MTG Salvation

Eh, I'd probably prefer actual Desert.

The sorcery limitation strikes again. Pass, at least until we get a few more Loam/Crucible effects at our disposal.

This card looks really strong for a cube like mine. One mana is super cheap to activate, and you can do it immediately, even if it is sorcery speed. It definitely seems better than similar cards like Quicksand. Desert may be slightly better, but that doesn't bother me. Cradle of the Accursed on the other hand doesn't compare as favorably to prior cards.

The things I'd most like to kill with this, desert won't kill, such as Dark Confidant or mana elves. Still, how often would you both face a quality target and can afford to lose a land and tempo to kill it? Seems sideboard material at best, and not a great one either.

Quicksand is probably better than this. Killing 2 toughness creatures is probably more relevant than landing a counter on something. I could be wrong here, but Quicksand has been pretty good in pauper cubes I've played and a large part of that is the amount of stuff it kills and it's application as a combat trick, even if that trick is broadcasted.

I'll say that I don't think this is close for small cubes. The idea that this could beat out something like Mutavault or Maze of Ith is laughable. For large cubes, and pauper cubes, I'm certainly optimistic. I like Quicksand, but I've been disappointed with how easily played around it is. This is also dead less often, as it can always be used to shrink a fatty, and can be more readily abused with Crucible of Worlds.

Quote from steve_man »

No but seriously, what's with these "activate only as sorcery" clauses on the desert cards.

You're in the desert, so you're too worn out from the heat to do it as an instant. I guess?

Anyway, I might consider this for my peasant cube without the sorcery restriction. As is, it's a pass all around.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

The sorcery limitation strikes again. Pass, at least until we get a few more Loam/Crucible effects at our disposal.

I feel like we say that a lot round here... Those effects are hard to balance and print apparently though. Ever try out Splendid Reclamation?

Only in testing. It wasn't particularly good. You need to chain the same abusive land multiple times; one-shot effects were just too narrow in this format.