There has been some discussion about these cards in various other threads (the thread for Glasspool Mimic was especially off-topic), but I thought it'd be interesting to have a dedicated place to discuss these special new cards ZNR gave us: the ones that can be played either as a spell, or a non-basic, ETBT land that taps for the color the spell requires.
I only drafted once so my experience is still rather limited at this point, but I did see some interesting things I hadn't thought of before - I'm sure people who've had the chance to test will have some valuable input.
The first observation I made is how nice it feels to have a deck that instead of having 17, or one more or less lands, instead has between 16 and 18 lands depending on when the MDFCs come out. It does make a big difference. Drawing an opener with 3 basics means your MDFCs will likely be extra gas down the road instead of dead draws. On the other hand, as they ETBT your deck must be able to 'afford' them somewhat; if your deck is aggressive that negative aspect of the card will probably outweigh the benefit of the 'bonus' spell side. I do think that most midrange and control decks will really like having access to 1-2 of these lands.
Another observation is the random synergies that come up. I thought that would be a rare thing (I thought, how often will I even *want* to Mystical Tutor for a land?) but was surprised by the things that already came up that first draft: extra cards to pitch to Force of Will/Force of Virtue, an extra creature for Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman to discard or sac to Eldritch Evolution; 2 extra creatures for an aristocrats deck; even Skyclave Cleric providing an extra ETB effect for a deck with some blink synergies. You might think I'm cherry picking examples, but these are all interactions that actually came up in the very first draft. I mean, I was expecting some cute interactions, but not this many this quickly.
More testing is required, but so far I'm happy with the impact these cards are making in our high power environment.
Played multiple games tonight with the new cards and all of them made it in main decks. Everyone thought they felt good, especially during deck construction! Bala Ged Recovery in particular is the most liked. We think it belongs in every deck with green in it except maybe green aggro, but we dont support. One of us already played it from the top of the deck with Oracle of Mul Daya and felt awesome to push lands out from a spell card. The mythic ones all were played as lands so far (minus the blue one, not in) but see the potential in casting them, especially in longer games. We are considering to try Kazandu Mammoth, Glasspool Mimic, Sea Gate Restoration and maybe Tangled Florahedron and Spikefield Hazard next now that we seen how useful lands as spells can be. I could see the mammoth and florahedron being used in the Survival Jund deck that was played tonight easily. As Fredo said, 1 or 2 of them as "lands" feel really good in non-aggro decks. Excited to try them out and to see more new spell lands in the future.
I haven't had the chance to try out the cards yet but to me, most of these cards seems absurdly good and helps to combat one of magics main problem: mana screws or flooding. This mechanic could very well be the best thing that's been added to MtG. Even if the cards themselves are slightly underpowered compared to corresponding cards without the land ability, they should IMO be an auto-include in unpowered cubes. Here are the benefits, as I see it:
* You essentially play more spells in your deck with low to no downsides (for aggro decks this might be different, since they generally want lands untapped early on reliably)
* They reduce the number of games that are decided by mana-scew since they can act as additional basic lands
* They reduce the number of games that are decided by flooding since they can act as additional spells
My philosophy of cube'ing is to have fair games where skill is rewarded more than chance. Of course there will always be an element of randomness in MtG, and it's also part of the fun, however losing due to mana-scews or mana-flood just isn't fun.
The main downside of the cards is it's slightly inconvenient to keep flipping the cards back and forth from the sleeves.
I'll report back when I've had the chance to try them.
So far, so good. MDFCs are great, and I recently added even more of them in. I'm currently playing 13 of 'em, and that number's probably lower than it should be.
But the majority of spells is just so unimpressive on their spell side, to the point where I rather have another more flexible spell.
Take Hagra Mauling for example. For 4 mana I rather have Vraska's Contempt with exile upside, 2 lifegain upside and the modality upside that it can also exile a Planeswalker instead. That makes these cards so hard to evaluate. Hagra Mauling is a bad removal spell if you want a removal spell compared to alternatives in that slot and the tap land option does not help in each game. So how are the odds for situations where it shines and where it sucks compared to Vraska's Contempt - I really don't know.
Spikefield Hazard is currently tied for the third highest playrate card from this set in standard, but with the banning of Uro that playrate will likely drop. With that said I haven't had the opportunity to play this set at all due to Xmage not updating yet, and me and my playgroup were considering trying it over Flames of the Firebrand/Arc Lightning.
Has anybody who has played extensively with the card let me know how good it has been for them? It's clearly great, but is it more of a tech card or does it tend to be very easy to find ping targets? Cube definitely has more good 1 health targets than standard and pioneer but Uro is obviously a much smaller deal here, so how well does it likely translate over?
