Domesticated Hydra
2GG
Creature - Hydra
XGGG: Monstrosity X. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put X +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.)
As long as Domesticated Hydra is monstrous, it has trample.
Then there's a bunch of wonky multi-player cards and "draft matters" stuff which people (generally, and rightfully) ignore during cube construction.
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The "Monarch" stuff I suppose technically can be brought over, since it's just a token/emblem that looks like this:
The two cards with the Monarch mechanic thus far are Knights of the Black Rose and Crown-Hunter Hireling. They both basically "cantrip" since you'll have the Monarch emblem on your end step, which is cool. Losing the emblem and having your opponent start drawing... less cool. I don't think I want either of these, but I'm definitely curious about the mechanic showing up on other cards.
Animus of Predation may be playable. You'd need to see it early for it to be really good, but if you do, it could have a bunch of keywords. You'd only need two to be in Serra Angel territory.
I'm not bothered by the green-ness at all. It's basically a ramp-only card, getting GGG for monstrous is rarely going to be an issue in the late game.
I like it a good amount. Probably just worse than Nessian Asp since 3/3 for 4 is so much weaker than 4/5 reach for 5 to start, but still a solid option... and getting trample on the Monstrosity ability is nice, since I've lost a non-zero number of games to my Asp getting chump blocked for a turn or two before it died to removal.
I don't think you guys are giving the Monarch mechanic enough due. If your opponent can't attack into your board state, you're getting a faster Coercive Portal plus the creature you paid for. We don't have access to many comparable draw engines of that power level. It can be a bit swingy, of course, but if you're drafting cards like Lingering Souls then remaining (or at least regaining) the Monarch should be no problem.
Animus of Predation: I imagine I'd want to play the exiled cards themselves in my deck most of the time - and sometimes, somehow, try to reforge Plated Crusher into a 5 mana 4/4 hexproofed trampling, double striking flier - but an interesting question is if I can turn every bad pack into a hate-picking, Animus fueling machine? What's the expected value?
We're drafting 45 cards, at least 30-35 of which will be playable. So let's say we want three keywords (although two is probably fine in most cases). At the end of the draft we're likely to want to trade two or three picks that we could play (but won't because we have to cut ~10 cards) to make Animus better, so we're unlikely to take a power hit by drafting it. Even if we see it late in the draft, say beginning of pack three, we can probably make two picks that make Animus playable or good. So I don't think it's going to be undraftable very often. Theorycrafting obviously, but I'd say this is probably a pretty good card.
The problem to me is that it encourages random off-color picks and hate-drafting. That's fine in a set like conspiracy, where multiplayer politics are a big part of the fun and creating rivalries during draft (because someone publicly picked a card you wanted to make their animus better) makes the following free-for-all more interesting. I'm not too enthused about seeing that in a "normal" cube draft where multiplayer is not a thing.
I'm sure the power level on Animus is fine enough (usually can jump through its small hoops to get a Serra Angel-ish body, sometimes much better and sometimes it'll fall short if it's in P3) but the hoops you jump through during the draft process for stuff like that just don't interest me at all.
I'm sure the power level on Animus is fine enough (usually can jump through its small hoops to get a Serra Angel-ish body, sometimes much better and sometimes it'll fall short if it's in P3) but the hoops you jump through during the draft process for stuff like that just don't interest me at all.
My initial reaction to this card's minigame is "fun as hell"
Yeah, I don't think I'd want it in my cube permanently, but I could definitely see it in an expansion pack of sorts with all the weird conspiracy draft cards. Could just shuffle those cards in whenever the drafters feel like mixing it up.
I don't think Monarch is a good fit for 1v1 drafts. It is much more suited for multiplayer as multiple people will need to gang up on the monarch in order to take away the extra card draw from them. In 1v1 it would just lead to runaway games.
I think the Knights of the Black Rose just might be good enough. I mean... it's a big blocker, and it's also in the colours that're (arguably) the best at neutralizing threats. I can see this guy enabling an Orzhov control/grind deck of sorts, functioning as a way to keep your hand filled. Granted, sometimes the opponent will draw a few cards, but in Orzhov you're usually gonna draw removal for their threats. Also, we don't really have any other/better options for enabling Orzhov true control, since most of our cards tend to lend themselves better for aggro, aristocrats or discard. Idk, I like the guy. And the lifedrain is just gravy.
Everything "fits" differently in Cube vs original set, it's no different than like... the Dauthis and Soltaris from Tempest.
So? That doesn't mean putting monarch stuff in your cube is a good idea. Monarch in 1v1 can easily lead to runaway games to me as you drown your opponent in card advantage. Our cubes won't have most of the cards that conspiracy does either that automatically make you the monarch. I mean feel free to add it to yours, but that would be a mistake in my eyes.
And for the record I hate the shadow stuff and keep it out of my cube for that very reason.
Comparing Monarch in Peasant to Monarch in multi-player Conspiracy isn't helpful. They're clearly going to function differently, but I only care about how the cards will work in this setting.
And thus far, we're talking about a 1/3 for 4 and two 4/4s for 5. They're not just cards you can slam on-curve and reliably ride to easy victory, since they go horribly awry in the super-duper-likely scenario of you getting hit for any amount of combat damage.
Comparing Monarch in Peasant to Monarch in multi-player Conspiracy isn't helpful. They're clearly going to function differently, but I only care about how the cards will work in this setting.
And thus far, we're talking about a 1/3 for 4 and two 4/4s for 5. They're not just cards you can slam on-curve and reliably ride to easy victory, since they go horribly awry in the super-duper-likely scenario of you getting hit for any amount of combat damage.
I don't see how it isn't helpful. The features of Conspiracy that let Monarch work well are absent in peasant cube, so it should only be natural to question the relevance of Monarch cards for us. It can easily create positive feedback loops which I think should be avoided.
It's similar to how comparing Infect in Peasant Cube to its appearance in New Phyrexia is also useful. Our cubes are going to have fewer infect spells, thus making the ability not as good a fit because it was designed for a completely different environment.
One Infect creature in a Cube deck (or in an entire Cube) means the mechanic is a drawback vs the same creature with no abilities.
That's obviously not the case for Monarch. It works DIFFERENTLY than in a multi-player setting and/or one where there's a much higher percent of Monarch cards in the pool, but that doesn't exclude the cards from being playable to good effect elsewhere.
It's like looking at Tyrant's Choice. It's a messy pile of text for a card that, in Cube, says "4 to opponent's face". The fact that there's words about voting and sacrificing creatures is just totally irrelevant to how we would use it in this environment.
although the wording of the mechanic is weird, melee might crop up a nice card.
I think that's pretty much impossible at uncommon or below since they are made with the assumption you can attack multiple opponents to get +2/+2 or more, but in cube you can only attack 1 opponent
I mean, attacking as a 2/2 instead of as a 2/1 seems to be a valid reason to consider it. Doing a quick look at my cube indicates that the difference between how many more creatures it loses to on defense compared to the Pegasi is greater that the difference between how many more creatures it wins to on offense compared to the Pegasi, but that might be alright if you want to be attacking more often.
No need to be so dismissive about a speculative card.
Wings of the Guard is quite comparable to Soltari Trooper, almost a stone-cold staple. Of course, fact is that the bird has a much worse form of evasion even though it is able to block more things. In the aggressive deck that wants it, a better evasion is worth more. However, I might consider it in place of Lone Rider if the card turns out to be too dependent and parasitic.
Domesticated Hydra
2GG
Creature - Hydra
XGGG: Monstrosity X. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put X +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.)
As long as Domesticated Hydra is monstrous, it has trample.
Then there's a bunch of wonky multi-player cards and "draft matters" stuff which people (generally, and rightfully) ignore during cube construction.
