I, II - Create a 2/2 white Knight creature token with Vigilance.
III - Knights you control get +2+1 until end of turn.
So essentially, you get 2 2/2 vigilance creatures, and then the turn after the second one comes in they get pumped. Pretty good rate for 1WW and a big swing from them after, thoughts?
Looks testable to me in large sized cubes but not more. Has low initial impact upon casting. Your opponent foreseeing the pump weakens it (they can play a mass removal right before the third chapter, will leave blockers or burn a token).
That said, it will provide a 2 for 1 a decent amount of time. It has the usual white synergies with Anthem effects and Opposition. If you have a way to Regrowth it, the second pump will affect all the tokens that survived.
Ultimately I think it is too slow at what it does. Silverblade Paladin has an immediate impact on the board (usually ~2-ish damage) and will attack next turn for at least 4 more, and Silverblade is likely my weakest 1WW drop.
It's an interesting variant on Blade Splicer. 4 power for 3 mana plus a 1-shot pump effect, but not all at once, it's harder to abuse, and it's harder to cast. I don't think small/medium-sized cubes will have room, but larger cubes very well might. It's solid.
On first read I thought the third lore counter gave all creatures +2/+1 and was super psyched for this. With it only pumping Knights, its not good enough for me, but looks cool for larger cubes.
My impression is that unless you have a bunch of other knights, this card is too slow to impact the game the way an agro deck would want... And on defense, the third ability is irrelevant. Stacked slot too.
Not interested, but it is a solid card. Some chance of sleeper potential, and if a bunch of good knights get printed at 1/2 cmc, may be worth revisiting in the future.
This may be too confusing for our newer players, it really depends on how it's spelled out/templated on the card. For folks who have to read every other card during draft...I just don't want someone to stuff up the draft reading and reading this card trying to make sense of it.
I'd just like to add that these are new types of enchantments that will be in the game from now on, and new players should be learning them, especially if they are playing cube or EDH, formats with the most diverse range of mechanics and interactions.
Re: SaucyFaucet, a lot of my players only play Magic casually - they're never going to go to a store to play an event, and probably don't keep up with any format except EDH. If something's not easily grokkable, it's not worth me putting in cube without a really good reason - even Planeswalkers will need an explanation from someone's first time at cube.
That said, we also have players who have been playing Modern since the days of extended, and I think half a dozen of the group plays legacy. Trying to make a cube that's satisfying for "I've only drafted twice" and for "I grinded sealed events for the RTR GP" is hard, but it comes down to small things like this.
ALL THAT SAID, took a look at the template released today and I'm really happy with it - I think the formatting is great and easy to understand. I'll be including History of Benalia in my 720, maybe replacing Sram's Expertise, which I haven't been overly impressed by (but wouldn't it be sick to play this off of it???)
I think the floor to this is better than it looks.
3 bad scenerios
1) you cast it, get a knight, and then they disenchant it. They used 2 mana and a card and you spent three mana and lose a card but also have a 2/2 in play. in general you are probably ahead. I think 1 mana is worth a 2/2
2) scenarios you play it and get a knight, they reclamation sage and kill it, and you are each left with a 2/2 or 2/1 and both spent 3 mana.
In this case opponent is probably ahead since they can flicker / bounce recur it from graveyard etc.
3)against control where you cast it, and then after you get the second knight they wrath the board. You may have gotten in for 2 damage with the first knight. Does not seem ideal, but it does cause your opponent to use a wrath, while you threaten 8+ life loss with 1 card and don't have to over commit to the board.
I think as far as a floor goes it might be slightly better than the floor of some of the other non top white 3 drops that are played, but I don't think it will make the cut in small cubes.
cool effect though casting this, turn 3, Mirror entity turn 4, and swinging for 21 damage on turn 5!
I'll be watching this one closely. It strikes me as not quite there, but I was completely wrong about Search for Azcanta so I'm hopeful. If it is good enough, seems like Sram's Expertise might be the cut. Will watch to see how people's testing goes.
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I don't think this is quite there, but that art. I was hoping to add a Saga largely for the vertical frame, and this one is just begging to be the choice. I do wish there was a more viable choice, but there are still a couple unknown sagas.
