Never would I cut Cerodon, it's the best card in the deck in terms of raw power.
I wouldn't consider my analysis complete either. I'm aware that I omitted vast aspects such as the more difficult color of green to cast. Traditional Jund color cycling LE it predominantly RB and basically splashing green for Outburst and Beast w/in.
The gifting of trample is actually an aspect I hadn't consider until now tho.
And my interest in Trex would be to purely replace Archfiend (which I don't use in my build actually. I much prefer an entirely 1x mana cycler creatures.). But now with Trex, this would be the first time I'd be playing any 2x mana cyclers.
I just wanted to spotlight an aspect such as the card advantage/Bounce Land analogy from a theory POV that it appeared no one had mentioned or considered yet in attempts to contribute to the collective analysis is all.
Eyyy, long time since I've been on here (had to make a new account couldn't recover my old one after MTG Salv switched to Twitch...) Anyways, I contributed a while back when we got Amonkhet goodies and occasionally blow the dust off LE to play it in side events at GPs. Here today in attempts to combine constructive efforts and further development of one of my favorite decks. I know there are a bunch of different sources like reddit etc. out there but check out https://www.facebook.com/groups/1916102548713468/
Pretty cool dude name Daniel that makes solid video content. I see some friendly and familiar avatars on here still like protoaddict and The Fluff (I remember you from the Mono Green Stompy primer IIRC) and a Raver if he/she is still active.
I've done some testing with Trex and here are my findings:
Assuming I keep an average hand and cycle a 1cmc cycle dude turn 1, if I tap out to cycle just the 1x Trex turn 2 that's 11x power on board alone, however I've only drawn 1x card that turn. The only way I could do any better than that is if I cycle 2x Cerodons which obviously = 12x power and I've drawn 2x cards. In the Trex scenario it's pretty poopy if they have a Path to answer the Trex vs. if I cycle 2x Cerodons they can only Path the 1st one and still have to deal with the 2nd one and w/e I cycled turn 1. NOW... this is assuming the Magic Gods grant me 2x Cerodons to cycle in my opening hand which as we know isn't always the case. Let's assume a more realistic hand like 1x Horror and 1x Cerodon turn 2. That's only 10x power on board between the two. What about just a Carabid and a Horror?... That's only 8x powerw/ no evasion amongst 2x cards. A majority of the time Trex is going to represent a better bargain in terms of mana : power ratio all in one card. The only thing that beats a turn 2 Trex is 2x Cerodons because it's 1x more power, distributes it's power between two threats, and draws 1x more card. But again overall I think the Trex represents a better more consistent value wrapped up in once card. I think of it like the Bounce lands in terms of virtual "card advantage" for our deck. You're getting the combined creature power of 2x creature cards in 1x card. It also kills your opponent twice as fast as Archfiend... but Archy can be realistically hard casted post LE though so I can't say ones "strictly" better than the other.
*With more green cards in the mix it makes Force of Vigor in the sideboard as a more tasty viable option.*
The new white 3/6 Vigilance Dino I feel is basically a replacement for Deadshot. It's pretty much better in every way except it can't be cycled post LE and doesn't synergize with FoV. It being able to cycle for 1x generic is nice because you can at least cycle it to pump up a Horror or put -1/-1 counters on things if you still use Archy.
Never would I cut Cerodon, it's the best card in the deck in terms of raw power.
I wouldn't consider my analysis complete either. I'm aware that I omitted vast aspects such as the more difficult color of green to cast. Traditional Jund color cycling LE it predominantly RB and basically splashing green for Outburst and Beast w/in.
The gifting of trample is actually an aspect I hadn't consider until now tho.
And my interest in Trex would be to purely replace Archfiend (which I don't use in my build actually. I much prefer an entirely 1x mana cycler creatures.). But now with Trex, this would be the first time I'd be playing any 2x mana cyclers.
I just wanted to spotlight an aspect such as the card advantage/Bounce Land analogy from a theory POV that it appeared no one had mentioned or considered yet in attempts to contribute to the collective analysis is all.
Pretty cool dude name Daniel that makes solid video content. I see some friendly and familiar avatars on here still like protoaddict and The Fluff (I remember you from the Mono Green Stompy primer IIRC) and a Raver if he/she is still active.
I've done some testing with Trex and here are my findings:
Assuming I keep an average hand and cycle a 1cmc cycle dude turn 1, if I tap out to cycle just the 1x Trex turn 2 that's 11x power on board alone, however I've only drawn 1x card that turn. The only way I could do any better than that is if I cycle 2x Cerodons which obviously = 12x power and I've drawn 2x cards. In the Trex scenario it's pretty poopy if they have a Path to answer the Trex vs. if I cycle 2x Cerodons they can only Path the 1st one and still have to deal with the 2nd one and w/e I cycled turn 1. NOW... this is assuming the Magic Gods grant me 2x Cerodons to cycle in my opening hand which as we know isn't always the case. Let's assume a more realistic hand like 1x Horror and 1x Cerodon turn 2. That's only 10x power on board between the two. What about just a Carabid and a Horror?... That's only 8x powerw/ no evasion amongst 2x cards. A majority of the time Trex is going to represent a better bargain in terms of mana : power ratio all in one card. The only thing that beats a turn 2 Trex is 2x Cerodons because it's 1x more power, distributes it's power between two threats, and draws 1x more card. But again overall I think the Trex represents a better more consistent value wrapped up in once card. I think of it like the Bounce lands in terms of virtual "card advantage" for our deck. You're getting the combined creature power of 2x creature cards in 1x card. It also kills your opponent twice as fast as Archfiend... but Archy can be realistically hard casted post LE though so I can't say ones "strictly" better than the other.
*With more green cards in the mix it makes Force of Vigor in the sideboard as a more tasty viable option.*
The new white 3/6 Vigilance Dino I feel is basically a replacement for Deadshot. It's pretty much better in every way except it can't be cycled post LE and doesn't synergize with FoV. It being able to cycle for 1x generic is nice because you can at least cycle it to pump up a Horror or put -1/-1 counters on things if you still use Archy.
/end rant.