This card is really good imo, but not broken. Boros and the 3 slot is SO stacked in both white and red though, so ....
I ignored a few really powerful cards with this logic, so maybe it's worth a test.
That equipment is stronger than any sword of X and Y cube and getting a 3/3 body alongside it is no joke
It's at minimum a strong channel payoff. That's too narrow for me considering there's plenty of competition that falls under that category, a few of which does that job better and those cards also have better interactions with other cheat spells.
Costing 12 life is brutal for reanimate, and for animate dead/necromancy the leave the battlefield trigger can be pretty backbreaking if the enchantment gets dealt with.
It's definitely powerful though... Wouldn't hate on anyone adding it for variety/funsies.
It's worth remembering about if a couple key combo cards get printed that help cheat into play the cast trigger or the madness trigger.
With psychic frog being printed and a potential madness theme in MH3, this card is worth a revist.
The best madness card available for cube that I've seen.
With enough looting effects this card is quite strong.
At first appraisal, I'd guess the rank as the #2 Dimir behind baleful strix.
It interacts favorably with all sorts of dimir synergies and is a legit powerhouse with draw 7's.
Curving this into echo of eons for example is particularly nasty.
Dimir is so good at disruption that getting this card to connect and become a 2 mana draw a card every turn is not that hard.
Mega bonus points for being a nostalgic throwback, cute and create interesting gameplay decisions.
Against creature heavy decks it's not that good, but threatens to be an annoying blocker, or swing back to draw an extra card if there's a tempo race.
I think if your cube has a lot of cheap creatures and removal this is a very powerful card.
If creatures are dying a lot and there are fair deck mirror matches etc.
I don't know HOW good it is, but it is worthy of test.
I see it as much more of an aggressive card than sevinne's reclamation.
I don't like sevinne's reclamation much in mono white but I'd love this card in mono white.
I like sevinne's reclamation in midrang with looting effects or powerful permanants to return from the GY like Oko, 3-Teferri, strip mine, combo pieces etc.
I could see classifying this as a boros card under the strictest definition. It is maximized in boros by referencing controlling a red card as part of one of it's abilities.
I personally would classify this as white.
card is nutso for sure
Valki God of Lies v Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast v Kolaghan's Command, pick one.
Other cards in section are Fire Covenant and Chaos Defiler (Covenant is being tested, may not stay).
Valki in distant last.
I think Kcommand , daretti and fire covenant are pretty close. Depends a lot on your cube. How deep on artifacts you on, how much you support agro etc.
I have fire covenant (barely) in last place out of those cards, but the people I've been cubing with recently have it as their #1 red/black card *shrug*.
The cube is competitive (players are high skill and trying to win more than trying to have fun), there's a lot of people fighting for white/initiative and the red section is very dense with creatures. There's a lot of cheap creature decks running around which fire covenant excels vs. It's also a little lighter on artifacts than my own or the mtgo vintage cube, so kcommand and daretti's stock drops a bit.
Daretti is the most "interesting" card to me out of all them for what that's worth
I've been jamming this a lot in LSV's cube the past few days and it's overperformed my expectation.
Is it a mid-high pick? no.
Is it one of the weaker blue 3 drops in a 540 cube? Yes.
That said, it's a solid all around archetype enabler that has impressed me in decks that value self discard and card selection.
The part about the card I underestimated most was the 2/2 flying, vigilance body.
Blocking 1/1 flying tokens, attacking -> trading on defense in a tight race, evasion for initiative/monarch. It's not great, but it's pretty annoying and has surprising utility for a creature who's value is mostly based on it's ETB trigger.
Cool, yeah pretty solid. Being able to cast this for 3 makes this around par with damnation for me in power level. Would have to test.
I dig that you can very occasionally use this as finisher. Because it hits your opponent before it hits you, doing it for a large X value won’t draw the game like it would for rolling earthquake.
Black also more likely to take advantage of the self mill
Disagree about dig through time being a relic of the past.
It's gotten worse, as strategies that leverage it have gotten worse (and the average card in general has gotten better),
but there's a reason it's a "fair" card that is a staple in pioneer (no fetchlands) , banned in modern/legacy and restricted in vintage.
When a deck can generate a significant amount of graveyard fodder, the card is still messed up.
Before in cube, dig was a good card in decks that can only generate a little bit of graveyard fodder, that has changed significantly.
If you want non-creature based interactive decks to still be a draftable strategy, removing their marquee cards will near guarantee that strategy fails.
The power of DTT is sensitive to how you build your cube and what strategies you chose to support over others.
Modern era semi-reactive decks should be built with a ton of cheap efficient interaction, and dig through time is a premium payoff for doing just that.
If you don't have a high density of cheap interaction , cantrips, or ways to put cards in the graveyard, it'll be a lot worse.
I'll likely test this.
Blink interactions, stoneforge/equipment synergy, artifact synergy and a very "2024" style win con for blue decks.
Something that can trade/pressure early, but also scales well in the late game (as long as you don't deck yourself).
I think it'll be a lower-tier playable good stuff card, with good cube interactions.
The biggest downside and why I (barely) dismissed it on first appraisal is how stacked the slot is...
I run it and I like it. I'm not if confident it deserves a slot on power level (gun to my head, it doesnt), but I am confident it's 95-99% there.
The interactions and uniqueness push it over the top for me.
I've activated the second ability sacrificing a mox opal and it was a game winning play, felt pretty sweet.
