This is an obvious take on Baleful Strix. 1/1 flyer that draws a card for 2 mana.
Strix has deathtouch inherently. Coatl probably won't have deathtouch until about turn 4.
Also, Coatl has flash which makes this guy almost like a combat trick (flashing in a flying deathtouch after attacks are declared).
Honestly, this is probably going to see play in all formats where Strix does, and cube is no exception.
The annoying drawback of course is I guess I now have to replace all my basics with snow lands? (Or just pretend they are all snow lands for the purposes of this card?)
If we get a bunch of other snow-matters stuff it may make sense to go full snow basics. This card is definitely great if the snow condition is met.
Are there any drawbacks to running all snow basics though? It seems with a card like this, it's just strictly better to do so, whereas before it pretty much made no difference.
I mean, sure, if you wanted to, you could put Freyalise's Radiance in your cube or something, but really?
I guess if you are running Gifts Ungiven, you might want to provide players the option of using both snow and regular so you could grab, say, two islands with it. Never really thought about it before. And I find it kind of annoying.
If we get a bunch of other snow-matters stuff it may make sense to go full snow basics. This card is definitely great if the snow condition is met.
Are there any drawbacks to running all snow basics though? It seems with a card like this, it's just strictly better to do so, whereas before it pretty much made no difference...
...And I find it kind of annoying.
That is the drawback, and the cost. I don't feel like buying 150+ snow lands.
No, I mean we don't play snow basics. No desire to warp my draft to play snow-based cards. We weren't interested before, despite some really good cards being available, and we're not going to change that now.
If we get a bunch of other snow-matters stuff it may make sense to go full snow basics. This card is definitely great if the snow condition is met.
Are there any drawbacks to running all snow basics though? It seems with a card like this, it's just strictly better to do so, whereas before it pretty much made no difference.
I mean, sure, if you wanted to, you could put Freyalise's Radiance in your cube or something, but really?
I guess if you are running Gifts Ungiven, you might want to provide players the option of using both snow and regular so you could grab, say, two islands with it. Never really thought about it before. And I find it kind of annoying.
Depending on the quality of snow cards, I might as well switch to snow lands, as Scrying Sheets, Cold Snap and Freyalise's Radiance still got me on the fence about the whole ordeal of a snow theme in my cube. :/
For what its worth, Chilling Shade is not necessarily as good as you'd think even if it has 1: +1/+1 because its base 1 toughness makes it easy to kill. Think Skinshifter
Different subject, but since Snow Cubes are much more likely to also have Unserious cards it will be nice to get new snow-covered lands that have a different expansion symbol and different artists.
Card might be playable even without snow basics anyway, depending on how much emphasis you put on Coiling Oracle’s ramp potential. Flash and flying are some pretty relevant upsides.
If Simic was tighter, I'd likely pass on the Snow Basics. However, Coiling Oracle is very much a placeholder card, and this feels like a HUGE upgrade if I can get the Snow Basics. It's not motivation enough, but if the set contains a couple more cube card that wants me to change my basics, I likely will!
No, I mean we don't play snow basics. No desire to warp my draft to play snow-based cards. We weren't interested before, despite some really good cards being available, and we're not going to change that now.
Would anything, ever, change your mind? It seems like the real opportunity cost of swapping all of your basics for Snow basics is so low that it has to at least be worth considering at some point. Would it take 3 new cards? 5? 10? A playable cycle of snow dual lands on par with the duals that make the cut right now?
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I used to play a snow cube. But I don't think I'd change it back. I like the idea of using regular basics just like regular limited events, and not changing the provided basics to something that isn't allowed in retail limited just to make a handful of cards work. I used to do it for Wastes and C cards, but that experiment didn't last, and we didn't like it all that much.
I want playable snow duals! ...but not for the purpose of playing snow-themed cards. I just want another cycle of cubeable dual lands.
Plus, I'm a huge basic land nerd, and my basic land collection I use for my cube basics is one of my favorite parts of deckbuilding and playing. So I'm even less inclined to make the swap than most other cube managers might be.
Snow/Wastes cubes are fine, I just don't think it's for me. It wouldn't dissuade me from guest-drafting another cube, but I have little-to-no interest in doing that for myself.
There are already a lot of justifiable reasons to play S in the cube, and some powerful options that already exist. But it doesn't tempt me much.
Ugh this card is really testing my sense of cube "verisimilitude". Out of all the snow-centric cards, including scrying sheets, this seems like the first easy auto-include of the bunch. Yet spending hundreds replacing all my lands with snow-covered for just this card seems like borderline insanity when you can just say"all your basics are snow-covered", yet I'm always against underwriting cards with invisible rules and erratas. Think I just won't add it. Sucks.
