I think Upheaval is a more powerful card than Jace since it just wins the game when cast but Jace is more versatile and can go into far more decks. If it's P1P1, I'd go with Upheaval so that I can go all in from there, but if it was like P3P1 I'd be more inclined to go with the Jace unless I already had an extensive amount of ramp.
I like to go for archetype defining cards P1P1 whenever possible.
I think Upheaval is a more powerful card than Jace since it just wins the game when cast but Jace is more versatile and can go into far more decks. If it's P1P1, I'd go with Upheaval so that I can go all in from there, but if it was like P3P1 I'd be more inclined to go with the Jace unless I already had an extensive amount of ramp.
I like to go for archetype defining cards P1P1 whenever possible.
I generally take the opposite strategy unless that archetype defining card has way more upside than the versatile card, or no one will go into that archetype unless they have the card that I'm considering picking. (IE sulfuric vortex).
Nothing feels worse than forcing artifacts, only to find the person to your immediate right is forcing artifacts
I pick cards like swords to plowshares, premium dual lands, lightning bolt, thoughtseize, jace the mind sculptor very highly for the draft versatility
OK, not the last two, and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is quite possibly the most ridiculous 2-drop ever printed, but it's also a really different card from Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Jace, the Living Guildpact and Jace, Unraveler of Secrets seem much more like belated attempts to create a fair version of Jace, the Mind Sculptor at a similar cost:
+ = card selection/draw ability
- = bounce
Ult. = Make the rest of the game an exercise in futility for your opponent
JVP feels more like it fits in the Snapcaster Mage/Stoneforge Mystic/Dark Confidant/Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary category of two drops that seems kind of reasonable at first glance, but even a little bit of playtesting should have kept it from ever seeing print. With all of these cards, I like to imagine that R&D testing involved them getting immediately countered or bolted as soon as they were cast so that R&D never really knew what kind of impact they were going to have.
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Vryn's Prodigy is super good for a few reasons, though. Your average looter is good, but Jace has a 2 toughness, which is much better than the typical 1/1 body normally seen on them, and that's before getting to the backside where all the real goods are at {bow chicka bow wow)
But I agree. Baby Jace is absurdly good. The +1 is better than marginal as it protects him somewhat, the flashback -3 is awesome, and the big -9 is unnecessary, but not bad for producing a mill wincon out of nowhere but you should never need to get there since the -3 should carry you to victory.
Just for fun, I counted and Gilt-Leaf Winnowers can target 97 (or 47.5%) of the 204 creatures in my cube (not including hexproof creatures and Aetherling). This is actually an increase over when this card first came out.
It has a fair number of targets, but it's such a feel bad card when the target you need to remove most has = P/T. But black's 5cc creature suite is so weak that I wouldn't fault anyone for running this.
I think Upheaval is a more powerful card than Jace since it just wins the game when cast but Jace is more versatile and can go into far more decks. If it's P1P1, I'd go with Upheaval so that I can go all in from there, but if it was like P3P1 I'd be more inclined to go with the Jace unless I already had an extensive amount of ramp.
I like to go for archetype defining cards P1P1 whenever possible.
I generally take the opposite strategy unless that archetype defining card has way more upside than the versatile card, or no one will go into that archetype unless they have the card that I'm considering picking. (IE sulfuric vortex).
Nothing feels worse than forcing artifacts, only to find the person to your immediate right is forcing artifacts
I pick cards like swords to plowshares, premium dual lands, lightning bolt, thoughtseize, jace the mind sculptor very highly for the draft versatility
I do that too, but I like to go all or nothing when given the opportunity.
I like Upheaval cause it's a card that wins otherwise unwinnable games in one play.
Also re: Jace, Bryn's Prodigy: there are times where it has been WAY better than JTMS. An underrated card, which is an insane thing to say about a card that's rated pretty damn highly.
Everyone here, myself included, was so excited about Priest of the Blood Rite that Gilt-Leaf Winnower just got passed right over. However, even though it's in a weak slot, I still can't see running it. While you'll probably be able to kill something with Gilt-Leaf Winnower, it often won't be what you need to get rid of most. I think I still like Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath and Bloodgift Demon better than Gilt-Leaf Assassin. Has anyone actually tried running Gilt-Leaf Winnower in their cube?
Also, Gilt-Leaf Winnower really should be wearing a turban.
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I always like cards with a rarely relevant but unique ability, such as the "sac to Mana Leak an x-spell" going on here, presuming it doesn't add to the mana cost and is just gravy. Unfortunately, a 3/3 for 3 with another "sometimes relevant" ability isn't much to write home about. Certainly worse than Brimaz, Flickerwisp, Mirror Entity, Hallowed Spiritkeeper, Porcelain Legionnaire, and others.
Pretty mediocre IMO. Lots of* non-destruction based removal, not a lot of X-spells, and even with destruction based removal you can just kill him before attacks.
It would have to be a big cube, modern cube, or something like that for this to make it IMO.
It's a cheaper hill giant with upside, but the upside is still very situational and dependent on your matchup. It's really good against an aggro strat that doesn't have tons of removal, but that's about it.
Not a bad way to protect an attacking team in a swarm aggro shell, but unless the cube structure makes the X counter ability super-relevant, white's 3cc slot is just too congested with better creatures.
I'd like to see more splashable 3/3s for 3 with upside, but the Battalion trigger is way too hard to set up, and way too easy to disrupt in cube. I played this for a while my cube was in its early stages and it was underwhelming even then. White has way better options in this slot, I'm honestly not even sure why MTGO decided to add this to the Legacy Cube.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Hate that card. Typical early-era design mistake. There are few cards where the WCS (does nothing) and the BCS (draws like 12 cards for one mana, lol) are so many miles apart as they are on this card. Fortunately, Wizards learned within a few years to be more careful with card advantage effects and that "balancing" a card on its average performance is not enough.
Ran it for two or so years, then removed it for its repulsive polarity. When this card was involved, there was always one player feeling bad. The only question was if it was you or your opponent.
Love this card. It makes my top ~5 white cards for sure. Nothing like drawing 6 lands for 1 mana. Combos with a lot of other cards. This will be in my cube forever.
I like to go for archetype defining cards P1P1 whenever possible.
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I generally take the opposite strategy unless that archetype defining card has way more upside than the versatile card, or no one will go into that archetype unless they have the card that I'm considering picking. (IE sulfuric vortex).
Nothing feels worse than forcing artifacts, only to find the person to your immediate right is forcing artifacts
I pick cards like swords to plowshares, premium dual lands, lightning bolt, thoughtseize, jace the mind sculptor very highly for the draft versatility
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You're forgetting Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in between those two. Arguably the second best Jace alongside Beleren
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+ = card selection/draw ability
- = bounce
Ult. = Make the rest of the game an exercise in futility for your opponent
JVP feels more like it fits in the Snapcaster Mage/Stoneforge Mystic/Dark Confidant/Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary category of two drops that seems kind of reasonable at first glance, but even a little bit of playtesting should have kept it from ever seeing print. With all of these cards, I like to imagine that R&D testing involved them getting immediately countered or bolted as soon as they were cast so that R&D never really knew what kind of impact they were going to have.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
But I agree. Baby Jace is absurdly good. The +1 is better than marginal as it protects him somewhat, the flashback -3 is awesome, and the big -9 is unnecessary, but not bad for producing a mill wincon out of nowhere but you should never need to get there since the -3 should carry you to victory.
Gilt-Leaf Winnower
Just for fun, I counted and Gilt-Leaf Winnowers can target 97 (or 47.5%) of the 204 creatures in my cube (not including hexproof creatures and Aetherling). This is actually an increase over when this card first came out.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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I do that too, but I like to go all or nothing when given the opportunity.
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Also re: Jace, Bryn's Prodigy: there are times where it has been WAY better than JTMS. An underrated card, which is an insane thing to say about a card that's rated pretty damn highly.
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Also, Gilt-Leaf Winnower really should be wearing a turban.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Probably. We ran shadowborn for awhile. It was practically always "off" in that you were saccing creatures. I never liked it.
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It would have to be a big cube, modern cube, or something like that for this to make it IMO.
Edit - yay typo.
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My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
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Land Tax
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Ran it for two or so years, then removed it for its repulsive polarity. When this card was involved, there was always one player feeling bad. The only question was if it was you or your opponent.
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