Displacer Kitten --- 3U
Creature - Cat Beast
Avoidance — Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, exile up to one target nonland permanent you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
2/2
I was surprised not to see any discussion of this card. The downsides are clear -- it's a bad body for 4 mana, and doesn't do anything upon ETB, but I think this card has a lot going for it. In particular, it triggers off *any* noncreature spell, and blinks *any* nonland permanent, returning it untapped. Further, it's ability isn't restricted to once per turn and isn't restricted to other permanents - this can blink itself to dodge interaction, provided you have any cantrip or cheap spell. Especially with Gilded Lotus, this seems extremely strong:
- Gilded Lotus + Recurring Nightmare goes infinite, since every cast of Nightmare untaps Gilded Lotus.
- Torrential Gearhulk casts every instant in your graveyard for free.
- If you have Treachery, any noncreature spell untaps 5 lands, which makes going nigh-infinite very easy.
- Forbid + Mulldrifter is very close to a hard lock.
- Any noncreature spell resets your Planeswalker loyalty, and any instant can fog attacks against them.
- It makes Parallax Wave combos much easier to execute (and Wave is a card your blink decks likely want anyway). Any instant allows you to hold priority and exile an opponent's creature permanently per Fade Counter.
- Capsize + Gilded Lotus is only 3 mana per cast instead of 6.
- Experimental Synthesizer draws 2 cards every time you cast a noncreature spell.
- Sensei's Divining Top creates lot of cheap blink triggers
- Lurrus + Kitten allows you to cast any number of cheap noncreature permanents out of your graveyard.
- Ephemerate is doubled.
The above combos are only the things that don't work with any other blink cards in cube. The most common use cases will still be blinking ETB creatures for value. I think this card is still clunky, and I don't think any of the above combos are backbreaking, but this card does a lot of unique and cool things, and doesn't have the guardrails these cards normally do. I'm intending on testing this in my unpowered 450.
The combos are cool, but I don't think the consistency is there. While being able to blink a non-land permanent is rare effect for good cube cards, creatures are still the best and most common blink hits. The cat creates a weird tension since you want non-creature spells to trigger the blink, but you also want creatures most of the time as your targets. I'd rather have the consistency of Thassa, Deep-Dwelling if I were to support blink much more heavily.
Creature - Cat Beast
Avoidance — Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, exile up to one target nonland permanent you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
2/2
I was surprised not to see any discussion of this card. The downsides are clear -- it's a bad body for 4 mana, and doesn't do anything upon ETB, but I think this card has a lot going for it. In particular, it triggers off *any* noncreature spell, and blinks *any* nonland permanent, returning it untapped. Further, it's ability isn't restricted to once per turn and isn't restricted to other permanents - this can blink itself to dodge interaction, provided you have any cantrip or cheap spell. Especially with Gilded Lotus, this seems extremely strong:
- Gilded Lotus + Recurring Nightmare goes infinite, since every cast of Nightmare untaps Gilded Lotus.
- Torrential Gearhulk casts every instant in your graveyard for free.
- If you have Treachery, any noncreature spell untaps 5 lands, which makes going nigh-infinite very easy.
- Forbid + Mulldrifter is very close to a hard lock.
- Any noncreature spell resets your Planeswalker loyalty, and any instant can fog attacks against them.
- It makes Parallax Wave combos much easier to execute (and Wave is a card your blink decks likely want anyway). Any instant allows you to hold priority and exile an opponent's creature permanently per Fade Counter.
- Capsize + Gilded Lotus is only 3 mana per cast instead of 6.
- Experimental Synthesizer draws 2 cards every time you cast a noncreature spell.
- Sensei's Divining Top creates lot of cheap blink triggers
- Lurrus + Kitten allows you to cast any number of cheap noncreature permanents out of your graveyard.
- Ephemerate is doubled.
The above combos are only the things that don't work with any other blink cards in cube. The most common use cases will still be blinking ETB creatures for value. I think this card is still clunky, and I don't think any of the above combos are backbreaking, but this card does a lot of unique and cool things, and doesn't have the guardrails these cards normally do. I'm intending on testing this in my unpowered 450.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra