1. The first synergistic cube deck I drafted abused Reveillark, Karmic Guide, and Crystal Shard.
2. I have never spelled Reveillark correctly on the first try.
The one thing I'd question about him is if he's as good in heavy aggro cubes as the recursion cost is not cheap.
It seems to me that getting to 5 (or getting him in the yard and paying 3 every turn) just isn't a winning proposition without the deck built around Survival of the Fittest if you expect at least half (I don't know what sort of %'s Blimpy and TAB (as far as I can tell the 2 most aggro focused cubes) have so I made up half) the decks drafted to be aggro.
Edit for the card for white, what about reveillark? I mean most people realize it's a good card but some people can forget just how powerful the effect can be.
Building a green deck agro deck thinking you wont hit 6+ mana is probably not to your advantage anyway. I've seen very very few games end by turn 4 and nearly all of them involve somethin broken or mana screw. Some control decks will have the tools to deal with every threat you play early, but its not likely that they will be able to recover once genesis gets going.
Why I though Genesis was a good case study is that it promotes a deeper understanding of deck design.
Can you build your deck with a super low curve and cap out at 4 lands? sure.
Is it worth the risk of getting into a unwinnable situation because you have only velocity and not inevitabilty? Thats a harder question.
Re: Revilark
I don't associate the abilities on Revilark as particularly "White" in nature. Its more of an outlier than a commonality (a very powerful one to be sure). I've considers Exalted Angel, Soltari Champion, Kor Sanctifiers, and Cloudgoat Ranger so far.
I didn't mean in an aggro deck so much as in a format that is overflowing with aggro decks, my post wasn't very clear on that. It is a card that is insane against control and midrange, but I was curious how it fares in the aggro-centric cubes as it might be a little slow and low immediate impact for those midrange decks.
As for reveillark that makes sense then, of those cards I'd talk about cloudgoat ranger as it can seem under powered on first glance. Then again Soltari Champion would be an interesting one also.
I don't associate the abilities on Revilark as particularly "White" in nature. Its more of an outlier than a commonality (a very powerful one to be sure). I've considers Exalted Angel, Soltari Champion, Kor Sanctifiers, and Cloudgoat Ranger so far.
I think Reveillark is a good choice for one of these discussions, since like Genesis, it's slightly overcosted for the base creature but has extra interactions that you want to take advantage of in certain games or deck styles.
If you don't want to use Reveillark, I think Soltari Champion is good from your list, since it can actually have a pretty high variance in practice. It's either superb with multiple creatures (tons of damage), great with equipment on his own (3-mana unblockable with huge power and damage triggers), or poor (3-mana 2/2 unblockable... that doesn't pump anything).
I didn't mean in an aggro deck so much as in a format that is overflowing with aggro decks, my post wasn't very clear on that. It is a card that is insane against control and midrange, but I was curious how it fares in the aggro-centric cubes as it might be a little slow and low immediate impact for those midrange decks.
As for reveillark that makes sense then, of those cards I'd talk about cloudgoat ranger as it can seem under powered on first glance. Then again Soltari Champion would be an interesting one also.
Being slow against agro is certainly one of its drawbacks, but it still has a body that can battle. A green deck facing another agro deck wants to go over the top by accelerating into bigger creatures and spells faster. Overwhelming them with resources and outclassing smaller creatures.
White is a hard one because White goes in all directions, it is a complete color that can do everything except damage players with spells directly.
Yea, I was thinking Cloudgoat, or Exalted Angel because they fit everywhere.
Student of Warfare is another perfect one but its also obviously good and substancially newer.
I think Exalted Angel is more clearly good to the untrained eye than Cloudgoat, at least I see a lot more posts questioning Cloudgoat Ranger than the Angel. So you going to keep us in suspense on R, U & B?
"Leaves play" is fantastic on this card. It opens up more opportunities for setting up combos (e.g. Crystal Shard or Erratic Portal) and makes it much better against exiling removal. I would really like Wizards to put that trigger on more cards, rather than the narrower dies/goes to the graveyard trigger.
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'Lark is one of those cards I just hate to pass in a draft. In fact, I P1P1'd this guy in my last draft and tried to force a Blink deck (ended up with Legacy Stoneforge, oh well). You get a HECK of a deal for 5 mana; a substantial, evasive threat in addition to TWO guys coming back if/when your opponent deals with it. Not to mention you can simply pay 1 more to re-up your guys immediately, should you need. Not to mention that it triggers on leaving play, not hitting the 'yard, always ensuring that it does its job. It's an awesome card full of options that all three major archetypes would want.
One of the things I struggle with about Reveillark is just accepting that getting back two random 2 power dorks is worth while, and eavasive 4/3 that brings back ~4 power is a great deal. It doesn't need to be recurring Mulldrifters or Karmic Guides to be an awesome 5 drop.
