Rix Maadi Guildmage
This card really went under the radar when RTR came out due to obvious frontrunner Rakdos Cackler and dreadbore but i feel it is a really strong aggro card with strong control elements as well. It provides extra reach in latish game, and can essentially read {all your creatures are unblockable} at a lot of points in the game. This all being strapped to a grizzly bear solidifies the package. a 2/2 that can trade with 3/3 the turn after it comes out. or 4/4's in 2 turns is really strong. After trying it in draft and standard i am going to find a spot for it in my cube.
B/R clearly got the most help in the this set and people instantly grabbed the cackler and shread freak.
Dreadbore got plenty of discussion and included by a few people but the Guildmage and Flailer were kind of ignored.
I have soured on the shread freak but I think the guildmage is not strong enough for cube. He does mess with blocking math but board stalls are much less likely in cube than in draft or standard.
Th real question is he better than other things in the Guild.
Red-Cap? No
Cackler? No
Dreadbore? No
Olivia? No
Aristocrat? No
I might play him over blightning or rakdos return but those arn't in my top as it is.
Rix Maadi Guildmage never hit my radar, true, but let me share my reasons. I feel the card is designed for beatdown, but the mana cost is very prohibitive for an aggro deck 2 drop. The mana costs for the activations also make it very hard to activate multiple times in a turn. Even if you could, the tempo loss is potentially devastating.
I don't understand when you say it is a control-ish card as well; it won't kill anything unless your opponent allows it, and your creatures are still blocked at that point.
its a great 2 drop turn 10, which not many two drops can say, and you can force opponents to make poor decisions with the guildmage, which gives it controllish elements. its better then shredfreak in aggro, which some people run, and i would say it is a better card than olivia voldaren.
It's a really cool card and I really wanted to include it in my 435 Peasant Cube after beasting with it in RTR Sealed. What's the problem with it, then? Rakdos is filled with a ton of goodies already. It wrecks your ability to curve onto the board, there's fewer creature stalls in Cube, and it's just so color intensive. I like how it works like a Rootwalla Effect* on any of your attackers, but the combination of factors might just be too much for it. I might toss it in to try it for a bit and see if I change my mind about it.
*The important part is having the open mana and just forcing them to not block due to the threat of activation. There's more times in a Peasant cube where the creature your opponent drops down to face you can't block profitably at all if you can shrink it by even -1/-1. With a large percentage of creatures in the cube having only 2 power, dropping them down by 1 power is enough to let most of your creatures destroy theirs without trading.
Rix Maadi Guildmage gives more late game presence than many 2 drops but has a restrictive mana cost and restrictive ability costs. cc' activated abilities are harder to stack than they may seem at first and the ability to use them twice in the same turn often comes very late (in aggro's game-plan at least.) While I like the idea of giving up some direct power for flexibility in role I don't like the idea of giving up consistency for potential flexibility when it means the card may not be able to fill the role you want it to in a specific game.
At times I'm baffled by this sub-forum... In a regular RtR draft I can generally activate this card twice in any give turn with 4-5 lands in play if I'm running a Rakdos deck. How is it that in a cube where you have Fetches, Duals, Shocks, and more you can't happen to activate this card twice or more in a given turn if you go R/B anything?
I don't know, this card is a first pick in RtR so I'd say test it at the very least, and I'd say it's better than Shred Freak by a decent amount. I can't say it will be great in cube, simply because cards are better and just like the GW Guildmage it might just not do enough, but it's certainly more flexible than the Vitu Ghazi Mage.
Also, be mindful that the life loss ability does trigger off of any damage so their Fetches can trigger her second ability if you decide not to cast a burn spell that turn, plus if you have something like Fireslinger you can all of a sudden do more than one a turn with him and her.
It's better than Elder as it's bigger and does more thing. In short, the Elder can help you trade with a creature, whereas this can simply make you kill a creature. It also costs less to deal that one damage if you're fixing is good and you don't happen to have equipment out. It also just has a bigger initial body than the Elder.
At times I'm baffled by this sub-forum... In a regular RtR draft I can generally activate this card twice in any give turn with 4-5 lands in play if I'm running a Rakdos deck. How is it that in a cube where you have Fetches, Duals, Shocks, and more you can't happen to activate this card twice or more in a given turn if you go R/B anything?
I don't want to be able to "happen" to cast or activate my cards, I want to be able to do so reliably.
While cube may have better fixing there isn't exactly a dearth of it in RtR and cube has powerful colorless lands and off-color moxen competing for slots with your off-color lands. It is also generally faster which favors cards with more immediate impact than the slow, grindy cards that always end up being first picks in set drafts. Of course, all of this depends on the specific cube so it isn't like I'm saying the guildmage is worthless, just saying why I don't want to run it.
At times I'm baffled by this sub-forum... In a regular RtR draft I can generally activate this card twice in any give turn with 4-5 lands in play if I'm running a Rakdos deck. How is it that in a cube where you have Fetches, Duals, Shocks, and more you can't happen to activate this card twice or more in a given turn if you go R/B anything?
I don't know, this card is a first pick in RtR so I'd say test it at the very least, and I'd say it's better than Shred Freak by a decent amount. I can't say it will be great in cube, simply because cards are better and just like the GW Guildmage it might just not do enough, but it's certainly more flexible than the Vitu Ghazi Mage.
