I did a review of Ixalan for Gathering Magic.
Enjoy!
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Usman posted a message on Cube Review at Gathering Magic: IxalanPosted in: Articles, Podcasts, and Guides -
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Salmo posted a message on [XLN][CUBE] Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken RuinIt's pretty interesting how wildly different play groups value cards. I can totally see Thassa sucking, but people I used to play with pretty much think she's the best thing and worship her enough to add their own devotion. I've seen it activated a number of times and been absolutely killer, but if it's never activating for you then that's a ***** bag card for sure. But if I ever cut it, I would have to spend an amount of time explaining why and then they would just go 'no, she's the best, throw her back in.' Magic, man, it's cray!Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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Salmo posted a message on [XLN][CUBE] Brazen BuccaneersFWIW it would be an incredible 2 dropPosted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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Mergatroid_Jones posted a message on [XLN][CUBE] Ripjaw RaptorPosted in: Cube Card and Archetype DiscussionQuote from Salmo »Quote from TorontoJock »
I was surprised when you initially said you weren't going to test this as you're usually all about the interesting if slightly under-powered cards. Whenever i see a new card that seems cool but may just miss the cut in my cube, i think "at least megatroid will run it" lol. I think the raptor will perform well for you.Quote from Mergatroid_Jones »On second review, I really like this card. It's good by itself, with an opposite Ophidian ability on a decent body, and adding the millions of fun interactions this creates, it seems like a pretty sweet card for a cube like mine. This will particularly shine in RG decks where pingers are very prevalent. My favorite part is that there's no way this card will be expensive.
All in all, this looks to be an ideal card for my cube, and I plan to add it.
Yeah honestly, I really appreciate having someone on these forums with a cube big enough to try everything. Megatroid, please come back to these threads and let us know how some of the stuff only you are trying are fairing.
Aww gee shucks, you guys are swell. I've actually been doing quite a bit of testing lately, and I think I'll be cubing again tonight, so I'll post some results in the next few days. -
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Salmo posted a message on [XLN][CUBE] Kitesail FreebooterAgain, in some cases you're right, you'll be able to deal with the creature(s) they have in hand so it's better to take the noncreature spell. In those cases, this card will obviously be better. In some cases it will be marginally better or virtually the same, in other cases it will be much better. In a vacuum it's not a much higher ceiling but it can be much higher if you have Jitte or other eqipment or you need to get in with a flier.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion
However, you can't dismiss the opposite situations from ever or even regularly occurring. What happens when I play this in a spot where they only have creatures in their hand? Or the noncreature spell doesn't matter in comparison to the creature that's a bigger problem?
And how am I always going to have recursion? Or how will I always have the kill spell? Even in some of my best designed decks the important cards sit at the bottom, it's part of the game and one that this card makes really apparent. I wish I was so lucky that I could count on always having the kill spells and always recurring my dudes when I'm playing black, but unfortunately there are 40 cards in a deck and the ~15-20 one sees on an average game (those numbers are probably off, but probably not by much if so (and they're definitely off for me since I take every Worldknit I see no matter where it is in the draft)) will not always include a kill spell or recursion spell.
Mesmeric Fiend is an unreliable card as is due to it dying, removing a large portion of its targets and making it slightly harder to kill in exchange for a better body seems like you're setting your players up for even worse experiences.
The strength of fiend isn't that it's a *good* creature, but just that it's a creature. That strength is because it can hit anything and you can recur it/do baseline 'creature things' with it. Say whatever you want about your duresses and how great black is at always having the right discard/kill spell, but missing off of fiend would be unacceptable, and that will happen with this card. Not 'maybe', not 'probably', but due to the nature of the game's variance Kitesail Freebooter will have times where you miss and that is god awful. And to tack on that abyssmal floor for flying and +1 toughness is asking a lot.
The recursion aspect is pretty important for what it targets as well, since if you recur it and they have 2-3 cards in hand, there are going to be a percentage of games where they're holding onto a creature they can't cast or the better card to grab is the creature. Yes, the other side of things when you can grab that planeswalker or the sandbagged equipment will be sweet, but it would've been sweet with Mesmeric Fiend and you are opening yourself up to that many more ways to not get the most out of your fiend variant.
A third toughness would've gone a LONG way for this guy. The difference between 1 and 2 toughness isn't too huge compared to the difference between 2 and 3, at least in cube. There's very little removal that kills an X/1 but misses an X/2, and there are a decent amount of creatures that have < 3 power. I would also definitely play this if it was a 2/1. -
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Salmo posted a message on [XLN] Conqueror's Galleon/Conqueror's FootholdPosted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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Mergatroid_Jones posted a message on [XLN] Conqueror's Galleon/Conqueror's FootholdBut... it's so cool...Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion
I might try this just for the cool factor, but I hold no delusions that it's actually good. Any card with "This card does nothing at all until you have 4+ power on the board" is going to end up bad. It's a shame. Crew 3 might have been doable. -
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wtwlf123 posted a message on [XLN][CUBE] Kitesail FreebooterI don't think the +0/+1 and flying is worth missing out on hitting like half the potential cards that can be taken by Fiend/Maggot. Not by a longshot. It's an easy pass for me.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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wtwlf123 posted a message on [SOI][CUBE] The Gitrog MonsterThat, and the lack of desire. Even in the decks that had those tools in 'em before, the dedicated "lands matter" decks were medium at best. I don't think the printing of just Ramunap Excavator is going to suddenly make that deck compete with other top-tier archetypes in this format. Certainly not enough so to make the series of painful cuts required to get all those cards into the cube. The deck will very likely come together organically over the years, without me having to put in mediocre dedicated archetype cards to support it.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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B8R posted a message on [SOI][CUBE] The Gitrog MonsterPosted in: Cube Card and Archetype DiscussionQuote from wtwlf123 »I haven't been re-testing it, no. But I know that several other cube managers are.
Hmm, interesting. Just experience and intuition telling you that the critical mass is not there yet for testing? - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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Does this card push people to play a few more self sacrificing enchantment like the seals?
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Your IE indicates you don't support G/R midrange tokens which is a shame but I get your point.
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