I still have them in my Tier2 Synergy list. You looked at the wrong one
It doesnt matter how much enchantments are in your cube, as long as you have enough in your deck in the end. And Digger is a CC4 2/2 which is way worse than CC3. Id just play Unearth
But it does matter because those two numbers (in deck and in cube) are both directly related. The number of enchantments in your entire cube vs. the amount of other cards in your cube determines how many you will have access to during the draft. You will obviously have way more opportunities to grab creatures, instants, sorceries than you will to grab enchantments because of the % that they make up in your cube.
So...are we talking about Empyrial Armor anymore in this thread? I like the card quite a bit in giving White a different dimension to it's aggro decks. Often times, White aggro decks swarm out and win that way. In my cube, I started to push for more of a "Protect the Queen" style aggro deck, exemplified most by Kiln Fiend decks with counterspells, but appearing in White with various enchantments like Empyrial Armor and Ethereal Armor backed by protection spells. I think the White decks like this need more of a shell of support cards around them, particularly Enchantment support, but it's certainly doable. Shifting spells to seals, including more Bestow creatures, including enchantment removal spells (Dead Weight, Flowstone Blade, etc.), and putting in cards that care about Enchantments like Aura Gnarlid and Auramancer add a lot of texture to cubes by making creature enchantments less of a liability and more consistent a gameplan. Plus, sometimes you get to play Gush mid-combat with a creature enchanted with Empyrial Armor, which makes it all worth it.
In my cube, I started to push for more of a "Protect the Queen" style aggro deck, exemplified most by Kiln Fiend decks with counterspells, but appearing in White with various enchantments like Empyrial Armor and Ethereal Armor backed by protection spells.
The Magic term for that deck type is "Voltron" : ). That strategy is just a bit all in for me. I try to make my cube as consistent as possible, especially since we end up doing winston quite a bit which is already a pretty dodgey draft format in terms of deck construction.
Edit: I also refuse to play hexproof creatures which definitely affects the value of creature enchantments in the cube.
Voltron is when you attempt to put lots of enchantments or similar effects onto one creature. That's more all in than what usually happens in my Cube.
Since you draft Winston, yeah, you can't really afford to have cards requiring synergy floating around. Have you tried Grid Drafting? It's another two player draft format that allows for a bit more cohesion in the decks you draft as compared to Winston.
Voltron is when you attempt to put lots of enchantments or similar effects onto one creature. That's more all in than what usually happens in my Cube.
Since you draft Winston, yeah, you can't really afford to have cards requiring synergy floating around. Have you tried Grid Drafting? It's another two player draft format that allows for a bit more cohesion in the decks you draft as compared to Winston.
I've actually never heard of that. I'll have to check it out.
Or you could do the draft where every card in the cube is face up on the table and each player takes the card they want in turn. That one is hella fun since you can play chicken with the other drafters for who snipes a key card in another guy's deck.
I don't like Armor for the same reasons as people have said above. It's super all-in. It's also a great card on turn 3 only. White has tons of other tricks and pumps that are both more fair and less swingy.
I run an aura theme in my cube, and I do not run Empyrial Armor. I've had it in my cube for a long time but it's one of those cards that just doesn't usually get picked very highly. I agree that normally gives +3/+3 to a guy (though it's a terrible topdeck)but I disagree that on average it gets bigger and bigger each turn. Yes, it does so if you don't play spells or lands, but that's a pretty terrible drawback for an aura to have.
I like Moldervine Cloak a whole lot more for the same effect. Of course it's not in the same colour, but I'm just not too sad that the cloak doesn't have an equivalently powerful card in white.
I repeat myself, but I played Armor in 3 drafts now, and it was never all-in and always fantastic. Really dunno how you play or draft. Its a card you kind of build your deck around and not blindly slam into every deck.
I repeat myself, but I played Armor in 3 drafts now, and it was never all-in and always fantastic. Really dunno how you play or draft. Its a card you kind of build your deck around and not blindly slam into every deck.
That would be fine in a normal deck construction scenario but we're talking about singleton cube. It's a lot harder to build your deck around 1/40 cards in your deck that you might not even draw during game play. Hell, you might not even have the opportunity to draft it until pack3/pick4. There are some people around here that support certain niche archetypes but for the most part people try to play cards that are at least playable even outside of their specific role.