Been thinking of how they would make snow duals work, would you guys cube something like this?
Thawing Caldera
Snow Island Mountain
Thawing Caldera enters the battlefield tapped unless you control another snow permanent.
Basically a Guildgate on turn one, but could reliably be an untapped dual turn 2+ With snow basics. Without snow basics it’d be a fetchable Guildgate.
Could see something like this getting printed. 'snow' is actually not at the root of the card. Could just as easily be "etb tapped unless you control a basic". So that is only slightly better than the traditional core set duals.
I think you only include this card if you are already on snow lands. I would never swap out 200 basics for a handful of cards.
Not to mention, when a player drafts my cube for the first time, they get to sign one of the basics from their deck and return it to the cube. I would hate to give up all those signatures.
I don’t think you need to swap out ALL your lands for snow lands if you want to play this card. I’ll be cubing ~10 snow islands and snow forests to support this little strix. But I’m not super anal about what lands I play, I just like playing good cards. That half-ass approach is also going to get tricky if we get another good snow card (I may run 10 in all colors to support Frostwalk Bastion as well).
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Ice-Fang Coatl
This is an obvious take on Baleful Strix. 1/1 flyer that draws a card for 2 mana.
Strix has deathtouch inherently. Coatl probably won't have deathtouch until about turn 4.
Also, Coatl has flash which makes this guy almost like a combat trick (flashing in a flying deathtouch after attacks are declared).
Honestly, this is probably going to see play in all formats where Strix does, and cube is no exception.
The annoying drawback of course is I guess I now have to replace all my basics with snow lands? (Or just pretend they are all snow lands for the purposes of this card?)
Are there any drawbacks to running all snow basics though? It seems with a card like this, it's just strictly better to do so, whereas before it pretty much made no difference.
I mean, sure, if you wanted to, you could put Freyalise's Radiance in your cube or something, but really?
I guess if you are running Gifts Ungiven, you might want to provide players the option of using both snow and regular so you could grab, say, two islands with it. Never really thought about it before. And I find it kind of annoying.
Some people on the forums here are OCD about snow basics and will never run them even if they get 2-3 solid snow matters cards from this set.
That is the drawback, and the cost. I don't feel like buying 150+ snow lands.
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you mean you don't play snow basics.....yet
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The drawback is nonbasics (that are not snow) as well as Cold Snap and/or Freyalise's Radiance. I talked about it a while ago here: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/593790-snow-cards
Depending on the quality of snow cards, I might as well switch to snow lands, as Scrying Sheets, Cold Snap and Freyalise's Radiance still got me on the fence about the whole ordeal of a snow theme in my cube. :/
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Different subject, but since Snow Cubes are much more likely to also have Unserious cards it will be nice to get new snow-covered lands that have a different expansion symbol and different artists.
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StaffWould anything, ever, change your mind? It seems like the real opportunity cost of swapping all of your basics for Snow basics is so low that it has to at least be worth considering at some point. Would it take 3 new cards? 5? 10? A playable cycle of snow dual lands on par with the duals that make the cut right now?
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I want playable snow duals! ...but not for the purpose of playing snow-themed cards.
Plus, I'm a huge basic land nerd, and my basic land collection I use for my cube basics is one of my favorite parts of deckbuilding and playing. So I'm even less inclined to make the swap than most other cube managers might be.
Snow/Wastes cubes are fine, I just don't think it's for me. It wouldn't dissuade me from guest-drafting another cube, but I have little-to-no interest in doing that for myself.
There are already a lot of justifiable reasons to play S in the cube, and some powerful options that already exist. But it doesn't tempt me much.
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Thawing Caldera
Snow Island Mountain
Thawing Caldera enters the battlefield tapped unless you control another snow permanent.
Basically a Guildgate on turn one, but could reliably be an untapped dual turn 2+ With snow basics. Without snow basics it’d be a fetchable Guildgate.
Could see something like this getting printed. 'snow' is actually not at the root of the card. Could just as easily be "etb tapped unless you control a basic". So that is only slightly better than the traditional core set duals.
Not to mention, when a player drafts my cube for the first time, they get to sign one of the basics from their deck and return it to the cube. I would hate to give up all those signatures.
Good for those who uses snow basics but not worth to buy snow basics for this.
Regular 450 unpowered cube (with some custom cards) - 450 Unpowered