Sorcery speed Fatal Push / Eliminate hybrid with a 4-cmc sorcery speed Hero's Downfall variant. Sorcery speed makes me sad, but the flexibility is really nice. Competes well with Fatal Push / Eliminate depending on the composition of your cube. My gut reaction for my cube thinks Eliminate > Bloodchief's Thirst >= Fatal Push. This is probably a good replacement for 4-cmc Hero's Downfall variants like Vraska's Contempt / Eat to Extinction, or even some of the 3-cmc sorcery variants like Ruinous Path or Never // Return.
The inclusion here is probably just a function of curve. My cube has quite the high density of cheap aggressive creatures, so I'll try this out. But if your curves are a bit more chonky where the 1cmc mode isn't impactful often enough, then it's reasonable to pass.
It's so nice to have something that can take care of early threats like your Goblin Guides and such, that isn't a sideboard-only card for other matchup. Compared to Burst Lightning this is very solid. Flavortext is bad?
That said it has a lot to do with how I build my cube. There are always a couple fast aggro decks where the one mana mode is great. And I also hevily support fatty cheaty things where you need eliminate and push are blanks. I also like to make my cube hostile to walkers.
I like that it is a good effect both against aggro and against control. Expensive spot removals are bad against aggro, but the one mana mode of Thirst is fantastic there. Fatal Push has too few targets against control, but they probably pack many expensive creatures and walkers to make a watered-down Vraska's Contempt solid. Against midrange decks it can kill mana elves early and ramp targets late.
I don't run Wren and Six as lands matter strategies didn't work for my cube. Simic Nissa is a good catch though! I think this needed to be instant speed to get there, but I will test this. Even with the double black in the kicked cost, and sorcery speed, the flexibility pushes this over Vraska's Contempt or Eat to Extinction.
Revised this because I've warmed up some to the card - enough to test.
I think this spell is quite good. For control decks on the draw, it's good in the early game against aggro beaters and mana dorks, and it's never dead. It kills Wrenn and Six and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy as a 1cc spell, and also kills a slew of other creatures as well. I think this will be a good removal spell, and I'll be playing it in my cube.
While sorcery speed sucks, the degree to which it's worse than instant speed is a function of it's total CMC.
As a 1 mana spell, I don't think it makes as much of a difference as is intuitive.
Being able to answer an elf/jackal pup on curve at mana parity is big game. Compared to a disfigure or fatal push, having the option to kill a planeswalker from decks that are creature light is a huge deal relative to a dead card.
I think this might be a staple and would probably run it along side fatal push.. looking to cut one of the hero downfall type effects instead.
This card seems solid. A one-mana spell that fights against aggro early on but is still relevant in the late-game seems like the kind of card I'd want to have in my deck. I might just cut Eliminate for it, even though Eliminate just got printed. Not sure which removal spell is the right cut here.
This is awesome, and I like it much more than the generic 2-mana creature kill spells. Sure I wish it were instant, but that would be seriously pushing it. It still accomplishes what you need it to on the draw which is primarily what makes the 1-mana removal spells valuable. The fact that this is both turn 1 aggro/dork insurance AND lategame planeswalker removal is just incredible.
This seems better than Fatal Push to me. The option of unconditional removal is far from nothing, and 2BB is not a bad price. Hitting planeswalkers is also pretty crucial. Seems sweet. Certainly one of the better one-mana options at larger size at least.
Sorcery speed Fatal Push / Eliminate hybrid with a 4-cmc sorcery speed Hero's Downfall variant. Sorcery speed makes me sad, but the flexibility is really nice. Competes well with Fatal Push / Eliminate depending on the composition of your cube. My gut reaction for my cube thinks Eliminate > Bloodchief's Thirst >= Fatal Push. This is probably a good replacement for 4-cmc Hero's Downfall variants like Vraska's Contempt / Eat to Extinction, or even some of the 3-cmc sorcery variants like Ruinous Path or Never // Return.
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That said it has a lot to do with how I build my cube. There are always a couple fast aggro decks where the one mana mode is great. And I also hevily support fatty cheaty things where you need eliminate and push are blanks. I also like to make my cube hostile to walkers.
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Revised this because I've warmed up some to the card - enough to test.
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As a 1 mana spell, I don't think it makes as much of a difference as is intuitive.
Being able to answer an elf/jackal pup on curve at mana parity is big game. Compared to a disfigure or fatal push, having the option to kill a planeswalker from decks that are creature light is a huge deal relative to a dead card.
I think this might be a staple and would probably run it along side fatal push.. looking to cut one of the hero downfall type effects instead.
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In constructed, of course, this is significantly worse than Fatal Push.
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