Also, be mindful that the life loss ability does trigger off of any damage so their Fetches can trigger her second ability if you decide not to cast a burn spell that turn, plus if you have something like Fireslinger you can all of a sudden do more than one a turn with him and her.
1) Aggro decks need to prioritize other picks before fixing: Premium removal, equipment, efficient creatures. Many of the best 2 drop aggressive creatures cost CC. Because you can't prioritize fixing, it's easiest to stay mono-color, perhaps a small splash to fill a gap. So an aggro creature that has two colors in it's cost better be a huge bomb. This guildmage isn't.
2) RTR limited is not the same as cubing. In RtR, RMG is good: he's an early beater that helps you grind out value in the long game. In cube, there are much better ways to provide reach, or card advantage. Rix Maadi Guildmage doesn't do anything unique, or at anywhere close to a reasonable rate.
3) The other options for R/B gold cards (not counting hybrids here) are more flexible and superior: Olivia provides an evasive body with the ability to ping and steal; Dreadbore is a flexible answer to problem permanants, Sarkhan the Mad provides reach, Terminate is hyper efficient, Blightning is both reach and stacks well with other efficient discard, Rakdos' Return can put someone into topdeck mode or just burn them out, Arisocrat is a hasty efficient 4 drop.
This card really went under the radar when RTR came out due to obvious frontrunner Rakdos Cackler and dreadbore but i feel it is a really strong aggro card with strong control elements as well. It provides extra reach in latish game, and can essentially read {all your creatures are unblockable} at a lot of points in the game. This all being strapped to a grizzly bear solidifies the package. a 2/2 that can trade with 3/3 the turn after it comes out. or 4/4's in 2 turns is really strong. After trying it in draft and standard i am going to find a spot for it in my cube.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=484979
Dreadbore got plenty of discussion and included by a few people but the Guildmage and Flailer were kind of ignored.
I have soured on the shread freak but I think the guildmage is not strong enough for cube. He does mess with blocking math but board stalls are much less likely in cube than in draft or standard.
Th real question is he better than other things in the Guild.
Red-Cap? No
Cackler? No
Dreadbore? No
Olivia? No
Aristocrat? No
I might play him over blightning or rakdos return but those arn't in my top as it is.
I don't understand when you say it is a control-ish card as well; it won't kill anything unless your opponent allows it, and your creatures are still blocked at that point.
"I'm the Best!"
Toad, Mario Kart 64
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=484979
*The important part is having the open mana and just forcing them to not block due to the threat of activation. There's more times in a Peasant cube where the creature your opponent drops down to face you can't block profitably at all if you can shrink it by even -1/-1. With a large percentage of creatures in the cube having only 2 power, dropping them down by 1 power is enough to let most of your creatures destroy theirs without trading.
Cubetutor link - 380 Peasant Cube
I don't know, this card is a first pick in RtR so I'd say test it at the very least, and I'd say it's better than Shred Freak by a decent amount. I can't say it will be great in cube, simply because cards are better and just like the GW Guildmage it might just not do enough, but it's certainly more flexible than the Vitu Ghazi Mage.
Also, be mindful that the life loss ability does trigger off of any damage so their Fetches can trigger her second ability if you decide not to cast a burn spell that turn, plus if you have something like Fireslinger you can all of a sudden do more than one a turn with him and her.
I don't know that this card is even better than Spikeshot Elder, which is a monocolored card.
It's better than Elder as it's bigger and does more thing. In short, the Elder can help you trade with a creature, whereas this can simply make you kill a creature. It also costs less to deal that one damage if you're fixing is good and you don't happen to have equipment out. It also just has a bigger initial body than the Elder.
I don't want to be able to "happen" to cast or activate my cards, I want to be able to do so reliably.
While cube may have better fixing there isn't exactly a dearth of it in RtR and cube has powerful colorless lands and off-color moxen competing for slots with your off-color lands. It is also generally faster which favors cards with more immediate impact than the slow, grindy cards that always end up being first picks in set drafts. Of course, all of this depends on the specific cube so it isn't like I'm saying the guildmage is worthless, just saying why I don't want to run it.
1) Aggro decks need to prioritize other picks before fixing: Premium removal, equipment, efficient creatures. Many of the best 2 drop aggressive creatures cost CC. Because you can't prioritize fixing, it's easiest to stay mono-color, perhaps a small splash to fill a gap. So an aggro creature that has two colors in it's cost better be a huge bomb. This guildmage isn't.
2) RTR limited is not the same as cubing. In RtR, RMG is good: he's an early beater that helps you grind out value in the long game. In cube, there are much better ways to provide reach, or card advantage. Rix Maadi Guildmage doesn't do anything unique, or at anywhere close to a reasonable rate.
3) The other options for R/B gold cards (not counting hybrids here) are more flexible and superior: Olivia provides an evasive body with the ability to ping and steal; Dreadbore is a flexible answer to problem permanants, Sarkhan the Mad provides reach, Terminate is hyper efficient, Blightning is both reach and stacks well with other efficient discard, Rakdos' Return can put someone into topdeck mode or just burn them out, Arisocrat is a hasty efficient 4 drop.
"I'm the Best!"
Toad, Mario Kart 64
But that's an aside. On topic: I wouldn't cube this card.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
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