One of the things I struggle with about Reveillark is just accepting that getting back two random 2 power dorks is worth while, and eavasive 4/3 that brings back ~4 power is a great deal. It doesn't need to be recurring Mulldrifters or Karmic Guides to be an awesome 5 drop.
I like cheating the system and getting back stuff like Blade Splicer and Triskelion.
There are even more interactions like that in cube if you look for them.
One of the things I struggle with about Reveillark is just accepting that getting back two random 2 power dorks is worth while, and eavasive 4/3 that brings back ~4 power is a great deal. It doesn't need to be recurring Mulldrifters or Karmic Guides to be an awesome 5 drop.
Some of the best creatures in the cube with the best abilities have 2 power or less (includiong %80 of the 187 creatures). Hell even Meloku can be brought back with Revilark.
Yeah, I do that in my Karador Commander deck from time to time, and it's really making me want to cube with Hornet Queen. I may bump out Rampaging Baloths for it.
Yeah, I do that in my Karador Commander deck from time to time, and it's really making me want to cube with Hornet Queen. I may bump out Rampaging Baloths for it.
It should probably be noted I have never done this :P.
Should probably go through Lark combo since it's pretty convoluted and many cubes run the pieces. Lark is the main combo piece so this seems like the appropriate spot for it.
So you'll need a sac outlet that costs no mana, I'll use Mirror Entity for this though Greater Gargadon will also work (the suspend counters are only removed on the resolution of the sac ability so you can sac an arbitrary number of things). Next you'll need Karmic Guide, Body Double or Saffi Eriksdotter (I'll use Karmic Guide in the example but the other creatures fill the same role). Lastly you'll need a 2 or less power creature with an ETB ability, say Mulldrifter, Venser, Shaper Savant or Acidic Slime (I'll use Venser in the example). This combo uses a bunch of pieces so it's easiest to set up using Survival of the Fittest or Fauna Shaman since all the pieces are creatures.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned, yet ist htat cube is still a limited format, which means that a 4 power flier is already something that can easily kill you, even if you can't 7:1 someone by returning Mulldrifter and other 187 creatures.
This. All the crazy shennanigans you can pull of are what makes this card cubable, but a 4/3 flyer is already a serious threat on its own. 4 flying damage kills opponents fast enough.
I'm going to necro this thread to cause some more trouble.
Reveillark is almost definitely better than Sun Titan, who I think is iffy.
Shes cheaper and flies over your own Moat for starters. But seriously, she is a UW control card and look at some of her best targets:
Glen Elendra
Venser
Sower
Solemn Silmulacrum
Phyrexian Metamorph
Academy Rector (even if you already got Moat with her she can still fetch utility targets that white has in abundance)
I'm sure you notice something common to them all..
Well I don't agree with that at all. One card in the cube makes another one completely redundant? Especially when they can target completely different types of cards for totally different archetypes? That's silly to me.
You said in your post you thought she was better than Sun Titan. That I can maybe get behind. But having Reveillark somewhere in the cube pool doesn't make the Titan irrelevant. At all.
Well I don't agree with that at all. One card in the cube makes another one completely redundant? Especially when they can target completely different types of cards for totally different archetypes? That's silly to me.
You said in your post you thought she was better than Sun Titan. That I can maybe get behind. But having Reveillark somewhere in the cube pool doesn't make the Titan irrelevant. At all.
Sun Titan's just not that great in Cube IMO. Reveillark is way better in UW decks which are the natural home of these white finishers. Meanwhile, Elesh Norn is about 1000x times better to reanimate and its arguable that you're better off trying to build your deck to get to 7 and hardcast her. The same goes for Angel of Serenity who has the large advantage that she flies too.
Yeah, Titan is ok to reanimate himself but those two are in the stratosphere comparably speaking.
You can't use Rector again if she (he?) has already fetched something since Rector gets exiled.
Good catch I forgot that. I think in one of our matches somebody reused her too (cheat!). I don't normally draft Rector decks myself and we mainly put her in for combo purposes.
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Two things to note about this card.
1. The first synergistic cube deck I drafted abused Reveillark, Karmic Guide, and Crystal Shard.
2. I have never spelled Reveillark correctly on the first try.
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Building a green deck agro deck thinking you wont hit 6+ mana is probably not to your advantage anyway. I've seen very very few games end by turn 4 and nearly all of them involve somethin broken or mana screw. Some control decks will have the tools to deal with every threat you play early, but its not likely that they will be able to recover once genesis gets going.
Why I though Genesis was a good case study is that it promotes a deeper understanding of deck design.
Can you build your deck with a super low curve and cap out at 4 lands? sure.
Is it worth the risk of getting into a unwinnable situation because you have only velocity and not inevitabilty? Thats a harder question.
Re: Revilark
I don't associate the abilities on Revilark as particularly "White" in nature. Its more of an outlier than a commonality (a very powerful one to be sure). I've considers Exalted Angel, Soltari Champion, Kor Sanctifiers, and Cloudgoat Ranger so far.
