I like this better than other Darksteel Ingot variants. It doesn't tap for every color, but it makes up for it by being a potentially pretty good card for aggro decks, particularly those that favor one color. It also favors swarm strategies, which tend to be more mid-range and can thus deal amiably with a three-drop artifact, and often have some useful six-drop to ramp into. A control deck might not really care about the power boost, but the color fixing and ramp will still be found profitable.
It may be that people don't generally play any Darksteel Ingot variants, but this and Vessel of Endless Rest (the world needs more incidental grave hate) are my favorites of them.
The art's disappointing though. Sure, some heraldic banners are boring like this one, but some of them are friggin' cool.
I think if you support mono-colored aggro/creature decks in multiple different colors, it can be an interesting card. Don't think we play enough decks that can effectively use both sides of the effect though.
Not a fan of this for the same reason I'm not a fan of Domri, Anarch of Bolas: the decks that want the anthem don't really need the extra mana and vice versa. Only pumping one color makes this much worse than other 3-cmc anthems that pumps all your creatures and gives them +1/+1, not just +1/+0. Can't see myself playing this since I'm already not running Goblin Oriflamme / Glorious Anthem.
The domri comparison is close, but he also asks you to be in RG, where this can be added to something like, a Wb tokens or even a mono blue meloku list. Domri does give you access to potential removal and his anthem isn't color specific, but my go wide decks tend to have a lot of the same colored creatures anyways (especially token lists). I think what I like about this the most is that it can be added into non red lists.
With that, I still don't think it's quite there for traditionally powerful cubes, but I think it's closer than it appears. The abilities are a little mish-mashed, anthem for a single color but allowing you to splash other colors, but this could easily be ramp for a mono colored deck with upside.
I like this better than other Darksteel Ingot variants. It doesn't tap for every color, but it makes up for it by being a potentially pretty good card for aggro decks, particularly those that favor one color. It also favors swarm strategies, which tend to be more mid-range and can thus deal amiably with a three-drop artifact, and often have some useful six-drop to ramp into. A control deck might not really care about the power boost, but the color fixing and ramp will still be found profitable.
It may be that people don't generally play any Darksteel Ingot variants, but this and Vessel of Endless Rest (the world needs more incidental grave hate) are my favorites of them.
The art's disappointing though. Sure, some heraldic banners are boring like this one, but some of them are friggin' cool.
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With that, I still don't think it's quite there for traditionally powerful cubes, but I think it's closer than it appears. The abilities are a little mish-mashed, anthem for a single color but allowing you to splash other colors, but this could easily be ramp for a mono colored deck with upside.