Is there too much control for Lotus Cobra?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 1, 2011, 8:56 p.m. by torridus
I'm running a ramp deck (link below) for a Standard tournament tomorrow but I don't know if I should keep my playset of Lotus Cobra in or replace it with a set of Ponder . While the Cobra is really good, no doubt about that, I'm not sure if I currently prefer Viridian Emissary to it given the current state of standard. There's plenty of removal and aggro and having a deck rely too much on a Lotus Cobra for ramp could either end up well or not well at all.
I'm wondering what the MTG community thinks. Lotus Cobra or Viridian Emissary?
Viridian Emissary:
Good chump blocker
Wards off some aggro
Attacker when you're bored
Free Rampant Growth when it dies (and it dies to everything, having only 1 toughness)
Opponent may chump block with 0-power creatures
Opponent may take the damage for a few turns, slowing you down (however this can also be a plus in some situations)
Isn't nearly as efficient as Lotus Cobra in terms of producing mana
Lotus Cobra:
Lots o' mana, especially with Oracle of Mul Daya
Attacker when you're bored
Not a good blocker most times (but works well with turn one Khalni Garden )
Removal magnet (can be a plus late game, but not early on when you really need that mana)
Dies to everything, having only 1 toughness.
Deck: Turboland
mozerdozer says... #3
It's good with fetch lands. Then you are adding 2 mana per turn, so you can get 5 mana on turn 3. 6 if you drop Birds of Paradise turn one. So, with Lotus, you can get a Primeval Titan turn 3. Insanely good.
September 1, 2011 10:15 p.m.
Right now I'm running 4x of both Emissary AND Cobra because I can't decide which would be the best option. They both work well, but having both is overkill. I think I'd rather have Ponder replace one of the playsets to increase consistency.
September 1, 2011 11:04 p.m.
mozerdozer says... #5
Can you link the deck? Since one isn't better than the other in a clear cut fashion; the decision largely relies on the deck.
September 1, 2011 11:14 p.m.
Link is the bottom link in the original post. I'll post it here as well: Turboland
September 2, 2011 2:25 a.m.
mozerdozer says... #7
Drop the Emissary for Rites of Flourishing and put in a ton of fetch lands. Then you can hit 8ish mana on turn 4 or 5 no problem. If you're gonna be dropping a lot of land, Lotus Cobra is much better. Also, Birds of Paradise is better than Veridian Emissary in most, but not all cases.
September 2, 2011 7:11 a.m.
I was originally planning to use Rites of Flourishing, but in a format where Valakut is one of the top decks, I'm not entirely comfortable with speeding their clock up at the same time. If I don't draw exactly what I need to when I need to I'll end up dead very quickly. I think I have enough hate for Valakut (Memoricide, Beast Within, Tectonic Edge, etc) though, so it's certainly a decent possibility.
Post-rotation I'm definitely going to use Rites. I'll have to ponder the usage of BoP in it too, since it makes the speeds up the deck nicely. But now? I'm not sure enough. It's kind of my own fault though - I haven't been able to playtest much at all, so I'm working here based primarily on theory.
Right now I'm concerned about the deck's survivability turns 1-4, because if I don't have any competent blockers (such as ones that can stand up to Hero of Oxid Ridge or Goblin Guide ) I'll be dead before the deck begins to play threats that are actually threats.
Perhaps I can replace 4x Ponder with 4x Rites of Flourishing? That should hopefully give me the card draw I tend to be looking for mid to late game.
September 2, 2011 9:08 a.m.
Adding Swiftfoot Boots would be very helpful to you. It might slow you down one turn from ramping but it will give you the protection that you need to keep your Lotus Cobra alive and generating the mana youi need.
September 2, 2011 10:55 a.m.
I played 7 rounds today with Lotus Cobra and Rites of Flourishing but without Viridian Emissary. Lotus Cobra, if I don't miss land drops, can provide an obscene amount of mana to work with. Rites... well, it's not that good, I'm finding. Sure it's not bad, but not nearly good enough to be using when there are other options in the format such as Ponder or Jace Beleren. I think there were only one or two games where I actually wanted to have Rite(s) out or liked having them on the field.
I've been using Lotus Cobras for a long time now, and they've never worked better for me. Having 28-29 lands in the deck including a number of fetchlands probably has something to do with it. Of the 3 games I lost, I was either: (1) Mana screwed somehow, (2) Milled to 0 cards in the library, or (3) going up against RDW - which is just too fast for a ramp deck unless it has an absolutely amazing hand.
So thanks for the input, ladies and/or gentlemen. I think I found out what I wanted to know... at least for the time being.
September 3, 2011 2:59 a.m.
And yes, I do think Swiftfoot Boots will slow me down a turn. And one turn can be extremely important, so I'm not willing to sacrifice a turn for just a little bit of protection. If I do run any artifacts I would probably just run a couple of the mythic swords because they do fun things. It's more mana, but they're also more useful.
xo2 says... #2
I see a lot more Viridian Emissary nowadays
September 1, 2011 9:33 p.m.