Yeah I was looking at this one too. Stormfront Pegasus isn't even that far off anymore as a good aggressive creature, and this is better than ol' stormy in several ways (gives you 2 artifacts for decks that care about that, gives you 2 permanents to sac if that comes up, if you need to bounce a permanent as a cost you can bounce the equipment and be left with a 1/1 flyer, and of course you can equip it when that's a good line), and the only real downsides are that the thopter can die to naturalize, flicker, and bounce. I may try and find room for this.
2 Artifacts didn’t even hit me
Until you pointed it out. Slamming in my artifact cube where it can simply be tutored my Stoneforge Mystic, Relic Seeker or Stonehewer Giant.
I wish the equipment gave the creature flying. As it is, the equipment effect seems too low impact to be worth it. I love Selfless Spirit and even the less played Remorseful Cleric because they have game-changing activated ability strapped to them. I think cube is past the days of Stormfront Pegasus being good without a really nice ability attached.
I would be in love with this card if it made a servo and was +1/+0 flying (even with a higher equip cost). As is though, still very serviceable, I think the bonesaw will end up mattering more than you might think at first glance. In addition to the obvious synergy with increasing the density of Sfm targets, this is quite nice to curve into tangle wire or flickerwisp.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
This competes most with Remorseful Cleric, IMO, which is a pretty good place to be. You really won't be using Stoneforge Mystic to fetch this most of the time, but Halvar always appreciates higher equipment density.
If you like the template of Stormfront Pegasus+, this is another cool option to look at. I kinda like it, but it does feel slightly lower impact than Spirit and Cleric, and unless white supports the artifact.dec package for you, the only attractive aspect of the card comes from the desperation target for Stoneforge Mystic. This is a fine card, and probably on par with Ancestral Blade (a card I'm testing just to see if it helps with Stoneforge density, and it feels underwhelming and unnecessary, and will be coming out in the next update) but Barbed Point is not a card I'm excited about.
Cleric better in the average cube IMO. I'd only run this if you wanted a 3rd 2/1 flyer for 2 and already had cleric and spirit or getting 2 artifacts was really relevant for a supported archetype.
I messed around with Ancestral Blade a little bit because of artifact, blink, and token synergies. It plays in polymorph, tinker, tons of decks. But it's still a very meager card despite its broad applicability, so I ended up cutting it. This feels quite similar to me. If the token were a servo and the equipment granted flying? Then maybe we'd be talking.
I don't like it as much as Remorseful Cleric, because I think that card gives more tools to the aggro deck, than this card's various synergies affords any of those other decks (and I think +1/+0 equipment isn't affording much at all). I would prefer aggro have a solid gy exile above this.
I love this card for every reason you mention about broad applicability be will also not be playing it for the reasons you mention. Give me the rare or mythic White creature that lease behind equipment. Then we are talking. I really do want more artifacts and blink and tokens, so hopefully ancestral blade 3.0 will be great
Barbed Spike
I think this looks pretty good. I already run Selfless Spirit and Remorseful Cleric, and the 2/1 fliers have performed well. I also like that this can be tutored by Stoneforge Mystic.
[180 classic cube]
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Until you pointed it out. Slamming in my artifact cube where it can simply be tutored my Stoneforge Mystic, Relic Seeker or Stonehewer Giant.
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375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I don't like it as much as Remorseful Cleric, because I think that card gives more tools to the aggro deck, than this card's various synergies affords any of those other decks (and I think +1/+0 equipment isn't affording much at all). I would prefer aggro have a solid gy exile above this.
[180 classic cube]