MTG Salvation

This, along with most other cards with the Investigate mechanic are going to essentially be impossible to fully understand until we have actual experience behind them. I doubt this card is likely cracking cubes anytime soon, as a half-priced Squire with a two-mana cantrip sitting around doesn't blow me away. That said, it's two permanents for one mana, and has a better body than Elvish Visionary or Coiling Oracle (though almost everyone would agree that Baleful Strix has this thing trumped in that department). If the mechanic turns out to be better than limited-fodder, this may end up being a pleasant surprise. Thoughts?

If your cube environment is such that a 1/2 is a meaningful speed bump, this could see play in control decks and midrangey token decks, but I can't see that working out for most cubes. It's no Coiling Oracle by a long shot.

This guy seems horrendous. Terrible body, and investigate isn't really the biggest incentive when the base-line is so terrible. No thanks.

Almost wish it was a 2 mana 2/1 (or, imagine, a 2/2?), then it might be worth considering. But a 1/2 is just....nothing in so many games so it's basically 2W gain 2-4 life and draw a card. Pass.

Quote from KMAYER »

a peasant surprise.

Fixed it for you. Yeah, I'll be adding this guy to my budget format (which is undergoing an unrelated culling/reworking of the white cards), but I don't see it cracking a format that lacks rarity restrictions.

Not enough impact outside of SoI drafts. Ill pass on this one.

If the Power and Toughness was swapped this would have been an instant staple. As is I don't feel like it adds enough to be worthwhile in my cube.

We already have 2 mana 0/3s that draw us a card and a 2 mana 1/1 that draws a card that we don't even play.

This guy needs to be a 2/1

Would have been crazy good as a 2/1, but unplayable in non rarity restricted cubes as is.

Quote from Edward Mass »

Quote from KMAYER »

a peasant surprise.

Fixed it for you ...

Ha! This is awesome.

I imagine this is probably on par with Elvish Visionary in terms of power level (more flexibility and toughness in exchange for net mana and worse blink synergy), but in a more difficult mana slot to break into. Unless you're the odd cube that doesn't support white weenie, do you really want to be cutting a Savannah Lions for this?

Visionary is a lot better than this dude. Paying 2 mana to draw the card is asking a lot, especially if you're making a deck that can abuse the Visionary trigger.

That's the key for me as well; most cube decks that would want a Visionary effect are blink decks, and when you blink this guy you only compound the extra mana you need to cash in the card advantage. I think I like this creature better as a standalone, but most other cube decks have better things to be doing than playing random weenies like this.

Anyone reconsidering this card? Seems to have some potential, even if you can't draw immediately. Investigate also helps Stax decks.

Quote from Ennex »

Not really. The body is still too irrelevant. I probably wouldn't play a "1/2; ETB: Draw a card".

If it costed W I would absolutely play that. An effortlessly-cantripping 1/2 for W seems pretty extremely strong. If you didn't have to work so hard for the card Inspector would probably be good enough since that kind of value on a 1-mana creature is great.

Quote from Ennex »

Not really. The body is still too irrelevant. I probably wouldn't play a "1/2; ETB: Draw a card".

At W I'd play that card.

Quote from hardb0dy »

Quote from Ennex »

Not really. The body is still too irrelevant. I probably wouldn't play a "1/2; ETB: Draw a card".

At W I'd play that card.

Same, that card would be absurd.

I like Topplegeist more than this card and I have chosen to try out that card for now.
I think Thraben Inspector is a decent card on the level of Elvish Visionary which is serviceable, but not included in my list.

Inspector isn't bad, but it falls in that category of not good enough for what it does. It's not an aggressive creature, so it won't be pushing out any of the plethora of 2/1s in my cube, and it's not incredibly defensive, as it's only a decent defensive card if played turn 1 or 2. So early it's mediocre.

Turn 10, it's effectively 2W Draw a card, 1/2. No bueno.

So turn 1 it's mediocre, turn 10 it's bad. Sure, it may offer more as a lategame topdeck than other single W creatures, but it's never really a good draw. In SoI limited, or a pauper cube it could see play, though.

The only thing interesting about this card is you are getting two permanents for one card at a cost of W. But outside some artifact theme (Tolerian Academy?) or Tinker/Smokestack shenanigans, I just don't know. High powered cubes, I can't imagine have room for this. Lower powered, maybe. But I'm not sure what deck wants this.

If you heavily support a blink theme, Thraben goes up in value. Those decks tend to be grindy and slow enough to be able to afford to crack multiple clues over the course of a game without losing much tempo.

This card has been surprisingly good in both SOI limited and even Standard. But its standard life is really dependent on combining it with anthem effects and similar (Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Always Watching, Thalia's Lieutenant) to have a relevant body on the board early while also being able to replace itself later on. If your cube is heavy into those things, it might be worth a shot.

In retrospect this card seems much better than anyone gave it credit for. Did anyone actually test this in Cube?

Quote from Patrunkenphat7 »

In retrospect this card seems much better than anyone gave it credit for. Did anyone actually test this in Cube?

I've played it in both lower-powered and regular cubes. In a cube with an intentional de-powering, it's a bit better since those cubes aren;t as streamlined and everything is a bit slower.

In what I consider a 'standard' cube, you really can't afford 2W 1/2 draw a card, even if that cost is split up over multiple turns. There are, of course, games where you *can* afford to do that, but that type of result is not what consistently happened in those environments and there were enough games where the clue wasn't cracked or was incorrectly cracked/felt like a time walk for the non-cracker that it seemed pretty bad. There were too many times T2 crack was awful, and waiting to crack was also not efficient.

For what its worth, these results were both in ~500 sized cubes. In larger cubes, the results may be different with more slots to play with and perhaps less streamlined decks.

Quote from Patrunkenphat7 »

In retrospect this card seems much better than anyone gave it credit for. Did anyone actually test this in Cube?

We had great success with it here. Many non-aggro decks have few to no turn one plays, and there are enough ways to use the body - from trading with a Savannah Lions or carrying a sword to sacrificing for Braids. Last draft it was pumped by Natural Unity to impressive sizes. This is filler, but a versatile and well rounded one. It was so good that I am now testing Elvish Visionary as well.