The initiative/undercity is a pretty powerful mechanic overall at first glance. With explore, this potentially swings as a 6/7 and follows that up with 7/8 attack and a Lava Axe. If you already have a Cleric/Rogue/Warrior/Wizard from turns 1-3, you can swing with protection immediately. You can also get the initiative back with this creature, if you lose it. Sure, the white 4-drop slot is pretty contested, but this might crack in if testing is promising. I might re-add some of the lower-drop Cleric/Rogue/Warrior/Wizards as well to help support this.
Unblockable is a big game on a beefy body, and card selection is a cherry on top. The land search is a lot worse here than on white plume, and deploying later makes it harder to snowball the advantage, but still has all the usual benefits of a difficult to interact enduring advantage in many matchups. Despite the absolute stackitude of W 4s I don’t think this I’ll have trouble making it on powerlevel.
Tribal synergies to get an immediate trigger include:
Giver
Mother (mostly not though)
Usher
Hallowblade
Containment
Warner
Selfless
Spellbinder
White Plume
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
If you can get the explore trigger on another attacking creature the turn this resolves, it's really powerful. Still good on its own, but it goes from good to great with if it generates full immediate value. I'll keep a close eye on this.
Yeah I think the 3/3 for 2W is better than this one, but this also looks pretty strong.
I hate the dungeon mechanic with a passion so I'm probably skipping all initiative cards but IDK, maybe they prove to play incredibly well and I'll add them begrudgingly.
I agree with 2W 3/3 for 2W is the best initiative creature by that time, but this one seems really strong. IDK if this one is stronger than Combat Calligrapher, however maybe I will take the test here.
This looks really strong as a (soon-to-be huge) unblockable even if you can't get the swing with another creature straight away. But there are Warriors abound in B/R and a fair few Clerics too floating around in W/B. So my go-to Mardu aggro deck will be more than happy to top the curve with this, same as the red initiative creature...
After a good amount of testing, I don't think it's crazy to think that this is one of the more powerful white 4-cmc cards. It's definitely top 3 for white 4-cmc creatures alongside Palace Jailer / Restoration Angel in my book, and is arguably the strongest of the 3 since it's both a strong value card AND a finisher. To me it feels like it has a lot of the value of Palace Jailer combined with similar damage potential of Hero of Bladehold. Like Palace Jailer, this card is one of those cards that's ban-worthy in a lot of cubes based on high high its ceiling is.
Being able to explore off other creatures with pretty common creature types is pretty strong. Having True-Name Nemesis draw lands / pump itself is especially powerful. A couple days ago I had a scenario where I was racing mono white aggro. I was at 3 life and was dead to their Cave of the Frost Dragon next turn since I didn't have any flying blockers in play, and I thought my only out was taking back monarch with TNN and drawing Occult Epiphany at my end step. I attacked with TNN and Seasoned Dungeoneer's explore trigger revealed Otawar, Soaring City, which conveniently is worded to be able to bounce manlands, so I was able to race off of that.
This really does feel like the second coming of Palace Jailer to me in the sense that they both introduce a high risk / reward factor into the game, but their abilities and the fact that they're white (the best color to take / defend monarch) really hedge the odds in your favor.
The Initiative has proved to be such a strong keyword that I've added in both Seasoned Dungeoneer and Feywild Caretaker for extended testing... it's a really powerful mechanic.
Yeah I also added it. It was really cheap ($$-wise) and being splashable is always a plus. I won't be able to cube anytime soon though for actual testing.
Funny too how I was talking to friends who are almost strictly EDH players (I play zero EDH) about how the draw a land -> two +1/+1 counters -> dome them for 5 is pretty insane and they said that it's the crappy route in EDH, which is why it draws a card in the end. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Funny too how I was talking to friends who are almost strictly EDH players (I play zero EDH) about how the draw a land -> two +1/+1 counters -> dome them for 5 is pretty insane and they said that it's the crappy route in EDH, which is why it draws a card in the end. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Like monarch, initiative is much stronger in 1v1 than it is in multiplayer (especially EDH where you start with 40 life). Two +1/+1 counters and 5 damage isn't much when a table of 4 starts with a collective 160 life. Also have to factor in that there will be much more swapping of the initiative in multiplayer, and the myriad of infinite combos for more competitive playgroups, etc.
