Staples

What are some cards that should be in most or all decks of their color?
A few I can think of are
yellowflag.png Iroas's Champion
yellowflag.png Knight of the White Orchid
blueflag.png Harbinger of the Tides
redflag.png Abbot of Keral Keep
redflag.png Volcanic Rambler
redflag.png Exquisite Firecraft
Iroas's Champion is expensive but incredible.
Harbinger is OP and really needs nerfing. It's in all aspects amazing.
Abbot is, like Harbinger, all-around good.
Rambler is a great body with an ability that almost always gets you good cascades.
Firecraft is just good removal.

Edit-
yellowflag.png Knight of the White Orchid is very good and I'd say better than Iroas's Champion.

Comments

  • Knight of the White Rose is better than Iroas's Champion, cheaper, more durable, and defender is better than berserker.
  • Oh, wow. Never seen that one, probably because it's a rare.
    That's a very good card.
  • Iroas is much better in red than it is in white.

    I made a tier list and most of S and A tier are keepers, depending on strategy.

    For instance, for some decks even really good cards like harbinger of the tides I dont' want to use, because I want to go a different strategy.

    Then there are the specialist decks for defeating certain story mode challenges.

    Abbot is hit or miss, usually he's useful to use but sometimes I want my deck to be faster.

    I actually had good use with red simply having fast, efficient creatures and then burn cards.

    I completely ignored stuff like iroas and just put in prickleboar, volcanic rambler and some goblins i think. Along with magmatic insight, and I think some buff cards, and sword of the animist.
  • Niminion wrote:
    Knight of the White Rose is better than Iroas's Champion, cheaper, more durable, and defender is better than berserker.

    The card you're referring to is Knight of the White Orchid. The other bonus is has is converting 5 gems to White when played. I think Iroas's Champion fills a different role and she doubles up on any buffs, which for Gideon is the core strategy. Iroas's + Gideon's Champion (Lvl 2, +4/+4 Lifelink) is usually GG, or at least it kills almost any creature that is not heavily reinforced and buffed and gain 16 life.

    In terms of staples, I can comment on manawhite.pngmanablue.png since I play those the most:

    manawhite.pngConsul's Lieutenant is pretty much auto-include in White decks, First Strike is OP with buffs
    manawhite.pngRelic Seeker is another staple white creature, so much value for the cost.
    manawhite.pngSuppresion Bonds is the White Claustrophobia and...

    manablue.pngClaustrophobia is a staple for Blue, don't leave home without it!
    manablue.pngMizzium Meddler is another OP blue creature, he single handedly locks out the AI in a lot of cases.
    manablue.pngTalent of the Telepath is very strong, it makes it so you have virtually 9 cards in the deck, is virtually +1 mana when played, and you get to choose your draw.
  • Wow. Suppression Bonds is the same as Claustrophobia but at rare... I have so many issues with that.
  • sword of the animist for any deck

    fleshbag marauder in black
  • BlackSheep101
    BlackSheep101 Posts: 2,025 Chairperson of the Boards
    Sword of the Animist may not be ideal if you use supports heavily. Your creatures are likely to chew up your supports each time they attack.
  • pandabear wrote:
    Iroas is much better in red than it is in white.

    I made a tier list and most of S and A tier are keepers, depending on strategy.

    For instance, for some decks even really good cards like harbinger of the tides I dont' want to use, because I want to go a different strategy.

    Then there are the specialist decks for defeating certain story mode challenges.

    Abbot is hit or miss, usually he's useful to use but sometimes I want my deck to be faster.

    I actually had good use with red simply having fast, efficient creatures and then burn cards.

    I completely ignored stuff like iroas and just put in prickleboar, volcanic rambler and some goblins i think. Along with magmatic insight, and I think some buff cards, and sword of the animist.
    My problem with small creatures is that life is too high in this game to really make them good.
    Personally, I think Iroas's Champion is too expensive to be good. For the same price I can have Avaricious Dragon, which does the same amount of damage (I don't run buffs) and has a great upside ability.
    I like Abbot because it has a decent body and will either make an expensive spell cheap or make a cheap spell free.
    Out of genuine curiosity, what deck would you run without Harbinger, assuming you have it? It has a good body with removal attached.
  • You don't have to go bounce with jace, he has a fun uncommon deck with cantrip spells and spell pumpers.

    You could also simply have a deck with thopter network and cantrips and stuff like hydro to stall.

    He is good, very good (too good), and he certainly won't make any deck worse, but you don't NEED him. I actually forgot I had him for a while and when I put together my normal build I didn't put him in - I still won just as well.

    But he isn't a card like Talent of the telepath which simply makes every blue deck better.

    The point of Iroas isn't to do damage, it is to clear the board. And she is the only red creature (aside from Prickleboar, btw, which is also fantastic, and I would recommend him over Iroas if facing Gideon or Nissa) that has first strike. Well theres also that one guy but he's a 2/2 and useless.
  • I think Chandra has enough cheaper removal.
    On a more practical note, I don't own the card, but I'll try it when I get it.
  • BlackSheep101
    BlackSheep101 Posts: 2,025 Chairperson of the Boards
    pandabear wrote:
    The point of Iroas isn't to do damage, it is to clear the board. And she is the only red creature (aside from Prickleboar, btw, which is also fantastic, and I would recommend him over Iroas if facing Gideon or Nissa) that has first strike. Well theres also that one guy but he's a 2/2 and useless.
    That would be Akroan Sergeant.