MTG Salvation

Playing with this guy in arena makes me want to test Bomat Courier in my cube. I love that it is a one drop that can bait removal for fear of an opponent netting a few cards from it and not knowing what you're going to get is a fun surprise.

Yea I’ve been testing it out a while and it’s pretty sweet. He makes it into quite a few decks and does pretty well. I’m assuming the lack of responses means others here haven’t given Bomat a chance yet.

he's been on the radar but my red alligned artifact slot is currently occupied by shrine of burning rage. is bomat more fun? maybe. im certainly intrigued.

I'm going to try out Bomat when I find one. Seems like we might've overlooked something fun.

Aether Vial

A powerhouse for a long time in any small creature decks, you want it down as early as possible to start cranking out that card advantage but even after a turn or two you get to start flashing in creatures. As non-agro decks get more value 1-2 drops it also starts to move it more into value territory.

Were you ever any good at science, or are you more of a new-age person?

Vial is a cool card, but doesn’t make the cut for most cubes. The mana advantage is what makes this card so insane in modern Affinity and Merfolk, and to me this card needs to get at least 3 mana worth in cards out before it starts being any good, in which case it becomes pretty sweet actually. Like Dark Ritual, it’s really amazing on turn one or two as it powers out small critters really fast. Unlike Dark Ritual though, once you pass turn 2 it stops being very useful when cast within the parameters of a normal game (if you support aggressive artifact decks it’s probably still useful to some extent). Unlike Ritual it also can’t be used in a combo or control deck. This makes it not an especially useful card in theory, but hey I haven’t ever tried this card on paper so maybe it’s actually pretty sweet and I’m just missing out.

EDIT: Honest question, would you treat this like a land in deckbuilding? I’ve always wondered about this with Ritual and Lotus, I always play it safe and don’t count them as lands, but I could be wrong on this practice as they all make mana.

I don't think Vial's any good in this format. The vast majority of the time, I'd rather just play an extra threat in its place.

Vial can be part of a larger justification for running a smaller land count in your deck, but it itself doesn't count as a land.

Another vial is good in modern, but isnt very good for cube

Zealous Conscripts is a card I used to rate a lot higher but she hasn't done much in a long time. I seem to remember her getting a lot of love but haven't seen it mentioned in a while.

3 power, haste and turning their biggest blocker into a threat is a pretty good play for agro or midrange decks and stealing a planeswalker and ultimating it is one of the best feelings in cube but despite all that she hasn't been making the cut. I don't run Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker so it isn't a combo piece, is that what it needs to push it over the edge?

Aesthetically I like it, I read comics and it has that kinda of feel to it. It does look a little CG and I wouldn't want too many cards in the style but it isn't too bad. There probably isn't a big chance of getting another art but I would like to see it in a more classic horror style. What are peoples thoughts on the art?

What would you do if conscription was enforced in your country? Do you agree with the concept?

(Forgive the grammar/typos/rambling I have had a few drinks)

Quote from NotScottMescudi »

EDIT: Honest question, would you treat this like a land in deckbuilding? I’ve always wondered about this with Ritual and Lotus, I always play it safe and don’t count them as lands, but I could be wrong on this practice as they all make mana.

I don't change my land count for rituals but I would for a lotus. Most moxes I would run as a land. Aether Vial wouldn't change my land count, but I have no experience with it.

Conscripts is good. But there are a ton of amazing red 5cc creatures. I think the competition is too stiff right now for Conscripts (for smaller cubes anyways) unless you're playing the combo package with her. But I know I'm in the minority on that position; a lot of cubers think Conscripts is just the bees' knees.

I would never cube without them.

Baseline as aggro top-end is fine. But then they add interaction with traditionally uninteractive game-winners like Ulamog and Annihilators, make memorable plays with Planeswalkers, synergize with cards like Falkenrath Aristocrat, and just win the game with Splinter Twin or Tooth and Nail.

Plus they're humans for any other suckers who've bought into supporting that archetype.

I think they are not worth it without the combo. Card is very situational and doesn't easily fit any existing archetypes. It creates cool stories once in a while, but also sits in hand, or simply doesn't make the cut to the maindeck quite often. I don't play it at 720.

I think Zealous Conscripts is a great card. There's so few Threaten effects that are worth a card in cube. Sarkhan Vol and arguably Kari Zev's Expertise would be a couple more. Plus the combo potential, being a perfectly good standalone piece of the puzzle in its own right.

