So I've been toying around with this card in a stock Tortured Existence list and it's good. Like, real good. If any of you guys have experience with TortEx (mine is pretty limited by the way, as I've only played it on the fringe and never taken it to a tournament), you'll know that it suffered several problems that made it difficult to go competitive: it suffers from the lack of land drops due to all the Dredging, and it needed a draw engine to repeatedly Dredge away (usually your draw step, which makes problem #1 even worse). Papyrus here solves all of these problems, and it essentially turns TortEx's text into "2BB: Return target creature from your graveyard to your hand". I still think that the Dredgers are an important part of the strategy, but now that they aren't crucial and you don't need a whole lot of Dredging to get going, I believe the list overall can get an overhaul. What are you thoughts on this?
As I see it the issue is that it doesn't do much unless you have TortEx on the field, and only starts to effect things after turn 4.
TortEx decks don't really have issues with the long game. If a game goes past turn 6 I never lose, because I can flip golgari brownscales back and forth in my hand to gain any amount of life back, have Death Denied for amazing amounts of card advantage, and can effectively cantrip for five every turn with dredge.
The skeleton is really cool once it actually is set up, it is a nice card advantage enabler. Four mana to repeatedly gain whatever creature is best for the occasion is quite strong in the long run. But it does not do much to keep you alive until you get there, unlike a lot of the other cards. For TortEx to become really viable it needs a 2-3 mana sweeper, like a black martyr of ashes.
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Pauper: UB Wight Phantasm RB Burn UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Yeah, I agree about it not doing much until you've stabilized, but from then onwards it's just basically an uncounterable card advantage engine, and a great source of inevitability. Golgari Brownscales are absolutely still needed since they Dredge and gain life againt aggro, but overdredging Stinkweed Imp in my matches quickly leaves me with no decks, and once I start the Dredge machine going, I don't see anymore lands. That's where I think the Skeleton comes in. It's sort of a Pauper version of Squee, Goblin Nabob, and he accomplishes more or less the same role: where Squee was pitched to Survival of the Fittest in Legacy, Skeleton will be pitched to TortEx when you don't need to develop the 'yard anymore.
This means we can trim a bit of dredgers in order to fit more silver bullets, and that the deck gains a bit of speed because you can now act more like a Rock deck than a Dredge deck. Playing cards like Satyr Wayfinder to find lands and Commune with the Gods to find TortEx or creatures (or Vessel of Nascency I guess if you need to dig for Enchantments + Lands and need to fill Delirium) while dumping cards in the 'yard, while also playing some fat midrange creatures like Arrogant Wurm / Gurmag Angler + a lot of silver bullets to fight the meta (for example, Skeleton + Spore Frog = 2BBG to not take damage next turn) sound like a pretty good plan. We already did this before, but since we don't need to Dredge aggressively from now on in the draw step, that means we can keep drawing cards and playing lands.
I think it's viable as perhaps 1x. You don't really need more because you only need it after you've already landed Tortured Existence and dredge enablers and then you only need one. It has some uses as part of the tool box.
I think Dredge is definitely a better ability, because it gives you more and more options as the game progresses. It also doesn't cost mana, freeing up your turns. I can think of only very fringe circumstances where this card would be better.
How much is putting cards into your graveyard worth in mana?
Dredge is free in mana cost, but as the OP stated, the dredge cards can only return themselves. I agree with OP that often the deck will not be as powerful as it otherwise could be in the middle turns because you are missing land drops. While this card doesn't allow you to hit land drops, it does free up your draw for the turn, which could draw you into a land. Then you have to weigh the benefit of possibly drawing into a land compared to the cost of 2b. It's almost comparable to a bad rampant growth if you analyze things in these terms. There is also the fact that it does...well nothing really other than fuel the engine. Then there's the question of why choose this over something like fertilid. That being said, TE decks do tend to draw their entire deck, meaning even if you only have 1x, you will probably draw it. The cost of including 1x of a card is not high and I can envision situations where it could be good. If OP has tested it and says its good, it might just be good. I could never imagine more than 1x though.
I really love the art on this card! A skeleton in a worn straight-jacket looks much scarier than a naked skeleton for some reason.
The best mini-combo I've found for him is Icatian Crier. Making two tokens for 3WB without card loss is pretty good compared to, say, Cenn's Enlistment, though to be fair it is a two-card combo. Probably nothing to build a deck around.
