This card is obviously not a staple by any means, and Red 4-drops are really tight. But since it's spoiler season and there's a thread for every remotely interesting card, let's create one for him as well.
A big number of Cube-able artifacts are mana rocks or equipment, both of which do not combo with Kurkesh. But he still may have some interesting applications.
Going of my own list:
Vedalken Shackles now steals two creatures simultaneously (for 2R). Birthing Pod lets you search for two creatures while only sacrificing one. Cursed Scroll (with a one-card hand) becomes "3R, TAP: double Shock" Sensei's Divining Top essentially becomes "1R: Draw a card" (Disclaimer: I *think* that's how it works - the copied ability should go on the stack on top of the original one and send the actual Top to the top of your deck before the original ability resolves, drawing you the Top.) Grim Monolith becomes "R: Add 2 to your mana pool" Isochron Scepter gives you two copies of the imprinted spell per turn. Mind Stone: Cash it in for two cards instead of one. Time Vault becomes "Your opponent gets an extra turn. You take all the turns after that." (Disclaimer: I *think* that's how it works - once you untap the Vault for the first time, you can activate its ability, pay R to copy it, get two extra turns and skip the first of those to untap the Vault again) Umezawa's Jitte: As if that needed to be any better. Coalition Relic is interesting in that you can put two counters on it for R, then next turn activate the 2nd ability again in response to the triggered ability, pay R again and get four mana of any color back. Mimic Vat is similar to Isochron Scepter, i.e. get two temporary creatures for 3R. Molten-Tail Masticore gives you 8 damage for 5 mana and only one exiled creature card. Mishra's Factory now blocks as a 4/4.
Cards not currently in my list that also play nicely with Kurkesh:
You also get a 4/3 body for 4 mana, which is not horrible.
If somebody wanted extra support for the artifact deck in a color that already has some useful tools for that, this could be an interesting card to look at.
EDIT:
I remembered Rings of Brighthearth's existence and its total absence from Cube lists everywhere. And that can copy activated abilities from creatures and, crucially, planeswalkers. That doesn't bode well for this card. Still, Rings' effect is more expensive and it also doesn't attack for 4, so maybe all hope's not lost.
Yes, seems like a narrow card like you say. But if someone runs the Time Vault combo anyways, maybe this card is worth testing. Although i suspect that it isn't good enough there either. The number of cards that interact in a very favorable way with it is too low even for smaller cubes.
I think if you run the time vault combo it might be worth it to have redundancies for voltaic key, but if all you want is redundancy for that specific combo there are many better ways to untap permanents at 4 or less mana (ral, koira's follower, aphetto alchemist, galvanic key, etc) so I think this guy has to rise and fall on his other interactions.
It's nice that his body is OK for the cost, although if he could have been a 4/4 and dodged a lot more removal it obviously would have been better. He does go infinite with grim monolith and basalt monolith if you have any way to turn colorless mana into red mana, but I imagine most cubes don't. However, he still lets you trade every R for 3 or 2 colorless mana, which should let you power out some fatties. Additionally, in our cube, he makes the following artifacts better in a meaningful way - erratic portal, icy manipulator, mimic vat, coalition relic (letting you spend R to bank an extra charge counter), ratchet bomb (you can ramp up counters faster), jitte, moletn-tail, and cursed scroll. That's actually a fair number of targets, and we don't even have an artifacts matter subtheme. I think he's not good enough for our cube, but in bigger cubes or cubes with more artifacts, I think he's testable. One mana to copy an effect is a very low cost. Would be amazing if you ran mindslaver lol.
I don't think it works with Mindslaver, actually, which is why I left that of my list.
See here for the Rings of Brighthearth interaction, which is equivalent.
Ah, yup, you just double-control the next turn, which is meaningless. For some reason I assumed it was worded like, and would work like, "take an extra turn" effects. Although it would let you control 2 players' turns in a multiplayer game.
This guy is an infinite combo with Time Vault. That is his best interaction.
I may test him because of that, but I don't think I have much of anything else in my cube that he'd like to take advantage of. We already run Ral Zarek, Voltaic Key, and Tezzeret the Seeker to untap Time Vault, I'm not sure I want more ways to make the card better, especially as he is underwhelming outside of that interaction.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
I am not sure, but I think Rings of Brighthearth is better because it's not a creature (generally harder to remove) and because it can copy your activated abilities from any source.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
A big number of Cube-able artifacts are mana rocks or equipment, both of which do not combo with Kurkesh. But he still may have some interesting applications.
