MTG Salvation

We have our first downshift in Sphinx Summoner . I think as it is the card is not enough supported in our cube setups, but I hope that it is a start for an artifact theme that may be an option in the future.

I love the card I have a stack of them from a silly deck I brewed up years ago (It involved heartless summoning). But yeah the nature of Peasant is that tutors aren't actually that strong since there is nothing stupid to tutor.

Except maybe loxodon warhammer? edit: oh oops forgot it was a creature. my artifact creatures at little things

It says artifact creature, otherwise it would have been decent.

Trash for Treasure is also getting downgraded. Similarly to the Sphinx, we have few viable ways to use that effectively. Though, I imagine that if anyone has a Tinker package, it might be further support.

what even is our best top end artifact? gate colossus? meteor golem? pilgrim of the fires? sphinx of the guildpact? darksteel sentinel? darksteel gargoyle? phyrexian juggernaut?

sphinx of the guildpact seems like it's head and shoulders above the rest, but not exactly worth comboing for.

God-pharaoh’s statue

yeah i guess i didn't consider that would be quite powerful on turn 3.

If hoarding dragon doesnt do anything I doubt sphinx summoner will.

Also idk why wizo like to sometimes pretend that black is an artifact color.

Maybe because of the traditional roots of Phyrexia as primarily black? Thus, there is at least some association with artifacts, through the Gieger-like flesh and metal fusions in artwork if nothing else.

I'm really happy to see the Sphinx Summoner downshift. I was always trying to make Dimir Tezzerator a thing before I decided to go Peasant and had to gut the support for it. I still think blue has some great artifact support cards in common and uncommon though, and it wouldn't be too difficult to create a subtheme where I could see Sphinx Summoner playing a key role.

Looking at some of the rares they're putting in these packs, WotC definitely does not seem willing to downshift stuff easily.

Yeah, Salvage titan and Shamanic Revelation would have been nice downshifts and they are awful rares to pull in expensive packs.

Looks like Gelatinous Genesis is uncommon now. Thoughts?

Quote from MarthMarthMarth »

Looks like Gelatinous Genesis is uncommon now. Thoughts?

For 3 mana it's not even worth a card. For 5 mana you get a crappy version of Grizzly Fate without Threshold and Flashback. For 7 mana you finally get something that is not terrible, but that is still worse than Trostani's Summoner or the quality green 7 drops (Pelakka Wurm, Plated Crusher etc) we have. It doesn't offer enough in the 3-5 mana range to make up for the lack of power in the 7 mana range and 9+ mana doesn't happen often enough even in green.

I assume this card may be playable in commander if you can somehow generate 9+ mana quickly (I don't play commander, so I may be completely wrong about it), but in CU/be it's just bad.

If they insisted on printing it here, they could at least have given us Swiftblade Vindicator. Though, that might be too fresh to downshift, I suppose.

Quote from Poster formerly known as Phitt77 »

I assume this card may be playable in commander if you can somehow generate 9+ mana quickly (I don't play commander, so I may be completely wrong about it), but in CU/be it's just bad.

In the ten years since this card was released, I think I might have seen this once in Commander. With enough mana, it makes an army, but with that much mana there are just too many better things to do in Commander. Plus, they're all vanilla and don't have haste. It's just not good.

And I would never run it in Peasant, either.

Gelatinous Genesis was once in my bad cards cube. Turns out the rate is actually too good when you expect to cast it for 9 in a format where flamewave invoker is the best finisher, so I cut it, but that's its only home.

I'm likely gonna try Gelatinous Genesis

the Trostani's Summoner comparison is apt; this is one power less and (most importantly) loses out on bounce/flicker/reanimate synergy, but Genesis is mono-color so it SHOULD be a bit worse and also the Summoner remains a ramp bomb after all these years in my cube.

Since the downshifts were pretty boring this masters set, and I'm bored myself, I went through the list of rares and mythics to see what could have easily been downshifted, and what would have been possibly okay to downshift but possibly too good:

Easy Downshifts:

• Boon Reflection - I don't think this or the lifegain archetype in Peasant is very good, but why not give us the option?
• Thought Reflection - A 7 mana enchantment that does nothing to affect the board. Maybe control decks would want this?
• Doomed Necromancer - A creature version of Zombify, same total mana cost and all. There are creature shenanigens that can give you upsides over Zombify, but Doomed Necromancer also takes 2 turns typically, so I don't see him being that much better.
• Heat Shimmer - We have Mirror Image for a 3 mana 1-sided clone, and the original Clone at 4 mana. So a 3 mana clone in red that lasts only 1 turn seems fine to me.
• Ion Storm - This just seems bad. I doubt it would see any play but it still should have been downshifted.
• Hanna, Ship's Navigator - The body is terrible and it's just really slow. I also doubt this would see play but it would have been nice to at least have the option.
• Phyrexian Revoker - A nice utility hate creature. There's probably not enough scary activated abilities to make this maindeckable, but it might be nice sideboard card to pick up later in a draft.

Spicy downshifts that would be nice but maybe too good:

• Beacon of Unrest - Hitting both graveyards and both artifacts and creatures at 5 mana is right on curve for peasant playability IMO. I'm not sure if shuffling back into the library changes things in 40 card decks though.
• Magus of the Will - I'm guessing after you sac this guy you'll probably have 3-4 mana left in a good case, which usually probably equates to re-casting just 1 spell. He does have a good floor though as a 3 mana 3/3. I don't see much combo potential in the peasant cube environment.
• Salvage Titan - Already discussed in this thread. In an artifact cube this could be super explosive but is also just as likely to a bad 6 mana creature.
• Skirsdag High Priest - This card asks for a LOT of set-up to work. When it does work it can take over the game but I think there will also be a lot of games where this guy does nothing.
• Cragganwick Cremator - Above curve but the random discard can either break your back or deal a ton of damage to your opponent's face just when you need it. I think this would be okay overall though.
• Rage Reflection - 6 mana enchantment that does nothing without an established board. It will end games if your board is even near parity, and is also good on defense, so it may be too good.
• Swiftblade Vindicator - Becomes super scary with any pump but without that it's about the level of Boros Swiftblade
• Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter - It's 7 mana that needs other creatures to sacrifice to be good.
• Sculpting Steel - I doubt there are enough good artifacts at peasant to copy to make this too powerful.

I don't think Vish Kal is an uncommon

They were discussing what could reasonably have been downgraded among the cards that have been revealed at rare and above.

I do not have high hopes for any cube-worthy downshift to be honest. They kept cards at rare that would not make the cut in most lists if they would have been downgraded.However, I would have loved Swiftblade Vindicator and cards of that powerlevel at uncommon as they feel like natural fits powerlevel-wise.

I'm still not entirely convinced that Swiftblade Vindicator would be worth it over Boros Swiftblade if what you're trying to do is Boros Kiln Fiend stuff. I guess I'm paranoid of Lava Dart in metas where it's not necessarily around or used because I respect it so much

Quote from VariSami »

They were discussing what could reasonably have been downgraded among the cards that have been revealed at rare and above.

To which I respond by saying "No, Vish Kal doesn't strike me as reasonable"

So Isochron Scepter got a reprint, where are we on that card these days?