Welcome into the Cube Card Spotlight where I focus on singles. Each installment will highlight the function of the card, its application in game, the archetype it supports, and a special section. The special section will touch on interactions that did not make it into the other sections, possible alternatives (Might not be present for all cards), and any differentiated application for multiplayer if any. The card names in bold are cards that synergize with the topic card.
Summary
For those who want a quick run down of the post.
Archetypes: Aggro, Midrange, Fires
Synergies: Any Flicker| Splinter Twin| Kiki jiki, Mirror Breaker|
Special Notes: N/A
Alternative: Pyrogoyf, Basalt Ravager, Flametongue Yearling
Introduction
Flametongue Kavu has been a staple of cube forever. I really don't know a card that exceeds or even compares to what this card does. It's an old, simple card that just works. The main function of the card is to remove a creature. As long as its done that, it's already done more than enough. What you get is a splashable 4 mana 4/2 that will shift the board into your favor. This has been the play experience 90% of the time I have seen it played. The 4 damage is huge as it will kill about 60+% of the creatures in most cubes. Adding a creature to your board while taking one away from your opponents will always move you up in tempo. The body itself isn't that impressive with what kind of creatures we have now, however the 4 damage still needs to be respected. Even better, if it can trade with another big creature, you're peaking in value.
Pay attention to the wording on the card as it prevents you from playing on an empty board since the card has to target something. Regardless of this downside, it's a card that has never failed me.
Synergies
The main synergies with this card are the flicker cards and haste enablers. Rebuying the enters ability turns each flicker card into a kill spell. Haste enablers on the other hand will change the immediate impact of this card making it more akin to Arc Trail. Thus FTK really peaks out when you play it with cards like Splinter Twin or Kiki-jiki because they are able to both essentially rebuy the enters effect and have it come in swinging immediately.
Utilizing FTK in an aggro shell is fairly straight forward. As a 4 drop this will be a card that sits near the end of your curve. It will clear the way of any blockers as cards like Courser of Kruphix and Steel Seraph are some of the biggest walls to aggro. When the card is effective, these games are pretty much a shut out.
A variant of aggro, Fires, really likes this card as it can be one of the first cards to follow up on a haste enabler.
Functionally, FTK is great for tempo for the same reasons its good in aggro. Though you are less apt to finish off your opponent, you are still setting them behind in terms of mana and board presence. The 4 power on the card is a big clock to quickly end the game. Depending on the tempo shell, blue and /or white do offer a lot of flicker/blink options to coincide with FTK and other enter abilities you might have in the deck, but just the baseline is good enough for the deck. Adding in flicker elements to this deck and you have an annoying card.
Commander Cube Considerations
In commander cube, the purpose of this is mostly tied to its value as a removal spell. As 1 for 1 spells do worse in multiplayer, this is no exception. The main upside is that there is a creature attached to it that can block and attack. Commanders that can make copies of the card will benefit greatly from the enters ability, but that also applies to the alternative choices with some even being better than FTK.
Alternatives
All of the alternative choices function the same or are better, but scale off of varying game factors that make you think twice about their inclusion.
Pyrogoyf is strong alternative to the card that I have yet to test. The main concern with the card is its scaling. The ceiling is high, but the floor can be abyssmal. It's P/T are reliant on graveyard compositions of both graveyards, which has been something that kept Tarmogoyf out of a lot of cubes. I do think this is more consistent in recent memory with the deeper cardpool. As long as it can kill a creature on entering, it will be functionally better than FTK as is can target players in addition to creatures. Note that the enters ability is based on its power, so running anthems and having it enter with counters will scale the damage higher. A point of interest and it may come up, the ability is triggered when other lhurgoyfs enter. With the release of this card came Nethergoyf, one of my other top picks from MH3. So there's enough density if you include changelings and tarmogoyf to trigger this ability more than once, making it significantly better. So again, high ceiling, low floor. Check your cube when making the choice.
Basalt Ravager is FTK but scales its damage off tribal/typal. This is more manageable than it may seem as many of the best cards will share creature types with eachother whether it is humans, goblins, wizards, soldiers, etc. Token generators are a perfect way to increase the density. As with every other cards on this list, the card will be solid as long as something dies. At worst, you can always point 1 damage at creatures or player.
Flametongue Yearling is ironically the most different variant on this list even though it shares the name. Unlike the other two choices, this one only cast 2 mana (RR) initially and can scale for an additional 2 mana. That mana cost is more restrictive, but being able to be cast earlier is huge. It does come with the same problem that it has to target something on entry. This is negligent when you can remove the high impact small creatures like mana dorks or Mother of Runes as they come out. One cool thing to note is that the damage dealt is based on its power. Like Pyrogoyf, anthems and similar effects will scale the damage dealt.
The End Step
This wraps up this edition of cube card spotlight. As outdated as this card might be, I really like just how it comes together. It highlights the differences between colors and how each color has to approach the desired function while staying on flavor. Yeah, there are cards that do it better than FTK. Black, for example. has Nekrataal ,but its not red. So for what red needs, this card awkwardly just does the work needed after all this time and does it really well.
So my question for you readers, is Pyrogoyf better than FTK? I still haven't tested the card
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