@ Poitle - i think ur missing out on recruitment officer, just looking @ ur list, i think you cud easily swap out usher of the fallen to give it a test run
ok, thought i was just missing something. i can get behind recurring nightmare & skullclamp, but Pod is a constructed card. just not good enuff in cube w/o the right amount of & the right type of creatures to pull it off consistently. & it seems that the majority of cube managers agree w/ that sentiment b/c just going back thru the same lists i looked @ on here for Melira, i only found 1 cube w/ Pod in it as well.
My experience with Birthing Pod is its a strong card for any Gx creature deck (non-ramp). Almost 70& of targets 3 CMC or higher are strong targets and if you have a card like Revillark then it just becomes insane.
i feel like this mite a case of confirmation bias Breathe. do you record deck lists from drafts? if you do, would those Gx decks have won w/ or w/o Birthing Pod; i.e. slot any other decent green 3 or 4 drop in its place? off the cuff, i'm going to say yes. like i said in an earlier post, Pod is a constructed card. its powerful to be sure, but in a deck designed to make use of its very specific ability; & it looks like cubers agree w/ that sentiment since most of them dont even run the card.
ok, thought i was just missing something. i can get behind recurring nightmare & skullclamp, but Pod is a constructed card. just not good enuff in cube w/o the right amount of & the right type of creatures to pull it off consistently. & it seems that the majority of cube managers agree w/ that sentiment b/c just going back thru the same lists i looked @ on here for Melira, i only found 1 cube w/ Pod in it as well.
i'm genuinely curious when i ask this, but why does this thread keep popping up? i dont think anybody plays melira in their cubes do they? i started searching cube lists on here b/c i thought maybe i was missing something, but after looking thru like the top 20 or so, i literally only found 1 list w/ this card even in it. there was even 1 huge list w/ close to 1600 cards, that didnt bother running it
Honestly, one of the bigger obstacles for this card might be Lurrus. This card thrives when you take the same sort of trinket artifacts that Lurrus decks love... but lurrus is the deck that uses them better as an engine and this doesn't fit into lurrus.
This boi can't get Elked or yoinked by Oko, Knight of Autumn'd, shattered by Kolaghan's/Prismari Commands, blocked by hamsters, hurt by Minsc, Vindicated, stolen by Dack, Trophy'd, Helix'd, Defiler'd, Fractured, bounced by 3feri, Pup'd, killed by Grist or blocked by insects. He's always a decent 23rd in artifact.dec or ramp. He blocks fliers, blocks any sword, can be cast on any turn, tramples over planeswalker blockers, likes being 4/4'd by Tezz, and can win you the game with Channel.
Lots of these are corner cases, marginal upsides or just unexciting. But they reveal how ubiquitously reasonable he is in many decks, in many matchups, on many turns. There are stronger cards for this slot, but there aren't many colorless creatures as maindeckable. If you want to spend 1 colorless slot on a card that every player might maindeck every time you draft, try him out.
100% agree Sauce, card is truly that good. i have it in my micro degenerate cube
But d0rsal, I could say the same thing about activating Recruitment Officer's ability: if you're doing that, things have gone badly for you. Between falling behind my opponent on resources, or having plenty of mana and not enough gas, I consider the former to be the worst scenario to be stuck in; even if it's less likely to come up, I prefer the card that could very occasionally dig me out of a truly crappy hole.
100% agree about having more mana than not enuff. if someone ever hands me a deck to play, i almost always take out the worst card & add another land b/c i'd rather be able to play than not play @ all. however, 3 mana is pretty much the sweet spot for a low to the ground aggro deck. beyond that, the major difference between frontier explorer & Recruitment officer, is that the 1st has to tap to do its thing, while the latter does not. being able to continue to turn the creature sideways to apply pressure vs having to choose to activate is a really big deal; the officer @ least allows you to do both
I think Frontier Explorer is underplayed. I prefer insurance against mana screw than mana flood.
This ability is sweet, definitely just bonus value. Could be better than Soldier of the Pantheon. But I think Dauntless Bodyguard is also better than this.
Sauce if you have 3 mana to activate frontier explorer in an aggro deck, i wouldnt call that mana screw. & if ur in a position in an aggro deck where ur wanting to activate the scout's ability....
or just let ur players choose the stickers they want for their deck. honestly, how many sticker cards are you likely to run, so let them @ least have what they consider the very best. if you play w/ conspiracies, you dont let em draft a "blank" conspiracy card & then give them some randos to choose from after the fact. i'm assuming no, that they know what they're drafting when they draft it, so if someone wants to draft a sticker card, let em have whatever stickers they want to run w/ that card. how busted could it be compared to alot of other cards they may be facing...?
I thought the randomness would make this a bit of a liability, but on testing, I was dead wrong. Comet is a very strong card in almost every mode - even the 3 straight away is not that much of a whiff, since you are even on cards even if the opponent dedicates enough damage to finish Comet off.
thx GK & Wilson, thats what i've been saying. this card is legit, its powerful AF, right up there w/ oko, jace, minsc & boo; it will kill ur opponent DEAD
cat, you would have agency in that situation, you dont have to run the dog out there. as you said above, you have a 5 in 6 chance of completely turning the game on its ear, but if you do & roll a 3, its not the end of the world. sure it sux, but oh well, thems the breaks. i mean you did take 4 less damage, thats not nothing...
The only time the dog is bad when you manage to cast it well ahead of curve w/o lotus or a fetch for instance. Like if you go land, sol ring, turn 1 & turn 2 land, cast dog & roll a 3 w/ nothing in the GY. & I don’t think anybody is feeling too bad for you @ that pt anyways. Outside of that he’s pretty much gas
Even if you just go signet on 2 this on 3, there's a decent number of games you don't have a target in the yard.
that’s very true asmallcat, but that’s still not the end of the world. You’ve still played a must be answered threat or the game is going to go very poorly for ur opponent.
To book end what the Groglord said bout the die rolling, I’ve been running simulations of comet vs jtms & the dog so far has won everytime so far
The only time the dog is bad when you manage to cast it well ahead of curve w/o lotus or a fetch for instance. Like if you go land, sol ring, turn 1 & turn 2 land, cast dog & roll a 3 w/ nothing in the GY. & I don’t think anybody is feeling too bad for you @ that pt anyways. Outside of that he’s pretty much gas
@ Poitle - i think ur missing out on recruitment officer, just looking @ ur list, i think you cud easily swap out usher of the fallen to give it a test run
i feel like this mite a case of confirmation bias Breathe. do you record deck lists from drafts? if you do, would those Gx decks have won w/ or w/o Birthing Pod; i.e. slot any other decent green 3 or 4 drop in its place? off the cuff, i'm going to say yes. like i said in an earlier post, Pod is a constructed card. its powerful to be sure, but in a deck designed to make use of its very specific ability; & it looks like cubers agree w/ that sentiment since most of them dont even run the card.
i 2nd all that stuff, 1 of the best black cards WotC has printed in awhile
good call Rosy
100% agree Sauce, card is truly that good. i have it in my micro degenerate cube
100% agree about having more mana than not enuff. if someone ever hands me a deck to play, i almost always take out the worst card & add another land b/c i'd rather be able to play than not play @ all. however, 3 mana is pretty much the sweet spot for a low to the ground aggro deck. beyond that, the major difference between frontier explorer & Recruitment officer, is that the 1st has to tap to do its thing, while the latter does not. being able to continue to turn the creature sideways to apply pressure vs having to choose to activate is a really big deal; the officer @ least allows you to do both
Sauce if you have 3 mana to activate frontier explorer in an aggro deck, i wouldnt call that mana screw. & if ur in a position in an aggro deck where ur wanting to activate the scout's ability....
thx GK & Wilson, thats what i've been saying. this card is legit, its powerful AF, right up there w/ oko, jace, minsc & boo; it will kill ur opponent DEAD
that’s very true asmallcat, but that’s still not the end of the world. You’ve still played a must be answered threat or the game is going to go very poorly for ur opponent.
To book end what the Groglord said bout the die rolling, I’ve been running simulations of comet vs jtms & the dog so far has won everytime so far