He never really interested me, seems ok filler in a spells matters deck but pretty poor everywhere else.
Storms are fun. We recently had some storm that was meant to be a big deal, but it was pretty disappointing in the end (in the city anyway) although some of the worry was probably in the "just in case" vein as the news was full of america being battered by storms. I think storms carry a bit less danger here than in America since we tend to build houses from bricks metal rather than wooden frames (or so I have been lead to believe).
While I do think that Izzet wants a strong reward for the spells matter deck, I don't think this guy quite gets there. I would love to see a payoff on the level of Monastery Mentor in Izzet eventually.
I don't particularly mind storms, living where I do we get enough rain that I'm used to them by now. I'm not a fan of snow, though.
Yea I would love a pushed Izzet Young Pyromancer, heck you could just slap a blue mana on him and give his tokens Curiosity and I would be happy.
Professor of Izzet University 1UR
Creature - Wizard Advisor
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, create a 1/1 red and blue Weird Student creature token with "Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card."
"When no one signed up for his class Jandax had no to choice but to get creative"
2/2
Bonous flavour text - "When no one signed up for his class Jandax got a little Weird... quite a few of them actually."
This played better than I thought it would, I expected to it just be the base card more often than not but there were more times where it was two spells which was really strong. It's really good in a deck with anthems, since you can curve out up to 4 with all creatures or removal and still be able to land an anthem while adding threats so your 3s and less can attack for a lot and you're still building your board or able to block. It's still a white 4, which means it has to be a literal staple to not always be on the block for the next good white 4, but it's not bad.
I like Sram's Expertise quite a bit. I especially like playing it in the odd UW Academy decks.
In some circles, I might qualify as an expert on a few novels.
Private Mod Note
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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
Sram's Expertise is a fun card that can be really swingy. There's a lot of bomb 3-drops like swords / Liliana variants / etc that can make this card value town. I don't see it lasting forever in my cube, but I'm not rushing to cut it either.
My snobbish attitude expertise lie in Music and Magic!
Not a bad card, but I've never been able to keep room for it. It's a bit slow for what I want out of my 4s, in that all the other ones are archetype staples or a bit more proactive. It tended to be too much of a SB card, since my aggressive red decks always wanted the haste 4s and the other red decks never wanted to MD this. Maybe a small sample size, but I don't miss it.
Khans, dragons are cooler but both the Khans mode and the Khans draft format are/were way better.
It's a fine card, but I think the 4cc competition is too steep for it. I like Coercive Portal more as a 4cc card-advantage engine, and Vance's Blasting Cannons more as a red engine with upside ...and I don't run either of those cards.
In this case, Khans. But dragons are generally cooler.
Neither mode on Outpost Siege feels worth four mana, nor does or feel fast enough or high impact enough to make it in over a card that actually affects the board. It's a fine commander card, though.
I definitely preferred Khans of Tarkir to Dragons of Tarkir, as well as the Khans mode on most of this cycle, but Dragons are pretty cool in general.
I am interested in including him; a friend has a copy I just need to convince him to part with it.
I run Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and enjoy him as a top end control card but new bolas might make for a nice change and after seeing him in action I think he more than deserves a shot. I think he might be better in the long run as his 7 damage to the face is going to close out a lot of games.
God-Pharaoh has been sweet and has been seeing much more play than OG Bolas. Being more splashable in URX decks is huge. God-Pharaoh’s inability against wide threats is largely mitigated since black / red have access to a lot of sweepers.
His +2 is better than I thought it was. It’s only a bummer if I reveal some sort of ramp when I don’t need it. Being able to cast the spell until end of turn is something I didn’t notice until I paired God-Pharaoh with Upheaval. I generally only use his +1 ability if my opponent has nothing on the board that I need to deal with and his -4 is just a ton of damage. Being able to close out games in one swoop makes God-Pharaoh extremely deadly.
The only true 3-color cards I play are God-Pharaoh / Sphinx of the Steel Wind / Hellkite Overlord. Sphinx and Hellkite being creatures mean they’re easy to cheat into play, especially since they have synergies with Tinker / Natural Order. God-Pharaoh is almost always hard casted, can’t say I’ve seen somebody cheat him out with Eureka / Selvala’s Stampede yet.
I like God-Pharaoh a lot; much more than the original Bolas. It's seeing a lot of play here, and the cheaper mana cost and splashable nature of this version has been clutch almost every time it's cast.
I have a card with a matching color identity in each shard/wedge, but very few actual 3-color gold cards. Other than this Bolas, everything is either a tri-brid card or is designed to be cheated into play somehow.
I'm currently running Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker as my only true 3 colour cards, but I have afew tri-brids kicking about. Sphinx is great as a tinker/reanimation target and reasonably hard-castable in an esper shell if it was running a few mana rocks.
I wouldn't mind another 3 colour card but I'm not in a rush to add one, maybe a spell or enchantment this time; I would possibly try a Bant echantment that lets me flicker permanents at will or a Sultai Recurring Nightmare style card.
High-cost tricolor cards are way more justifiable than cheap ones.
Yea definitely, 3cmc 3-colour card would have to do a lot to be cubeable, at least with much larger costs you aren't depending on casting it on curve. At 3cmc it feels like it would just be a efficient creature (e.g. Anafenza, the Foremost) that you want down as early as possible or a modal charm (e.g. Abzan Charm). In both example the cards are good, but not really cube cards.
