The card that I want to compare this to is Giant Tortoise. In my cube this blocks favorably against 9 more cards than the Tortoise, but dies to a few more 3/1's which I didn't bother counting. The evasive body is nice if you want to put equipment on it I guess or have some other way to pump it, but I don't think I'd play it over Tortoise and I don't much like Tortoise either.
I like Omen Speaker more too because Scry 2 does a surprising ammount of work. Now if they printed this with even a Scry 1 or some other "nice" etb, I may be interested in a swap.
I thought there might be some more discussion. *shrug*. I was thinking that this is not the sort of card you go and seek out, but could be a card that you consider to fine tune and balance your cube purely on the power / toughness ratios in your cube. I also compared it to Omenspeaker, which probably helps the control decks a little more. But maybe your blue control decks die just a little too frequently to Skies decks, and this can help you there against Welkin Tern's etc. Or maybe the extra 3 evasive damage this could get in while your other creatures stall the ground matters. Maybe your aggro decks are really strong and fast, and you want another 1/3 alongside Omenspeaker for turn 2 redundancy against 2/1's.
No love for it at all. I think I actually P1P1d the Drake in a particularly bad M14 draft, but it's similar in power to something like Nessian Courser -- fine enough in normal limited, horribly outclassed in CUbe.
I think professor Bacchus might be onto something here. The Drake is horribly boring, but it's the best blue blocker at two mana that can block flyers. I have a hunch that many cubes would be "better" by paying attention to these mundane cards that can still do work.
An issue could be whether you could actually get your players to draft the card. Even if your careful analysis shows that blue defensive decks are improved by having access to an early blocker against fliers, drafters might still not want to play a "boring" card and pick other options over it.
I agree it is pretty boring, and most of us want to try and cram in as many cards that help us push archetypes. Welkin Tern is probably more 'necessary' for pushing blue aggro / Skies decks (or otherwise 'boring' vanilla 2/1's for 1 for that matter) than Seacoast Drake is for control decks.
Adding the Drake might add more 'balance' over a large sample of games... probably more than we will ever care about given we often change our cubes each new set release, and maybe balance doesn't translate to more fun.
Run enough Investigate cards, and Erdwal Illuminator does everything Seacoast Drake does and more. The fact that we got Erdwal Illuminator in this set gives me hope that Seacoast Drake with upside might be a card we'll see more of in the future, and that's a set of stats I'd like to see more of. Hopefully the next one will have upside that's useful outside of SOI limited.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Any 1/3 blanks a good amount of 1-drops and 2-drops... adding flying as the only upside is just not relevant against a large amount of opposing decks.
I mean, without Wrath of God or Gideon Jura, you need some low curve creatures in control. I just want something with more upside/flexibility than "Storm Crow plus one toughness".
Stuff like Augury Owl, Azure Mage, Dragon's Eye Savants, Fathom Seer, Fog Bank, Frost Walker, Jeskai Sage (maybe), Omenspeaker, Renowned Weaponsmith (maybe), Wall of Tears.
Or, you know, draft stuff in your non-blue color. We don't play bad Blue curve-fillers for the same reason people don't play a bunch of different mediocre fight cards in Green.
I have like 16 copies of Seacoast Drake - way more than any card beside basic lands.
I... drafted a lot of M14.
He's fine - I'd probably maindeck him in a lot of decks if I happened to pick him up in a draft.
But he'll never be a top 10 pick and he'll never do anything really interesting or make anyone excited to play a deck, and those are kind of the reasons I have a cube in the first place. I wouldn't fault someone for running him in their cube - especially if the cube was built to teach - but he'd make me think the cube was boring.
I'll post picture again given it's crossing a new page.
This is still in my cube but I don't recall it being played recently. I probably underrate it when drafting. Casting during their attack phase, preventing two attacks and then getting two uncontested attacks is solid. But in a board stall against several untapped creatures or explosive go wide strategies with token generators it probably isn't going to help you break through or slow them down. I probably need to throw this in decks more to get a better feel for it.
I like the card but I just don't do white aggro with individual beaters that often. Like... it's good with calciderm and it's good when you're killing them. But... I just don't pick it much. Like sleep
It's mostly a four-mana Frost Breath (not often that you get to freeze a third opposing creature). It's still in my Cube so white can do something other than play a pile of creatures, but I don't like it particularly much at all.
I'm pretty sure I would play Dwarven Miner over this card. You are most likely going to destroy non-basic lands anyway with something like this. I still wouldn't cube either card... Goblin Ruinblaster used to be in my cube, I feel like that would be a better replacement as well.
