Some of these definitely deserve their own threads. I'll get the ball rolling:
Karn, the Great Creator4
Activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control can’t be activated.
[+1]: Until your next turn, up to one target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its converted mana cost.
[-2]: You may choose an artifact card you own from outside the game or in exile, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
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I am actually not a huge fan of this card, unless I am just missing something. For cube, I can't figure out what his -2 would even do. shutting off your opponents artifacts can be good, but chances are if you drafted Karn, you are probably the artifact deck already, and turn 4 is a little late to turn off some of the rocks, still useful, but just a little late. turning your own artifacts into creatures is also a big liability. sure battle skull is a 5/5, but moxes basically do nothing. most of the artifacts in my cube are 3 mana or less.
I'm interested, but maybe I'm overestimating it.
The +1 kills opposing moxen, but it's probably too slow.
I like the -2 for the toolbox potential. Cards like EE and Sorcerous Spyglass may not always be maindecked.
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It would get cards from the pool you drafted that didn't make it into your final 40.
The card has some matchups and situations where it'll be great. And others where it'll do ...not much at all. I think it has too much of a "sideboardy" feel to be great in cube format. It's better in powered cubes, obviously, but sometimes the damage has been done by the time you can T4 Null Rod the opponent's stuff.
I feel like weirdly enough the power of this card comes from his -2, I can see situations where an artifact in your sideboard just shuts down opponents decks, but is too narrow to make the final forty. Both his other abilities can also be amazing don’t get me wrong, but they can also do absolutely nothing, which isn’t a great place to be.
As I said in the other thread, in an unpowered cube he seems far too narrow as I think he needs to be both hosing your opponents and turning your own artifacts into threats to be good, and that seems extremely unlikely in unpowered. As far as his -2 goes, I think it's rare enough that you have some great narrow artifact in your sideboard that it's probably not a huge consideration.
However, I wouldn't fault anyone for letting the drafter look at the entire undrafted artifact section and pick from there. Could be fun, and cube is a casual format so you don't need to adhere strictly to the wish rules IMO.
I also had a fellow cuber who just had a wish pack - it was a separate set of like 45 cards that were geared towards all the wishes he was running. You could do something like that also.
I mean, this is entirely house rules. If you want to open up the undrafted portion of your cube, go for it. Lots of cube managers here have run Booster Tutor in the past (myself included) and it's been great.
I personally don't think I'll mess with this guy, but if I did I'd make his -2 as expansive as possible to spice things up.
I love this in my artifact cube. It will disable many cards but it creates a mini game called “attack karn”. Artifacts will become animated to protect him.
In deck construction, He can always replace a large artifact you want to main board, such as a big wurmcoil engine. Then simply tutor for it once it comes into play.
I like this new Karn enough to at least try it out. Often cards like Pithing Needle/Ratchet Bomb and friends don't make it to the main deck. This card can grap whatever is needed from the sideboard. Sounds fun .
I like this new Karn enough to at least try it out. Often cards like Pithing Needle/Ratchet Bomb and friends don't make it to the main deck. This card can grap whatever is needed from the sideboard. Sounds fun .
This was actually a reason for me to consider Mastermind's Acquisition. Where this new Karn can only fetch things you'd never get otherwise, Acquisition can just default to Diabolic Tutor to grab anything you need from your deck. Agreed, it's an expensive tutor for CMC 4, but I like it, since it also aligns with black's identity as the color with the best unconditional tutoring abilities.
I'm running an unpowered cube and I do not consider this new Karn remotely good enough for my environment (saying this while promoting a CMC 4 tutor is somewhat ironic). At no point in the game I'd like this Karn more in my hand than a Reclamation Sage, a Goblin Cratermaker or something on these lines, and if there is no problematic artifact on my opponents board, I don't see the appeal of Karn.
Probably however, I'm evaluating the card wrong. I'll let you guys do the playtesting before I think about acquiring one.
I actually would like to re-open this threat as how well this counter plays against the The One Ring.
I originally had this card in my cube where you would be given Liquimetal Coating into your sideboard, but this proved to be unpopular.
However, I've noticed that its not uncommon for artifact/ ramp decks to naturally have extra artifacts lying around in their sideboard, in particular signets, extra artifact threats (fatties even), swords/ equipments etc. without even actively drafting them.
