B
Creature - Zombie 1B, :symtap:, Discard a card: Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
Tap three untapped Zombies you control: You draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Our new Liliana doesn't make Zombie tokens but we did get this, and I think it has real potential. It's always great to have more discard outlets that do something useful, and being able to tap 3 Zombies to draw cards should be possible a decent amount of the time. I have no idea what to cut for this, but it definitely looks testable.
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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.
Have a tough time evaluating this card. Discard outlet is great, a 1 drop that can generate card advantage is also pretty great.
But in cube, zombies are generally pretty agressive and this is a little slower and grindy (mana investment + time).
Midrange zombie deck maybe? I'll test it out and see what comes together, but my hopes aren't high.
Good card, but not sure if my black section currently needs another discard outlet? This is kind of like a black's version of Molten Vortex, but actually good. Not sure yet about it for cube, but this is going to be huge in my Zombie EDH deck.
Looks kind of like a black Enclave Cryptologist - you get a 2/2 instead of drawing a card and if you invest (may it be through its own ability or through other zombies) and it manages to stick it will allow you to draw cards. Spitting out blockers will be nice for reanimator decks. There's also something to be said about being able to turn excess lands (or stuff you can't afford to cast) into useful bodies. Makes me want to evaluate my black section to see if Zombies can now really be a thing.
I don't like cards that require a good deal of investment, I don't quite like spending a card to make 2/2s at the cost of more cards, but I do like drawing more cards.
Fixed Pack Rat seems like a fair description. I think it's a little slow to threaten to take over a game, but that's okay with a 1-drop. But, I do think I want to doublecheck how many of the cards I'd pitch to him can be recurred, flashed-back or work well with reanimation, because I wonder if I might not be doing better by just simply playing my spells; surely something is going wrong if I feel such a strong need to make a number of 2/2s at the cost of legit cards.
Black is very well stocked with two power aggro beaters. This reminds me too of Enclave Cryptologist - it offers an interesting one drop to midrange, control and reanimator decks. This is particularly nice for reanimator since it offers board presence while you set up and even helps you dig for combo pieces, if you can stick a couple of tokens. I think there is potential here if you're looking for something different at low cmcs.
I currently include Raven's Crime in my cube as support for Crucible/Loam/Titania (and reanimator). I think Cryptbreaker could serve a similar role. The payoff is better on Cryptbreaker, but Raven's Crime is far more resilient.
Which one do you think is best?
Definitely not a snap include but along the veins of the cryptologist and greenseeker giving you some graveyard and archetype support on a one drop. I like that it is any card. It really would have be saucy with 2 power or deathtouch or menace, or power equal to the number of zombies. It just feels a little to fair.
That said it is another playable in an all zombie black section. Cemetery reaper seems really good with this guy.
Interesting creature, but I think it's a little too slow/low impact. If you didn't have to tap to activate the ability, or if Cryptbreaker's power scaled with zombies I'd be much more interested. I think I can pass on this.
Ive got a zombie subtheme in my deck and I am still running putrid imp in my 1 drop section. I think I might swap him out for this guy as I feel he has more playability outside a reanimator shell, even though he isnt as good of a discard outlet.
There are a couple tweaks I would have wanted for this card to be awesome in my Cube (2/1 or no tap requirement on the ability...). I think it teeters on the edge but is ultimately not going to make it in.
Hmm. The 1/1 body itself isn't worth much, and you need wait a turn, invest another card an spend 2 mana to get decent value out of it. It works as a discard outlet, but since it costs mana, it's not as good in this role as many others (looters, Oona's Prowler, Wild Mongrel, Loleth Troll, ...).
The comparison to Enclave Cryptologist is interesting, since you could play this on turn 1, start "looting" on turn 2 and 3, and then could draw cards. Buw, while looting is generally good, dumping a card for a 2/2 is only something you want to do with excess lands or other dead cards, so I don't know how often this will actually be a desireable line of play.
Not bad, but its suite of abilities are powerful. Not sure what kind of deck is engineered to take full advantage of this creature. I'll keep my eye on it, but I think it's a close miss for me.
Never been a huge fan of Spellshapers, though I do miss seeing the subtype. (WTF, WotC?) Were this a base 2/2 or 2/1 we'd be in busy. As is, it's really only playable by virtual of its tap abilities, and both of those are marginal.
Not sure what kind of deck is engineered to take full advantage of this creature.
We've gotten quite a few Zombie tribal enablers that are quite good on their own outside of a dedicated Zombie tribal deck, so I think this is an archetype that just might get there for cube without being parasitic. In my cube I'm already running 8 Zombies and zombie token generators including Gravecrawler and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet without making any effort whatsoever to support Zombie tribal. Any of the following along with Cryptbreaker seem like reasonable cube additions that have a lot of synergy together:
Never been a huge fan of Spellshapers, though I do miss seeing the subtype. (WTF, WotC?) Were this a base 2/2 or 2/1 we'd be in busy. As is, it's really only playable by virtual of its tap abilities, and both of those are marginal.
