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[MtG] Rix Maadi Harlequin


.Rai

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Isn't this Disciple of Bolas, only with the life polarity backwards?

Relatively close, yes. However, you can sacrifice this card itself, making it a Night's Whisper. Having it cheaper is also an important distinction for my cube. The combination of cost and effect makes the decisions to be made more complex than Disciple of Bolas offers.

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Any more details about the cube? Archetypes, power levels, etc? Different rarities? Multiple copies or 1 of each? Any cards returning, or all new? I'd like to know more before I evaluate. (8

1. Archetypes: not all set in stone, but the typical themes, you can expect. Got a UG ramp, stolen from our musings on MM3, BG sacrifice, etc. The majority of archetypes are fairly broad. To encourage interactive drafting, niche archetypes such as tribal or artifacts are kept to a bare minimum.

2. Power Level: Above Standard, below Modern, fundamentally unpowered. Power is not something that I aim to maximise here. It's the fun!

3. Rarities/Singleton: The cube will be singleton for simplicity. I think the singleton rule is silly for most cubes, but to declutter the logistics of the cube, I'm keeping things singleton. Rarity differences? Nope! The cool opal rainbow symbol is just because I don't want to differentiate between different rarities. I have the cards in my file organised by rarity, but not releasing it like that, because rarity differences are misleading when the whole format's singleton.

4. Reprints: Yes! Probably not a huge number, but I'm not going to reinvent the wheel if there's already a great card. I think the fetchlands are already in my file, because fetchlands have an inherent great synergy with various things, and designing another fetchland cycle sounds like hell on earth to me.

 

Besides that, other notes would be that my cube ethos is: synergy, synergy, synergy. Power is never absolute, or measurable in a total vacuum, but cards get inherently better in the right deck. This also means that you're more likely to wheel relevant cards, you can count on more relevant cards wheeling, and draft dynamics just feel a lot more interactive if everyone isn't just grabbing the first bomb they see. A bad example because both are just first-pickable bombs anyway, but between the choice of Baneslayer and Archangel of Thune, Thune is getting through every time because of all the synergies it enables.

 

Harlequin's in over other cards like Night's Whisper because the sacrifice makes for an important sac outlet. And, exploit is one of the one-shot sac outlets. I'm mixing Aristocrat-style sac outlets, and one-shots like Exploit or Devour to create greater better diversity within archetypes as well.

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Cheers for the feedback, my man. From your Modern perspective, I'd say it's weaker than Dark Confidant almost all of the time in any given black deck. That's about where it should be. I think if Modern decks don't really run Night's Whisper, Disciple of Bolas, Life's Finale or Monumental Fall, they wouldn't run this in most decks.

 

I'm basically designing this cube to be under Modern power level so it's easy to compare to current cubes and sanctioned environments.

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Most decks that do are combo decks, which would support this as a way to put up early pressure or be a Night's Whisper. This is why I mentioned Polymorph or Grissleydad. It isn't meant to be Dark Confidant, but a set up card. Also fits into Collected Company decks, too, because of Exploit pairing with mama dorks or Kitchen Finks. It also could trigger Anafenza.

 

For Cubes, it just cements a color choice and allows players to be more liberal with deck construction. Always a good pick, and not pushing anything above others. Black card draw is hard to pull off for drafts, but this is a good level and can be extreme powerful.

 

Edit: Not mama dorks. Kbye.

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