I have trouble evaluating this card. It seems like it could be good, ambushing an attacker and serving as a combat trick, but I'm always a little wary of tricks that don't boost stats. Though it is in a color that cares about heroic somewhat.
My guess is that it's a lower-end trick that usually won't make the maindeck, but I can't say I'm confident about that.
This card is a switchblade of usefulness;
It triggers Inspired and Heroic at instant speed.
You can win a trade on the attack and get free vigilance, and if they don't block you can then have the option to ambush the creature when he tries to race you.
You can push a creature through unblockable to finish the enemy.
You can counter Fall of the Hammer and Time to Feed with it, deterring attacks until the end of that turn.
It's a pretty difficult trick to play around for these reasons, making it a good trick.
It will almost always be worse than Triton Tactics except when on offense. Then again, Triton Tactics is an incredibly useful and versatile spell, and an uncommon, therefore a common, weaker version of if isn't even bad. I won't be mad at playing this card when I have heroic or inspired creatures but I won't be terribly happy either.
I don't think it's playable outside of an aggressive shell or one with a bunch of Inspired shenanigans. Over half of the blue decks I draft in this format are durdly UB concoctions (my pick for best archetype in triple Theros), and in those decks the main use for it would be for the untap, with cards like Keepsake Gorgon and Shipwreck Singer, or maybe with Wavecrash Triton. At that point, it becomes decidedly mediocre, if not purely suboptimal.
In an aggressive U/W Heroic deck, it seems alright, but I don't see that deck wanting it more than something like Battlewise Valor that a more dramatic effect on the deck's ability to be proactive.
Basically, I see it as a reactive card built for a proactive deck. I'll probably run it at the prerelease out of curiosity, but I doubt it'll have a huge impact.
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It's a form of ambush / removal in blue, which lacks removal (although we're getting an expensive and conditional tap-down enchantment. Which will be screwed by cards like crypsis.)
With the additional upsides of heroic and inspired, it will be playable in decks that desire such enablers. Weaker than tactics except for getting though the final damage. There are better options but it might make your deck if those options are not available. Obviously, there are christmas-land scenarios like having drum out and the inspired guy that makes bird tokens...
I think this card will be overrated, because when it works it does feel like "Blue Doom Blade" but that means ignoring all the times that it won't work. You need a specific game state for it to become removal, and even then you need your opponent to not have their own trick. They can still kill or bounce your target in which case it's an easy 2-for-1. Even with protection there's no guarantee your creature can kill theirs so sometimes it will just be a chump block spell.
I'm not a fan of cards like this because they're easily disrupted and while they have flexibility, most of those modes aren't really worth a card. I'd prefer a card where I know it's going to deliver value.
I think it's a 23rd card that you wouldn't mind cutting.
This is still Theros, though. Instant speed removal isn't exactly common. Bounce is more common, but if they could bounce your guy, then your trick probably didn't matter anyway. Cards like this and Retraction Helix definitely have a drawback in that they're vulnerable to getting 2-for-1'd by removal, but that doesn't mean that the set is suddenly flush with responses.
I dunno if Crypsis really has a place in average decks or not. It certainly wouldn't in a more removal-heavy set. But it definitely has a place in archetype decks like UW heroic or decks with a lot of Inspired.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
Looks pretty bad to me. More or less the same comments apply as I made about Necrobite. Combat tricks have to so more than just win a combat to be decent.
This has the upside over Necrobite that it's a little cheaper and a bit more surprising, but the downside is that if your creature is going to kill whatever it's fighting with then most of the time the opponent's creature wasn't all that big and therefore probably not worth killing.
The comparison with Savage Surge is pretty sad.
I expect this will see play, but only when you didn't draft the better Heroic enablers you actually wanted.
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edit: nvm I'm dumb it doesn't give you protection from damaging instants lol. although it does stop the fighting ones at common. probably the worst trick you'd run then.
I'm optimistic about this one. Flexibility alone means that I'd normally be happy to run at least one copy unless I had almost no heroic or inspired triggers, and the fact that it's more difficult to profitably play around and that it plays wells with with the Therosian all-in voltron strategy means that I'm likely going to be looking to take these between about 7th and 9th, and play most of the copies that I wheel.
I'd need some decent Heroic creatures to run this. Not even Inspired, really, because like bateluer said, it doesn't pump the creature, so it can only let you kill creatures you probably could've killed without it anyway... unless you've got some of the Green creatures that get more than one +1/+1 counter from their Heroic triggers. I'd run it in G/U Heroic mainly because on a Green Hero, it most often IS a Savage Surge.
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I have trouble evaluating this card. It seems like it could be good, ambushing an attacker and serving as a combat trick, but I'm always a little wary of tricks that don't boost stats. Though it is in a color that cares about heroic somewhat.
My guess is that it's a lower-end trick that usually won't make the maindeck, but I can't say I'm confident about that.
Thoughts?
It triggers Inspired and Heroic at instant speed.
You can win a trade on the attack and get free vigilance, and if they don't block you can then have the option to ambush the creature when he tries to race you.
You can push a creature through unblockable to finish the enemy.
You can counter Fall of the Hammer and Time to Feed with it, deterring attacks until the end of that turn.
It's a pretty difficult trick to play around for these reasons, making it a good trick.
In an aggressive U/W Heroic deck, it seems alright, but I don't see that deck wanting it more than something like Battlewise Valor that a more dramatic effect on the deck's ability to be proactive.
Basically, I see it as a reactive card built for a proactive deck. I'll probably run it at the prerelease out of curiosity, but I doubt it'll have a huge impact.
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With the additional upsides of heroic and inspired, it will be playable in decks that desire such enablers. Weaker than tactics except for getting though the final damage. There are better options but it might make your deck if those options are not available. Obviously, there are christmas-land scenarios like having drum out and the inspired guy that makes bird tokens...
I'm not a fan of cards like this because they're easily disrupted and while they have flexibility, most of those modes aren't really worth a card. I'd prefer a card where I know it's going to deliver value.
I think it's a 23rd card that you wouldn't mind cutting.
I dunno if Crypsis really has a place in average decks or not. It certainly wouldn't in a more removal-heavy set. But it definitely has a place in archetype decks like UW heroic or decks with a lot of Inspired.
This has the upside over Necrobite that it's a little cheaper and a bit more surprising, but the downside is that if your creature is going to kill whatever it's fighting with then most of the time the opponent's creature wasn't all that big and therefore probably not worth killing.
The comparison with Savage Surge is pretty sad.
I expect this will see play, but only when you didn't draft the better Heroic enablers you actually wanted.
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edit: nvm I'm dumb it doesn't give you protection from damaging instants lol. although it does stop the fighting ones at common. probably the worst trick you'd run then.