This will be good if you want to push an artifact deck. Good with Daretti, Tinker, Rec Nightmare, Tolarian Academy, Emerge creatures, etc. If you are not going to push artifacts this seems like a cards that would only be Sideboarded.
Agreed. Three mana to gain two life, kill a creature, and draw a card is a pretty sweet deal, imo. That's of course assuming he's allowed to trade in combat. I don't know if he'll find a home in my powered list, but he might and he's definitely going into my low power list. I like this dude a lot and that art is sweet.
Right, but how often is a 2/2 for 3 actually going to kill something (or eat removal, or generally be worth "a card")? Obviously not "never" but it's definitely below 50%.
Right, but how often is a 2/2 for 3 actually going to kill something (or eat removal, or generally be worth "a card")? Obviously not "never" but it's definitely below 50%.
All the cards you are comparing him to are colored. Even if the body is not worth a card sometimes, he replaces himself and the tempo swing can easily be worth the mana.
Right, but how often is a 2/2 for 3 actually going to kill something (or eat removal, or generally be worth "a card")? Obviously not "never" but it's definitely below 50%.
All the cards you are comparing him to are colored. Even if the body is not worth a card sometimes, he replaces himself and the tempo swing can easily be worth the mana.
Right, it's most similar to a colorless Exultant Cultist. I'd probably sideboard the Cultist in blue decks against aggro where I know the 2/2 matters, but it's way below the overall power level for Cube cards and not close to being added anywhere. Getting +2 life makes it even better against aggro, but does basically nothing to help when it's already bad.
Being colorless clearly helps its case vs Cultist, but "mediocre sideboard card for any deck instead of just blue" is not at all what I want to do with my time. I'd play the hell out of a Wistful Selkie for 3, but it's not trivial at all to get your card back from this at least half the decks you play against just don't care that much about it.
I think being colorless (or more specifically, being an artifact) is a big reason why the card will be decent. Not amazing, mind you, but a solid playable. It plays well in decks that are using the artifacts matters theme, where Daretti (both), Welder, Tinker and even things like Academy Ruins can extract a lot of extra value from it. I don't think I'd play it mainboard in any ol' control deck, but I think there are shells that can try and exploit the body for value. Those are the shells that pique my interest in the Familiar. FWIW, I'm not planning on including this in my 540, but I don't think it's too far off.
This actually looks less appealing in a C/Ube environment, where you lose all of those interactions (and others like Vat, Feldon, Nightmare, Pod, Deep-Fiend, etc). In fact, pretty much every card that can exploit this creature for value is rare. Something worth considering.
C/U lists are definitely lower to the ground/fairer, but it's still just not much of an impact card against heavy evasive decks ("UW skies"), control with bigger finishers, or ramp decks. I don't plan on starting it in my C/U list right away, but I think it has more of a chance there than a setting where there's so many broken things that it doesn't really meaningfully stop (even just fair-ish plans like Bitterblossom or Hero of Bladehold or a "bad" Sword of Whatever & Stuff).
The Goblin Welder interaction is a wild card (I play a moderate amount of unpowered or powered cubes that have Welder-y stuff going on, but not nearly as much as my own C/U list), though. I still think the card isn't good enough at face value (in not-against-aggro matchups) for me to want it as Welding fodder. Like... the comparison that comes to mind is Ichor Wellspring.
It's not actually a GOOD comparison, not even same "ballpark" but... same time zone
Does anyone here who decided to test this card have any thoughts to share yet? I'm leaning towards giving this a test run in my unpowered 540. Soooo many synergies...
Does anyone here who decided to test this card have any thoughts to share yet? I'm leaning towards giving this a test run in my unpowered 540. Soooo many synergies...
He's mostly seen play as a sideboard card, and hoping he will see play as a synergy card for welder/daretti/artifact decks.
I've wanted a colorless agro roadblock for a long time now (gives decks like UB control a fighting chance against mono red if they draft appropriately) and the familiar fills that role perfectly.
I'm against pure sideboard cards (IE red elemental blast), but I'm a fan of "semi" sideboard cards, that are either great sideboard material, but also will see main deck play in a niche archetype.
Don't want too many of them, but like a few of them to fill out the corners of my cube.
Agree about the semi-sideboard thing. I mean, I run Squee after all and he's only included because of a handful of synergies. Powerful game breaking synergies, yes, but still. I feel like Familiar will probably see a good bit more maindeck play than Squee for sure.
so far testing has been decent. Its not a card that is going to have a huge impact on the board so its value tends to go unnoticed and makes it hard to evaluate. is the small value/tempo play strong enough to main deck consistantly? this being said, the times i have had it in play it either pushes through small amounts of damage because people dont want to kill it or it can hold off attacks for the same reason because people hate letting their opponent draw cards.
I like it so far. I think it has a fairly good chance of cracking my list.
Visserdrix, is your cube still 370 unpowered? If you can squeeze Familiar in a cube that small I imagine I'd have very little trouble finding space in a 540 UP list.
Yep! Before i started cutting down my cube I would have played this at 540. This being said, its definitely not a card that will be missed if you decided not to run it. It isnt an all star at anything it does, but it is very consistent at what it does do, which is being a value/tempo creature that can be thrown into any deck. (ignoring specific artifact/recursion synergies you may or may not have in your cube)
In the end, I think it depends on how you feel about the card personally and whether you and your playgroup value this style of card in your cube.
