Oh, right. Living Lore doesn't need to connect with a player. I remember that being a common misunderstanding on release, but I guess I forgot. Still a bit awkward, but probably worth it without too much commitment.
If I play reanimator the whole point is to "cherry pick" stuff like Pelakka Wurm?
But you're cherry picking from cards that you already cherry picked. Apprentice doesn't want fatties, it wants specifically fatties with great etbs. Looking at your cube I see 8 (9 with Angel) total targets that I would be happy putting Apprentice in my deck for.
Even if you're happy with that number (or have a different one) for reanimation, I would have a hard time justifying playing it in any non-reanimator deck. Especially considering only 3 of my targets are less than 7cmc (Rakshasa Gravecaller, Cloudgoat Ranger, and Swift Warkite).
It does have interesting uses, but I don't think they would make up for missing good value targets. So I see it as not good enough outside of reanimator needing certain targets, which is way too specific a niche for a card that is also fragile and rarely even beats normal reanimation.
As best I can tell, that is correct. There is a surprising amount of new art for commons and uncommons such as Safehold Elite, for instance, and some of those cards such as Reckless Charge are also CU/be-able.
Hmmm... What am I likely to includes out of all these?
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker: No. Does not do enough by itself and only offers a niche value engine. Sigil of the New Dawn: Tempting because it only asks for mana but outside ETB effects, it is just a way worse regeneration ability. Pass. Laboratory Maniac: Fun but I do not support extensive self-mill. Living Lore: I knew how it works since I play it in EDH but my assessment stands: there are too few viable targets since you need both a general enough effect not to care about timing to be good and a high enough mana cost to allow it to attack to some blockers and survive. Firewing Phoenix: Definitely the type of card I love. Also very crowded spot. More of a control finisher if you ask me, since you can keep mana open and return it at instant speed if an opponent's turn requires no answers. Obviously, still works as reach for aggro, too. Magmaw: Not enough non-creatures to sacrifice. Too weak by itself. Hero of Leina Tower: Genuinely tempting. With just one trigger, it can grow huge - but unless the spell is something like Hyena Umbra, this would mostly apply in the late game. Apprentice Necromancer: Tempting. I think a single hasted swing of a big creature is already often worth the split three mana investment. Too bad it was not Doomed Necromancer. Probably not. Angel of Despair: Closest yet but Knights of the Black Rose is one of my pet cards and I only run two cards per guild. Hero of Iroas: No. Penumbra Wurm: By now, there are too many better options.
In the end... This leaves three potential inclusions, and none of those is looking too hot. I still like the approach, but I wish there had been more.
I don't think Apprentice Necromancer is as good as Makeshift Mannequin, and Mannequin is rather weak/niche. The ceiling on either one is high but very hard to reliably achieve.
Angel is cool but at 3WWBB it's nearly uncastable. I won't be adding it for the same reason I don't play the 11cmc uncommon Eldrazi -- its mana cost limits it to basically just Reanimator decks and I don't support that as an all-in archetype (with cards like Putrid Imp, Exhume, etc). Even if it was just 5WB instead that would make it far more splashable for something like UBw control or GWb ramp, but... quad symbols is ROUGH.
I'm trying to evaluate Living Lore assuming it can reliably become a 3/3 (which is probably being generous). If you can get your (at that moment) vanilla 3/3 to deal combat damage without dying you're probably significantly ahead of your opponent already. The floor on the card, of course, is just atrocious.
I think pigeonholing Angel of Despair as a reanimation target only is inaccurate. As TyranidBill mentioned, it is still a huge flier which is always at least a 2-for-1 if it resolves, and has very few answers in combat.
I would guess Angel is somewhere among the 4th to 7th best Orzhov spells and its exact ranking probably depends on your CUbe composition, given that it is definitely hard to cast outside of the dedicated Orzhov midrange/control decks.
Orzhov isn't exactly a super deep guild in peasant. I think Angel of Despair easily makes the top three. I saw a lot of cubes running Maw of Obzedat and I like the angel a lot more than that guy.
maw of obzedat is an insane card.
i love hero of iroas, but reconfiguring my entire green and white sections to accomodate it isn't exactly appealing. we do have good enchantress cards now, but i think we need better auras in general.
