it is debatable on whether or not its "rare" for red to get a 4/4 flying with upside, but within cube context we have more than plenty that remain largely unplayed.
These all have quite significant upsides. And being a token is quite a downside for a 4/4 flyer. So you really have to gain some value out of the first two chapters if this card is to be included for power reasons.
I fear that 2 damage at turn 4 is just a turn too late.
Power level or not, I think this card maybe goes over the line of what gameplay I actually want to encourage. If you play this on turn 3, I see the game going to turn 6 and ending in a draw quite often by this dealing 6 damage to each player. If you reduce your opponent to under the threshold, then they will yolo attack back at you for a draw. And they only need to do 8 damage to force a draw, and remember you gave them 6 treasures to defend and attack with.
This card caught my eye. It is basically a better Sphere of the Suns. Aside from doing what Sphere does, this mana rock also allow you to save up mana between turns, meaning that if you play this at turn 2, it can ramp you to 6 mana on turn 4, just like a coalition relic.
This is true in black aggro, but other than that most aggro creatures don't even recur. Also, there's tokens where this is just a Bonesplitter to them anyways unless you care about Blood Artist triggers or something.
This isn't a replacement effect, but a triggered ability after the creature dies, so the blade works just fine with death triggers and blood artist.
This card reads much better than it plays. It creates 2 2/2, decent stats for an aggro deck or to block with. It creates a token that can be used for twin combo. It discards for reanimation.
The truth is that an aggro deck doesn't want its three drop to be a 2/2, and then get a another 2/2 at the fifth turn that can attack at the sixth turn. You hope to have killed your opponent before then. Same logic applies to why it is a *****ty blocker. Reanimation decks aren't looking to spend 3 mana to have a delayed discard effect. And the twin combo aspect costs mana and is telegrapthed 3 turns ahead.
Having your three drop becoming active at turn 6 is really a huge downside.
I couldn't find a ruling on the case, but it should go like this:
The creature enters the battlefield -> a trigger that allows you to pay a cost is put on the stack with no target. This trigger isn't prevented by killing the creature. -> the trigger resolves, if you choose to pay one or more times, one secondary reflexive triggered ability is put on the stack, refering the entered creature and targeting one or more instants or sorceries.
Once you have the second reflexive triggered ability on the stack it should behave exactly like if you had cast an instant with that effect. It is completely separate from the creature, except that it refers to it as an object.
Notice how the wording is very different from monsterous/adapt, which have exactly those issues due to the second part of the effect being stored as a triggered ability on the creature itself, and not a part of the adapt/monsterous ability.
As I read it, you could instead fizzle the ability by exiling all the targeted instants and sorceries.
#Edit - After playing on magic arena, I can confirm that the spells are still cast if the Adversary is killed in response.
A 3 drop that can also be cast in a ramp deck later in the game for good additional power. My issue with the card is that it too weak at each stage compared to other options. For my 3 drops I'm looking for value rather than a stat monster, and this doesn't have enough stats/text to be what questing beast is at 4 mana. At 5 mana you have access to much more deadly 5 drops than a 5/4 trample that also creates 3/3 wolf lands. Note that the land doesn't untap, so this is actually a 6 drop if you want to use the haste... But the 5/4 doesn't have haste, so atacking with a 3/3 isn't that scary for a 6 drop. Once you get to +7 mana, you would rather just have one of green's game ending cards than this midrange stuff.
This isn't what I want in my ramp deck, but I could see it be decent in a gruul fires deck that is happy to see a 4/3 for 3, (even though I would take a rabblemaster creature over this) and a deck that can give the main body haste. So if you support that archetype, this could be an okay card to add, but I'm not impressed with its power.
Good stats and graveyard hate is a fine baseline. I doubt the Hexproof will be that useful when you have to have 2 other targets to be able to activate the ability. The Unblockable on the other hand might come in handy for stalemates. I think it might be a solid addition to larger cubes and it certainly plays into both the hate and the wide aspects of white weenie.
I'm not sure about this card. Is this Paradise Thopter closer to a 5c 2cc mana rock than Palladium is to Worn Powerstone? I guess the difference between 2 and 3 mana matters a lot here.
Since this card is too expensive for a fast reanimator combo, I think the best way to analyse the value is a comparison to Gonti, Lord of Luxury. Is your best card from your deck put into your graveyard worth more than the exile effect of Gonti? Getting Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath into your grave from your deck might be.
My issue with this card is that if you're playing an instant and sorcery deck with a graveyard focus, then many of those instants and sorceries are going to have flashback, jump start or other graveyard value. Thus you don't actually want to exile them.
I had also put my hopes up for a flash lightning bolt that would put flametongue to shame.
