It's definitely powerful, and I love it to bits, but the only immediate effect it has is to paint a giant target on your forehead and act as a magnet for any enchantment removal people had been saving.
I have a similar impression. I have Assemble the Legion in my Rith, the Awakener token/enchantress deck and it is always... whelming. Without Doubling Season it takes forever to make a meaningful impact, which isn't really where I want my 5-mana spells to be. I love it, and if unanswered it can certainly swing a game, but for the most part I've been lukewarm on Assemble.
I've been tempted to make a Gahiji, Honored One deck for a while. Since that deck would love to have a doubling season, I feel that this would be a welcome addition as well.
One of my most satisfying moments as a player is from casting Assemble the Legion. I got my magical Christmasland moment; I drew into all of my most broken mana sources, dropped a Smokestack turn one, followed it up with Assemble on turn two. The sound of a table scooping in surround sound turn 2 is pretty good.
Riku of Two Reflections - Copy, then copy again | Shattergang Brothers - Token Sac&Recur | Gahiji, Honored One - Multiple attack steps | Karametra, God of Harvests - Landfall, Creaturefall, Shroud | Ruhan of the Fomori - Stop hitting yourself | Zurgo Helmsmasher - Equipment&Wraths | Crosis, the Purger - Dragon Tribal Reanimator | Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - No stax, just tap and untap fun | Anafenza, the Foremost - Enduring Ideal Enchantress | Sharuum, the Hegemon - Sphinx Tribal Control | Noyan Dar - Spellslinger | The Mimeoplasm - Counterpalooza
Lists can be found here.
Still convinced the guy on Beseech the Queen is wearing a Mitra-type hat. Wake up sheeple!
I've actually never been disappointed with this. (It can be bad in Rith, the Awakener, I guess, if only because most of the time, green will be the most common permanent color; I consider it diversification there.) The biggest problem is that I want to include Privileged Position (to stop removal, and yes, I'm including Vampire Hexmage and Boomerang as "removal" here) and Doubling Season with it, but that really messes up the curve: They all cost five mana.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Surprise sac outlet can be useful. So can draw 2. I'm tempted to think this could be 1 mana and be fine though.
At 1 mana, I'd play it.
I actually have had this in quite a few lists. I’m always surprised at how often niche, “overcoated” effects come up in big ways throughout games. Save from Control Magic? Nerfing and Exile effect? Or just needing that death trigger for Gravepact? Nobody expects it because the majority of instant speed sac. outlets are permanents, and if you’re holding up BX, everybody is probably thinking removal in hand, not this trick.
Its not terrible, but it’s a great card to keep the curve low and an expectation to (ab)use it on the reg.
One of those bulk cards that has me stop for a sec when sifting through the worthless part of my collection. Costly Plunder made the card somewhat obsolete and Dredge is both more flexible and cheaper, while only replacing itself ofc.
In my Gonti, Lord of Luxury deck i went with Morbid Curiosity instead. May only be sorcery speed, but can draw solid amounts of cards. I remember floating all my mana while being close to death, saccing Caged Sun to it, to draw into a game winning Torment of Hailfire...
The surprise factor as an Instant spell is often overlooked, it mess up opponent's strategy. But yeah, Costly Plunder made Altar's Reap more as a back up plan now.
Sign in blood is a staple. This gets it at instant speed and trades life loss for a drawback that doubles as a feature. In the right deck this is great.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Sign in blood is a staple. This gets it at instant speed and trades life loss for a drawback that doubles as a feature. In the right deck this is great.
This also costs 1B versus BB.
The only problem is that Costly Plunder is strictly better.
Both are sorta-looting. We had cycle from play, this is loot from play. But a token deck already has a use for them just because I really don't care about Saproling #294. Aristocrats is always looking for sac outlets. (And it's good for stopping things like the Mutation cycle and Control Magic, and keep things from being exiled.) And like any looting card, it's made much better with Alhammarret's Archive. Have you gained a net three cards for U? I have
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
There's a lot of nonbasics I want to play in monoblack, and even when I tried the brawl format this was the case. Still, unlike Coffers, it never asks for a launch point for making mana. It doesn't seem quite broken enough to get there in this format, though I could see it in Modern with Korlash, Heir to Blackblade goodness.
There's a lot of nonbasics I want to play in monoblack
Which ones?
Because I already run 10 nonbasics in my current MBC list, and I'm starting to think of replacing a couple of them with Swamps. Regardless, I run 27 basics right now and Cabal Stronghold has been a solid performer. Generally speaking, in big mana mono-black, you're going to want a dense enough Swamp count since your manadoublers primarily affect only Swamps and you can't count on having Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth all the time.
Since it taps for mana itself, it's a low risk card with a major upside. It's very much worth playing in mono-black. I've already won games on the back of the extra mana it generates.
You could run it in GB. Run lots of cards that put basic lands into play.
- the card that makes all lands land types (prismatic omen?)
- the black card that makes all lands swamps in adition to their type (there is an artifact as well, no?)
- urborg (new)
- cabal coffers
- vesuva
- crop rotation
- phirs whim
- genesis wave
- khamals druidic wow
- some black x damage spell, sangomancy?
You get the general idea. I am on the phone, I don't bother formating the cards.
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I have dyslexia, no I am not going to spell check for you, yes you have to live with the horrors of it.
That "basic" can be a problem. I guess in two-color, it's not so bad: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth does turn my basic forests into basic swamp forests, though, yeah, Urborg will never be a basic swamp.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
That "basic" can be a problem. I guess in two-color, it's not so bad: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth does turn my basic forests into basic swamp forests, though, yeah, Urborg will never be a basic swamp.
