Putting this one in for testing asap. Not as reliable as the other looters at looting sure, but oh wow dem interactions! I can see it being a fairly high pick for UB/UR/Grixis tempo decks (which are already higher tier decks for us).
Cryptologist is dope, he can actually loot on turn 2.
In theory, but i find the decks that want a looter also often play citp tapped lamds, and you have to invest 3 mana total, and I just never found her to be as consistently on on t2 as i wanted.
Cryptologist is dope, he can actually loot on turn 2.
In theory, but i find the decks that want a looter also often play citp tapped lamds, and you have to invest 3 mana total, and I just never found her to be as consistently on on t2 as i wanted.
Next you will say Joraga treespeaker doesn't get pumped on two either. Just kidding... For my group this card would have to beat expectation by 10000% to equal the cryptologist.
I think this is pretty close in powerlevel to all the non-Jace looters in the cube.
Less than 30% of the creatures in the cube can block this card, and a lot of those have no power, don't stay at 1 power for very long, or don't come down until T4+. The % of creatures that can block this before getting a couple loots in is pretty darn low, and they can all be mitigated with most removal spells in the cube (and are weak to the 3/2 creatures this can produce). 1-power Skulk is a pretty nice form of evasion in this format, since so many creatures in the 1-3cc range have 2/1 or 2/2 bodies (or bigger) and most token-engine cards come down in the mid-game. I suspect that the loot trigger will be pretty reliable and that Skulk on a low-power creature will prove effective.
Not to mention the synergy with other discard outlets. When you're mitigating a discard drawback with the pseudo-madness ability that this thing has, it can erase the card-disadvantage you were suffering from the discard's effect. In addition to looting itself, which will net you a card when it generates a body.
I really think this creature has a chance to be great in this format.
Because the evasion is so much less reliable, particularly against token generators, this is a much worse topdeck than other looters so I won't be cutting any of my existing looters for this, especially since it synergizes with other looters. I think Stratus Dancer will be my cut to test this.
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I believe the card is strong, but theres been a huge push toward token based strategies in recent years and they provide a pretty effective foil to this card. Definitely worth playtesting, but interested in how often this connects at least once or twice per game.
I don't see how this card is so good. You have to discard a creature card to get a 3/2 for 2 mana. Yes you can discard as part of another strategy or some looting ability, and thus recouping the discarded card somewhat by making a 3/2 token. But you also pay mana for that, and are you really that big on discarding creature cards you're holding in your hand, just to turn them into tokens? I don't get it...
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"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
What's interesting about Wharf Infiltrator is that he's probably better in cube than most other environments. Because cube is filled with two-power one-drops and other powerful creatures, the skulk ability will probably be able to get this guy through most of the time. Unfortunately, he's a poor equipment target. I'm not a huge fan of skulk, but because his ability is still relevant without the damaged clause, and he's in a color with so much other discard, this will be the first skulker I add. I think it will go well!
Im sold on the card for the interaction with survival, I did not think about that interaction. I just don't think this will connect reliably, I hope to be proven wrong. I do like how this guy will probably kill a mana dork.
I think the best way to see why this is good, is by comparison to classic Merfolk Looter. Let's just assume for a second, that your opponent cannot block your Wharf Infiltrator. Then you get to loot, which is almost always something you want. It improves your draws, and at worst it's selfmill 1 when the card you draw is worse than what you have on your hand (in which case you're happy to have looted it away, unless it was a tool from your toolbox deck).
You don't *have to* discard a creature card by the way (If you had to, this card wouldn't be good.) A looting 1/1 is already a good baseline for 1U, and has been cubeable some years ago, or still is in bigger lists. On top of that you can get 1 damage through, not much, but better than nothing. And then on top of all that you get the option to just pump out a 3/2 for 2 mana. And it's not even tied to it's own looting effect, but works with any discard. That part is amazing.
So the only question that will determine how well this fares, is how often it will be blocked. It's less reliable than any of the other looters, but I think it will be fine. There's will be plenty of times, where you can just attack with the Infiltrator, other times you can kill the blockers. He also holds equipment just fine on an empty board (it happens), or a sword with the right protections.
1) You draw an extra card thanks to the looting effect.
2) You pay 2 to replace the discarded card by putting a 3/2 onto the battlefield.
This just to explain the card advantage engine, without even mention other positive factors.
