You lose quite a bit with the planeswalkers redirection rule (Cannot hit planeswalkers) + decks becoming more streamlined and efficient.
One drops/ aggressive deck removal have also improve significantly.
From my understanding, Ankh of Mishra is a slightly more reliable version of Black Vise that works well with the land destruction/ mana denial already in cube.
This won't interact with most of the cards in your second paragraph, because Laelia specifies "whenever you exile", not "whenever one or more cards are exiled from". In the case of each of those *except* Nicol Bolas (EDIT: and Ashiok, Nightmare Muse), the opponent is the one that is taking the action of exiling your stuff, so Laelia won't trigger.
I didn't realize how Laelia interacts with Cascade, Delve, Escape, and Eternalize. I'll be adding a section about the Laelia Interactions in my card explanation article.
This is one of the reasons I added Nature's Claim to my 540. I thought the lifegain made it unplayable but having a 1 mana instant speed answer as a naturalize with virtually zero downside has been worth it. I'm glad to have the Claim alongside this new card.
New card can really blow out the artifact heavy decks but by the time it gets online for a ton of destruction it will be late game.
If Nature's Claim was a white card, I prob have it in my cube. But I like the Reclamation sage variants a bit more + Collector Ouphe.
How has this card played for everyone? On the surface it looks like a boring card not worth a slot, but it also seems like exactly what I’d want to draft in most green ramp/midrange decks.
The problem with SCD discussion is not "is this good enough for cube" but can it make it into these higher competitive slots.
I been on the record for saying that Kodama's Reach is actually an incredibly bad card in cube - its one of the last filler cards I have in my cube to help round out the archetypes. 3 mana for 1 acceleration, in green is a horrible rate. I been wanting to remove it for some time.
Three years ago, you wanted cards that could fit in a variety of decks (including today), but the problem is some cards have very efficient cards such as Oko, Thief of Crowns, Skyclave Apparition, Shatterskull Smashing, Seasoned Pyromancer, Rankle, Master of Pranks that is essentially strong in 80% of decks in those colors and fills the engine roles of discard outlets, removal, artifact density, flicker targets etc. that the you need less of these "jack of all trait" cards and more hyper efficient archetype cards to compete.
Back to the card itself, if I’d throw comparisons around I’d look at similar play patterns like Settle the Wreckage or similar mana value and non-creature type like Fractured Identity which incidentally both need your opponent to do or have something in order to work well. Fractured Identity is best when targeting a big cool thing. This card is best when stopping a big swing. They can both be used in worst case scenarios on a small creature or small swing, and they are both DEAD without their conditions being met, but the potential upside is worth it. Sure, Fractured is better than this card, but it’s one of the best gold cards out there. I’d even say the rate is similar for outcome (1-2 cmc card fractured/Inksheild damage prevented: poor rate, 3-4 cmc/damage: fine rate, 5-6: Great, 7+: absurd).
I like Hero more because it has 4 toughness, deals more damage on an empty board, does a better job of attacking 'walkers (this only triggers when you attack the opponent, and the tokens also have to go face ...unlike Hero's), and the token/anthem interaction works better in decks designed to maximize those synergies. But the "haste" and flying are both nice upsides, so I do like this card more than Leonin Warleader. Cool card.
The plus is the token + itself is flying, which is huge.
The minus is its only 3 toughness, which screams Lightning Bolt
I made a list the other day of the 7 categories of fatty cheats:
- Reanimation
- Instant Speed Reanimation
- Hard Cast
- Artifact - Welder/ Tinker etc
- Sneak Attack/ Breach, Flash
- Natural Order
- Show and Tell/ Eureka/ Oath of Druids
What I like about this card is its strong in Hard Cast, Artifact, Sneak Attack, Natural Order, and Show and Tell Decks. I've been less happy about reanimator decks, given that it requires a 3 card combo unlike sneak attack, hard cast etc. and is harder to assemble, but its saving grace is its usually 1-2 turns faster.
I love to see redundancy added for all these decks.
