MTG Salvation

Windstorm Drake is disappointing but Spirit of the Spires seems a bit more interesting to me. The buff is worse but the body is more on curve, and white has less Flying matters cards so the bar is lower.

Fireblade Artist is nice. Haste, sac outlet, and direct damage. Too bad it's an upkeep trigger - I suppose an activated ability would have been too good.

Quote from Mat_Effect »

Ministrant of Obligation is nice, isn't it? A Midnight Haunting on a creature? At least a cheaper Mausoleum Guard. I like it. Also good for an aristocrats archetype.

Today seems a decent day for people who run a +1/+1 counters archetype.

I agree. I think Ministrant of Obligation is very close to playable, if not actually playable. I'm going to look for something to cut for it, since I've been trying to give the Aristocrats archetype (one of my top 3 favorite archetypes) a little more love. I, also, can't wait to put this awesome card into my Peasant Cube since she's a very good Aristocrat!

What are people's thoughts on Sharktocrab? I can't believe I'm saying it, but: I think it just might be good. I'm ready for the posts making fun of my card assessment, but with lots of ways to give this thing +1/+1 counters, besides using it's own ability, you could have an octopus-sized monster freezing creatures left and right and making combat a nightmare. Plus, it's got decent stats to begin with, and have you seen the art/name of this card?

Yeah it looks good to me base rate is still a 4 mana 4/4. Its just that I'd have to cut some other card that I also really like, multicoloured sections are so tight :/.

The more I look at Sharktocrab the more I feel like it's solid even without blatant +1/+1 counter support. 4 mana 4/4 is solid, and the ability is both versatile and a reasonable reverse-bluff for flash creatures. Probably pretty reasonable considering Simic has a lot of medium options.

Winged Salamanader seems great. Flying Man is effective chip damage, and a 5/5 flyer at EoT is big game even if you can't fill your graveyard that well. Gets kind of insane when you can.

Ministrant of Obligation seems pretty medium. It's a good defensive card, but the Afterlife seems moderately easy to prevent triggering and playing a card that needs to be sacced in white is sketchy.

Just realized how good Pitiless Pontiff is for chip damage in addition to defense. Although the 1 cost is annoying, you could probably just get in for free from the threat of activation when you can't afford it.

Quote from FunkyDragon »

Fireblade Artist is nice. Haste, sac outlet, and direct damage. Too bad it's an upkeep trigger - I suppose an activated ability would have been too good.

Not sure if Im seeing it. Rip clan crasher with a very costly and slow form of reach in a gold slot... It would trade off before its relevant, and when you're playing it lategame you have to hope you have the creature count and time to finish the job.

Thoughts on 1B creature, 1/2 deathtouch with afterlife 1?

The closest I can think of is carrier thrall, and thats a clearly flawed analogy.

This guy is bad on offense and even on defense it costs twice as much as the deathtouch rats which occasionally get run, in exchange for the promise of one 1/1 flier down the road.

Seems too low impact

To this point, I think I am most excited about the better Spectacle cards we have seen to date (Drill Bit, Light Up the Stage, and Skewer the Critics). While I am not 100% sure on playing all of them, I really like their design in terms of CUbe philosophy.

My thought is that the best way to support aggro is to have more non-creature spells that are great for aggro and below average for non-aggro decks. So many of the good aggro non-creature spells are good outside of aggro (Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile) that it hurts the quality of the aggro decks, so these spectacle spells look great to me.

Does anyone play Thrill-Kill Assassin outside of aggro? I'm not running it, but I can't imagine wanting to maindeck it if I'm not unleashing it. A 1/1 flyer on a 2 drop is a pretty big deal; obviously it's not an aggressive card, but it seems great otherwise.

Skewer the Critics is more diversity in red burn, so it gets a thumbs-up from me.

Sunder Shaman gives us a large but non-evasive Trygon Predator that unfortunately dies to any one-drop deathtouch chump blocker. It's scary but really needs trample to shine.

Sunder Shaman looks pretty great and it's very easy to find a slot to try out new Gruul cards since nothing is "locked" for the guild other than Bloodbraid. Losing to deathtouchers certainly isn't a huge deal, in most cubes that's like 3-5 cards.

Skewer the Critics is in the Rift Bolt / Lava Spike family of cards that are very good when your deck is full of 20 copies of that effect and quite mediocre for our format. If all you want is power level (which of course isn't everyone's priority), you should max out on Searing Spear variants and probably even the sorcery versions like Incendiary Flow and Fire Ambush before trying Skewer.