There is also Mental Discipline: 3UB to draw a card. Very much for the long game though. After spending 10 mana, you break even for running these two engine cards in the first place.
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It's also pretty good edict/discard fodder. Just keep paying 4 mana to cast it/replay it against MBC/Teachings. Always ensure it's on the battlefield to protect whatever you want against edicts. Yeah, I can envision it being good.
I like the design of the card for Pauper. It's the closest thing we can get to Reassembling Skeleton, but may be a bit better since it can do more by fueling TortEx, activated abilities that require discarding, and discard fodder (as already pointed out previously). I've never played TortEx, but from reading this it does seem like a god 1 or 2-of to help increase options.
I think an important skill to learn when playing with lots of Dredge cards is when to dredge. I was playing a BG brew of my own a while back, and this was one of the most important lessons I had to learn. Dredging every turn is wrong. You need to associate when dredging is the right play and when drawing a card is.
Other than that, I think a good TE deck should probably include something like Krosan Tusker.
I used Fa'adiyah Seer all those years ago. Considering the dynamic we're discussing here, using this card makes a lot of sense.
What worries me about TortEx is the Pod effect. All the deck needs to do is wait and it will inevitably get better and better from cards like this, and then one day it becomes too good and gets banned :C
This is also a problem with Mystical Teachings.dec.
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Been playing this guy in Golgari Tortex Control since release. He is actually a really powerful CA engine lategame, and unlike Grave Scrabbler, he is useful without TE
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Lycanthropy Awareness Day.
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
So I've been toying around with this card in a stock Tortured Existence list and it's good. Like, real good. If any of you guys have experience with TortEx (mine is pretty limited by the way, as I've only played it on the fringe and never taken it to a tournament), you'll know that it suffered several problems that made it difficult to go competitive: it suffers from the lack of land drops due to all the Dredging, and it needed a draw engine to repeatedly Dredge away (usually your draw step, which makes problem #1 even worse). Papyrus here solves all of these problems, and it essentially turns TortEx's text into "2BB: Return target creature from your graveyard to your hand". I still think that the Dredgers are an important part of the strategy, but now that they aren't crucial and you don't need a whole lot of Dredging to get going, I believe the list overall can get an overhaul. What are you thoughts on this?
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
TortEx decks don't really have issues with the long game. If a game goes past turn 6 I never lose, because I can flip golgari brownscales back and forth in my hand to gain any amount of life back, have Death Denied for amazing amounts of card advantage, and can effectively cantrip for five every turn with dredge.
The skeleton is really cool once it actually is set up, it is a nice card advantage enabler. Four mana to repeatedly gain whatever creature is best for the occasion is quite strong in the long run. But it does not do much to keep you alive until you get there, unlike a lot of the other cards. For TortEx to become really viable it needs a 2-3 mana sweeper, like a black martyr of ashes.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
This means we can trim a bit of dredgers in order to fit more silver bullets, and that the deck gains a bit of speed because you can now act more like a Rock deck than a Dredge deck. Playing cards like Satyr Wayfinder to find lands and Commune with the Gods to find TortEx or creatures (or Vessel of Nascency I guess if you need to dig for Enchantments + Lands and need to fill Delirium) while dumping cards in the 'yard, while also playing some fat midrange creatures like Arrogant Wurm / Gurmag Angler + a lot of silver bullets to fight the meta (for example, Skeleton + Spore Frog = 2BBG to not take damage next turn) sound like a pretty good plan. We already did this before, but since we don't need to Dredge aggressively from now on in the draw step, that means we can keep drawing cards and playing lands.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
How much is putting cards into your graveyard worth in mana?
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Really we just need dakmor salvage to be a common.
The best mini-combo I've found for him is Icatian Crier. Making two tokens for 3WB without card loss is pretty good compared to, say, Cenn's Enlistment, though to be fair it is a two-card combo. Probably nothing to build a deck around.
There is also Mental Discipline: 3UB to draw a card. Very much for the long game though. After spending 10 mana, you break even for running these two engine cards in the first place.
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
Other than that, I think a good TE deck should probably include something like Krosan Tusker.
I used Fa'adiyah Seer all those years ago. Considering the dynamic we're discussing here, using this card makes a lot of sense.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
This is also a problem with Mystical Teachings.dec.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
Level 1 Judge (yay)