I'm kind of skeptical, especially that I am currently happy with my current suite of green 3 drops.
However, this card has landfall, artifacts, draw, and +1/+1 counters... so a lot of applications if your cube supports a certain synergy or a combination of those.
Yeah, I agree with the concept of this creature being at the crossroads of a lot of different synergies. I just don't know if they all come into play in my cube enough for him to warrant a spot. I really want to test him and find out.
I think this card looks great. My Green threes are primarily utility like Sage, Elder, Nissa etc. or engine pieces like Courser. This guy can play the aggressor and provide card advantage in midrange decks whilst being a decent clock against control. Producing so many extra permanents is relevant for G/B decks/Stax too. Looking forward to playing with this card.
I just got back from a prerelease, and I was shocked at how much this card over-preformed. I didn't have this card on my radar a week ago, but my group has decided to include it in my update after two of us dominated with it all day. Clues in general seem to be much better than we were first expecting, any slow deck will get a lot of miles out of extra card advantage gained by this card. We're also talking about adding an extensive lands package with Titania now as well, but that's for another thread.
I got ran over by this card during the pre-release, but that's because my deck was lacking removal so it just ran wild and I got buried in clues. Cube is a different beast with tons of removal to deal with it before it goes crazy.
I definitely overlooked the investigate cards as they felt expensive/slow. But I'm now rethinking that based on the feedback I keep hearing.
The clue tokens are artifacts and count as permanents. So they can be sacrificed to things like smokestack, goblin welder and tinker. They can be "tapped" to satisfy Tangle Wire or potentially pay for other effects. And again, being artifacts they count towards metalcraft and stuff like tolarian academy. That's a lot of incidental synergy.
And when none of that is relevant, you can sacrifice them to draw cards at instant speed as free mana becomes available (for a reasonable cost).
Definitely testing this card now. It also supports +1/+! counters too. Sweet.
I opened this guy in my pre-release and ended up in a U/g deck with some Clue synergies (along with Jace and Startled Awake) and really enjoyed how this guy played, so much so that I have added him. Sneaky card draw to Green I think is really cool and there is potentially more upside in a higher powered environment, like Cube, for him to be great. Oracle of Mul Daya, Fetchlands, etc.
He could end up being an easy cut later on but I really enjoyed this guy, enough to warrant giving him a shot and see if he gets drafted and what he does.
Quick update to the above. Tireless Tracker made it into the pool last night and into the main deck of a Selesnya deck with Mirari's Wake, Oracle of Mul Daya and Courser of Kruphix. In game two my opponent was dropping lands off the top with Oracle of Mul Daya and Courser of Kruphix getting a Clue for each of these, tapping one land to draw a card off each Clue which allowed him to dig deeper into his deck for his win con's. Tireless Tracker ending up swinging in as an 12/11 along with an army of mates for lethal a few turns after this. This card was pretty instrumental in his game two victory as most turns he was seeing 3-5 extra cards.
This is the kinda shell where Tireless Tracker will shine and I probably wont be able to take him out of the Cube for a long time as the dude playing him is in love and seeing this all play out, I will agree, the card was great. Let's see if he continues to perform.
Having base 3 power sets him apart from the other support/utility guys in the 3-drop slot. This guy is a relatively efficient beater that can easily provide card advantage in the midgame if not dealt with.
I put it in after all the praise it got, and it's been okay. Not much better than my initial testing. When we get another great 3-drop (or maybe even earlier) it might come out.
He has been doing some solid work for us; playing him on 3 then fetch land, crack 2 clues, swing for 5 turn 4 is a pretty solid line.
Outside of that if you get him down early those clues just keep coming, even if he eats removal they just sit there waiting to be cracked before your untap and that can be a life saver later game when you have all mana no hand. I haven't seen the clues abused but they do generate a bit of extra value as tinker/welder/daretti fodder.
All round I'm sold on him as an all rounder for almost any deck that's willing to splash for him.
Not crucial but he does a decent amount of the cost and has a way of carrying a game on his own. It's something different from the utility cards found in the green 3 slot and it fits in aggro and midrange as well as ramp, so I'm not looking to cut it.
I’m firm on where I stand (and still expect most people to be against me). While Tracker is a fine card, I’m beginning to think it’s even more overrated than I thought. While I don’t necessarily disagree with people’s reasonings in the thread, I just think overweighting certain values and underweight the arguably more important values between Tracker and Elder.
I don't think your observation is wrong, but I think the hard part with evaluating cards like this is it really depends on what other cards you are running and the type of format you want to shape.
If you try to sculpt a most powerful cube based on individual power of each card then I agree with you he isn't the best 3 drop. If you like to have slightly less power, but more cohesive themes, and one of those themes is lands matter, then he it is a very important card to have in cube. I think I was watching a MODO cube the other day, Paul Cheon i think on youtube, goes off with a tireless tracker and basically draws his entire deck by turn 4. That deck wouldn't be possible without tireless tracker.
First commenter put it above Eternal Witness, which is absolute insanity, but otherwise I get why people who only have X games could see Tracker as an absolute monster if the match ups always played out a certain way.
For me, it has gone both ways: some games Tracker has been great, otherwise I've got a clue that I didn't crack, and some amount of performance in the middle for the rest. My biggest issue with Tracker is how awkward it is to crack clues early in a green deck since you want to be impacting the board and in comparison paying 2 for 1 card is horrendous, and then how tough it is late game to consistently trigger Tracker. It's great when I can build up a bunch of clues to crack once I have a million mana, or if my green deck is on the more aggressive side (which rarely happens with me, but that's for another thread) but otherwise there is sometimes a real tension between what my green decks want to do and what Tireless Tracker wants to do.
For what its worth, I also think Yavimaya Elder is overrated in the same way Tireless Tracker is, but also different too. Like, I'm pretty OK cracking Elder after I untap with it since I get a million cards and guarantee my land drop, but it's a bit tougher to always want to do that with Tireless Tracker since losing to, like, all removal that could hit it in response to cracking that clue is horrendous. But, a 2/1 is horrendous, and it's kind of strictly a value creature for that reason. It can absolutely be awkward to have a 2/1 for 1GG and both 1) not be able to get it killed and 2) not have it be worth it to kill it yourself, in the short term that can ruin you if that's what your t3 play is.
They are different cards that serve different roles, but I think they are both overrated in executing that job while still being good cube cards. This is the problem with analyzing cube cards, almost every comparison feels like the proverbial gun-to-head
I think Tireless Tracker is a good cube card. It is splashable, high power and essentially something every green deck wants to play barring Oath of Druids, be it an aggressive list, midrange or ramp. Green is a color with a shortage of card advantage and is prone is some archetypes to run out of gas, especially in long games, a problem Tracker solves. Yes, it is slow and mana hungry so you do not always have the time/resources or even need to crack clues and grow hm, but it is always a solid plan B and you do not have to do it. I think you ranked it lower than you should on your list. I agree Elder is slightly better than it.
I'd rank:
1) Reclamation Sage
2) Courser of Kruphix
3) Eternal Witness (If you have a Time Walk and the like she is #1, yet she is unimpressive in many decks)
4) Yavimaya Elder
5) Tireless Tracker
6) Manglehorn
7) Nissa, Vastwood Seer
8) Rishkar, Peema Renegade
9) Ramunap Excavator (Can be one higher, unsure yet)
10) Viridian Shaman
11) Rhonas the Indomitable
12) Managorger Hydra
13) Uktabi Orangutan (I honestly on't think you'd play 4 3cc creature that destroy an artifact on ETB until very very large sizes, despite this being almost identical to Viridian Shaman)
I love Tireless Tracker. A 3/2 for three mana is a very reasonable body, but it usually gets played as a four drop: pay 3 for it and then make your land drop right away. Now you basically have a 3/2 cantrip for four mana, which is also very reasonable. You'll have to find a spot where you've got some spare mana to crack the Clue, but that happens in most games, and in the games where it doesn't, sometimes it's because you're thrashing the opponent and don't need the card.
After your initial play, your opponent shoots Tireless Tracker, and you proceed having generated a small amount of value.
But on the games where that doesn't happen... it quickly becomes a total monster. Popping the clues increases its size to be a serious threat very fast, and each new land helps you get more Clues... which helps you make sure the land keeps flowing. Cube has a lot of "must answer" cards, but there's something special about Tracker even in that company.
I can't imagine removing it from my cube at 720, and I'd almost certainly play it at 540 and even 360. I think I'd rate it third, behind Witness/Sage and ahead of Courser. I like Elder but I think I'd rate both Nissa and Excavator higher.
I love Tireless Tracker. A 3/2 for three mana is a very reasonable body, but it usually gets played as a four drop: pay 3 for it and then make your land drop right away. Now you basically have a 3/2 cantrip for four mana, which is also very reasonable.
You have to spend five mana total to get the first card. You don't always get the counter either, if they have removal before you can crack the clue for instance.
Cube has a lot of "must answer" cards, but there's something special about Tracker even in that company.
I can't imagine removing it from my cube at 720, and I'd almost certainly play it at 540 and even 360. I think I'd rate it third, behind Witness/Sage and ahead of Courser. I like Elder but I think I'd rate both Nissa and Excavator higher.
I like Tireless Tracker a lot, but I disagree with your assessment. I find that Courser of Kruphix is a must-answer far more often. It will often draw more cards than the Tracker. The lifegain combined with 4 toughness makes it a real roadblock for the aggro deck in a way that Tracker rarely is.
We played Somberwald Sage for a while, and in addition to the 0/1 only tapping for creatures was brutal. Even in green decks, which are more apt to handle them than most, you can't afford to play a 3 mana ramp creature that not only dies to everything but only ramps X amount of cards in your deck.
Courser is great, super powerful but not so broken that it would warp a 1500 cube or anywhere close.
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However, this card has landfall, artifacts, draw, and +1/+1 counters... so a lot of applications if your cube supports a certain synergy or a combination of those.
