My initial build of my cube included Sol Ring. It was the first of two cards that were cut for power reasons from my cube (the other being Wurmcoil Engine). For whatever reason I didn't identify how powerful this card was until my friend killed me on T3 through some shenanigans he had put together involving a hasted Laquatus's Champion. After that I started tracking how often a player that resolved Sol Ring won the game... I didn't track when the card came down or if it was destroyed or anything other than if the card itself was resolved. The Sol Ring player won 70% of the games when this card resolved. There are a few other cards with a similar metric, but those cards don't go into every deck (like Wildfire for example) so they don't bother me.
Ultimately, I think this card turns one of the players in any given match into a spectator rather than an opponent. Even if they draw something to deal with it early, the damage will have already been done in a lot of cases (Disenchant on your second turn could still leave you dealing with their 4 drop).
I don't think this card is going to make it into my cube (unless I randomly pull a copy of it) but I did LOL when I saw that the card actually says "Gain 100 Life" on it.
does the "one or more creatures" part only count for the "becomes blocked" part or for the "blocks or becomes blocked" part?
what i wanna ask is, when blocking, can i exile when i block only one attacker or only when the creature is able to block multiple attackers ?
The card allows your creature to exile one creature that either blocks the equipped creature or is blocked by the equipped creature. In other words, if your equipped creature gets double blocked, you would be able to exile one of the two creatures. If equip it onto something that can block more than one creature in a turn like Hundred-Handed One or something, you would be able to exile one of the creatures you blocked with the equipped creature.
I had it in my initial build of my cube but found it too hard to work into my blue decks and I'm not sure that I would be so hesitant with devotion being a thing that my cube does.
Made another update to my cube recently that has made me realize that my black section needs help. Anybody have any ideas for what might be wrong/what needs to be fixed?
I am running this in my 450 cube right now and have been happy with it.
That said, I wouldn't run it as a replacement for something like Spectral Procession or Lingering Souls. Those cards behave differently because they come down sooner and immediately make an impact.
Assemble the Legion takes a few turns to get going and it doesn't even come out until T5 in most cases. A lot of people don't run this card for this specific reason. Getting to turn 8-9 isn't always easy in cube (but that depends on your particular cube).
You would want to evaluate it like a control card rather than an aggro card. For me, the fact that it is a control card is just fine with me. I like the effect and the options that it gives during the draft.
As a side note, there is already a thread dedicated to this card... here.
I don't think that the Gods are worth warping us towards otherwise unpalatable XCC cards. Hammer of Purphoros would undeniably be better at 2R, and likewise Thassa isn't good enough to make me include a ton of CC and CCC cards just to marginally improve devotion. Even if we get a ton of playable blue multicolour Gods, that's not likely to change.
Hammer is a good card on its merit, though, albeit one that probably won't last more than another year in my cube.
I agree that Hammer of Purphoros would be better at 2R. That said, I don't particularly mind it being 1RR because of the way I end up playing it. I had this card in my cube before I ever decided to run the gods just because I like the effect.
I have added Frostburn Weird to help support devotion in my cube. I'm still in the testing phases of that to see if it is a thing people want to do, but I put it into my Blue section rather than my Izzet section (based mostly on the fact that the red decks don't really want a guy like this anyway).
I've been testing this guy out a lot and found that it is pretty hard to get him to go active, but he wins the game for me anyway just by the fact that he deals damage off things I am doing anyway. I think I like Thassa more, but I won't be cutting Purphoros anytime soon (running him at 450).
I've been running this card in my cube and found it to be pretty amazing. I rarely ever cast it on T3 though. More often, I'll hang on to this in my hand until I get to the point that I don't want to be pulling lands off the top.
I am also running the gods in my cube right now so the double red actually helps that out where it is a problem for people that aren't running Purphoros himself.
Finally, after a long, long time, I have managed to get in here and update my cube from the original list. A full list of the changes can be found at the link below: http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/1485
My cube was initially set up as 450 cards, but I wasn't running all of the signets. So I added all the rest of the signets in and then moved them into my colorless section instead of the Multi colored section. I did that mainly to have a little more space for actual spells in my different guild sections instead of mana rocks.
Rather than cut cards to put the signets in, I just added them in. I have been considering making some cuts to get back down to 450, but it doesn't seem too important to do that right now. There have been some cards that are on the chopping block, that I may just cut rather than replacing, but I'll have to see as I get a few more drafts with the current configuration.
I think a reason you see a lot of cubes running similar cards is how the cards get drafted. I had a lot of weird nich cards when I first constructed my cube (which wasn't really that long ago) and those cards have slowly been going away for the more flexible cards that are showing up in lots of other cubes. I didn't do that to be like the other cubes so much as I put the cards in that will get drafted and used.
Ultimately, I think this card turns one of the players in any given match into a spectator rather than an opponent. Even if they draw something to deal with it early, the damage will have already been done in a lot of cases (Disenchant on your second turn could still leave you dealing with their 4 drop).
The card allows your creature to exile one creature that either blocks the equipped creature or is blocked by the equipped creature. In other words, if your equipped creature gets double blocked, you would be able to exile one of the two creatures. If equip it onto something that can block more than one creature in a turn like Hundred-Handed One or something, you would be able to exile one of the creatures you blocked with the equipped creature.
Hope that helps.
With Blue tempo/devotion getting better (with Master of Waves and Thassa, God of the Sea), is this card worth a second look?
That said, I wouldn't run it as a replacement for something like Spectral Procession or Lingering Souls. Those cards behave differently because they come down sooner and immediately make an impact.
Assemble the Legion takes a few turns to get going and it doesn't even come out until T5 in most cases. A lot of people don't run this card for this specific reason. Getting to turn 8-9 isn't always easy in cube (but that depends on your particular cube).
You would want to evaluate it like a control card rather than an aggro card. For me, the fact that it is a control card is just fine with me. I like the effect and the options that it gives during the draft.
As a side note, there is already a thread dedicated to this card...
here.
I agree that Hammer of Purphoros would be better at 2R. That said, I don't particularly mind it being 1RR because of the way I end up playing it. I had this card in my cube before I ever decided to run the gods just because I like the effect.
I am also running the gods in my cube right now so the double red actually helps that out where it is a problem for people that aren't running Purphoros himself.
Sarcomancy -> Skeletal Scying
Skinbrand Goblin -> Aurelia, the Warleader
Uncovered Clues -> Spire Owl
Curiosity -> Careful Study
Aurelia was not directly traded with the Skinbrand Goblin, I moved Boros Reckoner into the red section to make room for her.
The logic for all these changes has been posted here. Feedback is appreciated.
http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/1485
http://buildingthecube.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/making-changes/
My cube was initially set up as 450 cards, but I wasn't running all of the signets. So I added all the rest of the signets in and then moved them into my colorless section instead of the Multi colored section. I did that mainly to have a little more space for actual spells in my different guild sections instead of mana rocks.
Rather than cut cards to put the signets in, I just added them in. I have been considering making some cuts to get back down to 450, but it doesn't seem too important to do that right now. There have been some cards that are on the chopping block, that I may just cut rather than replacing, but I'll have to see as I get a few more drafts with the current configuration.