A quite different take on Suspicious Stowaway//Seafaring Werewolf. Unlike Stowaway or Merfolk Looter, this really performs as a normal creature on the board, and is more similar in some ways to flying white hatebears than anything. You can cast surprise second spells for a boost in combat, and you annoy the opponent by looting from their extra plays.
Nevertheless, this is less reliable than any other looter. It can just sit there as a 1/3 for 2, which isn't great.
Stowaway and looter-il-kor both get to actually deal damage, which isn't irrelevant, and looter loots every time. Yeah, this is a much better body and if you discard 1 nonland card it's an actual body (2/4 flying is a good stat line), but there's a fair number of games where you will loot 0-2 times over several turns. Not where I want to be.
Of note is that it triggers whenever *any* player casts their second sepll in a turn. Still not sure this quite gets there because one of those spells could likely be able to kill this thing.
This could be fairly strong in the Thing in the Ice/ Young Pyromancer/ Monastery Mentory/ Sedgemore deck as looting in those decks often become virtual card advantage as these style of decks only need 2-4 lands and graveyard fodder is great for Treasure Cruise/ Graveyard Synergies.
The problem is I do not feel his discard clause is consistent enough for him to be a discard outlet for reanimator style decks.
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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
I think this will be better than it looks. We talk about how bad werewolves are because of how often the day trigger happens organically and this with 1 trigger for a counter is a great deal imo.
I'm not interested in this card since it's not reliable as a discard outlet compared to a lot of other options. I also don't support second spell matters too much. I've played around with Clarion Spirit, and that taught me that second spell matters favors more pro-active strategies. Since blue is the most reactive color, it's incentivized to hold back its spells the most, which can really conflict with this wanting you to fire off your spells on the same turn. Personally I'm much more interested in The Modern Age than I am in this.
This card is generating a lot of discussion and was a target of a massive buyout. Any one try one in cube?
I believe its because its a strong playable in EDH and cEDH as its likely to trigger connive 2-3 times around the table. Blue-Farm style decks look these style of cards - Esper Sentinel, Mystic Remora, Rystic Study etc.
I'm not interested in this card since it's not reliable as a discard outlet compared to a lot of other options. I also don't support second spell matters too much. I've played around with Clarion Spirit, and that taught me that second spell matters favors more pro-active strategies. Since blue is the most reactive color, it's incentivized to hold back its spells the most, which can really conflict with this wanting you to fire off your spells on the same turn. Personally I'm much more interested in The Modern Age than I am in this.
I loved the modern age during drafts. But I think blue is a bit too stocked. I honestly think Thirst for Knowledge is the best of the bunch
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It's absolutely spiking because of constructed play (I assume EDH, maybe standard as I don't follow it). Looting 3x a turn cycle is apparently really good according to my EDH friends (I don't play much).
Didn't realize this card triggered off your opponents spells when it was spoiled.
With moxen/signets/cantrips etc. It's really easy for SOMEONE to cast two spells in a turn.
a 1/3 flying body is nice on defense and it's not hard for this to grow out of control, especially in a spells matters shell.
Even a single activation is a 2 mana 2/4 flyer that looted once? that's pretty darn close to at rate in itself.
I just want to share my experience with Connive in Limited:
I drafted Echo Inspector / Raffine's Informant in limited and they are are strong limited cards, but they aren't 2 mana 3/2 and 4 mana 3/4 consistently in a 23 spells - 17 lands deck. There were quite a few times where I was land heavy and a 3/2 or 3/4 would have been amazing against 3/3 flyers or 1/1 tokens on the other side and had to make difficult decisions.
I've built these connive decks at tempo decks that stops its curve at 3-4 and I've found the almost 70-80% of my discard with Connive (during drafts) are with excess lands. I felt Echo Inspector/ Connive's most optimal use case is with high CMC cost deck where it can be a 3/2 and 3/4 respective and trade aggressively with the opponent's creatures while blunting their aggression while ensuring players aren't flooded with high CMC cards.
However, this is not Echo Inspector - it needs an abundance of cheap spells to be effective. I could see it being decent in vintage cube (540 or less) with moxen, MFZ lands etc. where its much more reasonble to build a 25-26 spell deck (with moxen/ flip lands) and 14-15 lands and this can easily become a 2 mana 2/4 or 3/5 with a well timed moxen on turns 3-4.
However, I am a bit skeptical.
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I'm midly interested in testing this over thing in the ice which hasn't been great lately.
