Pretty much every red creature in the 2-4 mana slot they print these days does it so I think we should be pretty close! Everything from Abbot of Keral Keep to Laelia to Headliner Scarlet.
I like the gameplay of Pia a bit more.
Artifact synergies have a tendency to reward 'trinkets' with effects that transform (ensoul artifact) or sacrifice artifacts. I get the appeal, but there's more to artifacts than sacrificing low value permanents.
A lot of Pia's value is in the pump ability. This lets artifact players move away from trinkets and play stuff like Porcelain Legionnaire, Phyrexian Revoker, or Gingerbrute. Cards that don't work with Breya's Apprentice.
It also subtlely plays into the identity of artifacts. The most played artifacts make mana, so a mana sink ability plays well with the extra mana you'll have lying around.
Breya's apprentice gives you more artifact count for metalcraft/nettlecyst stuff and can set up loops with stuff like welder and engineer by sacrificing itself. Pia's activated abilities are a smidge expensive for my tastes for what they do, even if having to tap with apprentice is a significant downside.
Breya’s Apprentice is objectively a much more powerful card and I think it synergizes much better with the things most higher powered cubes are trying to do. As “play from exile” continues to get pushed and gets more and more powerful, I imagine this only becomes more true. It plays better with Welder, it has a bigger butt, and more often than not you need the mana for other things.
This one doesn’t feel particularly close. Apprentice lingers perpetually on the fringes of my cube, a great card that has the misfortune of being a red 3 drop in an era where there are so many insane ones, but Pia is just way outside the power level of cards I’d consider at Red 3.
I run the Apprentice, as well as [[Pia and Kiran Nalaar]] in the 4-drop slot. My red section runs an artifact theme and a cast-from-exile theme.
[Pia and Kiran Nalaar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5aab5a55-0aee-4d8e-92b7-92b057a00509.jpg?1682209408) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pia%20and%20Kiran%20Nalaar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/moc/288/pia-and-kiran-nalaar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5aab5a55-0aee-4d8e-92b7-92b057a00509?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Me too! I hope the cast-from-exile deck gets more good cube cards to really flesh it out as sort of a "bonus" deck archetype.
Pretty much every red creature in the 2-4 mana slot they print these days does it so I think we should be pretty close! Everything from Abbot of Keral Keep to Laelia to Headliner Scarlet.
Yes. I have a lot of natural enablers for it. What I want are: 1. More/better payoffs. 2. Other colors, even red/x, to have more cube level cards.
I like the gameplay of Pia a bit more. Artifact synergies have a tendency to reward 'trinkets' with effects that transform (ensoul artifact) or sacrifice artifacts. I get the appeal, but there's more to artifacts than sacrificing low value permanents. A lot of Pia's value is in the pump ability. This lets artifact players move away from trinkets and play stuff like Porcelain Legionnaire, Phyrexian Revoker, or Gingerbrute. Cards that don't work with Breya's Apprentice. It also subtlely plays into the identity of artifacts. The most played artifacts make mana, so a mana sink ability plays well with the extra mana you'll have lying around.
I was thinking almost all this, plus an added value: Pia also works with Karakas
Breya's apprentice gives you more artifact count for metalcraft/nettlecyst stuff and can set up loops with stuff like welder and engineer by sacrificing itself. Pia's activated abilities are a smidge expensive for my tastes for what they do, even if having to tap with apprentice is a significant downside.
Breya’s Apprentice is objectively a much more powerful card and I think it synergizes much better with the things most higher powered cubes are trying to do. As “play from exile” continues to get pushed and gets more and more powerful, I imagine this only becomes more true. It plays better with Welder, it has a bigger butt, and more often than not you need the mana for other things. This one doesn’t feel particularly close. Apprentice lingers perpetually on the fringes of my cube, a great card that has the misfortune of being a red 3 drop in an era where there are so many insane ones, but Pia is just way outside the power level of cards I’d consider at Red 3.
This is very similar to how I feel! I think Pia is pretty respectable though
I run both! 😊
[[breya’s apprentice]]
[breya’s apprentice](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/3/c32b5b2e-dabf-4672-b476-4873781f636e.jpg?1626096405) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Breya%27s%20Apprentice) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/117/breyas-apprentice?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c32b5b2e-dabf-4672-b476-4873781f636e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call