Admittedly, I'm only going off my instincts here because I've not played it, but let's break it down.
Costs 3WB. What do I get for five mana in two colors? Evasion? Flying, menace, fear? Nope. Just a dude. Ok. Hm, well maybe it's big. Nope. Just a 3/3. Ok. Well, I can get a 3/3 flyer for five in only one color, so this thing must have a stellar ability. Sac a dude: Pump my team +1/+1. Eh. I guess this could be good if I was in a go wide tokens strategy and had dudes to burn or Reassembling Skeleton? I guess. Maybe. Shrug.
Sarcasm aside, Maw looks to me like it's an expensive card that only nets value is very specific situations. It it were more than just a 3/3 on its own, then I could maybe see justifying it. Maybe it does some great work, but I was really surprised to see it in so many lists when I did the comparison this year. I'd rather have Tidehollow Sculler, tbh, and I'd definitely prefer the big 5/5 Vindicate angel.
Perhaps if you support a grindy long-game Orzhov control and reanimator, the angel makes sense?
For me, I think I'm down to only considering phoenix. As others have pointed out, it is probably OK in aggro/midrange, and I like to have some inevitable finishers for the go-long decks. But I'm not sure what the RRR does for that, as it makes it off-limit to a fair amount of control decks. Rakdos sweeper control maybe?
I've never been big on Maw of the Obzedat either, but I've also never tried it. I like the Angel of Despair, but I don't think it'll make it. Such a hard mana restriction.
That's a great explanation, Phitt. I still think I'd prefer a Tidehollow Sculler to Maw, but I can see its usefulness. I also think you're right about the angel and she'll kill a creature 95% of the time, but I also don't see how that's a negative thing. Creatures are the meat of this format, so playing a 5/5 flyer and taking out an opposing creature can heavily swing the game in my favor, even if I'm hard casting her on turn seven in a midrange Orzhov deck.
I could also be a little biased. I liked her a lot during her time in Standard (which is also when I came back to the game) and she was a powerhouse in early iterations of my original cube list. So, for me, it's just really cool to see this creature that I remember as being very oppressive and powerful becoming available for my peasant cube.
In addition, I'm also a fan of Unburial Rites and having Orzhov be not necessarily a color pair that supports a hard reanimator archetype (as in turn two make a fatty), but a grindy midrange deck that can accumulate value with reanimation spells. I could easily see a deck like that taking full advantage of a card like Angel of Despair as a finisher.
Angel of Despair is actually the only downshifted card I'm interested in from UMA.
I don't like Firewing Phoenix at all. Two toughness means it dies to nearly anything - you don't even need a Lightning Bolt, as Shock will do. And it may have a recursion ability, but unlike Reassembling Skeleton, which only costs 1B to return to the battlefield, this costs 1RRR to go to hand plus 3R to cast again. Frankly, 4RRRRto get back a two toughness creature is ridiculous. It's too costly, too vulnerable, and too slow.
I probably shouldn't run Angel of Despair because of the mana cost, but I think I have to give it a try just because I love the card. But that's really the only one I'm tempted to even try from this set.
How many 2 damage effects are there in the average cube? I would guess around 10. And most of them are red, so if you play Firewing Phoenix you probably have some of them in your own deck. It's a downside, but it's not a huge downside as in most games you won't even see a 2 damage spell. A bigger downside are possible blockers, but tokens can't block it and if your opponent blocks with a 2/x flyer the recursion ability makes it a potential 2 for 1.
It's not just 2 damage spells, though. It's:
- any 2 power flyer, including a 1/1 token with a single pump ability/counter
- 2/3 of a Spectral Procession
- literally any token with a Gryff's Boon (which has a better recursion ability because it goes on the battlefield rather than in hand).
- card]Orc Sureshot[/card] with any two bodies
- four mana and a Trophy Hunter
- Penumbra Spider, which costs 2GG and negates the first two iterations of Phoenix, meaning you don't actually get ahead until you have spent 11RRRRRRRRR to cast, recur, cast, recur, and cast again.