But we have this now. Comparing it to flametongue, a creature that is beginning to show its age. 3/3 double strike is much stronger than a 4/2, and splitting 4 damage is quite powerful, as is the ability to hit planeswalkers. Clearing 1-2 tokens and dealing the rest of leftover planeswalkers might be a common line with the amount of planeswalkers that put out tokens. The evoke is really powerful against aggro decks.
I'm a fan of the trend of modal cards with multiple ways to cast them. As the density of flexible cards increase, so does the amount of non-games decrease. I think this is a problem that we should solve once it arrives. While all of these cards certainly are powerful against aggro, red just got perhaps its strongest aggro card ever printed.
At the same time as these modal cards with early game modes are being printed, recent aggro cards have also been printed with late game potential: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Flamescroll Celebrant, Usher of the Fallen, Skyclave Shade, and not to mention all the rabblemaster variants that single handely can end games if you don't have an answer.
The ones with value outnumber those without. So perhaps Aggro is naturally adapting to the super efficient removal cards with value and recursive cards.
Atsushi, the Blazing Sky, Leyline Tyrant, Manaform Hellkite, Moonveil Regent, Verix Bladewing, Thunderbreak Regent
These all have quite significant upsides. And being a token is quite a downside for a 4/4 flyer. So you really have to gain some value out of the first two chapters if this card is to be included for power reasons.
I fear that 2 damage at turn 4 is just a turn too late.
Seems like a fun chaos card for Commander tho.
This card caught my eye. It is basically a better Sphere of the Suns. Aside from doing what Sphere does, this mana rock also allow you to save up mana between turns, meaning that if you play this at turn 2, it can ramp you to 6 mana on turn 4, just like a coalition relic.
Furthermore it gives you a total of 4 artifacts that can be sacrificed to, and have synergy with cards such as: Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goblin Welder, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, Braids, Cabal Minion, Tinker, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Tangle Wire, Smokestack, Mayhem Devil, Ravenous Squirrel, Voltage Surge, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Arcbound Ravager, and cards with metalcraft (Galvanic Blast) or affinity for artifacts (Thought Monitor).
Basically a good card for any cube that runs an artifact, sacrifice or stax theme.
This isn't a replacement effect, but a triggered ability after the creature dies, so the blade works just fine with death triggers and blood artist.
The truth is that an aggro deck doesn't want its three drop to be a 2/2, and then get a another 2/2 at the fifth turn that can attack at the sixth turn. You hope to have killed your opponent before then. Same logic applies to why it is a *****ty blocker. Reanimation decks aren't looking to spend 3 mana to have a delayed discard effect. And the twin combo aspect costs mana and is telegrapthed 3 turns ahead.
Having your three drop becoming active at turn 6 is really a huge downside.
The creature enters the battlefield -> a trigger that allows you to pay a cost is put on the stack with no target. This trigger isn't prevented by killing the creature. -> the trigger resolves, if you choose to pay one or more times, one secondary reflexive triggered ability is put on the stack, refering the entered creature and targeting one or more instants or sorceries.
Once you have the second reflexive triggered ability on the stack it should behave exactly like if you had cast an instant with that effect. It is completely separate from the creature, except that it refers to it as an object.
Notice how the wording is very different from monsterous/adapt, which have exactly those issues due to the second part of the effect being stored as a triggered ability on the creature itself, and not a part of the adapt/monsterous ability.
As I read it, you could instead fizzle the ability by exiling all the targeted instants and sorceries.
#Edit - After playing on magic arena, I can confirm that the spells are still cast if the Adversary is killed in response.
This isn't what I want in my ramp deck, but I could see it be decent in a gruul fires deck that is happy to see a 4/3 for 3, (even though I would take a rabblemaster creature over this) and a deck that can give the main body haste. So if you support that archetype, this could be an okay card to add, but I'm not impressed with its power.
But we have this now. Comparing it to flametongue, a creature that is beginning to show its age. 3/3 double strike is much stronger than a 4/2, and splitting 4 damage is quite powerful, as is the ability to hit planeswalkers. Clearing 1-2 tokens and dealing the rest of leftover planeswalkers might be a common line with the amount of planeswalkers that put out tokens. The evoke is really powerful against aggro decks.
It feels like it warants testing.
At the same time as these modal cards with early game modes are being printed, recent aggro cards have also been printed with late game potential: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Flamescroll Celebrant, Usher of the Fallen, Skyclave Shade, and not to mention all the rabblemaster variants that single handely can end games if you don't have an answer.
The ones with value outnumber those without. So perhaps Aggro is naturally adapting to the super efficient removal cards with value and recursive cards.