I have a hard time believing this card isn't a shoe in. He provides great reach and is sick when curving out. I'm just imagining him on 3 and then hero of oxid ridge or hellrider on turn 4 lol.
Competition, Kolaghan's Command / Daretti 2.0 are much more flexible than this card.
Plus: Dreadbore, Rakdos Cackler, Terminate, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Olivia Voldaren, Sarkhan the Mad, Blightning, Bitmous Blast, and probably others I'm forgetting. I get that not all of those are better than this guy, but the point is there are a LOT of cards competing for only a few slots.
I categorize Rakdos Cackler differently than most, so I have an extra spot that others normally don't. I agree those two are stronger though.
EDIT: I think there's more than enough four drops in red and black that are close to the power level of the guild equivalents that I usually steer clear of them for that section.
I think there's more than enough four drops in red and black that are close to the power level of the guild equivalents that I usually steer clear of them for that section.
I can safely say the same thing about 3-drops now too. This creature is pretty comparable to the quality of the mono-color aggressive 3-drops in those two colors.
Plus: Dreadbore, Rakdos Cackler, Terminate, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Olivia Voldaren, Sarkhan the Mad, Blightning, Bitmous Blast, and probably others I'm forgetting. I get that not all of those are better than this guy, but the point is there are a LOT of cards competing for only a few slots.
This actually got me thinking about how often cards that are probably top 10 guild cards don't make our ranking projects because they weren't former cube cards and don't currently make our lists that often only run 4-5 guild slots. Case in point, this card is almost certainly better than Blightning and Terminate (granted this is my opinion, but I think it would be shared by most posters) but Blightning/Terminate both used to hold a spot in our cubes for a while and this probably didn't even get tested by most with the options we have today that are broadly considered better. Wonder if there is some method to account for cards like this that fall in the gap of being outclassed by existing options but are better than former cube staples when doing our ranking projects?
Moving off that tangent. I also, haven't personally tested this one but it feels so full of potential and I love high-variance, fun options that a lot of cubers might pass on for the sake of more consistent options. Adding deal X damage to your opponent where X is this spell's converted mana cost to the first spell of each turn seems likes big game. That word each is pretty critical to the color pair too as you can get some extra value off your burn spell/removal cast on your opponent's turn as well.
Wonder if there is some method to account for cards like this that fall in the gap of being outclassed by existing options but are better than former cube staples when doing our ranking projects?
I like this idea a lot. It's especially useful for those of us running slightly lower powered rare lists. Often, the top end options are more than we are looking for, but old cube staples aren't what we need either. Thankfully, there's a wealth of stuff which was printed in the last several years that would have been deemed staples or near-staples 8 years ago. Getting information on those can be hard outside doing your own in depth testing though (not always practical), since many playables never make lists at all and others are not in long enough to gain a following.
Seems pretty sweet to be honest. I mean, a simple thing like Fireblast would be 10 damage with this and that interaction alone seems absurd.
There's a video on Channel Fireball of Andre Mengucci playing a legacy grixis delver list built around this interaction plus Snuff Out and Temporal Mastery. Pretty cool. Wish there were room in cube for this creature because it just seems so cool. If I find one somewhere, I may try it out over Daretti, just for kicks. If it doesn't work ... Off to helm an EDH deck.
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The card is also ridiculous with Force of Will in particular and countermagic in general. It's absolutely insane in duel commander Grixis. I don't really want to run it over my other cube options even though it's assuredly powerful enough.
I've been running Vial Smasher in my 540 unpowered since he came out. He's pretty good. In an aggro deck, he's a free 1-3 damage a turn, and you get that even if the spell gets countered. In an aggro-control deck (a la Grixis), he can deal even more damage, with a greater chance of doing so on your oppoonent's turn. It's a quality card.
It's August and still every time I go to buy a few cards to update the cube I keep coming back to this guy. At 450 unpowered (4 slots per guild) it's a tough sell. I run Daretti, K Command, Aristocrat, and Grenzo, Dungeon Warden. I did cut Dreadbore because I think monoblack has its effect covered well-enough now. Anyone here who has done some extensive testing with this one?
We've had him in for a few months and he's been pretty solid as the true RB aggro dude of choice (not counting Cackler). I like him more than Grenzo for sure. We replaced Olivia, Mobilized For War with him and I've been happy with that swap.