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As for reveillark that makes sense then, of those cards I'd talk about cloudgoat ranger as it can seem under powered on first glance. Then again Soltari Champion would be an interesting one also.
I think Reveillark is a good choice for one of these discussions, since like Genesis, it's slightly overcosted for the base creature but has extra interactions that you want to take advantage of in certain games or deck styles.
If you don't want to use Reveillark, I think Soltari Champion is good from your list, since it can actually have a pretty high variance in practice. It's either superb with multiple creatures (tons of damage), great with equipment on his own (3-mana unblockable with huge power and damage triggers), or poor (3-mana 2/2 unblockable... that doesn't pump anything).
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Being slow against agro is certainly one of its drawbacks, but it still has a body that can battle. A green deck facing another agro deck wants to go over the top by accelerating into bigger creatures and spells faster. Overwhelming them with resources and outclassing smaller creatures.
White is a hard one because White goes in all directions, it is a complete color that can do everything except damage players with spells directly.
Yea, I was thinking Cloudgoat, or Exalted Angel because they fit everywhere.
Student of Warfare is another perfect one but its also obviously good and substancially newer.
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I like cheating the system and getting back stuff like Blade Splicer and Triskelion.
There are even more interactions like that in cube if you look for them.
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Some of the best creatures in the cube with the best abilities have 2 power or less (includiong %80 of the 187 creatures). Hell even Meloku can be brought back with Revilark.
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pfft real men get back Hornet Queen.;)
Yeah, I do that in my Karador Commander deck from time to time, and it's really making me want to cube with Hornet Queen. I may bump out Rampaging Baloths for it.
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It should probably be noted I have never done this :P.
Phyrexian Metamorph and other Clone creatures.
Huntmaster of the Fells - Actually an effective 4/4 with a game rule-modifying effect.
Phantom Centaur. I hear 5/3's are good.
Fiend Hunter and Acidic Slime as removal!
You lika the tokens? I like Siege-Gang Commander too.
Oh look, Sewer Nemesis only tracks its power and toughness if it's on the battlefield.
I have a love-hate relationship with Reveillark. I love it when I have one, and I hate it when I don't have one.
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So you'll need a sac outlet that costs no mana, I'll use Mirror Entity for this though Greater Gargadon will also work (the suspend counters are only removed on the resolution of the sac ability so you can sac an arbitrary number of things). Next you'll need Karmic Guide, Body Double or Saffi Eriksdotter (I'll use Karmic Guide in the example but the other creatures fill the same role). Lastly you'll need a 2 or less power creature with an ETB ability, say Mulldrifter, Venser, Shaper Savant or Acidic Slime (I'll use Venser in the example). This combo uses a bunch of pieces so it's easiest to set up using Survival of the Fittest or Fauna Shaman since all the pieces are creatures.
1. Karmic Guide, Mirror Entity & Venser need to be in play or in the graveyard.
2. Evoke Reveillark getting back Karmic Guide and Mirror Entity, Karmic Guide gets back Reveillark.
3. Activate Mirror Entity for 0 X number of times retaining priority after each activation.
4. Let the first trigger resolve killing your team. Reveillark gets back Karmic Guide and Venser, Karmic Guide gets back Reveillark.
5. Repeat step 4 for each trigger. Each time you'll get a Venser activation so you bounce all of your opponents permanents.
This. All the crazy shennanigans you can pull of are what makes this card cubable, but a 4/3 flyer is already a serious threat on its own. 4 flying damage kills opponents fast enough.
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
Reveillark is almost definitely better than Sun Titan, who I think is iffy.
Shes cheaper and flies over your own Moat for starters. But seriously, she is a UW control card and look at some of her best targets:
Glen Elendra
Venser
Sower
Solemn Silmulacrum
Phyrexian Metamorph
Academy Rector (even if you already got Moat with her she can still fetch utility targets that white has in abundance)
I'm sure you notice something common to them all..
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My argument is that she makes Sun Titan redundant to the point that we don't play him.
You said in your post you thought she was better than Sun Titan. That I can maybe get behind. But having Reveillark somewhere in the cube pool doesn't make the Titan irrelevant. At all.
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You can't use Rector again if she (he?) has already fetched something since Rector gets exiled.
Sun Titan's just not that great in Cube IMO. Reveillark is way better in UW decks which are the natural home of these white finishers. Meanwhile, Elesh Norn is about 1000x times better to reanimate and its arguable that you're better off trying to build your deck to get to 7 and hardcast her. The same goes for Angel of Serenity who has the large advantage that she flies too.
Yeah, Titan is ok to reanimate himself but those two are in the stratosphere comparably speaking.
Good catch I forgot that. I think in one of our matches somebody reused her too (cheat!). I don't normally draft Rector decks myself and we mainly put her in for combo purposes.