Today I'm wrapping up my streak of talking about tricks/creature enhancements with Enthusiastic Study. I'll definitely be talking about at least one more in the future (looking at you, Fortifying Draught), but that won't be for a bit still. 1/x
ALSA of 7.51 in Bo3, making it the second-lowest-drafted learn spell, only above First Day of Class. Though, judging by the Card Evaluation Metagame graph, that data might be a bit outdated from being an average; Study is now roughly tied for third among red commons. 2/x
Even judging from the higher recent numbers, I still think Study is underrated. I think it is clearly the third best red common, and possibly even better than Pigment Storm. I believe this for the same reason I think First Day of Class might be fourth: learn/lesson is busted. 3/x
So as always, let's start with some baseline comparisons. A recent one is Run Amok, but the differences between 3 vs 2 mana, +1 vs +3 toughness, and learn vs not are all huge. A much better comparison is Wild Hunger: same base effect and cost, with an extra card attached. 4/x
So how does this card play out? Well, the +1 toughness is small enough that you can't rely on it as a combat trick to save your creature in combat, though sometimes it will. Instead, its use is to punish double blocks, enable chump attacks/blocks, and push damage. 5/x
A gut reaction might be that a trick that doesn't save your creature is bad. But it's better to frame Study as not just a standard trick; you don't need it to save your creature when it doesn't cost a card. Think back to Rimrock Knight, which is another good comparison. 6/x
The best home for Study is in Lorehold aggro. Not only does that deck already often want tricks to push damage on the ground, Study plays particularly well with its gameplan. You often have burst turns with magecraft, and Study's trample helps a lot then against chumps. 7/x
Plus, Study plays well with a lot of Lorehold cards. There's the aforementioned magecraft, with Lumimancer, First-Year, and Pledgemage. The latter is especially good with Study, since first strike means Pledgemage often survives despite the low toughness boost. 8/x
And, of course, there's Twinscroll Shaman, the best non-rare pair with Study. 4/3 double strike trample will win basically every combat, and push a lot of damage on the way. But it's worth noting that usually I'm playing Twinscrolls *because* I have Studies, not vice versa. 9/x
But also, Study plays well with the grindier Lorehold 2/1s: Historian and Pilgrim. Both give value from the graveyard, so it's really nice to trade them off, and 5/2 trades up well. And Study can help them do so, acting as a pseudo-Bone Splinters that draws a card on blocks. 10/x
Study is fine in aggressive Prismari decks too, but it's a bit awkward. There's tension between casting it pre-combat to get magecraft triggers for Pledgemage and Apprentice, vs after blocks for trick value. And your other creatures often fly, so aren't blocked often. 11/x
Finally, as I mentioned above, it can have a place even in control decks as a removal spell on blocks. It helps expendable creatures like Pests and Pilgrims trade with real threats, while not spending a card. Still not ideal, but it can play a role, and is learn. 12/x
I'm not going to go over all the good things that come with learn, since I think everyone knows that by now. But I will close by nodding to just how good Study is closing the last few points with its trample: if you're at 3, Study almost always kills you. 13/x
Conclusion: Enthusiastic Study looks like a combat trick, but plays out much differently, helping you trade up and push damage while also learning to not cost a card. It doesn't need to save your creature to be worth it. 14/14
Late and short thread today about Owlin Shieldmage. Future threads are likely to also be later, as I am now on the west coast instead of the east coast of the US. 1/x
ALSA of 7.02. Looks like its Card Evaluation Metagame has stayed fairly stable for the whole format. 2/x
I don't really have a great comparison for Owlin Shieldmage. A 5 mana 3/3 flier is slightly overcosted, but the Ward 3 makes it play out much differently: with it, Shieldmage is basically a guaranteed 3 damage, either from Ward or from attacking. 3/x
Early thread about Spiteful Squad today because I'm going to be on a flight tonight to California. 1/x
ALSA of 7.33. Looking at the Card Evaluation Metagame graph, it seems that it's actually been going down since the start of the format. Maybe people are comparing it to Star Pupil, and moving it down as Pupil goes down? 2/x
Squad might look similar to Star Pupil, as it has the same modular-like ability. But they are fundamentally different cards. Pupil's is an aggressive 1-drop that needs extra +1/+1 counters to function, while Squad needs no extra counters and gums up the ground with value. 3/x
Today I'm talking about Essence Infusion, which is a card that I think is both overrated and underrated in Bo3. I know that's kind of a contradictory thing to say, but I'll explain. 1/x
ALSA 7.77 in Bo3, which is exactly the same as Professor's Warning, a card that I generally like better. Here's the Card Evaluation Metagame graph for it; looks like it's been gaining in popularity a lot recently. 2/x
So first of all, why do I think Infusion is overrated? Well, this is tied to how I like to build my Silverquill decks: more fliers, fewer counters. My ideal aggro Silverquill deck wins by having too many fliers for opponents to deal with, not by loading up on one creature. 3/x
Late thread today on Resculpt and Sudden Breakthrough. ALSAs of 9.29 and 8.67, respectively. I didn't talk about these earlier because I think they're correctly evaluated as generally very bad, but I do want to touch on them a bit to show how they can be used. 1/x
Here are the Card Evaluation Metagame graphs for the two. Resculpt was initially a lot higher (though still the lowest blue common); I wonder if other people, like me, thought that its synergy with treasure (like Breakthrough) was going to be good in Prsimari. 2/x
First let's talk about Resculpt. This looks like Angelic Ascension, but the 4/4 not having flying makes a huge difference. Without flying, the 4/4 is much more medium for you, but it's still good enough that you're almost never happy giving it to your opponent either. 3/x
Very short thread today about Make Your Mark. Not really underrated, but I do want to talk about it as one of the more interesting combat tricks in the set, and a card that has some pretty specific uses. 1/x
Here's the Card Evaluation Metagame graph for MYM. It's gone down since the start of the format, which makes sense, as it became clear that the best aggressive decks in the format mostly rely on evasion. 2/x
I want to start off by saying that I don't think MYM belongs in most decks, even aggressive ones. In order to maximize it, you need to be trading off your creatures a lot, and have a 3/2 matter. And a lot of aggressive decks don't want to trade, instead preferring evasion. 3/x
After finishing a couple final papers, I'm back with my underrated cards threads! To ease myself back into it, I'm going to be talking about a few combat tricks for the next few days. First up: Big Play! ALSA 8.09 in Bo3, taken just a bit above Curate. 1/x
Here's the Card Evaluation Metagame graph for it; it's been relatively flat, but trending slightly downwards. 2/x
First off, a note about combat tricks: almost all the ones I'm planning to talk about are very replaceable effects. They all have their uses, but I hesitate to call them underrated, because you don't want too many. Doesn't stop me from talking about them though. 3/x