Out of those, it's only after Cabal Coffers, because that's the only land on your list. The other cards a better at doubling Mana, but are also spells that take up spell slots in deck building, while Cabal Stronghold realistically competes with a non basic land. Its opportunity cost is low, basically it's a land that enters untapped and can tap for colorless mana, but has a rather significant upside that isn't always relevant. You have to have 5 basic swamps in play to make this Mana positive, which isn't bonkers but isn't bad either. It's certainly worth the small cost of including it in your deck, the only question is if it's better than what you cut for it. Cutting a similarly marginal non basic (something that has upside that isn't always relevant such as arcane lighthouse) or a swamp I you have more than 25 already might be worth it, and probably is if you are counting on swamp based ramp.
Personally, I see this as a card that's merely good. I'll run it in some of my mono black decks, but only the ones that have a high enough swamp count and aren't planning on using stax effects or winning by turn 5. So, none in paper and about half of my mono blacks online (6 I think) and maybe one BG that tutors for Urborg easily and runs lots of basics.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
amazingly epic sig courtesy of DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Planes.
Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.
I've actually never been disappointed with this. (It can be bad in Rith, the Awakener, I guess, if only because most of the time, green will be the most common permanent color; I consider it diversification there.) The biggest problem is that I want to include Privileged Position (to stop removal, and yes, I'm including Vampire Hexmage and Boomerang as "removal" here) and Doubling Season with it, but that really messes up the curve: They all cost five mana.
On phasing:
Surprise sac outlet can be useful. So can draw 2. I'm tempted to think this could be 1 mana and be fine though.
At 1 mana, I'd play it.
I actually have had this in quite a few lists. I’m always surprised at how often niche, “overcoated” effects come up in big ways throughout games. Save from Control Magic? Nerfing and Exile effect? Or just needing that death trigger for Gravepact? Nobody expects it because the majority of instant speed sac. outlets are permanents, and if you’re holding up BX, everybody is probably thinking removal in hand, not this trick.
Its not terrible, but it’s a great card to keep the curve low and an expectation to (ab)use it on the reg.
I play it in my child of alara deck and it performs really well. Uncounterable instant sac outlet always good.
Gaddock Teeg Hatebears
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Control
Zacama, Primal Calamity Naya Control
Erebos, God of the dead Mono-Black Superfriends
Costly Plunder made the card somewhat obsolete and Dredge is both more flexible and cheaper, while only replacing itself ofc.
In my Gonti, Lord of Luxury deck i went with Morbid Curiosity instead. May only be sorcery speed, but can draw solid amounts of cards. I remember floating all my mana while being close to death, saccing Caged Sun to it, to draw into a game winning Torment of Hailfire...
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
This also costs 1B versus BB.
The only problem is that Costly Plunder is strictly better.
Both are sorta-looting. We had cycle from play, this is loot from play. But a token deck already has a use for them just because I really don't care about Saproling #294. Aristocrats is always looking for sac outlets. (And it's good for stopping things like the Mutation cycle and Control Magic, and keep things from being exiled.) And like any looting card, it's made much better with Alhammarret's Archive. Have you gained a net three cards for U? I have
On phasing:
I like this because the card is so new I don't have to check if we've done it before.
More seriously, I'd play this in mono-black I guess.
Because I already run 10 nonbasics in my current MBC list, and I'm starting to think of replacing a couple of them with Swamps. Regardless, I run 27 basics right now and Cabal Stronghold has been a solid performer. Generally speaking, in big mana mono-black, you're going to want a dense enough Swamp count since your mana doublers primarily affect only Swamps and you can't count on having Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth all the time.
Since it taps for mana itself, it's a low risk card with a major upside. It's very much worth playing in mono-black. I've already won games on the back of the extra mana it generates.
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK
EDIT: I do not own a Maze of Ith but would include in here.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
- the card that makes all lands land types (prismatic omen?)
- the black card that makes all lands swamps in adition to their type (there is an artifact as well, no?)
- urborg (new)
- cabal coffers
- vesuva
- crop rotation
- phirs whim
- genesis wave
- khamals druidic wow
- some black x damage spell, sangomancy?
You get the general idea. I am on the phone, I don't bother formating the cards.
It's definitely not as good as Coffers, and there are more than a few other doublers I'd run first, just for synergy with Urborg. This one does have a place in monoblack, but it's after Cabal Coffers, Crypt Ghast, Bubbling Muck, Extraplanar Lens, Magus of the Coffers...
Budget/10
On phasing:
Basic Swamp is, ironically, better.
A Dying Wish
To Rise Again
Chainer, Dementia Master
Muldrotha, the Gravetide
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
Out of those, it's only after Cabal Coffers, because that's the only land on your list. The other cards a better at doubling Mana, but are also spells that take up spell slots in deck building, while Cabal Stronghold realistically competes with a non basic land. Its opportunity cost is low, basically it's a land that enters untapped and can tap for colorless mana, but has a rather significant upside that isn't always relevant. You have to have 5 basic swamps in play to make this Mana positive, which isn't bonkers but isn't bad either. It's certainly worth the small cost of including it in your deck, the only question is if it's better than what you cut for it. Cutting a similarly marginal non basic (something that has upside that isn't always relevant such as arcane lighthouse) or a swamp I you have more than 25 already might be worth it, and probably is if you are counting on swamp based ramp.
Personally, I see this as a card that's merely good. I'll run it in some of my mono black decks, but only the ones that have a high enough swamp count and aren't planning on using stax effects or winning by turn 5. So, none in paper and about half of my mono blacks online (6 I think) and maybe one BG that tutors for Urborg easily and runs lots of basics.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I know 6 mana spells are supposed to be game ending, but I've always found this exiling, instant-speed 2-for-1 rather compelling. Hits Iona/10.