In the last decks where I played blue, I had 8-9 Creatures. I would see it as downgrade to discard them and pay 2 mana for a 3/2. Yes, the drawn card is obviously good to offset this. I also usually don't want to spend my mana in my combat phase, or on a 3/2 when I'm holding other cards.
Late game, when you have some board presence, this will obviously help to keep that presence and then some of the others issues will not be a problem.
I'm usually wrong about judging these cards, it's exactly why I'm here on these forums: to read what other people's opinions are about the cards, so I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just explaining why it doesn't feel right for me atm. I'm happy to see that wtwlf123 predicts skulk to be a lot better than we would suspect.
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Another definite inclusion for us. I have a great fondness for looters, and this one has some reasonable-but-not-great evasion, and a built-in superb discard ability. Some are missing that you aren't trading a creature in-hand directly for a 3/2 - that's not how it works. You are already trading the discarded card for some other benefit - a Survival trigger, loot trigger, or similar - and accruing additional benefit by adding a cut-price 3/2 beater to the deal. Lots of interesting interactions, and a weird, quirky flavour.
On Skulk: I have very much liked Pale Rider of Trostrad. It's a great beater. Skulk works differently for bigger creatures like PRoT. It's not evasion so much as helping to ensure that if your creature gets blocked, it will probably trade. On smaller creatures like this one, it works like more traditional evasion. Tokens are rife in cube though, which works against small skulkers.
Only complaint regarding WI - this will not be a pretty foil. Really dark arts don't look great in foil /nitpick.
In the last decks where I played blue, I had 8-9 Creatures. I would see it as downgrade to discard them and pay 2 mana for a 3/2. Yes, the drawn card is obviously good to offset this. I also usually don't want to spend my mana in my combat phase, or on a 3/2 when I'm holding other cards. Late game, when you have some board presence, this will obviously help to keep that presence and then some of the others issues will not be a problem.
Wharf Infiltrator probably won't be stellar in low creature blue decks, but it's still one more looter for blue control and combo decks (Tinker/Reanimate/Tezzeret/Daretti), if those decks need one more. I guess it depends on what archetypes you want to support. That said, I could see the card functioning really well in a creature heavy BU aggro/tempo, in addition to the Survival decks that have already been mentioned.
Sometimes the extra ability will be just flavor text, but the card might still serve its purpose. What makes this card interesting to me is that I could see both abilities in and of themselves being relevant in different decks, with the other ability being basically flavor text. Cards that can serve multiple purposes are always nice.
Sometimes the extra ability will be just flavor text, but the card might still serve its purpose. What makes this card interesting to me is that I could see both abilities in and of themselves being relevant in different decks, with the other ability being basically flavor text. Cards that can serve multiple purposes are always nice.
I can get behind that ;-) Might test...
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It seems that opinions are really split on this card. Some people think Wharf Infiltrator is quite good, others think he is total garbage. My own results are pretty split, too. There are times where skulk is pretty much non-evasion, making this absolutely terrible, and then there are times where he is Looter il-Kor with an upside. I kinda swing between wanting to cut him and wanting to keep him. I wonder how many people who have tried him have cut him already.
We tried it and quickly cut it. It is too fickle to be worth a deck slot in most cube decks. Theoretically a great card, but just didn't work out in the real world.
I came to realize that 1/2 skulkers are waaaay superior to 1/1 skulkers, because while they are just as easy to block, they are much harder to kill through blocking. There are a bunch of 1/1s (especially elves and tokens) in cube that just trade with your Wharf Infiltrator. If he were a 1/2, he had a much higher chance of getting through (not because he were more evasive, but because blocking him would be less lucrative) and of surviving combat.
I am currently leaning towards cutting him soon, but I was wondering if anyone had good experience with him.
I have great experiences with it. It's good in 'yard centric decks that want the looting effect, and good in tempo shells that are willing to use it for card advantage and pressure. Has a bad matchup against token shells, but it's good enough in the other matchups to be more than worth the inclusion.
Oh man, I've seen it be better in a lot of cases. Using it to straight draw cards by pitching cheap tempo creatures to make 3/2 bodies is awesome.
The problem we had was that besides one drops, no creature was worse than a 3/2 with no abilities, so a land was discarded and the creature was simply played. In any case, if the situation came when you had the time to play a 3/2 a turn by paying 2 mana and discarding gas, you were winning anyway. Looter Il-Kor would have actually won the game in situations Infiltrator would not, especially if swords were involved. I do think WI is better than Merfolk Looter.
