While writing the set review, I was thinking more about Bloodbriar as it is originally tough to evaluate what cards work with it, and noted Lunarch Mantle as one of the cards it could be potentially good with. At the time I didn't think much of it, but looking at it again, isn't this combo way too good at common? The mantle doesn't have any restriction on what permanents you can sac, so you play this on the Bloodbriar say turn 6, and just start tapping and saccing lands. This gives your guy +6/+6 and flying, and you're swinging in for 8 flying damage out of nowhere. While this doesn't singlehandedly win you the game, your opponent now needs to be afraid of this combo anytime they tap out and can't block it, as saccing all your lands doesn't matter if they're dead. Both cards are also at common and thus easy to obtain, and it seems like a huge mistake for development to actually leave this in the format. Am I overreacting, or is this way too good to put on 2 commons in a small set? I see this causing many games to boil down to whether or not they can remove your huge 8/8 flier, which does not seem like a healthy place to be.
It COULD be good and work, but it's kind of a janky combo that can be blown out really easily too. I mean, going all in with land sac and then having your opponent just murder it/bounce it/basically any removal that isn't burn is a serious downside.
What immediately came to my mind with this card is clues. I know clues are only in SOI, so this will be dependent on the 1 pack draft/2 sealed, but this seems good in the blue/green clues deck with cards like Ongoing Investigation. I mean, having each clue read "2: Sac clue, draw a card, put a +1/+1 counter on Bloodbriar" seems decent in the slower, more card advantage clue/delirium deck.
Sacrificing meaningful permanents is often a huge cost, so I would not consider this combo as too good for limited. Even sacrificing clues, which are now only generated by the cards in only 1 of 3 packs for a draft, is a huge cost as a clue (plus 2 mana) is a card.
If this combos with a token generator or with other cards which are good to sacrifice, then that is a very powerful combo. However, being an aura which does not protect itself, Lunarch Mantle is in itself a 2-for-1 waiting to happen so there is a big risk in even playing this card.
I think I'd basically use it as a pseudo Become Immense, If my opponent is tapped out and has no fliers than I'm fine saccing everything and just killing them out of nowhere.
Now is that a good enough reason to play Mantle which is usually terrible in my deck, I'm not sure.
I think it'll definitely finish some games, but I doubt it will be too good given that it is relatively easy to disrupt and not too fast (well it could be fast, but the faster you push it the higher the blowout potential).
So assuming you went extremely all in, you would be attacking with a 6/7 flier on turn 3, 7/8 on turn 4, and 8/9 on turn 5. Granted, you would only have 2 lands to work with for the rest of the game, but how many answers do each of the colors actually have for this line? Red and green both have nothing in the mainboard, white has Choking Restraints and Sigardian Priest at common, blue has Drag Under, and black doesn't have anything they can cast in time. I'm not saying this is the best plan, but the built in form of evasion makes it definitely powerful enough to be worth looking at. In particular, this seems like an auto win against RG, and a reasonable line if your hand is bad against the jund colors in general. There's also the safer option of just putting this on your 2 drop and slowly growing your bloodbriar as well, which seems way safer and about as powerful.
After hearing these responses I think I will temper my expectations more towards the "this isn't powerful enough to break the format, but is still strong enough that I will gladly include Lunarch Mantle in my GW deck with Bloodbriar. I expect the mantle to perform slightly above expectations and be more like a Pursuit of Flight and Spectral Flight as opposed to a Senseless Rage, and the combo of becoming a persistent Become Immense with flying will steal games out of nowhere.
Black has Murder. Plus, we still have a pack of SoI, so everything there is in play as well. Also, where are you getting 6/7 flier on turn 3? Not doubting it, just not sure where that's coming from, because it's not bloodbriar (since you're playing that on turn 3).
This seems like a harder to put together version of the great Heir of Falkenrath draws. Sure, you could to some absurd things if everything lined up right (attacking with a 8/7 flying first striker on turn 3), but it was really all in and didn't have a huge effect on the format. There at least you had Heir, which was still great even without nut draws. Here....I'm just not seeing the consistent payoff.
Black has Murder. Plus, we still have a pack of SoI, so everything there is in play as well. Also, where are you getting 6/7 flier on turn 3? Not doubting it, just not sure where that's coming from, because it's not bloodbriar.
This seems like a harder to put together version of the great Heir of Falkenrath draws. Sure, you could to some absurd things if everything lined up right (attacking with a 8/7 flying first striker on turn 3), but it was really all in and didn't have a huge effect on the format. There at least you had Heir, which was still great even without nut draws. Here....I'm just not seeing the consistent payoff.
Turn 4 6/7, my bad: 2/3 + 2/2 from the aura + 2/2 from saccing two of your lands/other permanents. Worth noting that the Heirs relied on two uncommons while this combo is on two small set commons. Lunarch Mantle seems like the cost here as there will probably be enough stuff for Bloodbriar to be a thing by itself.
Black has Murder. Plus, we still have a pack of SoI, so everything there is in play as well. Also, where are you getting 6/7 flier on turn 3? Not doubting it, just not sure where that's coming from, because it's not bloodbriar.
This seems like a harder to put together version of the great Heir of Falkenrath draws. Sure, you could to some absurd things if everything lined up right (attacking with a 8/7 flying first striker on turn 3), but it was really all in and didn't have a huge effect on the format. There at least you had Heir, which was still great even without nut draws. Here....I'm just not seeing the consistent payoff.
Turn 4 6/7, my bad: 2/3 + 2/2 from the aura + 2/2 from saccing two of your lands/other permanents. Worth noting that the Heirs relied on two uncommons while this combo is on two small set commons. Lunarch Mantle seems like the cost here as there will probably be enough stuff for Bloodbriar to be a thing by itself.
Would be hilarious if your RG opponent ends up casting Clip Wings on you.
I'm generally pretty happy if my opponent is going all in on an aura on turn 4. That's no shortage of answers for this, and I think this is closer to "bad play that you'll occasionally lose to" than "format-defining combo". I agree the Bloodbriar stands on it's own, but only in the right deck. I don't think it's a card you should just be jamming in every green deck.
Sounds like a bad thing to just play and sac all your lands to unless you're killing them that turn. But G/W is aggressive enough that the combination offers good reach. I'm playing Bloodbriar anyway in limited, so if I have a couple of them, I'd definitely ad a mantle or two.
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Trolljutai, YOLOghan, Swagumgar, Bromoka, and Derptarka, the Elder Dragons.
I wouldn't go all in unless I didn't expect my opponent to have an answer but I did kill someone from 12 with this combo in Sealed. It's not something I would go all in on early in the game but it can certainly steal games.
Bloodbriar just has great potential by itself. I had great success with three of them in a G/B delirium deck I drafted last Friday. Delirium already wants to play cards that self-sacrifice like Terrarion and Vessel of Nascency, and you really only need 1 sacrifice to make Bloodbriar above average (and in the case of those two cards, the playing and sacrificing them is something you want to be doing anyway unlike Lunarch Mantle).
It certainly seems like a very strong combo, but without the bloodbiar Lunarch Mantle seems really bad, that might even increase your chances of drafting it late.
I'm not convinced. Last FNM I drafted a mono-white aggro deck with the sole purpose of pantsing any 2 drop and trying to win. I ended up with 3 Lunarch Mantles and 2 Faith Unbrokens and a single Lone Rider. I 3-0'd fairly easily despite having, what I thought, was a fairly mediocre deck.
I think Mantle might be the real deal, even without Bloodbriar.
Seems to me you can think of it like Splinter Twin, limited-style. You play it when your opponent isn't prepared to answer it, and just win out of nowhere, or else you play the pieces and force your opponent to overreact to them.
I'd definitely try it. It all depends on how easy it is to get punished for it (and therefore how hard you have to work to avoid those situations).
Problem is you need an answer-heavy deck to keep your opponent committing to the board, and GW isn't really the color pair for that.
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What immediately came to my mind with this card is clues. I know clues are only in SOI, so this will be dependent on the 1 pack draft/2 sealed, but this seems good in the blue/green clues deck with cards like Ongoing Investigation. I mean, having each clue read "2: Sac clue, draw a card, put a +1/+1 counter on Bloodbriar" seems decent in the slower, more card advantage clue/delirium deck.
If this combos with a token generator or with other cards which are good to sacrifice, then that is a very powerful combo. However, being an aura which does not protect itself, Lunarch Mantle is in itself a 2-for-1 waiting to happen so there is a big risk in even playing this card.
Now is that a good enough reason to play Mantle which is usually terrible in my deck, I'm not sure.
After hearing these responses I think I will temper my expectations more towards the "this isn't powerful enough to break the format, but is still strong enough that I will gladly include Lunarch Mantle in my GW deck with Bloodbriar. I expect the mantle to perform slightly above expectations and be more like a Pursuit of Flight and Spectral Flight as opposed to a Senseless Rage, and the combo of becoming a persistent Become Immense with flying will steal games out of nowhere.
This seems like a harder to put together version of the great Heir of Falkenrath draws. Sure, you could to some absurd things if everything lined up right (attacking with a 8/7 flying first striker on turn 3), but it was really all in and didn't have a huge effect on the format. There at least you had Heir, which was still great even without nut draws. Here....I'm just not seeing the consistent payoff.
Turn 4 6/7, my bad: 2/3 + 2/2 from the aura + 2/2 from saccing two of your lands/other permanents. Worth noting that the Heirs relied on two uncommons while this combo is on two small set commons. Lunarch Mantle seems like the cost here as there will probably be enough stuff for Bloodbriar to be a thing by itself.
Would be hilarious if your RG opponent ends up casting Clip Wings on you.
I think Mantle might be the real deal, even without Bloodbriar.
I'd definitely try it. It all depends on how easy it is to get punished for it (and therefore how hard you have to work to avoid those situations).
Problem is you need an answer-heavy deck to keep your opponent committing to the board, and GW isn't really the color pair for that.