I've been going over the artifact sections, and I think there is some space there to sort of plug in what you like and experiment a bit. The sports that went to
triangle of war,
pithing needle, and the two
ashnod's altars I feel are all very interchangable.
Door to nothingness, I think, is going to ultimately be dependent on your group: if you have a bunch of spikes, I doubt anyone will take the challenge, but if you have a lot of johnny types, it should be a fun challenge for them. Amassing 10 multi-color mana, and the door, isn't a very competitive approach (8-9 mana I think is a more attainable goal), so its real appeal i.m.o is going to be the sense of achivement in pulling it off. I do think there is some danger of it being a feel bad for more timmy players.
I like
phyrexian splicer, it looks like it could really complicate combat interactions. I'm not sure that
opaline bracers provides enough of a benefit to draw someone into a domain style archetype; in addition, most of our 4-5 color decks have been control decks that would have little interest in such a card. It seems a bit clunky too, for the low to the ground aggro decks that would most want voltron cards, and which generally gear towards more color symplicty.
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I've been going over the list and trying to weed out cards that seem weak, or maybe places where I can go back to singleton to increase draft diversity. Here are some of the debates i've been having.
1.
triangle of war->
mindless automaton: Triangle of war is too inefficent to really be a card, automatron, on the other hand, is another colorless discard outlet and a source of limited card draw. Its also a 4 drop, reasonably podable, can put itself in the yard, wins the game with lab. maniac, or triggers terminus at instant speed.
2.
pithing needle->
spawning pit: Pithing needle suffers from its inability to impact the board (unlike his buddy,
phyrexian revoker, which has the neat interaction of shutting down mana rocks). Spawning pit is not perfect, but is another sac. outlet, and allows for large scale sacrifice.
3.
grisly salvage->
scab-clan giant: Not sure about scab-clan giant, but its gruul, fat, and fights things. With the generally small size of creatures in the cube, he should be able to maul something when he comes into play and bully whatever is left over, which is a bit what I want R/G to be about. Another option here is
skarrg guildmage, which provides the much-in-demand trample ability.
4.
shadow of doubt->
Zhur-Taa Swine: SOD was originally supposed to be a replacement for the overly narrow stifle (hit fetchlands
and disrupt tutors, while being able to cycle at worst), it still is too narrow. Zhur-taa is another combat trick, fatty, and buffs creature graveyard strategies.
5.
birthing pod->
See the unwritten: I really like the way this card allows you to use the TOL cards to do broken things. I think the main benefit of running multiple birthing pods, was it increased the chance of the card showing up in the draft, and people experimenting with the archetype. Now that its established, I think I could shift this to another interesting build-around.
6.?->
thrill of the hunt?/
Sylvan might?: Kind of interested in running a flashback combat trick, but no idea what to cut.
7.
burning vengeance->
dragon-style twins: Same rational as with birthing pod. Dragon style twins seems like a build around card, and turns all of the cube's instants into defacto combat tricks. I'm really just in the market though for red build arounds though. I like the fact that it being a creature creates more demand for the creature tutors.
8.
red sun's zenith->
crater's claws: Previously mentioned this: stealth buff to R/G.
reckless waif->
monastery swiftspear: Swiftspear is a stealth way to inject more combat trick tension. Can cut a waif to mix it up, I suppose.
9.->
reckless charge?: Another combat trick, more cheap flashback for BV, no idea what to cut. Not sure its needed.
10.
carrion feeder->
gnarled scarhide: stated reasons before, carrion feeder has been kind of an underperformer.
11.
treacherous urge->
cabal therapy: My quest for perfection is causing me to justify finally buying a therepy. We all know who the true king is.
12.
deadly allure->
strangling soot/
consume the meek: After last weeks draft, i've finally concluded that deadly allure isn't really a card, and should go. No idea what to replace it with though. Black combat tricks suck, so I could use this as an excuse to give black based control something else sweet to play with. Both strangling soot and consume would be very strong in this environment. I normally don't like mass removal much, as people tend to use it as a reset button and extend the game, but consume has a lot of potential build-arounds options for control decks, while still hitting most of the cards they care about. I could also run
Kokusho, the evening star, which would increase spirit density. I do have some concern about buffing control's removal with instant speed choices though, which is why it took strangling soot (and consume) so long to come into serious consideration.
13.
banishment decree->
unexpectedly absent: previously discussed
Kor skyfisher->
seeker of the way: seeker is another stealth buff to combat tricks, and is a source of life gain.
14.?->
feat of resistance: Thinking
doomed travelerhere. Kind of want 1-2 ways to help protect creature focused combo cards like
charmbreaker devils.
I've decided to hold off on
duergar hedge-mage for the time being, and wait to get some feedback from you as to how your players like it. It is very tempting to cut
kor sanctifiers though and run something sweet like
yosei, the morning star (spirits!).
Also, we had a B/W deck come together this weekend, which was nice to see; and it came together just like how we had drawn it up: with an early
angel of flight alabaster being the bait, and than causing him to grab
ghost council of orzhova.
Also,
darkblast has been nuts.
I'll do a few drafts tonight, and post them here. Just wanted to get some card thoughts down based on the last couple R/L drafts.
