Now here's a weird idea, though testing is necessary for validation...
In a combo deck, cantripping is essential to winning. If you can't gather the appropriate pieces for your combo deck, it's just not worth playing. However, red, without blue, provides an interesting problem to cantripping i.e. how to cantrip without blue draws? You could run Mines and Mythos, even Spiteful Visions. However, why not Stomping Slabs. Ok ok, so it's not exacting drawing cards, but it does mill through your deck with 7 damage as a plus. Odd, yes. But usable? Maybe. In competitive play? MMMMMmmmmm....
NOW GO OPINIONS! Debate your worst
X
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard
:symr:Koth Red:symr:
:symbr:Blood Crank:symbr:
Casual
AiR - x4R style
Time Ascension/Draw-Go
:symgw::symr:Big Naya:symr::symgw:
:symu:Energy Forge:symu:
Explore seems good for those running green. I'm testing this in Zoo right now, and it seems to be useful (often, I want the card more than the extra land)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Decks in the hopper... Standard - R/G Aggro RG Standard - Book Burning UR Modern - U/W Tempo UW Legacy - Master of Affinity XX Vintage - Burnination RR
Yes, it does mill through your deck. However, your next draw after casting is is just as random as your next draw would have been had you not cast it. All it does is inform you as to what is in the bottom 7 cards of your library. There is one case where this could be useful: a.) you see all the copies of the combo piece you need go to the bottom of your library. This is useful because it tells you that you should concede immediately.
The other cases are
b.) you see none of the copies of the combo piece you need go to the bottom of your library, telling you that you now have an X/Y-7 rather than X/Y chance of drawing it next turn (X = number of copies in the main, Y = cards in library). This situation gives you false hope, which makes your eventual defeat all the more crushing.
otherwise
c.) you see one or more copies (but not all) of your missing combo piece, and curse yourself for playing this terrible card rather than waiting a turn or two to draw it.
Unless you are running some kind of dredge/unearth/other graveyard strategy, combo decks don't like "milling" themselves. They like sifting through the library and pulling out what they need, or just tutoring for it outright. This is why draw then discard effects are popular in combo decks: they are cost effective and they let you get deep in to your deck. Ideas Unbound, as mediocre as it is (being card disadvantage), still gets you 3 cards deep for just UU. Or, there is the family of "look" effects (Sleight of Hand, Opt, etc) and lets take the current incarnation, Ponder, as an example: for the price of U, you get to see three cards and choose one, and if none of them are useful at all, you can shuffle instead and take on off the top. So at the very, very worst, Ponder is much better than Stomping Slabs in getting a combo piece: you take a random card off the top. With Stomping Slabs you have to wait until your next draw step to get that random card off the top. Yes, I realize that there is a conditional 7 damage attached to Stomping Slabs, but if your goal is to assemble a combo, this is about as bad as it gets.
You know what kicks the crap out of this card (if you are for some reason playing a combo deck that has to be mono red and has access to none of the blue draw effects or black tutors)? Magma jet. You have guaranteed damage, plus an effect that actually filters your draws rather than replaces one random draw with another one.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Johnny
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
In a combo deck, cantripping is essential to winning. If you can't gather the appropriate pieces for your combo deck, it's just not worth playing. However, red, without blue, provides an interesting problem to cantripping i.e. how to cantrip without blue draws? You could run Mines and Mythos, even Spiteful Visions. However, why not Stomping Slabs. Ok ok, so it's not exacting drawing cards, but it does mill through your deck with 7 damage as a plus. Odd, yes. But usable? Maybe. In competitive play? MMMMMmmmmm....
NOW GO OPINIONS! Debate your worst
X
Standard
:symr:Koth Red:symr:
:symbr:Blood Crank:symbr:
Casual
AiR - x4R style
Time Ascension/Draw-Go
:symgw::symr:Big Naya:symr::symgw:
:symu:Energy Forge:symu:
Standard - R/G Aggro RG
Standard - Book Burning UR
Modern - U/W Tempo UW
Legacy - Master of Affinity XX
Vintage - Burnination RR
Find me on Modo under Tigerbreak
The other cases are
b.) you see none of the copies of the combo piece you need go to the bottom of your library, telling you that you now have an X/Y-7 rather than X/Y chance of drawing it next turn (X = number of copies in the main, Y = cards in library). This situation gives you false hope, which makes your eventual defeat all the more crushing.
otherwise
c.) you see one or more copies (but not all) of your missing combo piece, and curse yourself for playing this terrible card rather than waiting a turn or two to draw it.
Unless you are running some kind of dredge/unearth/other graveyard strategy, combo decks don't like "milling" themselves. They like sifting through the library and pulling out what they need, or just tutoring for it outright. This is why draw then discard effects are popular in combo decks: they are cost effective and they let you get deep in to your deck. Ideas Unbound, as mediocre as it is (being card disadvantage), still gets you 3 cards deep for just UU. Or, there is the family of "look" effects (Sleight of Hand, Opt, etc) and lets take the current incarnation, Ponder, as an example: for the price of U, you get to see three cards and choose one, and if none of them are useful at all, you can shuffle instead and take on off the top. So at the very, very worst, Ponder is much better than Stomping Slabs in getting a combo piece: you take a random card off the top. With Stomping Slabs you have to wait until your next draw step to get that random card off the top. Yes, I realize that there is a conditional 7 damage attached to Stomping Slabs, but if your goal is to assemble a combo, this is about as bad as it gets.
You know what kicks the crap out of this card (if you are for some reason playing a combo deck that has to be mono red and has access to none of the blue draw effects or black tutors)? Magma jet. You have guaranteed damage, plus an effect that actually filters your draws rather than replaces one random draw with another one.