Sigh, a Cube
- Thread starter sigh
- Start date
Had a little 4-man yesterday. Drafted "normally", so less than half of the cube was used, but I still feel like the format maintained cohesion. Very happy to see that robustness in practice. Didn't record deck lists this time, but had a Naya aggro plan, UW tempo, GBu graveyard/sac deck, and me with a Junk midrange deck that lived up to the nickname. I'm almost happy coming in last, people really seem to be growing into the format and it's showing. Some of the neat stuff I saw/liked:
This card is everything I want and more for a green 6 drop. Embalm is a sweet mechanci, and I may have to explore this area a little more.
Think this has won its 5-drop slot for now. Saw it attack a couple times, and felt appropriately powerful but fair. Was a good fit for the Sultai deck, even though that deck was grasping for playables a little in the draft, so the gameplan was a little fuzzy.
This card is sweet, and is excellent counterplay to embalm creatures. Think I do need to consider tweaking my UW section, because every card is top class. Looking again at migratory route
This card is everything I want and more for a green 6 drop. Embalm is a sweet mechanci, and I may have to explore this area a little more.
Think this has won its 5-drop slot for now. Saw it attack a couple times, and felt appropriately powerful but fair. Was a good fit for the Sultai deck, even though that deck was grasping for playables a little in the draft, so the gameplan was a little fuzzy.
This card is sweet, and is excellent counterplay to embalm creatures. Think I do need to consider tweaking my UW section, because every card is top class. Looking again at migratory route
Ixalan Updates - 09/15/17
fdfNow that Ixalan is fully spoiled, I think I have a grasp on what I want to try. This set and the Commander set just previous were very light for me. I think this is largely due to the Tribal nature of the sets. Eh, nothing wrong with not swapping much. One common theme of my swaps, I think, is that I'm filling in a lot of "dead" slots that I have suspicion are not seeing any interest/play. This is great! One set and I feel like I'm closing a lot of slot holes. Nice! I'll probably come back with Card Images later, but the list for now:
Cards in:
Search for Azcanta
Legion's Landing
Siren Stormtamer
Ripjaw Raptor
perilous voyage
merfolk branchwalker
Cards out, respectively:
Thirst for Knowledge
topplegeist
Dakra Mystic
Soul Swallower
Curse of Chains
Obsessive Skinner
Reasons:
Thirst was not taken out because it wasn't functioning well, it was honestly functioning too well. Part of my on-going work at spreading out and diversifying draw suites among more colors. The search is a sweet little draw-smoother and synergy-enabler, with late game punch, and I'm really looking forward to trying it out.
Topplegeist = zero play. Again eager to test this to see if it can fill a useful role in a number of different Wx archetypes.
Dakra Mystic.... zero play. I think Siren will be much, much more generically useful in games, and the flying is a huge bonus.
Soul Swallower... yeah. Delirium is getting a little trashed this set, but I am enabling the graveyard in a few other unique ways, and this is opening my card selection s a little bit because I'm not as worried about enabling the four card types. Excited for this switch, Raptor seems amazing.
Curse of Chains, saw play, but wanted to be something else. Using the opportunity to give Perilous voyage a spin.
Skinner also saw play, but I'm much more excited about the explore effect on the 2-drop green body.
I may also look into a couple of the flip artifacts, as they have a ton of potential.
Some other items I'm swapping around in sync with the new set swaps:
Cards in:
Cards out:
Talk of the Legion's Landing made me realize that I really need to buckle down on how my Agro works at winning: less about overwhelming force, and more about always having an upper hand, faltering the opponent and their efforts to stop the pressure. Khenra is an obviously good component of this style.
Frenzied fugue I'm trying as an appropriately-powered threaten effect. Reveler = Zero play...
God-Pharaoh's Gift is very exciting as a non-creature artifact payoff, and really gives all colors access to a cool reanimation engine effect. Excited to see someone try this with Welder etc.
Also, I continue to very heavily consider:
Seeing it in Fulcrum's discussion revitalized my interest in him, as the absolute top-end finisher of the Lands-engine, and I really need to decide if I want to try it out! Gives an incentive to splash black/white for some reanimation effects.... Probably would come in for Arlin? And then on top, I might bring out the Woodfall Primus if I do that? I don't want to overstack the top end available to decks that can abuse it, and I think over color combos have ample targets already. Not sure what to do with the slot though........
fdfNow that Ixalan is fully spoiled, I think I have a grasp on what I want to try. This set and the Commander set just previous were very light for me. I think this is largely due to the Tribal nature of the sets. Eh, nothing wrong with not swapping much. One common theme of my swaps, I think, is that I'm filling in a lot of "dead" slots that I have suspicion are not seeing any interest/play. This is great! One set and I feel like I'm closing a lot of slot holes. Nice! I'll probably come back with Card Images later, but the list for now:
Cards in:
Search for Azcanta
Legion's Landing
Siren Stormtamer
Ripjaw Raptor
perilous voyage
merfolk branchwalker
Cards out, respectively:
Thirst for Knowledge
topplegeist
Dakra Mystic
Soul Swallower
Curse of Chains
Obsessive Skinner
Reasons:
Thirst was not taken out because it wasn't functioning well, it was honestly functioning too well. Part of my on-going work at spreading out and diversifying draw suites among more colors. The search is a sweet little draw-smoother and synergy-enabler, with late game punch, and I'm really looking forward to trying it out.