Bumping shoulders with Brimaz / Blade Splicer is a bad place to be. I think the 2/2s not having first strike will be too low impact. Ther needs to be more knights in general to get a big payoff for the 3rd verse. The card is fine on its own, but a card needs to be really exceptional to crack this slot.
This card seems dumb in multiples though, especially when curving with other knights.
After further consideration, pretty sure I won't run this. I just reeeeeally want 1 saga in my 420. I love adding just a pinch of spice every time magic does something wicked. I've gotten there with meld even! So instead I'll probably go with Phyrexian Scriptures. Unless there's a better one in the second set.
EDIT: Oop. Forget they are doing away with blocks. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with Wizards' annual flip-flopping.
How do people feel about cutting Moat for this. This is arguably a very weird swap, but Moat is one of my two non-English cards in the cube, and I'm looking to remove such cards from the cube for ease of drafting with people who are less enfranchised.
Even though I've liked history, I definitely would never cut moat for it or much else. The only reason I'd cut moat would be if it got too frustrating for my playgroup--which I get because it brings games to a screeching halt--but that's a powerful effect and one I want for my control decks.
Is Soulfire Grandmaster supposed to be in the white section? Even though it makes your curve slightly higher, I would cut that for History as I could rarely get SGM going whereas History is just always going to be pretty solid unless it gets Disenchanted in response to place the counter on there. The knights having vigilence has been more relevant than I thought it would.
I could also see cutting Kor Sanctifiers--I've always been pretty underwhelmes by that card as I felt like the numerous O-Rings and Disenchants fill its role.
How often is Entreat making miracles come true? History would be a more consistent/played option most likely.
Yeah, all of the 3-color creatures from Fate are in their monocolored sections (see also Tasigur, Alesha, and Yasova - Shu Yun got axed a while back). I can see cutting SGM for History, though.
Entreat is mostly there as a placeholder - I've been working on getting a Judge Avacyn, Angel of Hope to fill out an additional fatty that's watermarked for Watermarket/Summon the Pack, but since I don't own any copies of Avacyn, I don't want to buy a non-judge copy and just slotted Entreat in for now.
I agree that I don't want to cut Moat in a vacuum - card is amazing. I just really want to entirely eliminate non-English cards.
EDIT: I'll admit that I always forget about Jazal when I'm looking at cuts in white. Maybe that's the right swap.
I was super underwhelmed by History of Benalia playing Sealed this weekend. I guess I shouldn't have been since they did get 8 damage out of it, but when I came back with Traxos, Scourge of Kroog enchanted with On Serra's Wings, I thought it felt kind of weak by comparison.
History probably isn't the best in slower formats like sealed (assuming this sealed format is slower, like most), but it's been pretty great for me, although entirely in aggressive/faster-midrange decks. I pretty much entirely separate pre-release results from cube expectations, unless a cube performs wayyyy better than I thought it would.
I've been playing it a lot in standard, and while standard isn't cube, it's been pretty amazing there. Of course you can play multiples in standard, but my opinion of the card has improved.
For those that have been testing it, how has it performed?
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I've been playing it a lot in standard, and while standard isn't cube, it's been pretty amazing there. Of course you can play multiples in standard, but my opinion of the card has improved.
For those that have been testing it, how has it performed?
I've only had it in for 1 cube, and it looked great in the deck that it was drafted in (on paper).
I saw a surprisingly high # of knights in the deck, as well as anthems to take advantage of the multiple bodies.
I also underestimated the upside damage output on the card. Even by itself, if you are able to force through all the damage of the card uninterrupted, It's 10 damage over 3 turns. For reference, brimaz would be 9, blade splicer 8 etc. Add a couple more knights into the mix, and the numbers start to get very impressive.
Still very unsure of how good It'll end up being when the dust settles, but it's on my short list of potential sleepers from the set.
I, II - Create a 2/2 white Knight creature token with Vigilance.
III - Knights you control get +2+1 until end of turn.
So essentially, you get 2 2/2 vigilance creatures, and then the turn after the second one comes in they get pumped. Pretty good rate for 1WW and a big swing from them after, thoughts?
