The Great Henge7GG
Legendary Artifact (M)
This spell costs X less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control. t: Add GG. You gain 2 life.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on it and you draw a card.
This card is expensive, but seems insane to me in limited and solid in cube, as it does basically everything. It's not unreasonable to expect it to come down on turn 4 or 5, where the ramp is still potentially useful for helping cast your top-end creatures, but can also be useful for helping maximize the Glimpse of Nature effect. Lifegain that also can't be responded to (since it's tacked onto a mana ability) is also gravy if your opponent is on aggro and has gotten you to a lower life total already.
The meat of the card is the last ability, which is a bit of a nonbo with Wickerbough Elder but otherwise helps ensure that you have the larger creatures and that you're more likely to draw more of them. Not triggering on tokens makes it a little weaker in go-wide shells, but I think on raw power and an insane hodge-podge of abilities, this card gets there for me.
I initially read the cost reduction ability as total power ala Ghalta, Primal Hunger, but even as is it might be good enough.
I think the mana generating ability comes way too late so far as ramp is concerned, but at least the ability allows you to potentially follow up this spell with a 1 or 2 drop along with 2 life, a +1/+1 counter, and a card. Cards like this make me want to revisit cards like Rhonas the Indomitable or even Steel Leaf Champion as I think green sometimes suffers in cubes that aren't designed towards what it does best....being the biggest.
So...
1. If you have some big hitters, it can come out relatively early.
2. You will always have at least GG after casting it and even one creature out allows it to replace itself, as mentioned above.
3. The card draw triggers off of blinking and reanimation and does not require big bodies, which makes it fairly versatile.
4. Sounds bonkers with persist if you are using a persist package as it enables the "loop" while adding card advantage to the menu (though the card draw is NOT optional, removing the capacity for infinite combos).
If you're unable to cast this with a decently sized creature (probably 4 or more power) on board than maybe but I don't think that is a terribly difficult hoop to jump through. This gives you mana, life, +1/+1 counters, and cards simultaneously. On average, I think this will outperform Guardian Project.
I don't think so? It's worse on an empty board due to the increased cost, but with an average green midrange hand, the rest of the effects make it more interesting to me.
Also, you still draw the card here even if your opponent kills the creature in response to the trigger, but that's a fairly niche scenario anyways.
I feel like playing your creatures, hoping they survive, only to cast Henge and hoping to draw more creatures is a lot of hoops to jump through. The main draw of a card like this is the card advantage and I would rather cast Project consistently for 4 rather than messing around with Henge once I've already dumped my hand. Because Henge is so hard to cast I feel you're giving up too much value just trying to get it on board when maybe Galta would just end it there.
In my cube, green is just super ramp, so very few creatures under cmc6 have more than 2 power. I don't think it'd work well for me. However, in a cube where green is more midrange and has things like Thrun, Polukranos, Wolfir Silverheart, etc. I could see this playing well.
The requirement is steep, and the payoff is insane. However, for a card that requires so much setup, this doesn't give you any way to win the game, it just makes your neutral game loads better. Everything this does is huge, but I think the life gain is the most easily underestimated, especially if you fail to get it down early. This would be fun to play, but I'm certainly not going to chase it down unless I open one.
Taps for GG, repeatable life gain, card draw and +1/+1 counters. If you can get a 4- or 5-power creature down and be able to cast this card for like 4 or 5 mana, I think it's pretty good. I probably wouldn't test it for just its face value, but since it's also a persist combo enabler, I'm gonna give it a spin. Cool card.
This card just does enough things that I think our midrange decks will probably like it. Hard to kill 4- and 5-drops like Thrun, the Last Troll or Thragtusk will see to this card probably landing the following turn. But, I think this also means that if we're gonna include it, I'll have to beware of maintaining a density of these kinds of creatures.
Incidentally, GW decks here might have the easiest time casting this (and still desire the effect). Serra, Elspeth, Gideon all provide ways of drastically reducing the cost. The really sad part is that those decks are gonna miss out on the latter half when they make their tokens. As long as they're not all-in on that plan, though, drawing some extra cards from their actual creatures, and that huge potential for lifegain ... yeah, might be enough.
Beast Whisperer was a thoroughly unimpressive card for 4 Mana. This is basically beast Whisperer with some incidental lifegain, ramp and +1/+1 counters that generally won't matter much.
This card is best when you are ahead and bad when you are behind and unplayable on an empty board. It will generally be a late play, at which point you won't have many creatures left in hand and are relying on topdecks to get any card advantage.