Topplegeist = zero play. Again eager to test this to see if it can fill a useful role in a number of different Wx archetypes.
Dakra Mystic.... zero play. I think Siren will be much, much more generically useful in games, and the flying is a huge bonus.
Soul Swallower... yeah. Delirium is getting a little trashed this set, but I am enabling the graveyard in a few other unique ways, and this is opening my card selection s a little bit because I'm not as worried about enabling the four card types. Excited for this switch, Raptor seems amazing.
Curse of Chains, saw play, but wanted to be something else. Using the opportunity to give Perilous voyage a spin.
Skinner also saw play, but I'm much more excited about the explore effect on the 2-drop green body.
I may also look into a couple of the flip artifacts, as they have a ton of potential.
Some other items I'm swapping around in sync with the new set swaps:
Cards in:
Cards out:
Talk of the Legion's Landing made me realize that I really need to buckle down on how my Agro works at winning: less about overwhelming force, and more about always having an upper hand, faltering the opponent and their efforts to stop the pressure. Khenra is an obviously good component of this style.
Frenzied fugue I'm trying as an appropriately-powered threaten effect. Reveler = Zero play...
God-Pharaoh's Gift is very exciting as a non-creature artifact payoff, and really gives all colors access to a cool reanimation engine effect. Excited to see someone try this with Welder etc.
Also, I continue to very heavily consider:
Seeing it in Fulcrum's discussion revitalized my interest in him, as the absolute top-end finisher of the Lands-engine, and I really need to decide if I want to try it out! Gives an incentive to splash black/white for some reanimation effects.... Probably would come in for Arlin? And then on top, I might bring out the Woodfall Primus if I do that? I don't want to overstack the top end available to decks that can abuse it, and I think over color combos have ample targets already. Not sure what to do with the slot though........
Four Man Draft - 10/13/17
Had a great little draft today, with some of the best decks and action the format's seen yet. Did a little bit different way of drafting, with 6 packs of 9. Yeah that's 54 cards... it was a math error in the hustle of getting everything set up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It all worked out fabulously in the end, so I'm not complaining. This draft was completed with most of my desired updates in place. Only 2 cards from Ixalan were missing that I can think of: ripjaw raptor and search for azcanta. Not a big deal. Anyways, here's what we ended up with.
First things first, no one went 0-3! That was a great feeling knowing that everyone's decks were more or less contemporary with each other. We ended up with a pretty neat split of two agressive and two midrange decks in the pod. This led to a pretty cool round robin where we all got to face off against 2 of the other kinda of deck, and one mirror-like-match. Helped give me some pretty useful data, if anything.
The simic deck did end up sweeping, but almost every set was a three-game set, and close nail-biters at that.I'm ahppy that simic can present a good showing and thrive in the format. There were two decks with UG in the pod, and the combination was very functional for both.
There were definitely some standout cards and interactions tonight, which surely has given me plenty to ponder.
Might as well start with the talk of the town. Worked very well for the RW player. They were a go-wide strategy, and this card played right into everything they were trying to do. It provided the body needed, was easiest to flip with his deck style, and provided a consistent source of board-presence that was hard for me to deal with. Definitely happy to keep this around for the time being.
This card is so good against aggro decks with even half a mind to go wide! Slightly eye-opening to see how much it basically ended RW's game at a couple points, because they went from 2 turn clock to zero damage on board. Hmm..
I looooveee itt!!! It worked super, super well for the simic player in providing a life buffer and just the right sort of surgical gravehate. Great card and glad to have it in the cube.
This card is gassy. The simic player had three fetches and a couple other search effects, so it's power level was out of this world. Hmm..
Note that three of my spotlight cards are from one deck. Maybe not a coincidence. One other thing of interest with that deck was
birds of paradise
elvish mystic
arbor elf
That's a lot of one-drop mana dorks in one deck. Some of it is the luck of the draft pool, but maybe worth taking a look again at my overall ramp density.
ALSO!
This card was great for the simic deck. Totally reinvigorated my viewpoint of this card, as I had been down on it recently. Solid green removal that really helped them out of several tough binds otherwise difficult with UG.
This card is sticking around. Regularly drew one card every game she hit play, and often two. Menace is great.
Solid version of the 2/2 double-striker for 3, think I got the revolt trigger all but one time the turn she was played. Happy to have switched from Mirran Crusader to this. The opportunity to interact is offset by the fact this quickly becomes a 4/4 double strike, not counting equips.
woo baby. This card lived up to it's hype today. The sultai deck playing it was running seven cycling lands. The drafter admitted that they probably should have toned it down a little. Still, was an exceedingly difficult obstacle to overcome with an aggressive deck focused on small bodies.
The sultai deck was super sweet and so cool to watch in action too. It was a truly engine-style deck built not by me
. The deck was definitely a complex network of interconnecting parts. The drafter stated that the deck was extremely fun to play, but very difficult to play at the same time. It was a struggle to keep all of the cogs turning at the same time.
this was the headliner of the sultai deck, and the primary win-condition beyond good ol' fashion beats. Griselbrand is.... extremely good. I see the recent discussion about switching to Razaketh. I've definitely thought about it, but am sticking with Grisel for now because it's simply such an evocative card and definitely gives a good incentive to try reanimator.
The matches tonight all felt very good, and I don't think I really saw any blowouts overall. Lots of the cogs that I've been working to develop were out in force today (YAY). The WB deck I was piloting had several great ways to recoup value through removal and wipes, which helped keep the deck in the fight even once the midrange decks hit their later game. Adorned Pouncer was great, and the 4/4 body presents an immediate threat of elimination, which I like. This helps the WB deck condense the game around a turn or two while it gets back on it's feet after a wipe/whatever. Eternalize is great overall. I'm making the switch from Kitchen Finks to Sunscourge Champion partially because of how well it plays. I'm also interested in a slight tone-down of the free value that midrange decks can use against agro, from cards like Finks. This particular swap also evens out my little duo of life-gain cards in GW. That reminds me:
This was one of the less.... on-theme cards in the RW deck. That drafter is definitely newer into drafting, so some misinformed decisions are inevitable. The draw of lifegain must be so great that it just had to be run, even though it's definitely not helping much of anything having to do with the deck plan. Makes we wonder a little if it should be swapped for something. One card that came to mind actually would have been a great addition to the deck:
It would have shut off their top end as-is, but that could've been mitigated during drafting for sure. Many of the effects that were winning them the game were attack triggers or burn-as-reach. Compare then to the Simic deck, where it's shutting off much of what the deck is doing throughout the curve. A sampling:
snapcaster mage
deathgorge scavenger
acidic slime
myr battlesphere
Aside; I continue to struggle with the inclusion of the BattelBall. Much the same as with Griselbrand, tbh.
Not 100% set, but can see making this switch. There are other life-gain effects in the cube that can be utilized if needed, and anyways having too many of that type of effect can definitely bog games down. Also need to consider if it's too much of a sore thumb against the ETB-recursion likes to do, or if it's valuable counterplay for Wx aggression. I'm leaning towards the latter.
From the overall gameplay, there were a couple additions I've settled on wanting:
Two oldies, but I think performing useful functions for two archetypes present tonight. Both decks seemed like they were falling just a little short of these effects they needed for their specific gameplan. Sultai Reanimator felt a little light on reanimation effects. Now, they did have a body double they didn't end up playing, but they said the five mana felt too steep overall. Maybe just a deck-building gaff, but noteworthy. For that reason I'm adding Coffin Queen. It's an efficient reanimation effect that keeps the possibility of interaction open. That's honestly my favorite part. Having the T4 Griselbrand/Soul of Innistrad felt nigh unbeatable because of the conditional nature of my removal, but leaving the small body out there as a target helps burn and other decks deal with the ahead-of-time monster. A+. The RW deck pulled off a perfect go-wide tokens theme overall, but the pump spells for the tokens felt a little lacking. The deck at points felt like it leaned super heavily on exactly Honored Crop Captain, and without her the prospects of winning were much worse. For that reason I'm thinking one more version of this effect. I'm not 100% decided on the Champion, but it has the great upside of being able to survive combat (a trouble with the Captain). Maybe this ends up simply an Anthem Effect, but trying it out for now.
I do realize that playing only half of the cube (about) will lead to inconsistencies in the card pool, so I'm totally open to reversing on these inclusions if it turns out that it was just the day. I think the Champion at least will be heavily appreciated as the deck leans on the effect so much.
Last bit of thought I have is that the number of board-wipe effects still seems like... 5% too high. Maybe. Need to look through my board control effects and decide whether one stands to be cut. Languish is honestly my first instinct to remove, leaving that effect to BSZ.
Had a great little draft today, with some of the best decks and action the format's seen yet. Did a little bit different way of drafting, with 6 packs of 9. Yeah that's 54 cards... it was a math error in the hustle of getting everything set up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It all worked out fabulously in the end, so I'm not complaining. This draft was completed with most of my desired updates in place. Only 2 cards from Ixalan were missing that I can think of: ripjaw raptor and search for azcanta. Not a big deal. Anyways, here's what we ended up with.
Sultai Cycling Reanimator (1-2)
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WB Aggro (1-2)
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Simic Tempo-Ramp (3--0)
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RW Aggro (1--2)
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First things first, no one went 0-3! That was a great feeling knowing that everyone's decks were more or less contemporary with each other. We ended up with a pretty neat split of two agressive and two midrange decks in the pod. This led to a pretty cool round robin where we all got to face off against 2 of the other kinda of deck, and one mirror-like-match. Helped give me some pretty useful data, if anything.
The simic deck did end up sweeping, but almost every set was a three-game set, and close nail-biters at that.I'm ahppy that simic can present a good showing and thrive in the format. There were two decks with UG in the pod, and the combination was very functional for both.
There were definitely some standout cards and interactions tonight, which surely has given me plenty to ponder.
Might as well start with the talk of the town. Worked very well for the RW player. They were a go-wide strategy, and this card played right into everything they were trying to do. It provided the body needed, was easiest to flip with his deck style, and provided a consistent source of board-presence that was hard for me to deal with. Definitely happy to keep this around for the time being.
This card is so good against aggro decks with even half a mind to go wide! Slightly eye-opening to see how much it basically ended RW's game at a couple points, because they went from 2 turn clock to zero damage on board. Hmm..
I looooveee itt!!! It worked super, super well for the simic player in providing a life buffer and just the right sort of surgical gravehate. Great card and glad to have it in the cube.
This card is gassy. The simic player had three fetches and a couple other search effects, so it's power level was out of this world. Hmm..
Note that three of my spotlight cards are from one deck. Maybe not a coincidence. One other thing of interest with that deck was
birds of paradise
elvish mystic
arbor elf
That's a lot of one-drop mana dorks in one deck. Some of it is the luck of the draft pool, but maybe worth taking a look again at my overall ramp density.
ALSO!
This card was great for the simic deck. Totally reinvigorated my viewpoint of this card, as I had been down on it recently. Solid green removal that really helped them out of several tough binds otherwise difficult with UG.
This card is sticking around. Regularly drew one card every game she hit play, and often two. Menace is great.
Solid version of the 2/2 double-striker for 3, think I got the revolt trigger all but one time the turn she was played. Happy to have switched from Mirran Crusader to this. The opportunity to interact is offset by the fact this quickly becomes a 4/4 double strike, not counting equips.
woo baby. This card lived up to it's hype today. The sultai deck playing it was running seven cycling lands. The drafter admitted that they probably should have toned it down a little. Still, was an exceedingly difficult obstacle to overcome with an aggressive deck focused on small bodies.
The sultai deck was super sweet and so cool to watch in action too. It was a truly engine-style deck built not by me
. The deck was definitely a complex network of interconnecting parts. The drafter stated that the deck was extremely fun to play, but very difficult to play at the same time. It was a struggle to keep all of the cogs turning at the same time.this was the headliner of the sultai deck, and the primary win-condition beyond good ol' fashion beats. Griselbrand is.... extremely good. I see the recent discussion about switching to Razaketh. I've definitely thought about it, but am sticking with Grisel for now because it's simply such an evocative card and definitely gives a good incentive to try reanimator.
The matches tonight all felt very good, and I don't think I really saw any blowouts overall. Lots of the cogs that I've been working to develop were out in force today (YAY). The WB deck I was piloting had several great ways to recoup value through removal and wipes, which helped keep the deck in the fight even once the midrange decks hit their later game. Adorned Pouncer was great, and the 4/4 body presents an immediate threat of elimination, which I like. This helps the WB deck condense the game around a turn or two while it gets back on it's feet after a wipe/whatever. Eternalize is great overall. I'm making the switch from Kitchen Finks to Sunscourge Champion partially because of how well it plays. I'm also interested in a slight tone-down of the free value that midrange decks can use against agro, from cards like Finks. This particular swap also evens out my little duo of life-gain cards in GW. That reminds me:
This was one of the less.... on-theme cards in the RW deck. That drafter is definitely newer into drafting, so some misinformed decisions are inevitable. The draw of lifegain must be so great that it just had to be run, even though it's definitely not helping much of anything having to do with the deck plan. Makes we wonder a little if it should be swapped for something. One card that came to mind actually would have been a great addition to the deck:
It would have shut off their top end as-is, but that could've been mitigated during drafting for sure. Many of the effects that were winning them the game were attack triggers or burn-as-reach. Compare then to the Simic deck, where it's shutting off much of what the deck is doing throughout the curve. A sampling:
snapcaster mage
deathgorge scavenger
acidic slime
myr battlesphere
Aside; I continue to struggle with the inclusion of the BattelBall. Much the same as with Griselbrand, tbh.
Not 100% set, but can see making this switch. There are other life-gain effects in the cube that can be utilized if needed, and anyways having too many of that type of effect can definitely bog games down. Also need to consider if it's too much of a sore thumb against the ETB-recursion
likes to do, or if it's valuable counterplay for Wx aggression. I'm leaning towards the latter.From the overall gameplay, there were a couple additions I've settled on wanting:
Two oldies, but I think performing useful functions for two archetypes present tonight. Both decks seemed like they were falling just a little short of these effects they needed for their specific gameplan. Sultai Reanimator felt a little light on reanimation effects. Now, they did have a body double they didn't end up playing, but they said the five mana felt too steep overall. Maybe just a deck-building gaff, but noteworthy. For that reason I'm adding Coffin Queen. It's an efficient reanimation effect that keeps the possibility of interaction open. That's honestly my favorite part. Having the T4 Griselbrand/Soul of Innistrad felt nigh unbeatable because of the conditional nature of my removal, but leaving the small body out there as a target helps burn and other decks deal with the ahead-of-time monster. A+. The RW deck pulled off a perfect go-wide tokens theme overall, but the pump spells for the tokens felt a little lacking. The deck at points felt like it leaned super heavily on exactly Honored Crop Captain, and without her the prospects of winning were much worse. For that reason I'm thinking one more version of this effect. I'm not 100% decided on the Champion, but it has the great upside of being able to survive combat (a trouble with the Captain). Maybe this ends up simply an Anthem Effect, but trying it out for now.
