How well does Rally really work? It seems like it could be ok for recurring Shaman, but it doesn't seem very good outside of that.
I agree, it just seems too situational to me and not worth a WW splash. Drana is a good idea though, I've been meaning to test her out, will see how it goes.
I have been meanin to try out Drana, but I decided on Lili, just because I think my chances of flipping her are better than connecting with Drana. Both eat removal but I can flip Lili the turn I drop her and get value.
Yeah, my 2 drop slot is a little tight. I figured it might work as a spellskite for Dwynen and works well with Evolutionary Leap, but it's probably not worth the slot. I think 2X Liliana is worth the slots she takes up though. She's great at recurring your Shamans.
I've had him preform well, personally. It's nice to have a sac outlet in red that gets you some extra value as well. Plus it's fun to sac creatures you Sneak Attack to him after they attack.
I think the Simic guild has somewhat of an identity crisis in cube. As far as my group goes, Skyswallower goes to reanimator, Edric goes to Bant tempo, Predator is all over the place and no one plays Mystic Snake or Voidslime.
Gatecrash didn't quite give me what I wanted to do with the guild, but I'm going to try a few different things with it. Right now I'm trying out Predator, Simic Charm, Master Biomancer, Mystic Snake, Zegana and Zameck Guildmage (huge multicolor section, I know), trying to see if some sort of midrangey deck will see play. I'm hoping once Dragon's Maze comes out there will be one or two more aggressively costed Simic cards that will allow me to try out an agro-tempo deck as well, with Edric, Predator, Shambleshark and possibly Biomass Mutation (though I don't expect much from Biomass). I think smoothing out this guild and giving it some real identity is going to be my major cube project for the next few months though. I'll record all of my observations and maybe do a full write up on it after I'm done if anyone is interested.
if you are playing him as a surprise blocker you are unlikely to be able to grow him with the evolve.
I don't think he's being played as a surprise blocker, I think he's being played on the end-step as a surprise attacker the next turn, which, in that case he can be read as UG for a 3/2 haste as long as you're on curve, which is pretty great when you are, but still a turn 2 drop with 2 power that evades sorcery speed removal before his first attack if you can't trigger evolve. I am honestly ok with either of those outcomes if I'm playing U/G/x tempo.
Sorry for the duplicate! I was in a hurry and forgot to search first.
Anyways, I'm glad to hear it's been working out well. I imagined that it may be really good in smaller cubes with all of the high power 1 drops. It just doesn't seem to have any shortage of targets. It may end up dead late game, but I've still been Thoughtseized or had an opponent cast Ancestral in lategame, so even then it allows for some usage. Not to mention you never have to leave mana up to stop a Swords or Lightning Bolt. I have high hopes for it.
I just tossed this guy in the other day. I haven't gotten a chance to test it out yet, but no one was playing Daze and they wanted another free counter that would be a bit more useful. I figured it was between this and Pact, and I don't think Pact is good in cube. Has anyone tried this out? Thoughts?
What i have been very different feelings on is Bloodghast. He is nice to just come back "on the way" but he is rarely a real threat and cant even block. In general the Deck is very open to just get run over by opposing creatures.
Lightning Axe is in my opinion just too nice to not play it. It helps out so many times.
Darkblast on the other hand i also am very uncertain about. Whilst killing Mana Dorks can be relevant many times, in just that same number of games i found Darkblast to just clump my hand or to be a lighter dredger.
Overall i am currently thinking about something like Flame Jab instead of Darkblast with 1 or 2 additional Loams and 1 additional Land.... will test this soon.
So, how are your lists at this point? And what do you think, will WotC unban the Troll?
How has Slitherhead been performing for you? I thought about including him, but he just doesn't seem like he'd pull enough weight.
What if they unbanned Jace, The Mind Sculptor and printed it in Modern Masters...
MM will certainly be a highly wanted product, but with JTMS it would be craazy.
Zendikar block is not included in Modern Masters. So that's not happening.
I have been meanin to try out Drana, but I decided on Lili, just because I think my chances of flipping her are better than connecting with Drana. Both eat removal but I can flip Lili the turn I drop her and get value.
This is what sac outlets are for. Super easy in those colors too.
Gatecrash didn't quite give me what I wanted to do with the guild, but I'm going to try a few different things with it. Right now I'm trying out Predator, Simic Charm, Master Biomancer, Mystic Snake, Zegana and Zameck Guildmage (huge multicolor section, I know), trying to see if some sort of midrangey deck will see play. I'm hoping once Dragon's Maze comes out there will be one or two more aggressively costed Simic cards that will allow me to try out an agro-tempo deck as well, with Edric, Predator, Shambleshark and possibly Biomass Mutation (though I don't expect much from Biomass). I think smoothing out this guild and giving it some real identity is going to be my major cube project for the next few months though. I'll record all of my observations and maybe do a full write up on it after I'm done if anyone is interested.
I don't think he's being played as a surprise blocker, I think he's being played on the end-step as a surprise attacker the next turn, which, in that case he can be read as UG for a 3/2 haste as long as you're on curve, which is pretty great when you are, but still a turn 2 drop with 2 power that evades sorcery speed removal before his first attack if you can't trigger evolve. I am honestly ok with either of those outcomes if I'm playing U/G/x tempo.
Anyways, I'm glad to hear it's been working out well. I imagined that it may be really good in smaller cubes with all of the high power 1 drops. It just doesn't seem to have any shortage of targets. It may end up dead late game, but I've still been Thoughtseized or had an opponent cast Ancestral in lategame, so even then it allows for some usage. Not to mention you never have to leave mana up to stop a Swords or Lightning Bolt. I have high hopes for it.
I just tossed this guy in the other day. I haven't gotten a chance to test it out yet, but no one was playing Daze and they wanted another free counter that would be a bit more useful. I figured it was between this and Pact, and I don't think Pact is good in cube. Has anyone tried this out? Thoughts?
How has Slitherhead been performing for you? I thought about including him, but he just doesn't seem like he'd pull enough weight.
Zendikar block is not included in Modern Masters. So that's not happening.