I'd rather play a card with consistency like Worn Powerstone for ramp, and if it's card advantage youre after I'm not even sure this beats out a mediocre green Planeswalker like Vivien Reid that draws you a card each turn including the turn it comes down, which plays well on an empty board.
Tested 18 cards yesterday in my 540. I thought this card was on the fringe and possibly worth including. This card just absolutely crushed the expectations I had for it.
It was consistently cast for 5 or 6 and drew several cards each time. I ran it in a Simic deck and was about to use it with Upheaval but my opponent played Fractured Identity on it! In a vaccum playing a Fractured Identity on this card seems insane but with the board state it absolutely was the correct play.
That cemented this card being in my Cube.
Someone else had it for the second draft and said it was good for them as well.
@kingneb thanks for the battle report! This is certainly a card that requires testing.
@IMorphling89 brings up how conditional this is, and it's certainly not good when you are behind, but we also play cards like Plow Under that are so devastating in all other quadrants, it's worth the risk. This card does /everything/ short of win you the game when give the chance to untap, but it stills asks you to develop further afterwards. That double-slap of "you need creatures NOW and LATER For this to be good" might be what kills it :/
I will say it was great late gsme when drawing a mana dork or a Manglehorn when facing no artifacts, both situations where the draw would normally have been awful, and drawing a card after playing the subpar creature. Also the 2 life per turn really helped me stabilize in one matchup.
Got several matches with the card and still it is one of the cards I'm most excited to play again.
Turn 1 - mox emerald, Mishra’s workshop - lodestone golem
Turn 2 - forest, the great Henge -> 3 drop artifact creature
Hey, it could happen!!
I think you've pretty much won after turn 1 when you workshop into a turn one Lodestone Golem and the Great Henge here is just win more. Just replace the turn 2 great henge with the less situational and colorless Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal and I'm pretty sure you also lock up the game with cards that can go into every deck and have worst case scenario costs that are half that of the Great Henge. This means there are definitely scenarios where Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are castable but Great Henge is not.
Having a great best case scenario and bad worst case scenario like Great Henge is a hallmark of win-more types of cards, and it's a big reason why value engines like Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are much less win-more and help you in a greater percentage of scenarios.
Turn 1 lodestone isn’t gg without follow up.
But yeah, a lot of cards would similarly end the game in that spot.
Karn was a bad example because it it’s not an artifact to play off Mishras workshop.
I was just being silly thinking of magical Christmas stuff.. didn’t really have any bearing on the evaluation of the card.
I think you are over-valuing the concept of win more on a card like this.
Having a 3-5 power creature on the battlefield is far from a guarantee of “winning”. You should only play this card in a deck where that is very easy to achieve.
The effect is extremely powerful for its cost when it costs 4-5 mana. Probably better than any other engine at a comparable cost.
Is that worth the contingency of requiring a medium sized creature to enable?
Don’t know. I’m leaning towards no in most cubes. Yes in some.
I have a low power list that's currently running Rude Awakening as a ramp payoff. It's a card that's hit or miss, but I think this seems more fun/interesting and I might make that swap.
The Great Henge 7GG
Legendary Artifact (M)
This spell costs X less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control.
t: Add GG. You gain 2 life.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on it and you draw a card.
This card is expensive, but seems insane to me in limited and solid in cube, as it does basically everything. It's not unreasonable to expect it to come down on turn 4 or 5, where the ramp is still potentially useful for helping cast your top-end creatures, but can also be useful for helping maximize the Glimpse of Nature effect. Lifegain that also can't be responded to (since it's tacked onto a mana ability) is also gravy if your opponent is on aggro and has gotten you to a lower life total already.
The meat of the card is the last ability, which is a bit of a nonbo with Wickerbough Elder but otherwise helps ensure that you have the larger creatures and that you're more likely to draw more of them. Not triggering on tokens makes it a little weaker in go-wide shells, but I think on raw power and an insane hodge-podge of abilities, this card gets there for me.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
I think the mana generating ability comes way too late so far as ramp is concerned, but at least the ability allows you to potentially follow up this spell with a 1 or 2 drop along with 2 life, a +1/+1 counter, and a card. Cards like this make me want to revisit cards like Rhonas the Indomitable or even Steel Leaf Champion as I think green sometimes suffers in cubes that aren't designed towards what it does best....being the biggest.
1. If you have some big hitters, it can come out relatively early.
2. You will always have at least GG after casting it and even one creature out allows it to replace itself, as mentioned above.
3. The card draw triggers off of blinking and reanimation and does not require big bodies, which makes it fairly versatile.
