MTG Salvation

I'm going to do a relatively detailed write-up when my testing is finished. I've been working on actively testing 8 cards from this set, and I'll let everyone know how it's been going hopefully soon. I want to get in a bit more testing before drawing up my conclusions.

Think nothing from the set is 100% slam dunk, but Kenrith and spellseeker have a chance to be mid-pickable in powered cubes and think najeela should be solid and fun in my cube.
I want a little bit more support for sneak/show decks (their win rate is tier 2 in my cube).. hoping arcane artisan will be good enough to fill that roll, but expect that it wont.

Testing:
Will Kenrith
Spellseeker
Najeela, The blade blossom
Arcane artisan

May test:
Mindblade Render
Arena rector
Bramble soverign (99.9% it's not good enough, but I want it to be good so bad. Desperate for a good green 4 drop and the upside is there.)

testing spell seeker, and cheering fanatic. midly hopeful for spell seeker, hoping to be surprised by fanatic as i'm not super optimistic.

Testing: Will Kenrith

Watching: Najeela, Arcane Artisan, Bramble Sovereign

For us, it should be :
Will Kenrith
Generous Sponsor
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
Arena Rector

And maybe :
Mindblade Render

Variance is still a thing in those decks. There are going to be a real percentage of creatures I'm not excited to discard with this, or scenarios where missing on the loot is devastatingly bad considering it costs so much.

My includes will be:

• Will Kenrith with Rowan for free in Izzet. That should balance off Fire//Ice, where Fire gets played in Rakdos, Boros, and Gruul decks that can't cast Ice.
• Cheering Fanatic might be red Lotus Cobra or might not. It's worth testing, but I'm fairly confident it will be in.
• Spellseeker since the ceiling is Demonic Tutor in blue with an attached speed bump.

Away from cube for 1 month for world series of poker, Any updated test results?
Curious about a few cards.

Only got to cube once with the cards.. saw Will kenrith a couple times and seemed good.
I had an angel of invention and a thalia, heretic cathar.. shutting down the abilities was super annoying.

My opponent almost got to untap with it , -2 + a memory jar but I found a way to kill it the turn that was about to go off.

Quote from ambivalentduck »

My includes will be:

• Will Kenrith with Rowan for free in Izzet. That should balance off Fire//Ice, where Fire gets played in Rakdos, Boros, and Gruul decks that can't cast Ice.
• Cheering Fanatic might be red Lotus Cobra or might not. It's worth testing, but I'm fairly confident it will be in.
• Spellseeker since the ceiling is Demonic Tutor in blue with an attached speed bump.

Are you concerned at all about the Izzet section being so planeswalker-dense? I like the idea of including them like this, but having my Izzet section be 3/4 planeswalkers is fairly unappealing to me.

I think Will is great without Rowan.

Will is better without Rowan. Problem with Rowan is that if I include her in my deck, I have to include her in my deck.

Yeah, seems reasonable. I managed to pull the planeswalkers out of a pack this week, so am adding Will in and wanted to see others' thoughts on this. I'm more than happy to run him solo.

He's really good.

Quote from Cythare »

Quote from ambivalentduck »

My includes will be:

• Will Kenrith with Rowan for free in Izzet. That should balance off Fire//Ice, where Fire gets played in Rakdos, Boros, and Gruul decks that can't cast Ice.
• Cheering Fanatic might be red Lotus Cobra or might not. It's worth testing, but I'm fairly confident it will be in.
• Spellseeker since the ceiling is Demonic Tutor in blue with an attached speed bump.

Are you concerned at all about the Izzet section being so planeswalker-dense? I like the idea of including them like this, but having my Izzet section be 3/4 planeswalkers is fairly unappealing to me.

I don't know. My hope is to play with the Kenriths and then decide. It's like Gisela/Bruna, though. Just because you draft Gisela doesn't mean you want Bruna. BUT I can't conceivably justify just giving Bruna a slot on her own merits. So, I just give her for free and occasionally you see some epic Eldrazi meldage (though usually just scoopage).

Tamiyo, the Moon Sage -> Will Kenrith
Gisela, the Broken Blade -> Arena Rector
Supreme Will -> Spellseeker

Testing:
Keldon Marauders -> Cheering Fanatic

Any updates on this? Any auto includes?

Will Kenrith - a strong card, the plus ability bails you out of so many situations. Once you stabilize the draw ability is a great way to pull forward. He fairly often gets to 8+ loyalty but I've never seen the ultimate used, the other two abilities are just too good.

Cheering Fanatic - huge let down, the body is very weak for attacking, the ramp is unreliable. Was often just a 2/2 that cannot attack or a one shot ramp for one colorless.

Spellseeker - disappointed. Just too slow and expensive, very few spells are worth tutoring for. I want to cut this card soon

Arcane Artisan - Another enabler for the Show and Tell archetype. No need to play him if you do not support the archetype, if you do however he is strong enough to make it. I am at a cube size that I want all the reasonable redundancy I can get, maybe at a small cube that isn't the case. In reanimaor or cheat decks he is a high pick and a scary card.

Najeela, the Blade Blossom - A great card overshadowed by three other red three drop token producers. I still think she is one of the best red three drops, and I think the redundancy is good as it allows red to support token synergies, but I can understand wanting to cube something different over her at small sizes. Warrior clause is very relevant. She gets out of hand very fast. If you pick her early it is worth picking warriors higher than usual. Activated ability was used once, but was a complete win more.

Mindblade Render - A medium black two drop. Draws cards fairly often, sometimes even the very turn you play him. Pretty universally playable in aggro and control, but not so powerful you have to play him. High quality filler. Unlike Najeela, not worth building around as the trigger is capped.

Bramble Sovereign - haven't seen this card do anything relevant yet

Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is a baller, and Will Kenrith is pretty good too, if you can find room.

I only ended up running Najeela and Will Kenrith, and both have performed really well. I had a weaker card that was fairly easy to remove from each color to include them, but I'd still recommend trying to fit both in.

Am currently still running Najeela, Spell seeker and Arcane artisan.

I love Najeela. Plays out similar to rabblemaster, but has a fun "warrior tribal" upside that comes up frequently. It's minor, but adds a little spice to the gameplay.

Spell seeker is a solid toolbox card for decks with blue power or a selection of powerful cheap spells. She gets there on power level, but she's not particularly interesting. I'm also not a huge fan of cards that make insane decks more insane, and bad decks worse :).. But her upside is high and my playgroup likes her, so she's in until I have a good reason to kick her out. My last draft I managed to luck sack into Recall + Time walk + Demonic Tutor + Snapcaster + Spell seeker. Ya... not particularly fair. Final game I got to double time walk on turn 5 for the win. Time walk + Spell seeker for demonic tutor.
Next turn, demonic tutor for Snap caster, snapcaster back time walk GG.

Arcane artisan is a great card for cubes that support a variety of cheaty strategies. She's a lightning rod for removal, but if she doesn't get removed, she can often win the game on the spot. I can't see me cutting her until they start printing more cards similar in power to sneak attack/show and tell, which I doubt will happen. Better for larger cubes, since they struggle with redundancy for powerful cheat-creatures-into-play enablers.

Will kenrith was great, and I should probably give him another spin..I cut him because I've focused my blue section to be more instant/sorcery oriented and rarely find I lack 6+ mana finishers. I can't articulate why, but I don't particularly like the card. It's a personal thing tho. I recommend testing him.