As a long defender and lover of TitI, this is probably better. However, I'm never cutting it because URw spells matter is one of my favorite decks (if not my favorite) and TitI was an early all-star in that deck.
I added it after keeping track of how often two spells are played within the span of a turn in the last draft. It should trigger fairly frequently, but havent had a chance to put it into practice.
yes, not conclusively.
Had it once in a control deck vs a combo deck. It looked good but nothing special in that matchup.
It’s definitely worse in cube than in eternal formats. It's better in formats with a high density of cheap spells. It's strength depends heavily on the cube and the particular deck it's in. Powered > Unpowered and smaller cubes > larger cubes.
Despite that, I'm of the opinion it's a strong cube card.
It has to be dealt with within a few turns or it'll generate fantastic velocity for its cost.
It's toughness gets very quickly out of red removal range. It blocks cheap aggressive creatures and small fliers extremely well.
It’s looting is incredible in slow matchups and it’s body is incredible in aggressive ones.
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
A quite different take on Suspicious Stowaway//Seafaring Werewolf. Unlike Stowaway or Merfolk Looter, this really performs as a normal creature on the board, and is more similar in some ways to flying white hatebears than anything. You can cast surprise second spells for a boost in combat, and you annoy the opponent by looting from their extra plays.
Nevertheless, this is less reliable than any other looter. It can just sit there as a 1/3 for 2, which isn't great.
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The problem is I do not feel his discard clause is consistent enough for him to be a discard outlet for reanimator style decks.
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
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I believe its because its a strong playable in EDH and cEDH as its likely to trigger connive 2-3 times around the table. Blue-Farm style decks look these style of cards - Esper Sentinel, Mystic Remora, Rystic Study etc.
I loved the modern age during drafts. But I think blue is a bit too stocked. I honestly think Thirst for Knowledge is the best of the bunch
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
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
With moxen/signets/cantrips etc. It's really easy for SOMEONE to cast two spells in a turn.
a 1/3 flying body is nice on defense and it's not hard for this to grow out of control, especially in a spells matters shell.
Even a single activation is a 2 mana 2/4 flyer that looted once? that's pretty darn close to at rate in itself.
Prob gonna test
Last Updated 02/07/24
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I drafted Echo Inspector / Raffine's Informant in limited and they are are strong limited cards, but they aren't 2 mana 3/2 and 4 mana 3/4 consistently in a 23 spells - 17 lands deck. There were quite a few times where I was land heavy and a 3/2 or 3/4 would have been amazing against 3/3 flyers or 1/1 tokens on the other side and had to make difficult decisions.
I've built these connive decks at tempo decks that stops its curve at 3-4 and I've found the almost 70-80% of my discard with Connive (during drafts) are with excess lands. I felt Echo Inspector/ Connive's most optimal use case is with high CMC cost deck where it can be a 3/2 and 3/4 respective and trade aggressively with the opponent's creatures while blunting their aggression while ensuring players aren't flooded with high CMC cards.
However, this is not Echo Inspector - it needs an abundance of cheap spells to be effective. I could see it being decent in vintage cube (540 or less) with moxen, MFZ lands etc. where its much more reasonble to build a 25-26 spell deck (with moxen/ flip lands) and 14-15 lands and this can easily become a 2 mana 2/4 or 3/5 with a well timed moxen on turns 3-4.
However, I am a bit skeptical.
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 a long defender and lover of TitI, this is probably better. However, I'm never cutting it because URw spells matter is one of my favorite decks (if not my favorite) and TitI was an early all-star in that deck.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I added it after keeping track of how often two spells are played within the span of a turn in the last draft. It should trigger fairly frequently, but havent had a chance to put it into practice.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
yes, not conclusively.
Had it once in a control deck vs a combo deck. It looked good but nothing special in that matchup.
It’s definitely worse in cube than in eternal formats. It's better in formats with a high density of cheap spells. It's strength depends heavily on the cube and the particular deck it's in. Powered > Unpowered and smaller cubes > larger cubes.
Despite that, I'm of the opinion it's a strong cube card.
It has to be dealt with within a few turns or it'll generate fantastic velocity for its cost.
It's toughness gets very quickly out of red removal range. It blocks cheap aggressive creatures and small fliers extremely well.
It’s looting is incredible in slow matchups and it’s body is incredible in aggressive ones.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
Bloodthirsty Adversary, Kari Zev, Skyship Raider, Bonecrusher Giant, Goblin Rabblemaster, Laelia, the Blade Reforged 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