MTG Salvation

Rosethorn Halberd isn't so bad, but missing humans sucks. The equip cost is unreasonably high for a Trusty Machete bonus, and it will end up playing more like an aura that you can cast from the graveyard than a traditional equipment. It certainly compares unfavorably to Rancor, but Rancor is an overpowered card.

I am playing Spikeshot Goblin, and I'm not playing Rancor, so this isn't entirely unappealing, but it has most of the pitfalls of an aura.
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Thrill of Possibility is an instant speed Tormenting Voice. It's probably not enough to convince anyone who wasn't playing the card already, but those who were can make the switch.

Quote from Leelue »

If someone plays shepherd on curve, and they had no other 2 drop, that is full value.

Having the ability to bail out and do something conditional is also full value.

Holding it for later hoping the bail out becomes useful is bad value.

All of this is true. New players will often do the latter option when they shouldn't.

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Perhaps beast within is the wrong comparison for Kenrith's Transformation. Lignify is more appropriate. but a cantrip is a lot.

Seems great to me. Cheap green removal with a cantrip to compensate for the deer.

Compares pretty well to Beast Within and Pongify, although those are instants, and better against bounce.



Edit: Yeah, I think I got a little overexcited on this one. Beast Within hits anything, so it's not really a fair comparison. Lignify and Pongify are probably the cards to compare it to.

My main problem with Shepherd of the Flock is as you say, they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. You want to hold Usher to Safety for the right moment, but you wanna cast the Shepherd on curve, and you aren't getting full value that way (which will make some greedy players hold it when they should cast it).

So this card seems great:

Enchantment Beast Within, but cheaper and you draw a card. I want this in both of my cubes.

Sigh. It's a rare, so it'll probably end up worth more than I'm willing to pay.

Shepherd of the Flock seems a little below Kor Skyfisher, but still a powerful card. There's been talk about it on the main cube page, but I think Peasant is the natural home of this peasant.

As a B-Lister, this is actually one of the best wraths out there for exactly the same reasons it doesn't work in traditional cube: it has that mix of extremely powerful and completely fair that I'm always looking for. A wrath that draws you a fatty is awesome, but both sides needed to be undercosted to make it a traditional cube card.

As is, the card is actually costed really fairly. I wouldn't play this if it were 1WWW for the wrath and 3WW for a 7/7 vigilance-- I don't play cards that are that undercosted. This is aactually one of my favorite wraths (without any testing of course) for a format like mine, and might actually fall third for my favorite after #1: Catastrophe and #2: Wrath of God/ Day of Judgment. Damnation doesn't count because it's too expensive.

This may be one of those few mythics that I actually go out of my way to acquire.

The requirement is steep, and the payoff is insane. However, for a card that requires so much setup, this doesn't give you any way to win the game, it just makes your neutral game loads better. Everything this does is huge, but I think the life gain is the most easily underestimated, especially if you fail to get it down early. This would be fun to play, but I'm certainly not going to chase it down unless I open one.

I am a big fan of Kor Skyfisher but I don't think this is quite as good. The options are kinda fighting one another. The Blade of the Sixth Pride just wants to come down whenever it's convenient to cast a 2-drop, and the Rescue wants to wait for either a good interaction or to respond to removal. As a later topdeck, you're likely to get full value, but early you usually aren't, in which case it is rather lackluster.

It's one of the better Blade of the Sixth Pride variants though.

Quote from protoaddict »

Everyone is looking for synergies with this card and I am over here wondering when it became ok for blue to get a 1/4 flyer in a relevant tribe with nothing but upside for 1U.

Yep, this set just creeps and creeps those creatures. It's creepy.

Huh. I was always a fan of protection in cube. I like color hate, but I don't wanna spend slots on sideboard cards. Scuttlemutt for the win!

I'm underwhelmed by Overwhelmed Apprentice as a one-off. If it hit any player, that would be different. I've found that one-offs don't do very well in mill-- you need repeatable effects to compound what amounts to no advantage into an inexorable doom.

I don't find Syr Alin, the Lion's Claw very exciting, but it could be worth it if white is a go-wide color. I think it's better than Pianna, but I never gave that card a second glance, and I never felt a lack of good white 3-drops.

Sorcerer's Broom requires you to have sacrifices in your deck to be worthwhile, which is a tough sell, but it can be really fun if you have the archetype. Nevertheless, something like Filigree Familiar does support the archetype better, since it's good without your sac outlets. Still a nifty card.

I think Urban Evolution is a canny comparison. I like that card, but it's certainly nothing boomtastic. After casting the five drop, you probably don't have mana to get much out of it the turn you cast it, unless you flip lands and low drops. I foresee getting no more than three cards out of this on average, and not really getting the cards you had hoped for.

Of course, as I often say, at my size I could play this anyway. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be clamoring to do so.

I see a trend: "I'd always play this in my deck, and I'd happily draft if, but I can't justify a cut."

Since this is such an issue, it makes a lot of sense to me to have a utility land slot in each color. In such a way, this isn't competing with all your black cards, just all the black lands. We can all agree that utility lands are good in decks and good in draft, so that seems like the logical solution. I've been doing it this way for a while, and I think I'm ready to go up to a double cycle of mono-colored lands.

But I guess people don't want to add five slots, or make five cuts to do this.

Quote from BlackWaltz3 »

Agreed that Fumigate is better. Also....

I just custom-carded the card I wanted this to be and I'm going to share it here.

Earth-Cloaked Giant 5G
Creature - Giant (M)
Unroot 3GG
Sorcery - Adventure: Put two target lands on top of their owner’s library.
Trample, Protection from Lands.
6/6

That's a green finisher. Plow Under into a big beater that laughs at your opponents Maze of Ith...Trample + Pro-Land isn't mindblowingly good, but is is flavorful and much better than just Vigilance. Plow Under doesn't quite make it into my cube, but this would in a heartbeat.

If you think you're ever getting a strictly better Plow Under, you're in for disappointment. I could see it maybe happening if Unroot cost 3 or 4 and only hit one land.

I have to wonder how often this will miss giants. I'm personally only playing 6 in my 1600, so I think I'm pretty safe.

This is a good card, but it seems pretty costly to get the scry. My cube is way slower than most, but even I'm skeptical. It's not that I wouldn't be able to find a cut for it of course: I'll play this if I end up with a copy. Still, the cost is higher, and effect is generally less than the black one.

But honestly, I think I could add the whole cycle and be happy, even Castle Garenbrig, which is basically gives you six mana for five. It may be limited, but it's still a land that taps for more than one mana. The white one remains, but it's probably good too.