I do realize that playing only half of the cube (about) will lead to inconsistencies in the card pool, so I'm totally open to reversing on these inclusions if it turns out that it was just the day. I think the Champion at least will be heavily appreciated as the deck leans on the effect so much.
Last bit of thought I have is that the number of board-wipe effects still seems like... 5% too high. Maybe. Need to look through my board control effects and decide whether one stands to be cut. Languish is honestly my first instinct to remove, leaving that effect to BSZ.
Did the Sultai Deck really have 9 Watery Graves? Neat decklists overall! I like the idea of Coffin Queen and Apprentice Necromancer providing lower cmc reanimation spells since they're so easy to interact with.
Clear Shot has done well for me in the past. I kind of like the cheesiness that Savage Stomp could provide once in a blue moon so I'm kind of torn between the two.
Clear Shot has done well for me in the past. I kind of like the cheesiness that Savage Stomp could provide once in a blue moon so I'm kind of torn between the two.
Lol no, only one watery grave. yay typos. I think the Coffin Queen will be at least moderately successful, if not better. There are a couple other of this creature reanimation effect, one spicy one
Doomed necromancer probably fits here too. it feels like a fair recurring nightmare type of effect where the focus is more on value loops. Think I want the Queen more for what I'm trying to do. Not entirely sure though.
Interesting side thought I've had originating from the prospect of these graveyard value-chains, among other things:
This is a really interesting variety of hatebear effect, and it even is a team pump for my Wx decks! hmm.. only thing is that color commitment
Made some swaps after a night to think on my draft and what I was seeing with picks, plays, etc.
Out:
In:
I was going to take Thirst for Knowledge out, but I'm too high on it's artifact interactions. Likely still too good, and part of a too-good-overall blue suite, so might try something else wit hit soon. I'm thinking that I might try Oath of Jace again... the temptation of the blink shenanigans is strong.
Spirit of the Labyrinth was a flash of inspiration while I was trying to find something to replace Arashin Cleric. The body is properly aggressive, and it provides valueable counterplay against the draw-discard suite of Blue/Red. The more my format matures, the more I'm becoming aware that midrange/control/value are perfectly healthy, and the weenie-style decks have been kinda stagnant. Hopefully one piece (maybe of many) to help that out.
Originally didn't want to get another wordy recursive one-drop in black, but I think this is too useful of an effect for my format, especially with the very grindy nature of many games. Also the first truly self-enabling recursive one-drop, so I like being able to build the board back from literally nothing along with it's two-drop pal Scrapheap Scrounger.
Essence extraction was a neat card, but the 3 damage was very limiting, and another removal spell that tilts in favor of midrange/control only, by virtue of the static damage amount. Battle at the Bridge still good for the aforementioned decks, but also allows aggressive decks to snipe larger creatures later in the game. Overall think I'll prefer the flexible version of this effect, even if at sorcery speed. Could see this removal slot changing out again in the nearish future, but trying it for now.
Trying Sram's expertise out. The Exemplars saw virtually no play, and this directly helps the tokens strategies. I may end up finding I have one too many token making effects in white, but I think I'll enjoy trying this in the slot for now. Another card I could see in this slot, and performing a nominally similar function of helping you go wide is
Call of the Herd is back in as the more straightforward version of this 3+4 CMC flashback card in green. I think Call will be more appreciated overall, and Mouth//Feed might be a little too cutesy for what is wanted (more linear value).
Sylvan Might saw basically no play. Too low impact, probably? Prepare//Fight is playing this role more effectively with the much more impactful front end (untapping and lifelink add big game). Moldervine cloak is a real beating of a card, and the more persistent effect and recursive nature should lead it to be far more played than Sylvan Might was.
Out:
In:
I was going to take Thirst for Knowledge out, but I'm too high on it's artifact interactions. Likely still too good, and part of a too-good-overall blue suite, so might try something else wit hit soon. I'm thinking that I might try Oath of Jace again... the temptation of the blink shenanigans is strong.
Spirit of the Labyrinth was a flash of inspiration while I was trying to find something to replace Arashin Cleric. The body is properly aggressive, and it provides valueable counterplay against the draw-discard suite of Blue/Red. The more my format matures, the more I'm becoming aware that midrange/control/value are perfectly healthy, and the weenie-style decks have been kinda stagnant. Hopefully one piece (maybe of many) to help that out.
Originally didn't want to get another wordy recursive one-drop in black, but I think this is too useful of an effect for my format, especially with the very grindy nature of many games. Also the first truly self-enabling recursive one-drop, so I like being able to build the board back from literally nothing along with it's two-drop pal Scrapheap Scrounger.
Essence extraction was a neat card, but the 3 damage was very limiting, and another removal spell that tilts in favor of midrange/control only, by virtue of the static damage amount. Battle at the Bridge still good for the aforementioned decks, but also allows aggressive decks to snipe larger creatures later in the game. Overall think I'll prefer the flexible version of this effect, even if at sorcery speed. Could see this removal slot changing out again in the nearish future, but trying it for now.
Trying Sram's expertise out. The Exemplars saw virtually no play, and this directly helps the tokens strategies. I may end up finding I have one too many token making effects in white, but I think I'll enjoy trying this in the slot for now. Another card I could see in this slot, and performing a nominally similar function of helping you go wide is
Call of the Herd is back in as the more straightforward version of this 3+4 CMC flashback card in green. I think Call will be more appreciated overall, and Mouth//Feed might be a little too cutesy for what is wanted (more linear value).
Sylvan Might saw basically no play. Too low impact, probably? Prepare//Fight is playing this role more effectively with the much more impactful front end (untapping and lifelink add big game). Moldervine cloak is a real beating of a card, and the more persistent effect and recursive nature should lead it to be far more played than Sylvan Might was.
Some Mana Base Ponderings...
So I find myself the passenger on a several hour trip, and it's given me some time for some ponderin'. Specifically about mana, mana bases, and cycles. Focus of my interest is:
And associates. My main interest in bouncelands is there application in the lands-engine decks. But I don't think a fI'll cycle is warranted, and indeed I've already got the leg in Simic Growth Chamber. So I'm thinking I might want to extend support into {R {}G} and . Right now my persons of interest are:
So what I'm thinking is, is Wandering fumarole really worth it? Compared to Shambling Vent, it's ability is certainly less useful, and IMO almost any U deck can appreciate the card advantage somewhat, especially with draw-discard so prevalent in U and R. My primary replacement option would be the aforementioned boilerworks.
The Gruul choice is less clear for me... I'm thinking two primary paths of action. The first path would be to take out the Grove because it's two painland type effects in the same pair, and it's really only in for punishing fire. So if it went, I'm not sure I'd keep the Fire? In its place I'd move the Struggle//Survive over to R, and use the Gruul slot for something else. What that is, I'm not entirely sure yet (Storm bind is in the front of my mind). This would open up the land slot, and i'vs also got two ideas for that:
The bounceland is more straightforward into the lands theme, but the thicket is draw into Loam etc, and is fetchable. This relates to point 2, which isremove the Mountain Valley because there is no corresponding GR fetchable. This would allow me to keep the Grove/Fire and put probably the Turf in.
I'm thinking of going route one with the Thicket right now, but I'm not sure. Anybody got any thoughts?
So I find myself the passenger on a several hour trip, and it's given me some time for some ponderin'. Specifically about mana, mana bases, and cycles. Focus of my interest is:
And associates. My main interest in bouncelands is there application in the lands-engine decks. But I don't think a fI'll cycle is warranted, and indeed I've already got the
leg in Simic Growth Chamber. So I'm thinking I might want to extend support into {R {}G} and . Right now my persons of interest are:So what I'm thinking is, is Wandering fumarole really worth it? Compared to Shambling Vent, it's ability is certainly less useful, and IMO almost any U deck can appreciate the card advantage somewhat, especially with draw-discard so prevalent in U and R. My primary replacement option would be the aforementioned boilerworks.
The Gruul choice is less clear for me... I'm thinking two primary paths of action. The first path would be to take out the Grove because it's two painland type effects in the same pair, and it's really only in for punishing fire. So if it went, I'm not sure I'd keep the Fire? In its place I'd move the Struggle//Survive over to R, and use the Gruul slot for something else. What that is, I'm not entirely sure yet (Storm bind is in the front of my mind). This would open up the land slot, and i'vs also got two ideas for that:
The bounceland is more straightforward into the lands theme, but the thicket is draw into Loam etc, and is fetchable. This relates to point 2, which isremove the Mountain Valley because there is no corresponding GR fetchable. This would allow me to keep the Grove/Fire and put probably the Turf in.
I'm thinking of going route one with the Thicket right now, but I'm not sure. Anybody got any thoughts?
Thanksgiving, wonderful time to enjoy good cooking, family, and relaxation. Also good opportunity to mess around with a cube, an opportunity I definitely took. first some swaps
OUT
IN
- Kess.... never actually made it into the physical cube. Never went out and bought a second one, so meh. Excited to try out this little piece of tech.
- Arlinn never ended up being as great as I hoped. Huntmaster is a prime value-midrange anchor, and plays well in both faster and slower decks. Also poppin' new art
- Advent is boring. Plain as that. Recent talk of Dromoka has pushed me over the edge for a shift, along with a couple other changes that cascaded from this:
- Like Angel of Despair. With Dromoka coming in, I felt I didn't want to stack too many high drops in my XY sections, so I dropped her and will move the Unburial Rites to WB, which opened the door for a sweet piece of fair stax, smallpox.
- Phantasmal Bear was a placeholder and nothing more. Thought Scour comes in as a properly-powered cantrip with nice graveyard synergy. Also part of my plans, per below.
- Force Spike i'm almost happy to see leave, as I have the Mana Tithe, and censor is just so much more interesting. tCan see swapping for Miscalculation, but am siding with the Censor side of that debate. Cycling is just so good.
