[SCD] Runechanter's Pike

[Jason Waddell]

Confession time, I've never cubed with this card. How does it perform? First strike seems sweet, UR deck equipment seems sweeter. It turns instants into combat tricks (sometimes), and is another thing that cares about the graveyard. The card looks pretty tame next to Grafted Wargear, but, what doesn't. Matt Kranstuber liked it in his much lower power cube. Anybody care to weigh in?

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

i love pike, it's an auto-include imo. i confess i run a "fun equipment package" containing Runechanter's Pike, Grafted Wargear, Bonesplitter, Bonehoard, Empyrial Plate, Mask of Memory, Lightning Greaves, Basilisk Collar, and though i like all these cards a lot i wish equipment could be a bigger theme in cube without swords, jitte, batterskull, skullclamp

someone suggest more fun, playable equipment?

[Jason Waddell]

I really like that list Chris, looks like a blast to play with. Mask of Memory in particular seems neat. I think I'll try out a few of these. 

Also, side request: can we purge the term "auto-include" from our lingo? :) That phrase has some baggage that has some weird implications. 

[Eric Chan]

That is a sweet list, Chris. I wish I could offer better suggestions, but I think you've already plumbed the depths of Magic for good, interesting, and powerful but fair equipment. Especially ones other than Swords that give control decks headaches.

I have Mortarpod, which is less equipment and more machine gun (and maybe not even that.. more like a foam dart gun), and Loxodon Warhammer, which is just big and dumb.

On Runechanter's Pike, I've had it in for a while, but haven't seen anyone draft the elusive UR instants deck. Might have to force that one myself next time.

[Jason Waddell]

I have been wanting to put in Thought Scours to support more graveyard (and by virtue Pike) nonsense. But, I also have 20 fetchlands, which play pretty well with Brainstorm and Ponder. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs. 

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

are you saying auto-include is an auto-exclude? :)

anyway -- thanks, i'm glad you guys like the list!

eric, i agree warhammer is worth trying. i purged it from the cube in the early days when aggro couldn't beat such effects but 6 mana to cast and equip is a lot. let me know how it goes (if you find you want to dial down the power a little, behemoth sledge necessitates GW)

i could try mortarpod again. that's another sweet one.

i liked sigil of distinction, sunforger in theory, but then in practice nobody played them...

On Monday, April 15, 2013 1:22:44 PM UTC-7, Jason Waddell wrote:

I have been wanting to put in Thought Scours to support more graveyard (and by virtue Pike) nonsense. But, I also have 20 fetchlands, which play pretty well with Brainstorm and Ponder. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs. 

On Monday, April 15, 2013 10:20:50 PM UTC+2, Eric Chan wrote:

[Rob Dennis]

I have pike in my Innistrad cube and it really is great there. I could see it in the big leagues, but I'd expect you do kind of need to make peace with it being a U and/or R-based card primarily.

[tomc...@gmail.com]

I think having sacrifice outlets is an underappreciated resource in cube. I'm always surprised by how often I sac things when I have Greater Gargadon suspended.

In other words, Mortarpod has been a very well-received recent addition to my cube. (Makes me want to add more Gravecrawlers, actually...) I'd recommend people try it out.

Sorry for derailing the Pike thread into a generic equipment thread... On the Pike, I've not cubed with it, but since UR control is one of my favorite decks I've considered making a "spells matter" subtheme, swapping in Guttersnipe, Delver, Goblin Electromancer, Talrand, maybe Epic Experiment, etc. Runechanter's Pike would make a great addition if I try it out.

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

delver should be in IMO, talrand is possible, experiment never has the right density of spells or acceleration in those colors. same problem with augur of bolas

snipe is pretty bad, and i think electromancer is way too hard to cast for such a marginal effect

[Dom Harvey]

I love the idea of Pike. I'm not sure it's feasible if you're pushing creatures in the way you need to for Pod et al. to be good. Maybe if you treated that as the domain of non-blue colours you could run Delver/Augur/Talrand/Pike, but you probably need more support across other colours.