Eating removal everytime is a good result in a sense. Suggests that at the very least this 3 drop is threatening enough to require your opponent answer it. I'm very close to buying this guy and testing it in place of Grenzo.
Eating removal everytime is a good result in a sense. Suggests that at the very least this 3 drop is threatening enough to require your opponent answer it. I'm very close to buying this guy and testing it in place of Grenzo.
It depends, and especially so in Rakdos where that could be a detriment vs other options. Like, do you want to run the 3 drop that never actually does what it's supposed to because it dies to everything, or would you rather run something more resilient like Murderous Redcap or Falkenrath Aristocrat that don't just die to everything but cost one more? While I normally agree, dying to everything is a legit concern for a section that realistically has 3-4 spots available for most cubes.
We've been impressed with her. On curve, she can represent large chunks of damage, and she turns every nonland top deck late game into gas. She does eat removal a fair bit of the time, but if left unchecked she can be very scary. Plus she's playable in control shells, and incentivizes taking certain cards like Dig Through Time and Snuff Out, which is pretty cool.
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I pulled the trigger on this one. I don't cube too frequently, but will update once I've gotten in a few sessions with this. I'm not too worried about this card losing value since the effect is so unique and powerful, its only been printed once, and I think the partner mechanic isn't one we are likely to see again.
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Plus: Dreadbore, Rakdos Cackler, Terminate, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Olivia Voldaren, Sarkhan the Mad, Blightning, Bitmous Blast, and probably others I'm forgetting. I get that not all of those are better than this guy, but the point is there are a LOT of cards competing for only a few slots.
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EDIT: I think there's more than enough four drops in red and black that are close to the power level of the guild equivalents that I usually steer clear of them for that section.
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I can safely say the same thing about 3-drops now too. This creature is pretty comparable to the quality of the mono-color aggressive 3-drops in those two colors.
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This actually got me thinking about how often cards that are probably top 10 guild cards don't make our ranking projects because they weren't former cube cards and don't currently make our lists that often only run 4-5 guild slots. Case in point, this card is almost certainly better than Blightning and Terminate (granted this is my opinion, but I think it would be shared by most posters) but Blightning/Terminate both used to hold a spot in our cubes for a while and this probably didn't even get tested by most with the options we have today that are broadly considered better. Wonder if there is some method to account for cards like this that fall in the gap of being outclassed by existing options but are better than former cube staples when doing our ranking projects?
Moving off that tangent. I also, haven't personally tested this one but it feels so full of potential and I love high-variance, fun options that a lot of cubers might pass on for the sake of more consistent options. Adding deal X damage to your opponent where X is this spell's converted mana cost to the first spell of each turn seems likes big game. That word each is pretty critical to the color pair too as you can get some extra value off your burn spell/removal cast on your opponent's turn as well.
I like this idea a lot. It's especially useful for those of us running slightly lower powered rare lists. Often, the top end options are more than we are looking for, but old cube staples aren't what we need either. Thankfully, there's a wealth of stuff which was printed in the last several years that would have been deemed staples or near-staples 8 years ago. Getting information on those can be hard outside doing your own in depth testing though (not always practical), since many playables never make lists at all and others are not in long enough to gain a following.
FWIW, this blogger (who doesn't appear to really follow the cube community at all) thought very highly of this card and is currently running it in his cube.
http://mtgcube.blogspot.com
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/36623
I find a lot of his insight useful and sometimes a nice contrast to what many people on MTGS are doing. Additional perspectives are very valuable IMO.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
There's a video on Channel Fireball of Andre Mengucci playing a legacy grixis delver list built around this interaction plus Snuff Out and Temporal Mastery. Pretty cool. Wish there were room in cube for this creature because it just seems so cool. If I find one somewhere, I may try it out over Daretti, just for kicks. If it doesn't work ... Off to helm an EDH deck.
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It depends, and especially so in Rakdos where that could be a detriment vs other options. Like, do you want to run the 3 drop that never actually does what it's supposed to because it dies to everything, or would you rather run something more resilient like Murderous Redcap or Falkenrath Aristocrat that don't just die to everything but cost one more? While I normally agree, dying to everything is a legit concern for a section that realistically has 3-4 spots available for most cubes.
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