What I'm most excited is this cements Jeskai as the spells matters triome and not grixis.
Didn't mentor already do this? =P
I don't see how one more card tilts anything in any way. UR in general are the primary spells matters colors, IMO, with white and black being tertiary. White really only contributes to the payoff side (Monastery Mentor) and not so much in terms of critical mass of spells / enablers, while black has both enablers and payoffs with storm support (Dark Ritual / Yawgmoth's Will / Tendrils of Agony / etc). Context really matters, especially if storm is supported or not. Kykar, Wind's Fury and Kess, Dissident Mage both exist, each shard is perfectly capable of being "the" spells matters triome.
Yah Sedgemore has been a bit of a sore thumb for its color.
I think it’s infinitely more interesting than coercive portal, but maybe not a better cube card. I strongly disagree that many decks will want this card, but in the few that do , it seems real good.
This card is legit bad in grindy decks that don’t have many ways to remove it. The life loss adds up reallll quick if you plan to draw cards with it, so you better either win the game or remove it within a few turns.
draw effects that lose life are always worse than they look (draw effects that gain life are better than they look).
gaining protection for a turn is a real big upside over any other 4 mana do nothing card.
I’d have to see how easy it is to bounce/sacrifice before I test it, but at first glance it looks promising.
The upside is definitely there.
I thought about this and if your deck has a way to sacrifice/ bounce or donate it, then its likely fairly easy to see it after 3 turns as you'll draw 6 cards + 3 in your natural draw.
However, my expertise is more with aggro/ tempo/ combo decks. I'm not as in tune with midrange strageties.
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse just feels like a better Siege Rhino most of the time so I don't have high hopes for it
- Niv deson't feel very strong TBH. Its payoff does not feel worth it at all.
this depends so much on the cube composition it’s really hard to rank.
All I know is swords is at the top , councils judgement/path is near the top and fateful abscence is near the bottom.
I’m also not a fan of swift reconfiguration at all.
Underperformed hard for me in every cube I played it in.
I even included 2 copies of it for a while to live the devoted Druid combo dream.
- Fateful/ Portable Hole are closest to the bottom for me.
- Oust has been somewhat decent for me, I recommend people give it a try.
I've come around to Arcane Artisan and I feel this is a card you need to play both sides of a matchup to full appreciate:
- I've written my theory about Green Ramp and I've around its best variant are the not the play 10+ mana dorks + 5 Eldrazi, but in a slightly more midrange shell that plays 6-7 dorks, 4-5 midrange threats that act as either removal/ ramp, 2 cheat effects, 3-4 fatties. I feel Arcane Artisan fits the role of a midrange/ 3 cmc ramp enabler very well
- Yes she dies to removal, but so does Metalworker, Rofellos etc. This is not a card, especially in the era of Archon of Cruelty, Atraxa that you can let your opponent resolve or up tap with. There were several times as a tempo player that I had to take a turn off playing a threat and needed to play my removal/ leave up counter magic.
Oona's Prowlers Flying + Power has been absolutely insane.
I find slots are so tight these days that I opted for Bone Shards as its good removal for tempo decks (Cruise/ Young/ Land Tax etc.) that can afford to discard the card, Aristocrats style decks and definitely reanimator.
Tainted Indulgence is honestly just borderline, playable in just Storm/ Reanimator really ...
Blightsteel Colossus is good to have if you want a Tinker / Sneak Attack fattie that won't get stolen by the reanimator / Flash decks.
I feel we're nearing where every fatty is becoming closer and closer to the artifact trinity of Wurmcoil/ Myr BattleSphere/ Sundering Titan where its playable in every fatty cheat + control/ ramp. I feel this might make draft a bit less interesting.
Blightsteel was cut from my 360 on my ONE update (replaced for Atraxa, Grand Unifier). For tinker targets, I find Sundering Titan is best since even if answered, destroying some lands can still leave you in a winning position. Destroying lands can also make the opponent's answer uncastable by either mana-screwing or color-screwing them. Blightsteel's fine, but there are a lot more answers floating around now: Solitude, Baleful Mastery, Brazen Borrower.
It feels weird to me that we evaluate cards by the "Vindicate Rule" and somehow an all-in fatty without any ETB/ Protection is playable in an era of Oko/ Teferi/ Solitude.