Quote from Purplemurasaki »

Does anyone play Thrill-Kill Assassin outside of aggro? I'm not running it, but I can't imagine wanting to maindeck it if I'm not unleashing it. A 1/1 flyer on a 2 drop is a pretty big deal; obviously it's not an aggressive card, but it seems great otherwise.

Skewer the Critics is more diversity in red burn, so it gets a thumbs-up from me.

Yeah, big +1 here, TKA plays EXCLUSIVELY in aggro, nobody ever wants a 1/2 deathtouch for 2 as anything other than a fail-case / emergency role.

I'm not sure that Orzhov Imposter is good enough, though. In aggro it suffers from the "yeah, no blocks" problem with just one power, and for more controlling decks I'm not sure its textbox and extra toughness justifies the CMC boost over a generic Typhoid Rats 1-drop.

a unique etb effect on a creature for those of us that consider ghostly prison to be too strong and an instant speed restock for only permanents

edit: and a fine split card for CUbers that like flexibility and pump spells

I love the sphinx. I think it will be a mainstay as a resilient curve topper for anything slower than aggro.

Sphinx is high power. I actually might have second thoughts about it.

I think Snakeform and Icy Manipulator might be the only answers in my cube to a resolved Sphinx, so frustration levels could be high.

Vampire Nighthawk, Bone Picker, and Indulgent Tormentor can all kill the Sphinx in combat too.

I do agree that 7-drops deserve to be good, and perhaps it isn't even as frustrating as when my sub-par aggro deck recently met Wall of omens on turn two in succesive games.

At last, with this and Meteor Golem I finally have a reasonable selection of Tinker targets!

Full spoiler is up!

I feel pretty disappointed nothing with afterlife or addendum or even spectacle really makes the cut here.

Includes
Pteramander
Frilled Mystic
Rhythm of the wild
Sharktocrab

Maybes
Undercity scavenger
Rubblebelt Runner
Rubble Slinger
Sphinx of the Guildpact

Those maybes are because they are warriors basically.
I actually have plenty of multicoloured removal, I am a little worried the sphinx is a little too small for the mana cost though.

Overall its quality over quantity particularly for simic

Here's what I'm looking at with the full spoiler posted:

Will definitely try:

• Light up the Stage
  
• Frilled Mystic
  
• Wilderness Reclamation
  
• Rhythm of the Wild
  
• Sphinx of the Guildpact
  
• Pteramander
  

Will order a copy of but probably leave in the "sideboard" for starters:

• Ministrant of Obligation
  
• Sphinx of New Prahv
  
• Basilica Bell-Haunt
  
• Rakdos Firewheeler
  
• Sunder Shaman
  
• Growth Spiral
  

Tin street dodger is much worse than slitherblade and its ilk. I cant imagine red really needing a card that bad just to fill a critical mass of 1s.

The cards I like from this set, I really like.
Definitely adding:
Pteramander - Promotes spellslinger and works with +1/+1 counters and flyers.
Rhythm of the Wild - Fun card, but we'll have see if anyone assembles the infinite with Goblin Bombardment and either Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap.
Sharktocrab - Aggressive and controlly,, works well with +1/+1 counters.

A few others caught my eye, but we'll see.
Maybe:
Sphinx of the Guildpact - Big beefy beater with evasion and some protection.
Sunder Shaman - I want to like it, but I just feel Trygon Predator is so much better.
Forbidding Spirit - Could get really annoying with blink archetype, but I do run Ghostly Prison, and it hasn't been a problem yet.

Nothing in the rest of the spoiler caught my eye. Couple of solid roleplayers in established archetypes, but no super exciting cards.

Expect to be Good:
Pteramander - Good ceiling, decent floor, good one drop
Pitiless Pontiff - Combat is now a nightmare; high skill ceiling
Light Up the Stage - Attacking for CA is a good gameplay pattern

Decent cards that will probably stick around:
Skewer the Critics - Diversifies red burn
Orzhov Enforcer - Good defensive card with decent synergy/value
Frilled Mystic - High ceiling, but a lot of things can make it awkward

Considering:
Rhythm of the Wild - Might swap with Fires/add as Fires #2
Sharktocrab - Another playable Simic card I might slot in