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The clue tokens are artifacts and count as permanents. So they can be sacrificed to things like smokestack, goblin welder and tinker. They can be "tapped" to satisfy Tangle Wire or potentially pay for other effects. And again, being artifacts they count towards metalcraft and stuff like tolarian academy. That's a lot of incidental synergy.
And when none of that is relevant, you can sacrifice them to draw cards at instant speed as free mana becomes available (for a reasonable cost).
Definitely testing this card now. It also supports +1/+! counters too. Sweet.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
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He could end up being an easy cut later on but I really enjoyed this guy, enough to warrant giving him a shot and see if he gets drafted and what he does.
Modern: Jund
This is the kinda shell where Tireless Tracker will shine and I probably wont be able to take him out of the Cube for a long time as the dude playing him is in love and seeing this all play out, I will agree, the card was great. Let's see if he continues to perform.
Modern: Jund
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
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Outside of that if you get him down early those clues just keep coming, even if he eats removal they just sit there waiting to be cracked before your untap and that can be a life saver later game when you have all mana no hand. I haven't seen the clues abused but they do generate a bit of extra value as tinker/welder/daretti fodder.
All round I'm sold on him as an all rounder for almost any deck that's willing to splash for him.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I’m firm on where I stand (and still expect most people to be against me). While Tracker is a fine card, I’m beginning to think it’s even more overrated than I thought. While I don’t necessarily disagree with people’s reasonings in the thread, I just think overweighting certain values and underweight the arguably more important values between Tracker and Elder.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
If you try to sculpt a most powerful cube based on individual power of each card then I agree with you he isn't the best 3 drop. If you like to have slightly less power, but more cohesive themes, and one of those themes is lands matter, then he it is a very important card to have in cube. I think I was watching a MODO cube the other day, Paul Cheon i think on youtube, goes off with a tireless tracker and basically draws his entire deck by turn 4. That deck wouldn't be possible without tireless tracker.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
For me, it has gone both ways: some games Tracker has been great, otherwise I've got a clue that I didn't crack, and some amount of performance in the middle for the rest. My biggest issue with Tracker is how awkward it is to crack clues early in a green deck since you want to be impacting the board and in comparison paying 2 for 1 card is horrendous, and then how tough it is late game to consistently trigger Tracker. It's great when I can build up a bunch of clues to crack once I have a million mana, or if my green deck is on the more aggressive side (which rarely happens with me, but that's for another thread) but otherwise there is sometimes a real tension between what my green decks want to do and what Tireless Tracker wants to do.
For what its worth, I also think Yavimaya Elder is overrated in the same way Tireless Tracker is, but also different too. Like, I'm pretty OK cracking Elder after I untap with it since I get a million cards and guarantee my land drop, but it's a bit tougher to always want to do that with Tireless Tracker since losing to, like, all removal that could hit it in response to cracking that clue is horrendous. But, a 2/1 is horrendous, and it's kind of strictly a value creature for that reason. It can absolutely be awkward to have a 2/1 for 1GG and both 1) not be able to get it killed and 2) not have it be worth it to kill it yourself, in the short term that can ruin you if that's what your t3 play is.
They are different cards that serve different roles, but I think they are both overrated in executing that job while still being good cube cards. This is the problem with analyzing cube cards, almost every comparison feels like the proverbial gun-to-head
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I'd rank:
1) Reclamation Sage
2) Courser of Kruphix
3) Eternal Witness (If you have a Time Walk and the like she is #1, yet she is unimpressive in many decks)
4) Yavimaya Elder
5) Tireless Tracker
6) Manglehorn
7) Nissa, Vastwood Seer
8) Rishkar, Peema Renegade
9) Ramunap Excavator (Can be one higher, unsure yet)
10) Viridian Shaman
11) Rhonas the Indomitable
12) Managorger Hydra
13) Uktabi Orangutan (I honestly on't think you'd play 4 3cc creature that destroy an artifact on ETB until very very large sizes, despite this being almost identical to Viridian Shaman)
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After your initial play, your opponent shoots Tireless Tracker, and you proceed having generated a small amount of value.
But on the games where that doesn't happen... it quickly becomes a total monster. Popping the clues increases its size to be a serious threat very fast, and each new land helps you get more Clues... which helps you make sure the land keeps flowing. Cube has a lot of "must answer" cards, but there's something special about Tracker even in that company.
I can't imagine removing it from my cube at 720, and I'd almost certainly play it at 540 and even 360. I think I'd rate it third, behind Witness/Sage and ahead of Courser. I like Elder but I think I'd rate both Nissa and Excavator higher.
You have to spend five mana total to get the first card. You don't always get the counter either, if they have removal before you can crack the clue for instance.
I like Tireless Tracker a lot, but I disagree with your assessment. I find that Courser of Kruphix is a must-answer far more often. It will often draw more cards than the Tracker. The lifegain combined with 4 toughness makes it a real roadblock for the aggro deck in a way that Tracker rarely is.
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Courser is great, super powerful but not so broken that it would warp a 1500 cube or anywhere close.
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