While looking for more cards to help Black out of it's current slump, I tested how Undying Evil played out in a few games last night with my brother in some test decks for my M13 cards. It was surprisingly amazing whenever I played it. It almost always "saved" a creature that tipped the game hugely in my favor. In an aggro deck I managed to do silly things like Undying Evil my Bone Shredder before sac'ing it to echo and trade my Blade Splicer only to bring it back again as a 2/2. In an Esper control test it managed to do it to my Sun Titan before Wrathing, which shouldn't even be legal it seemed so powerful.
I feel on paper Undying Evil appears far weaker than it ends up being in practice, as the game is almost always in one of these 5 board states in cube:
You are winning and nothing can stop you:
This isn't helping much, but at this point, what is?
You have board advantage but need to keep it:
It saves your most important piece, no matter the casting cost, and always brings it back better than before.
You are in a stall:
It can be used to completely change the outcome of combat, which either destroys combat math for your opponent attempting to play around it, or completely blows them out.
You have a few guys defending you against an opponent with board advantage:
This delays your death by the same amount as other one drop alternatives would, sometimes more so due to the fact your creature can block and then swing back the following turn for 1 more damage than normal.
You have no creatures on board and a graveyard full of them:
This is the poorest point this card can be in your hand, utterly useless at this point.
This card synergizes amazingly with wraths, bombs, sacrifice effects, opponent kill-cards/burn, ETB creatures, and persist creatures. While it's downside is it is reactive as an effect, it's plus side is deceptively powerful. I think this card could use some further testing overall.
My concern is that it doesn't counteract a lot of the removal in cube and so would be a sideboard card too often. In it's favor is it's aggro support and cheap cost so if I feel I'm not seeing enough of that as I continue to play and refine my cube I might test it out.
I've heard good things about this card from other peasant cubers, but I'm not running it and don't really see the appeal myself. It's another instance where I'd rather just have Unearth. My rare cube would have to get significantly larger before this would be considered.
I've been testing it since it came out and have slowly lost appreciation for the card over time. It is a cute trick with some fun interactions but it really isn't worth the slot. There are too many times where it either doesn't do enough to make it worth playing or just sits in your hand waiting for a creature to be in play or even have the change to die and be worth giving undying when it is in play.
I have had a lot of fun with this card in my 450 unpowered cube. It is a lot better than it looks. That said, my one-cost black spells are stacked, and of them all this is probably the weakest. I will cut it for the new Lilliana when I acquire one.
Undying Evil
While looking for more cards to help Black out of it's current slump, I tested how Undying Evil played out in a few games last night with my brother in some test decks for my M13 cards. It was surprisingly amazing whenever I played it. It almost always "saved" a creature that tipped the game hugely in my favor. In an aggro deck I managed to do silly things like Undying Evil my Bone Shredder before sac'ing it to echo and trade my Blade Splicer only to bring it back again as a 2/2. In an Esper control test it managed to do it to my Sun Titan before Wrathing, which shouldn't even be legal it seemed so powerful.
I feel on paper Undying Evil appears far weaker than it ends up being in practice, as the game is almost always in one of these 5 board states in cube:
You are winning and nothing can stop you:
This isn't helping much, but at this point, what is?
You have board advantage but need to keep it:
It saves your most important piece, no matter the casting cost, and always brings it back better than before.
You are in a stall:
It can be used to completely change the outcome of combat, which either destroys combat math for your opponent attempting to play around it, or completely blows them out.
You have a few guys defending you against an opponent with board advantage:
This delays your death by the same amount as other one drop alternatives would, sometimes more so due to the fact your creature can block and then swing back the following turn for 1 more damage than normal.
You have no creatures on board and a graveyard full of them:
This is the poorest point this card can be in your hand, utterly useless at this point.
This card synergizes amazingly with wraths, bombs, sacrifice effects, opponent kill-cards/burn, ETB creatures, and persist creatures. While it's downside is it is reactive as an effect, it's plus side is deceptively powerful. I think this card could use some further testing overall.
Old Cube Thread (Outdated)
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http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/993
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/23690
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