Planeswalker as a combat trick is cool. 2/2s with vigilance means she can defend herself well. At first glance I think she's at least on par with Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis, which was playable. Stacked slot is stacked, but I think she has good potential, so I'll probably give her a test.
This is combat trick on a stick PLUS removal on a stick.
The fact you can flash -2 to exile a tapped creature during declare blocks &2 life or give a creature first strike & +1/1 is big.
Super flexible and reusable.
A pretty common line is gonna be flash it in, exile an attacking creature (BEFORE it hits you), gain 2 life, and be left with a 1 loyalty PW in play. And that's not even considering the times when you can flash her in to make your blocker win combat and then you get a removal spell and a 4 loyalty PW, plus an improved creature. As someone who wants combat tricks to be good (but they are never good enough for cube), I will likely test this.
That being said, even just for 4cmc PWs, this competes with the best Gideon and OG elspeth, and that's a steep ask.
really like this card design but the slot is just too full of other staples. will definitely pick if I see it in another persons cube and this seems like a great walker for mid-powered environments.
A 4 mana walker with flash that generates 2/2 tokens
The 3rd mode is basically the failsafe if modes 1 and 2 aren't relevant. It's a decent line, but definitely not cubeworthy on its own. So how about modes 1 and 2? The combat trick mode is the most compelling, as it's a decisive 2-for-1 that should advance your board state (assuming you don't get "blown out"). The downside, of course, is that Battlefield Promotion isn't going to be effective on terribly many board states. As for the Expel mode, it gives some nice flexibility for aggressive/midrange decks, and it'll be the standard for control decks. The problem is that if you're left with the Emperor at 1 loyalty and no board, you're not going to be getting much mileage out of her. For that reason, I don't think the combination of Expel/Walker modes is terribly exciting for control decks. I find the combat trick/walker mode combination much more appealing for aggressive/midrange decks, but now she's competing directly with White's ridiculous suite of 4-cmc walkers, and I don't think she's ever beating them out. So overall, while she boasts a lot of flexibility, I don't think she'll ever feel like an outstanding pick.
Will test because of cool factor.
At least close to good enough in power level.
More a control card than it's competition, but I like that it works well as a hybrid answer/win condition in draw/go control.
Competing with #3 4cmc white planeswalker with serra, but wandering emperor's gameplay is cooler.
I actually think this might be in the top 3 planeswalkers in white. Might test over Elspeth or Gideon, AoZ.
Cheers,
rant
This card has looked very good in Cube so far and is catching on in modern too. Flash on a PW is big news with a combination of token generation, removal and combat tricks. I recommend testing for those who haven't.
This card has looked very good in Cube so far and is catching on in modern too. Flash on a PW is big news with a combination of token generation, removal and combat tricks. I recommend testing for those who haven't.
Still don't know what to cut for this. I just cut BSA for Lion Sash. Not ready to let go of Elspeth or Gideon. Ugh! Cuts have gotten so difficult.
This has played a lot worse that I expected. Definitely don’t think it deserves a spot among W 4s, which are just insane.
Maybe could you explain what you expected? I expected this to be Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis tier but for Azorius and Jeskai flash decks instead of tokens and humans aggro. Turns out the card is just great in a lot of different types of decks, and the flash play pattern can be valuable no matter what you’re playing (from my perspective). Also the power of the diversity of abilities outweighs the low loyalty.
This did not play particularly well for me in testing, and I didn't feel inclined to play it in my cube after testing it out. It felt like a replacement-level 4cc 'walker in my list, but I could see it being really strong in an unpowered list focussed on combat. I think that was how Ryan Overturf described his cube experience with the card thus far, and I'm inclined to agree with him in this case.
I expected this to be Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis tier but for Azorius and Jeskai flash decks instead of tokens and humans aggro. Turns out the card is just great in a lot of different types of decks, and the flash play pattern can be valuable no matter what you’re playing (from my perspective). Also the power of the diversity of abilities outweighs the low loyalty.
This has been playing well for us. As I expected, she's overall in the middle of the pack of planeswalkers for me in this slot: below Elspeth, Knight-Errant / Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, about even with Serra the Benevolent, and above Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis. Having flash carries a lot of weight for control in terms of being able to keep your mana open and surprising your opponent with a combat trick.
For me at 720 the slot was The Wandering Emperor vs Serra the Benevolent, and for now I’ve gone with The Wandering Emperor. I do run “the big 2” white walkers and don’t currently run Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, so perhaps my experience is almost exactly steve_man’s.
I have to admit that it also goes well with the Spell Queller in my Azorius section which I know is not a commonplace inclusion in most guild sections.
Traditionally planeswalker + removal have a fairly steep -X that leaves them with a fairly low loyalty but they have a fairly reasonable +X that will gain them some incremental advantage.
I found the best shell for her is a flyers/ UW tempo shell where she's used defensively to remove an attacker while tempo threats race the opponent.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
FWIW, I am still liking TWE quite a bit even at 405. Especially when you can pull off the removal combat trick. It definitely plays different from most other 'walkers, and usually all three abilities are relevant to the board state or force the opponent to deal with her or play around them. I think you can mix and match to an extent on white planeswalkers and this is one of the more interesting ones, so I'm pretty happy with it for now.
This is probably my favorite white planeswalker as of right now. It's good if you're ahead or behind and its VERY difficult for the opponent to play around:
- If you're ahead, attack with all your creatures, then +1 to give +1/+1 and First Strike as a combat trick. (You can also use this defensively)
- If you're behind, then use -2 to take out an attacker. Tapping is part of the declaration of the cost, you can exile the creature before it hits you.
- If you're opponent is attacking with creatures that aren't worth -2 (1/1 tokens), then create a 2/2 blocker and ambush it.
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Planeswalker as a combat trick is cool. 2/2s with vigilance means she can defend herself well. At first glance I think she's at least on par with Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis, which was playable. Stacked slot is stacked, but I think she has good potential, so I'll probably give her a test.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
The fact you can flash -2 to exile a tapped creature during declare blocks &2 life or give a creature first strike & +1/1 is big.
Super flexible and reusable.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
That being said, even just for 4cmc PWs, this competes with the best Gideon and OG elspeth, and that's a steep ask.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
540 Version: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/zza
At least close to good enough in power level.
More a control card than it's competition, but I like that it works well as a hybrid answer/win condition in draw/go control.
Competing with #3 4cmc white planeswalker with serra, but wandering emperor's gameplay is cooler.
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Certainly a cool card but I don't know if it's strong enough. Will be curious to see what testers report.
Cheers,
rant
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This card has looked very good in Cube so far and is catching on in modern too. Flash on a PW is big news with a combination of token generation, removal and combat tricks. I recommend testing for those who haven't.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Still don't know what to cut for this. I just cut BSA for Lion Sash. Not ready to let go of Elspeth or Gideon. Ugh! Cuts have gotten so difficult.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
Maybe could you explain what you expected? I expected this to be Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis tier but for Azorius and Jeskai flash decks instead of tokens and humans aggro. Turns out the card is just great in a lot of different types of decks, and the flash play pattern can be valuable no matter what you’re playing (from my perspective). Also the power of the diversity of abilities outweighs the low loyalty.
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
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This has been playing well for us. As I expected, she's overall in the middle of the pack of planeswalkers for me in this slot: below Elspeth, Knight-Errant / Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, about even with Serra the Benevolent, and above Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis. Having flash carries a lot of weight for control in terms of being able to keep your mana open and surprising your opponent with a combat trick.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
I have to admit that it also goes well with the Spell Queller in my Azorius section which I know is not a commonplace inclusion in most guild sections.
I found the best shell for her is a flyers/ UW tempo shell where she's used defensively to remove an attacker while tempo threats race the opponent.
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:
- If you're ahead, attack with all your creatures, then +1 to give +1/+1 and First Strike as a combat trick. (You can also use this defensively)
- If you're behind, then use -2 to take out an attacker. Tapping is part of the declaration of the cost, you can exile the creature before it hits you.
- If you're opponent is attacking with creatures that aren't worth -2 (1/1 tokens), then create a 2/2 blocker and ambush it.