For those with Vintage cubes, this is some serious power. Absurd Tinker and Show and Tell target. Works great with Goblin Welder. Also Eureka for those who still play it. THoughts?
Not working with Reanimator / Sneak Attack / Oath of Druids is a huge bust for me. Also not a great Channel hit early game and can be very matchup dependent.
Hard to evaluate, but I think Steve Man is probably right. These top end targets are better if it's something like Sundering Titan that also work well in the Sneak Attack an reanimator decks.
I have been on the lookout for a big non-creature artifact for afew years, so I will proabaly try this out.
I have tinker, Daretti and the goblin welders along side other artifact support so it should be do-able.
The sac 3 ETB is pretty brutal and will be close to a 1 sided board wipe against alot of decks. The downside is there will be times where you cheat it out turn 3 and get very little value from it.
I also feel that I'm frequently lacking Tinker/ Dareti/ Welder targets, which Portal to Phyrexia could play an incredibly important role.
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I'll probably throw this as a test in my next test update. I've been doing a combination of curbing aggression (thanks initiative!) and throwing more cheaty face targets in, and this does both. Being able to potentially stop creature attacks and steal their initiative in a turn cycle is something I can really use right now.
I feel in love with this card during Brother's War Prerelease and it has never disappointed me ... I got to cast it a total of 7 times between 2 drafts and 1 prerelease and it was an absolute bomb.
It fantastic with Show and Tell/ Tinker/ Ramp/ Eureka/ Daretti, Scrap Savant / Dictate of Karametra / Channel. This isn't one of those cards for commander players, this card is absolutely the real deal and is absolutely backbreaking.
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Portal to Phyrexia has been pretty strong in my testing. I've always hated how Tinker never had the removal utility options that Natural Order has (Woodfall Primus / Terastodon / Dragonlord Atarka), and this is very strong at stabilizing the board. While powerful, this still does have some glaring flaws like being vulnerable to any Shatter / Disenchant effect feels bad (but you should be up ahead as long as your opponent was able to sacrifice some creatures), and not being a creature means it's incompatible with Oath of Druids / Sneak Attack / most reanimation spells. I think it's worth it for people to test if they can make a cut for it.
I also have some pretty funny bad beats story being on the wrong end of Portal to Phyrexia.
- I had Wheel / Hullbreacher combo against a heavy artifact ramp deck that just put out double talisman / Basalt Monolith before getting Wheeled. I drew into a bunch of duds and cycled my Miscalculation since it was pretty useless at this point, but then my opponent hardcast Portal to Phyrexia and grinded out the win.
- Last night I was up against a UG Channel / Eureka deck in game 3 of the semi finals. I had a Hexdrinker eating away at my opponent and decided to Mind Twist them for 2 and was able to hit an Ulamog. I could've waited a turn to Mind Twist away their entire hand, but I had Aether Channeler + Dress Down in my hand, so I figured it was best to disrupt them and push the tempo with Hexdrinker. My opponent eventually finds Eureka. He puts down Sundering Titan, I put in Dress Down, but then he threw down Portal to Phyrexia. At this point I couldn't use Aether Channeler to bounce the Portal because of my own Dress Down, lol, and I ultimately lost because although I could deal with both Portal and Sundering Titan (I eventually drew Kolaghan's Command), I'd literally be left with just one land in play and no creatures.
[Portal] was super underwhelming in testing. Cheating it out early had so little impact w/ Tinker/Show/Etc. I ended up being in a better spot just cheating out a card that was threatening on its own instead. It's probably insane in EDH where it gets cast in the mid/late game and wrecks the boards for multiple players and always has targets to return, but in the cube, I need to be cheating out cards that are good in all matchups/situations, and I definitely need cards that are threats themselves.
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I think I have enough great artifact targets for tinker/welder that I’d rather use creatures that can overlap with the other cheaty strategies.
I wouldn’t fault people for playing it though, it’s quite strong.
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I have tinker, Daretti and the goblin welders along side other artifact support so it should be do-able.
The sac 3 ETB is pretty brutal and will be close to a 1 sided board wipe against alot of decks. The downside is there will be times where you cheat it out turn 3 and get very little value from it.
It has a lot of positive interactions with this list of targets, which makes it a lot less narrow that it seems:
- Channel
- Show and Tell
- Eurkea
- Gilded Lotus
- Mishra's Workshop
- Daretti
- Goblin Welder
- Tinker
- Thran Dynamoo
I also feel that I'm frequently lacking Tinker/ Dareti/ Welder targets, which Portal to Phyrexia could play an incredibly important role.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
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It fantastic with Show and Tell/ Tinker/ Ramp/ Eureka/ Daretti, Scrap Savant / Dictate of Karametra / Channel. This isn't one of those cards for commander players, this card is absolutely the real deal and is absolutely backbreaking.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
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StaffI also have some pretty funny bad beats story being on the wrong end of Portal to Phyrexia.
- I had Wheel / Hullbreacher combo against a heavy artifact ramp deck that just put out double talisman / Basalt Monolith before getting Wheeled. I drew into a bunch of duds and cycled my Miscalculation since it was pretty useless at this point, but then my opponent hardcast Portal to Phyrexia and grinded out the win.
- Last night I was up against a UG Channel / Eureka deck in game 3 of the semi finals. I had a Hexdrinker eating away at my opponent and decided to Mind Twist them for 2 and was able to hit an Ulamog. I could've waited a turn to Mind Twist away their entire hand, but I had Aether Channeler + Dress Down in my hand, so I figured it was best to disrupt them and push the tempo with Hexdrinker. My opponent eventually finds Eureka. He puts down Sundering Titan, I put in Dress Down, but then he threw down Portal to Phyrexia. At this point I couldn't use Aether Channeler to bounce the Portal because of my own Dress Down, lol, and I ultimately lost because although I could deal with both Portal and Sundering Titan (I eventually drew Kolaghan's Command), I'd literally be left with just one land in play and no creatures.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
[Portal] was super underwhelming in testing. Cheating it out early had so little impact w/ Tinker/Show/Etc. I ended up being in a better spot just cheating out a card that was threatening on its own instead. It's probably insane in EDH where it gets cast in the mid/late game and wrecks the boards for multiple players and always has targets to return, but in the cube, I need to be cheating out cards that are good in all matchups/situations, and I definitely need cards that are threats themselves.
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