Yeah, card is nuts. Sample with white plum adventurer isn't high enough for me to be confident, but I think there's a (small) chance seasoned dungeoneer is the best initiative card period.
High damage output, reach (unblockable) AND value through removal is a deadly combination.
Seasoned dungeoneer without the initiative is so much closer to being worth it's mana cost than white plume adventurer is, that it might make up for being a more expensive way to get initiative.
They're both easily in the top 10 white cards in a powered cube and the top 10 white cards are MUCH better than the cards in the 10-20 range. It's a high pick.
Here's some data that I have from my 3-0 archive. This sample set is from the 51 drafts we've played this year since the release of NEO, and each card has been in at least 5 winning lists. Despite having been released later in the year, White Plume Adventurer / Seasoned Dungeoneer / Undermountain Adventurer have put up very respectable numbers. Shiny new toy syndrome aside, my playgroup quickly came to see how powerful they are. The top 3 initiative enablers already have shown up as much (or more) than Palace Jailer in the archives this year despite Palace Jailer having a pretty good head start over the CLB cards.
I also tested Caves of Chaos Adventurer, but that hasn't appeared in a 3-0 list yet. Good card from what I've seen at least, but I've already swapped it out to test some other things.
The initiative/undercity is a pretty powerful mechanic overall at first glance. With explore, this potentially swings as a 6/7 and follows that up with 7/8 attack and a Lava Axe. If you already have a Cleric/Rogue/Warrior/Wizard from turns 1-3, you can swing with protection immediately. You can also get the initiative back with this creature, if you lose it. Sure, the white 4-drop slot is pretty contested, but this might crack in if testing is promising. I might re-add some of the lower-drop Cleric/Rogue/Warrior/Wizards as well to help support this.
Tribal synergies to get an immediate trigger include:
Giver
Mother (mostly not though)
Usher
Hallowblade
Containment
Warner
Selfless
Spellbinder
White Plume
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This cards body/ability alone is easily worth 3+ mana, then add the initiative to it and you have a very powerful card.
Imo this is the second best initiative card.
The initiative is good in aggressive decks and the enablers have blink synergy, so white is the best at leveraging them both.
My only question with these cards is, how many are too many? How annoying/fun will frequent games revolving around the initiative be?
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I hate the dungeon mechanic with a passion so I'm probably skipping all initiative cards but IDK, maybe they prove to play incredibly well and I'll add them begrudgingly.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Being able to explore off other creatures with pretty common creature types is pretty strong. Having True-Name Nemesis draw lands / pump itself is especially powerful. A couple days ago I had a scenario where I was racing mono white aggro. I was at 3 life and was dead to their Cave of the Frost Dragon next turn since I didn't have any flying blockers in play, and I thought my only out was taking back monarch with TNN and drawing Occult Epiphany at my end step. I attacked with TNN and Seasoned Dungeoneer's explore trigger revealed Otawar, Soaring City, which conveniently is worded to be able to bounce manlands, so I was able to race off of that.
This really does feel like the second coming of Palace Jailer to me in the sense that they both introduce a high risk / reward factor into the game, but their abilities and the fact that they're white (the best color to take / defend monarch) really hedge the odds in your favor.
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Funny too how I was talking to friends who are almost strictly EDH players (I play zero EDH) about how the draw a land -> two +1/+1 counters -> dome them for 5 is pretty insane and they said that it's the crappy route in EDH, which is why it draws a card in the end. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Like monarch, initiative is much stronger in 1v1 than it is in multiplayer (especially EDH where you start with 40 life). Two +1/+1 counters and 5 damage isn't much when a table of 4 starts with a collective 160 life. Also have to factor in that there will be much more swapping of the initiative in multiplayer, and the myriad of infinite combos for more competitive playgroups, etc.
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High damage output, reach (unblockable) AND value through removal is a deadly combination.
Seasoned dungeoneer without the initiative is so much closer to being worth it's mana cost than white plume adventurer is, that it might make up for being a more expensive way to get initiative.
They're both easily in the top 10 white cards in a powered cube and the top 10 white cards are MUCH better than the cards in the 10-20 range. It's a high pick.
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I also tested Caves of Chaos Adventurer, but that hasn't appeared in a 3-0 list yet. Good card from what I've seen at least, but I've already swapped it out to test some other things.
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