I'm not feeling this card, the body isn't that impressive for a 5-drop and unlike Tragic Arrogance, your opponent gets to choose what they keep. Has to compete with Baneslayer Angel, which has somehow become the bottom ranked 5-drop (never thought I'd say that). Gearhulk's ETB isn't even that abusable and requires you to play a specific deck and is very matchup / situationally dependent.
Way too many variations to account for, but there's going to be a lot of times where the creature you're pumping won't be super relevant, like a 1/1 mana dork that also won't have trample or some sort other form of evasion. Combinin high power and trample is key to breaking a lot of board states, I think the most common way to divide his counters (assuming he's got something to work with) will probably be 2 and 2 or 3 and 1
I like this, and might try and find room for it somehow, but not over Kalonian Hydra. Losing a full turn off your clock, dying to artifact removal and being unable to be targeted by 'Lark and (both) Recruiters are all significant drawbacks. It has its advantages too, but not enough for me to do a straight replacement. I might try and find another way to get this in though...
Technically with another creature on board it has the same clock speed as the hydra.
4->12->20
0->8->24
Gross oversimplification tho
A lot of the times Gearhulk's clock will be 0-8-8-8 etc
Acidic Slime is a staple, IMO, as is Thragtusk and Hermit since they all have extremely (ab)usable ETB triggers. Kalonian Hydra #4 for me since he's just a (very good) big / dumb creature that fails the Vindicate test pretty hard.
The more I think about it, the more I like it. Being able to Natural Order / GSZ it to buff up your Birds or something to kill a planeswalker / race definitely shouldn't be overlooked.
He curves nicely too, there's a lot of dangerous 4-drops that can benefit from a few +1/+1 counters.
Finks, yes, but not towards the same thing. Example, if something has Crew 5, you can't tap Finks, sac / recur it, then tap it again to activate the vehicle.
I believe in the panel they said that nothing is higher than Crew 3.
Anafenza really needed first strike or some sort of evasion like the Soltari Bros to justify the WW cost.
Favorite tiny leader? Grenzo, Dungeon Warden if specifically talking about that format. As far as any legendary 3-cmc or less creature, Thalia 1.0 is pretty dope in Legacy and Vintage.
What I like most about vehicles is that there's no mana investment, meaning it's pretty easy to Crew up a vehicle and then slap an equipment on it or something.
I'm looking forward to all the Pimp My Ride jokes to be cracked.
Interesting, last night I was cubing and thought to myself "Man, I wish I had more ways to put +1/+1 counters on my Triskelion."
Having an ETB is always great for cube, the question is do I like this more than Kalonian Hydra?
PROS
- Doesn't 100% fail the Vindicate test like Kalonian Hydra does
- Can make itself and other creatures to withstand Char / Wildfire / Languish effects (this actually might be this card's best selling point)
- ETB effect can be abused
CONS
- Being an artifact makes him more vulnerable to other types of removal
- Kalonian Hydra can probably kill you one turn faster
I definitely want to test this, the question is what to cut.
Decent value but at 2/2 this might be a bit too low impact for me. It'd be awesome if it was a 3/1 that could trade with more things. I have a feeling this card is going to have massive 24th card syndrome: most decks can play it but they also don't particularly want / need it. The synergies are there though, the question is would you cut anything in your cube / deck for it.
This made my morning.
I think this is way above Fiendslayer Paladin / Frontline Medic and about on par with Mirror Entity.
I'm always tempted to make all my basics snow lands and throw Scrying Sheets into the cube.
A lot of the times Gearhulk's clock will be 0-8-8-8 etc
He curves nicely too, there's a lot of dangerous 4-drops that can benefit from a few +1/+1 counters.
Finks, yes, but not towards the same thing. Example, if something has Crew 5, you can't tap Finks, sac / recur it, then tap it again to activate the vehicle.
I believe in the panel they said that nothing is higher than Crew 3.
Favorite tiny leader? Grenzo, Dungeon Warden if specifically talking about that format. As far as any legendary 3-cmc or less creature, Thalia 1.0 is pretty dope in Legacy and Vintage.
I'm looking forward to all the Pimp My Ride jokes to be cracked.
Having an ETB is always great for cube, the question is do I like this more than Kalonian Hydra?
PROS
- Doesn't 100% fail the Vindicate test like Kalonian Hydra does
- Can make itself and other creatures to withstand Char / Wildfire / Languish effects (this actually might be this card's best selling point)
- ETB effect can be abused
CONS
- Being an artifact makes him more vulnerable to other types of removal
- Kalonian Hydra can probably kill you one turn faster
I definitely want to test this, the question is what to cut.
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