Armament of Nyx is clearly a solid limited filler card. I really like any card that has multiple uses. But I'm curious to see if I'm the only one that could see this having constructed potential. The ability to halt a non-enchantment fattie as utility is nice but a 3 mana aura that grants double strike? That's interesting enough to do some testing in my opinion.
Ethereal Armor is great since it's cheeper and it get's bigger and bigger on it's own. But without many Enchantments on the field, say after a board wipe or the like. Plain old Double Strike is much more preferable on a high power creature. Plus you can cast it on opponents cards so theirs more utility. So I wouldn't say it's strictly better.
I have an Azorius deck that abuses this with Ethereal Armor and Aqueous Form. I've found that cheap counterspells are absolutely vital to run this type of voltron deck, so I have 4 Dispel and 4 Swan Song to protect against almost all early removal spells (instant speed). The 1 CMC of those spells give me a major mana advantage (given opponents use 2 and 3 CMC spells for removal), and thus a time advantage. The idea of the deck is to spend mana as efficiently as possible. The golden standard for efficiency is Lightning Bolt, with a 3 damage to mana ratio (DtMR). Alternatively, you can express this as mana to get to 20 damage, a Lightning Bolt only deck needs to spend 7 mana to kill an opponent.
If I cast a one mana creature and deal one damage before removal, that creature has a DtMR of 1 or a 20 Mt20 ratio; it will an expenditure of 20 mana to kill the opponent if that is what I get by playing 1 drop creatures. This isn't feasible. Ideally, mana ramp follows a triangular pattern of 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21. This means that a 20 Mt20 ratio could kill on turn 6 following ideal conditions, but that requires 20 cards. Impossible. Now let's see another example.
I cast that same creature (which is an enchantment creature in this deck). I enchant them with Ethereal Armor, and swing for 3. Our DtMR goes up to 1.5, giving us a 13.3 Mt20 ratio. That means we feasibly could kill the opponent by doing that every 2 mana till turn 5 (7 repetitions). Unfortunately, that requires 14 non-land cards and we'd have just 7 by then. So that still is losing efficiency. Next scenario:
Turn one, creature. Turn 2, Ethereal Armor, Dispel removal. Turn 3, Ethereal Armor, Aqueous Form, Swan Song. On Turn 1, our DtMR is 0 and our Mt20 is infinite. On turn 2, we improve up 1 DtMR and 20 Mt20. On turn 3, we improve to 2 DtMR and 10 Mt20, spending 6 mana for 12 total damage. If we equip Armament of Nyx in Turn 4, our total damage will go to 12 + 22 with 9 mana spent, a 2.67 DtMR and 20 Mt20 ratio. This also is roughly feasible under ideal conditions, with 7 non-land cards. Now, without spending mana on counters or unblockability:
Turn one, creature. Turn 2, Ethereal Armor, Ethereal Armor (7 damage, 3 mana). Turn 3, Armament of Nyx (25 damage, 6 mana). 4.17 DtMR, 4.8 Mt20. And impressively, only needing 4 cards. In terms of cards, the average card contributed 5 damage a piece to killing the opponent, an even greater improvement over the Lightning Bolt standard. This is also much more efficient than the average aggro deck, which usually aims to run 2 power creatures or stronger and get at least one hit in per creature (2 DtMR, 10 Mt20). This allows the aggro deck to potentially win on turn 4, more reliably on turn 5.
So while Armament of Nyx is expensive, it still can improve efficiency. Combine that efficiency with efficient counters, and you have a deck that can win even with its eggs in one basket. Counters are better for this purpose than God's Willing or other creature protection because they are more versatile, protect auras as well as creatures, and can even protect a hand against Thoughtseize.
Armament of Nyx isn't better than Ethereal Armor, but any deck that runs one should run the other. They compliment each other. Double-strike loves large creatures, and Ethereal Armor loves double-strike and other enchantments. It is also important because of card efficiency; having two cards with roughly similar interactions makes it far more likely for good things to happen. Theoretically, four Ethereal Armors by turn 3 would be better than two and a Armament of Nyx, but the odds of drawing them in your first 10 cards is miserable.
