I mean, I get that there is a difference and that most Living Weapon cards are bad, but the powerlevel between this and Fable seems so huge that the comparison is rather conceptual.
Thinking about this more, this shares a lot of qualities with Fable of the Mirror Breaker. Both generate a 2/2, and if you get rid of that creature, you still have value with the saga / equipment. What makes Fable busted is that you don't have to jump through any hoops for it to keep doing its thing even if the token dies. This generates a lot of value assuming it does its thing uninterrupted, and it's not too difficult to get back on track if your 2/2 does die. Not to mention this has the bonus of being an artifact AND equipment.
This is true for any card with Living Weapon or For Mirrodin!, and most of those we deem not good enough to play.
Unfortunately I also agree here. It's not a bad card, but there is so much you can do that is more streamlined, even for a dedicated Lands-shell.
How do people feel about the Fusion with Thalia, Thalia and the Gitrog Monster?
Thorn of Amethyst / Thalia can at least be built around the drawback. Thalia / Lodestone Golem being threats themselves are huge. Smokestack / Tangle Wire impact your opponent more. Armageddon can be built up to and just win the game when it resolves. Sphere of Resistance having NONE of these benefits while being completely symmetrical doesn't make it an attractive option for me.
I'm not claiming that Sphere of Resistance is a 360 Powered Staple, but I do think your analysis is missing the point I was making.
The symmetry of a symmetric effect is broken in deckbuilding. This is easier for Thorn/Thalia/Lodestone, but applies equally for Sphere.
With curves getting lower and decks getting leaner, the number of spells cast/resolved goes up, making the tax of Sphere more impactful. If you manage to build a Deck with higher quality per card than your opponent, the tax will be less meaningful for you. On top of that, using activated abilities can break the symmetry further, see the new cycle of manlands.
In the same way as a state can be built for Armageddon, one can be built for Sphere. For a lot less mana even and quite a bit earlier. Armageddon was King when games were more reactive, but building up a sufficient advantage and having 4 mana spare for Armageddon has gotten harder and harder. Sphere delays less than Armageddon, but costs way less and manages to get you over the finish line just the same.
I want to revitalise discussion around Sphere of Resistance after having had massive success in two drafts with it. The sequencing problems this card creates, especially with curves getting generally lower and double-spelling getting more and more important, has been backbreaking for the opponents deck. I feel this card got a lot better over the years, essentially being the very cheap alternative to cards like Armageddon and an extension of the package provided by Winter Orb, Tangle Wire, Lodestone Golem, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and maybe Elite Spellbinder and Anointed Peacekeeper. Blowing up all lands is unnecessary, when all you need is to make your opponents hand functionally useless.
After having had less and less success with Smokestack and Braids, Cabal Minion, I was on the lookout for something that would give a denial-deck more power, and Sphere definitely lived up to that! I'll be adding Thorn of Amethyst as well to see whether that effect is good enough without the 2/1 First Strike attached.
I've yet to copy Sphere with Mycosynth Gardens, but am definitely looking forward to the day it happens!
Also, Ive found that the black aggro threats are huge problems for control decks in a way that red / white ones arent (countering a bloadsoaked champion of skyclave shade feels terrible).
While this sounds true, it also feels like the aggro-control matchup is good enough already, while the "can't block", "enters the battlefield tapped" and slower recursion gives black aggro an abysmal mirror matchup against RedDeckWins and WhiteWeenie. Accepting an unwinnable mirror for getting an even better win against the easiest matchup just never seemed worth it to me.
I really love Land Destruction, but I personally have found Dust Bowl to not be good enough to play. Tectonic Edge has the Land Clause that makes it unavailable in the early game, which is the most crucial time for such effects I feel.
I was actually considering testing out Army Ants as repeatable Land Destruction.
Depending on whether 8 Mana is still castable, this just sounded like a Worldspine Wurm with more variance when I first saw it. I'd say I like Wurm more since it is self-contained. The ceiling on this is way higher, but it's floor, especially with Flash, is very low.
I haven't played with it, but I also never saw the appeal. In powered Cubes the dream is always to recast, which seems enticing, but in unpowered this looks very underwhelming and certainly not something I want to spend a slot on.
- Charming Scoundrel
- Eidolon of the Great Revel
- Bloodfeather Phoenix
What makes you rank Scoundrel so high? It seems like a quite fillerish Jack-of-all trades card. It does a bit of everything, but Eidolon is a dedicated damage-machine. They feel just like very different cards.
In recent years, I have felt my analysis of boardstates undergo a subtle change. Whereas my main concern as the beatdown has traditionally been overextending into a sweeper, these days I'm bothered more about the sequencing of my threats in order to bait out targeted removal.
Part of this I attribute to the absolute premium in targeted removal we have gotten, Prismatic Ending, Leyline Binding, Baleful Mastery, March of Otherworldly Light, etc. Over time, some of these have pushed out low-quality sweepers as those were famously struggling with taking down non-creature problems, most prominently planeswalkers.
Another part of this I felt came with the powercreep in creatures and the subsequent use of them even in previously extremely creature-light strategies, most apparent in control, Shark Typhoon, Timeless Dragon, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath.
Originally, sweepers came at optimally zero downside to the controlling player, which is a rare case these days. On top of this, even though Manacurves get lower and lower, the time-window of Aggro gets narrower and would probably be almost eclipsed by the advent of 3CMC unconditional sweepers.
So much for my theorycrafting, which I'd love your opinions on.
Now for a direct question: In the absence of ubiquitous sweepers, if this is also something you've observed, did the viability of go-wide strategies notably increase?
The positive reaction to the new GW Lamaland and the general interest in viable cards that also serve as anthems, see King Darien, XLVIII, it seems like this strategy gets an indirect vitalization due to the decreased interest in sweepers.
The biggest success I've had with Krasis is as a multivalued tool in Simic Combo Decks. Being part wincon, immediate carddraw to go further with the combo and lifegain makes it the perfect card there.
The Goose Mothers lack of unconditional carddraw would make it worse in the Time Spiral Fastbond kind of Combo decks Krasis shines in, but would open the door for Artifact based combodecks.
They feel like having different homes, with the Goosemother having more in total. With Initiative kicking around, I can definitely see the appeal of a better body, and with the new Bargain mechanic Food gets another potential use.
I'd play Omnath over Niv-Mizzet, having tried out both. Niv is too much investment both on deckbuilding and drafting, since it incentivizes picking a lot of guild cards.
Omnath is simply a good card that has synergy with cards of high value for any deck (fetchlands) and so will be able to fit and maybe even motivate several decks.
T&G vs Siege Rhino: I never played with Siege Rhino, but in this day and age I would not want to use a wedge-slot for this. Not due to powerlevel, which might differ for cubes, but since it is not a card that motivates me exploring the wedge for a deck. T&G does a lot of things relevant for Abzan colours and thus suits the wedge.
The cube ofa friend of mine is extending this archetype with both Academy and Arena Rector. The decks this produces are more controlish, but are very strong!
This is true for any card with Living Weapon or For Mirrodin!, and most of those we deem not good enough to play.
How do people feel about the Fusion with Thalia, Thalia and the Gitrog Monster?
I'm not claiming that Sphere of Resistance is a 360 Powered Staple, but I do think your analysis is missing the point I was making.
The symmetry of a symmetric effect is broken in deckbuilding. This is easier for Thorn/Thalia/Lodestone, but applies equally for Sphere.
With curves getting lower and decks getting leaner, the number of spells cast/resolved goes up, making the tax of Sphere more impactful. If you manage to build a Deck with higher quality per card than your opponent, the tax will be less meaningful for you. On top of that, using activated abilities can break the symmetry further, see the new cycle of manlands.
In the same way as a state can be built for Armageddon, one can be built for Sphere. For a lot less mana even and quite a bit earlier. Armageddon was King when games were more reactive, but building up a sufficient advantage and having 4 mana spare for Armageddon has gotten harder and harder. Sphere delays less than Armageddon, but costs way less and manages to get you over the finish line just the same.
After having had less and less success with Smokestack and Braids, Cabal Minion, I was on the lookout for something that would give a denial-deck more power, and Sphere definitely lived up to that! I'll be adding Thorn of Amethyst as well to see whether that effect is good enough without the 2/1 First Strike attached.
I've yet to copy Sphere with Mycosynth Gardens, but am definitely looking forward to the day it happens!
While this sounds true, it also feels like the aggro-control matchup is good enough already, while the "can't block", "enters the battlefield tapped" and slower recursion gives black aggro an abysmal mirror matchup against RedDeckWins and WhiteWeenie. Accepting an unwinnable mirror for getting an even better win against the easiest matchup just never seemed worth it to me.
I was actually considering testing out Army Ants as repeatable Land Destruction.
Cool card though and makes for memorable plays!
What makes you rank Scoundrel so high? It seems like a quite fillerish Jack-of-all trades card. It does a bit of everything, but Eidolon is a dedicated damage-machine. They feel just like very different cards.
Part of this I attribute to the absolute premium in targeted removal we have gotten, Prismatic Ending, Leyline Binding, Baleful Mastery, March of Otherworldly Light, etc. Over time, some of these have pushed out low-quality sweepers as those were famously struggling with taking down non-creature problems, most prominently planeswalkers.
Another part of this I felt came with the powercreep in creatures and the subsequent use of them even in previously extremely creature-light strategies, most apparent in control, Shark Typhoon, Timeless Dragon, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath.
Originally, sweepers came at optimally zero downside to the controlling player, which is a rare case these days. On top of this, even though Manacurves get lower and lower, the time-window of Aggro gets narrower and would probably be almost eclipsed by the advent of 3CMC unconditional sweepers.
So much for my theorycrafting, which I'd love your opinions on.
Now for a direct question: In the absence of ubiquitous sweepers, if this is also something you've observed, did the viability of go-wide strategies notably increase?
The positive reaction to the new GW Lamaland and the general interest in viable cards that also serve as anthems, see King Darien, XLVIII, it seems like this strategy gets an indirect vitalization due to the decreased interest in sweepers.
The Goose Mothers lack of unconditional carddraw would make it worse in the Time Spiral Fastbond kind of Combo decks Krasis shines in, but would open the door for Artifact based combodecks.
They feel like having different homes, with the Goosemother having more in total. With Initiative kicking around, I can definitely see the appeal of a better body, and with the new Bargain mechanic Food gets another potential use.
Both are cool cards.
Omnath is simply a good card that has synergy with cards of high value for any deck (fetchlands) and so will be able to fit and maybe even motivate several decks.
T&G vs Siege Rhino: I never played with Siege Rhino, but in this day and age I would not want to use a wedge-slot for this. Not due to powerlevel, which might differ for cubes, but since it is not a card that motivates me exploring the wedge for a deck. T&G does a lot of things relevant for Abzan colours and thus suits the wedge.