Flickerwisp is in many ways the epitome of the strength of versatility over raw power. It's hard to find a situation where you can't abuse its ETB trigger, a 3-power flier or both. It can certainly be an important roleplayer in a blink-focused deck but I'm just as happy to have it for the body in an aggro or midrange deck. At this point, the white 3-drop slot is saturated with quality creatures and I still don't see Flickerwisp getting cut any time soon. The art on this card is pretty cool, and surprisingly disturbing for a white creature.
I played a lot of Limited during Urza block, and I remember when the original Flicker came out and a lot of people originally dismissed it as a complete garbage rare. The one guy at the shop who'd scoop up any Flickers was always happy to maindeck it and quickly proved how it was always useful for something, getting rid of opponents' Pacifisms and Serra's Embraces, resetting Bone Shredders and Ghitu Slingers, getting extra mana out of Pendrell Drake, and more. The effect on its own isn't really worth a card, but the fact that now we get a 3/1 flier on top of Flicker for just W makes me smile.
Probably the nastiest trick I've pulled with Flickerwisp was bouncing an opponent's bounceland to his hand when it was his only land in play. It was not only a double Stone Rain on a creature, but he also had to discard a card to hand size the next turn. This was in the earliest days of my cube, while it was still budget, and it didn't have to happen again for me to start looking at replacing the bouncelands with something better.
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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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Probably the nastiest trick I've pulled with Flickerwisp was bouncing an opponent's bounceland to his hand when it was his only land in play. It was not only a double Stone Rain on a creature, but he also had to discard a card to hand size the next turn. This was in the earliest days of my cube, while it was still budget, and it didn't have to happen again for me to start looking at replacing the bouncelands with something better.
That's pretty sick! Love it.
Flickerwisp is a boss. Not really anything bad to say about it.
A few times, I've been able to Flickerwisp away a land or good creature on the same turn as casting Balance. That's always fun. There was also the time I got to Sneak Attack a Sundering Titan into play, attack for 7, and then Flickerwisp him. I think I ended up having one land left and 10 points of power on the table and my opponent had nothing but a Mind Stone. Good times.
I have never run Cursed Scroll, but am curious how others rate it.
Aside from the ABU Duals, the card I would like to see off the reserved list the most is Wheel of Fortune. Not because of price, there are much bigger fish to fry in that department, it's just one of my favorite cards ever. I would love to see it turn up in supplemental products like commander and planechase. I also think that there would be multiple awesome arts for the card had it been reprinted.
Besides, Wizards clearly see it as an important part of reds colour identity, otherwise they wouldn't have crammed it onto somanyothercards.
I cut it for Smuggler's Copter and right now, it preform much better for us while serving the same rule. The card is pretty solid in an lowdrop aggressive deck, though.
The card I want out of the reserved list is Wheel of Fortune... And I also want it in standard and modern, but that's probably too much to ask
I like Cursed Scroll quite a bit, and I made a point of playing it in my last draft to see how it's holding up since some people seem to be cutting it to make room for Kaladesh artifacts. I'd say it still holds up quite nicely. I especially love it in Orzhov aggro and Dimir tempo decks that love having the extra reach and repeatable removal. Even in red decks that have access to other forms of burn, it makes a great mana sink in the kinds of decks that are going to dump their hands anyway. There's a reason this card was a 4 of in most Rath cycle era Type 1 (that's Standard for you whipper snappers) decks.
The only thing I don't like about it is that newer cube drafters who don't remember Tempest era Type 1 often have no idea how easy it actually is to use Cursed Scroll they see it getting used against them. It's led to some feel bad moments in my drafts, but the card's still strong enough and iconic enough that I'm happy to run it.
Cursed Scroll is actually my pick for cards I'd like to see taken off the Reserved List. I'd not only love the chance to get it in foil, and perhaps with better art, but I'd also love to see how it perform's in today's Standard as well as get to crack and play one in a retail limited draft.
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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.
I have never tried Cursed Scroll but it seems powerful and fun!
I would love to see the whole reserved list go away. Now that we have mythic and ultra mythic rarity I think we could just reprint the power 9 with new artwork, and let the cards worth reprinting on the reserved list find their way into Vintage Masters and supplementary products over time.
When Force of Will was finally reprinted everyone freaked, but the market actually did not change much for the card. In fact, the new version is worth more than the old version, and the old version retained it's value. Also, Berserk went down to a more reasonable price but the original still retained much of its value. I think reprinting reserved list cards would do more good than bad.
I was going to say the same thing about us just going through a big discussion about Cursed Scroll. The shorthand of my opinion on it is it's solid. It's an mana sink for aggro decks that provides some reach and repeatable removal in the mid/late game if needed. It's in no danger of getting cut from my current list.
As far as reserve list goes, I'm not a fan of it at all, but honestly, it doesn't affect me much. I don't really collect cards outside of my cube. I just think the list itself is kind of random and arbitrary. It would make more sense to me if it was just every card from set X and back. Instead it's these specific cards from set X and back and instead of being powerful mistakes and tournament staples, it's only some of those cards along with others that seem completely random like Argothian Wurm (which they printed a red version of later on). If I had to pick one card to remove, I guess it'd be The Abyss, but only because it's one of the few cards on the list that I don't currently own a copy of for my cube. Second place would go to Eureka.
Cursed Scroll is still pretty useful... colourless damage sources FTW. Still, I tend to find it encourages you into top-deck mode (which is usually not a good place to be).
What do I want voted off the Reserved List island first? The Revised Duals. Closely followed by Aluren (because it shouldn't be illegal to have that much fun at a kitchen table for a small price).
Top is just such a cool card and leads to so many neat interactions, it's a great spike/johnny card. If your playgroup has slow players and people who get annoyed by slow play it can be infuriating thohgh
I never understood the whole "Top slows the game down" argument against it. I get that it takes a few seconds to activate, but as long as people aren't taking forever deciding the correct order to put the cards back, it's not really an issue. We've had Top in pretty much since the beginning of our cube and I've never found that to be a problem.
My favorite toy(s) growing up were G.I. Joe's. I had a ton of them. I loved the toys, the cartoon, the Marvel comic. I had the original movie on VHS and used to watch it on repeat. I actually still have that copy, but the cardboard case is so worn out. That one is still better than the live action Channing Tatum dumpster fire we got.
Cube is the only format where I don't hate Top. Legacy is EOT top, brainstorm, fetch, top, btw you can't play spells with CMC 1 anymore. It's great in control / combo decks and is colorless card filtering to boot, which is a huge boon in a singleton format.
My favorite toys when I was a kid were Beast Wars. I LOVED Beast Wars, I re-watched the show in college and it still holds up today. The story telling was on point, had a great cast with lots of character development, and the show was short and sweet.
I had the original movie on VHS and used to watch it on repeat. I actually still have that copy, but the cardboard case is so worn out. That one is still better than the live action Channing Tatum dumpster fire we got.
"Hey Snowjob, need a lift?"
"The doc says walking's better for my health."
"Since when are you the nervous type?"
"Yo Joe."
You can't make up dialogue that incoherent. But forget them redwood toadstools. It's battle time!
I don't have a Top in my cube and am not in a hurry to get it. Someday I'll get it, but it doesn't seem as necessary as other cards of similar cost.
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I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Back in the day I bought a box of Champions of Kamigawa because I was so happy to be out of mirrodin. Didn't get a single top, or anything really fun. Just a bad box. I understand why people don't like it, because I remember the whole "at the end of your turn I'll pseudo brainstorm."
I like the top, I can see why some people don't play it since it can be a little slow.
In our group however we often play a king of the hill style Best of 1's and then everyone moves seats. So even in a Control vs Control matchup, at least you don't have to wait for 3 whole games to finish.
My favorite toys growing up were Tinkertoy's, My parents didn't let us have toy guns, so we just made our own and ran around the neighborhood.
I never understood the whole "Top slows the game down" argument against it. I get that it takes a few seconds to activate, but as long as people aren't taking forever deciding the correct order to put the cards back, it's not really an issue. We've had Top in pretty much since the beginning of our cube and I've never found that to be a problem.
