Jonas 360 Cube
- Thread starter Jonas
- Start date
Part of the inherent problem was that in cube, Deathcloud decks generally wanted to be low resource decks, and you actually need a lot of resources in order to cast a worthwhile Deathcloud. It's intrinsically anti-synergistic with Smallpox, strangely enough.
Looking at how much artifact mana I have taken out over the last couple of weeks, it will be pretty hart to cast it high too. I do have four rocks, coalition relic and thran dynamo, which makes it possible to cast a pretty big death cloud with the right cards. But then again, it's hard to evaluate it without having drafted it.
Death cloud seems to be a get ahead then use this to stay ahead card, whereas smallpox and pox seem to be more 'I'm saccing all these dudes for value, so haha at you'.
The other issue, like you mention, is that Deathcloud wants more of a specific build (e.g. ways to ramp up to Deathcloud mana), so you kind of have to "build-around" it, but since it's only a one-of most games you won't ever draw it. AND it's triple black so you don't have a lot of range in terms of what you do with your deck (e.g. also picking up Wildfire effects, or whatever).
By contrast, Smallpox just slots into Black aggro and fits pretty naturally without too much contortion.
By contrast, Smallpox just slots into Black aggro and fits pretty naturally without too much contortion.
I'm not sure I fully understand the question. Can you elaborate?
Oh no, you can't play card X in your cube, because card Y stops it cold.
Example: Oh no, you can't play death cloud in your cube, because counterspell stops it cold.
Example 2: Oh no, you can't play Gravecrawler in your cube, because StP stops it cold.
Might just be that I'm overreacting too
Oh no, you can't play card X in your cube, because card Y stops it cold.
Example: Oh no, you can't play death cloud in your cube, because counterspell stops it cold.
Example 2: Oh no, you can't play Gravecrawler in your cube, because StP stops it cold.
Might just be that I'm overreacting too
Hmm... maybe.
I've actually seen these types of arguments used far more often in constructed. There's some smug bastard at the local store who always takes great pride in saying that X card/deck is weak to Y card/deck. Then he plays these total abortions and goes 1 - 3 and moans about mana screw / flood until he leaves the shop.
I said it before on some other thread on here, but Death Cloud is secretly a Golgari ramp card. Like Jason mentioned, the best way to use it is to accelerate and pump a lot of mana into it, and then win a grindy game with recursive creatures or other resources that are immune to being sacrificed. It was somewhat of a thing back in the old Extended format.
I'm not sure if you really need two Gather the Townsfolk, as it's not intrinsically a very powerful card. I actually like Doomed Traveler a fair bit, and run him over Elite Vanguard in my list. If you want more humans for your theme, you can just toss in additional Champions of the Parish; nothing like driving that tribe home than by giving it more of its best one-drop! You're also missing Xathrid Necromancer, a key component that allows the archetype to stretch out into black. I'd say that when people draft humans here, WB humans is the most frequent colour combination.
I'm not sure if you really need two Gather the Townsfolk, as it's not intrinsically a very powerful card. I actually like Doomed Traveler a fair bit, and run him over Elite Vanguard in my list. If you want more humans for your theme, you can just toss in additional Champions of the Parish; nothing like driving that tribe home than by giving it more of its best one-drop! You're also missing Xathrid Necromancer, a key component that allows the archetype to stretch out into black. I'd say that when people draft humans here, WB humans is the most frequent colour combination.
CML
Contributor
The human/zombie synergies fill me with joy. Nothing like looping 'crawlers off a Zombie from Xman
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Lifebane Zombie seems to be a value producing 3 drop, so that's a like for like drop. Xman is more castable and more universally applicable, I like it better.
The other choice that stands out to me is Death Cloud, but I see that's on the discussion board and probably being tested?
The other choice that stands out to me is Death Cloud, but I see that's on the discussion board and probably being tested?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I like bone shredder, it's really rare to have 187's that don't cost 4
Bone Shredder is really nice with your quartet of Birthing Pods, though. I'd be more inclined to cut one of Skinrender or Nekrataal, considering you also run the inimitable Shriekmaw.
I had Shadowborn Demon for a while myself, too. Its main problem, aside from not having an alternate two mana sorcery mode, is that it's not all that easy to fill up your own graveyard in cube. In control decks with low creature counts, particularly, this makes him into a five-mana Murder. So his only place is in creature-heavy aggro decks, then, which aren't always looking for a five-mana curve topper.