I actually would like to re-open this threat as how well this counter plays against the The One Ring.
This seems like an extremely heavy handed / narrow approach against The One Ring. I think it's kept in check quite well in a singleton format anyways since you can't keep on resetting the counters / spam protection. Not to mention that general aggression / faster combos / Hullbreacher effects can really put a lot of pressure on The One Ring. There are plenty of versatile options to exile it that a lot of people aren't playing, like Haywire Mite / Cast into the Fire / Tear Asunder / most white removal spells / etc.
Personally I think Karn is a very hard ask in singleton in general. Null Rod + wish for colorless spells are too narrow in general and would generally be only effective specifically against the artifact deck.
I actually would like to re-open this threat as how well this counter plays against the The One Ring.
This seems like an extremely heavy handed / narrow approach against The One Ring. I think it's kept in check quite well in a singleton format anyways since you can't keep on resetting the counters / spam protection. Not to mention that general aggression / faster combos / Hullbreacher effects can really put a lot of pressure on The One Ring. There are plenty of versatile options to exile it that a lot of people aren't playing, like Haywire Mite / Cast into the Fire / Tear Asunder / most white removal spells / etc.
Personally I think Karn is a very hard ask in singleton in general. Null Rod + wish for colorless spells are too narrow in general and would generally be only effective specifically against the artifact deck.
Its interaction against the One Ring helps to push it over the top IMO. I'm not too fond of the other options TBH.
I actually would like to re-open this threat as how well this counter plays against the The One Ring.
I originally had this card in my cube where you would be given Liquimetal Coating into your sideboard, but this proved to be unpopular.
However, I've noticed that its not uncommon for artifact/ ramp decks to naturally have extra artifacts lying around in their sideboard, in particular signets, extra artifact threats (fatties even), swords/ equipments etc. without even actively drafting them.
Do you believe you need to warp your cube to have more counter play against the one ring?
yes an additional powerful artifact with an activated ability will increase the power of karn, but it’s only by a very marginal amount.
From my experience it’s very rare for artifact decks to have so many finishers that a decent one will ride the sideboard. A single copy of karn should only mildly incentivize running any artifacts in the sideboard.
The difference in power between a karn with 10 targets designed specifically for it and the deck and a couple of random mid-tier artifacts is so huge they might as well be different cards.
it’s good sideboard hate against an artifact based deck in a powered cube , sweet in an artifact based cube and there are some house rules that would make the card good. IMO this karn is far from good enough in traditional cubes.
I think he's good when you're mainboarding him because you want him to turn your artifacts into creatures. I think he's a very bad sideboard plan card. Cards like Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker, Sorcerous Spyglass work fine for The One Ring. Gaddock Teeg seems like he was born to crap on the ring. Sanctum Prelate naming Four seems like a step down from the teegster but the card has other applications as well. Bonecrusher Giant and similar damage prevention negation abilities seem to be very good.
I think he's good when you're mainboarding him because you want him to turn your artifacts into creatures.
This ability isn't even that good since most artifacts are 0-2 cmc. Karn, Silver Golem used to see Vintage play back in the day because it eats your opponent's moxen, but this already turns off your opponent's mana rocks with the asymmetrical Null Rod ability.
This is a HUGE trap in a typical singleton Vintage cube, IMO.
The difference in power between a karn with 10 targets designed specifically for it and the deck and a couple of random mid-tier artifacts is so huge they might as well be different cards.
it’s good sideboard hate against an artifact based deck in a powered cube , sweet in an artifact based cube and there are some house rules that would make the card good. IMO this karn is far from good enough in traditional cubes.
It has application vs Moxen, Swords, Talisman etc. I was wondering if its interaction against the One Ring pushes it over the top. Prob not based on the feedback from this forum.
I think he's good when you're mainboarding him because you want him to turn your artifacts into creatures. I think he's a very bad sideboard plan card. Cards like Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker, Sorcerous Spyglass work fine for The One Ring. Gaddock Teeg seems like he was born to crap on the ring. Sanctum Prelate naming Four seems like a step down from the teegster but the card has other applications as well. Bonecrusher Giant and similar damage prevention negation abilities seem to be very good.
I actually don't have Sorcerous Spyglass in my cube. But yah this one ring has become very problematic in my cube.
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Karn, the Great Creator 4
Activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control can’t be activated.
[+1]: Until your next turn, up to one target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its converted mana cost.
[-2]: You may choose an artifact card you own from outside the game or in exile, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
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The +1 kills opposing moxen, but it's probably too slow.
I like the -2 for the toolbox potential. Cards like EE and Sorcerous Spyglass may not always be maindecked.
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The card has some matchups and situations where it'll be great. And others where it'll do ...not much at all. I think it has too much of a "sideboardy" feel to be great in cube format. It's better in powered cubes, obviously, but sometimes the damage has been done by the time you can T4 Null Rod the opponent's stuff.
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However, I wouldn't fault anyone for letting the drafter look at the entire undrafted artifact section and pick from there. Could be fun, and cube is a casual format so you don't need to adhere strictly to the wish rules IMO.
I also had a fellow cuber who just had a wish pack - it was a separate set of like 45 cards that were geared towards all the wishes he was running. You could do something like that also.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Oof, that's a miss then. Unfortunate.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I personally don't think I'll mess with this guy, but if I did I'd make his -2 as expansive as possible to spice things up.
In deck construction, He can always replace a large artifact you want to main board, such as a big wurmcoil engine. Then simply tutor for it once it comes into play.
This was actually a reason for me to consider Mastermind's Acquisition. Where this new Karn can only fetch things you'd never get otherwise, Acquisition can just default to Diabolic Tutor to grab anything you need from your deck. Agreed, it's an expensive tutor for CMC 4, but I like it, since it also aligns with black's identity as the color with the best unconditional tutoring abilities.
I'm running an unpowered cube and I do not consider this new Karn remotely good enough for my environment (saying this while promoting a CMC 4 tutor is somewhat ironic). At no point in the game I'd like this Karn more in my hand than a Reclamation Sage, a Goblin Cratermaker or something on these lines, and if there is no problematic artifact on my opponents board, I don't see the appeal of Karn.
Probably however, I'm evaluating the card wrong. I'll let you guys do the playtesting before I think about acquiring one.
A nice day to you all
I originally had this card in my cube where you would be given Liquimetal Coating into your sideboard, but this proved to be unpopular.
However, I've noticed that its not uncommon for artifact/ ramp decks to naturally have extra artifacts lying around in their sideboard, in particular signets, extra artifact threats (fatties even), swords/ equipments etc. without even actively drafting them.
This seems like an extremely heavy handed / narrow approach against The One Ring. I think it's kept in check quite well in a singleton format anyways since you can't keep on resetting the counters / spam protection. Not to mention that general aggression / faster combos / Hullbreacher effects can really put a lot of pressure on The One Ring. There are plenty of versatile options to exile it that a lot of people aren't playing, like Haywire Mite / Cast into the Fire / Tear Asunder / most white removal spells / etc.
Personally I think Karn is a very hard ask in singleton in general. Null Rod + wish for colorless spells are too narrow in general and would generally be only effective specifically against the artifact deck.
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Its interaction against the One Ring helps to push it over the top IMO. I'm not too fond of the other options TBH.
Do you believe you need to warp your cube to have more counter play against the one ring?
yes an additional powerful artifact with an activated ability will increase the power of karn, but it’s only by a very marginal amount.
From my experience it’s very rare for artifact decks to have so many finishers that a decent one will ride the sideboard. A single copy of karn should only mildly incentivize running any artifacts in the sideboard.
The difference in power between a karn with 10 targets designed specifically for it and the deck and a couple of random mid-tier artifacts is so huge they might as well be different cards.
it’s good sideboard hate against an artifact based deck in a powered cube , sweet in an artifact based cube and there are some house rules that would make the card good. IMO this karn is far from good enough in traditional cubes.
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This ability isn't even that good since most artifacts are 0-2 cmc. Karn, Silver Golem used to see Vintage play back in the day because it eats your opponent's moxen, but this already turns off your opponent's mana rocks with the asymmetrical Null Rod ability.
This is a HUGE trap in a typical singleton Vintage cube, IMO.
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It has application vs Moxen, Swords, Talisman etc. I was wondering if its interaction against the One Ring pushes it over the top. Prob not based on the feedback from this forum.
I actually don't have Sorcerous Spyglass in my cube. But yah this one ring has become very problematic in my cube.