Until Lotus Cobra is banned, I don't see Spikefield Hazard's playrate going down in Standard. There's a lot of important X/1s in standard: Cobra, Edgewall Innkeeper, various Rogues. No experience with it in cube, though.
Obviously its still a land, but I think you want the ping side to be useful in most of your matchups. In standard, every single deck plays either 1 health creatures or Uro, and oftentimes both, so the ping half is a big deal in every single matchup you play. This will always make your maindeck in cube, but im more wondering if this will get sideboarded out so often that it doesn't feel like it's worth a pick.
Like in control and artifact ramp matchups, Arc Lightning can still kill planeswalkers and even go face for lethal, but I'm worried that as a tapland in cube, spikefield might not have enough matchups where it's good to the extent that it ends up not being worth a slot? I hope that question makes sense, I'm not totally sure how to phrase it. Pinging mana dorks and aggro 1/2-drops and deranged hermits is great value for a land, but does it ever stay in your maindeck after game 1 in enough matchups?
Obviously its still a land, but I think you want the ping side to be useful in most of your matchups. In standard, every single deck plays either 1 health creatures or Uro, and oftentimes both, so the ping half is a big deal in every single matchup you play. This will always make your maindeck in cube, but im more wondering if this will get sideboarded out so often that it doesn't feel like it's worth a pick.
Like in control and artifact ramp matchups, Arc Lightning can still kill planeswalkers and even go face for lethal, but I'm worried that as a tapland in cube, spikefield might not have enough matchups where it's good to the extent that it ends up not being worth a slot? I hope that question makes sense, I'm not totally sure how to phrase it. Pinging mana dorks and aggro 1/2-drops and deranged hermits is great value for a land, but does it ever stay in your maindeck after game 1 in enough matchups?
I think a tapped land is a decent floor for a card in matchups that don't have 1 toughness creatures.
In matchups without small creatures, arc lightning is often a 3 mana volcanic hammer. While that is an acceptable floor, it is not a good card and should be boarded out if possible. Like an ETB tapped land + random utility.
I agree it's likely better in standard than in cube
I saw 3 drafts worth of decks since including ZNR and the MDFC lands.
My conclusion so far is that the value of these lands is not as much in how strong the spell effect is, but how likely you are to cast it in a given game. If you need the land, you play it as a land and thank your lucky stars it wasn't another spell; that much is obvious. If you get to play the spell side, it matters very little how powerful the effect you got is. Any effect is better than a land would have offered, and many of these lands offer quite solid effects. Unassuming cards like Skyclave Cleric and Blackbloom Rogue can do a lot for a deck, IMO much more than the negative impact of having more lands in your deck enter the battlefield tapped [EDIT: I should mention that I do NOT include ETBT spells in a deck that cannot afford this, such as aggro]. Cards like Song-Mad Treachery, Bala Ged Recovery, Glasspool Mimic can win games easily. Conversely, the big splashy spells on the boltlands had 0 impact so far (the red burn spell excepted, which is as awesome as it looks on paper) so I came down a bit on them; although I don't think the black one was in any of the draft pools, so I really mean the white and green one (in that order).
Tl;dr: I'm happy with most of these lands, and am likely to bring in even more in a next update. The flexibility is awesome. If your deck is not likely to be able to cast the spell side (or cannot afford to have lands ETB tapped), you're probably better off with a basic land instead.
Thanks so much for sharing this info - I'm eager to hear from others as well!
My group has been drafting every other week so we've had a similar number of drafts and reviews have been positive. I haven't played the rogue or the threaten one yet, but your report inspires me to give them a try.
I haven't gotten to cast the white bolt land yet, but I did get to cast the green one several times in a mono G ramp deck, and it has been great.
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I only drafted once so my experience is still rather limited at this point, but I did see some interesting things I hadn't thought of before - I'm sure people who've had the chance to test will have some valuable input.
The first observation I made is how nice it feels to have a deck that instead of having 17, or one more or less lands, instead has between 16 and 18 lands depending on when the MDFCs come out. It does make a big difference. Drawing an opener with 3 basics means your MDFCs will likely be extra gas down the road instead of dead draws. On the other hand, as they ETBT your deck must be able to 'afford' them somewhat; if your deck is aggressive that negative aspect of the card will probably outweigh the benefit of the 'bonus' spell side. I do think that most midrange and control decks will really like having access to 1-2 of these lands.
Another observation is the random synergies that come up. I thought that would be a rare thing (I thought, how often will I even *want* to Mystical Tutor for a land?) but was surprised by the things that already came up that first draft: extra cards to pitch to Force of Will/Force of Virtue, an extra creature for Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman to discard or sac to Eldritch Evolution; 2 extra creatures for an aristocrats deck; even Skyclave Cleric providing an extra ETB effect for a deck with some blink synergies. You might think I'm cherry picking examples, but these are all interactions that actually came up in the very first draft. I mean, I was expecting some cute interactions, but not this many this quickly.
More testing is required, but so far I'm happy with the impact these cards are making in our high power environment.
Please share your thoughts and findings!
* You essentially play more spells in your deck with low to no downsides (for aggro decks this might be different, since they generally want lands untapped early on reliably)
* They reduce the number of games that are decided by mana-scew since they can act as additional basic lands
* They reduce the number of games that are decided by flooding since they can act as additional spells
My philosophy of cube'ing is to have fair games where skill is rewarded more than chance. Of course there will always be an element of randomness in MtG, and it's also part of the fun, however losing due to mana-scews or mana-flood just isn't fun.
The main downside of the cards is it's slightly inconvenient to keep flipping the cards back and forth from the sleeves.
I'll report back when I've had the chance to try them.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Edit: Sorry for the short answer above ...I was running low on time. Here's a list of the ones I'm currently running:
Emeria's Call
Skyclave Cleric
Jwari Disruption
Glasspool Mimic
Sea Gate Restoration
Agadeem's Awakening
Hagra Mauling
Shatterskull Smashing
Spikefield Hazard
Turntimber Symbiosis
Bala Ged Recovery
Kazandu Mammoth
Tangled Florahedron
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
But the majority of spells is just so unimpressive on their spell side, to the point where I rather have another more flexible spell.
Take Hagra Mauling for example. For 4 mana I rather have Vraska's Contempt with exile upside, 2 lifegain upside and the modality upside that it can also exile a Planeswalker instead. That makes these cards so hard to evaluate. Hagra Mauling is a bad removal spell if you want a removal spell compared to alternatives in that slot and the tap land option does not help in each game. So how are the odds for situations where it shines and where it sucks compared to Vraska's Contempt - I really don't know.
Has anybody who has played extensively with the card let me know how good it has been for them? It's clearly great, but is it more of a tech card or does it tend to be very easy to find ping targets? Cube definitely has more good 1 health targets than standard and pioneer but Uro is obviously a much smaller deal here, so how well does it likely translate over?
[180 classic cube]
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Like in control and artifact ramp matchups, Arc Lightning can still kill planeswalkers and even go face for lethal, but I'm worried that as a tapland in cube, spikefield might not have enough matchups where it's good to the extent that it ends up not being worth a slot? I hope that question makes sense, I'm not totally sure how to phrase it. Pinging mana dorks and aggro 1/2-drops and deranged hermits is great value for a land, but does it ever stay in your maindeck after game 1 in enough matchups?
I think a tapped land is a decent floor for a card in matchups that don't have 1 toughness creatures.
In matchups without small creatures, arc lightning is often a 3 mana volcanic hammer. While that is an acceptable floor, it is not a good card and should be boarded out if possible. Like an ETB tapped land + random utility.
I agree it's likely better in standard than in cube
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My conclusion so far is that the value of these lands is not as much in how strong the spell effect is, but how likely you are to cast it in a given game. If you need the land, you play it as a land and thank your lucky stars it wasn't another spell; that much is obvious. If you get to play the spell side, it matters very little how powerful the effect you got is. Any effect is better than a land would have offered, and many of these lands offer quite solid effects. Unassuming cards like Skyclave Cleric and Blackbloom Rogue can do a lot for a deck, IMO much more than the negative impact of having more lands in your deck enter the battlefield tapped [EDIT: I should mention that I do NOT include ETBT spells in a deck that cannot afford this, such as aggro]. Cards like Song-Mad Treachery, Bala Ged Recovery, Glasspool Mimic can win games easily. Conversely, the big splashy spells on the boltlands had 0 impact so far (the red burn spell excepted, which is as awesome as it looks on paper) so I came down a bit on them; although I don't think the black one was in any of the draft pools, so I really mean the white and green one (in that order).
Tl;dr: I'm happy with most of these lands, and am likely to bring in even more in a next update. The flexibility is awesome. If your deck is not likely to be able to cast the spell side (or cannot afford to have lands ETB tapped), you're probably better off with a basic land instead.
My group has been drafting every other week so we've had a similar number of drafts and reviews have been positive. I haven't played the rogue or the threaten one yet, but your report inspires me to give them a try.
I haven't gotten to cast the white bolt land yet, but I did get to cast the green one several times in a mono G ramp deck, and it has been great.