Vilis, Broker of Blood 5BBB
Legendary Creature — Demon
Flying
{B}, Pay 2 life: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Whenever you lose life, draw that many cards. (Damage causes loss of life.)
8/8
Could this be Grizzledaddy 2.0? You need mana to draw cards by itself, but you don't need to "pay" life. Draws 14 when you have both this and Griselbrand!
You also instantly draw 8 when you use Reanimate on this.
- You draw 8 cards if you cheat him into play with Reanimate or Life // Death
- Turns fetch / shocklands / Toxic Deluge / etc into a lot of value
That being said, it’s extremely underwhelming without Reanimate or Life // Death, IMO. No trample makes it weak with Sneak Attack, and those decks usually have black as a splash, so it’s not like you can spam his activated ability.
Probably more powerful than he seems in constructed, but cube being traditionally Singleton really hurts his viability.
I don’t know, I think he’s pretty strong. He’s no Grislebrand, but nothing really is so that’s not really a fair metric. Once he hits play he’s a massive rattlesnake if your opponent can’t kill you then and there and in order for them to kill you they have to give you several cards. 8 power w/ evasion is no joke.
The obvious contender is Griselbrand and I think there is room for both in larger cubes. In smaller cubes, Griselbrand is a mainstay for powered environments. For unpowered cubes that may want a break from Griselbrand, this card seems perfect. As a Reanimate target it’s still a nuts play, but it’s less good with Sneak Attack. I think that could be desirable for really tight cubes that have trouble balancing Griselbrand
Seems like a fine budget Griselbrand. Having to pay mana for the cards is a big downside, but being able to kill things is nice. I will probably just stick to Grisel B for now because I don't want another large, uncastable black creature, but I could see adding this guy to larger cubes or to shake things up.
I don't see how this is bad with sneak attack? If you have black you can deal 8 damage and draw 4 cards for RBB.
Generally sneak attack decks can’t activate BB the turn he comes into play.
If you can it is better with sneak attack than what I was saying for sure.
It’s not “bad” with sneak attack, but generally you need to win the game with a couple activations of sneak attack (or significantly effect the board) and any creature that can’t do that doesn’t qualify as a good target.
In other words, it’s not worth building around sneak attack if your targets aren’t very very good with it. Or you have plenty of other ways of getting those targets out of your hand
Sneak Attack is not the only cheaty card though, there's stuff like Eureka and Show and Tell too and with those cards and I'd be very happy to drop this guy. He's simply the 2nd most powerful black creature ever printed (disregarding CMC) and that means it's probably an easy include at 540+.
Worth noting that it's pretty damn good with Sneak Attack on defense. Take out a critter and draw a bunch of cards while you're at it.
Sneak Attack is not the only cheaty card though, there's stuff like Eureka and Show and Tell too and with those cards and I'd be very happy to drop this guy.
Personally I'm not happy if I'm cheating this into play with Sneak Attack / Eureka / Show and Tell / etc. My non-reanimator Cheaty Face combo decks tend to play black as a tertiary splash for tutors, so I don't see those decks getting a lot of mileage out of his activated ability.
Vilis, Broker of Blood 5BBB
Legendary Creature — Demon
Flying
{B}, Pay 2 life: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Whenever you lose life, draw that many cards. (Damage causes loss of life.)
8/8
Could this be Grizzledaddy 2.0? You need mana to draw cards by itself, but you don't need to "pay" life. Draws 14 when you have both this and Griselbrand!
You also instantly draw 8 when you use Reanimate on this.
On my phone so I can’t post an image. this guy feels very Griselbrand esque:
5BBB
Flying
B, Pay 2 Life: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Whenever you lose life, draw that many cards.
8/8
Worthy of entering the pantheon of Black reanimation targets?
And losing life-link is huge for the engine and for racing.
It’s certainly not “bad”. Maybe large cubes that really want another target could test it out.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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I can see this making larger cubes (540+) and maybe even 450, but I think it's a pass at 360.
360 card powered Chicago cube:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/e7r
2020 Numerical Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/817969-2020-numerical-cube-power-rankings
2018 CubeTutor Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/803301-cubetutor-power-rankings-2018-by-color-and-cmc
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Staff- Turns fetch / shocklands / Toxic Deluge / etc into a lot of value
That being said, it’s extremely underwhelming without Reanimate or Life // Death, IMO. No trample makes it weak with Sneak Attack, and those decks usually have black as a splash, so it’s not like you can spam his activated ability.
Probably more powerful than he seems in constructed, but cube being traditionally Singleton really hurts his viability.
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Generally sneak attack decks can’t activate BB the turn he comes into play.
If you can it is better with sneak attack than what I was saying for sure.
It’s not “bad” with sneak attack, but generally you need to win the game with a couple activations of sneak attack (or significantly effect the board) and any creature that can’t do that doesn’t qualify as a good target.
In other words, it’s not worth building around sneak attack if your targets aren’t very very good with it. Or you have plenty of other ways of getting those targets out of your hand
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
Worth noting that it's pretty damn good with Sneak Attack on defense. Take out a critter and draw a bunch of cards while you're at it.
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StaffPersonally I'm not happy if I'm cheating this into play with Sneak Attack / Eureka / Show and Tell / etc. My non-reanimator Cheaty Face combo decks tend to play black as a tertiary splash for tutors, so I don't see those decks getting a lot of mileage out of his activated ability.
He's simply the 2nd most powerful black creature ever printed (disregarding CMC)
Kind of hard to beat Grave Titan / Griselbrand, IMO.
Worth noting that it's pretty damn good with Sneak Attack on defense. Take out a critter and draw a bunch of cards while you're at it.
The fact that it basically needs to be on defense for its best case scenarios for its trigger is not where I want my Sneak Attack hits to be.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra