Flame Sweep intrigues me. Powerful effect, does it have a home? Rx control? Rx skies somehow?
Red has zero flying creatures in most cubes, would be weird to build an Rx skies deck just for a single card. Control wants all the sweepers it can get, so running low toughness flyers is not a good idea most of the time even if you get them from another color.
I doubt it will be more than Fiery Cannonade most of the time. Flame Sweep is a decent card, but it would be very hard to abuse the potentially powerful effect it has without sacrificing something else for it while drafting.
Rx control decks usually have non-red flying creatures (there are plenty with 3 or 4 toughness around) or ground creatures big enough to survive two damage. But Flame Sweep with its non-flyers clause does a much better job of signalling that idea to drafters than Fiery Cannonade with its non-pirates. It also doesn't have the downside of leaving random pirate type aggro creatures alive. So if you're running sweeper control, this is an easy upgrade. If you're not, this card is not going to make you start running it.
Cryptic Caves reminds me a lot Blighted Cataract. Obviously it's cheaper and colourless but is that enough of an upside to bump out a low-tier artifact or one of the other utility lands?
Corpse Knight is pretty cool but I'm not sure I want to cut any of my Orzhov cards. Orzhov has lots of cool options.
People getting excited about Flame Sweep are dreaming.
I mean, I already am running Fiery Cannonade so Flame Sweep is an easy upgrade. The upside is actually relevant, in my cube at least. Letting a UR tempo deck run a sweeper without killing its own Carnivorous Death-Parrots is a nice bonus to an effect that's already good enough.
Part of me really likes Angel of Vitality - it's definitely not good enough on its own, but it's definitely a welcome addition to the lifegain matters cardpool that may be approaching critical mass soon.
Chandra, Novice Pyromancer intrigues me - after having just gotten uncommon planeswalkers last set, and being somewhat impressed with at least a few of them, the prospect of a planeswalker that actually has a plus ability (even if it literally did nothing) is exciting. Her minuses are both relevant, she starts with a fair chunk of loyalty... I dunno, I think she might actually be good. The comparisons to Staggershock make some sense, but I think folks are underestimating the value of just being able to drop her on an empty board and represent a difficult to deal with threat. The mana ability is also quite relevant as well, even the turn you play her.
Cryptic Caves reminds me a lot Blighted Cataract. Obviously it's cheaper and colourless but is that enough of an upside to bump out a low-tier artifact or one of the other utility lands?
I think the difference between having seven mana (most likely lands unless you play UG) minimum and tapping out with all you've got versus having five lands and tapping only two of them is a huge difference. There are only few decks that can achieve the former reliably while getting a true benefit out of it while pretty much every midrange or control deck should be able to do the latter eventually. I think Caves are probably even playable in aggro.
Then there is of course the color restriction, in my cube at least it's far easier to find a colorless spot for such a card than making room for it in the blue section. On top of that blue is a color that doesn't really need more card draw.
3 mana on Empyrean Eagle is significantly easier to play with other cards than the 4 on Thunderclap Wyvern. Flash is nice, but it's hard to beat raw efficiency.
Ironroot Warlord being a relevant body on a close to empty board deals with most of the problems this sort of effect has. Doesn't die post combat in larger combat phases either. Pretty easily gets to a 3/5 for 3, which is just good stats.
Cryptic Caves not producing coloured mana is a huge drawback compared to Horizen Canopy and co. Definitely playable despite this, but I'm not sure if its worth the slot considering how low impact it is.
What's the damage needed from Corpse Knight to have it be decent? 4-5ish? Probably too high to be worth a guild slot.
Barkhide Troll is killed by GG and the stupid amount of good green 2s we have.
What's the damage needed from Corpse Knight to have it be decent? 4-5ish? Probably too high to be worth a guild slot.
Not sure whether you mean total damage or life loss from the ability, but assuming you mean the ability I think calling a 2/2 for 2 mana that deals 4-5 damage without attacking or tapping (basically on etb) 'decent' is a bit of an understatement. Keldon Marauders is a playable aggro card and it deals 2 damage. A 3/3 for a single attack phase is probably worse than a 2/2 that stays forever.
To call Corpse Knight decent 2-3 (noncombat) damage are more than enough, 4-5 damage is already awesome and anything more than that is completely nuts. I don't think that's very hard to achieve in a creature heavy deck with a few token makers, it's more the (almost) worst case scenario when in top deck mode.
A 2 mana 2/2 with etb deal 4-5 is crazy in specifically aggro, but you aren't getting that in aggro (unless you both t2 it and don't attack with it, which isn't great). If you're in a slower deck, then it's pretty unlikely 2-3 damage is going to matter. Suture Priest was brought up, which has basically the same issues: weak in combat, dead top deck, and doesn't actually impact the board, despite being really life positive. I'm not going to play a random Lava Spike, but I might play a random really cheap Lava Axe.
Season of Growth is interesting design space. I'm sure it would scry fairly often in my cube, but I'm not sure it will draw that many cards. The problem is I don't really want to tap out on turn 2 to play a card that doesn't affect turn 3, as the scry from that turn won't really have effect until I draw on turn 4, and only then if I actually tucked the top card - if I kept it on top, even turn 4 is unchanged. I wish the enchantment did something on its own, too.
A 2 mana 2/2 with etb deal 4-5 is crazy in specifically aggro, but you aren't getting that in aggro (unless you both t2 it and don't attack with it, which isn't great). If you're in a slower deck, then it's pretty unlikely 2-3 damage is going to matter. Suture Priest was brought up, which has basically the same issues: weak in combat, dead top deck, and doesn't actually impact the board, despite being really life positive. I'm not going to play a random Lava Spike, but I might play a random really cheap Lava Axe.
Why can't you attack with it? It behaves just like any other aggro two drop. It just has 1 less power than the typical two drop but more than makes up for it with the ability that can potentially deal 5+ damage on its own. If it trades with a defender of your opponent, fine - it's a two drop? If it eats removal that's fine as well. If it gets blocked without dying the ability still triggers, it doesn't need to be untapped. Apart from that if you play it turn two in the right deck it's probably perfectly fine to just not attack with it as it will almost certainly deal more than 5 damage if it doesn't get removed, which is more than you could ever ask from a two drop.
Suture Priest is a really bad comparison. It's a 1/1, which isn't even comparable to a 2/2, and the life loss completely depends on the deck of your opponent, which makes this part of the card as useless as protection from x against some decks. That's why the life loss is good for the sideboard only.
The life gain on its own isn't very good for a two drop, you're better off running something like Nyx-Fleece Ram (or the great Soul Warden if you want a one drop), which is a fine card, but goes into a completely different deck than Corpse Knight.
The Lava Spike or Lava Axe comparison makes as much sense as saying that Fire Imp is just a bad, overcosted sorcery speed Shock.
EDIT: Too bad Portal of Sanctuary is limited to your own turn. They nerfed that effect too much, now even with a Wall of Omens out it's worse than Arcane Encyclopedia.
A 2 mana multicoloured 2/2 is incredibly bad as a baseline. It's better than a 1/1, but it still has the same issues considering it needs to survive combat to be worthwhile (there's enough competetion for its slot you can't just have it be fine). To have Corpse Knight be good you need to not block or attack with it and have a decent sized hand. This is similar to Suture Priest, which is why I was comparing them.
The Lava Spike or Lava Axe comparison makes as much sense as saying that Fire Imp is just a bad, overcosted sorcery speed Shock.
A random (in a non-aggressive deck) Lava Spike would have to give me mana before I played it. A multicoloured 2/2 for 2 with no text is also really bad. Combining the two cards (even with Spike costing 0) doesn't suddenly create a good card. Fire Imps' 2 damage can easily be worth 2 mana, which makes it good; that is not the case for a Lava Spike. Alternatively, Fire Imp is worth 2 cards; that is not the case for a Lava Spike on a 2/2. Only doing 3 non-combat damage is not enough unless you're aggressive (which has it's own issues), so you need it to do more, which starts becoming increasingly more difficult. And if you can get to high amount of triggers easily, there's almost certainly better ways to win that don't require sequencing it beforehand.
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Season of Growth seems pretty good. Triggering off fight spells is good even if the etb scrys isn't quite worth a card.
Season of Growth - I think you'd need like one pump/fight spell or creature enchantment and something like two creatures to make it worth it? Seems doable in a color with tokens.
Vampire of the Dire Moon is the second black one-drop we've gotten recently with two keyworded abilities. And I like the Deathtouch/Lifelink combo better than Banehound's Haste/Lifelink. I already run Gifted Aetherborn and Vampire Nighthawk, but those can actually survive some damage, while a 1/1 dies to anything. Probably an easy upgrade for anyone running one of the Typhoid Rats variants.
Yeah the woodland champion makes the cut... I am trying to avoid making too many changes just because I haven't even obtained let alone tested the MH stuff.
I am just going to be looking for stuff with easy replacements for underwhelming cards I have a kind of mental note of cards that I wish I had something better in that slot.
I actually really like Spectral Sailor. Holding blue mana open for a counter (or to make your opponent nervous) is great, but flashing this in at end of turn so the mana isn't wasted is great. And the late game mana sink for card draw is the same as Azure Mage. It may lose one power from the mage, but while they both die to everything, this can actually get in for damage thanks to flying.
Yeah, I also like Spectral Sailor. Though, it likely means cutting one of Blue's current 1-drop creature. Either the new Faerie or Siren Stormtamer, I suppose. Azure Mage is an effect I like in CU/be, even if the 2-drop spot is too crowded right now.
The set's design continues strong, methinks. This might be the most *interesting* Core set I have witnessed thus far, in terms of the complexity of design at Un/common.
Why do I want an expensive card draw engine on an aggressive body? I can't really see a deck for Spectral Sailor; being able to trade in combat with Azure Mage seems better for the decks that want this effect.
Green doesn't have the most tokens, but Woodland Champion is fairly easily a 3/3 with pretty high potential upside. Conditional big vanilla bodies have to cross a pretty high bar to be good, so I'm pretty hesitant on this.
Bloodthirsty Aerialist is similar to Champion with less things triggering it, but having the base body be respectable is nice. A single trigger makes it a good bit above rate. I don't think I have enough support for it, but a single trigger is a pretty low bar.
I really like Vampire of the Dire Moon. Draining on hit if unblocked is huge with a creature that is probably going to trade up if blocked.
Why do I want an expensive card draw engine on an aggressive body? I can't really see a deck for Spectral Sailor; being able to trade in combat with Azure Mage seems better for the decks that want this effect.
If your 2/1 is trading with another creature, it's probably early game before you've had a chance to sink mana into the ability; it's not going to trade with much late game, when it's just chumping a 4/4 or 7/7. With the evasive aggro offered by Spectral Sailor, you can smash in for early damage, and then if it survives to mid- or late-game, you sink mana to draw bigger threats.
Rx control decks usually have non-red flying creatures (there are plenty with 3 or 4 toughness around) or ground creatures big enough to survive two damage. But Flame Sweep with its non-flyers clause does a much better job of signalling that idea to drafters than Fiery Cannonade with its non-pirates. It also doesn't have the downside of leaving random pirate type aggro creatures alive. So if you're running sweeper control, this is an easy upgrade. If you're not, this card is not going to make you start running it.
Corpse Knight is pretty cool but I'm not sure I want to cut any of my Orzhov cards. Orzhov has lots of cool options.
People getting excited about Flame Sweep are dreaming.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
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I will also likely replace Thunderclap Wyvern with Empyrean Eagle - the flash is nice, but costing 3 instead of 4 is a big deal, especially when other anthems and important cards in the archetype cost 4 - Celestial Crusader, Kongming, Sleeping Dragon, Battle Screech, Spectral Procession (most likely in a two color deck), etc.
Part of me really likes Angel of Vitality - it's definitely not good enough on its own, but it's definitely a welcome addition to the lifegain matters cardpool that may be approaching critical mass soon.
Chandra, Novice Pyromancer intrigues me - after having just gotten uncommon planeswalkers last set, and being somewhat impressed with at least a few of them, the prospect of a planeswalker that actually has a plus ability (even if it literally did nothing) is exciting. Her minuses are both relevant, she starts with a fair chunk of loyalty... I dunno, I think she might actually be good. The comparisons to Staggershock make some sense, but I think folks are underestimating the value of just being able to drop her on an empty board and represent a difficult to deal with threat. The mana ability is also quite relevant as well, even the turn you play her.
I think the difference between having seven mana (most likely lands unless you play UG) minimum and tapping out with all you've got versus having five lands and tapping only two of them is a huge difference. There are only few decks that can achieve the former reliably while getting a true benefit out of it while pretty much every midrange or control deck should be able to do the latter eventually. I think Caves are probably even playable in aggro.
Then there is of course the color restriction, in my cube at least it's far easier to find a colorless spot for such a card than making room for it in the blue section. On top of that blue is a color that doesn't really need more card draw.
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Ironroot Warlord being a relevant body on a close to empty board deals with most of the problems this sort of effect has. Doesn't die post combat in larger combat phases either. Pretty easily gets to a 3/5 for 3, which is just good stats.
Cryptic Caves not producing coloured mana is a huge drawback compared to Horizen Canopy and co. Definitely playable despite this, but I'm not sure if its worth the slot considering how low impact it is.
What's the damage needed from Corpse Knight to have it be decent? 4-5ish? Probably too high to be worth a guild slot.
Barkhide Troll is killed by GG and the stupid amount of good green 2s we have.
Not sure whether you mean total damage or life loss from the ability, but assuming you mean the ability I think calling a 2/2 for 2 mana that deals 4-5 damage without attacking or tapping (basically on etb) 'decent' is a bit of an understatement. Keldon Marauders is a playable aggro card and it deals 2 damage. A 3/3 for a single attack phase is probably worse than a 2/2 that stays forever.
To call Corpse Knight decent 2-3 (noncombat) damage are more than enough, 4-5 damage is already awesome and anything more than that is completely nuts. I don't think that's very hard to achieve in a creature heavy deck with a few token makers, it's more the (almost) worst case scenario when in top deck mode.
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Why can't you attack with it? It behaves just like any other aggro two drop. It just has 1 less power than the typical two drop but more than makes up for it with the ability that can potentially deal 5+ damage on its own. If it trades with a defender of your opponent, fine - it's a two drop? If it eats removal that's fine as well. If it gets blocked without dying the ability still triggers, it doesn't need to be untapped. Apart from that if you play it turn two in the right deck it's probably perfectly fine to just not attack with it as it will almost certainly deal more than 5 damage if it doesn't get removed, which is more than you could ever ask from a two drop.
Suture Priest is a really bad comparison. It's a 1/1, which isn't even comparable to a 2/2, and the life loss completely depends on the deck of your opponent, which makes this part of the card as useless as protection from x against some decks. That's why the life loss is good for the sideboard only.
The life gain on its own isn't very good for a two drop, you're better off running something like Nyx-Fleece Ram (or the great Soul Warden if you want a one drop), which is a fine card, but goes into a completely different deck than Corpse Knight.
The Lava Spike or Lava Axe comparison makes as much sense as saying that Fire Imp is just a bad, overcosted sorcery speed Shock.
EDIT: Too bad Portal of Sanctuary is limited to your own turn. They nerfed that effect too much, now even with a Wall of Omens out it's worse than Arcane Encyclopedia.
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A 2 mana multicoloured 2/2 is incredibly bad as a baseline. It's better than a 1/1, but it still has the same issues considering it needs to survive combat to be worthwhile (there's enough competetion for its slot you can't just have it be fine). To have Corpse Knight be good you need to not block or attack with it and have a decent sized hand. This is similar to Suture Priest, which is why I was comparing them.
A random (in a non-aggressive deck) Lava Spike would have to give me mana before I played it. A multicoloured 2/2 for 2 with no text is also really bad. Combining the two cards (even with Spike costing 0) doesn't suddenly create a good card. Fire Imps' 2 damage can easily be worth 2 mana, which makes it good; that is not the case for a Lava Spike. Alternatively, Fire Imp is worth 2 cards; that is not the case for a Lava Spike on a 2/2. Only doing 3 non-combat damage is not enough unless you're aggressive (which has it's own issues), so you need it to do more, which starts becoming increasingly more difficult. And if you can get to high amount of triggers easily, there's almost certainly better ways to win that don't require sequencing it beforehand.
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Season of Growth seems pretty good. Triggering off fight spells is good even if the etb scrys isn't quite worth a card.
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I like it, but to be awesome he should have Trample. Any creature can chumpblock it.
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Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
I am just going to be looking for stuff with easy replacements for underwhelming cards I have a kind of mental note of cards that I wish I had something better in that slot.
Bloodthirsty Aerialist same stats as nighthawk but I do not have a life gain theme in my cube (just random lifelinkers) so I am not sure its worth it.
Vampire of the Dire Moon the best typhoid rats?
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The set's design continues strong, methinks. This might be the most *interesting* Core set I have witnessed thus far, in terms of the complexity of design at Un/common.
Green doesn't have the most tokens, but Woodland Champion is fairly easily a 3/3 with pretty high potential upside. Conditional big vanilla bodies have to cross a pretty high bar to be good, so I'm pretty hesitant on this.
Bloodthirsty Aerialist is similar to Champion with less things triggering it, but having the base body be respectable is nice. A single trigger makes it a good bit above rate. I don't think I have enough support for it, but a single trigger is a pretty low bar.
I really like Vampire of the Dire Moon. Draining on hit if unblocked is huge with a creature that is probably going to trade up if blocked.
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Gameplans dont always just go curvecurvecurve, having these backup plans to cover weaknesses is valuable.
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