First, my cube needs to be draftet completly, thats correct. There are certain centerpieces you want to have. Thats interesting for drafts, too. Because players can hatepick those cards, when they know the cube.
Then the question ""is this card part of [insert archeytpe / deck]" is part of skill and experience. Also its much more difficult istead of just picking random card in your color because itll never be bad anyways.
Also I didnt include extemly narrow cards, like a stormsupply with ritals or the like. Afromentioned Armor works well as soon you draft some protection in different decks.
I didnt count but I guess that 70%+ of the cards are same in standard 360 cube.
I agree with the communitypart. But when someone just parrots LSV or other "pros" I dont get the feeling hes a "pro" himself
It sounds like you would have more fun just building singleton pauper decks and drafting the decks. Hatedrafting would only dilute your own deck if your entire cube must be drafted each time.
Auras like Empyrial Armor are too all-in for me. A removal spell puts you too far behind for my tastes. Played it before, was unimpressed. Only ever did anything on a hexproof guy.
I agree with this, but the new Bestow guys are starting to win me over. I have a Pauper Cube and am in the process right now of looking at including some of them. Casting them for their Bestow cost is often a little high on the mana investment, but I like the cards' abilities to adapt to different situations on the field.
A card may be good in one cube, while not so good in another cube. It can be advantageous to have very defined narrow archetypes to make strong decks. It can also be rewarding to have lots of safe consistent cards too. They can also be boring in both senses due to how well they work and how the meta evolves around them.
For example, Innistrad drafts with spider spawning decks. A very narrow strategy that could blow people out if the stars aligned correctly. As Dampen Thoughts was in Kamigawa as well. Sometimes a card can make a deck itself, but you need the support around it to exist.
Can Emperial Armor warrant its own deck? Not in the same sense spider spawning or dampen thoughts did, but if we delve deeper, perhaps it could be a piece to a whole new strategy. Open your minds and think of the possibilities. It may not be for your cube, but because of that you don't have to shut it down completely. Help discuss cards without pure negativity.
Auras have downsides, everyone knows that. I still think auras are playable, though you have to be careful about how they will be used in your cube generally. Just throwing in fencermark enchantments, or whatever that cycle is, won't cut it on its own.
Now how can we go about abusing this card...
Option A. Hexproof gets rid of the 2 for 1 factor, except against very narrow sacrifice cards. (ie. Celestial Flare, Diabolic Edict, Geth's Verdict)
In this type of deck, you can play a few cards then swing for the fences. Cards that help synergize are: Aura Gnarlid, Ethereal Armor, Hexproof Creatures, Auramancer, Borderland Ranger and other similar land searching cards that put lands into your hand.
Option B. UW deck that is drawing cards, can even be tempo.
This could even be a blink style deck, which usually has extra cards in its hand through its various forms of card advantage. Even could be a control deck where you just land a hard to remove threat and land this on top of it. Give whatever creature hexproof via elgaud shieldmate, or use the 2/2 hexproof flier, or just protect it on a seagate oracle with protection spells.
Option C. A white deck with possibly any other color mixed in to protect the deck or a heroic deck.
Now those are all viable options. The card does have a downside and the card also has an upside. Some cubes have less removal that others, some have more. This card would be better in a cube with less removal, or at least less powerful removal.
Also if you make niche archetypes, if a card is going to be a late pick usually, then that is completely fine. I dislike the argument that if a card is too narrow, that it will be a really late pick. Infact that can help build consistent archetypes. For example, I run seller of songbirds. That card is terrible in most decks. Downright bad. Now why on earth would I run that card? Cause the token player can usually count on it wheeling and getting it back. The card is decent in tokens, it isn't the strongest, but it is just fine. Throw down an "All creaters get +2/+2 until EOT" or any equipment, or ghostly flicker loop, and the card becomes playable.
I think empyrial armor is fine. I've thought about putting it in my cube quite a few times and eventually with the right setup it may just make it in. For now I'm going to pass due to mostly the reasons that the others stated, along with me not having the above archetypes, or if I do, not needing them to have this card at the moment.
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But it does matter because those two numbers (in deck and in cube) are both directly related. The number of enchantments in your entire cube vs. the amount of other cards in your cube determines how many you will have access to during the draft. You will obviously have way more opportunities to grab creatures, instants, sorceries than you will to grab enchantments because of the % that they make up in your cube.