There's a big difference between retail limited and Cube (that should really, seriously go without saying, but here we are).
I get your implication, Mark. I'll forgive it, but just barely. I know the card, very well in fact.
Pat Rack is nowhere near broken in Cube. Playable? Sure. Solid? Fine. Strong? Maybe. But given the number of answers that exist, all the better uses for 3 mana, and the overall card quality/consistency of Cube, I've generally struggled with people's (mis-)evaluation of this card. Pat Rack shines best in formats and gameplay scenarios where players have dead or mediocre cards. That's certainly applicable to retail limited and even Theros Standard, but not Cube.
Never been a huge fan of Spellshapers, though I do miss seeing the subtype. (WTF, WotC?) Were this a base 2/2 or 2/1 we'd be in busy. As is, it's really only playable by virtual of its tap abilities, and both of those are marginal.
You want a 2/2 for B, with no drawback, and the ability to crap out more 2/2s for the cost of cards, and draw more cards? Uh-huh. Let's at least attempt to be realistic here, folks!
And yes, Pack Rat is really oppressive in many cube games. Fun too, and overall a really top notch two drop.
When you include all the metrics that go into card design, Pack Rat is not a printable card. So "fixed Pack Rat" is a perfectly reasonable description of this card.
Pack Rat is still pretty bonkers in cube. Forcing your opponent to have exact answers for it isn't impossible for the opponent in a format with x amount of sweepers and x amount of 1-3 costed answers, but when they don't then the pack is back.
B
Creature - Zombie
1B, :symtap:, Discard a card: Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
Tap three untapped Zombies you control: You draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Our new Liliana doesn't make Zombie tokens but we did get this, and I think it has real potential. It's always great to have more discard outlets that do something useful, and being able to tap 3 Zombies to draw cards should be possible a decent amount of the time. I have no idea what to cut for this, but it definitely looks testable.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
But in cube, zombies are generally pretty agressive and this is a little slower and grindy (mana investment + time).
Midrange zombie deck maybe? I'll test it out and see what comes together, but my hopes aren't high.
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Good card, but not sure if my black section currently needs another discard outlet? This is kind of like a black's version of Molten Vortex, but actually good. Not sure yet about it for cube, but this is going to be huge in my Zombie EDH deck.
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Fixed Pack Rat seems like a fair description. I think it's a little slow to threaten to take over a game, but that's okay with a 1-drop. But, I do think I want to doublecheck how many of the cards I'd pitch to him can be recurred, flashed-back or work well with reanimation, because I wonder if I might not be doing better by just simply playing my spells; surely something is going wrong if I feel such a strong need to make a number of 2/2s at the cost of legit cards.
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If the draw card activation only required two zombies it would be passable but I think they were a bit too safe here.
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Which one do you think is best?
That said it is another playable in an all zombie black section. Cemetery reaper seems really good with this guy.
The comparison to Enclave Cryptologist is interesting, since you could play this on turn 1, start "looting" on turn 2 and 3, and then could draw cards. Buw, while looting is generally good, dumping a card for a 2/2 is only something you want to do with excess lands or other dead cards, so I don't know how often this will actually be a desireable line of play.
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These statements imply Pat Rack is broken, which it most certainly isn't. Or do you mean "fixed" in some other, less orthodox sense?
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We've gotten quite a few Zombie tribal enablers that are quite good on their own outside of a dedicated Zombie tribal deck, so I think this is an archetype that just might get there for cube without being parasitic. In my cube I'm already running 8 Zombies and zombie token generators including Gravecrawler and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet without making any effort whatsoever to support Zombie tribal. Any of the following along with Cryptbreaker seem like reasonable cube additions that have a lot of synergy together:
Maybe it's time to start supporting Zombie tribal explicitly?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
LSV made a top 5 list of "most broken limited cards (in their respective formats) of all time. I believe #1 was Jitte and #2 was Pack Rat.
Even in cube, Pack Rat is BONKERS.
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I get your implication, Mark. I'll forgive it, but just barely. I know the card, very well in fact.
Pat Rack is nowhere near broken in Cube. Playable? Sure. Solid? Fine. Strong? Maybe. But given the number of answers that exist, all the better uses for 3 mana, and the overall card quality/consistency of Cube, I've generally struggled with people's (mis-)evaluation of this card. Pat Rack shines best in formats and gameplay scenarios where players have dead or mediocre cards. That's certainly applicable to retail limited and even Theros Standard, but not Cube.
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
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You want a 2/2 for B, with no drawback, and the ability to crap out more 2/2s for the cost of cards, and draw more cards? Uh-huh. Let's at least attempt to be realistic here, folks!
And yes, Pack Rat is really oppressive in many cube games. Fun too, and overall a really top notch two drop.
Agree on Spellshapers. Miss those guys.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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When you include all the metrics that go into card design, Pack Rat is not a printable card. So "fixed Pack Rat" is a perfectly reasonable description of this card.
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