When Thriving Grubs enters the battlefield, you get EE (two energy counters).
When Thriving Grubs attacks, you may pay EE. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/1
This looks like a serviceable red 2-drop. Even without any additional energy counter synergy, this looks like it outclasses Borderland Marauder and Gore-House Chainwalker, since it will always attack as a 3/2, and can always block as at least a Piker.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Ya, it's another Borderland Marauder/Gore-House Chainwalker variant. Good enough to get played if you play those creatures already. If we get other energy support cards, it could actually outclass them both.
Red is shaping up to be the best color for energy support, with green in second. This is definitely part of the energy package if I end up supporting it.
I'm afraid to use the word "strictly" ever again after what came up in the Random Card thread comparing Impulse and Anticipate, but it's certainly not strictly better than any of the other commonly cubed red 2-drops.
But I don't think it's a stretch to say it's clearly better than Gore-House Chainwalker, which is only better than Thriving Grubs in that when it's cast "leashed" it's never vulnerable to pingers or divisible burn for 1, while Thriving Grubs is until after the attack trigger has resolved that first time. That's a corner case I can live with in return for the flexibility of it being able to block after attacking once as a 3/2. I'd also argue that this is also clearly better than Borderland Marauder, which may be able to brick wall Goblin and Soldier tokens on defense like a champ, but can never trade up on D. Thriving Grubs can. On balance, I think this is also better than War-Name Aspirant, because Raid doesn't always trigger as reliably as you might like it to, although WNA's evasion can be quite relevant so the advantage isn't quite so clear.
One possible downside of Thriving Grubs is that you are giving up the potential for Human and Warrior synergies for the as yet unsupported Gremlin tribe. I will also go out on a limb here and say that the art, name, and flavor text on Thriving Grubs are strictly worse than on any of the above.
I go back and forth on the red 3/2 for two. Sometimes I dump them all and other times I have run them all. It's never been very conclusive. Currently I am running War Name, with only champion of the parish for tribal synergies. I don't think this is better than War Name because I run lots of tokens. But I think it slides in just above the chainwalker and borderland ranger. But ahead of all those I also prefer
Young Pyromancer
Kiln Fiend (Just as vulnerable but far more explosive)
Stormblood Berserker
Ash Zealot (This is my RR flex slot where Kargon Dragonlord, Grenzo and others rotate in and out, but right now I am trying Thermo Alchemist over all of them)
But if you need somewhere around 7 2 drops the gremlin might get there.
Young Pyromancer
Kiln Fiend (Just as vulnerable but far more explosive)
Stormblood Berserker
Ash Zealot (This is my RR flex slot where Kargon Dragonlord, Grenzo and others rotate in and out, but right now I am trying Thermo Alchemist over all of them)
But if you need somewhere around 7 2 drops the gremlin might get there.
I'm running 8 at 465, and I really think I should be finding room for a 9th. Even at 360, 4 aggressive red 2-drops seems really low if you're supporting aggro.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I meant those were the 4 slots I had that were better in addition to to War Name. I currently am playing 5-6 depending on my mood. When I was at 450 I think I played ~7. Most of my red decks would rather just play more 1 drops and more burn. I really don't find red two drops to much more than cheap dudes who can't make it through blockers and are harder to cast than one drops (Expect for Young P and Kiln Fiend). I find that one drops are critical for aggro decks to get there where the 2 drops are just not as big a deal. If I ever open my tight fist for the other Zen fetches Plated Geopede will come back.
Red aggro and R/U spells regularly win drafts and the 3/2 guys are fine in both decks but decks without them and just other 1-2 drop creatures or more lightning strikes. This is a very different experience from my white 2 drop section where I run 8 2 drops. Even if you remove wall of omens as a control card 6 of 7 of them have regularly been key to the aggro decks using them, with skyfisher being that oddball as it often lands in other types of decks.
What I really want for red at the 2 drop slot is something like Hanwier Militia Captain, or Cloistered Youth, or a 3/2 dude you could equip for free to.
Now, if an energy sub-theme is being pushed, this card has potential...it's still a tough sell to get enough energy cards in cube to make it worthwhile.
I feel like I'd rather have a vanilla 3/2 than Kargan or Thermo-Alchemist at least, and this becomes an auto-include if energy turns out to be worthwhile. I think we're very close to having enough good energy cards in R/G already.
I like this guy. Is better than gore house since it can still block as a 3/2 if needed and is fine as is but if any other incidental energy cards end up in the deck, this guy could easily become a 4/3 for 2. Not bad.
This card has two (very minor) knocks against it:
1) It is not a human, so it doesn't interact with Champion of the Parish and two other cards in my cube, which is why I don't want to cut a human for it.
2) I am still a bit reluctant about including energy cards. Unless there are interactions among different energy cards, each individual one is mostly a clunky card with unnessary additional text.
1R
Creature - Gremlin
When Thriving Grubs enters the battlefield, you get EE (two energy counters).
When Thriving Grubs attacks, you may pay EE. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/1
This looks like a serviceable red 2-drop. Even without any additional energy counter synergy, this looks like it outclasses Borderland Marauder and Gore-House Chainwalker, since it will always attack as a 3/2, and can always block as at least a Piker.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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But I don't think it's a stretch to say it's clearly better than Gore-House Chainwalker, which is only better than Thriving Grubs in that when it's cast "leashed" it's never vulnerable to pingers or divisible burn for 1, while Thriving Grubs is until after the attack trigger has resolved that first time. That's a corner case I can live with in return for the flexibility of it being able to block after attacking once as a 3/2. I'd also argue that this is also clearly better than Borderland Marauder, which may be able to brick wall Goblin and Soldier tokens on defense like a champ, but can never trade up on D. Thriving Grubs can. On balance, I think this is also better than War-Name Aspirant, because Raid doesn't always trigger as reliably as you might like it to, although WNA's evasion can be quite relevant so the advantage isn't quite so clear.
One possible downside of Thriving Grubs is that you are giving up the potential for Human and Warrior synergies for the as yet unsupported Gremlin tribe. I will also go out on a limb here and say that the art, name, and flavor text on Thriving Grubs are strictly worse than on any of the above.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Young Pyromancer
Kiln Fiend (Just as vulnerable but far more explosive)
Stormblood Berserker
Ash Zealot (This is my RR flex slot where Kargon Dragonlord, Grenzo and others rotate in and out, but right now I am trying Thermo Alchemist over all of them)
But if you need somewhere around 7 2 drops the gremlin might get there.
I play 16 at 720...
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I'm running 8 at 465, and I really think I should be finding room for a 9th. Even at 360, 4 aggressive red 2-drops seems really low if you're supporting aggro.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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Red aggro and R/U spells regularly win drafts and the 3/2 guys are fine in both decks but decks without them and just other 1-2 drop creatures or more lightning strikes. This is a very different experience from my white 2 drop section where I run 8 2 drops. Even if you remove wall of omens as a control card 6 of 7 of them have regularly been key to the aggro decks using them, with skyfisher being that oddball as it often lands in other types of decks.
What I really want for red at the 2 drop slot is something like Hanwier Militia Captain, or Cloistered Youth, or a 3/2 dude you could equip for free to.
Now, if an energy sub-theme is being pushed, this card has potential...it's still a tough sell to get enough energy cards in cube to make it worthwhile.
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1) It is not a human, so it doesn't interact with Champion of the Parish and two other cards in my cube, which is why I don't want to cut a human for it.
2) I am still a bit reluctant about including energy cards. Unless there are interactions among different energy cards, each individual one is mostly a clunky card with unnessary additional text.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
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!