This is a flexible ramp payoff AND potential enabler with its death trigger. I feel like ramp strategies really need this kind of flexibility. This having keyword soup of vigilance / trample / haste gives it a decent Questing Beast impersonation and can contest monarch / initiative very well. Also not a bad Channel payoff or infinite mana outlet for Worldgorger Dragon. I'll definitely be testing this out, I really like the flexibility for a lot of archetypes I've been trying to bolster.
I think this is incredible. If you play it early, they have to be very wary with letting it die, as you might just drop a 6/7-drop way ahead of curve. If you play it late, well, it's just going to bash their head in. This looks like the best (mono-)green X-creature by far, and I'm currently running multiple of those.
Definitely excited about this one! One of the hard things I always have with trying to find potential cuts for X spells is deciding what point on the curve to find a cut from, but this definitely is one that will make it into the cube for me.
I'm always hesitant with these X creatures as they always end up being a lot worse in practice since they're always behind on curve, no matter when you play it.
It does have the option of being a good top deck with haste and vigilance and has the treasure tokens on death (for next turn) but I'm not sold on this card.
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I'm not as high on this card as most folks are here, but I do think it's a solid midrange threat that's scary for the opponent to kill because of the sprouting treasures. I'll likely test it, but I'm unsure if it'll wind up sticking around.
I'm not as high on this card as most folks are here, but I do think it's a solid midrange threat that's scary for the opponent to kill because of the sprouting treasures. I'll likely test it, but I'm unsure if it'll wind up sticking around.
This is much more than a midrange card since it's a ramp payoff and enabler for Rofellos / Channel / Natural Order deck. Playing this as a 2/2 - 3/3 makes this a scary rattle snake that your opponent might not want to kill, and it's a legitimate threat by itself as a 4/4 or higher. This does everything green wants to be doing and adds a lot more variety than something like Ulvenwald Oddity.
I hope so, it just feels like it'll be low impact as a 3-mana 2/2. But maybe not. I'm hoping it plays well. It feels like it will be a scary 5-mana card in midrange ramp decks though, where the opponent has to fear an Ugin or Ulamog if they kill it, but can't afford to ignore it either. But it's not a great rate for aggro, and it's not s good card to cheat into play, so it feels like a midrange card, which is what I meant by midrange card.
Very interested in this one, honestly I keep waffling over whether I love it or don't (spoiler season does that a lot) but I think I'll give it a fair try.
Having vigilance does help, you can wantonly attack and even if the other people takes the hit to avoid giving you treasure, you can still block with it.
Looks like a fine card, will probably get pretty huge in the typical game. For cubes with any kind of +1/+1 counter theme it should be good enough to run.
I like the card but I'm not interested in cubing it. It's behind the curve at any point and a lot of decks won't particularly benefit from the treasures left behind if it dies. It will likely be great as a threat in decks planning to ramp into silly expensive 9+ mana high end threats.
I plan to test this one. Shivan Devastator and Mawloc haven't really disappointed me and this guy gives me a good feeling. Treasure tokens are just icing. Maybe I'm wrong but I expect he'll do fine.
I'm putting this in my cube. I think given the state of green, which is, for me, the weakest color by a considerable margin, this is a good card. It is flexible, easy to splash, goes into any green deck, and the abilities Vigilance, Haste, and Trample are very good for fighting Monarch/Initiative. The treasure tokens are not completely irrelevant; however, being tapped and only when the creature dies is somewhat fringe. But what really sold me on the card was how bad green is right now in my cube and how good this is at fighting initiative and monarch.
Also, don't really agree with the 'always behind curve' argument since green and powered cubes in general have a lot of ways to ramp, it's better to have a card that impacts the board and forget about that argument IMO.
Goldvein Hydra is not a "good stuff" card, it is a synergy card.
I see this as a powerful (playable) green fireball type effect.
You want to pair this with Gaea's cradle, basalt monolith infinite combo, channel, tolarian academy, rofellos, berserk, 5 mana nissa, mana vault, sac outlets etc.
A big problem with green ramp is the amount of mana it can produce is wildly inconsistent. If you get your (vulnerable) mana elves killed, you will often be stuck at 3-4 mana. If you draw a bunch of elves and they live, you might be able to produce 6-8 mana easily. If you draw cradle, you might be able to produce 12 mana.
An X spell that can serve as utility at cheaper CMC's and a game winniner at higher CMC's works very well with green's strengths and weaknesses.
This can work defense AND offense AND steals/protect monarch/initiative AND bridges into some of your more expensive spells if it dies.
Yes it's behind curve at every step of the way (like every X spell), but the modality is worth it IMO.
I plan to test this one. Shivan Devastator and Mawloc haven't really disappointed me and this guy gives me a good feeling. Treasure tokens are just icing. Maybe I'm wrong but I expect he'll do fine.