My favorite toy(s) growing up were G.I. Joe's. I had a ton of them. I loved the toys, the cartoon, the Marvel comic. I had the original movie on VHS and used to watch it on repeat. I actually still have that copy, but the cardboard case is so worn out. That one is still better than the live action Channing Tatum dumpster fire we got.
You should check out Tom Scioli's Transformers vs G.I.Joe comics from a few years back:
All drawn in crayon and nearly all splash pages it was designed to feel like a kid playing with his action figures. Super sweet and nostalgic!
Edit - as for top, its a great card but way overrated in cube. I usually try to avoid taking it due to how much it slows games down and puts you back a mana unless my deck has some sort of synergy with the top of my library or a lot of shuffle effects. It went from being a 1st pick 7 years ago when I first got one and it was the shiny new toy to being a solid role player in the right decks. Thats more just expectations being adjusted.
Favorite toy growing up was the giant bucket of legos I had and/or all my ninja turtle action figures. But I also had a Snoopy stuffed animal (still do) that meant the world to me in the way that Woody meant to Andy in Toy Story.
I like Top in some decks. It needs to be paired with a lot of shuffle effects or get dropped into a deck like the artifact.dec where it has extra uses. It's not the "any ol' midrange/control deck will do" kind of card that it was 5-6 years ago in this format, now that Cube has sped up.
I had a bunch of cool action figures from the Aliens, Terminator and Predator film franchises that I loved playing with as a kid. And I was also a Lego nut growing up.
Other toys that were super fun were the line of Alien action figures based on Alienized versions of other animals. You could get a big xenomorph snake or whatever! I also liked the Jurassic Park action figures where the dinosaurs had removable pieces where it looked like the other dinosaurs bit them and you could see exposed bone! Gnarly!
I played a lot of Limited during Urza block, and I remember when the original Flicker came out and a lot of people originally dismissed it as a complete garbage rare. The one guy at the shop who'd scoop up any Flickers was always happy to maindeck it and quickly proved how it was always useful for something, getting rid of opponents' Pacifisms and Serra's Embraces, resetting Bone Shredders and Ghitu Slingers, getting extra mana out of Pendrell Drake, and more. The effect on its own isn't really worth a card, but the fact that now we get a 3/1 flier on top of Flicker for just W makes me smile.
Probably the nastiest trick I've pulled with Flickerwisp was bouncing an opponent's bounceland to his hand when it was his only land in play. It was not only a double Stone Rain on a creature, but he also had to discard a card to hand size the next turn. This was in the earliest days of my cube, while it was still budget, and it didn't have to happen again for me to start looking at replacing the bouncelands with something better.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
That's pretty sick! Love it.
Flickerwisp is a boss. Not really anything bad to say about it.
A few times, I've been able to Flickerwisp away a land or good creature on the same turn as casting Balance. That's always fun. There was also the time I got to Sneak Attack a Sundering Titan into play, attack for 7, and then Flickerwisp him. I think I ended up having one land left and 10 points of power on the table and my opponent had nothing but a Mind Stone. Good times.
Cheers,
rant
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It's one of those cards that newer players will think is underwhelming, but it's a beautiful toolbox card.
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Cursed Scroll
BONUS QUESTION
What card do you most want to see taken off of the Reserved List?
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I actually like the reserve list.
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Aside from the ABU Duals, the card I would like to see off the reserved list the most is Wheel of Fortune. Not because of price, there are much bigger fish to fry in that department, it's just one of my favorite cards ever. I would love to see it turn up in supplemental products like commander and planechase. I also think that there would be multiple awesome arts for the card had it been reprinted.
Besides, Wizards clearly see it as an important part of reds colour identity, otherwise they wouldn't have crammed it onto so many other cards.
The card I want out of the reserved list is Wheel of Fortune... And I also want it in standard and modern, but that's probably too much to ask
The only thing I don't like about it is that newer cube drafters who don't remember Tempest era Type 1 often have no idea how easy it actually is to use Cursed Scroll they see it getting used against them. It's led to some feel bad moments in my drafts, but the card's still strong enough and iconic enough that I'm happy to run it.
