Demonlord beezy:
While he is very powerful, blacks top 6 drops (grave titan, massacre wurm/nox hulk) are really good at helping you come from behind, which ive found to be key in strategies where they aren't hitting the board fairly. I think DBs biggest strike against him isn't necessarily that there are better 6 drops, its simply that he doesn't impact the board enough (which is crazy to say)
Lyra:
While i agree that her ability is arguably easier to use than baneslayers, she falls in the cliche "dies to removal" bin. In fact, baneslayer angel has experienced less cube play over the past fee years with the printing of 5 drops with immediate board impact like angel of invention. Also, not a lot of angels get played in cube and the ones that do are 4+ cmc, which isnt where you want your curve to be. As a stat monster, she will win games if unanswered, but cubes have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to that these days.
Cast down:
Im not a big fan of the card. As more pushed legendaries are finding their way into cubes, the list of good targets for this piece of removal drops. I mean, sure you can kill nox hulk and baneslayer for 2 mana, but if the opponent has a powerful legendary creature (in cube, there are many powerful legendary creatures), cast down will behave like an edict. I would have to do some data mining to link not just number of potential targets, But quality as well
Divest: i agree with your analysis and i'd rank it 4th best t1 discard, with the top being TS, IOK and duress.
Im usually not thrilled for discard that nabs creatures, since black should be able to deal with them, and still come out on top in terms of mana efficiency. Hitting artifacts however is very important since thats one of the card types black usually cannot deal with.
Smashing good article. It makes me like the set more. I'm going to bring your top two cards into my list. Usually it's one or zero per set. Not bad. Thanks for the help.
@Zolthux: Demonlord is good in spots where the other options would be underwhelming. New Baneslayer is just that. We know what BSAs strengths and weaknesses are, so this write-up was focussed on the difference between the two. I won't run either card, but if I was going to run one, I'd run this new one first. And yes, Cast Down will compete differently for different cube managers. It'll be list-dependent as to which ones will be better than the others.
Great review like usual. Now that we have had time to playtest I feel like Teferi is better than Venser and Narset. Has your evaluation changed at all of Teferi?
Great review like usual. Now that we have had time to playtest I feel like Teferi is better than Venser and Narset. Has your evaluation changed at all of Teferi?
Yes. I always though he was better than Teferi and Narset, but I was still too low on him initially. He's a really good planeswalker, and competes with the upper tier of cards pretty well.
For me personally, Bodyguard>Divest>Karn. The only guarantee 360 material is the bodyguard. I really want the other 2 to make it, but it remains to be seen.
Cubing time has been very limited lately but the article was an enjoyable read as always. Karn and Bodyguard were the only easy includes in my 400, but The Antiquities War is in for a trial too. Teferi may be one to pick up in the future too. Cheers for the write-up!
I am currently cubing with Teferi. It missed the cut initially, but I re-tested it after his constructed dominance, and decided to award him a permanent slot. He's quite good.
Yesh ive thought about adding him. My current 3 UW cards are sphinxs rev, reflector mage, and Geist of St Traft
I feel like the cards pull toward two different game plans (rev toward control, GoST toward tempo, and mage to both), so id be interested in replacing mage with teferi to help the UW control strategy
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I could see cutting any of those three for it. Personally I rank those 3 Geist > Mage > Rev, so Rev would be my cut of those three cards, but you know what your playgroup wants/needs more than I do.
For me personally, Bodyguard>Divest>Karn. The only guarantee 360 material is the bodyguard. I really want the other 2 to make it, but it remains to be seen.
There's definitely something in your colorless section you could remove for Karn, he's really really really good and is absolutely 360 material.
Just getting around to reading this, great article as awkward. Thanks for putting in the work wtwlf, your (p)reviews are always a highlight of spoiler season for me and generate a lot of good discussion.
It's not that; I can find 20-ish cards worth discussing. I just happen to be in the middle of Final Fantasy VI again, and don't find myself wanting to spend free time doing anything else, lol.
It's not that; I can find 20-ish cards worth discussing. I just happen to be in the middle of Final Fantasy VI again, and don't find myself wanting to spend free time doing anything else, lol.
It's not that; I can find 20-ish cards worth discussing. I just happen to be in the middle of Final Fantasy VI again, and don't find myself wanting to spend free time doing anything else, lol.
The struggle, it's real.
It is, lol. Haven't played VI since I was a kid; super into this play-through.
Some comments
Demonlord beezy:
While he is very powerful, blacks top 6 drops (grave titan, massacre wurm/nox hulk) are really good at helping you come from behind, which ive found to be key in strategies where they aren't hitting the board fairly. I think DBs biggest strike against him isn't necessarily that there are better 6 drops, its simply that he doesn't impact the board enough (which is crazy to say)
Lyra:
While i agree that her ability is arguably easier to use than baneslayers, she falls in the cliche "dies to removal" bin. In fact, baneslayer angel has experienced less cube play over the past fee years with the printing of 5 drops with immediate board impact like angel of invention. Also, not a lot of angels get played in cube and the ones that do are 4+ cmc, which isnt where you want your curve to be. As a stat monster, she will win games if unanswered, but cubes have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to that these days.
Cast down:
Im not a big fan of the card. As more pushed legendaries are finding their way into cubes, the list of good targets for this piece of removal drops. I mean, sure you can kill nox hulk and baneslayer for 2 mana, but if the opponent has a powerful legendary creature (in cube, there are many powerful legendary creatures), cast down will behave like an edict. I would have to do some data mining to link not just number of potential targets, But quality as well
Divest: i agree with your analysis and i'd rank it 4th best t1 discard, with the top being TS, IOK and duress.
Im usually not thrilled for discard that nabs creatures, since black should be able to deal with them, and still come out on top in terms of mana efficiency. Hitting artifacts however is very important since thats one of the card types black usually cannot deal with.
@Zolthux: Demonlord is good in spots where the other options would be underwhelming. New Baneslayer is just that. We know what BSAs strengths and weaknesses are, so this write-up was focussed on the difference between the two. I won't run either card, but if I was going to run one, I'd run this new one first. And yes, Cast Down will compete differently for different cube managers. It'll be list-dependent as to which ones will be better than the others.
@Hal: Glad you liked the article!
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Yes. I always though he was better than Teferi and Narset, but I was still too low on him initially. He's a really good planeswalker, and competes with the upper tier of cards pretty well.
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It could realistically be Karn > Bodyguard > Teferi, actually. But I wanted to keep the ranking order safe, and I dramatically undervalued Teferi.
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On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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I feel like the cards pull toward two different game plans (rev toward control, GoST toward tempo, and mage to both), so id be interested in replacing mage with teferi to help the UW control strategy
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There's definitely something in your colorless section you could remove for Karn, he's really really really good and is absolutely 360 material.
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Given core sets are generally pretty reprint-heavy, maybe you should just do a top 10 for them?
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It is, lol. Haven't played VI since I was a kid; super into this play-through.
Nope, just for the 4 major sets each year.
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