"You make the decision whether to exert a creature as you declare it as an attacker. If you choose to have it exert, an ability will trigger and grant you some bonus. As a trade-off, the creature won't untap during your next turn. It's tired. Needs a nap. Attack more later."
Yeah, only attacks. Would be interested if you can have a Grim Lavamancer / Mother of Runes type creature that can use Exert on activated abilities that require a tap.
Not only does Trueheart Duelist echo Call of the Herd (a not so great card these days), but also Scrapheap Scrounger (an amazing card). Being able to block two things isn't exactly worth the 3rd power, and cheaper / multiple recursions that Scrapheap boasts. Still, white having access to Stoneforge Mystic to increase the chances of this having a piece of equipment and the fact that Stax often plays white looks good for duelist in my cube, especially with all my discard outlets / graveyard shenanigans.
Taking a close look at my cube, I can see myself cutting Imposing Sovreign over this. The recursion will be more useful overall than the ETB tapped clause more often, especially in Stax shells. Being recurrable through a Wrath is nice, but I have a feeling it'll be on the cusp in a lot of straight aggro decks.
I would look for either Relic Seeker, Soltari Trooper or Hidden Dragonslayer before considering cutting Imposing Sovereign. This card is nuts.
Seeker, Trooper and Dragonslayer are definitely up for cut consideration too. Looked at my cubetutor when I got home and was like "hmm, the depth of white 2-cmc creatures isn't as deep as black..." The vanilla-ness of the card kind of kills me, but recursion is still recursion. It's no Scrapheap Scrounger, but a fixed Scrapheap Scrounger might still be good enough.
Speaking of Scrounger, I think it's hilarious that Scrounger can't block and this blocks 2 things, haha.
Taking a close look at my cube, I can see myself cutting Imposing Sovreign over this. The recursion will be more useful overall than the ETB tapped clause more often, especially in Stax shells. Being recurrable through a Wrath is nice, but I have a feeling it'll be on the cusp in a lot of straight aggro decks.
Call of the Herd losing some weight and occasionally being a zombie isn't exactly the most convincing argument, but Liliana / Stax applications are interesting. I like this card in equipment heavy decks, Grafted Wargear always appreciates recursion. If it were to make it into my cube, it'd probably replace another lower-tier card like Relic Seeeker or Soltari Trooper.
It also has value out of the 'yard, and gives you timing control (and can't be countered coming back). It's better on defense, and doesn't cost WW. I think this is significantly better than Loyal Cathar. Interactions with looting and discard effects seems promising with this mechanic too. Seems like the kind of card that would be right at home in an tempo shell with Looter il-Kor and tiny Jace and stuff. Or with Liliana and Pack Rat and friends in an Orzhov shell. I think the ability is just interesting enough to make it worth experimenting with.
Not sure what you mean by "timing control" but you can only Embalm anytime you can cast a sorcery in case you're referring to instant speed embalming.
This card can definitely find itself in any Recurring Nightmare deck, but I'm trying to think if it can find a home anywhere else besides generic midrange / control filler.
I still run Eternal Dragon. Comparing them side by side, Demon costing 2 less mana is a huge upside, but Eternal Dragon's plaincycling ability makes it more useful in control decks. While the cycling part of his triggered ability is going to be flavor text most of the time (only cycling cards I run are Eternal Dragon / Miscalculation / Ash Barrens), I do run a ton of discard outlets to make it work when needed.
I don't like the demon over Custodi Lich, but I should be able to find a slot to at least test this if I have nothing else to test. Like most creatures, a 5th toughness would have gone a long way, but cycling is always a nice option to have.
Let's hope the new Liliana has 4 abilities involving discard, zombies, and -1/-1 counters.
Card itself seems passable in all but larger cubes, but the mechanic is promising. Embalm is essentially flashback for creatures (at sorcery speed). It exiles the creature from the graveyard but creates an exact token copy on the battlefield except that it's a zombie and it has cmc of 0. Embalm doesn't cast the card itself, so it can't be countered by traditional means.
Zombie always gets my juices flowing, hopefully we'll get some powerful embalm creatures in the next few weeks.
Black 5-drop! Not the one we're looking for I don't think, but it's definitely worth discussing. Having a cycling mode means it shares similar modal options to Shriekmaw. Perhaps if we get more cards that cycle, this may have some legs to stand on.
Interesting alternative to Stormbreath Dragon in larger cubes. Exert means when you attack, you can choose to exert. If you do, get X effect and this creature won't untap during its next untap phase.
Whereas Polukranos is on the bubble for me, and easily is the green 4-drop I'd cut first if I had to. Repeatable removal without having to sink any additional mana into it, fodder for Braids/Abyss/Stack, support for token shells, and a card that can completely run away with the game if it goes unchecked. And after a few turns, even removal still leaves you with multiple wolves on the battlefield. I'm securely in the Master of the Wild Hunt camp on this one. Fortunately for Polukranos, the options in the 4cc green creature section are pretty light, so it's safe for now.
Both Master and Polly-K have been on the bubble for me, really wouldn't mind replacing both in the future. However, Master's job has gotten eaten up by every other 4-cmc token generating planeswalker and has been seeing less maindeck inclusion than Polukranos has (in my decks at least).
When Angel of Invention was spoiled, a lot of people had difficulty choosing between Cloudgoat Ranger vs Baneslayer Angel. While CGR is often heralded as the better card overall, BSA fills the stat monster role that none of the other 5-drops could.