The Magic term for that deck type is "Voltron" : ). That strategy is just a bit all in for me. I try to make my cube as consistent as possible, especially since we end up doing winston quite a bit which is already a pretty dodgey draft format in terms of deck construction.
Edit: I also refuse to play hexproof creatures which definitely affects the value of creature enchantments in the cube.
Since you draft Winston, yeah, you can't really afford to have cards requiring synergy floating around. Have you tried Grid Drafting? It's another two player draft format that allows for a bit more cohesion in the decks you draft as compared to Winston.
I've actually never heard of that. I'll have to check it out.
I don't like Armor for the same reasons as people have said above. It's super all-in. It's also a great card on turn 3 only. White has tons of other tricks and pumps that are both more fair and less swingy.
I like Moldervine Cloak a whole lot more for the same effect. Of course it's not in the same colour, but I'm just not too sad that the cloak doesn't have an equivalently powerful card in white.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
That would be fine in a normal deck construction scenario but we're talking about singleton cube. It's a lot harder to build your deck around 1/40 cards in your deck that you might not even draw during game play. Hell, you might not even have the opportunity to draft it until pack3/pick4. There are some people around here that support certain niche archetypes but for the most part people try to play cards that are at least playable even outside of their specific role.
It sounds like you would have more fun just building singleton pauper decks and drafting the decks. Hatedrafting would only dilute your own deck if your entire cube must be drafted each time.
I agree with this, but the new Bestow guys are starting to win me over. I have a Pauper Cube and am in the process right now of looking at including some of them. Casting them for their Bestow cost is often a little high on the mana investment, but I like the cards' abilities to adapt to different situations on the field.
For example, Innistrad drafts with spider spawning decks. A very narrow strategy that could blow people out if the stars aligned correctly. As Dampen Thoughts was in Kamigawa as well. Sometimes a card can make a deck itself, but you need the support around it to exist.
Can Emperial Armor warrant its own deck? Not in the same sense spider spawning or dampen thoughts did, but if we delve deeper, perhaps it could be a piece to a whole new strategy. Open your minds and think of the possibilities. It may not be for your cube, but because of that you don't have to shut it down completely. Help discuss cards without pure negativity.
Auras have downsides, everyone knows that. I still think auras are playable, though you have to be careful about how they will be used in your cube generally. Just throwing in fencermark enchantments, or whatever that cycle is, won't cut it on its own.
Now how can we go about abusing this card...
Option A. Hexproof gets rid of the 2 for 1 factor, except against very narrow sacrifice cards. (ie. Celestial Flare, Diabolic Edict, Geth's Verdict)
In this type of deck, you can play a few cards then swing for the fences. Cards that help synergize are: Aura Gnarlid, Ethereal Armor, Hexproof Creatures, Auramancer, Borderland Ranger and other similar land searching cards that put lands into your hand.
Option B. UW deck that is drawing cards, can even be tempo.
This could even be a blink style deck, which usually has extra cards in its hand through its various forms of card advantage. Even could be a control deck where you just land a hard to remove threat and land this on top of it. Give whatever creature hexproof via elgaud shieldmate, or use the 2/2 hexproof flier, or just protect it on a seagate oracle with protection spells.
Option C. A white deck with possibly any other color mixed in to protect the deck or a heroic deck.
Now those are all viable options. The card does have a downside and the card also has an upside. Some cubes have less removal that others, some have more. This card would be better in a cube with less removal, or at least less powerful removal.
Also if you make niche archetypes, if a card is going to be a late pick usually, then that is completely fine. I dislike the argument that if a card is too narrow, that it will be a really late pick. Infact that can help build consistent archetypes. For example, I run seller of songbirds. That card is terrible in most decks. Downright bad. Now why on earth would I run that card? Cause the token player can usually count on it wheeling and getting it back. The card is decent in tokens, it isn't the strongest, but it is just fine. Throw down an "All creaters get +2/+2 until EOT" or any equipment, or ghostly flicker loop, and the card becomes playable.
I think empyrial armor is fine. I've thought about putting it in my cube quite a few times and eventually with the right setup it may just make it in. For now I'm going to pass due to mostly the reasons that the others stated, along with me not having the above archetypes, or if I do, not needing them to have this card at the moment.
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