MTG Salvation

Looking at this card and going "wow, that's prettty good, but not really good enough," I feel so spoiled. I keep seeing cards that would have been slam dunk inclusions like 3 years ago that just can't compete. Cube is getting out of control.

Quote from eidolon232

The free spell effects have always been candidates for doing something completely broken and this card combines 3 different versions in one card:
If you cast it with 3 creatures out, you can +1 and get almost all your mana back immediately while threatening to cheat something gigantic into play next turn. If you use the second ability first, it is almost like you are getting a Bloodbraid Elf that is guaranteed to cascade into a planeswalker! The ultimate gives you ~3 free creatures (and some lands) as well, although it is not only harder to activate than Sarkhan Vol's, but also gives you a weaker effect (worse than a 10 mana Genesis Wave vs a 12 mana Decree of Justice).

you made him sound really good. This dude rules with mana elves.

I think If you want to support a Fires/aggro deck, you should run sarkhan, and if you want to support Natural Order/RG ramp/wildfire you should try this dude. Granted, they're both pretty good in all of those decks. Either way if you're running domri rade, it's probably time for him to go.

Quote from Goodking

There's more connective flavour and mechanical links between the abilities than most Planeswalkers. Certainly more than many of the early ones, like Sarkhan, who I won't be cutting for this guy by the way, as good as Party Boy is.

Will call him Party Boy from this point forward. Will make Chris Pontius jokes every time I play him.

It's solid. I like the pro-white a lot, but I probably won't run him at 360 unless I accidentally end up with one before I get a thundermaw.

I think running this or sarkhan is just going to be pure preference. I don't really see the need to run both. I think this new guy fits a bit better with big green strategy, but sarkhan is more aggressive and haste is awesome. I think for me it will come down to the fact that sarkhan reaches his ultimate so fast. I like that this new guy can actually lay down some protection for himself, or swing in on a clear board, and I really like the mana ability (XenaKothBall) But I think I've seen the dragons come down too often to cut sarkhan just yet. On the other hand, I don't have a huntmaster, yet, so if I crack this dude at the pre-release I'll just play both.

Quote from CodaPDX

Yeah, I think he falls into the "almost playable" category. Better than Augury Adept, but not good enough. He also occupies the same spot on the curve as Geist, making him even more redundant in cube. If we want creatures with this kind of effect, Nightveil Specter does a much, much better job of it (albeit in UB).

Should be a sweet commander, though. Swinging past dragons to cast your opponents' Tooth and Nail is pretty awesome.

Nightveil doesn't let you spend any mana on the cards though. That means that as long as you've got enough mana available, you WILL be able to play their cards. I'll consider testing this guy simply to see what Shenanigans he creates. a couple of drafts won't be hurt without divine verdict.

She seems pretty good. Probably no room at 360 for me. There's no room for Tirel, either. I find it somewhat boring that this iteration just has rearranged abilities from her previous selves.

I like it. It seems like it would be fun in any gruul deck particularly. Green dudes with haste are devastating, and you have the opportunity to play loam and crucible to assure that you keep the hill giants flowing. These artifact enchantments look like a lot of fun to me. I'm not sure I have room in 360, but I assume by the end of this block cuts will be so heartbreaking I'll expand to 450.

at the moment I play dreadbore, redcap, cackler, and spike jester (because I don't have an aristocrat.) This guy seems really good, but occupies an odd space, I think. I'd like to try him, and if I get one before I get an aristocrat I'll likely add him over jester. To be honest, BR aggro has enough 4 drops in my 360 that the aristocrat isn't terribly imperative. This guy seems like fun.

Quote from quitequieter

It's not an elegant card. I don't see how anyone could argue otherwise.

Since Scars, they've been designing with top-down mentality. Flavor is the number 1 priority. Cards are going to be like this for a while still. Honestly, I don't really mind. Despite it being a bit messy, we're seeing some very different designs. Inelegant or not, it's fairly interesting.

I appreciate the top down design of recent sets to a degree, but it's also frustrating considering it promotes narrow design when cubes want the most versatile cards available. This is a poor example of that, as this card is absurdly versatile.

I Like it. If you drop it on time in aggro it seems like a good way to circumvent the poor matchup with midrange. It has 3 abilities that never show up on cubeable cards and would all be weak on their own, but together make it a desirable card. I like when cards like that get printed (chandra, pyromaster) I think the only useless ability is the graveyard shuffle thing.

But getting your guys through, beefing up your guys, conditional removal, and blanking their swings seems absolutely worth inclusion to me. Think of it as a slow, fair jitte.

Quote from wtwlf123

It gives you an Elephant Guide kind of effect that can also be cast in creature mode when you don't have a target for the Aura form. Very nice ability.

I'd like to see a simple black aggro one (preferably a 1-drop version):

Haunting Ghoul B
Enchantment Creature - Zombie
Bestow 1B (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it's an Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it's not attached to a creature.)
Haunting Ghoul can't block.
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1 and can't block.
2/1

I was talking about this card except in red to my friend today. It'd be funny to be able to bestow on your opponent's creature for a big swing.

I sort of wish the card was just the one I made for my cube:
Clear Vision UU
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 2.

It's definitely not good enough for my 360, but scrying every turn and making dudes unblockable sounds pretty awesome whether or not you get the devotion activated. I think it would play fairly well in Simic builds particularly.

I understand the contention for the term "staple" and how it can lead to "netdecked" cubes, but you have to realize not everyone wants to design an environment, and they are okay with letting other people handle that. I've been a part of this forum for 4-5 years now, and I would not, could not possibly devalue that amount of use and knowledge I have gotten out of it, and hopefully given out myself. The amount of activity and work put into meticulously crafting that "cookie cutter" cube is monstrous. Among the countless power rankings, project rank everything, the mock sealed pools and forum-wide drafts magicmerl used to do, the various iterations of card comparison threads, the headache inducing amount of numbers Eidolon has put in and even the Print this, Wizards... thread there is such a vast pool of data and testing that has lead us each on an individual basis to a core conclusion of cards that are simultaneously the most powerful, versatile, and balanced. It's no accident that new people get into the forum and just copy Wtwlf's, or Rantipole's, or Usman's, or Bondafog's cube, because when it comes down to it, aside from our own individual final says, we all sort of built all of our cubes together into the most perfect archetype and environment that we could muster. Not to sound too much like a high school graduation, but my cube would be a wreck without a lot of the help I've gotten here, and I would be a considerably worse player to boot. People copy the established cubes here because they know that the work here is born of such meticulous critical analysis and testing that there's no way they'll end up with an unbalanced cube and that they WILL have fun. To analogize, I wouldn't try to build a house from the foundation up, because I don't know how and I would fail. I'd hire an architect and some builders and be free to do all the decorating myself.