MTG Salvation

Quote from Metamind »

All vandals fell out of grace here quite a while ago, but Shieldbreaker did not. It is a convenient card. When I need to destroy an artifact, it doesn't take my entire turn. When I need a body, I am paying only two mana for it. When I need both, I can still do that for the same amount of mana and can even split it between turns.

This. Shieldbreaker is far and away my favorite Vandal variant.

I would probably try and play all 3 still, since 2cc splashable 3-damage instant-speed burn spells without targeting restrictions are pretty efficient. But ask your playgroup if they'd be willing to play less of them. If they won't miss the redundancy for that effect, it might be a better cut for your group than it would be for mine.

Valuable discussions that are formed around differing opinions... the basis for good cube discussion for the past 15 years! Always happy to talk all things cube at any time. Thanks for the discussion!

Quote from TheRealEbase131 »

So this guy has been outclassed and is removed in most cubes, is that correct? I am going to replace him with Kari Zev.

This would be a safe swap, yes.

Good but not great. It's a useable discard outlet and a splashable 2/2 for 2. Plus, it can randomly kill creatures outside of Bolt range. But it's not amazing, it's just okay. The more things red does for you that are graveyard-related, the more valuable of an inclusion he'll be. If all your group plays is red aggro, this card's pretty bad.

Quote from TheRealEbase131 »

valuable analysis with a splash of hyperbole

Welcome to cube!

Quote from TheRealEbase131 »

Is Militant really going to survive to the point where he is impacting the game against your opponent's Jace, Gearhulk, Delve, flashback cards anyway?

Any time you exile a single spell, you're effecting the quality of their Snappy/Delve/Etc. kinds of cards ...you don't have to shut them off completely for it to still have made a positive impact on the game. But we're talking about a marginal upside on a flexible 2-power 1-drop. Rarely do any of these abilities come up on any of these creatures. The point was to measure how effective they are when they do come up. And the spell disruption is relevant when it does show up, even if it's not all that often. It matters a lot more than protection from multicolor or pro dragons or any of those other fringe abilities. Particularly against spell-based combo decks that are already going to be light on removal. Needing to aim a kill spell at a 1-drop because it's invalidating your Yawgmoth's Will or Past in Flames is a more significant upside than whatever the other fringe 1-drops bring to the table.

But that's all besides the point. The important upside is the hybrid mana cost. That's the big factor that separates the card from the pack. In any deck utilizing both of its colors of mana, it's a tremendous boon. Enough so to catapult it into being one of the best 2-power 1-drop in its respective colors. I think it's dramatically undervalued here how much better that casting cost actually is in a selesnya, naya or abzan aggro deck. Not to mention that it's also playable in green decks without white! Like Metamind says above, that increases the total number of decks that can play the card, which is a significant advantage.

Forbid > Condescend ≥ Force of Negation

Quote from Marl Karx »

Cube owners are doctrinaire about strict color balance but then try to pretend that hybrid cards are gold cards

Literally nobody is doing this. You know about the difference between a guild section and a gold section, you're just ignoring those long-documented advantages and justifications to either be combative or just to troll.

With no way to bring it back, it's just a Terrain Elemental that can be shattered. That's not what I'm looking for in my cube decks unless I'm at the tail end of an absolute trainwreck of a draft ...or I had an insanely thin sealed pool. I have played it without access to black mana before, but it was out of desperation, not design.

I agree that it can be played without access to black in a pinch, but I disagree with the "it will be run in many non-black decks" part of the assessment. Hopefully, those situations would be really rare. Rare enough that I wouldn't consider it when deciding where to classify it.

Quote from TheRealEbase131 »

Is it really better?

Than most of the cards you just listed? Yes.

Kytheon is better, and Bodyguard is better in some decks. Student has the edge over it in mono white. Militant is better than all of those other cards though IMO ...even when the green mana is irrelevant. Which it's not, because in every deck that has access to both green and white mana, Militant is better than every card on that list and by a significant margin too. The spell disruption is a big deal when applicable. It injures combo decks, weakens cards like Snappy, Gearhulk, and Jace, makes the opponent's delve cards less consistent, kills all flashback spells ...that's a lot of disruptive utility to strap to a 2-power creature for 1 mana. Far more relevant than protection from multicolored, for example.

Finks and maybe Knight of Autumn are the only two cards on that list I would include ahead of Militant on the list you posted.

I think Lesser Masticore is the best one for cubes nowadays. Like you said, it can be a discard outlet for decks that want one, but without it costing you a card per turn. It's a persist combo enabler (obviously) and it's half the cost of the other ones. It can randomly snipe off small creatures still too, though that aspect of it is a bit overcosted on this version.

I plan on doing some testing with this card. While it's true that it has some win-more aspects to it, it does a couple of unique things for the cube. It's a playable combat trick, which is quite welcome. It's also an aggro-centric piece of equipment, and most equipment cards are better suited for midrange deck nowadays. It'll be nice to have another Wargear kind of card floating around. It also brings in some extra double strike, which is an underrepresented keyword. But most importantly, it adds in a card that makes blocking assignments relevant. There are several cards (like flash creatures, for example) that can make attacking into open mana a little perilous, and players are becoming more cognizant of that. But there are few cube cards that change how you block when the attacking player has open mana, and Embercleave is exactly that card. I don't expect it to be broken, but I do think it can contribute to R/x aggressive strategies well, and I like the idea of having another aggro equipment piece floating around, as well as another offensive-oriented combat trick. At 2 mana, the card's obviously sick. At 5 mana, the card is underwhelming and overcosted. But in the 3-4 mana range, which I expect its ACS to be, the card will be adding 4-5 power to the board on average, which makes it comparable to (or better than?) Wargear in terms of the power/cost it delivers.

I'll report back with how it plays out.

I like Masticore, and Molten-Tail is ...okay. Razormane isn't good at all, IMO. I haven't cubed with any of them in a really long time. OG Masticore is still a pretty cool card though, and I play it in decks when I'm guest-drafting other cubes.

It will? I don't think I'd ever play this in a deck without access to black mana unless something went horribly wrong during the draft.