MTG Salvation

So, this is probably going to be the last thread I ever create on this forum, so I’ll preface this by saying thanks for everything, and I hope to see you all wherever this community heads next. It’s been real.

This card seems pretty fantastic to me. For starters, it’s a strictly better Mulch. That’s the half of the card we will likely use less often, but it still has plenty of uses in filling up the graveyard and ensuring you hit lands in certain scenarios, along with possible lands matter applications. At the very least, it’s nice backup mode for certain situations; you can think of it as a form of landcycling with extra utility

The creature mode, on the other hand, is a really powerful piece of card advantage. In a green deck running 20 creatures, this will average out to drawing 2 pieces of action whenever you cast this, along with filling up the graveyard for recursion. That’s an incredible rate for 1G, a sort of green Chart a Course. The easy comparison is with Lead the Stampede, but at 2 mana this doesn’t have to compete with planeswalkers and offers several forms of extra utility in exchange for missing out on the 5th card. Rarely will this miss, and even when it misses it digs you toward action. And if you’re deathly afraid of missing, cube offers several ways to look at and set up the top of your library to ensure hits.

I’ve had a few card evaluation misses in the past few sets, but I feel quite certain this card is fantastic and should be in many, many cubes.

While a deck with 20 creatures can hit 2 of 'em about 75% of the time, 20 creatures is a lot. And even creature-heavy decks don't often reach 20 creatures.

In a deck with say, 15 creatures in it, Winding Way has a 46% chance of hitting 0-1 cards. Which is way too big a chance, IMO. Lead the Stampede does cost 1 more mana, but digging a 5th card deep drops its 0-1 card "miss" rate to under 30% in that same deck, which is a lot more reasonable a floor.

20 is definitely a high creature count for all but the most focused decks, but I’m not so concerned about hitting only 1 creature off of this, as that is roughly an Impulse (considering you named creature, you presumably wanted an action spell anyway). Whiffing entirely is another story, but even then you’re digging towards action. In the comparison to Lead the Stampede, I’m not convinced that 2/5 of a card is worth an extra 1, the inability to hit lands, and not filling your graveyard. Being uncastable or not drawing what you need seems like a way bigger floor.

I think calling it an Impulse if you hit 1 creature is a bit of an exaggeration. Since you have no choice, have to pick a type before the spell is played, cast it as a sorcery, and can only ever hit lands or creatures.

I think this card is ultimately too inconsistent and too narrow in this format.

This looks like a much worse, green Strategic Planning to me.

Except that you do have a choice, and you made it when you cast the spell and named creature or land. Mulch is a very real card that is exactly what you need sometimes, but is uncubable by virtue of never giving you the chance to hit action. This does. Granted this doesn’t have full selective power of a full Impulse in that, but even then it fills the graveyard.

The card exists at the weird intersection of draw spell, enabler, and cantrip, and it looks weak if you only look at it as one or the other. Which is why I think Chart a Course is the best comparison. As a card advantage spell, it is unreliable. As a graveyard enabler, it’s only useful in certain scenarios. As a cantrip, it’s not especially powerful or cheap. But combined, they add up to a powerful package.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. The ability to choose between options after you look at them is a huge difference. And there are a ton of decks that want to be able to grab things other than just creatures or lands, which makes this far more narrow in its application than something like Impulse or Strategic Planning or Chart a Course is.

I think it's to narrow and too inconsistent to be something I want to cube with.

Edit: But as always, you know your group a hell of a lot better than I do, and if you think there are decks that you guys play that would be stoked to have this, give it a spin! Doesn't hurt, right? I was just sharing the reasoning behind why we're not super interested in the card. All the best man.

Heh, no problem at all. I do think the card is suited more towards unpowered cubes where green midrange decks have more of a fair, grindy nature and high creature counts as opposed to having Channel, NO, etc to land knockout blows. But there I expect it to be great. Best of luck with the new set, so many of these cards seem fantastic. Do you have one last top 20 up your sleeve for the road?

Quote from TheTennesseeFireman »

Do you have one last top 20 up your sleeve for the road?

Not sure yet. There might be one for M20, but I'm not 100% on that.

All the best man. Cheers, and happy cubing.

this Card stood out to me when scanning the spoilers. But not so much for cube.

Where I think it’s best in cube is as a self mill graveyard enabler, in a recurring nightmare type deck. I played a lot of mulch in its standard season and the card is great if you can mill things like unburial rites, lingering souls and things to reanimate.

The bi-modal nature of having the option to hit creatures or lands makes it much better than mulch. If I’m mana screwed , I name lands. If I’m flooding or it’s late game, I name creatures.

It’s great in cube if self milling gains considerable value, but I’m skeptical its good when stocking your graveyard doesn’t matter much. even In decks where it’s a solid source of card advantage (1.6-1.7 cards on either mode). Do I want to be spending 2 mana off in a creature deck to get that value? Explosivity is very important in those decks... it’s also weakening other creature synergies in the deck , by not being a creature.

Seems pretty narrow, and only a decent playable in the decks it qualifies for. Maybe self mill value gives it a higher ceiling than I’m estimating.

In a constructed strategy of like 40 lands and graveyard synergies, the card seems insane. I don’t know how tight legacy lands is , but a 2 mana draw 3 and mill life from the loam has to be at least solid?

It's an improved Mulch. Mulch was OK in constructed, but nowhere close to being a cube card.

At least 95% of decks have more lands than creatures, so I see this on average being used as Mulch, with some nice upsides especially if you have cards like Top or JTMS to stack the top of the library.

As is, I think it could possibly see some constructed play, but I don't see it as a viable cube card.