Kind of sort of Esika's Chariot x Questing Beast, which have been two of the more exciting green cards to have come out since 2019. This also being a persist enabler gives it a solid niche. I like the versatility of Arlinn, to me she's a pretty strong Gruul contender after W6 / Dragonlord Atarka / BBE.
- create 2 2/2 tokens for 4 CMC - pretty good deal.
- Persist enabler is absolutely a god send.
- +2 mana can be insane in decks trying to curve in 6-7 CMC (land spells/ Survival targets etc).
This card is insane in deck build, insane with to play around. Absolutely loving this.
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I waffle back and forth on arlinn, but I'm interested enough to test her. She's definitely good, but I'm not sure how well she stacks up to the other tier-2 gruul cards.
As far as planeswalkers that can effect the board right away and get value through removal, she's up there with the best of them.
Her -3 is very close to a 3 mana card worth of value, that is on game plan with the color combination. Makes a card like hero's downfall embarrassing.
Her great fragility after she -3's, difficulty generating value repeatedly and lack of removal gives me pause... but the initial value , value spread throughout multiple permanents and the potential to finish the game fast is a strong enough combination for me to give her a whirl.
If she goes -3 on curve and the opponent has no plays next turn it will be devastating.
If you can't follow with a creature the turn after playing this, I feel like this card will not be great, regardless of it's fantastic minus ability. I'm sceptical about this one.
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Love this as a persist combo enabler that happens to be solid on its own. Not as big on this as a generic goodstuff card without other ways in your deck to have her enter Nightbound.
That's a lot of board presence when it comes down, and giving creatures flash is always fun.
Hold on, does she transform into.... Gideon?
She's much worse than Gideon. Notice that damage inflicted to her isn't prevented, so she still loses counters, and thus still dies when she reaches 0. Making her indestructible is almost useless, to be frank.
EDIT: My bad, when she uses that ability she's no longer a planeswalker. So I guess she's closer to Gideon than I thought, though she doesn't die to Heartless Act like he does.
I've kind of wanted to slot in a way to go infinite with Bombardment for the decks that run it and redcap as a little bonus, and this is pretty good on its own. I'll probably test it.
I've kind of wanted to slot in a way to go infinite with Bombardment for the decks that run it and redcap as a little bonus, and this is pretty good on its own. I'll probably test it.
Yah - I would love to have another Goblin Bombardment variant. I really like how the persist enablers are becoming more decent creature deck value cards and less all-in.
I really love drafting these creature decks that contain flavors of infinite combo, tokens, flicker, aristocrats, recursion etc.
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This seems better than Huntmaster which our group always liked more than most, but it’s hard to justify keeping Huntermaster over this. I like the Esika’s Chariot comparison by the OP. A Chariot that gets a potential Gideon-esque planeswalker at low loyalty instead of a crew 4 4/4 vehicle seems like an upgrade, even considering the multi requirement.
I fear that Arlinn suffers from a “Third turn” problem. The turn she comes out and creates 4 power for 4 mana, she is perfectly decent. The second turn she is out and you +1 and pass to hold up surprise blockers (or bluffing) and transform her, she is decent.
If your opponent cast 2 spells on their next turn, though, there is a decent chance that your best or most relevant creature from hand will already be flashed onto the battlefield and using that +1 again will likely feel unsatisfying.
I also feel that werewolves have to be treated as punisher cards to a certain extent. This isn’t huntmaster, where every transformation inherently grants value. If you throw down a goblin bombardment too early, your opponent will likely refuse do their best to rob you of your persist enabler. If they can’t take Gideon-type damage or you are low on cards in hand, they will likely try to keep this card on day mode.
While you can certainly play this card in certain decks with the plan of forcing players to miss tempo or to force them to cast everything early, this card still seems like a bit of a risk.
I think the play pattern is quite limited. Put 2 wolves, then of opponent does nothing next turn (unlikely), you can attack with 9 power. If not you will likely use the +1 to skip the turn, Transform her and flash something. Dunno, seems needlessly complex for a vanilla effect.
The persist combo is something though, if you want an additional piece.
I think the play pattern is quite limited. Put 2 wolves, then of opponent does nothing next turn (unlikely), you can attack with 9 power. If not you will likely use the +1 to skip the turn, Transform her and flash something. Dunno, seems needlessly complex for a vanilla effect.
The persist combo is something though, if you want an additional piece.
If the opponent plays something, on the following turn, you can use her +1. Then you can choose to put a creature into play to deny the flip or pass the turn, transform and then flash in the creature.
What I like about this is her +1 allows you to "choose" if you want to flip her or not. The ability to flash in creatures such as Vannifar, Flickerwisp etc. could be very exciting.
The persist +1/+1 enablers are the least parasitic part of Melira combo - the bottleneck is with the free sacrifice outlets. I would love to move the Melira combo to be more of an "incidental" combo rather than the Melira combo entirely focused on assembling ASAP, but I feel the bottleneck is with good sacrifice outlets that can win the game + provides incidental value - in particular BloodThrone Vampire, Carrion Feeder or Goblin Bombardment.
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It's a cool Persist enabler, perhaps as a replacement for Rhythm of the Wild or Grumgully, the Generous in that slot. That might be enough mileage to see some cube play.
Kind of sort of Esika's Chariot x Questing Beast, which have been two of the more exciting green cards to have come out since 2019. This also being a persist enabler gives it a solid niche. I like the versatility of Arlinn, to me she's a pretty strong Gruul contender after W6 / Dragonlord Atarka / BBE.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
- create 2 2/2 tokens for 4 CMC - pretty good deal.
- Persist enabler is absolutely a god send.
- +2 mana can be insane in decks trying to curve in 6-7 CMC (land spells/ Survival targets etc).
This card is insane in deck build, insane with to play around. Absolutely loving this.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
As far as planeswalkers that can effect the board right away and get value through removal, she's up there with the best of them.
Her -3 is very close to a 3 mana card worth of value, that is on game plan with the color combination. Makes a card like hero's downfall embarrassing.
Her great fragility after she -3's, difficulty generating value repeatedly and lack of removal gives me pause... but the initial value , value spread throughout multiple permanents and the potential to finish the game fast is a strong enough combination for me to give her a whirl.
If she goes -3 on curve and the opponent has no plays next turn it will be devastating.
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Hold on, does she transform into.... Gideon?
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She's much worse than Gideon. Notice that damage inflicted to her isn't prevented, so she still loses counters, and thus still dies when she reaches 0. Making her indestructible is almost useless, to be frank.
EDIT: My bad, when she uses that ability she's no longer a planeswalker. So I guess she's closer to Gideon than I thought, though she doesn't die to Heartless Act like he does.
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Yah - I would love to have another Goblin Bombardment variant. I really like how the persist enablers are becoming more decent creature deck value cards and less all-in.
I really love drafting these creature decks that contain flavors of infinite combo, tokens, flicker, aristocrats, recursion etc.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
If your opponent cast 2 spells on their next turn, though, there is a decent chance that your best or most relevant creature from hand will already be flashed onto the battlefield and using that +1 again will likely feel unsatisfying.
I also feel that werewolves have to be treated as punisher cards to a certain extent. This isn’t huntmaster, where every transformation inherently grants value. If you throw down a goblin bombardment too early, your opponent will likely refuse do their best to rob you of your persist enabler. If they can’t take Gideon-type damage or you are low on cards in hand, they will likely try to keep this card on day mode.
While you can certainly play this card in certain decks with the plan of forcing players to miss tempo or to force them to cast everything early, this card still seems like a bit of a risk.
The persist combo is something though, if you want an additional piece.
If the opponent plays something, on the following turn, you can use her +1. Then you can choose to put a creature into play to deny the flip or pass the turn, transform and then flash in the creature.
What I like about this is her +1 allows you to "choose" if you want to flip her or not. The ability to flash in creatures such as Vannifar, Flickerwisp etc. could be very exciting.
The persist +1/+1 enablers are the least parasitic part of Melira combo - the bottleneck is with the free sacrifice outlets. I would love to move the Melira combo to be more of an "incidental" combo rather than the Melira combo entirely focused on assembling ASAP, but I feel the bottleneck is with good sacrifice outlets that can win the game + provides incidental value - in particular BloodThrone Vampire, Carrion Feeder or Goblin Bombardment.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms: