Seems like an insane card in any deck that can turn card advantage into a fast win, or sacrifice/bounce artifacts under your own control.
You can activate as soon as you play it, but only lose life at the beginning of your upkeep. This gives us a play pattern of:
Play The One Ring, gain protection from everything, activate to draw a card
Lose 1 life in upkeep, activate The One Ring, draw two cards
Lose 2 life in upkeep, activate The One Ring, draw three cards
If the game ends at this point, the card has been insane: you've paid 3 life to gain protection from everything for a turn and draw SIX cards for four mana.
Other than ending the game, this card is absolutely busted if you can sacrifice/bounce/blink it. You pay 4 mana to gain protection from everything for a turn, draw 3 cards and lose 1 life. Some cards that can do this:
Any removal spell that hits any player's artifacts. Not going to list all of these
Not only are there a massive number of cubeable cards that can negate the drawback of this card, the insane amount of cards it lets you draw makes it easy to find your synergy piece. It's probably hard to find a deck that doesn't want this.
Yeah giving you protection from everything is huge. Normally the big problem with 4-drop spells that don't impact the board is that you can just die before you get the benefits. Not here. You are essentially guaranteed to untap with this (although your opponent can still interact with your board, unlike with something like Teferi's Protection), and you will be up 3 cards and down only 1 life. That's pretty good. Feels like this will require testing.
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Side note there is a decent combo:
Aether Channeler + Crystal Shard + Ring, gives you infinite protection from everything except for instant speed interactions
Coercive Portal doesn't even begin to compare to this. I'd like this over Portal even if it didn't have the words "protection from everything" and "indestructible" on it, but those are very real and very inpactful words.
This is very monarch / initiative to me, except the drawbacks are much more severe and harder to mitigate. For me to want to play this, I'd need to be all in on Mishra's Workshop and Goblin Welder / Emry type cards, or have a very robust life gain theme. This is also a very strong option if you support Time Vault combo since this works extremely well with anything that can untap it like Voltaic Key variants / Ral Zarek / Tezzeret the Seeker / etc.
On one hand, this draws 3 cards by the time Coercive Portal draws you 1 card. On the other hand, Coercive Portal doesn't kill you... For my environment, I like this more than Coercive Portal as a high risk / high reward payoff. Coercive Portal doesn't get there on power level for me, but this does. It's just a matter of mitigating the drawback. Right now my cube really isn't equipped to mitigate the drawback of this other than just playing it in a suicide aggro / burn deck.
I think it’s infinitely more interesting than coercive portal, but maybe not a better cube card. I strongly disagree that many decks will want this card, but in the few that do , it seems real good.
This card is legit bad in grindy decks that don’t have many ways to remove it. The life loss adds up reallll quick if you plan to draw cards with it, so you better either win the game or remove it within a few turns.
draw effects that lose life are always worse than they look (draw effects that gain life are better than they look).
gaining protection for a turn is a real big upside over any other 4 mana do nothing card.
I’d have to see how easy it is to bounce/sacrifice before I test it, but at first glance it looks promising.
The upside is definitely there.
On the other hand, Coercive Portal doesn't kill you.
I have on disagree on that. There's lots of times coercive portal will kill you and you can't cast it because you can't take a turn off to spend 4 mana and not impact the board cause you'll die to attackers.
On the other hand, Coercive Portal doesn't kill you.
I have on disagree on that. There's lots of times coercive portal will kill you and you can't cast it because you can't take a turn off to spend 4 mana and not impact the board cause you'll die to attackers.
Coercive Portal isn't killing you in this scenario, your opponent is. Coercive Portal not being able to fend off your opponent from alpha striking you doesn't equate to Coercive Portal killing you.
Isn’t the average game of magic that isn’t cube like 8 turns? This draws 3 and makes you not die for a turn the turn it comes down for 4. I think it’s underrated here.
I think it’s infinitely more interesting than coercive portal, but maybe not a better cube card. I strongly disagree that many decks will want this card, but in the few that do , it seems real good.
This card is legit bad in grindy decks that don’t have many ways to remove it. The life loss adds up reallll quick if you plan to draw cards with it, so you better either win the game or remove it within a few turns.
draw effects that lose life are always worse than they look (draw effects that gain life are better than they look).
gaining protection for a turn is a real big upside over any other 4 mana do nothing card.
I’d have to see how easy it is to bounce/sacrifice before I test it, but at first glance it looks promising.
The upside is definitely there.
I thought about this and if your deck has a way to sacrifice/ bounce or donate it, then its likely fairly easy to see it after 3 turns as you'll draw 6 cards + 3 in your natural draw.
However, my expertise is more with aggro/ tempo/ combo decks. I'm not as in tune with midrange strageties.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Seems like an insane card in any deck that can turn card advantage into a fast win, or sacrifice/bounce artifacts under your own control.
You can activate as soon as you play it, but only lose life at the beginning of your upkeep. This gives us a play pattern of:
- Play The One Ring, gain protection from everything, activate to draw a card
- Lose 1 life in upkeep, activate The One Ring, draw two cards
- Lose 2 life in upkeep, activate The One Ring, draw three cards
If the game ends at this point, the card has been insane: you've paid 3 life to gain protection from everything for a turn and draw SIX cards for four mana.Other than ending the game, this card is absolutely busted if you can sacrifice/bounce/blink it. You pay 4 mana to gain protection from everything for a turn, draw 3 cards and lose 1 life. Some cards that can do this:
Not only are there a massive number of cubeable cards that can negate the drawback of this card, the insane amount of cards it lets you draw makes it easy to find your synergy piece. It's probably hard to find a deck that doesn't want this.
465 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
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
Side note there is a decent combo:
Aether Channeler + Crystal Shard + Ring, gives you infinite protection from everything except for instant speed interactions
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StaffOn one hand, this draws 3 cards by the time Coercive Portal draws you 1 card. On the other hand, Coercive Portal doesn't kill you... For my environment, I like this more than Coercive Portal as a high risk / high reward payoff. Coercive Portal doesn't get there on power level for me, but this does. It's just a matter of mitigating the drawback. Right now my cube really isn't equipped to mitigate the drawback of this other than just playing it in a suicide aggro / burn deck.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
This card is legit bad in grindy decks that don’t have many ways to remove it. The life loss adds up reallll quick if you plan to draw cards with it, so you better either win the game or remove it within a few turns.
draw effects that lose life are always worse than they look (draw effects that gain life are better than they look).
gaining protection for a turn is a real big upside over any other 4 mana do nothing card.
I’d have to see how easy it is to bounce/sacrifice before I test it, but at first glance it looks promising.
The upside is definitely there.
Last Updated 02/06/23
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I have on disagree on that. There's lots of times coercive portal will kill you and you can't cast it because you can't take a turn off to spend 4 mana and not impact the board cause you'll die to attackers.
465 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I used to have donate support in my cube, I wonder FI that is newly interesting now with stuff like this, archfiend of the dross, and black donate.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
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StaffCoercive Portal isn't killing you in this scenario, your opponent is. Coercive Portal not being able to fend off your opponent from alpha striking you doesn't equate to Coercive Portal killing you.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=484979
I thought about this and if your deck has a way to sacrifice/ bounce or donate it, then its likely fairly easy to see it after 3 turns as you'll draw 6 cards + 3 in your natural draw.
However, my expertise is more with aggro/ tempo/ combo decks. I'm not as in tune with midrange strageties.
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