MTG Salvation

Inferno Titan too slow but Grapeshot gets included?

Quote from TheKorko »

Inferno Titan too slow but Grapeshot gets included?

Grapeshot has been pretty good for us. We've been having success with it not as a full 20 storm kill condition (or 6-7 storm + Yawgmoth's Will into recasting it), but a combination defensive measure and additional help to kill with Tendrils, Empty, or Hunting Pack. It's gotten there a few times by itself but usually it's just help in one form or another.

Keep in mind we support storm pretty heavily and Grapeshot isn't in the cube to help red aggro.

Guys, Colby runs a purely Storm focused cube. Every part of his cube is warped to maximize the power of Storm in every color. His evaluation of cards will obviously be quite different than the median user of this forum.

I knew he supported Storm, but I didn't know that his playgroup also ignored every red midrange and control deck until he explicitly said so in this thread. Supporting Storm or not should have no impact on the quality of Inferno Titan on the rest of the cube list.

We're happy with providing little incentive to go red control or blue aggro. We like the colors to do what they do best.

I don't think I ever said Inferno Titan was bad or that it's not an awesome card if you support those strategies (which most people do). It's not like storm is pushing out all of our cards that we really want to be in, we just currently prefer to not have blue aggro or red control decks.

I may be doing some more changes soon where we add in a red mid-range and control package along with Wildfire. Our cube changes a lot from month to month.

Colby, I'm not judging you or saying that you are wrong in any way. I'm just trying to provide context.

This card is strong and cube power level imo, The game should end in ~1-2 turns after you cast him.

The value he provides in the graveyard is nothing to scoff at either. Probably the best of the souls spoiled so far in that respect, but Red really doesn't need another fatty.

Inferno titan is clearly stronger and that + decent 5 drops are all red really needs in my eyes at its top end, given what red primarily does in cube.

Semi-weak to chump blockers.
In a war of huge battlefield + big creatures, if you can somehow get to 10 mana, he can be a mega trump. Which is not COMPLETELY irrelevant in cube.

NP Asenion, I was responding to Wtwlf123.

I didn't take offense to his comment either, for the record.

And it wasn't intended to give any. I was simply pointing out that supporting Storm doesn't prohibit a group from supporting midrange or control strategies. I wasn't aware until this thread that you were aggro/combo only in red. All's well, we can move on.

I like this card better than the other entries in the Soul cycle, as the first strike is very relevant (titan killer!), red has increasingly more ways to get value from stuff dumped directly into the graveyard, and his activated ability is just one of the better ones as well. I mean, just looting this early game and getting some nice card advantage later out of it is nice. But... I actually don't think I'll have room for another six mana option after adding Wildfire and BoX, which I completely forgot I'd planned to add. This card also doesn't play amazingly with those as you may be short of mana for his ability after dropping one. Would still get the job done, but something to think about.

I agree. I think it's the best soul (by a small margin).
The more I think about this card the more I like it.

I'd rank it 3rd place in fatty Red finishers.

Inferno #1, Thundermaw #2, Soul #3.
Not cubing it tho, as Im not in the market for another big red finsher at 450.

Fwiw , he seems phenomanal in the wildfire.dec. Those decks tend to be able to generate a ton of mana. So when you don't draw wildfire, I can see going off with him if you untap.
Then, a 6/6 first strike seems well suited without 1/1's there to slow him down (post wildfire)

I like zealous conscripts better then soul of shandalaar.

All of these Soul guys are traps for Cube. I don't see any of them being good enough, but we'll see.