That said I don't even play it. Red 5's have gotten really deep over the last few years and there's options for many archetypes. I currently run SGC, Thundermaw and Goblin Dark-dwellers who is a really solid value guy and also supports spells matter and some reanimate builds. That leaves out so much cool stuff like Glorybringer and Neheb the Eternal, sadly. Neheb would probably come in ahead of Conscripts if I reintroduce Wildfire.

Zealous Conscripts has always felt uncuttable, but we've gotten so many good Red 5s that I'm eying it way more than I ever imagined I would. Still, it's such a blowout, and such a fun card, I think I'll try to keep her around - she was one of the first cards added to my list, too!!

At 425 we play Twin and the like, so I include this card, but without the combos I would not run it. It’s probably red’s 5th best 5cmc threat, so you’d need to get pretty big to include it without combo support.

The best thing I’ve ever done with conscripts was I had a Huntmaster, DTK Surrak, and a birthing pod. My opponent had a bunch of critters on board and a Wurmcoil Engine on top as revealed by a Courser of Kruphix. I sacrificed my huntmaster to grab a Conscripts, untapped pod, and sacrificed the Conscripts to grab Inferno Titan, gave it haste, and cleared his board besides the Courser. By clearing his dorks, he was unable to cast the Wurmcoil and I stole that victory. Most pleasing Conscripts I’ve ever played, and wa scertainly agame to remember.

My grandfather escaped Conscription by pleading insanity. Conscription is never the answer, and should never be or have been legal. What a terrible and immoral practice.

My red 5s aren't the strongest options in a vacuum, but I feel like Conscripts has wide enough use and creates blowout plays that it will probably keep a spot for while yet. I like Threaten effects because I find red decks often just instantly lose against a Wurmcoil Engine, and this provides another chance to swing in with the team. There are alternatives available, but this also lets you steal a PW and ult it, stuff like that... I dunno, just still kinda cool IMO.

I have kept this in my cube for a long time but it has been on the chopping block for a while now. If you are in tokens it is one of the best anthems around but it is very narrow. Between Intangible Virtue and Honor of the Pure I really want a unconditional 2 mana anthem.

The art is pretty bland on this one; not easy to make out whats going on and there is nothing particular interesting when you do.

What virtue do you most embody most, and what one do you aspire to?

I don't run Intangible Virtue. Any anthems that I have are from creatures or planeswalkers since I've cut Spear of Heliod.

Today's "card" a type of card, CONTRAPTIONS! I am Un-Certain if anyone ended up running them, I was really interested but it is quite a big update to make so I have put it off. The forum also seemed Un-Decided on how to actually implement the card type.

The art treatment for the contraptions was pretty fantastic in my opinion; boarderless, interesting and it all combined to make a giant image.

Have you ever assembled a contraption, in either magic or real life?

Contraptions and typically un-stuff is too wacky for me.

Intangible Virtue is obviously good if you really support tokens, but it's not a big enough payoff to excite me.

Zealous Conscripts is an awesome finisher in midrange or even aggro. And is good in control shells. I don't run any infinite combos, but I don't foresee cutting this card soon. Stealing Planeswalkers is just gravy.

never been a fan of un-set's in cube either. Only card I ran for a while was blast from the past.

Intangible virtue is a cool card, but I don't have a dedicated token arch-type to make it work in, even though in the past year or so many cards have been added that create tokens. I like that it can buff the monkey token from kari zev, skyship raider

Vial is too build around in a sense that many your creatures have to have the same cmc, which is very counter to creating a deck. If you do not draw Vial, you might end up with a bad curve. Compare this to Birthing Pod, which many think not good enough for cube, but I include it because it can easily fit in a deck with a decent creature curve.

EDIT: Even without the wacky Un- characteristics, contraptions are too parasitic. You have to include a minimum number of Riggers, and practically all of them are too weak for cube. I have an artifact cube and did not even consider it even with all the potential artifact interactions.

Contraptions are like a really confusing and aesthetically unpleasing Saga. Having to have a whole separate deck (I think?) seems ridiculous outside of its native format, which by all accounts was fun. But it's not for cube, where we can just play the elegant Sags instead if we want something like it.

well, since we have not had a new card for a few days to talk about.

How about Kor Haven? I don't think we have done this card on here yet.


Personally I really like the card since it's a second Maze of ith, but I don't know if I will run it forever. Seams like my white section is becoming pretty close to streamlined, and there are more interesting cards that are proactive and fun to play.