Ashnod is another sexed up dominatrix that they probably won't make a card for. She's also dead, so there's that, but when did death ever really stop somebody?
I don't play Spell Queller, since I play Reflector Mage and Geist and they all fill the same spot on the curve.
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Spell Queller's a really good card that suffers from too much competition in its own guild and at the exact same CMC. I think Reflector Mage is ultimately the better card as it's more proactive, and because you know that whatever you've bounced will be gone for more than a full turn cycle no matter what the opponent does. However, I ran Spell Queller over Reflector Mage for quite a while, because with Aether Adept and Man-o'-War in my blue section, Reflector Mage seemed a bit redundant. Spell Queller was a cool tempo card that would often get real 2-for-1s as a discount rate Mystic Snake when it countered the right spell at the right time, and often got flashed in to eat a small attacker.
After glowing reports about Reflector Mage here, as well as the Standard ban, I decided it was time to cut Spell Queller to try Reflector Mage, and Reflector Mage has impressed me enough that I don't see going back. Still, if you want to try something other than just another bounce-on-a-stick critter or O-ring clone, Spell Queller's solid.
My favorite Spirit card has to be Geist of St. Traft. Dude hits like a truck.
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I'm hoping to learn more about the Raven Man when we go back to Dominaria.
Who's the Raven Man?
The Raven Man is the planeswalker(?) that introduced Liliana to dark magic and lead to her spark igniting when he tricked her into reanimating her brother as a zombie.
I ran Anger of the Gods for a while, I think until Fiery Confluence came out. Currently, I'm running Pyroclasm, Fiery Confluence, and Wildfire. Anger of the Gods is solid, though.
I'm not really a fan of Anger of the Gods either. In my midrange list where creature stats are a little higher on average, I've been tempted to explore an efficient 3 point burn sweeper like this. But the scaling stuff is more flexible even if slower. There are also things like Arc Lightning which function as sweepers a lot of times. Pyroclasm does just about as much and it's splashable (plus old frame). Red has enough goodies. It doesn't need this IMO.
It hits roughly 20% more creatures than pyroclasm in my cube which I feel is fair for one extra R. In an unpowered cube with a focus on creature decks i think its fine.
Sure, but I just can't imagine the exiling being more relevant on average than the cycling on Sweltering Suns ...or even the ability to randomly blast a planeswalker on Slagstorm.
I play lots of red sweepers, since Rx control is fun: both Wildfires, both Earthquakes, and Fiery Confluence. Confluence is mostly fixed, I suppose. I don't run Anger, and if I needed another red sweeper, I'd probably go cheap and splashable and play Pyroclasm.
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As 3 mana for 3 damage red sweepers go, the biggest selling point of Anger of the Gods is the exile clause, because of the growing number of creatures that Persist or have other nasty death triggers, but even then I still prefer Incendiary Flow for being splashable and able to go to the face. Ultimately, the 2 different Earthquakes just do so much more by scaling to the late game and their ability to kill walkers and opponents.
The only fixed damage red sweepers I run are also the Wildfires and Fiery Confluence (although I'd never really thought of it as that until I saw the discussion in this thread).
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Pyromancer is a fine card, but red 4s aren't lacking and has since been outclassed by Chandra, the Fire Sculptor. I think the main issue with this Chandra was that it was kinda underpowered in both modes, like there are situations where the first mode is amazing and casting cards off the 0 is awesome too, but most of the time you can't do the latter right as you cast it and just giving one thing unblockable as a floor can be a dangerous place to be.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. I don't think it's underrated per say--like, clearly it's a highly regarded card--but I think it's one of the best overall planeswalkers and at times plays WAY better than JTMS. Maybe not overall better than JTMS, but it's a lot more valuable in certain decks and in certain windows.
Pyromancer was fine, until they released Chandra, Torch of Defiance. Now there's a better 4cc Chandra, and probably isn't much room for the other one anymore.
I think Jace Beleren is underrated. It's still a very good planeswalker.
Chandra was okay back in the day as a generic 4-cmc planeswalker. It wasn't the busted 4-cmc Elspeth / Jace level Walker we wanted, but it was serviceable.
Most underrated planeswalker, imo, is Tibalt Ral Zarek. There's a lot of cube managers that aren't a fan of him, but he literally makes every URx deck and is very instrumental in Wildfire / Upheaval plays.
I did not like Pyromaster even before Torch of Defiance. I find the argument of "a better planeswalker with the same name exists at the same mana cost" to not hold much water as plenty of people, me included, have no problem with running the two Lilianas or the two Garruks that cost 4.
Pyromancer's shortcomings are plentiful. She cannot protect herself well, and her draw is limited to the end of turn, making her an awkward fit at best for control decks, and even that is only if you do not pack permission. As an aggressive card she is slow enough and unreliable enough that there are several significantly better red four drops for the archetype, and you really cannot play many four drops in aggressive decks.
An underrated planeswalker in this forum is Ashiok, but I have also seen people overrate her in other places.
I find the argument of "a better planeswalker with the same name exists at the same mana cost" to not hold much water as plenty of people, me included, have no problem with running the two Lilianas or the two Garruks that cost 4.
To be fair, red 4s are stacked whereas both black and green are generally lacking. Having a better version of a PWer carries a lot more weight when there are so many cards competing for that spot. I have no problem running both Garruk Wildspeaker and Relentless as there just aren't a ton of cards competing for that spot, whereas Chandra, Pyromancer has had a ton of competition come up, so if you don't want a trillion 4s in your section you really can't justify her like you could when she was printed.
Also, I've had a person try to (unsuccessfully) convince me Ashiok is the best PWer in cube, so I get it goes both ways with her.
I run two Garruks at 4 in green, so that isn't what's important here. In Chandra's case, she was straight edged out ...and there simply isn't room for her. I didn't run her before the good Chandras were printed. Now she has no chance of her ever coming back into the cube.
I think Ashiok is the most overrated planeswalker in the cube.
The two most underrated planeswalkers around these forums that I can think of are either Ashiok or Jace memory adept.
Although I run neither of them and can't stand the gameplay they produce.
Wtwlf, I wonder if your poor experiences with ashiok are connected to high creature based-agro density of your drafts? It's the archetype he's worst against.. I also was in the ashiok is meh camp until I tested it for a while for what it's worth.
I'm not sure how the hive mind here evaluates Dack Fayden, but I think he's the second best planeswalker in tight powered cubes, slightly behind Jace the Mind sculpter, and I've had many people disagree with me on that.
Chandra is a midrange value planeswalker only, which is what red does the least well out of all the colors. She's only mediocore at that. Now that we have two awsome chandra's printed, her time in cube and constructed play is over forever :/
To be fair, red 4s are stacked whereas both black and green are generally lacking. Having a better version of a PWer carries a lot more weight when there are so many cards competing for that spot. I have no problem running both Garruk Wildspeaker and Relentless as there just aren't a ton of cards competing for that spot, whereas Chandra, Pyromancer has had a ton of competition come up, so if you don't want a trillion 4s in your section you really can't justify her like you could when she was printed.
I run two Garruks at 4 in green, so that isn't what's important here. In Chandra's case, she was straight edged out ...and there simply isn't room for her. I didn't run her before the good Chandras were printed. Now she has no chance of her ever coming back into the cube.
I have a feeling you did not read my second paragraph, which agrees with you. I am just against providing bad (or partial) arguments and trying to raise the level of card discussion here.
@LucidVision - Dack is considered a bomb here (the only one in his guild IMO), and is definitely splashed for. Memory Adept is also quite powerful in my experience.
I never played Chandra, Pyromaster, but she seems like one of the more interesting monored options for planeswalkers. As far as my cube goes, basically every planeswalker is playable, so I just play the ones I have and don't worry about new ones unless I randomly open them. This one isn't exciting enough to draw my attention.
