Power crept Nantuko Shade. Square stats, clean mana costs, and random static ability is a great place to start. This reminds me a lot of Knight of the Ebon Legion in the sense that you pay 3 mana to give it +3/+3, although with this it can be paid one mana at a time. Seems like a decent contender for black aggro, especially with how not color intensive it is.
Am I crazy to think this card is great?
I have a soft spot in my heart for shades so I'm suuper bias, can't trust myeslf.
The exile ability seems powerful for a 2 drop (I've played a LOT with kalitas, and that text box is part of the card's strength).
Being 1B and 1 colorless to pump means it's totally playable with black being a secondary color.
As an early game threat, it threatens blockers well and as a mid-game top deck it's a legitimate threat.
Nantuko shade has been unplayable for a while, but this has 3! noteable upgrades from it.
A late pick, but something I think could see making a lot of agro/midrange decks.
Yeah, I dig this. Shade cards have always been strong, since they are functionally unblockable in some board stages, and must-block on other board states as you can always threaten a huge swing. Having to invest so much black mana has always been an issue, but that is resolved here, making this also a perfect mana sink for aggro in the late game. Definitely finding a spot for it.
I think the ability is more than flavour text too, it shuts down a few synergies.
Shade is annoying because it require black mana to pump. This card solve that problem. I think it could be great bomb in limited which can translate well to cube.
My experience with cards like this is its always the threat of the activation than the activation itself that is more worth while.
However, I am a bit skeptical as 2 Drops have become very good and competition is very steep over the years.
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I'm middle on this card... it's an graveyard hate bear with more stuff is always good. Though on curve, don't you want spend you mana playing bigger and stronger spells/creatures? Does this fare well against opposing decks casting bigger spells when you have to pump mana into it? in the late game, does this takeover the board? I don't believe that's true in my cube at least - maybe my bias on immediate value...
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StaffPower crept Nantuko Shade. Square stats, clean mana costs, and random static ability is a great place to start. This reminds me a lot of Knight of the Ebon Legion in the sense that you pay 3 mana to give it +3/+3, although with this it can be paid one mana at a time. Seems like a decent contender for black aggro, especially with how not color intensive it is.
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I have a soft spot in my heart for shades so I'm suuper bias, can't trust myeslf.
The exile ability seems powerful for a 2 drop (I've played a LOT with kalitas, and that text box is part of the card's strength).
Being 1B and 1 colorless to pump means it's totally playable with black being a secondary color.
As an early game threat, it threatens blockers well and as a mid-game top deck it's a legitimate threat.
Nantuko shade has been unplayable for a while, but this has 3! noteable upgrades from it.
A late pick, but something I think could see making a lot of agro/midrange decks.
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I think the ability is more than flavour text too, it shuts down a few synergies.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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However, I am a bit skeptical as 2 Drops have become very good and competition is very steep over the years.
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
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
While I think all my concerns with mana sinks in cube apply here, it's so efficient I think I have to test this.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
360 Uncommons only Cube!