It's a sidegrade to Journey to Nowhere, with the upside that it can hit planeswalkers, but the downside of a little risk of a land destruction blowout. Not fantastic, but removing any creature or planeswalker for the low cost of 1W is worth considering.
In cube decks you'll usually control a basic land. Unlike previous riffs on Journey to Nowhere, Ossification hasnorestrictions on the size of creature or planeswalker you can exile, so if you don't have a basic right away this effect is still great in the mid- or late game when you finally draw one. That said, there are situations where it could hurt to have Ossification be inactive because you kept a hand with only nonbasics, for instance on the draw against aggro.
It's a sidegrade to Journey to Nowhere, with the upside that it can hit planeswalkers, but the downside of a little risk of a land destruction blowout. Not fantastic, but removing any creature or planeswalker for the low cost of 1W is worth considering.
In cube decks you'll usually control a basic land. Unlike previous riffs on Journey to Nowhere, Ossification hasnorestrictions on the size of creature or planeswalker you can exile, so if you don't have a basic right away this effect is still great in the mid- or late game when you finally draw one. That said, there are situations where it could hurt to have Ossification be inactive because you kept a hand with only nonbasics, for instance on the draw against aggro.
dont forget your disenchant effects too meltingsho
Indeed. Disenchants are good against all enchantment and artifact based removal, so against Disenchants, Ossification has the same risk as Journey to Nowhere. I think a Disenchant effect giving a 1-for-1 with a removal spell is less backbreaking than a basic land destruction effect that gives a 1-for-2 where they both blow up your land and the enchantment falls off.
dont forget your disenchant effects too meltingsho
Indeed. Disenchants are good against all enchantment and artifact based removal, so against Disenchants, Ossification has the same risk as Journey to Nowhere. I think a Disenchant effect giving a 1-for-1 with a removal spell is less backbreaking than a basic land destruction effect that gives a 1-for-2 where they both blow up your land and the enchantment falls off.
true, it does suck to get 2 for 1'd, however, since Ossification has to attach to a basic land, you could look @ it as sort of a way to save your "cool" land from being destroyed b/c they want their card back...? i'm not arguing for the cards inclusion, just playing devils advocate
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I think I will test it. I like the little downgrade with the "basic land" requirement. Card that can eat planeswalker are necessary now with powercreep like Minsc & Boo. Plus I like the "theme / lore" of the card.
Yeah this is a pretty solid option, but I think there's a lot of competition in this space. I don't think I like this more than Fateful Absence / Soul Partition / Unexpectedly Absent / etc.
The thing is I'm really put off from the card disadvantage from Fateful Absence / Get Lost / Soul Partition etc. that I would run a maximum of 1 of those style of effects (maybe even 0).
I think this might be stronger than Fateful Absence/ Get Lost.
The thing is I'm really put off from the card disadvantage from Fateful Absence / Get Lost / Soul Partition etc. that I would run a maximum of 1 of those style of effects (maybe even 0).
I think this might be stronger than Fateful Absence/ Get Lost.
I personally prefer those over Ossification. Tempo is often more important than card advantage and is a bigger difference maker between a win and a loss in my experience. Being able to hit something in response to Minsc & Boo's ETB trigger, Kiki-Twin combo, or an Archon of Cruelty that was cheated in via Sneak Attack / Shallow Grave is huge. Instant speed is also huge if there's a heavy initiate / monarch presence where you want to use this offensively / defensively at all times.
This having to enchant a basic land you control can be a bummer of times.
Fateful Absence and Get Lost are multiples of times better than this card. Its not even in the same ballpark.
Every time I cast a Fateful Absence I feel I'm getting 3 for 1; The opponent gets a planeswalker activation or ETB (Card 1), I cast Fateful Absence to remove the planeswalker (Card 2) and they get a clue (Card 3).
The thing is I'm really put off from the card disadvantage from Fateful Absence / Get Lost / Soul Partition etc. that I would run a maximum of 1 of those style of effects (maybe even 0).
I'm actually at the opposite end of the spectrum where I only want one of the sorcery / enchantment removal spells (Planar Disruption), and want the rest to be the instant speed options.
Every time I cast a Fateful Absence I feel I'm getting 3 for 1; The opponent gets a planeswalker activation or ETB (Card 1), I cast Fateful Absence to remove the planeswalker (Card 2) and they get a clue (Card 3).
There's going to be a price for flexible removal at instant speed like this. You're going to be down a card regardless against any value threat, and your opponent will probably have a similar option which will even things out. I've found the loss of tempo with sorcery speed options to be a bigger hinderance than making my opponent tie up their mana in order to activate a clue / map or re-cast their threat. Being able to leave my mana open with instant speed options so that I can deploy threats or hold up another counter / removal on my own turn will generally has often put me in a much better position than using a sorcery speed option to limit card disadvantage. This is especially crucial if you have a good amount of monarch / initiative in your cube, where the difference of being able to take or defend monarch / initiative will be the deciding factor of the game.
As somebody who's been maxing out on all these types of effects in black / white / multicolored, I think it's a big net positive overall compared to the sorcery speed and / or 3-cmc options. They don't always feel great, but it's been a lot better overall due to the play patterns it gives you access to. They've been a lot better than the alternative options for me and feel like a necessary evil against today's power crept threats and battles over monarch / initiative. There's no looking back to things like sorcery speed options like Journey to Nowhere / Oblivion Ring / etc now that we have these 2-cmc instant speed options, IMO.
There's no denying that instant speed removal is absolutely necessary for dealing with the devastating combos found in cube. A clue token or a map token is hardly a noticeable drawback if you just halted kiki/twin or a reanimator threat or a sneak attack threat and so on. But, I have personally experienced that these drawbacks are actually very meaningful against aggro and midrange decks. If your cube leans more towards "fair" decks, then yes, absolutely play Ossification. But I would first include Planar Disruption, as well.
You might be able to convince me on Soul Partition as a 2nd white instant speed removal.
From my previous experience, Unsummon effects in tempo decks from my experience are 60% pointed and your opponent's stuff and 40% pointed at your own creatures.
But I feel the card disadvantage from this is just too steep.
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It's a sidegrade to Journey to Nowhere, with the upside that it can hit planeswalkers, but the downside of a little risk of a land destruction blowout. Not fantastic, but removing any creature or planeswalker for the low cost of 1W is worth considering.
In cube decks you'll usually control a basic land. Unlike previous riffs on Journey to Nowhere, Ossification has no restrictions on the size of creature or planeswalker you can exile, so if you don't have a basic right away this effect is still great in the mid- or late game when you finally draw one. That said, there are situations where it could hurt to have Ossification be inactive because you kept a hand with only nonbasics, for instance on the draw against aggro.
I was thinking that the land destruction risk was negligible because I don't run Strip Mine, but then I counted 7/540 cards in my cube that can remove a basic land: Armageddon, Flickerwisp, Cryptic Command, Acidic Slime, Primal Command, Woodfall Primus, and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
dont forget your disenchant effects too meltingsho
Indeed. Disenchants are good against all enchantment and artifact based removal, so against Disenchants, Ossification has the same risk as Journey to Nowhere. I think a Disenchant effect giving a 1-for-1 with a removal spell is less backbreaking than a basic land destruction effect that gives a 1-for-2 where they both blow up your land and the enchantment falls off.
true, it does suck to get 2 for 1'd, however, since Ossification has to attach to a basic land, you could look @ it as sort of a way to save your "cool" land from being destroyed b/c they want their card back...? i'm not arguing for the cards inclusion, just playing devils advocate
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1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
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It’s the best PW/creature removal in white available, but it’s downsides are numerous.
If you have a cube that’s high in walkers and creatures, but low in enchantment removal/LD, I could see this as a strong option.
Confident it falls short in my cube
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I think this might be stronger than Fateful Absence/ Get Lost.
I personally prefer those over Ossification. Tempo is often more important than card advantage and is a bigger difference maker between a win and a loss in my experience. Being able to hit something in response to Minsc & Boo's ETB trigger, Kiki-Twin combo, or an Archon of Cruelty that was cheated in via Sneak Attack / Shallow Grave is huge. Instant speed is also huge if there's a heavy initiate / monarch presence where you want to use this offensively / defensively at all times.
This having to enchant a basic land you control can be a bummer of times.
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Every time I cast a Fateful Absence I feel I'm getting 3 for 1; The opponent gets a planeswalker activation or ETB (Card 1), I cast Fateful Absence to remove the planeswalker (Card 2) and they get a clue (Card 3).
I'm actually at the opposite end of the spectrum where I only want one of the sorcery / enchantment removal spells (Planar Disruption), and want the rest to be the instant speed options.
There's going to be a price for flexible removal at instant speed like this. You're going to be down a card regardless against any value threat, and your opponent will probably have a similar option which will even things out. I've found the loss of tempo with sorcery speed options to be a bigger hinderance than making my opponent tie up their mana in order to activate a clue / map or re-cast their threat. Being able to leave my mana open with instant speed options so that I can deploy threats or hold up another counter / removal on my own turn will generally has often put me in a much better position than using a sorcery speed option to limit card disadvantage. This is especially crucial if you have a good amount of monarch / initiative in your cube, where the difference of being able to take or defend monarch / initiative will be the deciding factor of the game.
As somebody who's been maxing out on all these types of effects in black / white / multicolored, I think it's a big net positive overall compared to the sorcery speed and / or 3-cmc options. They don't always feel great, but it's been a lot better overall due to the play patterns it gives you access to. They've been a lot better than the alternative options for me and feel like a necessary evil against today's power crept threats and battles over monarch / initiative. There's no looking back to things like sorcery speed options like Journey to Nowhere / Oblivion Ring / etc now that we have these 2-cmc instant speed options, IMO.
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From my previous experience, Unsummon effects in tempo decks from my experience are 60% pointed and your opponent's stuff and 40% pointed at your own creatures.
But I feel the card disadvantage from this is just too steep.