Now hold on. I know what you're thinking when you're entering this thread.
"This card is so bad! Much worse than a 2 power 1drop or Bolt or Faithless Looting! What's he thinking???!"
Yeah, yeah, I know.
The direction I'd like you to think, however, is not in broken threatening cards, but instead in flexible cubing cards that make the average deck more consistent.
Aggro can play this t2 after their 1drop then attack with it, and still play a 2drop. Then next turn they attack and play a 4drop, or a 3 drop and 1drop. Etc.
Midrange turns utility creatures into mana generators. Small creatures can be underwhelming if they don't trade effectively, and turning one into a "not-treasure" can be valuable mana acceleration. Dusk Legion Zealot, Thraben Inspector, Legion's Landing, Satyr Wayfinder, etc. - they are easy to attack with because you are not particularly attached to the body. With evasive creatures this becomes great, like Kitesail and more early fliers, though the best value is with shadow creatures, particularly Looter il-kor. It can help well with with mana screws.
Control can use their blockers to gain countermagic mana and stockpile it. Snapcaster, looters, Champion of Wits, Arcane Artisan, Trinket Mage. Not to mention the many small fliers and evasive creatures they can run.
Artifact synergies like Daretti, Karn, Pia and Kiran, new Tezz, Tolarian Academy, and of course Welder and Tinker will all appreciate the support in a relevant color.
One last point - this is highly splashable and very easy to play (though maybe not activate), and it fixes mana. It might not be an always-maindeck card, but if you're stuck in a bad draft this card can help your deck keep up with next to no cost. I'm not trying to convince you to slot out your bolts and threats and bombs - rather, sometimes red has cards that aren't particularly good anywhere, but are solid in many different places. This can be one of those cards in my opinion.
I don't see this card as flexible, rather quite the opposite. I need to be attacking with creatures, and that gives me artifacts which can be sac'd for temporary mana. And it costs me a card. Not all Commander cards are built only for Commander decks, but I think this was.
I mean, I need to be attacking to get the benefit, but if I'm doing it early enough to really reap a reward, I wanna be playing cheap and fast dudes or lots of tokens, I think? And I don't think either of those decks really want mana. And my artifact and ritual decks don't want to commit resources to attacking. I think this is an incredibly niche card and generally doesn't work with a lot of common cube archetypes. If anything I would try to use a card like this to help define a new archetype. If I wanted a more broad-use card I'd be looking at 3-4 cost creatures with good etb effects.
Well, I am the sole voice of dissent, then. I rather like some of the synergies proposed here and I like the idea enough to where I would like to try this card out to see what it can do for drafters.
I will try to find room for it in mine. Even if I don't, I am picking up a few of these for some 60-card multiplayer casual decks. This seems pretty fun to try out there, for sure. Thanks for bringing this card up.
I like the mentioned synergies with artifact decks, although you still have to attack to get your gold. I think I like Captain Lannery Storm as a treasure producer for most cubes more, and even she's not that great.
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Now hold on. I know what you're thinking when you're entering this thread.
"This card is so bad! Much worse than a 2 power 1drop or Bolt or Faithless Looting! What's he thinking???!"
Yeah, yeah, I know.
The direction I'd like you to think, however, is not in broken threatening cards, but instead in flexible cubing cards that make the average deck more consistent.
Aggro can play this t2 after their 1drop then attack with it, and still play a 2drop. Then next turn they attack and play a 4drop, or a 3 drop and 1drop. Etc.
Midrange turns utility creatures into mana generators. Small creatures can be underwhelming if they don't trade effectively, and turning one into a "not-treasure" can be valuable mana acceleration. Dusk Legion Zealot, Thraben Inspector, Legion's Landing, Satyr Wayfinder, etc. - they are easy to attack with because you are not particularly attached to the body. With evasive creatures this becomes great, like Kitesail and more early fliers, though the best value is with shadow creatures, particularly Looter il-kor. It can help well with with mana screws.
Control can use their blockers to gain countermagic mana and stockpile it. Snapcaster, looters, Champion of Wits, Arcane Artisan, Trinket Mage. Not to mention the many small fliers and evasive creatures they can run.
Artifact synergies like Daretti, Karn, Pia and Kiran, new Tezz, Tolarian Academy, and of course Welder and Tinker will all appreciate the support in a relevant color.
One last point - this is highly splashable and very easy to play (though maybe not activate), and it fixes mana. It might not be an always-maindeck card, but if you're stuck in a bad draft this card can help your deck keep up with next to no cost. I'm not trying to convince you to slot out your bolts and threats and bombs - rather, sometimes red has cards that aren't particularly good anywhere, but are solid in many different places. This can be one of those cards in my opinion.
What are your thoughts?
As for the card, it seems like a pretty bad and inconsistent mana dork.
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I mean, I need to be attacking to get the benefit, but if I'm doing it early enough to really reap a reward, I wanna be playing cheap and fast dudes or lots of tokens, I think? And I don't think either of those decks really want mana. And my artifact and ritual decks don't want to commit resources to attacking. I think this is an incredibly niche card and generally doesn't work with a lot of common cube archetypes. If anything I would try to use a card like this to help define a new archetype. If I wanted a more broad-use card I'd be looking at 3-4 cost creatures with good etb effects.
I will try to find room for it in mine. Even if I don't, I am picking up a few of these for some 60-card multiplayer casual decks. This seems pretty fun to try out there, for sure. Thanks for bringing this card up.
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