As I've mentioned, the tie breaker for me is how many times people tried to shallow grave/ welder him only for the opponent to explain to him "there is no trigger to respond to as he's not Emarkul".
I feel in love with this card during Brother's War Prerelease and it has never disappointed me ... I got to cast it a total of 7 times between 2 drafts and 1 prerelease and it was an absolute bomb.
It fantastic with Show and Tell/ Tinker/ Ramp/ Eureka/ Daretti, Scrap Savant / Dictate of Karametra / Channel. This isn't one of those cards for commander players, this card is absolutely the real deal and is absolutely backbreaking.
It's not "mandatory" but it's a mid-high tier cheat target for sneak attack and the best tutor target for tinker. Mid tier cheat target for channel/show and tell.
It's not miles above it's tinker competition the way griselbrand/archon of cruelty are for reanimator or 15 cmc emrakul is for sneak attack.
It has matchup vulnerabilities (white removal) and sometimes does nothing as a sneak attack target if they have a board.
I'd personally play it down to 360 as I want to include the best tinker target, but meh... It's not THAT good.
Thanks for all the reply!
I think Portal to Phyrexia might be a strong enough alternative that I'm willing to bench Blightsteel for a few drafts. This feels like Atraxa, Grand Unifier > Progenitus.
Yah Sedgemore has been a bit of a sore thumb for its color.
I thought about this and if your deck has a way to sacrifice/ bounce or donate it, then its likely fairly easy to see it after 3 turns as you'll draw 6 cards + 3 in your natural draw.
However, my expertise is more with aggro/ tempo/ combo decks. I'm not as in tune with midrange strageties.
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse just feels like a better Siege Rhino most of the time so I don't have high hopes for it
- Niv deson't feel very strong TBH. Its payoff does not feel worth it at all.
- Fateful/ Portable Hole are closest to the bottom for me.
- Oust has been somewhat decent for me, I recommend people give it a try.
I second what wtwlf said about Shatter/ Depopulate. I like to hear what people's thoughts about Terminus with the new mulligan rule.
I think if this effect was in white, then I be all for it. But this really isn't what blue wants IMO.
I second that. If this was copy all spells, then I would say this is a step upward from Thousand-Year storm, otherwise, this is just bad.
- I've written my theory about Green Ramp and I've around its best variant are the not the play 10+ mana dorks + 5 Eldrazi, but in a slightly more midrange shell that plays 6-7 dorks, 4-5 midrange threats that act as either removal/ ramp, 2 cheat effects, 3-4 fatties. I feel Arcane Artisan fits the role of a midrange/ 3 cmc ramp enabler very well
- Yes she dies to removal, but so does Metalworker, Rofellos etc. This is not a card, especially in the era of Archon of Cruelty, Atraxa that you can let your opponent resolve or up tap with. There were several times as a tempo player that I had to take a turn off playing a threat and needed to play my removal/ leave up counter magic.
I find slots are so tight these days that I opted for Bone Shards as its good removal for tempo decks (Cruise/ Young/ Land Tax etc.) that can afford to discard the card, Aristocrats style decks and definitely reanimator.
Tainted Indulgence is honestly just borderline, playable in just Storm/ Reanimator really ...
I feel we're nearing where every fatty is becoming closer and closer to the artifact trinity of Wurmcoil/ Myr BattleSphere/ Sundering Titan where its playable in every fatty cheat + control/ ramp. I feel this might make draft a bit less interesting.
It feels weird to me that we evaluate cards by the "Vindicate Rule" and somehow an all-in fatty without any ETB/ Protection is playable in an era of Oko/ Teferi/ Solitude.
As I've mentioned, the tie breaker for me is how many times people tried to shallow grave/ welder him only for the opponent to explain to him "there is no trigger to respond to as he's not Emarkul".
It fantastic with Show and Tell/ Tinker/ Ramp/ Eureka/ Daretti, Scrap Savant / Dictate of Karametra / Channel. This isn't one of those cards for commander players, this card is absolutely the real deal and is absolutely backbreaking.
Thanks for all the reply!
I think Portal to Phyrexia might be a strong enough alternative that I'm willing to bench Blightsteel for a few drafts. This feels like Atraxa, Grand Unifier > Progenitus.