MTG Salvation

This card seems excellent! I'm a fan.

In order for this card to be better than Flametongue Kavu, it needs to be castable on turn 2. I don't think enough decks can reliably do that, so once again I find myself asking how much worse could a card be and still be cubeable. I feel like the single-kicked version of this card is decently playable, and once you factor in its versatility, Flametongue Yearling starts looking pretty dang solid. Additionally, Red's 4-drop options aren't that great after the top 3-4, so FTK Jr. is definitely going to find a home in my cube.

Great in mono-red aggro, good in blink decks, and OK in +1/+1 counter decks that boost power upon ETB or otherwise care about creatures getting counters. The RR cost may limit its splashability though.

Overall this card seems good, especially when the mono-red player casts it on turn two to clear a blocker for their one drop. Good early, good late is a recipe for cube success. The fact that it scales to the late game mitigates the feel bad situation when you can’t shouldn’t cast it because your opponent doesn’t have a creature yet.

Seems super solid, though it feels more important for this card than for FTK that you can't play it on an empty board since turn 4 gives your opponent more time to have cast a creature than turn 2. As such, it's awkward in Mono-red, since you can't lean on it to bolster your 2-drop slot in most matchups.. Which is doubly awkward because it's the only deck that can reliably cast it on 2 anyway.

That said, the flexibility is interesting, and it seems like a gigantic beating in the appropriate matchups. I'll probably test this out.

It bothers me a lot that like the OG, you can’t play it on an empty board. That is much more relevant on turn 2.

Of course an ETB card advantage creture on turn 2 is potentially good.

Worth a test, but I think RR will ultimately hurt this. As a 4 drop with upside, though, looks good. Will check my 4 drops if there is something there worth replacing.

If kicker and mana cost was 1R...
RR is a mana cost I stopped using in the red CMC2 slots, so will likely pass on this one.

The RR cost is a bummer, but the card's so good it probably still needs to go in. I'm looking forward to testing this.

This card is awesome!

Our group has been waiting for Fire Imp for 1R, and this is a way more interesting card than that. We’ve been pushing mono-colored support, so I have no problem with RR whereas in years past that would have been a huge strike against it.

The RR cost bothers me slightly less on this card since it has the kicker option.

In a deck that can't reliably hit the double-red on T2, you can slot it in as a 2RR card in your curve.

Yeah Fire Imp was a good cube card for a long time, and I don't think it's even that far off nowadays. One that's gonna be better in multiple ways in heavy R decks seems like an easy test.

I also love that they kept the "it has to kill itself if it's the only creature" rules text as a callback to FTK.

I like this card, but it's very swingy. Very high ceiling of something like casting it turn 2 on the play and killing an mana dork. But also very low floor of not being able to deploy a threat on turn 2 against a creatureless opponent.

The biggest problem with a card like this is this is a "you must" not a "you may". The 2 CMC FTk mode might be a lot harder to hit considering it is double red + you must.

I still think its a pretty solid creature, but red 2 and 4 CMC are just too competitive these days .. the question is what to cut.

seems like a pretty easy swap over heartfire immolator in my list.

Here's me still running fire imp in my cube. I still think Fire Imp is super solid but I’ll likely replace it with this.

At first I didn’t realize you still get ETB trigger without kicking.

Card seems reallly good. 2 mana 2 for 1 that scales in the late game? Sign me up.

staple

I agree, this is a red staple.

We cut FTK a while ago because it literally just doesn't have any enemy targets a lot of the time, and this is even more difficult to cast on curve (whether at cmc 2 or 4). Sniping a mana dork or enemy 2 drop will feel so sweet when it works on turn 2, but I don't think that is at all realistic most of the time. Maybe 450+ or 540+? Red 2s are mostly pretty ass so this might still get a test but I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't make the cut for us.

Not a fan of RR. And for 4RR I get a FTK with +1 toughness. It's a cool card but I just have no need for it.

I'll be cutting Heartfire Immolator for this. Think it is a big mistake to compare this to its counterparts at 4CC or 6CC. There are depreciating returns on this card as you go up the mana value ladder, but the base mode is already a 2CC Fire Imp variant. The flexibility is gravy on top of the unprecedented value for its base cost.

Quote from BlackWaltz3 »

I'll be cutting Heartfire Immolator for this. Think it is a big mistake to compare this to its counterparts at 4CC or 6CC. There are depreciating returns on this card as you go up the mana value ladder, but the base mode is already a 2CC Fire Imp variant. The flexibility is gravy on top of the unprecedented value for its base cost.

This.

Yes there are times where this will rot in your hand. However, there will be many more times than that it will be a 2 mana 2 for 1 that effects the board and can be blinked for extra value.
That really is unprecedented.

I’d include it without the kicker, but I won’t pass on some extra gravy.

Treat it as a removal spell (as opposed to a T2 curve play) when you're deckbuilding to mitigate the issues when it's targetless (or you're missing the RR) on T2.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

Treat it as a removal spell (as opposed to a T2 curve play) when you're deckbuilding to mitigate the issues when it's targetless (or you're missing the RR) on T2.

This is an awesome approach!

It will be weird running a RR card again but this one is totally worth it.

But that's the thing, I don't know if most cube decks really want a 2 damage removal spell that only hits creatures. There's gonna be matchups where this creature is great, but a whole lot where it's actively bad and doesn't have the liberty to even just be tempo-ed out as a piker, and in slower decks where you might be interested in just the removal I don't think the body remains super meaningful. That's a petty huge issue. At least Flametongue Kavu is super splashable, but even that card is really showing its age imo.

Maybe I'm overestimating how often this won't have valid enemy targets? Or how hard it is to get on curve in an agressive two-color deck to snipe mana dorks and Thalias? Sure you could treat this as a removal spell in deckbuilding, but it deals 2 damage and can't go face, that's not an effect that is typically all that strong on turns 4 or 5 when this might find its first target of the game.

One thing I do really like is this does seems really solid in red ramp decks even if it's clunky in reagular midrange decks. Those decks just get runnover in the earlygame sometimes so this could be a big help early, and this is a removal spell that still has tons of value if you topdeck it with 10+ mana later.