Going of my own list:
Vedalken Shackles now steals two creatures simultaneously (for 2R).
Birthing Pod lets you search for two creatures while only sacrificing one.
Cursed Scroll (with a one-card hand) becomes "3R, TAP: double Shock"
Sensei's Divining Top essentially becomes "1R: Draw a card" (Disclaimer: I *think* that's how it works - the copied ability should go on the stack on top of the original one and send the actual Top to the top of your deck before the original ability resolves, drawing you the Top.)
Grim Monolith becomes "R: Add 2 to your mana pool"
Isochron Scepter gives you two copies of the imprinted spell per turn.
Mind Stone: Cash it in for two cards instead of one.
Time Vault becomes "Your opponent gets an extra turn. You take all the turns after that." (Disclaimer: I *think* that's how it works - once you untap the Vault for the first time, you can activate its ability, pay R to copy it, get two extra turns and skip the first of those to untap the Vault again)
Umezawa's Jitte: As if that needed to be any better.
Coalition Relic is interesting in that you can put two counters on it for R, then next turn activate the 2nd ability again in response to the triggered ability, pay R again and get four mana of any color back.
Mimic Vat is similar to Isochron Scepter, i.e. get two temporary creatures for 3R.
Molten-Tail Masticore gives you 8 damage for 5 mana and only one exiled creature card.
Mishra's Factory now blocks as a 4/4.
Cards not currently in my list that also play nicely with Kurkesh:
Shrine of Burning Rage suddenly deals damage equal to TWICE the number of counters.
Hammer of Purphoros lets you trade a land and some mana for two haste-y 3/3
Whip of Erebos lets you return two creatures for 2BBR.
Memory Jar lets you look at a TON of cards, with the caveat that from the first new hand of seven, you can only play instants.
Oblivion Stone becomes one-sided a bit faster.
Ring of Gix/Icy Manipulator/Staff of Domination: Fairly obvious.
Bonus interaction: if your Phyrexian Metamorph copies a creature (maybe a Siege-Gang Commander or a Wickerbough Elder?), you get to copy any activated abilities as well.
You also get a 4/3 body for 4 mana, which is not horrible.
If somebody wanted extra support for the artifact deck in a color that already has some useful tools for that, this could be an interesting card to look at.
EDIT:
I remembered Rings of Brighthearth's existence and its total absence from Cube lists everywhere. And that can copy activated abilities from creatures and, crucially, planeswalkers. That doesn't bode well for this card. Still, Rings' effect is more expensive and it also doesn't attack for 4, so maybe all hope's not lost.
A Comprehensive list of Cube Archetypes
I think if you run the time vault combo it might be worth it to have redundancies for voltaic key, but if all you want is redundancy for that specific combo there are many better ways to untap permanents at 4 or less mana (ral, koira's follower, aphetto alchemist, galvanic key, etc) so I think this guy has to rise and fall on his other interactions.
It's nice that his body is OK for the cost, although if he could have been a 4/4 and dodged a lot more removal it obviously would have been better. He does go infinite with grim monolith and basalt monolith if you have any way to turn colorless mana into red mana, but I imagine most cubes don't. However, he still lets you trade every R for 3 or 2 colorless mana, which should let you power out some fatties. Additionally, in our cube, he makes the following artifacts better in a meaningful way - erratic portal, icy manipulator, mimic vat, coalition relic (letting you spend R to bank an extra charge counter), ratchet bomb (you can ramp up counters faster), jitte, moletn-tail, and cursed scroll. That's actually a fair number of targets, and we don't even have an artifacts matter subtheme. I think he's not good enough for our cube, but in bigger cubes or cubes with more artifacts, I think he's testable. One mana to copy an effect is a very low cost. Would be amazing if you ran mindslaver lol.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
See here for the Rings of Brighthearth interaction, which is equivalent.
A Comprehensive list of Cube Archetypes
Ah, yup, you just double-control the next turn, which is meaningless. For some reason I assumed it was worded like, and would work like, "take an extra turn" effects. Although it would let you control 2 players' turns in a multiplayer game.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I may test him because of that, but I don't think I have much of anything else in my cube that he'd like to take advantage of. We already run Ral Zarek, Voltaic Key, and Tezzeret the Seeker to untap Time Vault, I'm not sure I want more ways to make the card better, especially as he is underwhelming outside of that interaction.
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
My 380 Beginners’ Cube on Cube Tutor
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass