There was some discussion on Mayor of Avabruck when the card first came out, but it was, for the most part negative and dismissed. It seems to have recently been getting more positive press in recent times (as seen in the UG Tempo Thread.)
How would you describe its performance, how it is commonly utilized and what decks make best use out of it?
It has performed very good here. We were sceptic at first but it proved it worth by winning games all by itself.
It shines in green midrange, but any deck with tokens support, sac themes can run it. It is decent in aggro as well as it forces the control player to do something about it.
The boosting of humans is surprisingly relevant.
We consider it a 450 staple now. We would probably play it even at 360.
I think just about everyone who recently added him has been surprised. He's a beast (or should I say Werewolve). We haven't seen him in play too much but when we have and he isn't answered he becomes a two mana planeswalker.
He forces your opponent to cast a spell, at sorcery speed, on each of his turns until he answers Mayor or just doesn't care about him being flipped. That's quite good for a 2cmc card.
I play it in my 360 and consider it a top 3 two drop for green. It admittedly is a binary card one side is underwhelming (not terrible because buffing humans is surprisingly relevant) and the other is ridiculous. Howlpack Alpha can win games in a way that no two drop other than pack rat can.
It does flow better in certain decks, as mentioned U/G tempo is probably it's strongest deck, as you want to stick a threat and leave up instants and this guy rewards that style of play.
It also is killer against control. Many times I've seen decks have to use spells they would much rather have sat on because they can't let it flip. Main phased, no flashback snapcasters have happened. It significantly changes the way your opponent has to approach the game if they don't have removal.
Also in my cube there can be a small accidental wolf tribal theme, Master of the Wild Hunt really likes this guy and Garruk Relentless thinks he's a pretty cool dude.
In terms of what decks use it, any deck with green will for us, but that's rather biased as several of our players (including me) have this guy as something of a pet card. U/G is definitely his strongest deck but it works out pretty well in rock style midrange decks too. Can't speak for R/G or G/W aggro as we don't tend to draft those as much but I'd guess he'd be a little weaker there as he does probably slow your curve a little. He works surprisingly well in ramp strategies (not super ramp just turboing out 5 drops ramp), though I suspect this may be fluky small sample size because there is no reason he should be good in the decks (or even be in them, I just throw him in as I love ramp and I love mayor) but for some reason it has been pretty solid there a few times.
I never understood why this guy wasn't considered a 360 include from jumpstreet. I don't run double sided cards (mostly due to laziness) but if I did he would go in ASAP.
The only reason not to include it is that you don't include dfc, mostly due to laziness. I don't include it because i would have to resleeve my entire cube, as i use clear perfect fit cases at the moment.
It's been okay, but not great since it's re-inclusion. I'm not looking to cut it, but I haven't seen anything out of it yet for me to consider it a staple.
I play him in my 360. Because my drafts typically consist of only 2 players, our games tend to be slightly slower. Also players don't draft the same colors too often, and often one is more aggro and the other more control. Getting this guy out early and having him flip can often take over a game. I know I've lost to just this card before. I consider it to be very powerful in my cube.
I remember when I tested him briefly after he first came out, I liked what I saw, but cut him for other cards and never gave him another thought. I like that the opinion has shifted a bit with him, so I think I'd be willing to test him again.
I have had success with him. He is fantastic when he flips and still useful if you have some humans on the field, something that has happened more often than I expected.
Hes a staple in my cube. I run a human themed white section so his front side is an anthem. Casting a geddon effect with him onboard is GG most of the time.
The only reason not to include it is that you don't include dfc, mostly due to laziness. I don't include it because i would have to resleeve my entire cube, as i use clear perfect fit cases at the moment.
I use the checklist cards as stand-ins during play, although I need to look for a more elegant solution (i.e more aesthetically pleasing)
As for the Mayor, I have been hearing good things about him, and I think I'll give it a shot in the next Cube update. I currently run about 6-7 DFCs in my Cube
Also in my cube there can be a small accidental wolf tribal theme, Master of the Wild Hunt really likes this guy and Garruk Relentless thinks he's a pretty cool dude.
The "Wolf" Deck is pretty popular in my cube, too, I run all of these cards, plus Huntmaster of the Fells also works really good with the Mayor.
He's really only good in a UG deck with flash creatures and counterspells where you can afford to pass the turn and flip him.
Sorry not trying to pick on you but I do want to say that my experience has strongly contradicted this. Playing it and continuing to curve out puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your opponent to play something every single turn. And it makes that awkward turn where you don't have a four drop but instead have two fives much more palatable.
Quote from RexxRaul »
The "Wolf" Deck is pretty popular in my cube, too, I run all of these cards, plus Huntmaster of the Fells also works really good with the Mayor.
I forgot about huntmaster good catch.
To those that haven't experienced this it's not forced or anything it's just nice incidental value that sometimes swings a toss up pick, and when it comes together it's pretty cool. Also fun note day side of mayor pumps MotW hunt, value!
I added him very recently and have only drafted him once. My initial results show he's a good creature to cast following Upheaval.
It is? Your opponent should curve out perfectly after you Upheaval, and you only have 1 power worth of creatures on the table. Unless you intend on skipping your turn to flip it ...but you don't need an Upheaval to do that.
I've found that except against aggro decks most decks don't have one drops to replay after upheaval. Could just be my group though.
Most mid-range decks have some 1cc permanents too. Control has a few, but if you resolve an upheaval in the control mirror and get to replay a threat, it doesn't much matter what it is.
It is? Your opponent should curve out perfectly after you Upheaval, and you only have 1 power worth of creatures on the table. Unless you intend on skipping your turn to flip it ...but you don't need an Upheaval to do that.
Only if they have a 1 cc spell. Also skipping your turn has less risk involved if your opponent has no board position.
I've chosen to play Jade mage over this for the purpose of token production. This at best produces one a turn and more often less. The Mayor's wolves are bigger and production requires no mana to activate, but I like providing green with good ways to spend extra mana when you're drawing lands or at opponent's EOT.
Hmm, just read that the wolves are 3/3 when in beast mode. 3/3's (also 2/2) are a lot bigger than a 1/1, but I think the ability to have multiple 1/1's to swarm past blockers and something to do with mana (and Gaea's Cradle) wins it for me.
I count thornling as the only other green creature that I'm runnning that can really count as a mana sink. (Omnath counts I guess, Chameleon Colossus) Also, Master of the Wild Hunt passively generates token guaranteed at the same rate (tho Master and Mayor do play nicely together).
I've chosen to play Jade mage over this for the purpose of token production. This at best produces one a turn and more often less. The Mayor's wolves are bigger and production requires no mana to activate, but I like providing green with good ways to spend extra mana when you're drawing lands or at opponent's EOT.
Hmm, just read that the wolves are 3/3 when in beast mode. 3/3's (also 2/2) are a lot bigger than a 1/1, but I think the ability to have multiple 1/1's to swarm past blockers and something to do with mana (and Gaea's Cradle) wins it for me.
I count thornling as the only other green creature that I'm runnning that can really count as a mana sink. (Omnath counts I guess, Chameleon Colossus) Also, Master of the Wild Hunt passively generates token guaranteed at the same rate (tho Master and Mayor do play nicely together).
Jade Mage is a completely different card. Sure, you have arbitrarily many tokens, but they're smaller and they cost you mana. You can flip Mayor and then use the rest of your cards and mana to deal and trade with your opponent's stuff (countering, removing, trading in combat, ..) while you assemble 3/3 Wolves. If you are making Jade Mage's Saprolings, however, you typically don't have mana up to play whatever else is in your hand.
Jade Mage is a late game card with an early game mode (2 mana 2/1), Mayor is more of a midgame card.
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.
Yes, it's obvious that Jade Mage and Mayor are different cards. I think you aptly stated their roles. Like I said, I chose Jade Mage because of it's ability to be a mana sink when there's nothing left to do with your mana since I don't have many in green and at some point in the game, green often has lots of mana with nothing to do. Really, against a stalled board, you only need a 4-5 tokens to win in a couple swings.
My thought is if you're opponent is casting things and you're spending mana dealing with things your opponent controls, how often does Mayor flip? From my experience with DFC, not as often as you would like.
For this reason, I chose Master of the Wild Hunt. I don't expect between turn 2-4 your opponent will not play at least one spell, at which point, Mayor doesn't flip and generate tokens for you. Master comes down turn 4 and starts working passively turn 5 which is about the same. Or if they either are played later in the game, Master will always make tokens, while mayor has to be flipped and not unflipped.
It might be time to discuss Mayor again now that more good humans have been printed and cards like Champion of the Parish are making their way into cubes. Right now, 30% of my creatures are human. That's 12% of my cube.
The only reason I don't run him and Huntmaster of the Fells is dealing with the dual faced card issue in my sleeves. Most of the people who I cube with aren't very experienced in magic, so I'm trying to keep it simple.
But if I ever do put the dual faced cards in, he's one of the first to make the jump.
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There was some discussion on Mayor of Avabruck when the card first came out, but it was, for the most part negative and dismissed. It seems to have recently been getting more positive press in recent times (as seen in the UG Tempo Thread.)
How would you describe its performance, how it is commonly utilized and what decks make best use out of it?
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
It shines in green midrange, but any deck with tokens support, sac themes can run it. It is decent in aggro as well as it forces the control player to do something about it.
The boosting of humans is surprisingly relevant.
We consider it a 450 staple now. We would probably play it even at 360.
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
He forces your opponent to cast a spell, at sorcery speed, on each of his turns until he answers Mayor or just doesn't care about him being flipped. That's quite good for a 2cmc card.
It does flow better in certain decks, as mentioned U/G tempo is probably it's strongest deck, as you want to stick a threat and leave up instants and this guy rewards that style of play.
It also is killer against control. Many times I've seen decks have to use spells they would much rather have sat on because they can't let it flip. Main phased, no flashback snapcasters have happened. It significantly changes the way your opponent has to approach the game if they don't have removal.
Also in my cube there can be a small accidental wolf tribal theme, Master of the Wild Hunt really likes this guy and Garruk Relentless thinks he's a pretty cool dude.
In terms of what decks use it, any deck with green will for us, but that's rather biased as several of our players (including me) have this guy as something of a pet card. U/G is definitely his strongest deck but it works out pretty well in rock style midrange decks too. Can't speak for R/G or G/W aggro as we don't tend to draft those as much but I'd guess he'd be a little weaker there as he does probably slow your curve a little. He works surprisingly well in ramp strategies (not super ramp just turboing out 5 drops ramp), though I suspect this may be fluky small sample size because there is no reason he should be good in the decks (or even be in them, I just throw him in as I love ramp and I love mayor) but for some reason it has been pretty solid there a few times.
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I use the checklist cards as stand-ins during play, although I need to look for a more elegant solution (i.e more aesthetically pleasing)
As for the Mayor, I have been hearing good things about him, and I think I'll give it a shot in the next Cube update. I currently run about 6-7 DFCs in my Cube
The "Wolf" Deck is pretty popular in my cube, too, I run all of these cards, plus Huntmaster of the Fells also works really good with the Mayor.
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Sorry not trying to pick on you but I do want to say that my experience has strongly contradicted this. Playing it and continuing to curve out puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your opponent to play something every single turn. And it makes that awkward turn where you don't have a four drop but instead have two fives much more palatable.
I forgot about huntmaster good catch.
To those that haven't experienced this it's not forced or anything it's just nice incidental value that sometimes swings a toss up pick, and when it comes together it's pretty cool. Also fun note day side of mayor pumps MotW hunt, value!
It is? Your opponent should curve out perfectly after you Upheaval, and you only have 1 power worth of creatures on the table. Unless you intend on skipping your turn to flip it ...but you don't need an Upheaval to do that.
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Most mid-range decks have some 1cc permanents too. Control has a few, but if you resolve an upheaval in the control mirror and get to replay a threat, it doesn't much matter what it is.
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Only if they have a 1 cc spell. Also skipping your turn has less risk involved if your opponent has no board position.
Hmm, just read that the wolves are 3/3 when in beast mode. 3/3's (also 2/2) are a lot bigger than a 1/1, but I think the ability to have multiple 1/1's to swarm past blockers and something to do with mana (and Gaea's Cradle) wins it for me.
I count thornling as the only other green creature that I'm runnning that can really count as a mana sink. (Omnath counts I guess, Chameleon Colossus) Also, Master of the Wild Hunt passively generates token guaranteed at the same rate (tho Master and Mayor do play nicely together).
360 Uncommons only Cube!
Jade Mage is a completely different card. Sure, you have arbitrarily many tokens, but they're smaller and they cost you mana. You can flip Mayor and then use the rest of your cards and mana to deal and trade with your opponent's stuff (countering, removing, trading in combat, ..) while you assemble 3/3 Wolves. If you are making Jade Mage's Saprolings, however, you typically don't have mana up to play whatever else is in your hand.
Jade Mage is a late game card with an early game mode (2 mana 2/1), Mayor is more of a midgame card.
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.
My thought is if you're opponent is casting things and you're spending mana dealing with things your opponent controls, how often does Mayor flip? From my experience with DFC, not as often as you would like.
For this reason, I chose Master of the Wild Hunt. I don't expect between turn 2-4 your opponent will not play at least one spell, at which point, Mayor doesn't flip and generate tokens for you. Master comes down turn 4 and starts working passively turn 5 which is about the same. Or if they either are played later in the game, Master will always make tokens, while mayor has to be flipped and not unflipped.
I
360 Uncommons only Cube!
Thoughts?
https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/p420
But if I ever do put the dual faced cards in, he's one of the first to make the jump.