How nice his ability is, he remains a 1/1 for 4 mana. He is too slow to be cubeworthy sadly. I love Ertai, but he just doesn't cut it unless your environment is pretty slow. In which case he becomes pretty bomby.
He's technically a 1/1 for three mana, and his ability becomes active the next turn. He's pretty powerful but you have to have a deck that's able to stabilize the early rush by turn 3, then have them play nothing extremely threatening or kill him before turn 4.
Also, wraths become a pretty bad way of stabilizing with him out (although they don't necessarily fit poorly into the same deck).
He's okay, probably great in large dragon cubes (MODO cube anyone)?
He worked badly when I cubed with him. Even the more durdly decks don't want to keep 4-mana up to use his ability. He does provide a softlock on the opponent, but it takes too long.
This card really isn't a three drop, as you never want to play it unless you have protection for it... That being said as a five drop or above it's kind of bad.
Ertai is a trap for the same people who want to jam 12+ counterspells in their constructed deck. You only need to counter specific key cards in any match-up where counters are good. If you are relying on counters to answer everything you are eventually going to let something through and/or never going to actually win the game yourself. Ertai is way to much mana to serve as a tempo counter and too telegraphed and slow to counter the match-up key cards.
Ertai is a trap for the same people who want to jam 12+ counterspells in their constructed deck. You only need to counter specific key cards in any match-up where counters are good. If you are relying on counters to answer everything you are eventually going to let something through and/or never going to actually win the game yourself. Ertai is way to much mana to serve as a tempo counter and too telegraphed and slow to counter the match-up key cards.
Very smart statement, thank you. "The Deck" is now really a thing of the past, just as there's now a thing called an aggro deck.
Specialities about the cube: U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
It's Glen Elendra Archmage 1.0, three mana 1/1's have to have immediate board presence to survive in my cube and I'm only playing two four mana counterspells: Mystic Snake and Cryptic Command.
I play him in my Weatherlight Cube because... well, how can I not? The guy has the been quotes ever!
That being said, he's pretty bad in a more traditional Cube. For him to be effective, the cubing environment needs to be 0.5-1 turn slower than average, and provide less removal. Basically, he needs a format where he can stick around to do his thing. Most Cubes do not offer that.
I agree with Grumpy. The guy is full of flavour, and is a way cooler Wizard than that upstart Jace, but he is too slow and fragile as a card for most cubes.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Is this guy's ability too cost-prohibitive, or is it balanced enough to have a repeatable counter?
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
Also, wraths become a pretty bad way of stabilizing with him out (although they don't necessarily fit poorly into the same deck).
He's okay, probably great in large dragon cubes (MODO cube anyone)?
Blimpy's Aggro-Focused Cube (powered 360)
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Voidmage Prodigy seems a lot better.
Very smart statement, thank you. "The Deck" is now really a thing of the past, just as there's now a thing called an aggro deck.
450, Peasant*, unpowered**
Specialities about the cube:
U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
That being said, he's pretty bad in a more traditional Cube. For him to be effective, the cubing environment needs to be 0.5-1 turn slower than average, and provide less removal. Basically, he needs a format where he can stick around to do his thing. Most Cubes do not offer that.
My 380 Beginners’ Cube on Cube Tutor
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
360 Uncommons only Cube!