[NCD] Bloodbraided Elf

[Occam]

2RG 3/2

Haste

Cascade

According to salvation and Chapin, this card is the nuts and is easily the best card of reborn. Regardless of whether I agree, it does seem to be the most playable of the cascade cards.

Could it find a home in goyf sligh or naya zoo in 1.5? It will likely give free access to every spell in those decks (not necessarily a good thing), but gives access to sofi/sols and other 3cc cards as well. Thoughts?

[eq.firemind]

I know I will see this card playing in Legacy because I will run 2 of them in my RGb Survival and 3-4 of them in my RGw Zoo/Midrange.

[Jeff Kruchkow]

Thoughts?

Its good. Not super broken, but since it puts the card right into play it has alot on Ranger. It will see play in pretty much every Zoo-ish deck for quite a while.

[GreenOne]

Could it find a home in goyf sligh or naya zoo in 1.5?
No. It's really a good card for standard and other shitty formats, but in those legacy decks it's just unplayable: both of those decks have zero 4cc cards in the deck, and excluding Woolly Thoctar there are zero 3 drops as well. It's just too slow for fastbeaters+burn.dec

[ansset]

Yeah, resolving three attacking points of power and flipping any of the following:

Tarmogoyf
Price of Progress
Vexing Shusher
Lightning Bolt
Chain Lightning
Grim Lavamancer

seems, like, REALLY BAD. I love this card in a format with very little actual card advantage, and no card advantage in Red.

[Malchar]

If you cascade something for 3;
you paid 1 for a 3/2 haste and played a random spell for 3

If you cascade something for 2;
you paid 2 for a 3/2 haste and played a random spell for 2

If you cascade something for 1;
you paid 3 for a 3/2 haste and played a random spell for 1

[from Cairo]

It seems really good in Standard/Extended, and playable in RGx in Legacy. I don't think its as powerful here as other places but its still a 2 for 1 and it's casting cost for the body isn't outrageous. I don't know if Zoo/Goyf Sligh really want to curve up to 4cc but it still seems playable in something more midrange or as a 2-3 of for some late game reach/ca.

[TsumiBand]

Ick, if I get to 4 mana in an RG/x Beats deck in Legacy I should be playing, like, Rancor Bolt Incinerate Fireblast FTW, not a 3/2 that might flip over a Lightning Helix. Blehhhhh.

[from Cairo]

Ick, if I get to 4 mana in an RG/x Beats deck in Legacy I should be playing, like, Rancor Bolt Incinerate Fireblast FTW, not a 3/2 that might flip over a Lightning Helix. Blehhhhh.

I'm not saying it necessarily fits since I haven't tested it, but compared to the example you give, one could Bloodbraid (it has haste), flipping Incinerate, then cast Fireblast and it would only be a couple points less damage than what you're describing, and it would be an investment of 2 cards from hand rather than 4. Again maybe the card is too clunky for the format, time will tell, but the fact that it generates card advantage in a color combination that rarely has access to it seems good.

[TsumiBand]

Well the interesting tricky thing about Cascade I didn't really realize is that the second spell resolves before the first. So like, if it were a relevant play in Legacy, a Cascaded Volcanic Fallout would have come and gone before your 3/2 resolves, which is pretty cool.

I'm seeing comparisons to Flametongue Kavu and I think that's.. almost fair? I'm not sure that I consider FtK Legacy playable though, and while I recognize that really Bloodbraid is more variable than that golden oldie it's also way more random. How often will you wish it *was* an FtK when you flip over, like, Wild Nacatl or Vexing Shusher or something.

Maybe the card gives us a new way to look at RGx in Legacy, maybe it's that good. In Standard I'm sure it's going to be completely vicious, just because it IS two spells in a deck that depends on creature combat to generate CA. It's going to flip over Ram-Gangs and shit, it's going to be great. In Legacy though, for my money, the cost looks high, the effect looks random and the reward looks menial considering the kind of deck I suspect a manabase of Forests and Mountains sustains.