MTG Salvation

Seems pretty good, especially in Cube. At worse, it's a Manic Vandal. It loses some utility by not being a creature, meaning it can't be reanimated, or tutored for by Recruiters, but it can be flashbacked, and having it be scalable is especially useful when up against the artifact deck.

Another small con against Manic Vandal is that you cannot cast this without having a legal artifact to target. Manic Vandal you can.

It is interesting. Will have to think about it and see how it performs. Might not be necessary due to the fact that Fiery Confluence was just printed and provides mass artifact removal as well.

Your manic vandal comparison is pretty on the nose. I cut vandal in my 720 a long time ago and haven't looked back and this is worse most of the time. Hitting multiple targets is nice but not really enough and no recurring nightmare shenanigans makes it even less appealing.

Yea I kinda wish it said "Destroy up to X Target artifacts. Create X 2/2 Red Gremlin creature tokens." It would give it a bit more usefulness when they only have 1 artifact but you would like 2 or 3 bodies from it.

I can't see any reason (power or flavour) why destroying 1 artifact couldnt net you 2 2/2s for the 5 mana you are spending.

Yeah, I think that target clause kills it. I would have found space for it otherwise

I think this card is sweet. I don't often cast Vandal without a target, so the target drawback doesn't bother me much. I like that this can destroy multiple artifacts too; this is a powerful 4R spell in powered cubes. Might try and find room for extended testing.

I wish it was just a functional reprint of manic vandal, but the card does look pretty solid. Casting this for 5 seems nice, but it doesn't seem out of the question to cast this for 7 either--kill 3 artifacts, get 3 2/2s, seems really nice.

Destroying 2 artifacts for 5 mana is not only a hoser effect that will be bank against most of the field, it will also be a near irrelevant mode for red's common deck archetypes. Not as playable or as necessary as cheaper options in the color, and cannot directly replace them either. As a hoser card to splash for, this is good. 5 mana for 4/4 worth of stats and cracking two mana rocks is great value.

This noncreature spell seems great. Nothing to say. Simply great.

Absolutely gets there on power level in a powered cube.

However, I'm at a space where I feel saturated with powerful artifact removal. It's a fine tuning to get that balance in check.
I've had too much artifact removal before, and it makes playing certain decks unfun.

Opressive cards that are meh against most archetypes and busted against some have to be carefully thought about before putting into the cube.

Gonna test this over ancient grudge for a bit

Bonus points for making GREMLINS

I love the flavor here.

I just readded fast mana, and more versatile artifact destruction is always welcome and very maindeckable (with or without powered mana). I'm ok playing this scaleable non-creature Vandal... Not every effect has to be on a dude all the time. In particular, non-creature token generation is cool for red's Prowess guys, YP and Purphoros alike. I may give it a go over or in addition to one of my other artifact kill suite. If this was instant speed I wouldn't hesitate.

"However, I'm at a space where I feel saturated with powerful artifact removal. It's a fine tuning to get that balance in check.
I've had too much artifact removal before, and it makes playing certain decks unfun."
LucidVision

This is a very valid point. For a while i was running too much artifact destruction in green and it made playing artifacts with a 3+ cc a liability.

When I first saw this card I was a bit skeptical because of XX, but I think it adds versatility to the card.

This could be a huge tempo swing and might make players think twice about drafting multiple signets.

I really wish you could just make tokens with this without artifacts to target, as I don't think this would be main-deckable in my cube environment, so it's a pass for me.

Quote from LucidVision »

Gonna test this over ancient grudge for a bit

I like this idea

As others have said, at worse it is MUCH worse than manic vandal, because you literally cannot cast this without targets. I think the number of times it gets stuck in your hand with no targets far outweighs the number of times you get to pay 5 mana for 2 2/2's and kill two artifacts (which is honestly pretty meh most of the time anyway). This seems like an easy pass unless you are somehow desperate for another, much worse, manic vandal effect.

Quote from Metamind »

Quote from LucidVision »

Gonna test this over ancient grudge for a bit

I like this idea

I don't. Grudge is an instant, which is super important for equipment, has value from the GY, can answer threats one at a time instead of having to wait, and costs you 3 total mana split over 2 turns to kill 2 artifacts. If you think your cube needs grudge (which I think most don't - a cube would have to have huge guild sections or seriously powerful artifacts and lots of them to make it worth it) I doubt a sorcery speed, more expensive artifact removal spell is gonna be where you want to be.

I can't remember the last time I played a Vandal/Monkey without a target... But I can certainly recall a lot of times where I would've loved to "kick" my Manic Vandal for 2 & get another Manic Vandal. And while it loses interactions with the creature support cards like Vat/Feldon/Recruiter(s)/'Lark/Etc it gains interactions with spell cards like Snappy/Pyromancer/Mentor/prowess/etc. I'm looking forward to playing this card.

If it was an instant I can see Ancient Grudge being an easier swap. Instant speed and being able to play it early on and again potentially later in the game (as opposed to hanging on to it waiting for a scarier target) has been big selling points.
I do like this card though and will be looking at other potential cuts. 100% agree on too much Disenchant/Shatter effects having a negative impact on archetypes/overall cube balance but I think most cubes aren't (nearly) there yet.

Overlooked this, seems pretty strong and versatile. I play an unpowered cube but I heavily and successfully support the artifact deck and I don't think I have too many shatter effects yet. Will likely test though I have no idea what the cut will be.

Can't think of many times that playing Vandal with no targets and won because of it, but can think of a lot where destroying two or three artifacts and getting an army in a can would have won the game for me. You can also blow up your own mana rocks in the late game when you don't need them.

Ya, Smash to Smithereens is also uncastable when you don't have a target, and that card's been fantastic. Again, I can't recall the last time I played Manic Vandal as a Gray Ogre. Not too worried about the floor difference between Vandal and Gremlins. If the argument is that you won't have targets at all, Smash being cheaper is irrelevant.