Destroying multiple lands in one go is very powerful, but this is so expensive and hard to pull off as well. Five mana for 2 lands? SEVEN for 3? And that's in the case that my opponent lets me untap with a 1/1? No thanks.
Three lands for seven mana seems like a great deal, TBH. If you have some acceleration (in Gruul, most likely), doing that is a game-winning play against a lot of control or midrange decks.
It IS an absolute liability against aggro, obviously.
Also worth noting: Dwarven Blastminer is a strictly better version of Dwarven Miner.... because sometimes you want a 2/2 for 3.
I've run Orcish Settlers, but I think I'm the only person who likes it. It's always a live draw and it blows games out if you ever get to untap with it.
Butt then again, I know I like land destruction to a fault (I consider Avalanche Riders one of the top first-picks in peasant cube).
I love these guys. American Gothic and land destruction, what's not to love? Even if it eats removal, that's removal they don't have for larger threats.
I thought I'd let others respond instead of adding something to my initial post of the card. After reading a couple of responses, I'm warming up to it, but I don't see myself considering it any time soon. It actually costs 7 mana to destroy 2 lands and 9 mana to destroy 3, but you pay 2 mana as a down payment. I didn't think it was efficient enough and that by the time you were destroying multiple land they would have enough lands anyway that it wouldn't be a blowout. But given many cube decks are 2 or more colours, I could easily see it cutting off a colour for a number of turns. I look at it and think it is inefficient and can't see myself playing it, but I could see it being played on the other side of the table and being nervous about it depending on the deck I'm playing.
I like Omen Speaker more too because Scry 2 does a surprising ammount of work. Now if they printed this with even a Scry 1 or some other "nice" etb, I may be interested in a swap.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Also, yeah, I'm busy working out the ember shot needle drop 8 mana 3 for 2.. Gotta counter those steel walls somehow.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
An issue could be whether you could actually get your players to draft the card. Even if your careful analysis shows that blue defensive decks are improved by having access to an early blocker against fliers, drafters might still not want to play a "boring" card and pick other options over it.
Also, the drake is a strictly better Storm Crow!
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Adding the Drake might add more 'balance' over a large sample of games... probably more than we will ever care about given we often change our cubes each new set release, and maybe balance doesn't translate to more fun.
I'll hand back to Leelue for our next card.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I mean, without Wrath of God or Gideon Jura, you need some low curve creatures in control. I just want something with more upside/flexibility than "Storm Crow plus one toughness".
Stuff like Augury Owl, Azure Mage, Dragon's Eye Savants, Fathom Seer, Fog Bank, Frost Walker, Jeskai Sage (maybe), Omenspeaker, Renowned Weaponsmith (maybe), Wall of Tears.
Or, you know, draft stuff in your non-blue color. We don't play bad Blue curve-fillers for the same reason people don't play a bunch of different mediocre fight cards in Green.
I... drafted a lot of M14.
He's fine - I'd probably maindeck him in a lot of decks if I happened to pick him up in a draft.
But he'll never be a top 10 pick and he'll never do anything really interesting or make anyone excited to play a deck, and those are kind of the reasons I have a cube in the first place. I wouldn't fault someone for running him in their cube - especially if the cube was built to teach - but he'd make me think the cube was boring.
Btw, maybe I could see the Drake in as some desperate filler in 450+
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Not saying it's necessarily bad, but it's just so uninteresting.
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
(I skipped Mountain)
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
With that being said, I do like this effect. I think it has some utility in many matchups.
A part of me wishes it was 1W to cast and a 2 entwine.
I think it's a fine card, but I'd be hard-pressed to cube it at 360. 450+ is probably fine.
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
I'll post picture again given it's crossing a new page.
This is still in my cube but I don't recall it being played recently. I probably underrate it when drafting. Casting during their attack phase, preventing two attacks and then getting two uncontested attacks is solid. But in a board stall against several untapped creatures or explosive go wide strategies with token generators it probably isn't going to help you break through or slow them down. I probably need to throw this in decks more to get a better feel for it.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Three lands for seven mana seems like a great deal, TBH. If you have some acceleration (in Gruul, most likely), doing that is a game-winning play against a lot of control or midrange decks.
It IS an absolute liability against aggro, obviously.
Also worth noting: Dwarven Blastminer is a strictly better version of Dwarven Miner.... because sometimes you want a 2/2 for 3.
Butt then again, I know I like land destruction to a fault (I consider Avalanche Riders one of the top first-picks in peasant cube).