- stuff like Harm's Way, Sunlance, Drown in Sorrow, Dead Weight
- plus all the red Shock/Staggershock[/card]/Magma Jet/Firebolt/Arc Trail/Pyroclasm variants.
That also doesn't count all of the stuff that could have killed a 3 or 4 toughness creature.
Calling a 4 power creature with flying for 4 mana slow is odd. Unless every creature without haste is slow it is the opposite of slow as it can end the game in five turns on its own against many decks.
I was calling the recursion ability slow, not the creature. Though I wonder how many times it will actually connect before it gets fried, and then it's expensive to get back.
I could totally be wrong, but I don't plan to try it in my cube.
If I can afford to spend 8 mana recurring Phoenix something probably went wrong. The decks that can afford to recur it have better options and don't care about the body, and the decks that care about the body can't afford to recur it. For an aggressive deck to be able to recur it you need to flood, stall the board, and have your opponent not be able to pressure you. None of these things aggro is good at. If you want a 4 mana 4/2 flyer then sure, but I wouldn't put much, if any, weight on the recursion.
If I can afford to spend 8 mana recurring Phoenix something probably went wrong.
It's not 8 mana just like Lingering Souls isn't an 8-drop. But, OK, let's say you correctly that you need four mana (and 1RRR, notably). Yes, that probably means something went wrong. But... that's... the entire point of the card? You get a decent initial body (4/2 flyer for 3cmc would be insane, but slightly below par for a 4-drop; still incredibly hard to "thwart" with a bigger reach or flying creature).
The decks that can afford to recur it have better options and don't care about the body, and the decks that care about the body can't afford to recur it.
What better options are there for red control decks? I think I'd rather have this than almost everything else the color has to offer at 4-5cmc since it's basically the only one that provides late-game inevitability aside from Rite of the Raging Storm which is, one, absurdly good at that job, and, two, an absolute zero on defense unlike Phoenix. I'm also not sure how anyone can "not care" about a 4/2 flying body. In your ENTIRE 360 card cube, the only creature that can block without trading is Great Oak Guardian! Oh, and about "affording" its ability...
For an aggressive deck to be able to recur it you need to flood, stall the board, and have your opponent not be able to pressure you. None of these things aggro is good at.
You absolutely don't need to flood for the recursion to matter. It costs four mana! In most aggro games, you'll be able to play your 4-drop. Whether it's this, Snare Thopter, Scrapper Champion, Keldon Champion, etc. If it doesn't die, you're probably winning easily. If it dies in combat or to removal (or a counterspell)... Phoenix is coming right back to your hand the MOMENT that you draw another land or an irrelevant Jackal Pup or such.
If you want a 4 mana 4/2 flyer then sure, but I wouldn't put much, if any, weight on the recursion.
You play Firebolt, right? Games stall, things "go wrong", you wind up with extra mana. It happens constantly! Phoenix isn't as good as Firebolt, to be sure, but they're both very good playable cube cards for fundamentally the same reasons.
You don't care about having Phoenix in hand. You need 2 payments of 4 (4*2=8) for the recursion to matter. Two payments of 4 is essentially 2 full turns of mana for most aggressive decks, which is ridiculous, especially considering it doesn't have a huge board impact even after those 2 turns.
What red control decks exist that don't have access to a value engine/mana sink? Bigger mono red is the only one I can think of, but I would hesitate to call that control.
For not caring: your argument could hold for Charging Monstrosaur or literately any well stated creature. Only 6 creatures in my cube can block it without dying. I don't play Monstrosaur in every deck that can cast it because I don't care about that fact in some decks. If I'm on the defensive, then a 4 mana 4/2 is bad, and if I'm usually on the defensive then I'm playing it for mostly for the recursion: i.e. I don't care about the body.
If you aren't flooding mono red is a mana hungry deck. There is no way you can afford to pay 4 mana twice for Phoenix. Phoenix isn't even some inevitable win condition since there's a decent chance you're about to die when you recur it. It's also not surprising for your opponent to have an answer, and getting card advantage is not what you need at that point of the game.
