MTG Salvation

I might be crazy but I think this creature has some potential. It's a hasty colorless 1 drop (one power is not great, but this has never been printed), it can re-fuel aggro decks after just a couple swings, it's a discard outlet, and it's a cheap artifact that will play really well in red/x artifact decks.

If you get this out on turn one it's entirely reasonable to expect you will be able to swing once or twice unmolested and then hold back for when you want to pitch some lands and draw three cards.

I would say it is a pretty meh card, but really cool concept! Late game top deck it basically cycles, early game it is so-so. Best case scenario is turn one attack a few times then refuel. That just seems like magical Christmas land.

One thing I really like about this is that you can swing and sacrifice during combat for an extra card. Even if you topdeck this late and it's useless, it still essentially cycles for 1R

Horrible horrible card. If it didn't make you discard your hand, it would be cool...or maybe if it was an "exile from your graveyard: put the cards into your hand" ability, it would be great. As is? I am not even remotely interested.

Yea, it's bad. I just get super pumped for cheap creatures with cool potential synergies. I remember totally freaking out about how amazing I thought Sidisi's Faithful was and everyone was like.... huh?

This doesn't look good to me. But maybe it has some potential? IDK.

It is not that terrible. I have played Raging Goblins with an upside before. It is probably too weak for tradtional cubes, but it is not that far off. Seems worthy of discussion.

And yes, it is absolutely necessary that you discard your hand. Otherwise, this effect (A) wouldn't be red and (B) couldn't have been printed with an activation cost of only one mana.

I don't find the discard your hand clause that bad to begin with. In what decks would you play a Raging Goblin variant? In an aggro deck. What kind of deck has the lowest curve and can empty their hands the easiest? An aggro deck. Problem solved.

Quote from Star Slayer »

In what decks would you play a Raging Goblin variant? In an aggro deck. What kind of deck has the lowest curve and can empty their hands the easiest? An aggro deck. Problem solved.

But that's just it. Current aggro decks don't want Raging Goblin anymore. They haven't in a long time.

I wasn't talking about this card's (or Raging Goblin's) power level. I was just saying that the "discard your hand clause" is not a big deal for aggro decks. (You conviniently didn't quote the sentence that was the whole point of that statement.)

And btw, I didn't say Raging Goblin, I said Raging Goblin variant. There are Raging Goblin variants that are at least borderline cubebable, primarily Monastery Swiftspear and Village Messenger.

So, the question is: How good are the additional abilites that a particular Raging Goblin variant has? Are they good enough to make the card cubable?

Quote from Star Slayer »

So, the question is: How good are the additional abilites that a particular Raging Goblin variant has? Are they good enough to make the card cubable?

In this case (and in the vast majority of others), I think the answer is no. In order for a Raging Goblin variant to be good enough for aggro, it needs to get bigger than a Raging Goblin with regularity.

This is a good card, but unlike Scrounger only if you're actually red, and it doesn't compete with the other red 1 drops until you get to really big cubes.

If you had a Raging Goblin that ETB scried, how much would it have to scry to make cube?

I don't know. Probably a lot because Raging Goblin just isn't good.

Quote from Sliver Lord »

If you had a Raging Goblin that ETB scried, how much would it have to scry to make cube?

I would probably test it at Scry 3 or 4. Curving out is so key for aggro deck and being able to lock in the order of your first few draws or dig through dead cards would be clutch.

Threw two of them into my Legacy Burn. Card is insane. It puts huge pressure on your opponent who want to get rid of it, but yet, other board threats seem more important. Had it out four times total. Once it was Abrupt decayed, Once Swords, and twice I pulled cards. Four cards and three cards respectively. After doing so each time I won the round because of the gas it fed me.

Placed first Btw.

Going to run them again, probably bumping to three of them, but yea, the card works good.

Quote from MagicViffer »

Threw two of them into my Legacy Burn. Card is insane. It puts huge pressure on your opponent who want to get rid of it, but yet, other board threats seem more important. Had it out four times total. Once it was Abrupt decayed, Once Swords, and twice I pulled cards. Four cards and three cards respectively. After doing so each time I won the round because of the gas it fed me.

Placed first Btw.

Going to run them again, probably bumping to three of them, but yea, the card works good.

Cool. How's it playing in your cube?

Did anyone try this card in cube? If so, could you share your findings?
I'm considering trying out Courier over Inventor's Apprentice, Soul-Scar Mage or maybe Shrine of Burning Rage.

I've been playing it. I've seen it generate actual card advantage once or twice. It's fine, but ultimately pretty uninspiring. I'm not planning on cutting it immediately, but it's never rocked anybody's socks here.

I see it to be on a similar level to Inventor's Apprentice and Soul-Scar Mage, but I haven't played much with either card, even though they're both in my cube.

Quote from Tactuz »

Did anyone try this card in cube? If so, could you share your findings?
I'm considering trying out Courier over Inventor's Apprentice, Soul-Scar Mage or maybe Shrine of Burning Rage.

It might be better than Inventor's Apprentice since it has haste and is more self-contained i.e. not relying on you having artifacts to be a card, but I like the other two much more. Dying to literally everything really sucks for a card you need to attack a lot with to make it worth a cube spot. It might be better than Soul-Scar Mage as that card was worse than I thought it would be, but I still doubt that since mage can at least attack through 1/2s and 2/2s.

If you're playing Apprentice or Courier, I could see wanting both, since they play well together. If you want to make Apprentice more reliable, I could see playing this over Mage.

I definitely agree with wtwlf123.

Also, Legion Loyalist sucks in my experience. Battalion was win-more the very few times it triggered. Bomat Courier does at least perform as promised, it just promises to be slightly janky.

I have been inspired to give Courier a try out after reading the discussion in the random cube card forum. The innocuous little guy turned out to be a star in constructed, which of course may not translate to cube - worth a look though.