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In theory, but i find the decks that want a looter also often play citp tapped lamds, and you have to invest 3 mana total, and I just never found her to be as consistently on on t2 as i wanted.
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Next you will say Joraga treespeaker doesn't get pumped on two either. Just kidding... For my group this card would have to beat expectation by 10000% to equal the cryptologist.
Less than 30% of the creatures in the cube can block this card, and a lot of those have no power, don't stay at 1 power for very long, or don't come down until T4+. The % of creatures that can block this before getting a couple loots in is pretty darn low, and they can all be mitigated with most removal spells in the cube (and are weak to the 3/2 creatures this can produce). 1-power Skulk is a pretty nice form of evasion in this format, since so many creatures in the 1-3cc range have 2/1 or 2/2 bodies (or bigger) and most token-engine cards come down in the mid-game. I suspect that the loot trigger will be pretty reliable and that Skulk on a low-power creature will prove effective.
Not to mention the synergy with other discard outlets. When you're mitigating a discard drawback with the pseudo-madness ability that this thing has, it can erase the card-disadvantage you were suffering from the discard's effect. In addition to looting itself, which will net you a card when it generates a body.
I really think this creature has a chance to be great in this format.
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540> 360 Powered CubeYou don't *have to* discard a creature card by the way (If you had to, this card wouldn't be good.) A looting 1/1 is already a good baseline for 1U, and has been cubeable some years ago, or still is in bigger lists. On top of that you can get 1 damage through, not much, but better than nothing. And then on top of all that you get the option to just pump out a 3/2 for 2 mana. And it's not even tied to it's own looting effect, but works with any discard. That part is amazing.
So the only question that will determine how well this fares, is how often it will be blocked. It's less reliable than any of the other looters, but I think it will be fine. There's will be plenty of times, where you can just attack with the Infiltrator, other times you can kill the blockers. He also holds equipment just fine on an empty board (it happens), or a sword with the right protections.
In the last decks where I played blue, I had 8-9 Creatures. I would see it as downgrade to discard them and pay 2 mana for a 3/2. Yes, the drawn card is obviously good to offset this. I also usually don't want to spend my mana in my combat phase, or on a 3/2 when I'm holding other cards.
Late game, when you have some board presence, this will obviously help to keep that presence and then some of the others issues will not be a problem.
I'm usually wrong about judging these cards, it's exactly why I'm here on these forums: to read what other people's opinions are about the cards, so I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just explaining why it doesn't feel right for me atm. I'm happy to see that wtwlf123 predicts skulk to be a lot better than we would suspect.
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540> 360 Powered CubeOn Skulk: I have very much liked Pale Rider of Trostrad. It's a great beater. Skulk works differently for bigger creatures like PRoT. It's not evasion so much as helping to ensure that if your creature gets blocked, it will probably trade. On smaller creatures like this one, it works like more traditional evasion. Tokens are rife in cube though, which works against small skulkers.
Only complaint regarding WI - this will not be a pretty foil. Really dark arts don't look great in foil /nitpick.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Wharf Infiltrator probably won't be stellar in low creature blue decks, but it's still one more looter for blue control and combo decks (Tinker/Reanimate/Tezzeret/Daretti), if those decks need one more. I guess it depends on what archetypes you want to support. That said, I could see the card functioning really well in a creature heavy BU aggro/tempo, in addition to the Survival decks that have already been mentioned.
Sometimes the extra ability will be just flavor text, but the card might still serve its purpose. What makes this card interesting to me is that I could see both abilities in and of themselves being relevant in different decks, with the other ability being basically flavor text. Cards that can serve multiple purposes are always nice.
I can get behind that ;-) Might test...
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I am currently leaning towards cutting him soon, but I was wondering if anyone had good experience with him.
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Yes, in some matchups, he was pretty much unblockable, but too often, he couldn't attack because of some random 1/1.
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The problem we had was that besides one drops, no creature was worse than a 3/2 with no abilities, so a land was discarded and the creature was simply played. In any case, if the situation came when you had the time to play a 3/2 a turn by paying 2 mana and discarding gas, you were winning anyway. Looter Il-Kor would have actually won the game in situations Infiltrator would not, especially if swords were involved. I do think WI is better than Merfolk Looter.
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