Firebolt's flashback actually affects the board immediately and can be worth the mana. In most games I can expect to flashback firebolt and be happy with it because of those 2 things; I can reasonably flashback firebolt instead of playing cards in hand. Phoenix both doesn't affect the board immediately and is rarely worth the mana over other cards in hand.
Nobody is claiming that Phoenix's ability is efficient
But the alternative is your 4-drop dies and stays dead and useless forever
In an aggro deck it does about 80-90% of the job of a Scrapper Champion or Bloodfray Giant type card on T4, then is sometimes going to be just infinitely better than those in a stalled long-game
It's also fine in threat-light red control, very much unlike Champion/Giant/Monstrosaur.
It's not that uncommon to run out of cards in mono-ish red decks either. Doing anything, even if it's slow, is better than doing nothing. I'll try Firewing Phoenix, mostly for the Rakdos sweeper deck, and maybe the Necromancer.
Leelue, If you're talking about a bigger mono red deck, Stonewright, Ire Shaman, Smoldering Werewolf, Faithless Looting, and Shreds of Sanity in addition to a higher curve generally give some level of late game viability. Shreds of Sanity and Smoldering Werewolf in particular can often get incredible value, often even threatening lethal with some added burn.
You can also just play non red mana sinks if you're not mono-red.
Fireball is a pretty big mana sink in control red decks. I think I'm in the minority of people playing it through. I heard of someone Fireballing someone for 7 to the face for a win last Friday.
I never go to my adjustments oops. Thanksgiving slows everything down I guess. but I will not be stopped now:
New Arts Upgrades:
Demonic Tutor: I love the new art but thankfully I have a copy altered as Durin's Bane so I will be passing on that. Reanimate: I love this new art. I may consider it but the classic art will stay for now. Devoted Druid: I havent had the Druid in my cube is a while but I'm considering putting it back in with this snazzy new art. Songs of the Damned: i know I ran this in my storm Archetype when I had that deck as it was a powerful effect for getting the mass mana but Im not playing it now so I wont be adding it. Unstable Mutation: I love this new art but Im not using the card at the moment. Frantic Search: I like the references in the art but I'm going to keep my foil signed copy. Ulamog's Crusher: I love this new art. I think replacement may come down to how the foil looks. Eternal Witness: I like the new art but I have a cool winter themed altered copy. Pass for now. Ancient Tomb: Im hoping to grab a box topper of this for my cube as I would like to have a really pretty copy of this. Swap.
Rarity Shifts:
Angel of Despair: Auto add. It may take a slot from Orzhov for reanimator but with Lingering souls added in white currently as a half and half card I feel it should balance fine. Penumbra Wurm: Im excited to have this finally printed as uncommon. this was one of the few cards I couldnt bring myself to add when its only paper copy was at rare. Im excited to try it. Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker: I know I've repeated my self on this but with the 1 CMC fog creatures it makes for a nice control engine. Adding in Custodi Soulcaller and the 1 CMC package could be really cool. I plan to make a few edits with Shirei and will report back. Sigil of the New Dawn Im interested to see how it plays into n aristocrats deck but I feel it will fall a tad short. may test but not hopeful. Laboratory Maniac: Im interested to see could I make self mill an archetype as this is the payoff we need to make hyper self-mill work. may entice a dredge deck. Hero of Iros: feel like it wont make the cube but depending on how much pants comes into the cube in the next few edits he may be worth it. Apprentince Necromancer: Snap include. Its a cheap easy reanimator but also adds a body for tortured existence shenanigans
I think that I'm not adding anything from this set, except for the phoenix. Any game with any decks can come down to topdeck mode, and this is just wonderful in those situations.
Sorta like the pyrewild shaman's promise of late game relevancy from a year or two ago, but... actually likely to be relevant.
I've been eying an auras/enchantments theme in selesnya for a little while, so maybe the hero gets a chance in an update or two. But otherwise, everything seems too cute.
Recursive red flyers are not common but that 2 toughness makes me worry about its ability to get through.. atm I am leaning towards including it once I decide what the worse red card I have is.
I have unburial rites so BW reanimator is a thing it is just hard to get stuff into the graveyard in straight WB that it is normally a 3 colour deck. I have to decide between Call to feast and maw of obezdat that are both from the same type of deck as to which can be replaced for the angel.
