Saw this card mentioned in the tribal post and thought it deserves its own. How many wizards are in people's cubes? I will count mine once I have a second but I'm thinking a lot. Might play like a one sided karakas? Thoughts? Experiences?
If I didn't already have Crystal Shard, Erratic Portal and Waterfront Bouncer as ETB enablers for all of my creatures, Riptide Lab would be up for consideration.
I feel it doesn't make sense unless your cube is huge and has decent numbers of relevant Wizards or is a highly focused tribal cube with Wizards as one of your tribes. Even when I was at 720, I didn't even consider this. There's more practical and effective recursion options out there IMO.
With several powerful wizards creeping into lists is Riptide Lab ever a consideration? How many synergies would you need in your deck to justify playing this colorless land? I think we're still too light, but how many more wizards like Snapcaster / Clique / Barrin / Venser would you want to consider adding this to the Cube? 3-4 more?
I think the problem isn't that this card isn't good enough, but rather the competition. Shelldoc Isle and Tolarian Academy as blue lands are just miles ahead of this card. If you wanted another U land, I could see playing it for sure.
Even beyond Tolarian Academy and Shelldock Isle (I no longer run the latter), I'm also personally more excited by Academy Ruins and Faerie Conclave. As noted by ryansaxe, competition is the main issue here.
For synergies, I don't run nearly enough wizards that are relevant, but I feel like it would need to be a lot more to be able to earn a spot.
I run 30 Wizards across a 360 card Cube, an additional 180 cards in my modules that expand it to 450 and 540, and finally another 180 cards from my Commander module. That is 720 cards.
Are the only ones I would have interest in Riptide Labratory for. That is 11/720. I run a powered Cube, and perhaps even counting the 180 cards for Commander it should be considered 540 for the purpose of discussing the critical mass of Wizards. But for me, I think there just isn't enough critical mass of Wizards in Cube, even at 720 cards. As stated above, this kind of creates a situation where other blue lands are favored before Riptide Laboratory. The only thing that will change that is a pretty considerable influx in acceptable Wizards that provide value, and because of that I think this card will someday be worthy of more consideration, however it won't be any time soon.
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Saw this card mentioned in the tribal post and thought it deserves its own. How many wizards are in people's cubes? I will count mine once I have a second but I'm thinking a lot. Might play like a one sided karakas? Thoughts? Experiences?
My 630 Card Powered Cube
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Sower of Temptation
Glen Elendra Archmage
Vendillion Clique
Trinket Mage
Willbender after he's been unmorphed
Venser, Shaper Savant
Snapcaster Mage
Maranga of Corondor if you run him
Then there's a bunch of wizards that you might want to save, but doesn't give you any advantage othervise
Qasali Pridemage
Shadowmage Infiltrator
Grim Lavamancer
Dark Confidant
Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
Aven Mindcensor
Mirror Entity
Chameleon Colossus
Delver of Secrets
Especially in the prime real estate that is blue.
And like wtwlf said, there are already 3 cards that come before it because it isn't as narrow.
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With several powerful wizards creeping into lists is Riptide Lab ever a consideration? How many synergies would you need in your deck to justify playing this colorless land? I think we're still too light, but how many more wizards like Snapcaster / Clique / Barrin / Venser would you want to consider adding this to the Cube? 3-4 more?
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For synergies, I don't run nearly enough wizards that are relevant, but I feel like it would need to be a lot more to be able to earn a spot.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Of those 30
Snapcaster Mage
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
Spellseeker
Vendilion Clique
Glen Elendra Archmage
Sower of Temptations
Venser, Shaper Savant
Arcane Savant
Magus of the Abyss
Reflector Mage
Portal Mage
Are the only ones I would have interest in Riptide Labratory for. That is 11/720. I run a powered Cube, and perhaps even counting the 180 cards for Commander it should be considered 540 for the purpose of discussing the critical mass of Wizards. But for me, I think there just isn't enough critical mass of Wizards in Cube, even at 720 cards. As stated above, this kind of creates a situation where other blue lands are favored before Riptide Laboratory. The only thing that will change that is a pretty considerable influx in acceptable Wizards that provide value, and because of that I think this card will someday be worthy of more consideration, however it won't be any time soon.
THE JUICE[BOX]³ CUBE