This card is easily the best companion they have revealed so far. While it may initially appear restrictive, you need to remember that there are a TON of X-cost cards that technically have a CMC of 2--for example, Hydroid Krasis, Stonecoil Serpent, Voracious Hydra, and Steelbane Hydra are all technically 2 CMC cards, even though nobody plays them for that. If you run a very aggressive Bant or Abzan decklist, you can use these cards to supplement the lack of a high-cost endgame.
Also, when not played as a companion, this card is absolutely disgusting with Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger and Luminous Broodmoth. You can decimate the opponent's hand while hitting them in the face.
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jsager99 posted a message on Lurrus of the Dream-DenPosted in: Lurrus of the Dream-Den -
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Melting Sky posted a message on Gruul SpellbreakerThis is better than people are giving it credit for. Much like with charms there is considerable strength in being given a choice between two different above curve bodies that can be used to better effect depending on the situation. Being given a choice is not inconsequential.Posted in: Gruul Spellbreaker
The second part of the card that seems to be getting way under valued is how this card grants hexproof both to you and itself on your turn. This is a considerable kick in the balls to any deck that relies on instant speed removal spells and synergizes strongly with haste since it means your opponent is pretty much going to have to eat an attack from this thing whether he likes it or not and the fact it's body is above curve and has trample means even if your opponent has a way to successfully block it on T2 or T3 they are probably getting two for oned in the exchange.
The other thing people don't realize is just how devastating a tempo play this card is when you play it on a turn your opponent has left mana open on purpose for their removal. It means they must now either waste all their mana and not cast the removal spell this turn or they have to ignore your fat turn 3 drop and waste their removal on a small fry, assuming there is one. Against the sort of aggro deck you would play this in that is a devastating tempo loss.
Although their currently isn't a good shell for this card in standard, if there is enough good stuff to create a strong aggressive deck in these colors then this card will almost certainly be in it. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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The certainties to me are:
4x venerable knight
4x knight of the ebon legion
4x worthy knight
4x acclaimed contender
4x murderous rider
These are the strongest knight cards imo and the reason to want to go this deck in the first place. What knights to fill up with I'm not entirely sure.
I don't think there are any other 1-drops good enough to consider, ideally you had played another but Fervent Champion is too hard on the mana and the other 1-drops are too weak, Foulmire knight is really lackluster.
For 2-drops the best options besides Worthy knight are Order of Midnight, Corpse Knight, Blacklance paragon and Smitten swordmaster. I quite like order of midnight, it's flexibility is good but not the best turn 2 play, same for smitten swordmaster. I think you want a bit of a mix here but I like Order the most overall. Blacklance really depends on how bad or good a 3/1 is in the format, I have a feeling that could be very good and you actually want him as 4-of. Smitter swordmaster might not be good enough to make the cut. The deck probably wants a high count of 2-drops as they are flexible and that way Worthy Knight is protected, against decks with removal you probably want to go Worth Knight into another knight at turn 3 or 4 and play something that can catch the bullet first like Blacklance or Corpse Knight. Order of Midnight really fits well into this.
At 3 mana you probably want a bit extra as murderous rider is more removal, choice probably between Midnight Reaper and Oathsworn knight, depends a bit what the nature of (mass) removal will be in this format. If it's damage based mostly I think the Oathsworn knight a lot but overall I guess Midnight reaper is probably the way to go.
Not sure you want to go higher up the curve, maybe some sorin. With castles and the adventures you already have lots of lategame so i'd want to play a reasonably high land count (24 or 25) but not go too far up the curve.
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Besides that I don't see it having much use, you really don't want this in multiples typically and you don't need it early. A 1 or 2-of in sideboards for grindy matchups, pretty strong at that if graveyards are easily filled up.
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Both this and goblin chainwhirler combo quite well with status. Goblin chainwhirler for the full plaguewind and this can just take out 2 creatures.
The deck only lacks a really good 1-drop, that might make a green bssed aggro a bit more attractive but i suspect chainwhirler will be strong enough to stay red.
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Sure there have been more cards that cast suspend cards for free or do are good in combo's like the expertise cycle but none of them have been close to this in efficiency really.
The fact that it sais x OR LESS and you can use it each turn really make this pay itself back fast and give huge advantages.
Take some U/W control list in modern, it already wants to play ancestral vision and a singleton restore balance and possibly some lotus blooms are great with it. The normal weakness of the suspend cards that they suck lategame is completely sidestepped by As foretold, if you have them in your opener just suspend, if you draw them later you get instant effect with as foretold.
This package will dominate UW control in modern:
3-4 As Foretold
4 Ancestral vision
1-2 Restore balance
3-4 Tolaria west
This card is much better than Vial in modern because of the suspend interaction. Vial takes much longer to pay off. As foretold into vision or restore balance is instant insane value and you still have the as foretold afterwards. Tolaria west is basically a free tutor to set this up and if you don't draw the as foretold your visions are still fine by themselves.
The value of as foretold afterwards is also pretty huge. Play enough 1 mana cards and you already get 2 mana the next turn out of it, 1 during your turn like a serum visions and 1 during their turn, ie some 1 mana removal. From 2 and onwards it really get's going, you can play anything with counter backup, start casting snapcasters for value etc. Aether vial get's even in mana 1 turn after cast and goes 2 up 2 turns after cast needing a 1 and 2-drop for that. As foretold with two 1 CC spells and two 2 CC spells (not hard in a control deck full of cantrips counters and removal) will be 1 mana down 1 turn after but will be 3 mana up 2 turns after. It overtakes aether vial really fast and if you have it with a suspend card it's bonkers immediately of course as a direct ancestral visions or restore balance is worth ~4 mana i'd say.
The deck doesn't need to be UW either, restore balance is never suspended for W anyway so the package is just blue. Playing 3 or 4 tolaria west makes three color harder to do but not impossible, grixis for example could be good too as it has a ton of 1 and 2 mana instants enabling the as foretold even more and the loop of snapcaster + kolaghan is really strong once you get as foretold with a few ticks up.
I suspect a ban really, this card is just too strong and slides so well into decks which are already fairly good.
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It's pretty good in a more aggressive low curve deck it;s a bit like collected company in that respect that this shines if you play a bunch of low creatures. You can just play this at 3 then, scry and get great value the next turns and onwards. Or you play it at 5 and immediately use it.
I don't see such a deck in standard though and in modern it's not good enough probably. And the question is how good is this if you're not a hyperaggressive low curve deck, I expect not so much so i doubt it will see much play.
But a very cool design. Functions similar to domri rade but having the option to play this for 10 as a fireball to the face is really cool.
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I like the fact it sais non-dragon, otherwise you could get into a silly situation where you wait for eachother to play this.
Just a really solid card, cleaning up a gideon + token and getting a dragon that untaps for more sweetnes 2 turns from now is really good.
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If the artifact itself was 4 or 5 mana it might have been good, not it's just too slow. Not even mentioning all the vulnerabilities this has to stuff that counters searching, artifacts, triggers etc. Tron is already bad against stony silence, don't want to add this as vulnerability.
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The -x-x option is also weak, need a whole lot of effort to kill creatures on curve with this. This is not a format where you can easily have 3 artifacts out by turn 4, and that isn't enough to kill some threats even.
Finally the ultimate is really weak.
Most of all though this does nothing by itself, you need board presence to use the -2 and cards at hand to use the +1. The etherium tokens should have been 1/1s at least and even then this card was weak, now it's one of the worst planeswalkers ever.
In older formats the abilities get better but he isn't close enough to be even considered in older formats