This guy has been sitting in my 380 list for quite a while, and he never seems to do anything. It's hard to really get much value out of him, and even then, a 4/3 with haste just doesn't really cut it most of the time. For a long time he was a 360 staple for a lot of people. Is this still the case?
It's an okay curve-topper for green aggro decks or creature-heavy graveyard-centric builds. It's not amazing, but it's a serviceable 4-drop for decks that want it.
Low floor and also pretty low ceiling. Cut him a long time ago and he hasn't been missed.
I wouldn't say he has a low ceiling, but certainly has a low floor , imo a low average, and his ceiling is rare.
To the OP, He's far from a 360 staple these days, many lists of larger sizes have been cutting him. I think he's been overrated for a long time and opinions are shifting in that direction....
I cut him long ago and he hasn't been missed as well
That I do agree with - 4/3 haste is fairly good. I been on the record saying a 2/2 haste for 2 is pretty good.
I been looking at Vengevine for a while now - partly cuse Wild Mongrel and Fauna Shaman are starting get picked up only in the reanimator deck.
I'm wondering how serviceable he is a potential curve topper for an aggressive strategy/ stax deck etc.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Vengevine is my favorite card ever and it's been on the outside looking in of my cube for a long time. It is so much worse than the other green 4's unless you are getting it for free. The other problem is green is so often narrowly focused on ramp and fatties that there just isn't much support for an aggressive midrange creature. I have seen a ton of cubes with just Questing Beast and Oracle of Mul Daya as 4 drops.
If your green section is trending away from that the competition is still stiff and you have to trigger the graveyard ability to get value which isn't always easy. Without synergies Polokranos is better. In a go wide deck Toski has a higher ceiling. Against control Thrun can be more reliable. I love it but it's needs to be part of a creature based graveyard deck. Which is a hard archetype to support because most of the best graveyard support cards don't involve casting (Skyclave Shade and Gravecrawler being the big exceptions).
The interesting part about Vengevine is it has been sitting on my watch list for a while. With all these value creatures that just randomly decent discard outlets:
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
If you are going for raw power though, there are plenty of better options at this point. So I can see why a lot of cubes would choose not to run it.
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I wouldn't say he has a low ceiling, but certainly has a low floor , imo a low average, and his ceiling is rare.
To the OP, He's far from a 360 staple these days, many lists of larger sizes have been cutting him. I think he's been overrated for a long time and opinions are shifting in that direction....
I cut him long ago and he hasn't been missed as well
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That I do agree with - 4/3 haste is fairly good. I been on the record saying a 2/2 haste for 2 is pretty good.
I been looking at Vengevine for a while now - partly cuse Wild Mongrel and Fauna Shaman are starting get picked up only in the reanimator deck.
I'm wondering how serviceable he is a potential curve topper for an aggressive strategy/ stax deck etc.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
If your green section is trending away from that the competition is still stiff and you have to trigger the graveyard ability to get value which isn't always easy. Without synergies Polokranos is better. In a go wide deck Toski has a higher ceiling. Against control Thrun can be more reliable. I love it but it's needs to be part of a creature based graveyard deck. Which is a hard archetype to support because most of the best graveyard support cards don't involve casting (Skyclave Shade and Gravecrawler being the big exceptions).
Falkenrath Pit Fighter, Rankle, Master of Pranks, Seasoned Pyromancer, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Smuggler's Copter Collective Brutality, Cryptbreaker, Noose Constrictor etc. (Not in my cube - Bone Shards, Rix Maadi Reveler)
I'm not sure what the number is but with 3-4 more randomly good discard outlets in creature decks, I could see Vengevine make an appearance.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i