MTG Salvation

technically we have two cards but one of them is 3 mana draw a card soooooo.

scaretiller 4
artifact creature - scarecrow
whenever ~ becomes tapped, choose one: you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped; or return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
1/4

unique effect at peasant level, so that's cool. kind of attack trigger on a 1/4 means it can attack kind of reliably, but also 4 mana seems like a lot. good with deserts like ifnir deadlands, blighted lands, cryptic caves, evolving wilds. ramps you either way. i kinda like it but stats wise and kind of restrictive trigger make me hesitant.

Yeah, I just don't see having extra lands in hand or in the graveyard reliably enough to want this in cube (definitely in a couple Commander decks, though).

Next week, we should get some better stuff. I hope we get a few downgrades alongside the new cards.

Cool card, but I can't imagine ever really abusing this well enough to make it good.

I wanna believe in this card. People in the main forum seem to think it's godawful. I'm still kinda curious to try it. It would be a lot better as a 1/5.

I like what it does and that works nicely with all my discard but admittedly, bringing the lands back tapped means that it works way too slowly with stuff like Evolving Wilds. By the time you can play this and hope to benefit from its effect, you could also be doing much more reliable things to reach the msna for the biggest plays in this format. Namely, stuff like Thran Dynamo. EDH benefits from going 12+ mana; CU/be's biggest single play is generally a kicked Fight with Fire and after that, a Pelakka Wurm.

I'd definitely consider paying 4 for a colorless Ondu Giant, but this is miles worse for several different reasons

I was worried that with keyword-themes, there would be little overlap of cards between decks, and since new cards printed for commander are rare/mythics unless they show up in more than one deck, they would be few new commons/uncommons.

I may have been right?

yeah looking like it so far. rip the dream.

Definitely not looking too promising. On the other hand, I've added so many new cards in the last six months that maybe slowing down is a good thing.

I mean, the Kor mentioned here seems like a great addition if the translation is correct. There is still some hope at least for maybe one or two more decent additions.

Yeah, that sounds sweet.

Jesus Christ, managing 4.5 cubes at once is so difficult with all these releases.

But this is a good card, with a fair play pattern.

It's a vigilance bear with occasional upside. It's a solid 2.5 star creature and I'm not sure white has room in smaller cubes for it.

'Occasional upside'? This thing makes another creature unblockable and untargetable for a turn and it can be activated while it has been attacking thanks to Vigilance. Indeed, it works on *any permanent* of yours, making it protect artifacts, enchantments, and lands from removal if needed (and there are fewer solutions to those and they include some of our more game-winning options). While I admit a 2/2 Vigilance is not great, that protection effect is far from having occasional use: it lets the creature always be cashed out for value and always threatens to at the very least eat a removal spell targeted at something bigger, even when this thing has been attacking.

Saccing it to make a creature unblockable is really risky if your opponent has any mana open and not all that great in most decks.

It is a better version of Benevolent Bodyguard in that its body is at least semi-relevant, the protection it gives slightly better and it can target any permanent. It does only work after it has been in play for a turn though while Bodyguard can be sacced immediately. I played Bodyguard eight or so years ago (have I really been peasant cubing for so long ) when it was still a borderline playable (my cube was 450 or 540 then) and it led to some interesting decision making. The Rescuer seems worth testing but I am not sure whether this card would stick in my current 360 cube in the long term.

I mean, if Benevolent Bodyguard had a semi-relevant body, I would play it. As proven by Dauntless Bodyguard which does have that body but a considerably worse protective effect. While it is unlikely to be super-relevant defensively (moreso offensively), we should keep in mind how the Kor effectively gives protection from *everything* (rather than a single colour). Going by the two metrics of 'which decks does it benefit' and 'what is the average case scenario in those decks', the Kor fits more haymakery and controlling decks as an early body able to protect their late game plays and it is a basic body for more aggressive decks, able to give them reach in a pinch. Given how much support for aggressive strategies there has been (much-appreciated as it is), I might partly be interested just because those slower decks need their early drops, too, and this one has general applicability besides. As the argument about removal needing to always be accommodated shows, Peasant needs non-niche, non-blue counterplays to all the good removal we have.

The comparison to Dauntless Bodyguard is a bit unfair imho as the base stats of Dauntless Bodyguard are not just semi-relevant but the main draw of the card. Elite Vanguard is a solid cube card while Huatli's Snubhorn is unplayable.

That fact that you can't sac the new card right away seems like it could be relevant in some situations. Still, it is worth a test.

If Dauntless Bodyguard was a 1/2 he would be unplayable from my pov. While Cliffside Rescuer has a bit more upside he's similar in that regard. If I want that effect in my deck I would draft a card like Shelter or Flickering Ward instead of a bad creature version of it. I'm not saying it's unplayable, but there are more than enough 2 cmc creatures in white to choose from and this is only a mediocre option at best.

'Hate Mirage' looks like a decent card. If you can copy creatures with decent etb effects this can be brutal. Just not sure what to cut for it.

Cliffside Rescuer has a lot more general use than Benevolent Bodyguard. The protection effect is much broader which adds a number of cases with artifacts/enchantments (and lands and planeswalkers). The fact it can also be used as unblockability is a big plus. Being a relevant attacker is huge as well, even if the body isn't great. It has enough over Bodyguard it's probably worth testing.

Hate Mirage looks sweet. I have no clue if it's good or not, but there's a ton of stuff that have etb or attack triggers. Probably not a curve out aggro card, but I can think of a couple decks that would want this.

My first impression on Hate Mirage is that there are a few too many downsides to feel good about the upside. Four mana is more than most of our threaten effects (barring Frenzied Fugue), they are required to have two creatures and/or good ETB abilities to get that extra benefit, and it does not remove a blocker off their board. If they have an untapped 4/4 holding off your 3/3s, making a copy of the 4/4 does not clear the way for your 3/3s. The upside is super-strong, but the card feels more grindy then I prefer for my red decks.

As for Cliffside Rescuer, I am on the same page as most. The protection ability is very useful, but it is tacked onto a below average body. I think this places it firmly into the 2nd or 3rd tier of white two-drops, but I will consider it for my larger CUbe.

did they suspend spoiler season?

Quote from Humphrey »

did they suspend spoiler season?

Suspend? They spoiled everything. There's less than 60 new cards, and only 7 are common/uncommon. They also spoiled the full decklists, but it doesn't look like any rarity shifts (which makes sense, as precons don't really distribute by rarity). So, we finally get a break from the past several sets with lots of goodies, and maybe I can play all the cards I've added before another set brings in new stuff.

Occasionally Commander releases give us a Great Oak Guardian or Heirloom Blade, but for the most part these sets aren't known for giving us cube staples. I don't think we got anything last year either.

mtgs is just slacking Commander 2019 Spoilers 59/302

Quote from Humphrey »

did they suspend spoiler season?

Quote from Humphrey »

mtgs is just slacking Commander 2019 Spoilers 59/302

I think full spoilers are up. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/decks-commander-2019-edition-2019-08-08