MTG Salvation

I am not sure how to rate this card. It has bad mana costs. The body is fine, especially the hexproof. He is obviously good with spot removal and can be bonkers with hand disruption and/or countermagic. So colorwise he is in the right spot :-).

I wish it had a better mana cost, because I love cards like this. It's likely not good enough, though I may test it for fun anyway.

I dont think there are enough activated abilities on creatures to make it worth it. Ill pass.

Quote from MagicFever

?? I think you mean the equipment, dont you?

I think he means what he said. Since Lazav will copy a creature while hes in play, you dont get any ETB effects. So part of his value comes from the activated abilities he'd be able to use on creatures he copies. There aren't nearly as many of them, plus more than likely you'd need an off color mana source to activate them anyways.

EDIT: He would make a great Emperor Palpatine alter though, such a shame.

I think this card is really well designed and a lot of fun. It's not a classic cube card, but its power for four (admittedly awkward) mana is undeniable. The guild bosses are great so far from this set.

I really wish he was 2UB.

Quote from Goodking

The guild bosses are great so far from this set.

Agreed! Not all are for cube but so far every one is strong and a flavor home run.

Since I support a graveyard theme and milling theme in my cube I am strongly considering this card. He seems like a lot of fun. Finding a spot could be difficult though. I am certainly giving him a try.

This is only from watching a few games in testing last night, but this creature was pretty ridiculous. 4-mana is just not that much mana for what Lazav brings to the table. Watched it get value off of discard spells, well-timed removal, and it even stopped an opponent from playing his better creatures knowing this would take over the game. Watched it blank a Survival and even become Griselbrand.

The mana cost is a little heavy, but I have no doubt that this is cubable and might even be insane. I think more testing needed, and if you are curious as to whether you should pick this guy up, my gut says yes.

With that cost and relying on my opponent, I just can't see him being in contention in what is now a tight guild outside of a vast cube. He's straight U/B decks only and hinders use of colourless-producing nonbasics. I can't splash for him in another deck, either.

But if your opponent is not relying on creatures than he's still a 3/3 hexproof for 4 - it can bring the beatdown. And if your opponents creatures are smaller, then he's still a 3/3 hexproof for 4 and can hold the fort quite well.

I think he seems pretty good overall, and is going to be relevant is most game states. I think it comes down to whether or not you think the mana fixing is right in your cube to regularly support mana costs like this. If so, I'd say he's definitely in (but, I've always valued Clone-variant cards higher than most, I think).

-rexx

I just don't think a hard-to-cast doppelganger breaks into the top ~8 or so Dimir cards. This is especially true if you support the artifact deck. I'm really not impressed with this card for cube.

Cheers,
rant