Blue's take on Young Pyromancer / Monastery Mentor / Sedgemoor Witch. Having 3 toughness is nice on defense, and being transforming into what's essentially a token anthem can be big game with a lot of token generators, not to mention turning off your zombie token's decay.
The closest blue equivalents to this are probably Nadir Kraken and uhh, Whirler Rogue I guess as a token generator. Might be worth testing if you're playing one of those already.
Another really solid card. I'm not looking forward to transforming him, but OMG is this good.
The only downside is blue 3 CMC is stacked ..
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I was so excited about this card until I learned that "decayed" means that the token's can't block and need to be sacrificed if they attack. Now I think it's cool, but I'm probably going to pass on it.
Another really solid card. I'm not looking forward to transforming him, but OMG is this good.
The only downside is blue 3 CMC is stacked ..
I like it a lot more than Tarland. Being cheaper and having a key 3rd toughness is huge, not to mention that it's a better late game top deck when you already got some tokens lying around.
The tokens not blocking is pretty massive. Part of what makes Young Pyro and Sedgemore so good is that each spell is increasing your defense while giving you value. This is much more a purely offensive card. Talrand is probably worse because 4 is a ton of mana. When you have two of these cards this one becomes good but I think it's much worse than MMentor, YP, or the witch without another token maker.
To be fair, the tokens needing to block is a lot more important when the main body is an abysmal creature in combat. This body being a 2/3 makes it a solid blocker on its own, so not having the tokens block doesn't hurt on this cards as much as that clause would on any of the other cards of its kind. Plus the transform ability at least partially mitigates the issue, since they can block when this flips into the Factory.
I like how this dodges sweepers in Factory mode. Make dudes, flip over, and if the opponent answers your group of 3/3 creatures, you flip this back and rebuild your army. Looks like a fun play pattern to me.
Good card, but I'm not convinced on it's inclusion.
I'd be tempted to not attack at all with the zombies unless you are able to flip it, otherwise the output seems too inconsequential. Gives the opponent some time to answer him. Also, not great on the backfoot.
Unless it's exactly UR, decks with a lot of instants or sorceries aren't super aggressive, so doing a fixed 4-6 points of damage might not matter.
Where he could outperform my estimation is in decks with other token producers. Maybe he's secretly excellent in a UG or WU deck with a fair number of token producers, even without going all in on instants/sorceries.
I'm gonna call it a bust, but a low confidence prediction. Card looks fun.
To be fair, the tokens needing to block is a lot more important when the main body is an abysmal creature in combat. This body being a 2/3 makes it a solid blocker on its own, so not having the tokens block doesn't hurt on this cards as much as that clause would on any of the other cards of its kind. Plus the transform ability at least partially mitigates the issue, since they can block when this flips into the Factory.
I like how this dodges sweepers in Factory mode. Make dudes, flip over, and if the opponent answers your group of 3/3 creatures, you flip this back and rebuild your army. Looks like a fun play pattern to me.
I agree with this take. Decks with mass removal sometimes hesitate to run token enablers like Mentor and Pyro, but this card can enable plays like: flip at upkeep -> wrath -> flip on next upkeep -> generate more.
I also like that it synergizes with other types of tokens, even though it takes away their abilities. Switching between 1/1 Thopters and 3/3 zombies is relevant, especially since you can do it pretty often. If I recall correctly, putting ability counters on tokens before transforming them this way still lets them have their abilities.
Don't forget that there is more utility to tokens than only blocking! Sac outlets love them, i.e. Yawgmoth or Bombardment, and they are still brutal with Opposition.
I was so excited about this card until I learned that "decayed" means that the token's can't block and need to be sacrificed if they attack. Now I think it's cool, but I'm probably going to pass on it.
Oh i completely missed that. Yah that might be way too steep of a drawback - Which I am happy because having to make room for a 3 CMC blue creature seems like a really tall order.
The other thing is this feels too much like a "drafting on rails card" where it is primarily good in spells matters. If it was non-creature spells, i might be more interested.
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Don't forget that there is more utility to tokens than only blocking! Sac outlets love them, i.e. Yawgmoth or Bombardment, and they are still brutal with Opposition.
Sacrifice decks don't play that many instants/ sorceries.
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Blue's take on Young Pyromancer / Monastery Mentor / Sedgemoor Witch. Having 3 toughness is nice on defense, and being transforming into what's essentially a token anthem can be big game with a lot of token generators, not to mention turning off your zombie token's decay.
The closest blue equivalents to this are probably Nadir Kraken and uhh, Whirler Rogue I guess as a token generator. Might be worth testing if you're playing one of those already.
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The only downside is blue 3 CMC is stacked ..
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I like it a lot more than Tarland. Being cheaper and having a key 3rd toughness is huge, not to mention that it's a better late game top deck when you already got some tokens lying around.
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I like how this dodges sweepers in Factory mode. Make dudes, flip over, and if the opponent answers your group of 3/3 creatures, you flip this back and rebuild your army. Looks like a fun play pattern to me.
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I'd be tempted to not attack at all with the zombies unless you are able to flip it, otherwise the output seems too inconsequential. Gives the opponent some time to answer him. Also, not great on the backfoot.
Unless it's exactly UR, decks with a lot of instants or sorceries aren't super aggressive, so doing a fixed 4-6 points of damage might not matter.
Where he could outperform my estimation is in decks with other token producers. Maybe he's secretly excellent in a UG or WU deck with a fair number of token producers, even without going all in on instants/sorceries.
I'm gonna call it a bust, but a low confidence prediction. Card looks fun.
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I agree with this take. Decks with mass removal sometimes hesitate to run token enablers like Mentor and Pyro, but this card can enable plays like: flip at upkeep -> wrath -> flip on next upkeep -> generate more.
I also like that it synergizes with other types of tokens, even though it takes away their abilities. Switching between 1/1 Thopters and 3/3 zombies is relevant, especially since you can do it pretty often. If I recall correctly, putting ability counters on tokens before transforming them this way still lets them have their abilities.
Don't forget that there is more utility to tokens than only blocking! Sac outlets love them, i.e. Yawgmoth or Bombardment, and they are still brutal with Opposition.
Oh i completely missed that. Yah that might be way too steep of a drawback - Which I am happy because having to make room for a 3 CMC blue creature seems like a really tall order.
The other thing is this feels too much like a "drafting on rails card" where it is primarily good in spells matters. If it was non-creature spells, i might be more interested.
Sacrifice decks don't play that many instants/ sorceries.
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