A Disenchant version of Release the Gremlins? Sounds nice, but my understanding is that being a sorcery and not being playable when there was no legal targets were huge drawbacks for RtG. My gut tells me that hitting more targets and spreading the stats over more bodies is enough to overcome those drawbacks (and adding more spells to Green is nice), but I wouldn't replace Reclamation Sage or Manglehorn for it.
This destroys up to X targets, and always makes twice X tokens. So even with only 1 target, you can still pay 6G for this and make 6 bodies and Naturalize something. And this is playable on an empty board as a pseudo Secure the Wastes kind of card. This thing is pretty nuts.
I completely missed that! That is insane. I LOVE THIS.
Great card for Tempo decks, token decks and ramp decks.
I really hope it doesn't see legacy play ... my affinity deck has enough trouble as it is.
Just to clarify, combat damage includes to your creatures?
I'm asking is if I swing in with a 4/4 into your 4/3, and you block, then I cast this prior to damage is assigned, do I get 4 tokens?
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I'm not a huge fan of this - in particular let me bring up these three cards from experience:
Opposition Agent - Outside of Wishclaw Talisman, there isn't really a way to abuse it. Very swingy. Its incredibly Feast or Famine - very unfun for both players. Less welcomed in Cube
Notion Thief - Very Swingy, but could be used as a combo with Wheel effects. It is often a build around rather than a feast or famine hate bear. Fun combo enabler. Good in Cube
Leovold, Emissary of Trest - Somewhat Swingy, less of a build around considering its tight mana requirements + not in red for Wheel/ Dack. Feels more as a Feast or Famine style effect considering its less paired with wheel effects compared to Notion Thief. Passable in Cube.
This feels too much like Opposition Agent from my play experience. The saving grace is Orzhov is becoming more of a control color than a aristocrats color in recent sets. But it is an unfortunate pass for me.
Doesn't slot well into any of the common black archetypes.
That's kinda the same with Monastery Mentor where it didn't fit into white aggro, tokens (this technically is a tokens card, but you don;t play it too much in those decks), flicker, or taxes. But it still performed very well in cube because its incredibly powerful and could be easily splashed into a Blue-Red or Red-Black spells matters deck.
I would evaluate how strong a fatty in cube is how well it performs in these 7 categories for cheat into play:
- Tinker/ Welder/ Tolarian/ Mishra's Workshop
- Natural Order
- Oath/ Show and tell/ Eureka
- Flash/ Sneak Attack/ Breach
- Instant Speed Reanimation
- Hard Cast
- Reanimation
As you mentioned, its good in Tinker + Sneak Attack, but suffers in the other categories. If the vigilance was a Lifelink instead, it can pass the instant speed reanimation test, but as of right now, this is likely on the bench.
It is a very cool card. I could see this making it into the cube if there were more welder/ flash redundancies.
Surprised there's not more discussion about this card.
Think it's powerful in boros and mediocre but playable filler in red.
Chip damage vs fetch lands and planeswalkers is real.
Firebreathing can really add up if unblocked.
The silence is an incredible high upside option to have when you have a strong tempo/battlefield advantage.
Playing a cheap creatures and then denying opponent from advancing is a great way to go hellbent and push in the last few points of damage.
It's far too situational to be worth a card in itself, but tacked onto a card that is fine to play on curve while developing, I love it.
The problem is red's 2 drops are way too competitive. The options right now for the last 2 slots are:
One drops/ aggressive deck removal have also improve significantly.
From my understanding, Ankh of Mishra is a slightly more reliable version of Black Vise that works well with the land destruction/ mana denial already in cube.
Really? I was more drawn to this card as a red looter than a white anthem.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-rulings/821476-laelia-the-blade-reforged-tainted-pact
I didn't realize how Laelia interacts with Cascade, Delve, Escape, and Eternalize. I'll be adding a section about the Laelia Interactions in my card explanation article.
If Nature's Claim was a white card, I prob have it in my cube. But I like the Reclamation sage variants a bit more + Collector Ouphe.
I was thinking the same thing, but then again, I think there should be some price to pay for playing with moxen.
