MTG Salvation

WOW! Tri-colored cards have to hit a pretty high bar to make it into my cube, but I think this one clears that. I think I'd play this card in almost any Jeskai deck, and it provides even more incentive for the Mentor/Pyromancer decks, which is beloved by many groups. The mana ability is nothing to scoff at either!

Maybe I'm over-hyped because I like these kinds of cards, but this seems like a Slam Dunk for my list at least.

It's definitely a card that will pull people into spells matter and it's in the right colors for it. I play Soulfire Grand Master as my Jeskai card of choice, but most of the time it's a lifelink bear and I'd be happy to swap it out for something more interesting. I could definitely see Kykar being that card, despite the more restrictive casting cost. I'm interested.

This is an easy swap for Soulfire Grand Master for me. The mana cost is a bit intimidating, but spells-matter and creature-light decks are going to be happy to see this guy.

@steve-man, you make a good point but comparing spells to lands when evaluating Kykar doesn't quite hold up, IMHO. First, you play out your lands as quickly as possible. One of the issues with Emeria Angel is that by the time you cast a 4 drop you often don't many land drops left before the game ends. Kykar on the other hand triggers off of action spells, many of which you hold onto until the key turns of a game when they matter most. I feel like it will be much more likely to have a non-zero amount of action spells in your hand than lands on turn four or five.

I really like the design of this card, and I really hate the mana cost. Not sure what the chance of this getting out on turn 4 is, but unless your fixing is really good, it seems like it won't come down until a few turns later, during which time you won't want to be casting your spells, but if you do get it out, it's cool that you can sort of go off with spells left in your hand since you can essentially cast any 1 mana red spells for free. Ultimately though I think this is good in a constructed card, and only decent in cubes and probably not the best choice for most cubes.

Quote from steve_man »

This is essentially a 3-color Emeria Angel, not a good start for a tri-colored card.

Calling this a 3-color Emeria is a bit odd to me. If I've learned anything from playing with cards like Mentor and Saheeli, is that if you untap with them, you often make more than 1 creature. Add in the mana ability here it seems like you can really go off in the best case. I like my tri-colored cards to be somewhere around extremely powerful archetypal support (e.g. Sphinx of the Steel Wind) and generically powerful (e.g. Nicol Bolas, the Ravager). This card plays both roles, as it can be a value card in a generic control shell, and a super potent archetypal card in the spells deck.

Quote from steve_man »

Emeria Angel also is less restrictive since every deck is playing a good amount of lands where this is 3-colored and demands non-creature spells.

Jeskai decks in my cube usually have between 22 and 13 non-creature spells. I really can't remember the last 10+ creature Jeskai deck I had. it's possible this is just my cube, but I'm fairly certain in any Jeskai deck, this is quite better than Emeria. So I don't think the fact that it "demands non-creature spells" makes it more restrictive than Emeria since you're only playing it in a Jeskai deck. That's the restriction: three colors. So I get if it doesn't hit your bar for that.

Again, I could be biased here because this is my kind of card. But I think comparing the card to Emeria is disingenuous.

I think anyone who runs "rainbow" sections including creature(s) with 3 or more colors should swap out their current option here (likely Mantis Rider or Soulfire Grand Master) for this.

This card has me thinking about running a 1 card rainbow section for tricolor cards as part of my plans to expand my cube size. Too bad there are still several wedges without a good option.

I'm a fan. I've got a slot for this, but as a mythic, I'll probably never own a copy unless it withers away under two dollars.

These are my kind of cards but I think this one comes up short. Spells matters cards get exponentially worse at higher mana cost. 2-3 is the sweet spot. By 5 docent of perfection shows that it is too late and clunky. For anyone interested in this put Tallrand in first and get 2/2 flyers instead. For 3 colors of mana I would want this to be a lord or 3/5 vigilance or something.

Quote from dschumm »

These are my kind of cards but I think this one comes up short. Spells matters cards get exponentially worse at higher mana cost. 2-3 is the sweet spot. By 5 docent of perfection shows that it is too late and clunky. For anyone interested in this put Tallrand in first and get 2/2 flyers instead. For 3 colors of mana I would want this to be a lord or 3/5 vigilance or something.

Non-creature clause is a pretty big difference between this and Tallrand. I definitely would have liked a bit more toughenss for 3-colors. Reminds me of Sidisi in that way.

I’ll just have to disagree. Most of my spells decks are light on walkers and artifacts so it is usually just spells. Talrand often plays out in turn 6 with countermagic up. Next turn a good draw spell and off to the races with a horde of flyers. Mentor snow balls the same way. TitI is almost a combo/upheaval thing. Young Pyromancer gets down early and generates a ton of value for 2 mana. Saheeli plays out differently because it’s hard to kill. This I’m not sure without trying it.

Quote from noshadowkick »

It's definitely a card that will pull people into spells matter and it's in the right colors for it. I play Soulfire Grand Master as my Jeskai card of choice, but most of the time it's a lifelink bear and I'd be happy to swap it out for something more interesting. I could definitely see Kykar being that card, despite the more restrictive casting cost. I'm interested.

Same, and same, and Jeskai spells matter is a real deck. I expect it will end up being 1 mana too expensive, but I'm excited to try it. REALLY wish it was a 3/4.

Not a big fan...I want something REALLY good for a 3 color card...something significantly better than I can get from a single color card. And I prefer the payoff from Monastery Mentor to this card.

The base stats of 3/3 flier for 4 and three colors is also very underwhelming...par for the course nowadays is a 4/5 flyer for 4 in a single color.

I'd rather get a 1/1 with prowess than a 1/1 with flying, as the prowess dudes really get out of hand in terms of damage easily and lead to instant speed blowouts.

Furthermore, these are not good colors for Storm combo, and I'd rather just have Baral, Chief of Compliance in a storm deck.

I'm sure it's a fine card, but I don't know if I'd support it.

It's another card in the Mentor/Pyromancer/Talrand/Saheeli line , with it's unique strength coming in the form of generating mana with the 1/1's.

Generally in spells matters decks you are trying to churn through your deck with cantrips and/or hopefully protect the enabler with counter magic.
Unless there was a key spell that needed casting, sacrifing the 1/1 to make a R doesn't seem worth it very often?
Maybe it could help enable some sort of storm engine in a storm cube?
If the card is better than it looks (to me), it'll be because I'm underestimating this ability.

At first glance I'd compare this in function to Talrand, except triggering off non-creature spells instead of instants/sorceries is big for cube.

It's pretty clear to me she's considerably worse than monastery mentor, while being much more narrow. Haven't really felt like I needed another mentor effect, especially with the addition of sahelli (who has slightly underperformed).

3 vs 4 mana for an engine effect like this is a pretty big deal, especially with the engine body dying to lightning bolt.

I like it, and I plan to test it.

This is to the spells matters deck what Emeria Angel is to a lands matters deck. Except Jeskai supports a spells matters theme... which is why I expect it to be a far better card than Emeria Angel is in the cube.

I think this is close to Talrand, Sky Summoner. But better in a few meaningful ways, which I expect to show pretty routinely.

Staple? Nope. But I think this will be a serviceable role-player in several different Jeskai builds, not to mention being a lot of fun. Plus, I have a slot for a Jeskai card, and I'm not in love with SGM, so it should be a relatively easy card to test.

Soulfire Grand Master has always been filler. Kykar may also end up being filler, but at least it will be something new to try and pull people into an archetype. After some thought and discussion with wtwlf on Twitter, I've come around on Kykar and will test them.

Cheers,
rant

This card is also pretty good in the Storm Archetype since every NC spell you cast can add a R to your manapool. It really helps not to screw your storm sequence while providing an alternative wincon. Seems like a very versatile card to me! The only downside is its manacost.

Is there really such a large gap in powerlevel between this card an Murmuring Mystic? Mystic is monocolored and does not die to burn. This one has some upside, but for most cubes there is only a single wedge-slot. Which actually means they don't fight over a spot in cube, but still, I'm not really that high on this card.

It attacks much better than mystic and triggers on all non-creatures, so assuming you can cast it, this is substantially better.

How has Kykar held up since his inclusion? I opted to go with Soulfire Grand Master as my Jeskai card and was interested to know if the folks that tried Kykar found him underwhelming or better than expected?

It's been very good for us in the spellsmatter.deck. It's essentially a young pyromancer on drugs, note that any spell (except creatures) triggers the ability, and the tokens also have flying which is relevant. The sac effect has also come up.

My drafters have shown no interest in it so far, so I have no idea how it would perform. I'm strongly considering swapping Grand Master back in because at least he got drafted and played sometimes.

Cheers,
rant

Quote from rantipole »

My drafters have shown no interest in it so far, so I have no idea how it would perform. I'm strongly considering swapping Grand Master back in because at least he got drafted and played sometimes.

Cheers,
rant

This seems to be an inherent problem with tri color cards in general that aren't big stat monsters. I don't think Kykar has seen any play yet here, either.

I drafted it yesterday in a jeskai moat deck, but never drew it unfortunately.