MTG Salvation

Quote from Salmo »

Quote from dschumm »

Quote from Salmo »

Quote from dschumm »

If you got to put a +1/+1 counter on it as well as draw the card maybe.. but we have gotten a bunch of good 2 drops since I cut pain seer and blood scrivner. I just don't think this gets there.

That card would be insane. Evasion, draws cards, gets bigger, that would be an awesome and not really believable card to see printed.

I really don't think so. Becoming a 3/2 on turn 5 and a 4/3 on turn 7 isn't much a power level change but would be good to compensate for the fact that even when this goes off it is really slow. Energy is everywhere in standard where they are expecting this to be fine.

All of these bad Bobs udnerperform my expectations. I hope they bring back some Phyrexian rager style cards instead. Payoff for these is rarely more than one card anyway. (Which is the big difference from bob who nests me ~2 cards on average.)

I imagine if this card gave itself +1+1 counters in addition to the cards that it would be a ridiculous card in standard, especially if you can activate the trigger each turn instead of every other. I just find it hard to believe they would print a card that makes itself bigger, has evasion, and draws cards fairly effortlessly for two mana unless it was a mistake.

Tireless tracker was pretty close to what you just described and was honestly better than this card. I don't think it would have been unreasonable for this guy to grow himself.

At 720 I don't want this. I ALMOST want it but it's just not quite good enough.

Eh not really, paying 2 mana for the card from the clue, costing three, not easily benefitting from energy with no mana cost to benefit from that energy...made-up Glin-Sleeve Siphoner seems a decent amount better than tracker.

This card would be WAY too good if it got a +1/+1 counter every time it connected. Not even close to being close to printable.

As is, I think it's still a pretty easy inclusion for 540, and a near must-play for cubes 630+ in size.

I didn't see menace the first time. Now I am...interested. I don't love that you can't suicide it and draw the card, because the ability doesn't happen until your next upkeep. I also don't love that it's a 2/1 for 2 without haste that needs to stick around for 2 full turns to get value, and will draw you at most 1 card by turn 4, which is often when the aggro decks need to be close to finishing out the game. If you're on the draw with this and your opponent has any sweeper or multi-target removal spell on their turn 4, you never get to draw anything.

I think I'll test this, but I also think the end result will be "very rarely actually draws a card."

Not as reliably unblockable as Dauthi Horror but is likely to at least replace itself. Hmm. I probably should make that switch, but I'd like something better.

Cheers,
rant

I like this more than Dauthi Horror for sure (at 540 unpowered). Dauthi Horror deals 2 per turn a bit more reliably but I don't feel black really needs that card, whereas an extra CA piker is always welcome. Besides being a bit more reliable, the Horror has all the cons of this card (ie. it dies to everything), and it can't block (can be relevant in aggro mirrors).

I wish they made a 2/1 for 2 that simply drew a card on ETB.

My only beef with this card is the energy aesthetics. I'm not running anything else with energy, and while this (and almost all) energy cards are self contained payoffs, I'm just not sure I can get past it. It just feels weird generating an entire resource pool that I can't use if this dies. It's the same reason I don't run any experience counter commanders and why it took me ages to finally pull the trigger on Gisela with that unusable meld text.

Quote from appleberryblast »

My only beef with this card is the energy aesthetics. I'm not running anything else with energy, and while this (and almost all) energy cards are self contained payoffs, I'm just not sure I can get past it. It just feels weird generating an entire resource pool that I can't use if this dies. It's the same reason I don't run any experience counter commanders and why it took me ages to finally pull the trigger on Gisela with that unusable meld text.

yeah i'm feeling the same way. I have voltaic brawler in the cube right now because he uses up his energy counters easily but he is on the chopping block for requiring energy counters all the same.

I also didn't include any "clue" cards in my cube because of the same issue. already so many counters and different types of tokens.

It would be no different than if it just put a counter on itself, and then removed them for an effect. I don't understand the opposition to it.

This gal seems like she'll play about as good as the red prowess piker that pseudo red draws on etb (name escapes me atm) which is to say I think she'll do just fine in my 540. Will probably try over Relentless Dead who has been kind of disappointing in testing for us so far.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

It would be no different than if it just put a counter on itself, and then removed them for an effect. I don't understand the opposition to it.

It's probably just me being picky and weird. I like to look for synergy, and with 0 other cards that make/make use of energy in my cube, it just doesn't feel powerful enough in black aggro or situational card advantage to justify the time's I'll be left with one or two energy and a dead/exiled Siphoner. Funny enough, I'd have no problem putting this in my cube and make a needed cut if it did what you just described and just put "siphon counters" on itself, even though that's actually worse than what it does now. Again, maybe just preference, but it'll take a lot of thought for me to end up putting it in. I think it's a decent enough card in 540+ for people who have no problem with Energy.

Quote from appleberryblast »

My only beef with this card is the energy aesthetics. I'm not running anything else with energy, and while this (and almost all) energy cards are self contained payoffs, I'm just not sure I can get past it. It just feels weird generating an entire resource pool that I can't use if this dies. It's the same reason I don't run any experience counter commanders and why it took me ages to finally pull the trigger on Gisela with that unusable meld text.

You can use the energy gain if you regrow/reanimate this dude. This line of play was relevant multiple times with Meren.

It's also been relevant with Aether Hub, but it'll be even moreso with the Siphoner since it's a creature. This looks like it'll be fun with cards like Alesha and stuff. If you reanimate it, regrow it, bounce it or blink it, it'll have the EE it needs to draw you a card, even if it never attacked.

Quote from Sea R Hill »

I will replace Asylum Visitor with this card.
It seems better, as getting hellbent can be difficult sometimes and is a bad strategy overall as it reduces your options.
Plus, getting hellbent is not the kind of Magic I want to promote in my cube.

Isn't that the goal of aggro though? Spew everything out of your hand, kill them? I don't know how you can avoid what seems like an inherent part of the game, can't say I like that switch.

There's no way I'd cut Asylum Visitor for this. I like this creature, but Visitor is great.

Quote from Sea R Hill »

Quote from Salmo »

Quote from Sea R Hill »

I will replace Asylum Visitor with this card.
It seems better, as getting hellbent can be difficult sometimes and is a bad strategy overall as it reduces your options.
Plus, getting hellbent is not the kind of Magic I want to promote in my cube.

Isn't that the goal of aggro though? Spew everything out of your hand, kill them? I don't know how you can avoid what seems like an inherent part of the game, can't say I like that switch.

The goal of aggro is to reduce oppononent's life total to 0 or less.
Magic is a game of options. I you have none because you are hellbent, winning is more difficult.
Sometimes going hellbent is the right move, but most of the times keeping some creatures in hand to avoid getting blown out by ***, or keeping that burn spell that might be of better use later, is crucial and often the key to winning games.
Aggro is not necessarily 'cast all the spells you can, spread your hand on the table and prey to draw well'. That is pretty unintersting Magic imho.

Right of course, but I mean, going hellbent is a natural part of aggro. Maybe I worded it wrong--it may not be THE goal, but it is certainly a valid and often-applied path to achieving the goal of winning. For as much as you don't overextend into ***, you also need to put pressure out before they stabilize with a non-wrath spell. Asylum Visitor not only rewards you for doing this, but also rewards you for punishing your opponent with discard spells or them trying to stabilize by playing out their spells too. And then you have options because Asylum Visitor fills your hand. I don't know, it would be pretty difficult to convince me that cutting Asylum Visitor because hellbent=bad is a good reason to cut the card, especially since Asylum Visitor solves the problem you're talking about inherently by giving you an extra card--and extra options--when you or your opponent is hellbent.

Plus black aggro decks attack the opponent's hand too. It's not hard to trigger either side of Visitor's draw mechanic.

I honestly don't like this much. Needing to survive 2 attacks and make it to turn 5 is a bit much. I think it needed to at least be an activated ability instead of an upkeep trigger for me to be interested

Quote from Blal »

I honestly don't like this much. Needing to survive 2 attacks and make it to turn 5 is a bit much. I think it needed to at least be an activated ability instead of an upkeep trigger for me to be interested

It draws as fast as Pain Seer does (you don't have to wait until T5), but it has evasion instead of a 2nd toughness. Raising up the floor on the card, despite having the ceiling come down a bit.