-Reaper.
Yeah on Soldier.
Probably on Student?
Your aggro decks would likely be better served by taking out Accorder Paladin than any of the 1-drops, though. (and I personally rate Lone Missionary here, FWIW, else I'd just snap-recommend that.)
This is History of Benalia: History of Benalia History of Benalia is a three mana Saga.
A Saga is a sorcery-speed enchantment.
It produces two power on the first turn you play it. Then, when you reach Chapter II of the Saga, it produces an additional two power. Consequently -- and not to be too obvious -- but that is four power across multiple bodies for three total mana.
Thanks to Chapter III's "Knights you control get +2/+1 until end of turn[,]" with only the two Knights, you can attack for eight on the card's third turn in play! Because of this, History of Benalia can both burst forward offensively and slow the opponent down with multiple blockers defensively.
This is Lingering Souls: Lingering Souls Lingering Souls is a card of extraordinary power. It was banned in its original Block Constructed format, and has contributed to any number of decks across multiple formats. Not Block of course, but other formats. Jon Finkel played it to his umpteenth Pro Tour Top 8 in an Esper Delver deck. It has contributed to everything from a white splash in Jund to a colorful wink in Eldrazi Modern decks.
Like History of Benalia, Lingering Souls produces two power for your initial three mana investment. To get the next two power, you need to invest an additional two mana (and in another color).
Certainly, Lingering Souls has some considerable upside relative to History of Benalia. You get more bodies. Those bodies in fact fly. You can get all four on on turn if you have five mana available... But that's the crux of it; with History of Benalia, you never need to pay the additional two mana!
This is Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage: Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage really likes Historic cards.
"Saga" is a Historic type; consequently, Raff likes History of Benalia.
One of the many synergies that you can exploit thanks to Dominaria's heavily Historic themes is to play History of Benalia during times that you couldn't normally play an enchantment or other sorcery-speed card (e.g. Lingering Souls).
History of Benalia has already started showing up in a variety of decks. It is going to be a great card in Historic-themed decks, white swarm decks (or B/W Tokens decks), and will be a consideration for everything from G/W Aggro to U/W Control.
I've been impressed by it and my opinion hasn't really shifted since the card was spoiled - having Knights is fine to boost it but it's great even without more. 3-0 deck with History from before the set was printed.
Like many other blue cards that don't tend to play super well with blue control strategies, it ends up being in an awkward slot where it's an objectively fine card (3/1 flash with a way to dump it if need be) but generally those kinds of cards need to be very strong if they're in that role (and not a multitasker.) It seems like it'd be seeing a lot more play if it was, say, a white or black card, since those decks generally would want something that hits on those axises (a mainly attacking creature.)
adjective
1.
lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypocritically ingenuous; insincere:
Her excuse was rather disingenuous.
Implying that I'm being insincere is rather... odd, considering conversations we've had about wanting to improve communications in this forum and if you really used the word to imply that, that's... not good, to put it lightly.
In the time that I've tried Disfigure in my cubes and experiences from other cubes, Disfigure's combat trick potential wasn't used enough for it to tip the scales towards it being a better card.
*cough* (this used the CubeTutor 450-card average)
With creatures, it's more fundamentally important for them to be cast on-curve; whereas with non-creatures, they can be cast off-curve — although we'd ideally want them to be cast on curve as well — as it isn't as important to cast, say, a Fatal Push on turn one vs turn four, as the deprecation in value from a Fatal Push on turn four isn't as bad as something like a Narnam Renegade on turn four.
Fatal Push gives Black another conditional 1-mana removal while it typically has to rely on 2-mana removal spells like Go For the Throat. Let's do a side-by-side comparison with Disfigure, a pretty similar analog as a 1-mana Black removal spell that deals with small creatures. For these, I won't consider armies in a can like Cloudgoat Ranger and Avenger of Zendikar because while sometimes you've gotta push a token out of the way, most of the time, that's not what these cards are doing.
By the numbers:
What BOTH Disfigure and Fatal Push kill without revolt.: 64 (examples: Grim Lavamancer, Lotus Cobra)
What BOTH Disfigure and Fatal Push kill with revolt: 33 (examples: Oracle of Mul Daya, Goblin Rabblemaster)
What Disfigure kills and what Fatal Push can't, even with revolt: 3 (Shriekmaw, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Mulldrifter, Acidic Slime) — all of these being Mulldrifters whose main value comes outside of the creature itself.
What Disfigure can't kill but Fatal Push can, without revolt: 12 (Thing in the Ice, Celestial Colonnade)
What Disfigure can't kill but what Fatal Push can with revolt: 21 (Courser of Kruphix, Hellrider, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet)
For reference, 30 creatures can't be killed by either Disfigure or Fatal Push , creatures like Consecrated Sphinx, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, and Baneslayer Angel. Unsurprisingly, these are the highly efficient Baneslayers of the format.
