With all the recent discussion about bringing back Morph into Cubes and trying to find multiple Morphs per color that are good to run, Nantuko Vigilante came up a lot in conversation. I don't expect to hear that card discussed much in the future
While I don't think it's as good as Den Protector, it's a solid supplement to it and I'm pretty sure I'll be running it as a nice catch-all to annoying artifacts/enchantments. (also glad Kranny got a spoiler. )
I do wonder (with these and the other megamorphs) with how often it'll be right to just hardcast these cards with megamorphs, particularly these strong 1X 2/1s. It'll probably come with time.
While I don't think it's as good as Den Protector, it's a solid supplement to it and I'm pretty sure I'll be running it as a nice catch-all to annoying artifacts/enchantments. (also glad Kranny got a spoiler. )
I do wonder (with these and the other megamorphs) with how often it'll be right to just hardcast these cards with megamorphs, particularly these strong 1X 2/1s. It'll probably come with time.
I agree with all of this. I'm glad that the new megamorphs are strong enough to be hard cast when the effect is irrelevant or you just want to curve out like with Ire Shaman. That versatility is making me feel really good about supporting morph at 360 and not having to worry about vanilla 3/2's for 4 sitting in hand.
I was never a fan of Nantuko Vigilante, because its cost to body ratio was so sucky. Plus, if you were the only player with an artifact or enchantment, you couldn't really unmorph it. This guy here fixes both problems. I think I'll cut the mediocre Indrik Stomphowler for it.
If you need a vanilla body, this guy's 2/1 for 1G is better than the Vigilante's 3/2 for 3G. It can't blow up your own Mana Crypt if you need to get it off the board, but other than that, it's a better card in most situations. There are examples where it may come back from exile or get flickered or something, where Vigilante would come back with 3 power and this guy would only have 2, but those are corner-cases. 7 times out of 10 this card will be the same thing as Vigilante. It might be better in 2 of those remaining 3 cases, and worse in the last one.
If we get a playable uncommon cycle on top of the rare cycle, Morph could go deep. And 10 of my top 20 will be a boring list, lol.
We don't even need a full cycle of playables as Grim Haruspex, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, and Rattleclaw Mystic are solid, we just need good white and red options. Maybe we get a red guy that deals damage and a white guy that flickers or something.
Oh, I agree. Green also has 3 good options now even without Mystic if you're cool running both Vigilante and the Survivalist. The choke points are white and red, just like they were before. A shatter/bolt and some sort of playable white trigger would make a 3 card Morph section per color a contender.
I might have to take it all back about morphs in my cube. A cycle like this will get me very excited. I never ran the vigilante but this is pretty spot on.
I feel like if they were to print Blastminer these days they would wrap the LD into the morph trigger. Maybe a 1/1 with megamorph and a 1R morph cost? I feel like that would be pretty fair. Not sure I'd run it though.
I tried Dwarven Blastminer out for a bit, and wasn't really that excited. The nonbasic restriction plus the tap means that it has to be played as a defensive morph if you want to flip it and surprise your opponent. For red, I would rather be running some combination of Akroma, Firecat, Ashcloud, and Skirk Marauder. Currently, I'll be running Ire Shaman and Ashcloud Phoenix, but Marauder or Firecat could make its way back in if there isn't another playable megamorph card for red.
Nantuko Vigilante hadn't even made it back into my cube yet and he's already been replaced, although I'm hoping we get enough good morphs to go to 3/color in every color so I can bring him back in again.
I ran ashcloud for a little while in Red. It wasn't bad, but also not very exciting and never did enough to justify the inclusion.
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Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
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I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
At the risk of straying too far from the OP discussion, how has Ashcloud been for you? Or have you not yet tested it?
I actually like it. If you're going deep on morphs, I think it's worth including - casting it face-up is fine, it's a recursive threat, and the half-Flame Rift on flip has been handy at times. I didn't like having both it and Blistering Firecat together, though, since they kinda wanted to go in the same slot for the same deck. I ended up liking the flying and recursion over the trample and extra power of the firecat.
Seems like a nice card to complement a morph theme.
Not sure if it's good enough without it (I don't like nantuko vigilante) but it's at least Close.
This is my thought on it as well. Not sure if I want to support a morph theme, and I don't think I'd run this guy w/o that, but he would come in if I did choose that. Though I'm pretty happy with how my cube plays w/o a morph theme so there's that.
Man, I love me some Nantuko Vigilante. He's been in my Legacy Cube and my C/Ube since I built them. But this guy pretty clearly outclasses him. Seems a pretty obvious swap.
Without a morph theme, and no power or swords that require immediate answers, I think Elder is vastly superior to this card. Even with a morph theme, I'd simply run both.
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With all the recent discussion about bringing back Morph into Cubes and trying to find multiple Morphs per color that are good to run, Nantuko Vigilante came up a lot in conversation. I don't expect to hear that card discussed much in the future
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I do wonder (with these and the other megamorphs) with how often it'll be right to just hardcast these cards with megamorphs, particularly these strong 1X 2/1s. It'll probably come with time.
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I agree with all of this. I'm glad that the new megamorphs are strong enough to be hard cast when the effect is irrelevant or you just want to curve out like with Ire Shaman. That versatility is making me feel really good about supporting morph at 360 and not having to worry about vanilla 3/2's for 4 sitting in hand.
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StaffAgreed, I much prefer Nantuko Vigilante's old card boarder. Also, Nantuko Vigilante is an Insect Druid Mutant.
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TL;DR, it's a safe include.
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We don't even need a full cycle of playables as Grim Haruspex, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, and Rattleclaw Mystic are solid, we just need good white and red options. Maybe we get a red guy that deals damage and a white guy that flickers or something.
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Could be a better topdeck if you only have 4 mana.
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I ran ashcloud for a little while in Red. It wasn't bad, but also not very exciting and never did enough to justify the inclusion.
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Not sure if it's good enough without it (I don't like nantuko vigilante) but it's at least Close.
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This is my thought on it as well. Not sure if I want to support a morph theme, and I don't think I'd run this guy w/o that, but he would come in if I did choose that. Though I'm pretty happy with how my cube plays w/o a morph theme so there's that.
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