- Shivan Reef > Bluffs joins the RG Forest > Thicket swap for my plan to provide the RUG shard with the filter lands to assist with casting Seismic Assault, as well as help pay for Molten Vortex.
- Overseer and Razaketh are two halves of a plan to get rid of specifically Scourge, which never did anything. Excited to try these two out.
- Jori En was a very sad swap. Especially with the absolutely gorgeous promo art. Gelectrode is simply much more useful for my UR decks I think, and also plays into plan per below.
- Woodfall Primus was a great ramp/reanimator target, but I'm very leery of this sort of effect in that role, and Persist is a bitch. Sandwurm Convergence plays better into the role of either Ramp or Control, which I want to be happening with my green section anyways. I've also gained Dromoka as a great Gx body for what the Primus was doing, so I'm satisfied.
THEPLAN MUSINGS:
This card is insanely cool, and has singlehandedly sparked my interest in a fair sort of storm deck. I don't really have a lot of experience with this sort of deck. so I'm kinda just blundering around, but my take is it manifests in this format as a low-curve blue spell-tempo deck with this built-in capability of churning out 4-5 crow tokens to solidify a wincon. Key cards, maybe:
I think it manifests as a familiar sort of deck, Baral seems to really crank the concept up a few notches. Also, JVP would be really great here.... too bad I want to take him out. Keep him around for a bit for this? I think the back-up plan is simply the UR spell velocity deck, right?
Gelectrodes primary reason for inclusion was this sort of deck, and that he plays well even with few/no instants and sorceries being cast at a given moment. I see him as a sort of secondary storm card here, as he can chain incredible amounts of damage in a single turn if allowed.
Anyway, here is a sample deck I drew up from what my cube can offer it right now (flipped over card is Crow Storm):
So I think in the end a fairly normal looking UR deck, right? Basically, should it go even deeper? For instance:
Manamorphose is obviously a on-the-nose plant for this strategy, giving you that spell count and cantrip for no mana. The other two, I think a familiar effect is critical to making any sort of "storm" really go off fairly. Speaking of familiars, another class of spells that have use in a wide array of other decks:
I think overall what I'm aiming for isn't a brand new deck, but a tweaking of the sections to allow for more of this sort of interaction. Probably only like two-three swaps and you can enable someone to go deeper than otherwise thought possible. Maybe I don't really need to change anything, because it's already couched in a "fair" deck that does already exist. Hmm.....
Interesting line:
Chrome Mox, imprint nothing (0) ->
repeal it, draw card (U) ->
Chrome mox, exile chaff (U) ->
Careful Study (UU) ->
CROW STORM (2UUU)
That gets you 5 crows, for the low low price of four lands (or three then play one). Can obvs also mess around with the order of things. Mox is obviously the all-star here. It can be replaced with Everflowing Chalice for 2 more mana investment, or one less crow and one more mana. Baral makes things very spicy indeed:
Interesting line 2, assuming Baral out:
Cathartic Reunion, even discard something you want like CS (R) ->
noxious revival CS (R) ->
Incendiary flow something (RR) ->
crow storm (1URR)
And since this is T4, you may have your Gelectrode out, which pumps out another 5 damage. 8 Damage to things and 4 crows.
Just these lines showcase that including the Frantic Search would be a number one way to improve this, as this is parity in #1, and ramps in #2. Probably will include the search, over what I'm not quite sure.
OUT
IN
- Kess.... never actually made it into the physical cube. Never went out and bought a second one, so meh. Excited to try out this little piece of tech.
- Arlinn never ended up being as great as I hoped. Huntmaster is a prime value-midrange anchor, and plays well in both faster and slower decks. Also poppin' new art
- Advent is boring. Plain as that. Recent talk of Dromoka has pushed me over the edge for a shift, along with a couple other changes that cascaded from this:
- Like Angel of Despair. With Dromoka coming in, I felt I didn't want to stack too many high drops in my XY sections, so I dropped her and will move the Unburial Rites to WB, which opened the door for a sweet piece of fair stax, smallpox.
- Phantasmal Bear was a placeholder and nothing more. Thought Scour comes in as a properly-powered
cantrip with nice graveyard synergy. Also part of my plans, per below.- Force Spike i'm almost happy to see leave, as I have the Mana Tithe, and censor is just so much more interesting. tCan see swapping for Miscalculation, but am siding with the Censor side of that debate. Cycling
is just so good.- Shivan Reef > Bluffs joins the RG Forest > Thicket swap for my plan to provide the RUG shard with the filter lands to assist with casting Seismic Assault, as well as help pay for Molten Vortex.
- Overseer and Razaketh are two halves of a plan to get rid of specifically Scourge, which never did anything. Excited to try these two out.
- Jori En was a very sad swap. Especially with the absolutely gorgeous promo art. Gelectrode is simply much more useful for my UR decks I think, and also plays into plan per below.
