Somewhat in order of importance from best to least applicable, here are things Kor Skyfisher is good with. After the first five or six, it gets a bit muddled, but this is still meant to be comprehensive. If you think it's a useful reference, maybe push it to the first post.
But the most incredible thing about Skyfisher is that it's so easy to combine multiple in-game things it's good with, which is how it derives so much value. You have Snapcaster Mage, which is flash and an ETB effect. Or Grim Monolith, which is tapped and a multi-mana producer. Or any ETB creature and attacking. Or keeping a three-land hand and a landfall creature. These require essentially no work other than just playing the game.
*Not quite any, as I think karoos are a bit too much work to pair with Skyfisher.
And the fact that it's a 1-mana 2/3 flier any time you were going to miss your land drop that turn. Like, you can just pick-up and replay a land anytime you can't play a land for the turn.
Edit: And the pick up Ankh, make a land drop, replay Ankh is hilarious.
The idea isn't to drop a morpher and then bounce it while morphed, it's to drop it after unmorphing it and getting the opportunity to unmorph it back again.
And I'm totally in this guy's corner. I'm not making a power cube by any stretch of the imagination, but even with my limited power, I can see how this guy is as excellent early game as he is late. Can fit into Wx weenie aggro, or into W/U control with ETB creatures. All around solid guy.
It is a good card with many possible applications. But when you take a closer look at the list of interactions PyreDream posted you'll notice that most of them cost a lot of mana. That means they will not be relevant very often.
The best part about the card is the interaction with moxen, the next best is the interaction with missed land drops. After that there is a long list of situational and mana intensive interactions.
I think the card is quite a lot better in powered than in unpowered lists because the ceiling is a lot higher. I cut it in my unpowered Cube in order to add more humans.
I agree with requiring a morph trigger, but I'm going to have to disagree emphatically on the idea that most interactions require a lot of mana. It seems to me that the most common interactions require little or no mana, or they require a lot of mana paid in installments - I don't think it's a problem to wait a turn to recast your Parallax Wave, for example, which is more or less the worst case scenario I can think of for this argument. Do feel free to add other examples like that because I may be missing something
It seems to me that the most common interactions require little or no mana, or they require a lot of mana paid in installments - I don't think it's a problem to wait a turn to recast your Parallax Wave, for example, which is more or less the worst case scenario I can think of for this argument. Do feel free to add other examples like that because I may be missing something
The most common interactions are with lands, so I agree that they don't cost any mana. Unless you would miss a land drop they do cost a land drop though, which at the early stages of the game is a huge cost.
Whether or not it is a good play to return your Parallax Wave with Skyfisher and wait for a turn to recast it is situational. What is certain, though, is that you play a 2/3 flier at a point in the game where you already have a four mana enchantment in play. So Skyfisher has to provide some serious value in order to compete against Serra Avenger.
The plays that involve returning a permanent you spent mana on to get into play trade mana and therefore time for some future benefit. It is also hard to advance your board presence that way . That meas those plays can only be made profitably when you're not under too much pressure, which in turn depends on the Cube and the playgroup.
Again, I think Kor Skyfisher is a good card. There are good reasons to run it and good reasons to cut it. It is good to have a list of possible interactions with a card, but it is also important to keep in mind how often those interactions are even relevant.
And let us all not understate a 2/3 flyer for 2. Than is actually damn good. It blocks and attacks well early on. It is really one of my favorite creatures of all time.
Things Skyfisher is good with:
- any Moxen.
- any planeswalker.
- any permanent with an ETB ability.
-
any morphany morph with a trigger.- any tapped permanent. (Grim Monolith, attacking creatures)
- two or three-land hands.
- any permanent with charge counters. (Wickerbough Elder, Gemstone Mine)
- any creature with persist or undying.
- any creature with soulbond.
- any permanent with flash. (Dictate of Heliod, Boon Satyr)
- any landfall effect. (Steppe Lynx, Bloodghast, Courser of Kruphix).
- any friendly Aura. (Temporal Isolation, Rancor, Song of the Dryads)
- any unfriendly Aura.
- any permanent with fading or vanishing. (Blastoderm, Tangle Wire, Parallax Wave)
- any permanent or effect that wants cards in hand. (looters, Brainstorm, Vendilion Clique, Pack Rat)
- any permanent or spell that wants less permanents on the battlefield. (Land Tax, Armageddon, Wrath of God, Edge of Autumn)
- any multi-mana land or artifact*. (Sol Ring, Ancient Tomb, Tolarian Academy)
- any permanent with a symmetrical effect. (Eidolon of the Great Revel, Ankh of Mishra)
- any creature with haste or dash.
- any creature token generator. (Bitterblossom, Secure the Wastes)
- any permanent or spell that cares about how many spells you cast. (Shrine of Infinite Rage, prowess)
- any permanent with a leaves-play ability. (hi Reveillark!)
- any creature that dies at the end of the turn. (Hellspark Elemental)
But the most incredible thing about Skyfisher is that it's so easy to combine multiple in-game things it's good with, which is how it derives so much value. You have Snapcaster Mage, which is flash and an ETB effect. Or Grim Monolith, which is tapped and a multi-mana producer. Or any ETB creature and attacking. Or keeping a three-land hand and a landfall creature. These require essentially no work other than just playing the game.
*Not quite any, as I think karoos are a bit too much work to pair with Skyfisher.
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Edit: And the pick up Ankh, make a land drop, replay Ankh is hilarious.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
And I'm totally in this guy's corner. I'm not making a power cube by any stretch of the imagination, but even with my limited power, I can see how this guy is as excellent early game as he is late. Can fit into Wx weenie aggro, or into W/U control with ETB creatures. All around solid guy.
The best part about the card is the interaction with moxen, the next best is the interaction with missed land drops. After that there is a long list of situational and mana intensive interactions.
I think the card is quite a lot better in powered than in unpowered lists because the ceiling is a lot higher. I cut it in my unpowered Cube in order to add more humans.
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Whether or not it is a good play to return your Parallax Wave with Skyfisher and wait for a turn to recast it is situational. What is certain, though, is that you play a 2/3 flier at a point in the game where you already have a four mana enchantment in play. So Skyfisher has to provide some serious value in order to compete against Serra Avenger.
The plays that involve returning a permanent you spent mana on to get into play trade mana and therefore time for some future benefit. It is also hard to advance your board presence that way . That meas those plays can only be made profitably when you're not under too much pressure, which in turn depends on the Cube and the playgroup.
Again, I think Kor Skyfisher is a good card. There are good reasons to run it and good reasons to cut it. It is good to have a list of possible interactions with a card, but it is also important to keep in mind how often those interactions are even relevant.
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."