The heroic creatures aren't bad I just don't have support for them.
But you're cherry picking from cards that you already cherry picked. Apprentice doesn't want fatties, it wants specifically fatties with great etbs. Looking at your cube I see 8 (9 with Angel) total targets that I would be happy putting Apprentice in my deck for.
Even if you're happy with that number (or have a different one) for reanimation, I would have a hard time justifying playing it in any non-reanimator deck. Especially considering only 3 of my targets are less than 7cmc (Rakshasa Gravecaller, Cloudgoat Ranger, and Swift Warkite).
It does have interesting uses, but I don't think they would make up for missing good value targets. So I see it as not good enough outside of reanimator needing certain targets, which is way too specific a niche for a card that is also fragile and rarely even beats normal reanimation.
Legacy Cube
Hmmm... What am I likely to includes out of all these?
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker: No. Does not do enough by itself and only offers a niche value engine.
Sigil of the New Dawn: Tempting because it only asks for mana but outside ETB effects, it is just a way worse regeneration ability. Pass.
Laboratory Maniac: Fun but I do not support extensive self-mill.
Living Lore: I knew how it works since I play it in EDH but my assessment stands: there are too few viable targets since you need both a general enough effect not to care about timing to be good and a high enough mana cost to allow it to attack to some blockers and survive.
Firewing Phoenix: Definitely the type of card I love. Also very crowded spot. More of a control finisher if you ask me, since you can keep mana open and return it at instant speed if an opponent's turn requires no answers. Obviously, still works as reach for aggro, too.
Magmaw: Not enough non-creatures to sacrifice. Too weak by itself.
Hero of Leina Tower: Genuinely tempting. With just one trigger, it can grow huge - but unless the spell is something like Hyena Umbra, this would mostly apply in the late game.
Apprentice Necromancer: Tempting. I think a single hasted swing of a big creature is already often worth the split three mana investment. Too bad it was not Doomed Necromancer. Probably not.
Angel of Despair: Closest yet but Knights of the Black Rose is one of my pet cards and I only run two cards per guild.
Hero of Iroas: No.
Penumbra Wurm: By now, there are too many better options.
In the end... This leaves three potential inclusions, and none of those is looking too hot. I still like the approach, but I wish there had been more.
Angel is cool but at 3WWBB it's nearly uncastable. I won't be adding it for the same reason I don't play the 11cmc uncommon Eldrazi -- its mana cost limits it to basically just Reanimator decks and I don't support that as an all-in archetype (with cards like Putrid Imp, Exhume, etc). Even if it was just 5WB instead that would make it far more splashable for something like UBw control or GWb ramp, but... quad symbols is ROUGH.
The best of the bunch is probably Firewing Phoenix. It's not bad, possibly better than something like Bloodfray Giant or Scrapper Champion at same color and CMC.
I'm trying to evaluate Living Lore assuming it can reliably become a 3/3 (which is probably being generous). If you can get your (at that moment) vanilla 3/3 to deal combat damage without dying you're probably significantly ahead of your opponent already. The floor on the card, of course, is just atrocious.
Wrong artwork
I would guess Angel is somewhere among the 4th to 7th best Orzhov spells and its exact ranking probably depends on your CUbe composition, given that it is definitely hard to cast outside of the dedicated Orzhov midrange/control decks.
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The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
maw of obzedat is an insane card.
i love hero of iroas, but reconfiguring my entire green and white sections to accomodate it isn't exactly appealing. we do have good enchantress cards now, but i think we need better auras in general.
Admittedly, I'm only going off my instincts here because I've not played it, but let's break it down.
Costs 3WB. What do I get for five mana in two colors? Evasion? Flying, menace, fear? Nope. Just a dude. Ok. Hm, well maybe it's big. Nope. Just a 3/3. Ok. Well, I can get a 3/3 flyer for five in only one color, so this thing must have a stellar ability. Sac a dude: Pump my team +1/+1. Eh. I guess this could be good if I was in a go wide tokens strategy and had dudes to burn or Reassembling Skeleton? I guess. Maybe. Shrug.
