I've had some pretty amazing experiences with this where I've gotten 14+ mana worth of creatures for only 5 mana. You should always be trading up when casting this spell in the right shell, and the blowout risk is much, much lower than something like Show and Tell since your opponent's copy resolves first.
I can second this. This card is very good and I don't consider it filler at all. It is very unique and cool to play with!
With black and white getting more and more exile removal I don't think Sphinx is far behind Idol or Triplicate Titan. Sphinx makes it almost impossible to lose a race, which has saved me countless times and is very relevant for a deck with a fatty cheating strategy.
I go around this question of playing all the cards you mentioned
The most success I had with Dark Depths in Cube so far was in Maverick like shells, where silver bullets are alway at the ready with Green Sun's Zenith or Survival of the Fittest, card advantage comes in over Collected Company or Sevinne's Reclamation and there is a surprise Persist Combo kill in addition to the ability to produce a 20/20.
In my search for some nice Stax pieces I did think about Stasis - has been a while since there was discussion on this card. Seems exceptionally hard to break parity on this card, but game-winning if you pull it off. Anyone has some nice recipe for making this card work?
The short version of this is I felt Chord of Calling is what I'm looking for, not another +1/+1 enabler. Its great for tutoring up the missing part of the combo in not only the persist deck, but also Aristocrats, Heliod, Flicker, Kiki Twin etc
In addition, giving these creatures instant speed makes them incredibly lethal.
I play a Prossh Persist- Aristocrats - Food Chain deck and I found I have been tutoring for cards like Rankle, Grist, Reclamation Sage a lot more than the combo itself.
That is a very interesting point you are making about low CMC creatures increasing in strength - this has been the exact reason for my recent inclusion of Collected Company and Chord of Calling seems very useful as well. The only reservation is of course GGG - it shouldn't be the greatest of issues, since creature-centric Combodecks are mostly base Green.
I like this a lot more than Agadeem's Awakening since it ETBs untapped for no penalty and it goes into more decks.
I think it serves a very different purpose than Agadeem's Awakening though, since Awakening can rebuild a lost board immediately and can instantly set up small creature combos/synergies in Persist or Aristocrats. However, I do agree that it is more to my liking than Agadeem, since that card played worse on paper than it did in my head.
I played this card a few years ago and cut it again. Also, I think I mostly play all the same 4 or 5 drop creatures I did a few years ago, with the most notable changes being Fury, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Urza, Lord High Artificer. I'm not convinced that this is enough for me to reconsider Eldritch Evolution, especially since it has the double-green mana cost. Depends on whether I see a good other cut, but I like Green Sun's Zenith quite a bit more. But maybe I have space, and I love this kind of creature-cheating!
Over time, I have noticed that during every blue cut my eye rest suspiciously long on Search for Azcanta. I still play it, since its effect is very unique, but I'm not so certain anymore that it is good enough. It just always feels very slow and when I draw it on a later turn, I often feel like many other cards would have served me better. How do you guys feel about this card?
I also think that the niche of Price is better catered with Sulfuric Vortex. Vortex also shuts down lifegain, which meanwhile is rather significant - and it is very good when played on curveand still presents reach and inevitability when played a bit later.
Having played with the Great Henge and Renata, I'd say that the Henge will be the most universally useful card. Coincidentally, it plays very well with a more aggressively slanted green pattern using Mana Dorks and Midrange creatures - Imagine playing Questing Beast or similar beaters, enabling you to curve directly into the Henge while also giving you some insulation against a race (due to the lifegain) and turning topdecks of otherwise limited usefulness both into bigger threats and more gas. Frankly, that card is amazing.
Renata on the other hand is in purely for being an additional Persist enabler that I'll be happy to swap out as soon as a better one arrives. On the other hand, Renata is a creature, lending itself better to the Patterns of a Persist deck full of creature tutors and payoffs for creatures or sacrifice outlets.
In essence, The Great Henge can be used in Persist and is a generally very good card, whereas Renata is a more specific tool for a creature combo, which is even nicer since she herself is a creature. This last point brings me to why I'd never play Path of Discovery. It's not a creature and also a very unreliable part of the Combo since it can whiff - also, it does exactly nothing on its own, whereas the Henge ramps you and gains you life.
I have pondered on that for some time actually, together with Blood Moon, Back to Basics and Contamination (Contamination since I like myself some hard Stax :D)
I am no Legacy player myself, but enjoy watching it, and all those cards (except Contamination) see heavy sideboard play (PoP and Moon even Mainboard)
So what do you say, which of those do you see port best to Cube and why?