Siege Rhino is pretty close, since it can also function as a recursion creature you don't have to cast, but even then it rarely made decks because of the cost and easier-to-cast options made it into MD before the Rhino would.
I've got no Bolas. I'd play one if I had it, but I'm really not that worried about some planeswalking dragon. I'd be much more excited to add Kess, Dissident Mage.
Siege Rhino is pretty close, since it can also function as a recursion creature you don't have to cast, but even then it rarely made decks because of the cost and easier-to-cast options made it into MD before the Rhino would.
I had him in my cube early on, but he never really worked out so he didn't stay long. Like you said, there are just easier to cast options.
I just like OG Bolas better, so I'm running that card over this one. I do think God Pharaoh is the stronger card, but being cheaper and easier on the colors than Planeswalker actually makes shy away from it.
They all make for a good splash for certain archetypes or just as a bomb, and some of my players even like drafting around one, if they pick it up early. I thought about going up to two cards per shard/wedge (because I'd love to run both Bolas and his Ultimatum), but I don't have enogh candidates for the other color combinations I want to run.
He never really interested me, seems ok filler in a spells matters deck but pretty poor everywhere else.
Storms are fun. We recently had some storm that was meant to be a big deal, but it was pretty disappointing in the end (in the city anyway) although some of the worry was probably in the "just in case" vein as the news was full of america being battered by storms. I think storms carry a bit less danger here than in America since we tend to build houses from bricks metal rather than wooden frames (or so I have been lead to believe).
I don't particularly mind storms, living where I do we get enough rain that I'm used to them by now. I'm not a fan of snow, though.
Bonous flavour text - "When no one signed up for his class Jandax got a little Weird... quite a few of them actually."
Sram's Expertise
Do you consider yourself an expert in anything?
Nah, not really.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Here's my cube! Give it a draft!
Me too. I'll play it until white gets a legit Pia and Kiran Nalaar/Whirler Rogue variant.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
In some circles, I might qualify as an expert on a few novels.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
My
snobbish attitudeexpertise lie in Music and Magic!My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Outpost Siege
Khans or Dragons?
Khans, dragons are cooler but both the Khans mode and the Khans draft format are/were way better.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
In this case, Khans. But dragons are generally cooler.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
I definitely preferred Khans of Tarkir to Dragons of Tarkir, as well as the Khans mode on most of this cycle, but Dragons are pretty cool in general.
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
Do you run three-colored cards in your cube? If you do, do you try and run a cycle for color balance?
I run Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and enjoy him as a top end control card but new bolas might make for a nice change and after seeing him in action I think he more than deserves a shot. I think he might be better in the long run as his 7 damage to the face is going to close out a lot of games.
Use the other Bolas' + ability and just take it.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Unfortunately OG Bolas +3 ability destroys non-creatures. His minus steals things, but only creatures.
If you can't have it, destroy it
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
His +2 is better than I thought it was. It’s only a bummer if I reveal some sort of ramp when I don’t need it. Being able to cast the spell until end of turn is something I didn’t notice until I paired God-Pharaoh with Upheaval. I generally only use his +1 ability if my opponent has nothing on the board that I need to deal with and his -4 is just a ton of damage. Being able to close out games in one swoop makes God-Pharaoh extremely deadly.
The only true 3-color cards I play are God-Pharaoh / Sphinx of the Steel Wind / Hellkite Overlord. Sphinx and Hellkite being creatures mean they’re easy to cheat into play, especially since they have synergies with Tinker / Natural Order. God-Pharaoh is almost always hard casted, can’t say I’ve seen somebody cheat him out with Eureka / Selvala’s Stampede yet.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
I have a card with a matching color identity in each shard/wedge, but very few actual 3-color gold cards. Other than this Bolas, everything is either a tri-brid card or is designed to be cheated into play somehow.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
I wouldn't mind another 3 colour card but I'm not in a rush to add one, maybe a spell or enchantment this time; I would possibly try a Bant echantment that lets me flicker permanents at will or a Sultai Recurring Nightmare style card.
Yea definitely, 3cmc 3-colour card would have to do a lot to be cubeable, at least with much larger costs you aren't depending on casting it on curve. At 3cmc it feels like it would just be a efficient creature (e.g. Anafenza, the Foremost) that you want down as early as possible or a modal charm (e.g. Abzan Charm). In both example the cards are good, but not really cube cards.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
I've got a few cards in each tri-color section, including a charm in each. Highlights include Sprouting Thrinax, Rubinia Soulsinger, Slave of Bolas, and Karador, Ghost Chieftain. I'm really itching to try Realm Razer. One of the big draws of a giant cube like mine is that you can afford a truly robust multicolor section.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
I had him in my cube early on, but he never really worked out so he didn't stay long. Like you said, there are just easier to cast options.
That sounds like a wonderful dream world, multi-colour at 1500+ sounds so much more fun. 26 slots is 12x what I get per guild.
I run a card for each shard/wedge, currently: Broodmate Dragon, Gahiji, Honored One, Roon of the Hidden Realm, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Lightning Angel, Queen Marchesa, The Mimeoplasm, Siege Rhino, Sarkhan Unbroken.
They all make for a good splash for certain archetypes or just as a bomb, and some of my players even like drafting around one, if they pick it up early. I thought about going up to two cards per shard/wedge (because I'd love to run both Bolas and his Ultimatum), but I don't have enogh candidates for the other color combinations I want to run.