Dropping this, bouncing their creatures/mana rocks and playing Armageddon for free is just going to be mean. I'm stoked to get some reps in with this card.
I may actually give this a go over Arcane Savant as that card is becoming an insta-groan in my playgroup whenever it hits the field.
Some players in my playgroup are feeling the same. I'm enjoying some of the interactions a ton (eldritch evolution/temporal m astery), but upheavel/arcane savant loops are very unfun if the upheavel player can't end the game at a fast rate...
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Maybe I just don't know how to play, but I've probably never picked Bribery in cubes where I've come across it. I like this more, casting cards for free is cool and this can actually do some work against aggro decks (unlike Bribery most of the time).
Against most non-aggro decks, Bribery is almost always going to take something more than 5-cmc. Even against an aggro deck, taking their Hero of Bladehold or something is still fine, especially since their other creatures will be relatively smaller than their curvetopper.
Against aggro decks, getting a Hero of Bladehold is pretty close to the best case scenario. Bribery is routinely sided out against aggro decks here.
I love the potential of this card. Open ended, has plenty of synergies and will have targets to bounce against most decks.
Into the Roil is better than this, but this is better than Cyclonic Rift, imo. It's fairly abusable when you're able to bounce two of their guys and one of your etb guys, then replay your guy for free value. It's not a staple, but I've found it to be a really fun card. I like it quite a bit.
I have no opinion about Baral's Expertise yet besides that is narrower than I have imagined, but I like Cyclonic Rift more than Into the Roil. The overload option, if it doesn't win the game, feels like a good out for every situation.
Just wanted to update this thread from my findings on Baral's Expertise:
It's Nuts. It's absolutely insane in Blue tempo decks, especially ones with white. I've began as mono White or Red and moved into blue because of this card as it often wins games on its own. It's like a worse opposition, but that doesn't say much haha.
Into the Roil is better than this, but this is better than Cyclonic Rift, imo. It's fairly abusable when you're able to bounce two of their guys and one of your etb guys, then replay your guy for free value. It's not a staple, but I've found it to be a really fun card. I like it quite a bit.
I disagree. This card generally does not belong in decks that want value, but rather in decks that want to sustain tempo advantage, but occasionally it does some funny stuff with fast mana artifacts. The best way to play this card is to bounce their creatures and/or rocks and then drop a mana denial card like Armageddon or to drop an aggressive planeswalker to prevent any kind of recovery from your opponent.
If you don't play this card in your cube, I HIGHLY recommend you give it a shot.
The average case scenario for Baral's Expertise was lower than I wanted it to be. It has an amazingly high ceiling, but very low floor. I've played other cubes where its ACS is higher than my own cube, but it also has a lot to compete with. I'm currently liking Commit // Memory more than I liked Baral's Expertise.
Hm, that definitely makes sense. Our cube supports blue tempo a bit more than usual and has plenty of land denial, so for us Baral's Expertise is consistently back breaking for the opponent, but if your cube is very large and/or doesn't support blue tempo very much, the Expertise may be harder to use degenerately.
I also haven't had time to test Commit // Memory. Is it good, and in what decks? This probably isn't the place to talk about another card, so if you'd rather PM/DM me I'd be happy to know how it generally plays out and if it's a worthwhile addition.
I've not really seen Baral's Expertise be anything worse than fine. Bounce three of your guys, get a four drop for free is value city. Obviously there are cases where your opponent maybe doesn't have any creatures or whatever, but that really doesn't seem like a bad spot for you to be in. On average for us, if it's doing something, it's doing something pretty gross.
With that said, I still stick by what I said earlier about liking Into the Roil more and if I could only keep one, it'd be ItR. I also think Commit//Memory is probably better as well, but I've not seen it in action near as much. I'm currently running them all and I'm not at all sad about it.
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Against aggro decks, getting a Hero of Bladehold is pretty close to the best case scenario. Bribery is routinely sided out against aggro decks here.
I love the potential of this card. Open ended, has plenty of synergies and will have targets to bounce against most decks.
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It's Nuts. It's absolutely insane in Blue tempo decks, especially ones with white. I've began as mono White or Red and moved into blue because of this card as it often wins games on its own. It's like a worse opposition, but that doesn't say much haha.
I disagree. This card generally does not belong in decks that want value, but rather in decks that want to sustain tempo advantage, but occasionally it does some funny stuff with fast mana artifacts. The best way to play this card is to bounce their creatures and/or rocks and then drop a mana denial card like Armageddon or to drop an aggressive planeswalker to prevent any kind of recovery from your opponent.
If you don't play this card in your cube, I HIGHLY recommend you give it a shot.
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I also haven't had time to test Commit // Memory. Is it good, and in what decks? This probably isn't the place to talk about another card, so if you'd rather PM/DM me I'd be happy to know how it generally plays out and if it's a worthwhile addition.
Baral's Expertise never made my update because it didn't even survive the testing process. It was good in some windows, but very mediocre in others.
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With that said, I still stick by what I said earlier about liking Into the Roil more and if I could only keep one, it'd be ItR. I also think Commit//Memory is probably better as well, but I've not seen it in action near as much. I'm currently running them all and I'm not at all sad about it.
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