Uh... I don't know if I can give a good concrete definition of "tempo" for MTG, but it sure as hell doesn't include a 2/2 for 3 that has no other board impact when you cast it.
Uh... I don't know if I can give a good concrete definition of "tempo" for MTG, but it sure as hell doesn't include a 2/2 for 3 that has no other board impact when you cast it.
A 2/2 for 3 that makes your opponent think twice about attacking, pads your life total, and generates card advantage "sure as hell" seems like tempo to me.
All of those things sound much more like a utility creature in a control build to me.
- Discourages attacking
- Life gain - ability to reach late game
- Card advantage
Being under curve and having no board impact undermines the claim to this being a tempo play, but it certainly is a value packed card nevertheless. Solemn Simulacrum-lite
Putting a 2/2 on board and gaining 2 life absolutely has impact on the tempo of the game. It slows down the tempo of an opposing agressive start. I think you guys were mis-interpreting his post as creating tempo?
It's not a HUGE tempo swing for its cost, but relative to other value generating plays, it is significant.
Uh... I don't know if I can give a good concrete definition of "tempo" for MTG, but it sure as hell doesn't include a 2/2 for 3 that has no other board impact when you cast it.
It's tempo recovery when the opponent is the beatdown. Not tempo for you when you're the aggressor.
Played one in the prerelease and was impressed enough that I'm gonna try him out, he's one of those cards that is rarely amazing but always solid, which doesnt get enough appreciation sometimes.
Just wanted to share that decklist because the little fox, Filigree Familiar, did a nice job and synergized so well in it. Keep getting it back from graveyard to field with either Scrap Savant or Goblin Welder, in exchange of Strix, was awesome to watch. We even saw Ingenious Iconoclast's utlimate copying three times. Felt so good! Mindslaver was also MVP in there. Really fun deck overall! Full of interesting synergies!
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It's like... 33% Lightning Helix - Electrolyze hybrid, 33% Shu Grain Caravan, 33% Exultant Cultist. The first option is super good, but the other two are so, so below what I ever want to do in a Cube.
All the cards you are comparing him to are colored. Even if the body is not worth a card sometimes, he replaces himself and the tempo swing can easily be worth the mana.
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Right, it's most similar to a colorless Exultant Cultist. I'd probably sideboard the Cultist in blue decks against aggro where I know the 2/2 matters, but it's way below the overall power level for Cube cards and not close to being added anywhere. Getting +2 life makes it even better against aggro, but does basically nothing to help when it's already bad.
Being colorless clearly helps its case vs Cultist, but "mediocre sideboard card for any deck instead of just blue" is not at all what I want to do with my time. I'd play the hell out of a Wistful Selkie for 3, but it's not trivial at all to get your card back from this at least half the decks you play against just don't care that much about it.
This actually looks less appealing in a C/Ube environment, where you lose all of those interactions (and others like Vat, Feldon, Nightmare, Pod, Deep-Fiend, etc). In fact, pretty much every card that can exploit this creature for value is rare. Something worth considering.
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The Goblin Welder interaction is a wild card (I play a moderate amount of unpowered or powered cubes that have Welder-y stuff going on, but not nearly as much as my own C/U list), though. I still think the card isn't good enough at face value (in not-against-aggro matchups) for me to want it as Welding fodder. Like... the comparison that comes to mind is Ichor Wellspring.
It's not actually a GOOD comparison, not even same "ballpark" but... same time zone
He's mostly seen play as a sideboard card, and hoping he will see play as a synergy card for welder/daretti/artifact decks.
I've wanted a colorless agro roadblock for a long time now (gives decks like UB control a fighting chance against mono red if they draft appropriately) and the familiar fills that role perfectly.
I'm against pure sideboard cards (IE red elemental blast), but I'm a fan of "semi" sideboard cards, that are either great sideboard material, but also will see main deck play in a niche archetype.
Don't want too many of them, but like a few of them to fill out the corners of my cube.
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I like it so far. I think it has a fairly good chance of cracking my list.
In the end, I think it depends on how you feel about the card personally and whether you and your playgroup value this style of card in your cube.
its kind of a "pet" card. a cute fox pet.
A 2/2 for 3 that makes your opponent think twice about attacking, pads your life total, and generates card advantage "sure as hell" seems like tempo to me.
Putting a 2/2 on board and gaining 2 life absolutely has impact on the tempo of the game. It slows down the tempo of an opposing agressive start. I think you guys were mis-interpreting his post as creating tempo?
It's not a HUGE tempo swing for its cost, but relative to other value generating plays, it is significant.
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It's tempo recovery when the opponent is the beatdown. Not tempo for you when you're the aggressor.
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1 Goblin Welder
1 Baleful Strix
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Mulldrifter
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Artifacts :
1 Black Lotus
1 Dimir Signet
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Batterskull
1 Mindslaver
1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
1 Saheeli Rai
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Spells :
1 Lightning Strike
1 Condescend
1 Dismember
1 Tinker
1 Fiery Confluence
1 Treachery
1 Volcanic Island
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Mountain
3 Swamp
2 Island
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