If you like Shivan Devastator, I'd imagine you'll like this even more. X spells are best in green, and vigilance + trample + the death trigger more than makes up for the lack of flying.
Yes it's behind curve at every step of the way (like every X spell), but the modality is worth it IMO.
Yeah, complaining about an X spell being behind on curve seems weird to me since that's basically every X spell not named Pest Infestation / Mawloc. This card more than anything helps patch green ramp's issue of either flooding out or drawing all their big spells since this can contribute to either being a big mana payoff or potentially help casting your other threats. All while being able to impact the board and help contest monarch / initiative at any point in the game. Big ramp can be very glass cannon-ish. Goldvein Hydra + Smuggler's Surprise are huge at patching up green's weakness of being very vulnerable to flood / screw.
Goldvein Hydra is not a "good stuff" card, it is a synergy card.
I see this as a powerful (playable) green fireball type effect.
You want to pair this with Gaea's cradle, basalt monolith infinite combo, channel, tolarian academy, rofellos, berserk, 5 mana nissa, mana vault, sac outlets etc.
A big problem with green ramp is the amount of mana it can produce is wildly inconsistent. If you get your (vulnerable) mana elves killed, you will often be stuck at 3-4 mana. If you draw a bunch of elves and they live, you might be able to produce 6-8 mana easily. If you draw cradle, you might be able to produce 12 mana.
An X spell that can serve as utility at cheaper CMC's and a game winniner at higher CMC's works very well with green's strengths and weaknesses.
Agree with this 100%. A card that's both a ramp enabler and a ramp payoff is super valuable. Outside of those decks, I think it's pretty middling.
Almost a year later, how has this card been for people? It hasn't seen a lot of play in my group (but our overall Cube drafts is down significantly over the last year).
This is a flexible ramp payoff AND potential enabler with its death trigger. I feel like ramp strategies really need this kind of flexibility. This having keyword soup of vigilance / trample / haste gives it a decent Questing Beast impersonation and can contest monarch / initiative very well. Also not a bad Channel payoff or infinite mana outlet for Worldgorger Dragon. I'll definitely be testing this out, I really like the flexibility for a lot of archetypes I've been trying to bolster.
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Does everything you want in a green card
Defense, offense, mana sink, protection.
Not a high pick, but an auto-include I think.
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It does have the option of being a good top deck with haste and vigilance and has the treasure tokens on death (for next turn) but I'm not sold on this card.
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This is much more than a midrange card since it's a ramp payoff and enabler for Rofellos / Channel / Natural Order deck. Playing this as a 2/2 - 3/3 makes this a scary rattle snake that your opponent might not want to kill, and it's a legitimate threat by itself as a 4/4 or higher. This does everything green wants to be doing and adds a lot more variety than something like Ulvenwald Oddity.
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Looks like a fine card, will probably get pretty huge in the typical game. For cubes with any kind of +1/+1 counter theme it should be good enough to run.
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Also, don't really agree with the 'always behind curve' argument since green and powered cubes in general have a lot of ways to ramp, it's better to have a card that impacts the board and forget about that argument IMO.
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Goldvein Hydra is not a "good stuff" card, it is a synergy card.
I see this as a powerful (playable) green fireball type effect.
You want to pair this with Gaea's cradle, basalt monolith infinite combo, channel, tolarian academy, rofellos, berserk, 5 mana nissa, mana vault, sac outlets etc.
A big problem with green ramp is the amount of mana it can produce is wildly inconsistent. If you get your (vulnerable) mana elves killed, you will often be stuck at 3-4 mana. If you draw a bunch of elves and they live, you might be able to produce 6-8 mana easily. If you draw cradle, you might be able to produce 12 mana.
An X spell that can serve as utility at cheaper CMC's and a game winniner at higher CMC's works very well with green's strengths and weaknesses.
This can work defense AND offense AND steals/protect monarch/initiative AND bridges into some of your more expensive spells if it dies.
Yes it's behind curve at every step of the way (like every X spell), but the modality is worth it IMO.
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If you like Shivan Devastator, I'd imagine you'll like this even more. X spells are best in green, and vigilance + trample + the death trigger more than makes up for the lack of flying.
Yeah, complaining about an X spell being behind on curve seems weird to me since that's basically every X spell not named Pest Infestation / Mawloc. This card more than anything helps patch green ramp's issue of either flooding out or drawing all their big spells since this can contribute to either being a big mana payoff or potentially help casting your other threats. All while being able to impact the board and help contest monarch / initiative at any point in the game. Big ramp can be very glass cannon-ish. Goldvein Hydra + Smuggler's Surprise are huge at patching up green's weakness of being very vulnerable to flood / screw.
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Agree with this 100%. A card that's both a ramp enabler and a ramp payoff is super valuable. Outside of those decks, I think it's pretty middling.
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