Here's the deck list I've tried. My sideboard is based around trying to adjust to different types of removal. For example RGx monsters is running a lot of sorcery speed removal that necessitate a higher cost spell (though Abrupt Decay is a problem, few run it). Azorius control runs enchantment removal, burn runs low mana removal, etc. :
Boon Satyr, Eidolon of Countless Battles, Everflame Eidolon, Flitterstep Eidolon or Master of the Feast all come to mind as suitable targets for it's first ability.
So, Armament of Nyx. Limited Fodder or potential build around? Thoughts?
CUBE: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/73964;jsessionid=2DE1F5FF41A24820A137448A2FD5CF8F
I LIKE DRAGONS!
CUBE: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/73964;jsessionid=2DE1F5FF41A24820A137448A2FD5CF8F
I LIKE DRAGONS!
Also its an aura that can be fetched by Ajani, MOH.
If some kind of a constellation deck or enchantment creature deck comes out it might have a chance.
If I cast a one mana creature and deal one damage before removal, that creature has a DtMR of 1 or a 20 Mt20 ratio; it will an expenditure of 20 mana to kill the opponent if that is what I get by playing 1 drop creatures. This isn't feasible. Ideally, mana ramp follows a triangular pattern of 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21. This means that a 20 Mt20 ratio could kill on turn 6 following ideal conditions, but that requires 20 cards. Impossible. Now let's see another example.
I cast that same creature (which is an enchantment creature in this deck). I enchant them with Ethereal Armor, and swing for 3. Our DtMR goes up to 1.5, giving us a 13.3 Mt20 ratio. That means we feasibly could kill the opponent by doing that every 2 mana till turn 5 (7 repetitions). Unfortunately, that requires 14 non-land cards and we'd have just 7 by then. So that still is losing efficiency. Next scenario:
Turn one, creature. Turn 2, Ethereal Armor, Dispel removal. Turn 3, Ethereal Armor, Aqueous Form, Swan Song. On Turn 1, our DtMR is 0 and our Mt20 is infinite. On turn 2, we improve up 1 DtMR and 20 Mt20. On turn 3, we improve to 2 DtMR and 10 Mt20, spending 6 mana for 12 total damage. If we equip Armament of Nyx in Turn 4, our total damage will go to 12 + 22 with 9 mana spent, a 2.67 DtMR and 20 Mt20 ratio. This also is roughly feasible under ideal conditions, with 7 non-land cards. Now, without spending mana on counters or unblockability:
Turn one, creature. Turn 2, Ethereal Armor, Ethereal Armor (7 damage, 3 mana). Turn 3, Armament of Nyx (25 damage, 6 mana). 4.17 DtMR, 4.8 Mt20. And impressively, only needing 4 cards. In terms of cards, the average card contributed 5 damage a piece to killing the opponent, an even greater improvement over the Lightning Bolt standard. This is also much more efficient than the average aggro deck, which usually aims to run 2 power creatures or stronger and get at least one hit in per creature (2 DtMR, 10 Mt20). This allows the aggro deck to potentially win on turn 4, more reliably on turn 5.
So while Armament of Nyx is expensive, it still can improve efficiency. Combine that efficiency with efficient counters, and you have a deck that can win even with its eggs in one basket. Counters are better for this purpose than God's Willing or other creature protection because they are more versatile, protect auras as well as creatures, and can even protect a hand against Thoughtseize.
Armament of Nyx isn't better than Ethereal Armor, but any deck that runs one should run the other. They compliment each other. Double-strike loves large creatures, and Ethereal Armor loves double-strike and other enchantments. It is also important because of card efficiency; having two cards with roughly similar interactions makes it far more likely for good things to happen. Theoretically, four Ethereal Armors by turn 3 would be better than two and a Armament of Nyx, but the odds of drawing them in your first 10 cards is miserable.
Here's the deck list I've tried. My sideboard is based around trying to adjust to different types of removal. For example RGx monsters is running a lot of sorcery speed removal that necessitate a higher cost spell (though Abrupt Decay is a problem, few run it). Azorius control runs enchantment removal, burn runs low mana removal, etc. :
4 Hypnotic Siren
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Flitterstep Eidolon
2 Eidolon of Countless Battles
Spells
4 Dispel
4 Swan Song
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Aqueous Form
4 Armament of Nyx
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Mana Confluence
4 Islands
5 Plains
4 Syncopate
4 Annul
4 Negate
3 Gainsay