A redundant copy of Recurring Nightmare effect. Compared to Recurring Nightmare, this has a lot going against it:
-Initial cost of 1B means the first activation costs 5 total mana instead of just 3.
-It stays in play, so it's vulnerable to Artifact removal.
-It exiles the creature instead of Sacrifice, so it's harder to do value loops
-It taps to activate, so you can only activate once per turn.
That said, there's still a lot to like here.
-2B for a 4/1 menace doesn't seem great at first, but it's 2B for a 4/1 menace that draws you a "bad" Recurring Nightmare
-The value loop side of Recurring Nightmare might be weaker here, but it still reanimates Griselbrand or other large creatures very well.
-This can still be played as a value card to bring back Ravenous Chupacabra or whatnot when those creatures die naturally, or in combination with a sac outlet in an Aristocrats deck.
-Exile hurts sacrifice of things like Gravecrawler, but this card works just as well as Recurring Nightmare with cards like Bitterblossom, Ophiomancer, and Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia.
It's not Recurring Nightmare obviously. Perhaps with the activation cost, it's actually closer to Whip of Erebos. Obviously exile is a big drawback along with the activation cost and I expect this card to be more or less the fixed Recurring Nightmare it's supposed to be. The adventure is a nice little alternative when you don't have a meaningful graveyard presence.
This card is rather slow, but doubling as a 4/1 menace for 3 helps, and it should be able to win the game without too many activations. Importantly, the reanimated creature doesn't get exiled if it dies, so you can just keep replaying the same bomb through their removal if you have the resources. Cards like Hornet Queen that are good reanimation targets while also providing more fuel are of particular use, and obviously sac outlets are big game to replay your ETB triggers.
It also helps that I don't have Recurring Nightmare, and wouldn't run it if I did: too oppressive.
Cool card, but I think it's just got too many downsides compared to nightmare to make me want to run it. Tapping means only once a turn, it stays in play so it's substantially easier to interact with, exiling the creature means you need token makers or you cant do stuff like mulldrifter/chupacabra value loops like you can with nightmare, and it's 5 mana before you get to do anything. I don't think the ability to make a 3 mana 4/1 menace once makes up for this.
This is most certainly a powered down recurring nightmare for unpowered cubes, where recurring nightmare is just too much so that's fantastic.
I'm planning on dropping dance of the dead to get a cleaner looking text box in the cube for petty reasons. I know its not an equivalent exchange, 2 mana recursion is better than 5 mana split. I think the ability to repeatedly recur is well worth it and being an artifact gives a new interesting way to cheat out thicc boys from the yard in the artifact fatty.dec thanks to OG tezzeret, welders, or even in conjunction with feldon by eating the token copy to recur the original.
I think classic reanimator will find it's too slow, and the rec/sur value decks will really be pained by the exile. The token is nice value, but I think etb tapped makes it clash with the control/combo aspects of reanimator decks. I struggle to think of what deck really wants it - I imagine aristocrats (aggressive, maybe includes lots of tokens) would find both parts of the card appealing, although I get irked that you don't even get a death trigger here.
Altar of Bhaal
A redundant copy of Recurring Nightmare effect. Compared to Recurring Nightmare, this has a lot going against it:
-Initial cost of 1B means the first activation costs 5 total mana instead of just 3.
-It stays in play, so it's vulnerable to Artifact removal.
-It exiles the creature instead of Sacrifice, so it's harder to do value loops
-It taps to activate, so you can only activate once per turn.
That said, there's still a lot to like here.
-2B for a 4/1 menace doesn't seem great at first, but it's 2B for a 4/1 menace that draws you a "bad" Recurring Nightmare
-The value loop side of Recurring Nightmare might be weaker here, but it still reanimates Griselbrand or other large creatures very well.
-This can still be played as a value card to bring back Ravenous Chupacabra or whatnot when those creatures die naturally, or in combination with a sac outlet in an Aristocrats deck.
-Exile hurts sacrifice of things like Gravecrawler, but this card works just as well as Recurring Nightmare with cards like Bitterblossom, Ophiomancer, and Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia.
[180 classic cube]
This card is rather slow, but doubling as a 4/1 menace for 3 helps, and it should be able to win the game without too many activations. Importantly, the reanimated creature doesn't get exiled if it dies, so you can just keep replaying the same bomb through their removal if you have the resources. Cards like Hornet Queen that are good reanimation targets while also providing more fuel are of particular use, and obviously sac outlets are big game to replay your ETB triggers.
It also helps that I don't have Recurring Nightmare, and wouldn't run it if I did: too oppressive.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I'm planning on dropping dance of the dead to get a cleaner looking text box in the cube for petty reasons. I know its not an equivalent exchange, 2 mana recursion is better than 5 mana split. I think the ability to repeatedly recur is well worth it and being an artifact gives a new interesting way to cheat out thicc boys from the yard in the artifact fatty.dec thanks to OG tezzeret, welders, or even in conjunction with feldon by eating the token copy to recur the original.