So far, I never thought these cards were quite good enough due to the imperfect manabase of quite a few cubedecks. How much damage would PoP need to deal in order to be worth it. 4 is not enough, but I think 6 would be, but only in the very rarest cases could this be cast on Turn 4 or 5 in my opinion.
Due to the prevalence of basics in typical cubes, I believe Contamination to be the best consideration for choking someone off mana by unconventional means (i.e. indirect landdestruction)
I would say this is a very fair assessment. The most important thing about red finishers to me is haste and evasion, which both have. After looking at Hellkite again, I actually really like that swap and maybe I'll give it a try as well
In the last few weeks you've been advocating the removal of 2 CMC ramp dorks and I pointed out the "special" 2 CMC dorks I like to keep because of their increased value.
The dealbreaker for me regarding that will be what opportunity cost I get from freeing up my 2 CMC slot in green and I think you are making a good case for it. Since these days I'm far away from my cube due to having changed country, I didn't use brainpower to fully theorycraft what I'm going to do with 2 CMC green, but I think I would want it to be something that enables an interesting new archetype. I realised that the Colorpair lacking identity the most in my Cube is Gruul, since noone really plays Gruul, but either Jund or Temur. Gruul Aggro/Midrange is intriguing, and I think I will try to cater for this in my Green creature section this winter when I'm back home.
As far as a pure aggro beater for 2 mana goes, this is one of the best options. The only white creatures for 1W that are definitively above it for me are Stoneforge Mystic and Selfless Spirit.
I can second this. This card is very good and I don't consider it filler at all. It is very unique and cool to play with!
I go around this question of playing all the cards you mentioned
By far my favpurite deck in Cube!
That is a very interesting point you are making about low CMC creatures increasing in strength - this has been the exact reason for my recent inclusion of Collected Company and Chord of Calling seems very useful as well. The only reservation is of course GGG - it shouldn't be the greatest of issues, since creature-centric Combodecks are mostly base Green.
I think it serves a very different purpose than Agadeem's Awakening though, since Awakening can rebuild a lost board immediately and can instantly set up small creature combos/synergies in Persist or Aristocrats. However, I do agree that it is more to my liking than Agadeem, since that card played worse on paper than it did in my head.
Having played with the Great Henge and Renata, I'd say that the Henge will be the most universally useful card. Coincidentally, it plays very well with a more aggressively slanted green pattern using Mana Dorks and Midrange creatures - Imagine playing Questing Beast or similar beaters, enabling you to curve directly into the Henge while also giving you some insulation against a race (due to the lifegain) and turning topdecks of otherwise limited usefulness both into bigger threats and more gas. Frankly, that card is amazing.
Renata on the other hand is in purely for being an additional Persist enabler that I'll be happy to swap out as soon as a better one arrives. On the other hand, Renata is a creature, lending itself better to the Patterns of a Persist deck full of creature tutors and payoffs for creatures or sacrifice outlets.
In essence, The Great Henge can be used in Persist and is a generally very good card, whereas Renata is a more specific tool for a creature combo, which is even nicer since she herself is a creature. This last point brings me to why I'd never play Path of Discovery. It's not a creature and also a very unreliable part of the Combo since it can whiff - also, it does exactly nothing on its own, whereas the Henge ramps you and gains you life.
I am no Legacy player myself, but enjoy watching it, and all those cards (except Contamination) see heavy sideboard play (PoP and Moon even Mainboard)
So what do you say, which of those do you see port best to Cube and why?
So far, I never thought these cards were quite good enough due to the imperfect manabase of quite a few cubedecks. How much damage would PoP need to deal in order to be worth it. 4 is not enough, but I think 6 would be, but only in the very rarest cases could this be cast on Turn 4 or 5 in my opinion.
Due to the prevalence of basics in typical cubes, I believe Contamination to be the best consideration for choking someone off mana by unconventional means (i.e. indirect landdestruction)
The dealbreaker for me regarding that will be what opportunity cost I get from freeing up my 2 CMC slot in green and I think you are making a good case for it. Since these days I'm far away from my cube due to having changed country, I didn't use brainpower to fully theorycraft what I'm going to do with 2 CMC green, but I think I would want it to be something that enables an interesting new archetype. I realised that the Colorpair lacking identity the most in my Cube is Gruul, since noone really plays Gruul, but either Jund or Temur. Gruul Aggro/Midrange is intriguing, and I think I will try to cater for this in my Green creature section this winter when I'm back home.
Seconded. This card is amazing for me.