Sarcasm aside, Maw looks to me like it's an expensive card that only nets value is very specific situations. It it were more than just a 3/3 on its own, then I could maybe see justifying it. Maybe it does some great work, but I was really surprised to see it in so many lists when I did the comparison this year. I'd rather have Tidehollow Sculler, tbh, and I'd definitely prefer the big 5/5 Vindicate angel.
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For me, I think I'm down to only considering phoenix. As others have pointed out, it is probably OK in aggro/midrange, and I like to have some inevitable finishers for the go-long decks. But I'm not sure what the RRR does for that, as it makes it off-limit to a fair amount of control decks. Rakdos sweeper control maybe?
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I could also be a little biased. I liked her a lot during her time in Standard (which is also when I came back to the game) and she was a powerhouse in early iterations of my original cube list. So, for me, it's just really cool to see this creature that I remember as being very oppressive and powerful becoming available for my peasant cube.
In addition, I'm also a fan of Unburial Rites and having Orzhov be not necessarily a color pair that supports a hard reanimator archetype (as in turn two make a fatty), but a grindy midrange deck that can accumulate value with reanimation spells. I could easily see a deck like that taking full advantage of a card like Angel of Despair as a finisher.
Angel of Despair is actually the only downshifted card I'm interested in from UMA.
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I probably shouldn't run Angel of Despair because of the mana cost, but I think I have to give it a try just because I love the card. But that's really the only one I'm tempted to even try from this set.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
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- any 2 power flyer, including a 1/1 token with a single pump ability/counter
- 2/3 of a Spectral Procession
- literally any token with a Gryff's Boon (which has a better recursion ability because it goes on the battlefield rather than in hand).
- card]Orc Sureshot[/card] with any two bodies
- four mana and a Trophy Hunter
- Penumbra Spider, which costs 2GG and negates the first two iterations of Phoenix, meaning you don't actually get ahead until you have spent 11RRRRRRRRR to cast, recur, cast, recur, and cast again.
- stuff like Harm's Way, Sunlance, Drown in Sorrow, Dead Weight
- plus all the red Shock/Staggershock[/card]/Magma Jet/Firebolt/Arc Trail/Pyroclasm variants.
That also doesn't count all of the stuff that could have killed a 3 or 4 toughness creature. I was calling the recursion ability slow, not the creature. Though I wonder how many times it will actually connect before it gets fried, and then it's expensive to get back.
I could totally be wrong, but I don't plan to try it in my cube.
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It's not 8 mana just like Lingering Souls isn't an 8-drop. But, OK, let's say you correctly that you need four mana (and 1RRR, notably). Yes, that probably means something went wrong. But... that's... the entire point of the card? You get a decent initial body (4/2 flyer for 3cmc would be insane, but slightly below par for a 4-drop; still incredibly hard to "thwart" with a bigger reach or flying creature).
What better options are there for red control decks? I think I'd rather have this than almost everything else the color has to offer at 4-5cmc since it's basically the only one that provides late-game inevitability aside from Rite of the Raging Storm which is, one, absurdly good at that job, and, two, an absolute zero on defense unlike Phoenix. I'm also not sure how anyone can "not care" about a 4/2 flying body. In your ENTIRE 360 card cube, the only creature that can block without trading is Great Oak Guardian! Oh, and about "affording" its ability...
You absolutely don't need to flood for the recursion to matter. It costs four mana! In most aggro games, you'll be able to play your 4-drop. Whether it's this, Snare Thopter, Scrapper Champion, Keldon Champion, etc. If it doesn't die, you're probably winning easily. If it dies in combat or to removal (or a counterspell)... Phoenix is coming right back to your hand the MOMENT that you draw another land or an irrelevant Jackal Pup or such.
You play Firebolt, right? Games stall, things "go wrong", you wind up with extra mana. It happens constantly! Phoenix isn't as good as Firebolt, to be sure, but they're both very good playable cube cards for fundamentally the same reasons.
What red control decks exist that don't have access to a value engine/mana sink? Bigger mono red is the only one I can think of, but I would hesitate to call that control.
