General Fight Club

Which one of these do you guys like the most? How many of these effects are too many for a small cube? I've become enamored with this effect after seeing it in Death's Shadow Aggro.

 
Assault Strobe and Armed // Dangerous are both in my list, and they've proven rather popular and quite strong. I dislike instant-speed double strike because it can be such an unexpected blowout (see: many of Grillo's posts on the matter, which I agree with), but sorcery speed has been just fine with my current removal power level and quantity. (Armed tends to be played as a red spell only, for what it's worth).
 

Dom Harvey

Contributor
The trample is super important for Battle Rage in the Death's Shadow deck, it's too easy for it to just get chump blocked otherwise
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Battle Rage has to be the pick here. The instant speed and the trample put it way over the top of the others.

RavebornMuse makes an excellent case for why it does not have to be the pick here.

These options are also at least on par with the three options you listed Fulcrum, though the last two are not mono red.

 

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
The big issue with the double strike enhancers is that you don't want to promote a feeling where you can't not block random midrange threats without risking random death.

I'm sure their is some leeway with specific affects, but I like there to be a combo feel, and the sense of building to a show down turn.

Battle rage specifically scares me because it grants both double strike and evasion at instant speed.
 
Xenagos > Arlinn > Domri >>> Vol

I ended up disliking Vol because act of treason bad, haste enabler is slow, ult is vanilla. Domri is interesting but asks for a lot of help. Xenagos is super sweet, I love balanced Cradle. Arlinn I tentatively like but haven't played with yet. I imagine she's basically Huntmaster.
 

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
I also tentatively like Arlin, though agree its probably better to compare her with huntmaster than the other three. In a vacuum, I actually like huntmaster better than all of them, since incidental sources of lifegain can be scarce in cube.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Xenagos was always fun when I still ran Gruul cards. On most planeswalkers I find the ability to make tokens for free annoying, but with Xenagos it works. Maybe because he requires two colors, and because those colors happen to like spamming the board with creatures anyway? I don't know, but it works.
 
Wolf Mom or Angry Goat for me. I think wolf mom has a ton of play to her, and is just nicely designed. Analogies to Huntmaster seem good.
 
I like (and run) Sarkhan Vol. Mostly because I support both wide aggro and aristocrats decks, so the 1st and 2nd ability can both be relevant to my drafters.

Domri is a great card, but even in constructed formats it's sometimes difficult to get a lot of value out of it. I can't imagine it being better in Cube.
 
Domri Rade is pretty fun over here; he's been picked and played way more than Xenagos (who is pretty dull imho) and Vol (who we got bored of quick). When his draw whiffs, it's a bit of a downer, but with any TOL manipulation, he can be really awesome in a stompy deck, and he can do some work as a removal tool and win-con, too. He's in no danger of getting cut over here; he's partly responsible for the resurgence of {R}{G} in my cube. I think walkers under 4 mana have a lot less demands placed on them, and feel inherently more exciting since they can really ratchet up the early pressure.
 
I like Xenagos a lot, and he's done lots of good work, but the RG 'everything costs 4' thing bugs me. I think I'll give Domri a try as a change of pace.
 
Turn 2 domri on the play is pretty brutal for any slower deck to handle, which is nice because the all-counterspells-and-removal U/x decks are typically strong against the kind of RGx decks that want to play a mana dork on t1.
 
Hellrider > Hero of Oxid Ridge >> Battledriver

Hellrider and Oxid are very similar cards. Hellrider is better at pushing damage through big blockers, and Oxid is better at pushing damage through small blockers. The prevalence of big blockers and the greater consistency give Hellrider the nod.

I don't see Battledriver as an aggro curve topper at all, since it does nothing the turn you play it. It's really a midgame setup card for the tokens deck, much like Purphoros. In that deck, Battledriver is often better, but it's playing a different role.
 
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