If we go by raw numbers and assume that Fatal Push can't reliably hit Revolt, Disfigure comes out slightly ahead, but that doesn't tell the entire tale. Approaching these creatures as Baneslayers and Mulldrifters allows us to see that Fatal Push is able to kill Baneslayers like Kalitas and creature lands like Celestial Colonnade. Generally, the quality of the removal represented is slightly higher with Fatal Push than Disfigure. One can argue that you can chump attack with a lot of creatures to enable revolt, but much like trying to do that with Tragic Slip, it can't really get large blockers out of the way reliably.
Fatal Push loses out on combat trick potential, but general experience with Disfigure when I had it in my Cube and playing it in others', generally that mode wasn't used very much, despite how powerful and impacting it may look in combat. Some decks don't really use Baneslayers and when a control opponent just has Solemn Simulacrum, Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw-style creatures as their creature suite, Fatal Push isn't very good (but then again, would a card like Go For the Throat been much better? Besides, that's what your sideboard is for!)
Note on this one: Cube is 450 unpowered and doesn't run any superfatties (9 mana+ creatures) except Emrakul, the Promised End although I do run several 7 and 8 drops.
Void. Void's already been doing better in 3-0 representation and overall than Abbey did in the months that I ran it.
Glotus is likely better but honestly could go either way. Golem does tend to look silly vs spot removal but is great vs non-spell removal (187 creatures/PWs, etc.)
Why would they do that?
I'm not sure I understand this. Are aggro decks not good enough to be competitive?
(Both Smash and Abrade are great. Abrade is overall better, but I play both, personally.)
(I have no idea what to think of the card, FWIW)
It's something that I may write an article about. Someday. Maybe.
But they overall just felt... weird. I take them quite highly when I draft other cubes and when I see people post p1p1s online, people generally underrate conspiracies, but I dunno. It's one of those YMMV things, but... eh.
The draft-impacting cards like Canal Dredger, Cogwork Librarian, Agent of Acquisitions and Lore Seeker are great and likely will stay in my cube forever.
Yes (and I do.)
Usually by the color, but I've ran Karakas personally in non-white decks, but it isn't enough to make me want to slot it outside of white.
Yes, it's very good. Sometimes the feel-bad moments of awkward board states where playing it out is bad can happen, but for the most part it tends to work out well.
Nah on bodyguard.
Yeah on Woe-Reaper.
Yeah on Soldier.
Probably on Student?
Your aggro decks would likely be better served by taking out Accorder Paladin than any of the 1-drops, though. (and I personally rate Lone Missionary here, FWIW, else I'd just snap-recommend that.)
A Saga is a sorcery-speed enchantment.
It produces two power on the first turn you play it. Then, when you reach Chapter II of the Saga, it produces an additional two power. Consequently -- and not to be too obvious -- but that is four power across multiple bodies for three total mana.
Thanks to Chapter III's "Knights you control get +2/+1 until end of turn[,]" with only the two Knights, you can attack for eight on the card's third turn in play! Because of this, History of Benalia can both burst forward offensively and slow the opponent down with multiple blockers defensively.
This is Lingering Souls: Lingering Souls Lingering Souls is a card of extraordinary power. It was banned in its original Block Constructed format, and has contributed to any number of decks across multiple formats. Not Block of course, but other formats. Jon Finkel played it to his umpteenth Pro Tour Top 8 in an Esper Delver deck. It has contributed to everything from a white splash in Jund to a colorful wink in Eldrazi Modern decks.
Like History of Benalia, Lingering Souls produces two power for your initial three mana investment. To get the next two power, you need to invest an additional two mana (and in another color).
Certainly, Lingering Souls has some considerable upside relative to History of Benalia. You get more bodies. Those bodies in fact fly. You can get all four on on turn if you have five mana available... But that's the crux of it; with History of Benalia, you never need to pay the additional two mana!
This is Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage: Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage really likes Historic cards.
"Saga" is a Historic type; consequently, Raff likes History of Benalia.
One of the many synergies that you can exploit thanks to Dominaria's heavily Historic themes is to play History of Benalia during times that you couldn't normally play an enchantment or other sorcery-speed card (e.g. Lingering Souls).
History of Benalia has already started showing up in a variety of decks. It is going to be a great card in Historic-themed decks, white swarm decks (or B/W Tokens decks), and will be a consideration for everything from G/W Aggro to U/W Control.
I've been impressed by it and my opinion hasn't really shifted since the card was spoiled - having Knights is fine to boost it but it's great even without more. 3-0 deck with History from before the set was printed.
Definition of disingenuous:
Implying that I'm being insincere is rather... odd, considering conversations we've had about wanting to improve communications in this forum and if you really used the word to imply that, that's... not good, to put it lightly.
In the time that I've tried Disfigure in my cubes and experiences from other cubes, Disfigure's combat trick potential wasn't used enough for it to tip the scales towards it being a better card.
Void. Void's already been doing better in 3-0 representation and overall than Abbey did in the months that I ran it.
Glotus is likely better but honestly could go either way. Golem does tend to look silly vs spot removal but is great vs non-spell removal (187 creatures/PWs, etc.)