Cursed Scroll is actually my pick for cards I'd like to see taken off the Reserved List. I'd not only love the chance to get it in foil, and perhaps with better art, but I'd also love to see how it perform's in today's Standard as well as get to crack and play one in a retail limited draft.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I would love to see the whole reserved list go away. Now that we have mythic and ultra mythic rarity I think we could just reprint the power 9 with new artwork, and let the cards worth reprinting on the reserved list find their way into Vintage Masters and supplementary products over time.
When Force of Will was finally reprinted everyone freaked, but the market actually did not change much for the card. In fact, the new version is worth more than the old version, and the old version retained it's value. Also, Berserk went down to a more reasonable price but the original still retained much of its value. I think reprinting reserved list cards would do more good than bad.
Reserved list.... Moat.
As for the reserved list, my top 5 cards I would want removed are as follows:
1. Gaea's Cradle
2. Deranged Hermit
3. Recurring Nightmare
4. Sliver Queen
5. Time Spiral
All are so good and should have been reprinted already!
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Yeah, tl;dr from that thread: I'm not a fan.
Plus, I like all those and anything else that costs money to be removed.
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As far as reserve list goes, I'm not a fan of it at all, but honestly, it doesn't affect me much. I don't really collect cards outside of my cube. I just think the list itself is kind of random and arbitrary. It would make more sense to me if it was just every card from set X and back. Instead it's these specific cards from set X and back and instead of being powerful mistakes and tournament staples, it's only some of those cards along with others that seem completely random like Argothian Wurm (which they printed a red version of later on). If I had to pick one card to remove, I guess it'd be The Abyss, but only because it's one of the few cards on the list that I don't currently own a copy of for my cube. Second place would go to Eureka.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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What do I want voted off the Reserved List island first? The Revised Duals. Closely followed by Aluren (because it shouldn't be illegal to have that much fun at a kitchen table for a small price).
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PucaTrade with me!
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Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
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Sensei's Divining Top
BONUS QUESTION
What was your favorite toy as a child?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=484979
My favorite toy(s) growing up were G.I. Joe's. I had a ton of them. I loved the toys, the cartoon, the Marvel comic. I had the original movie on VHS and used to watch it on repeat. I actually still have that copy, but the cardboard case is so worn out. That one is still better than the live action Channing Tatum dumpster fire we got.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
My favorite toys when I was a kid were Beast Wars. I LOVED Beast Wars, I re-watched the show in college and it still holds up today. The story telling was on point, had a great cast with lots of character development, and the show was short and sweet.
Beast Wars > Transformers any day.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
"Hey Snowjob, need a lift?"
"The doc says walking's better for my health."
"Since when are you the nervous type?"
"Yo Joe."
You can't make up dialogue that incoherent. But forget them redwood toadstools. It's battle time!
I don't have a Top in my cube and am not in a hurry to get it. Someday I'll get it, but it doesn't seem as necessary as other cards of similar cost.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
In our group however we often play a king of the hill style Best of 1's and then everyone moves seats. So even in a Control vs Control matchup, at least you don't have to wait for 3 whole games to finish.
My favorite toys growing up were Tinkertoy's, My parents didn't let us have toy guns, so we just made our own and ran around the neighborhood.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
You should check out Tom Scioli's Transformers vs G.I.Joe comics from a few years back:
Here!
All drawn in crayon and nearly all splash pages it was designed to feel like a kid playing with his action figures. Super sweet and nostalgic!
Edit - as for top, its a great card but way overrated in cube. I usually try to avoid taking it due to how much it slows games down and puts you back a mana unless my deck has some sort of synergy with the top of my library or a lot of shuffle effects. It went from being a 1st pick 7 years ago when I first got one and it was the shiny new toy to being a solid role player in the right decks. Thats more just expectations being adjusted.
Favorite toy growing up was the giant bucket of legos I had and/or all my ninja turtle action figures. But I also had a Snoopy stuffed animal (still do) that meant the world to me in the way that Woody meant to Andy in Toy Story.
Draft my cube!
Watch me stream!
I had a bunch of cool action figures from the Aliens, Terminator and Predator film franchises that I loved playing with as a kid. And I was also a Lego nut growing up.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Draft my cube!
Watch me stream!