Polukranos has actually gone up in value over the past years for me. Being able to eat Yahenni's Expertise is another notch to Polukranos' belt and the recent printing of Regal Behemoth is keeping mana sinks in demand like Polukranos, Duskwatch Recruiter, and Walking Ballista.
I actually like Polukranos more since 5 toughness is pretty key in a lot of situations, especially compared to Master being a 3/3. Polukranos can survive FTK / Languish / Wildfire / Earthquakes below 5, Master can't even eat a Lightning Bolt. The sturdiness of Polukranos is harder to replace than the token aspect of Master of the Hunt, IMO.
I'm not a fan of Ashiok but I can see why people like him / her / it (?). On one hand, having a +2 ability on a 3-cmc planeswalker is pretty strong, but I don't like how Ashiok is completely restricted to one ability at first and plays the RNG game with your opponent's library. Ashiok also not supporting any particular archetypes is besides mill so that doesn't exactly help Ashiok's case when competing as the same cube / Dimir cmc slot as Psychatog (who is an all-star in multiple archetypes in my cube).
Dimir can be pretty shallow if you don't support the artifact package and aren't a fan of Psychatog. Baleful Strix and Dragonlord Silumgar have universal appeal, but everything else is very dependent on what your cube supports / personal taste.
Can't say I have a worse nightmare (of the sleeping variety), but I do have some recurring nightmares. I often time have dreams where my teeth start falling out of my mouth and start melting. Everybody chasing me down trying to kill me is also something that comes up from time to time, those ones are at least more fun than the melting teeth.
Mana Reflection type cards are pretty niche, and Mirari's Wake is probably the best pure variant you're going to get. If you want a that type of effect, it's hard to beat Wake. If you don't think you need a Mana Reflection type card, there's plenty of other Selesnya options to choose from.
Yeah, only attacks. Would be interested if you can have a Grim Lavamancer / Mother of Runes type creature that can use Exert on activated abilities that require a tap.
Seeker, Trooper and Dragonslayer are definitely up for cut consideration too. Looked at my cubetutor when I got home and was like "hmm, the depth of white 2-cmc creatures isn't as deep as black..." The vanilla-ness of the card kind of kills me, but recursion is still recursion. It's no Scrapheap Scrounger, but a fixed Scrapheap Scrounger might still be good enough.
Speaking of Scrounger, I think it's hilarious that Scrounger can't block and this blocks 2 things, haha.
Not sure what you mean by "timing control" but you can only Embalm anytime you can cast a sorcery in case you're referring to instant speed embalming.
Although I think his music has some really sick beats, I can't stand Kendrick Lamar's voice.
I still run Eternal Dragon. Comparing them side by side, Demon costing 2 less mana is a huge upside, but Eternal Dragon's plaincycling ability makes it more useful in control decks. While the cycling part of his triggered ability is going to be flavor text most of the time (only cycling cards I run are Eternal Dragon / Miscalculation / Ash Barrens), I do run a ton of discard outlets to make it work when needed.
I don't like the demon over Custodi Lich, but I should be able to find a slot to at least test this if I have nothing else to test. Like most creatures, a 5th toughness would have gone a long way, but cycling is always a nice option to have.
Let's hope the new Liliana has 4 abilities involving discard, zombies, and -1/-1 counters.
Card itself seems passable in all but larger cubes, but the mechanic is promising. Embalm is essentially flashback for creatures (at sorcery speed). It exiles the creature from the graveyard but creates an exact token copy on the battlefield except that it's a zombie and it has cmc of 0. Embalm doesn't cast the card itself, so it can't be countered by traditional means.
Zombie always gets my juices flowing, hopefully we'll get some powerful embalm creatures in the next few weeks.
Black 5-drop! Not the one we're looking for I don't think, but it's definitely worth discussing. Having a cycling mode means it shares similar modal options to Shriekmaw. Perhaps if we get more cards that cycle, this may have some legs to stand on.
Interesting alternative to Stormbreath Dragon in larger cubes. Exert means when you attack, you can choose to exert. If you do, get X effect and this creature won't untap during its next untap phase.
Both Master and Polly-K have been on the bubble for me, really wouldn't mind replacing both in the future. However, Master's job has gotten eaten up by every other 4-cmc token generating planeswalker and has been seeing less maindeck inclusion than Polukranos has (in my decks at least).
When Angel of Invention was spoiled, a lot of people had difficulty choosing between Cloudgoat Ranger vs Baneslayer Angel. While CGR is often heralded as the better card overall, BSA fills the stat monster role that none of the other 5-drops could.
Polukranos has actually gone up in value over the past years for me. Being able to eat Yahenni's Expertise is another notch to Polukranos' belt and the recent printing of Regal Behemoth is keeping mana sinks in demand like Polukranos, Duskwatch Recruiter, and Walking Ballista.
Dimir can be pretty shallow if you don't support the artifact package and aren't a fan of Psychatog. Baleful Strix and Dragonlord Silumgar have universal appeal, but everything else is very dependent on what your cube supports / personal taste.
Can't say I have a worse nightmare (of the sleeping variety), but I do have some recurring nightmares. I often time have dreams where my teeth start falling out of my mouth and start melting. Everybody chasing me down trying to kill me is also something that comes up from time to time, those ones are at least more fun than the melting teeth.