The problem with SCD discussion is not "is this good enough for cube" but can it make it into these higher competitive slots.
I been on the record for saying that Kodama's Reach is actually an incredibly bad card in cube - its one of the last filler cards I have in my cube to help round out the archetypes. 3 mana for 1 acceleration, in green is a horrible rate. I been wanting to remove it for some time.
Three years ago, you wanted cards that could fit in a variety of decks (including today), but the problem is some cards have very efficient cards such as Oko, Thief of Crowns, Skyclave Apparition, Shatterskull Smashing, Seasoned Pyromancer, Rankle, Master of Pranks that is essentially strong in 80% of decks in those colors and fills the engine roles of discard outlets, removal, artifact density, flicker targets etc. that the you need less of these "jack of all trait" cards and more hyper efficient archetype cards to compete.
Settle is a much better comparison. T
The plus is the token + itself is flying, which is huge.
The minus is its only 3 toughness, which screams Lightning Bolt
- Reanimation
- Instant Speed Reanimation
- Hard Cast
- Artifact - Welder/ Tinker etc
- Sneak Attack/ Breach, Flash
- Natural Order
- Show and Tell/ Eureka/ Oath of Druids
What I like about this card is its strong in Hard Cast, Artifact, Sneak Attack, Natural Order, and Show and Tell Decks. I've been less happy about reanimator decks, given that it requires a 3 card combo unlike sneak attack, hard cast etc. and is harder to assemble, but its saving grace is its usually 1-2 turns faster.
I love to see redundancy added for all these decks.
I completely missed that! That is insane. I LOVE THIS.
Great card for Tempo decks, token decks and ramp decks.
I really hope it doesn't see legacy play ... my affinity deck has enough trouble as it is.
I'm asking is if I swing in with a 4/4 into your 4/3, and you block, then I cast this prior to damage is assigned, do I get 4 tokens?
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I'm not a huge fan of this - in particular let me bring up these three cards from experience:
Opposition Agent - Outside of Wishclaw Talisman, there isn't really a way to abuse it. Very swingy. Its incredibly Feast or Famine - very unfun for both players. Less welcomed in Cube
Notion Thief - Very Swingy, but could be used as a combo with Wheel effects. It is often a build around rather than a feast or famine hate bear. Fun combo enabler. Good in Cube
Leovold, Emissary of Trest - Somewhat Swingy, less of a build around considering its tight mana requirements + not in red for Wheel/ Dack. Feels more as a Feast or Famine style effect considering its less paired with wheel effects compared to Notion Thief. Passable in Cube.
This feels too much like Opposition Agent from my play experience. The saving grace is Orzhov is becoming more of a control color than a aristocrats color in recent sets. But it is an unfortunate pass for me.
That's kinda the same with Monastery Mentor where it didn't fit into white aggro, tokens (this technically is a tokens card, but you don;t play it too much in those decks), flicker, or taxes. But it still performed very well in cube because its incredibly powerful and could be easily splashed into a Blue-Red or Red-Black spells matters deck.
Yah, this is no Myr Battlesphere/ Wurmcoil Engine.
I would evaluate how strong a fatty in cube is how well it performs in these 7 categories for cheat into play:
- Tinker/ Welder/ Tolarian/ Mishra's Workshop
- Natural Order
- Oath/ Show and tell/ Eureka
- Flash/ Sneak Attack/ Breach
- Instant Speed Reanimation
- Hard Cast
- Reanimation
As you mentioned, its good in Tinker + Sneak Attack, but suffers in the other categories. If the vigilance was a Lifelink instead, it can pass the instant speed reanimation test, but as of right now, this is likely on the bench.
It is a very cool card. I could see this making it into the cube if there were more welder/ flash redundancies.
The problem is red's 2 drops are way too competitive. The options right now for the last 2 slots are:
- Kargan Intimidator
- Plated Geopede
- Kiln Fiend
- Lightning Mauler
- Stormblood Berserker
- Dire Fleet Daredevil
You can make the case this is a good card, but I don't see it getting the edge over all these other cards.
I haven;'t been too excited about Karn myself.