For not caring: your argument could hold for Charging Monstrosaur or literately any well stated creature. Only 6 creatures in my cube can block it without dying. I don't play Monstrosaur in every deck that can cast it because I don't care about that fact in some decks. If I'm on the defensive, then a 4 mana 4/2 is bad, and if I'm usually on the defensive then I'm playing it for mostly for the recursion: i.e. I don't care about the body.
If you aren't flooding mono red is a mana hungry deck. There is no way you can afford to pay 4 mana twice for Phoenix. Phoenix isn't even some inevitable win condition since there's a decent chance you're about to die when you recur it. It's also not surprising for your opponent to have an answer, and getting card advantage is not what you need at that point of the game.
Firebolt's flashback actually affects the board immediately and can be worth the mana. In most games I can expect to flashback firebolt and be happy with it because of those 2 things; I can reasonably flashback firebolt instead of playing cards in hand. Phoenix both doesn't affect the board immediately and is rarely worth the mana over other cards in hand.
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But the alternative is your 4-drop dies and stays dead and useless forever
In an aggro deck it does about 80-90% of the job of a Scrapper Champion or Bloodfray Giant type card on T4, then is sometimes going to be just infinitely better than those in a stalled long-game
It's also fine in threat-light red control, very much unlike Champion/Giant/Monstrosaur.
You can also just play non red mana sinks if you're not mono-red.
New Arts Upgrades:
Demonic Tutor: I love the new art but thankfully I have a copy altered as Durin's Bane so I will be passing on that.
Reanimate: I love this new art. I may consider it but the classic art will stay for now.
Devoted Druid: I havent had the Druid in my cube is a while but I'm considering putting it back in with this snazzy new art.
Songs of the Damned: i know I ran this in my storm Archetype when I had that deck as it was a powerful effect for getting the mass mana but Im not playing it now so I wont be adding it.
Unstable Mutation: I love this new art but Im not using the card at the moment.
Frantic Search: I like the references in the art but I'm going to keep my foil signed copy.
Ulamog's Crusher: I love this new art. I think replacement may come down to how the foil looks.
Eternal Witness: I like the new art but I have a cool winter themed altered copy. Pass for now.
Ancient Tomb: Im hoping to grab a box topper of this for my cube as I would like to have a really pretty copy of this. Swap.
Rarity Shifts:
Angel of Despair: Auto add. It may take a slot from Orzhov for reanimator but with Lingering souls added in white currently as a half and half card I feel it should balance fine.
Penumbra Wurm: Im excited to have this finally printed as uncommon. this was one of the few cards I couldnt bring myself to add when its only paper copy was at rare. Im excited to try it.
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker: I know I've repeated my self on this but with the 1 CMC fog creatures it makes for a nice control engine. Adding in Custodi Soulcaller and the 1 CMC package could be really cool. I plan to make a few edits with Shirei and will report back.
Sigil of the New Dawn Im interested to see how it plays into n aristocrats deck but I feel it will fall a tad short. may test but not hopeful.
Laboratory Maniac: Im interested to see could I make self mill an archetype as this is the payoff we need to make hyper self-mill work. may entice a dredge deck.
Hero of Iros: feel like it wont make the cube but depending on how much pants comes into the cube in the next few edits he may be worth it.
Apprentince Necromancer: Snap include. Its a cheap easy reanimator but also adds a body for tortured existence shenanigans
Overall not a terrible set for includes.
Sorta like the pyrewild shaman's promise of late game relevancy from a year or two ago, but... actually likely to be relevant.
I've been eying an auras/enchantments theme in selesnya for a little while, so maybe the hero gets a chance in an update or two. But otherwise, everything seems too cute.
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
Recursive red flyers are not common but that 2 toughness makes me worry about its ability to get through.. atm I am leaning towards including it once I decide what the worse red card I have is.
I have unburial rites so BW reanimator is a thing it is just hard to get stuff into the graveyard in straight WB that it is normally a 3 colour deck. I have to decide between Call to feast and maw of obezdat that are both from the same type of deck as to which can be replaced for the angel.
The heroic creatures aren't bad I just don't have support for them.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own