Interesting card. Front-side is a pretty good rummager, and the back side is a weird anthem effect that untaps Glorybringer. Unsure if it unseats any Boros card for me right now though.
Would I play dissmissive Pyromancer and would I consider this card as mono-red, I would make a swap. But no way is this card good enough for boros, even though the guild is not very deep.
The rummager side is ok, although it doesn't excite me. But Augusta... she looks quite great to me. On the offense, it's a battlecry effect that's on immediately, and you can selectively give your attacking creatures vigilance and a toughness buff instead if you want. It even untaps other creatures as well, so you can tap utility creatures twice (Mother of Runes or mana dorks for instance). Augusta seems to offer something new and powerful; why is no-one talking about her? Seems like a card any deck with creatures should be able to use well, from aggro to midrange to control. It just looks like an incredibly flexible card to me, both in what decks it goes into as during play.
This is effectively a hybrid card too, so that makes it far easier to include.
I like the red side better, but the white side seems good too. Looters are super versatile, so this might actually break the threshold for a test in Boros over something like Ajani Vengeant, another card we play for its versatility.
I agree with the “red side is very good” people and the “white side is very good” people. The main “issue” is in deciding where to put it. I would basically count it as .5 of a red 2 drop and .5 of a W 3 drop.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
The only scenario where I could see him making it into my cube is where I shave the weakest reanimation spell and reanimator decks need to lean more in looting rather than naturally having 5-6 reanimation redundancy.
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I have a hybrid/phyrexian section, and this would go into that. It’s certainly more hybrid than gold.
I appreciate this discussion, because I totally didn’t consider that Augusta comes down and immediately acts as an anthem, and always works exactly how you like. For those that run both Mother & Giver, this seems pretty good. Plargg seems very very fun, but only slightly more efficient than Cards I’ve previously cut.
My group seems much higher on Plargg than the Salvation community, but I’m perhaps more in line with you all. Am I overlooking the value of a rummage bear? Is the idea that it’s going to attack a couple times in aggro decks and then pitch lands for gas in the mid and lategame? I guess the 5 mana ability also helps with reach. When I look at this card it doesn’t strike me as something I’m excited to grab out of a pack for my red aggro deck, but I could be wrong.
My group seems much higher on Plargg than the Salvation community, but I’m perhaps more in line with you all. Am I overlooking the value of a rummage bear? Is the idea that it’s going to attack a couple times in aggro decks and then pitch lands for gas in the mid and lategame? I guess the 5 mana ability also helps with reach. When I look at this card it doesn’t strike me as something I’m excited to grab out of a pack for my red aggro deck, but I could be wrong.
I don't think that a 2/2 rummager is the best aggro pick but he's probably serviceable in that deck for the exact reasons you suggested. I'd run him in Boros aggro happily as he can fulfil two slots in the curve, although you'd be looking to play the Augusta side most of the time.
The way I see it, the 5 mana ability of Plargg is a particular kind that we occasionally see on cube contenders: it provides inevitability and card advantage, and initially seems sweet. But in practice, I doubt it will actually be useful or worthwhile to activate. It’s pretty much never better than any card you’d have in your hand, especially given the ability is random. I’d never feel good activating it at parity, for fear of wasting mana.
More than most formats, cube highlights the best case scenarios for the cards you play, where every single mana is crucial. A situation where you are spending 5 mana and tapping an attacker in order to cast a random, less-expensive card from your deck feels like a situation in which you are already losing, and in danger. And trying to squeeze the card advantage out of it just means you’ve spent 10+ mana to cast 2-6 mana worth of cards that you didn’t choose, because you are so far behind you’ve run out of cards in hand. Sometimes it’s all you can do and then it seems good, but in that scenario, a better bear might’ve helped me too, like Direfleet Daredevil. The cost for unlocking that upside is still a subpar rummaging bear.
I still don’t know if Augusta is the nuts or not, but I’ve definitely fallen off Plargg for cube, as cool as the design is.
Think the card is interesting.
Agree with Fredo that it’s the white side of the card where the power comes from.
3 mana battle cry anthem is a solid addition to any strong white aggressive draw, and there’s additional utility with the untap and toughness to boot.
Anthems suck when you don’t have a battlefield, so being able to play the flip side in that case, is a nice fail state.
also, some red reanimate decks could use the red side as a desperate looter.
Really? I was more drawn to this card as a red looter than a white anthem.
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I'm still running Dismissive Pyromancer, which I think the red side of this card compares favourably to.
I don't think I'd put the card in a deck without red, but I guess in Boros having access to the white side is a nice bonus.
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This is effectively a hybrid card too, so that makes it far easier to include.
Agree with Fredo that it’s the white side of the card where the power comes from.
3 mana battle cry anthem is a solid addition to any strong white aggressive draw, and there’s additional utility with the untap and toughness to boot.
Anthems suck when you don’t have a battlefield, so being able to play the flip side in that case, is a nice fail state.
also, some red reanimate decks could use the red side as a desperate looter.
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The only scenario where I could see him making it into my cube is where I shave the weakest reanimation spell and reanimator decks need to lean more in looting rather than naturally having 5-6 reanimation redundancy.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
I appreciate this discussion, because I totally didn’t consider that Augusta comes down and immediately acts as an anthem, and always works exactly how you like. For those that run both Mother & Giver, this seems pretty good. Plargg seems very very fun, but only slightly more efficient than Cards I’ve previously cut.
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
I don't think that a 2/2 rummager is the best aggro pick but he's probably serviceable in that deck for the exact reasons you suggested. I'd run him in Boros aggro happily as he can fulfil two slots in the curve, although you'd be looking to play the Augusta side most of the time.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
More than most formats, cube highlights the best case scenarios for the cards you play, where every single mana is crucial. A situation where you are spending 5 mana and tapping an attacker in order to cast a random, less-expensive card from your deck feels like a situation in which you are already losing, and in danger. And trying to squeeze the card advantage out of it just means you’ve spent 10+ mana to cast 2-6 mana worth of cards that you didn’t choose, because you are so far behind you’ve run out of cards in hand. Sometimes it’s all you can do and then it seems good, but in that scenario, a better bear might’ve helped me too, like Direfleet Daredevil. The cost for unlocking that upside is still a subpar rummaging bear.
I still don’t know if Augusta is the nuts or not, but I’ve definitely fallen off Plargg for cube, as cool as the design is.
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
Really? I was more drawn to this card as a red looter than a white anthem.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i