You might be right. I don't have any idea about how extort will play out yet. Attaching free value to spells is great and all, but 1/1 is a pretty irrelevant size. I wish it were a 2/1 for 2, ideally.
Yeah the more I think about it, I'd probably play 1B 2/1 exort though because it's lifegain and reach, even if it costs one mana, and any upside would be cool. 1/1's just don't do even damage by themselves.
I want to look at adding Hex Parasite into my cube again. With the number of PWs I'm running (close to 21 in a 380 cube), it seems like there are just too few answers. Hex Parasite gives all colours access to PW removal, while acting as a semi-relevant body, randomly tricky in situations with persist, +1/+1 counters, etc., and of course -> increasing the density of early artifacts for tinker, academy, etc.
or is he still bad as always? artifact isn't my tightest section, and I've been giving this guy a chance and he hasn't played out half bad.
EDIT: I already run all the usual suspects for PW removal (except Hero's Downfall, haven't got my hands on it yet).
The biggest problem I have with Hex Parasite is that you often end up spending more mana killing a planeswalker than the other player spend casting it, and that's not how good removal works. Not to mention, you can kill him easily in a thousand different ways, so you might not even get a chance to activate him.
He's much better if you have an artifact deck and Trinket Mage available, but it's pretty lackluster otherwise. Unfortunately, there's not much better than him for answering planeswalkers in colorless.
I don't think it's good enough, even with all the new printing. In order to remove a lot of counters with it, you have to sink a huge amount of mana in it and that could turn into a critic tempo lost. Killing a planeswalker for, let's say, 4-5 mana and 3-4 life seems like a enormous cost. And being a 1/1 for one with no upside doesn't help at all.
I don't think it's good enough, even with all the new printing. In order to remove a lot of counters with it, you have to sink a huge amount of mana in it and that could turn into a critic tempo lost. Killing a planeswalker for, let's say, 4-5 mana and 3-4 life seems like a enormous cost. And being a 1/1 for one with no upside doesn't help at all.
How do you get 3-4 life? It is always 0 or 2 life depending on how you pay the one phyrexian mana.
It's a 1/1, yes, but it has an ability which I would count as an upside?
Sorry, I meant 2-4. Yeah that could seems like an upside sometimes, but it's not going to connect in the AVC. You need your opponent to have a permanent with counters. And if that permanent is not a planeswalker, you're unlikely to get any value out of it.
EDIT : At least, Vampire Hexmage is a 2/1, has first strike, can remove all the counters at once, doesn't require any additionnal mana incestment, provides death's triggered, is a vampire, bring some devotion and unlock Dark Depths for those who need it. The Parasite is cheaper to cast, but not to use, and is an artifact. It doesn't bring anything more than that. It's not appealing to me.
This creature never worked very well for us. Not sure if a small increase to its target count would change its value in a significant enough way to make it worthwhile.
Yeah the more I think about it, I'd probably play 1B 2/1 exort though because it's lifegain and reach, even if it costs one mana, and any upside would be cool. 1/1's just don't do even damage by themselves.
or is he still bad as always? artifact isn't my tightest section, and I've been giving this guy a chance and he hasn't played out half bad.
EDIT: I already run all the usual suspects for PW removal (except Hero's Downfall, haven't got my hands on it yet).
He's much better if you have an artifact deck and Trinket Mage available, but it's pretty lackluster otherwise. Unfortunately, there's not much better than him for answering planeswalkers in colorless.
Some other options to consider:
Sacrifice options:
Aeolipile, Pyrite Spellbomb, Vulshock Replica
Traditional Options:
Mortarpod
Molten-Tail Masticore
Something that might work:
Mouth of Ronom
Slower options:
Avarice Totem, Lux Canon
Power Options:
Chaos Orb (When I played this is had house-errata into: 1, sacrifice Chaos Orb: Choose a permanent. It's controller sacrifices it.)
Cheers,
rant
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It's a 1/1, yes, but it has an ability which I would count as an upside?
EDIT : At least, Vampire Hexmage is a 2/1, has first strike, can remove all the counters at once, doesn't require any additionnal mana incestment, provides death's triggered, is a vampire, bring some devotion and unlock Dark Depths for those who need it. The Parasite is cheaper to cast, but not to use, and is an artifact. It doesn't bring anything more than that. It's not appealing to me.
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I am not running enough in my cube (if any) to try parasite again.
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