Great little utility creature here. Helps buy time to stabilize or can be used on the offensive to help tempo out your opponent. I'm a little upset that I'm going to have to cut Dragonlord Ojutai who I just added last month but thems the breaks kid.
This card is really good, I might redo my Azorius section into blink/tempo and a little less control.
UW control doesn't really need a lot (any?) help. If you support blink/tempo I think the slots are better served as archetype support.
I agree, id think id rather support a different archetype than have cards like Ojutai. I ran Lyev Skyknight for a long time and it was a solid role player for the tempo deck. Ill probably re-add him, this new guy and momentary blink to go along with Venser.
Seems like a great idea for 810 cube... If I ever make my 650 unpowered cube (debating doing it for variety) this is exactly what I'd do.
I think the card's good, but cutting Verdict for it can't be right. 4-mana sweepers are premium, and the "cannot be countered" clause has been relevant many times.
We just recently slotted in Ojutai over Venser in our Azorius section, so I don't think this guy will make the cut just yet because I want to give the dragon time to shine. That's probably the only slot that I'd be willing to add him into, though. He might go in over Sphinx's Rev, but I like that card more than Ojutai even without playing with the dragon.
I think the card's good, but cutting Verdict for it can't be right. 4-mana sweepers are premium, and the "cannot be countered" clause has been relevant many times.
Agreed. As I said before, Sphere / Verdict may be redundant, but they always make the cut.
Anyways, while we're kind of on the topic, how do people feel about the blink deck these days? I stopped supporting it as a dedicated archetype when I cut Venser because it felt too underwhelming, but I still support it as a strong tempo sub-theme with Crystal Shard / Erratic Portal, with the payoff cards usually being Eternal Witness / Mystic Snake (and now Reflecor Mage!)
As long as there are good ETB creatures there are good blink decks. Don't forget Restoration Angel as well, that card is pretty key to that archetype, even though it can be stellar w/o any way to abuse it as well.
I guess I should reiterate my question though. I'm playing all the great ETB value creatures of course, but is anybody still running pure blink cards like Venser PW and Momentary Blink?
Not me. I've run them both over the years with success but I think there are now better azorious options (especially with this new guy!). Also, I don't think the blink deck needs any help to be viable.
I think the card's good, but cutting Verdict for it can't be right. 4-mana sweepers are premium, and the "cannot be countered" clause has been relevant many times.
I don't know. I feel like at 450 I may have too many sweepers. Verdict is the only multicolored one and I haven't found the "can't be countered" relevant often if at all. I have three Azorius slots to work with and something has to go if I want to try this out.
I don't like the idea of cutting Verdict. There's no shortage of good 3cc creatures that can be played in WU tempo decks, but there's only a handful of 4cc Wraths.
I really dislike Detention Sphere. There are so many mono colored options for that effect at this point. You can argue the same for Supreme Verdict, but it also serves as a good signal for the color combination (assuming UW control is something you want to encourage). Of the two, Verdict IMO is way more important.
I still run Momentary Blink because it has just a ton of uses (re-trigger ETB effects / blank removal) and flashback is powerful in much the same way delve is. But I'd be very surprised if high powered lists still had room for it. My experience with blink is that you need very little direct support for it to be good too, so cards like momentary blink are pretty unnecessary.
Anyways, while we're kind of on the topic, how do people feel about the blink deck these days? I stopped supporting it as a dedicated archetype when I cut Venser because it felt too underwhelming, but I still support it as a strong tempo sub-theme with Crystal Shard / Erratic Portal, with the payoff cards usually being Eternal Witness / Mystic Snake (and now Reflecor Mage!)
There was a small discussion about this on the Dragonlord Ojutai thread a few months ago so I'm just quoting from there:
The blink archetype took a noticeable hit since I cut Venser several months ago. It used to be a really strong archetype that we really enjoyed drafting but it lost some punch and was just not winning games like it used to. I've put Venser back in (along with Crystal Shard) in my latest update to boost the archetype as it really is an important piece of the blink puzzle. I know how my cube is with it, and I know how it is without it.
I like this card quite a bit, but I agree finding room is a pain.
I dumped d-sphere a long time ago because we had so many similar white effects and we have gotten more since then. Supreme Verdict will go some day but I couldn't justify the dragon because there are plenty of finisher options. But is this card that different for other options? No. It is a little better than Aether Adept but very few are playing it, and we have the aforementioned Man-0-War. There is also Riftwing Cloudscape and Harbinger of Tides.
So while cool, and maybe just about the best version of this I will hold off unless reports of the turn delay make it a must add.
What i like about the turn delay is that it gives you time to untap to possibly counter the spell. This is much more aggressive then trying to wait for 5 mana to do the same thing with man-o-war. This also makes the bounce less punishing against all the etb effect nowadays.
A nice potential add for regular cubes looking for extra blink and/or tempo plays. And this little guy is making me want to design a peasant cube just because of him
What i like about the turn delay is that it gives you time to untap to possibly counter the spell. This is much more aggressive then trying to wait for 5 mana to do the same thing with man-o-war. This also makes the bounce less punishing against all the etb effect nowadays.
Great evaluation. This is exactly why the delay upside is so relevant. It gives you a window to untap before they can recast the card, making countermagic more effective at controlling the threat permanently, and making the bounce more valuable against ETB triggers.
My three UW cards are Detention Sphere, Verdict, and Geist. I could see cutting Sphere. As an earlier poster mentioned, Sphere is an effect we already have in white.
This guy will be huge against aggro. Man-o-war is very good against aggro just bouncing a guy and then trading. This guy can block and kill 2/2s and 2/1s all day.
I love how annoying it is. I'm sure that means I will come to hate how annoying it is when I'm playing against it.
I wouldn't cut Sphinx's Revelation from a cube, like, ever. Detention Sphere is a good card but white on its own has no trouble having access to that effect anyways. If your cubes are running Detention Sphere, it seems like the perfect card to cut for this cheeky little Manowar.
heh, still convinced this card is overrated, but when like everyone disagrees with me, probably healthy I give this and man-o-war another test run. For the sake of science and what not
Seems like a great idea for 810 cube... If I ever make my 650 unpowered cube (debating doing it for variety) this is exactly what I'd do.
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Agreed. As I said before, Sphere / Verdict may be redundant, but they always make the cut.
Anyways, while we're kind of on the topic, how do people feel about the blink deck these days? I stopped supporting it as a dedicated archetype when I cut Venser because it felt too underwhelming, but I still support it as a strong tempo sub-theme with Crystal Shard / Erratic Portal, with the payoff cards usually being Eternal Witness / Mystic Snake (and now Reflecor Mage!)
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I guess I should reiterate my question though. I'm playing all the great ETB value creatures of course, but is anybody still running pure blink cards like Venser PW and Momentary Blink?
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I don't know. I feel like at 450 I may have too many sweepers. Verdict is the only multicolored one and I haven't found the "can't be countered" relevant often if at all. I have three Azorius slots to work with and something has to go if I want to try this out.
Cheers,
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I still run Momentary Blink because it has just a ton of uses (re-trigger ETB effects / blank removal) and flashback is powerful in much the same way delve is. But I'd be very surprised if high powered lists still had room for it. My experience with blink is that you need very little direct support for it to be good too, so cards like momentary blink are pretty unnecessary.
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I dumped d-sphere a long time ago because we had so many similar white effects and we have gotten more since then. Supreme Verdict will go some day but I couldn't justify the dragon because there are plenty of finisher options. But is this card that different for other options? No. It is a little better than Aether Adept but very few are playing it, and we have the aforementioned Man-0-War. There is also Riftwing Cloudscape and Harbinger of Tides.
So while cool, and maybe just about the best version of this I will hold off unless reports of the turn delay make it a must add.
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Great evaluation. This is exactly why the delay upside is so relevant. It gives you a window to untap before they can recast the card, making countermagic more effective at controlling the threat permanently, and making the bounce more valuable against ETB triggers.
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I wouldn't cut Sphinx's Revelation from a cube, like, ever. Detention Sphere is a good card but white on its own has no trouble having access to that effect anyways. If your cubes are running Detention Sphere, it seems like the perfect card to cut for this cheeky little Manowar.
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