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That said, it will provide a 2 for 1 a decent amount of time. It has the usual white synergies with Anthem effects and Opposition. If you have a way to Regrowth it, the second pump will affect all the tokens that survived.
Ultimately I think it is too slow at what it does. Silverblade Paladin has an immediate impact on the board (usually ~2-ish damage) and will attack next turn for at least 4 more, and Silverblade is likely my weakest 1WW drop.
For reference, I play 6 knights in white so that synergy is relevant:
Student of Warfare
Accorder Paladin
Mirran Crusader
Silverblade Paladin
Hero of Bladehold
Thalia's Lancers
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Not interested, but it is a solid card. Some chance of sleeper potential, and if a bunch of good knights get printed at 1/2 cmc, may be worth revisiting in the future.
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That said, we also have players who have been playing Modern since the days of extended, and I think half a dozen of the group plays legacy. Trying to make a cube that's satisfying for "I've only drafted twice" and for "I grinded sealed events for the RTR GP" is hard, but it comes down to small things like this.
ALL THAT SAID, took a look at the template released today and I'm really happy with it - I think the formatting is great and easy to understand. I'll be including History of Benalia in my 720, maybe replacing Sram's Expertise, which I haven't been overly impressed by (but wouldn't it be sick to play this off of it???)
3 bad scenerios
1) you cast it, get a knight, and then they disenchant it. They used 2 mana and a card and you spent three mana and lose a card but also have a 2/2 in play. in general you are probably ahead. I think 1 mana is worth a 2/2
2) scenarios you play it and get a knight, they reclamation sage and kill it, and you are each left with a 2/2 or 2/1 and both spent 3 mana.
In this case opponent is probably ahead since they can flicker / bounce recur it from graveyard etc.
3)against control where you cast it, and then after you get the second knight they wrath the board. You may have gotten in for 2 damage with the first knight. Does not seem ideal, but it does cause your opponent to use a wrath, while you threaten 8+ life loss with 1 card and don't have to over commit to the board.
I think as far as a floor goes it might be slightly better than the floor of some of the other non top white 3 drops that are played, but I don't think it will make the cut in small cubes.
cool effect though casting this, turn 3, Mirror entity turn 4, and swinging for 21 damage on turn 5!
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This card seems dumb in multiples though, especially when curving with other knights.
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EDIT: Oop. Forget they are doing away with blocks. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with Wizards' annual flip-flopping.
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Is Soulfire Grandmaster supposed to be in the white section? Even though it makes your curve slightly higher, I would cut that for History as I could rarely get SGM going whereas History is just always going to be pretty solid unless it gets Disenchanted in response to place the counter on there. The knights having vigilence has been more relevant than I thought it would.
I could also see cutting Kor Sanctifiers--I've always been pretty underwhelmes by that card as I felt like the numerous O-Rings and Disenchants fill its role.
How often is Entreat making miracles come true? History would be a more consistent/played option most likely.
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+1 on the +3 above
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Entreat is mostly there as a placeholder - I've been working on getting a Judge Avacyn, Angel of Hope to fill out an additional fatty that's watermarked for Watermarket/Summon the Pack, but since I don't own any copies of Avacyn, I don't want to buy a non-judge copy and just slotted Entreat in for now.
I agree that I don't want to cut Moat in a vacuum - card is amazing. I just really want to entirely eliminate non-English cards.
EDIT: I'll admit that I always forget about Jazal when I'm looking at cuts in white. Maybe that's the right swap.
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For those that have been testing it, how has it performed?
Regular 450 unpowered cube (with some custom cards) - 450 Unpowered
I've only had it in for 1 cube, and it looked great in the deck that it was drafted in (on paper).
I saw a surprisingly high # of knights in the deck, as well as anthems to take advantage of the multiple bodies.
I also underestimated the upside damage output on the card. Even by itself, if you are able to force through all the damage of the card uninterrupted, It's 10 damage over 3 turns. For reference, brimaz would be 9, blade splicer 8 etc. Add a couple more knights into the mix, and the numbers start to get very impressive.
Still very unsure of how good It'll end up being when the dust settles, but it's on my short list of potential sleepers from the set.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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