The problem with Relentless Dead is that there are 3 other BB spells more important than it, having that many BB spells in your cube was a huge drag for me.
Yeah, I love black's two-drops but so many of them are BB. When people draft my cube they get really intimidated by the commitment. Monoblack is kinda fun in my cube but it makes two-color decks awkward when so many duders are restricted by color costs.
As someone who really wanted Despoiler of Souls to work, I am looking forward to this guy.
For me I classify it as :sym2b:; not that it helps. I have a 10 card, mixed colors section which contains weird cards like Warden of the First Tree and Squee. I think this card belongs to this section. As mentioned before, aggro and stax support is good enough for inclusion. But being an artifact is definitely pushing cubes to have an artifact archetype.
EDIT: The drawback of artifact removal is somewhat negated by its recursion ability.
Really hoping they finish out this cycle with pushed cards in white and blue. At this point it's probably pretty unlikely, but we have had some great cards spoiled at the end before...
So I chuckled at first when some people considered putting this into an artifact slot and not a black slot. Obviously, the activated ability is required to make this card truly shine in the decks that want it. But I am now realizing that being a colorless Chainwalker is already pretty impressive, and putting this in 360 black may actually harm the color. It'll be fought over as a decent pick for an aggressive red deck, and any more cuts in black is like a dagger in my side, as it could weaken other strategies. Is it crazy to put it in artifacts as a aggressive option?
So I chuckled at first when some people considered putting this into an artifact slot and not a black slot. Obviously, the activated ability is required to make this card truly shine in the decks that want it. But I am now realizing that being a colorless Chainwalker is already pretty impressive, and putting this in 360 black may actually harm the color. It'll be fought over as a decent pick for an aggressive red deck, and any more cuts in black is like a dagger in my side, as it could weaken other strategies. Is it crazy to put it in artifacts as a aggressive option?
Nah, I think it's pretty reasonable for the reasons you state. It's not like a hybrid card that fits into only its colors, I could easily see myself running this in a non-black aggressive deck. I'm never like "Gee, this Gore-House Chainwalker sucks cause I can't bring it back", so missing the second ability is really not that big of a deal when you're looking to kill-kill-kill.
Really hoping they finish out this cycle with pushed cards in white and blue. At this point it's probably pretty unlikely, but we have had some great cards spoiled at the end before...
Well so much for that lol. It does look like there is a cycle of common variants. Maybe we will get the other rares in the next set?
I was really surprised when I saw that there are only two rares with color-activated abilities. They looked as if they were part of a cycle. Having such a color imbalance is odd. The best explanation (and my hope) is that they have split up the cycle and that we will get the other three in the next set.
I'm also pretty said we didn't get the rest of the cycle. The two we did get are super impressive and pushed for cubing and green and blue are my favorite colors - I expected "big" things from those.
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I think it may be a stretch to assume there is going to be a full cycle of these. The black and red ones may well have been designed to fill holes in the set and that's it.
Seems odd not to print the white one too though, when you look at the set design.
They might split the cycle over two sets.
I understand that. What I said, is if you look at this set design, it looks to be the place for it.
The full cycle at common makes me fore wistful that they finished the rare cycle and also think it is pretty unlikely. But I could be wrong, maybe they just moved a keyword to the second set.
thought I would revisit the conversation about putting this in black or artifact section and I think I am going to be moving this from my black section over to my artifact section after last nights draft.
Got played in and izzet aggro deck and while they had a watery grave to bring it back it was still really great and would have made the cut without the single black source.
I feel like I failed at drafting if my aggro deck has to take Scrounger as a vanilla 3/2. Don't get me wrong, a vanilla 3/2 is fine in an aggressive deck, but Scrounger is so good because it can recur itself. If I draft it, I'm looking for ways to be able to recur it. The fact that that Izzet aggro deck felt the need to throw in a Watery Grave tells me that the card should go into the black section.
I feel like I failed at drafting if my aggro deck has to take Scrounger as a vanilla 3/2. Don't get me wrong, a vanilla 3/2 is fine in an aggressive deck, but Scrounger is so good because it can recur itself. If I draft it, I'm looking for ways to be able to recur it. The fact that that Izzet aggro deck felt the need to throw in a Watery Grave tells me that the card should go into the black section.
That is exactly how i first felt about the card, but putting it in the black section just takes away a slot from black and black 2's are pretty stacked. Similar to porcelain legionnaire which is often put in colourless because it can be slotted into any aggro deck no matter the colour combination, I think scrapheap fits the same role.
It wasn't long ago that red aggro decks were playing borderland marauder, gore-house chainwalker, and war-name aspirant. Now having a non conditional 3/2 for 2 colourless is welcome in the horde of CC 2 drops found in a lot of aggro decks. Lands like city of brass, mana confluence, gemstone mine, and other WUBRG lands are already commonly found in aggro decks to deal with the CC creatures and now they can also give you late game value with scrapheap without having to splash off colour.
I think many people will keep it in black, but I now think there is a strong argument for the colourless section as well and have changed my mind.
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As someone who really wanted Despoiler of Souls to work, I am looking forward to this guy.
EDIT: The drawback of artifact removal is somewhat negated by its recursion ability.
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
Nah, I think it's pretty reasonable for the reasons you state. It's not like a hybrid card that fits into only its colors, I could easily see myself running this in a non-black aggressive deck. I'm never like "Gee, this Gore-House Chainwalker sucks cause I can't bring it back", so missing the second ability is really not that big of a deal when you're looking to kill-kill-kill.
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Well so much for that lol. It does look like there is a cycle of common variants. Maybe we will get the other rares in the next set?
No, those ones were just from a separate cycle. The rare ones with activated abilities were only in black and red I guess...
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They might split the cycle over two sets.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/3pq
I understand that. What I said, is if you look at this set design, it looks to be the place for it.
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The full cycle at common makes me fore wistful that they finished the rare cycle and also think it is pretty unlikely. But I could be wrong, maybe they just moved a keyword to the second set.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
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Got played in and izzet aggro deck and while they had a watery grave to bring it back it was still really great and would have made the cut without the single black source.
Card is so good!
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That is exactly how i first felt about the card, but putting it in the black section just takes away a slot from black and black 2's are pretty stacked. Similar to porcelain legionnaire which is often put in colourless because it can be slotted into any aggro deck no matter the colour combination, I think scrapheap fits the same role.
It wasn't long ago that red aggro decks were playing borderland marauder, gore-house chainwalker, and war-name aspirant. Now having a non conditional 3/2 for 2 colourless is welcome in the horde of CC 2 drops found in a lot of aggro decks. Lands like city of brass, mana confluence, gemstone mine, and other WUBRG lands are already commonly found in aggro decks to deal with the CC creatures and now they can also give you late game value with scrapheap without having to splash off colour.
I think many people will keep it in black, but I now think there is a strong argument for the colourless section as well and have changed my mind.