I don't think many people play Tezzeret the Seeker, but I find him a delight.
So many great spirits. In my cube, I think Hokori, Dust Drinker wins, but it's hard to top Spirit of the Night for all time coolness.
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After glowing reports about Reflector Mage here, as well as the Standard ban, I decided it was time to cut Spell Queller to try Reflector Mage, and Reflector Mage has impressed me enough that I don't see going back. Still, if you want to try something other than just another bounce-on-a-stick critter or O-ring clone, Spell Queller's solid.
My favorite Spirit card has to be Geist of St. Traft. Dude hits like a truck.
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Anger of the Gods
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What fixed-damage red sweepers do you run?
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The Raven Man is the planeswalker(?) that introduced Liliana to dark magic and lead to her spark igniting when he tricked her into reanimating her brother as a zombie.
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Other than the two Wildfires, I don't run any red sweepers that can't scale.
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It hits roughly 20% more creatures than pyroclasm in my cube which I feel is fair for one extra R. In an unpowered cube with a focus on creature decks i think its fine.
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The only fixed damage red sweepers I run are also the Wildfires and Fiery Confluence (although I'd never really thought of it as that until I saw the discussion in this thread).
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Chandra, Pyromaster
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What do you think is the most underrated planeswalker card?
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Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. I don't think it's underrated per say--like, clearly it's a highly regarded card--but I think it's one of the best overall planeswalkers and at times plays WAY better than JTMS. Maybe not overall better than JTMS, but it's a lot more valuable in certain decks and in certain windows.
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I think Jace Beleren is underrated. It's still a very good planeswalker.
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I would say Ajani Goldmane is the most underrated planeswalker.
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Most underrated planeswalker, imo, is
TibaltRal Zarek. There's a lot of cube managers that aren't a fan of him, but he literally makes every URx deck and is very instrumental in Wildfire / Upheaval plays.My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
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Pyromancer's shortcomings are plentiful. She cannot protect herself well, and her draw is limited to the end of turn, making her an awkward fit at best for control decks, and even that is only if you do not pack permission. As an aggressive card she is slow enough and unreliable enough that there are several significantly better red four drops for the archetype, and you really cannot play many four drops in aggressive decks.
An underrated planeswalker in this forum is Ashiok, but I have also seen people overrate her in other places.
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To be fair, red 4s are stacked whereas both black and green are generally lacking. Having a better version of a PWer carries a lot more weight when there are so many cards competing for that spot. I have no problem running both Garruk Wildspeaker and Relentless as there just aren't a ton of cards competing for that spot, whereas Chandra, Pyromancer has had a ton of competition come up, so if you don't want a trillion 4s in your section you really can't justify her like you could when she was printed.
Also, I've had a person try to (unsuccessfully) convince me Ashiok is the best PWer in cube, so I get it goes both ways with her.
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I think Ashiok is the most overrated planeswalker in the cube.
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Although I run neither of them and can't stand the gameplay they produce.
Wtwlf, I wonder if your poor experiences with ashiok are connected to high creature based-agro density of your drafts? It's the archetype he's worst against.. I also was in the ashiok is meh camp until I tested it for a while for what it's worth.
I'm not sure how the hive mind here evaluates Dack Fayden, but I think he's the second best planeswalker in tight powered cubes, slightly behind Jace the Mind sculpter, and I've had many people disagree with me on that.
Chandra is a midrange value planeswalker only, which is what red does the least well out of all the colors. She's only mediocore at that. Now that we have two awsome chandra's printed, her time in cube and constructed play is over forever :/
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I have a feeling you did not read my second paragraph, which agrees with you. I am just against providing bad (or partial) arguments and trying to raise the level of card discussion here.
@LucidVision - Dack is considered a bomb here (the only one in his guild IMO), and is definitely splashed for. Memory Adept is also quite powerful in my experience.
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I don't think many people play Tezzeret the Seeker, but I find him a delight.
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Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.