The deeper I move into artifact support, the bigger fan I've been of nettlecyst. With clues, food and treasures being a mainstay of modern magic, I think this card will only get better.
I've been testing it for a few months in my own cube (low sample size) and played in MTGO vintage cube a lot and it keeps moving up higher in my pick order.
Aritfact decks can play to the battlefield in the early game in a way they never could before , nettlecyst belongs to a group of a few cards that help with exactly that goal.
It's an artifact.dec card primarily, but it also slots nicely into any midrange deck with a bunch of artifacts. Stoneforge etc.
I ignored a few really powerful cards with this logic, so maybe it's worth a test.
That equipment is stronger than any sword of X and Y cube and getting a 3/3 body alongside it is no joke
Costing 12 life is brutal for reanimate, and for animate dead/necromancy the leave the battlefield trigger can be pretty backbreaking if the enchantment gets dealt with.
It's definitely powerful though... Wouldn't hate on anyone adding it for variety/funsies.
It's worth remembering about if a couple key combo cards get printed that help cheat into play the cast trigger or the madness trigger.
The best madness card available for cube that I've seen.
With enough looting effects this card is quite strong.
At first appraisal, I'd guess the rank as the #2 Dimir behind baleful strix.
It interacts favorably with all sorts of dimir synergies and is a legit powerhouse with draw 7's.
Curving this into echo of eons for example is particularly nasty.
Dimir is so good at disruption that getting this card to connect and become a 2 mana draw a card every turn is not that hard.
Mega bonus points for being a nostalgic throwback, cute and create interesting gameplay decisions.
Against creature heavy decks it's not that good, but threatens to be an annoying blocker, or swing back to draw an extra card if there's a tempo race.
If creatures are dying a lot and there are fair deck mirror matches etc.
I don't know HOW good it is, but it is worthy of test.
I see it as much more of an aggressive card than sevinne's reclamation.
I don't like sevinne's reclamation much in mono white but I'd love this card in mono white.
I like sevinne's reclamation in midrang with looting effects or powerful permanants to return from the GY like Oko, 3-Teferri, strip mine, combo pieces etc.
I personally would classify this as white.
card is nutso for sure
Valki in distant last.
I think Kcommand , daretti and fire covenant are pretty close. Depends a lot on your cube. How deep on artifacts you on, how much you support agro etc.
I have fire covenant (barely) in last place out of those cards, but the people I've been cubing with recently have it as their #1 red/black card *shrug*.
The cube is competitive (players are high skill and trying to win more than trying to have fun), there's a lot of people fighting for white/initiative and the red section is very dense with creatures. There's a lot of cheap creature decks running around which fire covenant excels vs. It's also a little lighter on artifacts than my own or the mtgo vintage cube, so kcommand and daretti's stock drops a bit.
Daretti is the most "interesting" card to me out of all them for what that's worth
Is it a mid-high pick? no.
Is it one of the weaker blue 3 drops in a 540 cube? Yes.
That said, it's a solid all around archetype enabler that has impressed me in decks that value self discard and card selection.
The part about the card I underestimated most was the 2/2 flying, vigilance body.
Blocking 1/1 flying tokens, attacking -> trading on defense in a tight race, evasion for initiative/monarch. It's not great, but it's pretty annoying and has surprising utility for a creature who's value is mostly based on it's ETB trigger.
I dig that you can very occasionally use this as finisher. Because it hits your opponent before it hits you, doing it for a large X value won’t draw the game like it would for rolling earthquake.
Black also more likely to take advantage of the self mill
It's gotten worse, as strategies that leverage it have gotten worse (and the average card in general has gotten better),
but there's a reason it's a "fair" card that is a staple in pioneer (no fetchlands) , banned in modern/legacy and restricted in vintage.
When a deck can generate a significant amount of graveyard fodder, the card is still messed up.
Before in cube, dig was a good card in decks that can only generate a little bit of graveyard fodder, that has changed significantly.
If you want non-creature based interactive decks to still be a draftable strategy, removing their marquee cards will near guarantee that strategy fails.
The power of DTT is sensitive to how you build your cube and what strategies you chose to support over others.
Modern era semi-reactive decks should be built with a ton of cheap efficient interaction, and dig through time is a premium payoff for doing just that.
If you don't have a high density of cheap interaction , cantrips, or ways to put cards in the graveyard, it'll be a lot worse.
Staple. THE payoff for academy/cradle that also got a lot better when urzas saga was printed.
Glad I ignored my playgroup and kept testing it.
Blink interactions, stoneforge/equipment synergy, artifact synergy and a very "2024" style win con for blue decks.
Something that can trade/pressure early, but also scales well in the late game (as long as you don't deck yourself).
I think it'll be a lower-tier playable good stuff card, with good cube interactions.
The biggest downside and why I (barely) dismissed it on first appraisal is how stacked the slot is...
The interactions and uniqueness push it over the top for me.
I've activated the second ability sacrificing a mox opal and it was a game winning play, felt pretty sweet.
I've been testing it for a few months in my own cube (low sample size) and played in MTGO vintage cube a lot and it keeps moving up higher in my pick order.
Aritfact decks can play to the battlefield in the early game in a way they never could before , nettlecyst belongs to a group of a few cards that help with exactly that goal.
It's an artifact.dec card primarily, but it also slots nicely into any midrange deck with a bunch of artifacts. Stoneforge etc.