I strongly dislike creatures with Oblivion Ring-like effects. They die to random stuff without having a lasting impact in addition to crippling themselves by discouraging the player to engage combat with them. Nothing for me.
I'm not on same mind set. Mesmeric Fiend and Brain Maggot, while not being the most versatile black 2-drop of all, can be useful in a lot of situation. Let's elaborate on that.
1) Best case scenario is when you're playing them against combo cause they are not focusing on removing stuff from battlefield. In fact, cutting a card without any restriction could break or slow down many of those strategies.
2) Could also eat a removal against board reacting decks, making your opponent not able to deal with it until he draws another one.
3) While not being the best aggro card, it can eat sweepers or some huge blockers until opponenent find a answer for it, making the boardstate easier for your other creatures.
4) Versus aggro, in a midrange shell, it can also eat hasty finisher like Hellride, Hero of Oxid Ridge or Thundermaw Hellkite until they waste a burn on it. This makes you save some time and life, things that are both needed to stabilize versus aggressive deck.
Certainly forgetting some nice way to use it as well.
I can understand why some players are so low on it, but those kind of cards are still good and worthly in 540 and plus cube that push for combo. Will be a removal eater at worst and a nightmare for combo at best. Power varies depending on cube's list.
The Legacy Cube ran both Mesmeric Fiend and Brain Maggot. While 2 felt excessive, having one available seemed fine as it was a decent SB option and fine to MD as a 23rd card. Mesmeric Fiend definitely felt underpowered and I would never run it, but it wasn't completely useless and did have some OK moments. Brain Maggot is so much worse though, as the effect isn't good enough for multiples of the card, nevertheless a copy that has no true additional bonus and gets killed by so much more. Largely unimpressive, but one mesmeric fiend is OK if you have a large budget cube.
But yeah, I trully understand why people dislike those cards, but for myself, I feel like they can help defend yourself against some strategies that are tough to face, like Storm, Natural Order or Kiki-Jiki/Twin Combo.
I run both for a while now and I'm pretty happy with them. Maybe Brain Maggot could find himself replace sooner than later but there's no black 2cc creatures at the moment that are really make me feel like it is possible right now. Unfortunately, Pain Seer fails the test and even the retest for us. Same for Nezumi Shortfang. Both are too damn slow. I would like to see more card like Pack Rat and Oona's Prowler get print in a near future, so we could help at the same aggro and reanimator gameplan.
When they print a Brain Maggot with 2-power (that's not gold) ...then we'll talk. But a 1/1 creature was just so underwhelming, that the disruption simply didn't put my opponent under the same kind of pressure they would've been if the creature was scarier. Plus, it's a temporary setback for them. The body dies too easily (or never winds up doing anything at all) so it winds up being a temporary Coercion effect. Which never felt worth a 2-mana investment.
TL;DR: Needs to be a 2/1.
But I agree that more Pack Rats and Oona's Prowlers are most welcome.
I don't currently run Mesmeric Fiend in my powered 540, don't foresee myself playing this easier to kill, less tricky version...maybe in 720 though?
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Now that would be a Brain Maggot worth cubing.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
1) Best case scenario is when you're playing them against combo cause they are not focusing on removing stuff from battlefield. In fact, cutting a card without any restriction could break or slow down many of those strategies.
2) Could also eat a removal against board reacting decks, making your opponent not able to deal with it until he draws another one.
3) While not being the best aggro card, it can eat sweepers or some huge blockers until opponenent find a answer for it, making the boardstate easier for your other creatures.
4) Versus aggro, in a midrange shell, it can also eat hasty finisher like Hellride, Hero of Oxid Ridge or Thundermaw Hellkite until they waste a burn on it. This makes you save some time and life, things that are both needed to stabilize versus aggressive deck.
Certainly forgetting some nice way to use it as well.
I can understand why some players are so low on it, but those kind of cards are still good and worthly in 540 and plus cube that push for combo. Will be a removal eater at worst and a nightmare for combo at best. Power varies depending on cube's list.
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But yeah, I trully understand why people dislike those cards, but for myself, I feel like they can help defend yourself against some strategies that are tough to face, like Storm, Natural Order or Kiki-Jiki/Twin Combo.
I run both for a while now and I'm pretty happy with them. Maybe Brain Maggot could find himself replace sooner than later but there's no black 2cc creatures at the moment that are really make me feel like it is possible right now. Unfortunately, Pain Seer fails the test and even the retest for us. Same for Nezumi Shortfang. Both are too damn slow. I would like to see more card like Pack Rat and Oona's Prowler get print in a near future, so we could help at the same aggro and reanimator gameplan.
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TL;DR: Needs to be a 2/1.
But I agree that more Pack Rats and Oona's Prowlers are most welcome.
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