4. Sounds bonkers with persist if you are using a persist package as it enables the "loop" while adding card advantage to the menu (though the card draw is NOT optional, removing the capacity for infinite combos).
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Honestly can't blame you. Persist decks are rarely known for their aggressive, cost-efficient critters.
If you're unable to cast this with a decently sized creature (probably 4 or more power) on board than maybe but I don't think that is a terribly difficult hoop to jump through. This gives you mana, life, +1/+1 counters, and cards simultaneously. On average, I think this will outperform Guardian Project.
Also, you still draw the card here even if your opponent kills the creature in response to the trigger, but that's a fairly niche scenario anyways.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
**Edited for clarity
[180 classic cube]
I don't think traditional cubes meet this criteria.
Some non-traditional green sections that try to support some sort of berzerk/rhonas/ghalta shenagins in green would love this card.
I intend to see if I can make this card work in standard, but not testing for cube.
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Incidentally, GW decks here might have the easiest time casting this (and still desire the effect). Serra, Elspeth, Gideon all provide ways of drastically reducing the cost. The really sad part is that those decks are gonna miss out on the latter half when they make their tokens. As long as they're not all-in on that plan, though, drawing some extra cards from their actual creatures, and that huge potential for lifegain ... yeah, might be enough.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
This card is best when you are ahead and bad when you are behind and unplayable on an empty board. It will generally be a late play, at which point you won't have many creatures left in hand and are relying on topdecks to get any card advantage.
I'd rather play a card with consistency like Worn Powerstone for ramp, and if it's card advantage youre after I'm not even sure this beats out a mediocre green Planeswalker like Vivien Reid that draws you a card each turn including the turn it comes down, which plays well on an empty board.
I think it's a pass - too conditional for me.
360 card powered Chicago cube:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/e7r
2020 Numerical Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/817969-2020-numerical-cube-power-rankings
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https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/803301-cubetutor-power-rankings-2018-by-color-and-cmc
It was consistently cast for 5 or 6 and drew several cards each time. I ran it in a Simic deck and was about to use it with Upheaval but my opponent played Fractured Identity on it! In a vaccum playing a Fractured Identity on this card seems insane but with the board state it absolutely was the correct play.
That cemented this card being in my Cube.
Someone else had it for the second draft and said it was good for them as well.
Can't wait to play with this card further!
My 540 card Powered Cube last updated March 2022
@IMorphling89 brings up how conditional this is, and it's certainly not good when you are behind, but we also play cards like Plow Under that are so devastating in all other quadrants, it's worth the risk. This card does /everything/ short of win you the game when give the chance to untap, but it stills asks you to develop further afterwards. That double-slap of "you need creatures NOW and LATER For this to be good" might be what kills it :/
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
Got several matches with the card and still it is one of the cards I'm most excited to play again.
My 540 card Powered Cube last updated March 2022
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
Turn 1 - mox emerald, Mishra’s workshop - lodestone golem
Turn 2 - forest, the great Henge -> 3 drop artifact creature
Hey, it could happen!!
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
I think you've pretty much won after turn 1 when you workshop into a turn one Lodestone Golem and the Great Henge here is just win more. Just replace the turn 2 great henge with the less situational and colorless Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal and I'm pretty sure you also lock up the game with cards that can go into every deck and have worst case scenario costs that are half that of the Great Henge. This means there are definitely scenarios where Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are castable but Great Henge is not.
Having a great best case scenario and bad worst case scenario like Great Henge is a hallmark of win-more types of cards, and it's a big reason why value engines like Karn, Scion of Urza or Coercive Portal are much less win-more and help you in a greater percentage of scenarios.
360 card powered Chicago cube:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/e7r
2020 Numerical Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/817969-2020-numerical-cube-power-rankings
2018 CubeTutor Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/803301-cubetutor-power-rankings-2018-by-color-and-cmc
But yeah, a lot of cards would similarly end the game in that spot.
Karn was a bad example because it it’s not an artifact to play off Mishras workshop.
I was just being silly thinking of magical Christmas stuff.. didn’t really have any bearing on the evaluation of the card.
I think you are over-valuing the concept of win more on a card like this.
Having a 3-5 power creature on the battlefield is far from a guarantee of “winning”. You should only play this card in a deck where that is very easy to achieve.
The effect is extremely powerful for its cost when it costs 4-5 mana. Probably better than any other engine at a comparable cost.
Is that worth the contingency of requiring a medium sized creature to enable?
Don’t know. I’m leaning towards no in most cubes. Yes in some.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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