--
The "Monarch" stuff I suppose technically can be brought over, since it's just a token/emblem that looks like this:
The two cards with the Monarch mechanic thus far are Knights of the Black Rose and Crown-Hunter Hireling. They both basically "cantrip" since you'll have the Monarch emblem on your end step, which is cool. Losing the emblem and having your opponent start drawing... less cool. I don't think I want either of these, but I'm definitely curious about the mechanic showing up on other cards.
I like it a good amount. Probably just worse than Nessian Asp since 3/3 for 4 is so much weaker than 4/5 reach for 5 to start, but still a solid option... and getting trample on the Monstrosity ability is nice, since I've lost a non-zero number of games to my Asp getting chump blocked for a turn or two before it died to removal.
I don't think you guys are giving the Monarch mechanic enough due. If your opponent can't attack into your board state, you're getting a faster Coercive Portal plus the creature you paid for. We don't have access to many comparable draw engines of that power level. It can be a bit swingy, of course, but if you're drafting cards like Lingering Souls then remaining (or at least regaining) the Monarch should be no problem.
Cubetutor Link
We're drafting 45 cards, at least 30-35 of which will be playable. So let's say we want three keywords (although two is probably fine in most cases). At the end of the draft we're likely to want to trade two or three picks that we could play (but won't because we have to cut ~10 cards) to make Animus better, so we're unlikely to take a power hit by drafting it. Even if we see it late in the draft, say beginning of pack three, we can probably make two picks that make Animus playable or good. So I don't think it's going to be undraftable very often. Theorycrafting obviously, but I'd say this is probably a pretty good card.
The problem to me is that it encourages random off-color picks and hate-drafting. That's fine in a set like conspiracy, where multiplayer politics are a big part of the fun and creating rivalries during draft (because someone publicly picked a card you wanted to make their animus better) makes the following free-for-all more interesting. I'm not too enthused about seeing that in a "normal" cube draft where multiplayer is not a thing.
My initial reaction to this card's minigame is "fun as hell"
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
So? That doesn't mean putting monarch stuff in your cube is a good idea. Monarch in 1v1 can easily lead to runaway games to me as you drown your opponent in card advantage. Our cubes won't have most of the cards that conspiracy does either that automatically make you the monarch. I mean feel free to add it to yours, but that would be a mistake in my eyes.
And for the record I hate the shadow stuff and keep it out of my cube for that very reason.
And thus far, we're talking about a 1/3 for 4 and two 4/4s for 5. They're not just cards you can slam on-curve and reliably ride to easy victory, since they go horribly awry in the super-duper-likely scenario of you getting hit for any amount of combat damage.
I don't see how it isn't helpful. The features of Conspiracy that let Monarch work well are absent in peasant cube, so it should only be natural to question the relevance of Monarch cards for us. It can easily create positive feedback loops which I think should be avoided.
It's similar to how comparing Infect in Peasant Cube to its appearance in New Phyrexia is also useful. Our cubes are going to have fewer infect spells, thus making the ability not as good a fit because it was designed for a completely different environment.
That's obviously not the case for Monarch. It works DIFFERENTLY than in a multi-player setting and/or one where there's a much higher percent of Monarch cards in the pool, but that doesn't exclude the cards from being playable to good effect elsewhere.
It's like looking at Tyrant's Choice. It's a messy pile of text for a card that, in Cube, says "4 to opponent's face". The fact that there's words about voting and sacrificing creatures is just totally irrelevant to how we would use it in this environment.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
I think that's pretty much impossible at uncommon or below since they are made with the assumption you can attack multiple opponents to get +2/+2 or more, but in cube you can only attack 1 opponent
Not bad, but no reason to ever consider it before Mistral Charger and Stormfront Pegasus
I mean, attacking as a 2/2 instead of as a 2/1 seems to be a valid reason to consider it. Doing a quick look at my cube indicates that the difference between how many more creatures it loses to on defense compared to the Pegasi is greater that the difference between how many more creatures it wins to on offense compared to the Pegasi, but that might be alright if you want to be attacking more often.
No need to be so dismissive about a speculative card.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor