MTG Salvation

A few spoilers are starting to trickle in for Dominaria united. I got a lot of juice for my list out of Dominaria, so im hoping that they continue the precedent of pushing the boat out with the design of the uncommon legends for this set. Already, ramirez depietro, pillager has piqued my interest. The potential ceiling of card advantage he can yeild while ahead combined with the p/t of a decent beater almost starts to make this guy look like a constructed quality value 4drop (if you squint). 2 treasures isnt a bad floor when you're behind, and my dimir section has a bit of a spies/ connecting for player damage theme. In more removal heavy environments, if you can stick this guy and keep the board clear, maybe he could run away with the game? Although flipping a card off the opponents deck with two off-color symbols will require both of your treasures. All in all a difficult card to analyze. May be cute jank, interested to hear everyone's thoughts.

Benalish Sleeper got spoiled today.

1W for a 3/1 Phyrexian Human Soldier at common that doubles as a Fleshbag Marauder if you pay Kicker B.

Not super excited about this one. Without the kicker this is Blade of the Sixth Pride and mono black has better fleshbag variants. But, flexibility counts for something. Maybe someone wants it at 720? Even then I wouldn't want to use a good slot for this. It would likely get classified as a white 2.

It looks like this set might be a little more Invasion than Dominaria, which could mean a larger multicolor focus than expected.
I kind of like Nishoba Brawler, but a 2-drop that pushes towards 3+ land types is not exactly what I want to do, despite the power level.

This is to Raise the Alarm what Goblin Instigator is to Dragon Fodder. Lots of blink and recursion in white.


Lotta great one drop spells. But four mana is a bit slow.

I like Resolute Reinforcements. It's better for blink than Raise the Alarm, though it's worse for spellslinger. I'll probably swap it straight across.

Ramirez Depietro, Pillager probably needs commitment to pirate tribal to shine. Seems like it would be best friends with Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator.

Resolute Reinforcements is solid (although not super exciting). Outside of spell-slinger/spells-matter, it will typically be a slight upgrade over Raise the Alarm.

Micromancer is interesting, but I would agree at 4 mana it seems overcosted.

I really like the look of nishoba brawler. I have been playing with the idea of pushing a lands matter deck centred in gruul with domain/zoo/landfall cards like wild nacatl and tribal flames. It obviously is better in an environment with dual type lands, but there is still something about an aggro deck that cares about lands that gets me excited.

I think the stun counters can be very good, especially with proliferate depending on what cards have that mechanic. Inhibit momentum could be good in a tempo deck.

Resolute re-enforcements is better for White than raise the alarm.

Take up the Shield is a new addition to the pool of playable 1W "protection" spells like Shelter, Otherworldly Journey, Valorous Stance, and Feat of Resistance. With this pool, its really all about which upside matters most to you as the designer.

For me, Shield will likely replace Feat. Feat had gotten the nod over the other options because I wanted to extra support for GW counters. And while Feat can sometimes help push damage through, I have a few newer players and Protection is harder for new players to "get" than Indestructible. The Lifelink is a nice bonus too.

Cut Down should be a good option for the black removal suite. Will depend on your cube composition, but it has similar limitations as Fatal Push. Fatal Push is still better, but Cut Down is not too far behind.

Impede Momentum seems like it is a good option for (soft) Blue removal - especially if you are opposed to polymorph or enchantment-based options. 3 turns is a long time, the counters cannot be disenchanted, and scry is a nice bonus.

Quote from A_WasherDryer »

For me, Shield will likely replace Feat. Feat had gotten the nod over the other options because I wanted to extra support for GW counters. And while Feat can sometimes help push damage through, I have a few newer players and Protection is harder for new players to "get" than Indestructible. The Lifelink is a nice bonus too.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly, I recently cut Feat of Resistance because it was the last instance of protection in my cube, but overall I liked it's play patterns so I'll be happy to find room now for Take up the Shield.

Raise the Alarm always felt a shade too low on power-level, but Resolute Reinforcements looks like it could get there on synergy.

Najal, the Storm Runner is a big body with a some powerful, unique effects. I like the play pattern of attacking to double-up a sorcery that you can play in combat due to the first ability, I'll probably test this over Rootha, Mercurial Artist.

I think that I will keep Raise the Alarm over Resolute Reinforcements because an instant is better than a creature for incidental archetype support and since it is primarily a tokens card and thus, there being two tokens doubles the benefits from token anthems and such.

It's a little funny how many of the solidly interesting cards at this point are 2-drop creatures. Toxic Abomination might well be worth it and Yavimaya Steelcrusher is also looking pretty good to me.

Quote from vertigo451 »

Cut Down should be a good option for the black removal suite. Will depend on your cube composition, but it has similar limitations as Fatal Push. Fatal Push is still better, but Cut Down is not too far behind.

I wasn't impressed at all with Cut Down when I first saw it, but I decided to do the math, and just about 80% of my creatures are potential targets. That actually surprised me - must be playing too much Commander. However, there are a few things I don't like. First, that only counts the creatures before some of them have been pumped up by their own abilities. Second, you can easily negate Cut Down with a simple pump spell; legal target when you cast it, not legal when it goes to resolve. Great value for one mana if it sticks, but easily disrupted. I probably won't add it, but black is kind of stacked for removal options already.

Quote from FunkyDragon »

First, that only counts the creatures before some of them have been pumped up by their own abilities. Second, you can easily negate Cut Down with a simple pump spell; legal target when you cast it, not legal when it goes to resolve. Great value for one mana if it sticks, but easily disrupted. I probably won't add it, but black is kind of stacked for removal options already.

Absolutely agree. The worst part of Cut Down is that the opponent has additional ways to reactively stop it beyond counter magic, hexproof, etc. It is also especially bad late game against +1/+1 counters. I am inclined to still test it - I think it has a place as early game interaction and I like that it hits a number of high impact creatures without needing to trigger revolt (compared to Fatal Push).

Tolarian Terror is not really for me, but I think a few folks would be interested. Similar to Sailors Bane and Cryptic Serpent.

Tori D'Avenant, Fury Rider seems reasonable, especially since Boros can be one of the weaker color combinations. Still keeps Boros in combat matters, but has respectable stats.

I'm not a huge fan of off-color kicker, but there are a couple interesting ones.

Strength of the Coalition - Groundswell and its variants are often no Giant Growth, and this one requires a fair chunk of extra mana. But "put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control" is pretty good. Unfortunately, all it takes is killing the target to negate the entire spell.

Yavimaya Iconoclast - 1G for a 3/2 Trample is pretty efficient. One more R for +1/+1 and Haste is pretty aggressive, too.

Tori D'Avenant, Fury Rider - This one is pretty obnoxiously complex for an attack anthem. But it is anthem that grants trample to some and pseudo-vigilanec to others.

So Cult Conscript is an auto include.

Quote from ValhallaPDX »

So Cult Conscript is an auto include.

Certainly is an interesting mashup of designs. The body of a Tormented Hero with a more restricted Reassembling Skeleton ability. It isn't quite a downshifted Bloodsoaked Champion but still seems good.

Quote from FunkyDragon »

Quote from ValhallaPDX »

So Cult Conscript is an auto include.

Certainly is an interesting mashup of designs. The body of a Tormented Hero with a more restricted Reassembling Skeleton ability. It isn't quite a downshifted Bloodsoaked Champion but still seems good.

My first thought was "Gravecrawler at Home" for Peasant cube. Sacrifice decks shouldn't have much trouble recurring this, and it doubling as another support piece for Bx aggro is just upside.

I think cult conscript is awesome. I've got a red/black sacrifice/suicide aggro archetype that struggles with reach and doesn't have the grind factor of w/b aristocrats. Having something to recur to bogardan dragonheart or fireblade artist that also comes down on turn 1 as a beater is exactly where that deck wants to be. From a cube design perspective, the fact this guy drops the tribal rider that gravecrawler has is cleaner in my view as well, even if he is a little clunkier.

Welcome to the cube, Cult Conscript.

I don't know how good it is, but Phoenix Chick is adorable.

Cult Conscript will definitely replace Gnarled Scarhide in my cube. Slots into aggro and aristocrats. Has the nice upside that it can block (unlike Gnarled Scarhide and Bloodsoaked Champion).

Quote from A_WasherDryer »

I don't know how good it is, but Phoenix Chick is adorable.

A hasty Flying Men with the ability to be brought back later in the game (in a color that wants to go wide) seems pretty reasonable to me. It carries equipment and counters well (for a Red creature) and brings some diversity (flying) to the red one drops. Something I would like to test.

Quote from vertigo451 »

Cult Conscript will definitely replace Gnarled Scarhide in my cube.

That's precisely the swap I was thinking of doing.

Quote from A_WasherDryer »

I don't know how good it is, but Phoenix Chick is adorable.

Pretty good, actually. I like it. Not sure what I'll cut, but I definitely want to try it.

Cult Conscript and Phoenix Chick both seem very good to me.

Yavimaya Iconoclast seems kind of good to me actually (although why it is an Iconoclast and not destroying artifacts)

Slam dunk for my artifact/enchantment cube.