[Eric Chan]

Talrand is pretty iffy. One of my drafters tried to draft the fabled spells matter deck, and even when he put it together, Talrand was too slow to make an impact. He really wants you to be playing the full suite of free Phyrexian mana spells.

The rest of the cards are good though. Delver especially. I just doubled up on him.

Chris, re: Loxodon Warhammer, it's been strong but not busted by any means for us. It's fun to have some cards that are good in the creature on creature matchup (read: anything with lifelink). Unsummoning their guy after they spent six mana and two turns suiting him up makes for wild blowouts, too.

[Jason Waddell]

I'd just like to say that I think in most circumstances, Talrand's Invocation is a far better card than Talrand. 

EDIT: Which is a shame, because instants/sorcery build-arounds are pretty cool cards to have. But, I have to cast two instants / sorceries with Talrand on the table for it to be better than the Invocation. Even if you have Phyrexian spells, you need to save them until after Talrand is online. Are you going to hold that Gut Shot for a few times instead of torching their Confidant (horray extreme examples)? 

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

invocation is an excellent spell! i wish U wasn't already so heavy on 4's.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:16:26 PM UTC-7, Jason Waddell wrote:

I'd just like to say that I think in most circumstances, Talrand's Invocation is a far better card than Talrand. 

EDIT: Which is a shame, because instants/sorcery build-arounds are pretty cool cards to have. But, I have to cast two instants / sorceries with Talrand on the table for it to be better than the Invocation. Even if you have Phyrexian spells, you need to save them until after Talrand is online. Are you going to hold that Gut Shot for a few times instead of torching their Confidant (horray extreme examples)? 

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 5:21:08 AM UTC+2, Eric Chan wrote:

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

pike also plays well with graveyard themes. cube dredge decks don't have many instants / sorceries but those more towards the reanimator side of things have a ton, which is kind of the opposite of how i'd prefer it to work, but, whatever, pike is awesome.

eric: will let you know how warhammer goes

[Jason Waddell]

I'm going to cast my personal vote against warhammer. When it's bad it's miserable and when it's good it's really obnoxious. I don't recall ever having games where I felt "man, I'm really glad one of us had Warhammer in our deck". 

[Calvin Chan]

I also find Talrand miserable in cube.  Not only do you need the critical mass of spells, Talrand really wants cheap spells (I find mainly cheap cantrips, which cubes don't have too many of).
I really like pike as a card, though I've found it plays better in constructed than cube.  The largest problem I found is that with such a high spell density, the deck that wants it usually runs out of bodies to put it on.  So I find I usually just want another decent body or spell in it's place.  Overall, it is fine as the first strike proves extremely relevant, and it's fairly easy to get +3/+0 in a dedicated deck.

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

i will admit pike isn't getting played as much as i thought it would be, and i'm sure it's because spell-heavy control tends to go for traditional finishers (frost titan or sheoldred, say) rather than hawks or spirit tokens. i'm not considering cutting it (synergy with graveyard themes! meloku likes it! i need real equipment!) but it is a much more powerful effect in constructed.

[Matt Grenier]

Breezed through most of these posts, but noticed you mentioned Grafted Wargear in the fun equipment package. This card is absurd, and often second only to Jitte or Skullclamp. In the best aggro decks, it's easily better than the swords.

[Jason Waddell]

It's less of a question of wargear on its own is fun, and more about the balance in brings to your environment. It's also a sacrifice outlet if you need one. 

That said I like the presence of wargear. It has many interactions in my cube, and is a great enabler for things like Disciple of Bolas. 

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

wargear is powerful but less so than swords, jitte, batterskull, skullclamp imo. it's more beatable since it's more interactive, and you can even get blown out while playing it! it also goes in fewer decks, and these decks are the kinds i want to support. jason's points are also true. i fucking love grafted wargear