Does anyone play Thrill-Kill Assassin outside of aggro? I'm not running it, but I can't imagine wanting to maindeck it if I'm not unleashing it. A 1/1 flyer on a 2 drop is a pretty big deal; obviously it's not an aggressive card, but it seems great otherwise.
Skewer the Critics is more diversity in red burn, so it gets a thumbs-up from me.
Yeah, big +1 here, TKA plays EXCLUSIVELY in aggro, nobody ever wants a 1/2 deathtouch for 2 as anything other than a fail-case / emergency role.
I'm not sure that Orzhov Imposter is good enough, though. In aggro it suffers from the "yeah, no blocks" problem with just one power, and for more controlling decks I'm not sure its textbox and extra toughness justifies the CMC boost over a generic Typhoid Rats 1-drop.
Sunder Shaman looks pretty great and it's very easy to find a slot to try out new Gruul cards since nothing is "locked" for the guild other than Bloodbraid. Losing to deathtouchers certainly isn't a huge deal, in most cubes that's like 3-5 cards.
Skewer the Critics is in the Rift Bolt / Lava Spike family of cards that are very good when your deck is full of 20 copies of that effect and quite mediocre for our format. If all you want is power level (which of course isn't everyone's priority), you should max out on Searing Spear variants and probably even the sorcery versions like Incendiary Flow and Fire Ambush before trying Skewer.
I like Gruul Beastmaster. It fits the sort of power matters decks for which I keep Druid's Familiar around better than the latter since it is also a beneficiary of having its power boosted with equipment and suchlike. The potential for haste is also very nice in its own right. The card might very well be somewhat durdly but it is the kind of durdly for which I live.
The average case on Beastmaster is probably pretty close to the weak and unplayable Rubblebelt Boar, the floor is slightly worse, and the ceiling only comes up when you've got a bunch of factors happening in your favor anyway (you resolve a 4-drop, boost its power with something, attack with the 4-drop and something else).
Yeah, big +1 here, TKA plays EXCLUSIVELY in aggro, nobody ever wants a 1/2 deathtouch for 2 as anything other than a fail-case / emergency role.
I'm not sure that Orzhov Imposter is good enough, though. In aggro it suffers from the "yeah, no blocks" problem with just one power, and for more controlling decks I'm not sure its textbox and extra toughness justifies the CMC boost over a generic Typhoid Rats 1-drop.
Skewer the Critics is in the Rift Bolt / Lava Spike family of cards that are very good when your deck is full of 20 copies of that effect and quite mediocre for our format. If all you want is power level (which of course isn't everyone's priority), you should max out on Searing Spear variants and probably even the sorcery versions like Incendiary Flow and Fire Ambush before trying Skewer.
The average case on Beastmaster is probably pretty close to the weak and unplayable Rubblebelt Boar, the floor is slightly worse, and the ceiling only comes up when you've got a bunch of factors happening in your favor anyway (you resolve a 4-drop, boost its power with something, attack with the 4-drop and something else).
The two C/U cards we've seen with the mechanic thus far start out as a vanilla 4/2 for 4 and a bad Divination when you're not hitting Spectacle, so...