A four power hasty flier makes a great curve topper for Rakdos aggro deck, and as a 0: sac outlet the extra ability is useful for all kinds of shenanigans. Still, Rakdos is a competitive guild and the 4CMC slot is already competitive in red. This doesn't make the cut in every cube, I'm currently testing the new Olivia, Mobilized for War over it, but if you want to support infinite combos and Aristocrats style sacrifice-matter decks this is a really versatile card with a lot of potential synergies as well as raw power.
Speaking of synergies, as with any Humans matters cards, I recommend making sure any ret-conned Humans in your cube be versions that have the word "Human" in the type-line if at all possible. Manyoldereditionsdon't, and they could lead to confusion and misplays even for fairly experienced players. For me, wording trumps aesthetics.
Great card, but Rakdos got pretty competitive recently so this is squeezed out of smaller lists. I consider this the 6-7th best Rakdos card, so I wouldn't run it until I was up to a 630/720 card cube.
Aristocrat may be sixth in line for me in Rakdos. I'd actually probably play her over Grenzo to boost RB aggro decks and help support an "aristrocrats" style deck. She is a 4-drop in a sea of 4-drops, but she makes a really nice curve topper for aggressive decks.
I need to get 2 of these. One for my cube, one for my Olivia EDH deck. Rakdos tends to be avoided some in my cube, and normally people go jund or occasionally grixis instead of hard rakdos.
Falkenrath Aristocrat is definitely a pet card of mine. Although competition is steep at the Rakdos / aggressive 4-drop, nothing has the combination of being a flying / haste / sac outlet / indestructible creature and that makes her insanely hard to deal with.
Once I played a 2HG game where I essentially almost won 1v2 with a huge Living Death + Falkenrath Ariatocrat play. The reason we lost was because my teammate was stuck on two land and she refused to use her Strip Mine. Had she used it, my opponent wouldn't have been able to stabilize with his Gideon, lol.
Falkenrath Aristocrat is the 5th better Rakdos option IMO. Behind Kolaghan's Command, Rakdos Cackler, Dreadbore and Grenzo. She fits perfectly into multiple types of deck and bring another red aggro 4-drop for larger cube. I think she's definitly a must for cube that run 5-6 guild slots.
Sacrifice decks are incredibly fun. It's also a mechanic that synergizes very well in black (recursion) and in red (enablers/incentives like goblin bombardment and outpost siege, plus token makers).
For this reason, Falkenrath Aristocrat is presently the poster child card for my Rakdos section. I'd cut it only if my list got too low power to handle the card. At present though, it's like that last bowl of porridge goldilocks tried... just right. I wish every guild had a card that fit this well into my cube.
Falkenrath Aristocrat is amazing. After close to a year of play I decided to cut Grenzo for her, and if it came down to it I'd cut Dreadbore before her too (B and R decks here don't have problems dealing with creatures and planeswalkers... and Falkenrath is pretty good at killing the latter too). In an environment where it oftentimes just takes one big turn for a deck to win, extremely fast clocks like Falkenrath Aristicrat are a premium (especially in heavier on black Rakdos decks).
Spike Rogue, I appreciate the point about type lines, especially since there are also cards like Stromkirk Noble and Champion of the Parish floating around in a lot of lists. I probably do need to update a few of my cards. (I have the new Karmic Guide, for example, but not the new Nekrataal.)
Spike Rogue, I appreciate the point about type lines, especially since there are also cards like Stromkirk Noble and Champion of the Parish floating around in a lot of lists. I probably do need to update a few of my cards. (I have the new Karmic Guide, for example, but not the new Nekrataal.)
The ones I mentioned are probably the most common ret-conned Humans, the only other one that's in my cube is Waterfront Bouncer, but there's no paper edition of it that says Human. It's kind of a shame, because it means giving up on having old frame versions of them, except for the Timeshifted version of Avalanche Riders.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
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Huh. I knew some of the other spellshapers had gotten new subtypes like human, and minotaur, and I think one is a unicorn, even, but this guy got a major buff with being a fishman now. I thought he was human as well.
Looks like CTA 720 really likes sac outlets. Most cubes already have the tools to make Birthing Pod playable, with lots of value creatures with ETB and/or death triggers at every spot on the curve even if you're not specifically trying to support this archetype. This makes it a pretty fun and easy card to build around, especially if you draft it early. Most cubes do support the RecSur archetype, and this add some redundancy to that deck giving you a way to bring the creatures you want into play then put them in the yard. A 4-mana artifact with a 2-mana sorcery speed activation cost is a bit clunky, which is why I don't run it anymore, but a well-built Pod cube deck is a real thing of beauty that I recommend everyone try out at least once. Birthing Pod has been banned in Modern, which means it's not only pretty cheap to buy now, but also makes it more popular with drafters who also play Modern.
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Birthing Pod never caught on in my Cube unfortunately. I'm not sure if this is because people didn't want to take the risk on it or if it was truly not good enough. I think it may be one of those cards where everything has to go right in your draft for it to work well, and even if it does it is still just a "pretty good" deck - high draft risk with medium reward, but lots of fun!
Very big variance card in my experience. It's really fun and powerful, but can be difficult to build around and remember your options during the actual game. I love Pod, but I like more simple effects like Collective Company more.
Also, nice Mother's Day choice. I was going to be disappointed if today's random card wasn't Mother of Runes, but Birthing Pod works too.
When Pod decks come together, they really are a thing of beauty. However, with that said, out of all the time that we ran Birthing Pod, we maybe saw one or two really good Pod decks come together. It's a fun card, but it's just so hard to piece together a reliable Pod chain that also provides value. I don't think it's really worth the slot in the cube because of how often it ends up riding the board.
Also, nice Mother's Day choice. I was going to be disappointed if today's random card wasn't Mother of Runes, but Birthing Pod works too.
Yikes! I hadn't even made the connection there, but I'll try to shoehorn in some holiday-themed cards in the future. Mother of Runes would've been a great card to discuss. In retrospect, Birthing Pod on Mother's Day seems downright creepy.
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I had a really sweet Birthing Pod deck on Rotisserie draft, was able to slow roll actually picking up it really late, since I was the only one interested in it. Heavy build around and doesn't come together as often, but for those times that it works, it is still worth the slot for me.
PS. I missed the discussion on Restoration Angel, really love the card. Strong preference to the original art, even had it made as custom playmat.
Here's another 3-drop flying beater that pings its controller. Of course, there's a bit more to Herald that makes it quite different from Serendib Efreet and the role it might play in your cube. The lower toughness puts it in bolt range and it's vulnerable to enchantment removal, so its hardcast mode is significantly more fragile, and it's also harder to cast. The self-harm is also a more serious drawback in black than it is in blue since there are somanymorewaysyoucanhurtyourself in a heavy black deck, and you only have so much life to use as a resource. On the plus side, its Bestow mode makes this creature quite a bit more exciting than something like Ebon Drake or Necrogen Scudder. The options for black 5-drops are still not great, and so the fact that this can let you add a serious threat to the board on turn 3 or upgrade an early drop into a very serious threat that will still leave a serious threat behind when it dies makes Herald of Torment pretty competitive in that spot in spite of some drawbacks. I'm not running it now, but I'm also not really happy with anything I've run at 5CMC aside from Shriekmaw, so I may well find room for it again soon to help fill this hole in my cube's curve if we don't see a decent black 5-drop in the next set.
Aesthetically, there's only one version available, and the only thing I like about it is the Theros block enchantment creature frame. The art itself just looks like a random mass of black swirly stuff. However, I doubt this creature will ever be reprinted unless for some reason they decide to do a Return to Theros block, so if you want to run this card what you see is what you get.
A four power hasty flier makes a great curve topper for Rakdos aggro deck, and as a 0: sac outlet the extra ability is useful for all kinds of shenanigans. Still, Rakdos is a competitive guild and the 4CMC slot is already competitive in red. This doesn't make the cut in every cube, I'm currently testing the new Olivia, Mobilized for War over it, but if you want to support infinite combos and Aristocrats style sacrifice-matter decks this is a really versatile card with a lot of potential synergies as well as raw power.
Speaking of synergies, as with any Humans matters cards, I recommend making sure any ret-conned Humans in your cube be versions that have the word "Human" in the type-line if at all possible. Many older editions don't, and they could lead to confusion and misplays even for fairly experienced players. For me, wording trumps aesthetics.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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Once I played a 2HG game where I essentially almost won 1v2 with a huge Living Death + Falkenrath Ariatocrat play. The reason we lost was because my teammate was stuck on two land and she refused to use her Strip Mine. Had she used it, my opponent wouldn't have been able to stabilize with his Gideon, lol.
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For this reason, Falkenrath Aristocrat is presently the poster child card for my Rakdos section. I'd cut it only if my list got too low power to handle the card. At present though, it's like that last bowl of porridge goldilocks tried... just right. I wish every guild had a card that fit this well into my cube.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
The ones I mentioned are probably the most common ret-conned Humans, the only other one that's in my cube is Waterfront Bouncer, but there's no paper edition of it that says Human. It's kind of a shame, because it means giving up on having old frame versions of them, except for the Timeshifted version of Avalanche Riders.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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I stand corrected, thanks. Keep it in mind if you're running Coralhelm Commander!
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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I think Falkenrath Aristocrate is 5-6 in Rakdos. If you remove the hybrids Rakdos Cackler and Murderous Redcap then its 3-4z
Looks like CTA 720 really likes sac outlets. Most cubes already have the tools to make Birthing Pod playable, with lots of value creatures with ETB and/or death triggers at every spot on the curve even if you're not specifically trying to support this archetype. This makes it a pretty fun and easy card to build around, especially if you draft it early. Most cubes do support the RecSur archetype, and this add some redundancy to that deck giving you a way to bring the creatures you want into play then put them in the yard. A 4-mana artifact with a 2-mana sorcery speed activation cost is a bit clunky, which is why I don't run it anymore, but a well-built Pod cube deck is a real thing of beauty that I recommend everyone try out at least once. Birthing Pod has been banned in Modern, which means it's not only pretty cheap to buy now, but also makes it more popular with drafters who also play Modern.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Also, nice Mother's Day choice. I was going to be disappointed if today's random card wasn't Mother of Runes, but Birthing Pod works too.
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Yikes! I hadn't even made the connection there, but I'll try to shoehorn in some holiday-themed cards in the future. Mother of Runes would've been a great card to discuss. In retrospect, Birthing Pod on Mother's Day seems downright creepy.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
PS. I missed the discussion on Restoration Angel, really love the card. Strong preference to the original art, even had it made as custom playmat.
Here's another 3-drop flying beater that pings its controller. Of course, there's a bit more to Herald that makes it quite different from Serendib Efreet and the role it might play in your cube. The lower toughness puts it in bolt range and it's vulnerable to enchantment removal, so its hardcast mode is significantly more fragile, and it's also harder to cast. The self-harm is also a more serious drawback in black than it is in blue since there are so many more ways you can hurt yourself in a heavy black deck, and you only have so much life to use as a resource. On the plus side, its Bestow mode makes this creature quite a bit more exciting than something like Ebon Drake or Necrogen Scudder. The options for black 5-drops are still not great, and so the fact that this can let you add a serious threat to the board on turn 3 or upgrade an early drop into a very serious threat that will still leave a serious threat behind when it dies makes Herald of Torment pretty competitive in that spot in spite of some drawbacks. I'm not running it now, but I'm also not really happy with anything I've run at 5CMC aside from Shriekmaw, so I may well find room for it again soon to help fill this hole in my cube's curve if we don't see a decent black 5-drop in the next set.
Aesthetically, there's only one version available, and the only thing I like about it is the Theros block enchantment creature frame. The art itself just looks like a random mass of black swirly stuff. However, I doubt this creature will ever be reprinted unless for some reason they decide to do a Return to Theros block, so if you want to run this card what you see is what you get.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.