- Woodfall Primus was a great ramp/reanimator target, but I'm very leery of this sort of effect in that role, and Persist is a bitch. Sandwurm Convergence plays better into the role of either Ramp or Control, which I want to be happening with my green section anyways. I've also gained Dromoka as a great Gx body for what the Primus was doing, so I'm satisfied.
THE
This card is insanely cool, and has singlehandedly sparked my interest in a fair sort of storm deck. I don't really have a lot of experience with this sort of deck. so I'm kinda just blundering around, but my take is it manifests in this format as a low-curve blue spell-tempo deck with this built-in capability of churning out 4-5 crow tokens to solidify a wincon. Key cards, maybe:
I think it manifests as a familiar sort of deck, Baral seems to really crank the concept up a few notches. Also, JVP would be really great here.... too bad I want to take him out. Keep him around for a bit for this? I think the back-up plan is simply the UR spell velocity deck, right?
Gelectrodes primary reason for inclusion was this sort of deck, and that he plays well even with few/no instants and sorceries being cast at a given moment. I see him as a sort of secondary storm card here, as he can chain incredible amounts of damage in a single turn if allowed.
Anyway, here is a sample deck I drew up from what my cube can offer it right now (flipped over card is Crow Storm):
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So I think in the end a fairly normal looking UR deck, right? Basically, should it go even deeper? For instance:
Manamorphose is obviously a on-the-nose plant for this strategy, giving you that spell count and cantrip for no mana. The other two, I think a familiar effect is critical to making any sort of "storm" really go off fairly. Speaking of familiars, another class of spells that have use in a wide array of other decks:
I think overall what I'm aiming for isn't a brand new deck, but a tweaking of the sections to allow for more of this sort of interaction. Probably only like two-three swaps and you can enable someone to go deeper than otherwise thought possible. Maybe I don't really need to change anything, because it's already couched in a "fair" deck that does already exist. Hmm.....
Interesting line:
Chrome Mox, imprint nothing (0) ->
repeal it, draw card (U) ->
Chrome mox, exile chaff (U) ->
Careful Study (UU) ->
CROW STORM (2UUU)
That gets you 5 crows, for the low low price of four lands (or three then play one). Can obvs also mess around with the order of things. Mox is obviously the all-star here. It can be replaced with Everflowing Chalice for 2 more mana investment, or one less crow and one more mana. Baral makes things very spicy indeed:
Interesting line 2, assuming Baral out:
Cathartic Reunion, even discard something you want like CS (R) ->
noxious revival CS (R) ->
Incendiary flow something (RR) ->
crow storm (1URR)
And since this is T4, you may have your Gelectrode out, which pumps out another 5 damage. 8 Damage to things and 4 crows.
Just these lines showcase that including the Frantic Search would be a number one way to improve this, as this is parity in #1, and ramps in #2. Probably will include the search, over what I'm not quite sure.
End-of-Year 'Audit' - 12/28/17
Another holdiay season, another Holiday vacation. Perfect time to delve a little deeper into cube polishing! I've been very happy with my format as of late, but even still, over the past couple months I've been collecting ideas and notes from discussion here on RTL and form drafts, and I think it's high time to make some moves. When it comes to slot selection, I find I have very high inertia to making changes. That can be a good thing to help maintain format stability, and to properly think things through when I don't get as much IRL playing as I'd like, but it also can leave subpar cards in the list longer than they should be. Anyways, time to lay them out on the line so I can make som decisions!
The list, with card for removal on the left, possible swaps on the right
->
Simic Charm is really lackluster for a gold slot. It performs three decent duties, at an efficiency hit, but the UG decks I've been seeing don't really need or want this effect. And it's not evocative or good enough to lead someone into the colors, so clear time for a swap. Urban Evolution I've been keen on since I saw it in Rasmus' cube in a RUG list. I think it will be great in the same decks here, and also provide a good draw effect for a variety of decks in UG. Not as good for the tempo decks, but I've been seeing more draw + Ramp in my UG lately, so I'm down.
-> ?
Thought-Knot has not been seeing play round these parts, so time to go. The
theme never really panned out anyways. No eraly clue what to do with the slot, is the only problem! Sword comes to mind as a really neat card that gives Stoneforge something spicy to tutor for.
->
Dynavolt tower similarly is just.. not seeing play. I think it's one too many bridge to cross for the spells deck, and I don't have any other energy cards that could really make much use of the energy. Again not sure what to do with the slot. First things that come to mind are effects that are similarly meant for more spells/controlly decks, but seems far more runnable.
Dunno man, just haven't been very happy with this card. I'm not sure my format really wants this effect at this cost. Also no idea what to put in it's place. Maybe something totally out of left field like tithe. I think 4 is a little much for spot removal in this format, and I've already got Cast Out which I like a lot.
->
Anafenza is a great card, but this is textbook a card that isn't fit into the proper framework. One of my primary archetype focuses in white is tokens! That immediately lowers her stock tremendously. Skyfisher is a cube staple, and while it also doesn't really work with tokens, it does help other themes so I'm happy to make this swap. Also easier to cast!
->
Ashling is also another effect that my format just doesn't really want/need. There are plentiful removal/wipe effects for slower decks, and agro decks weren't really looking to spend time on her. My two options are basically between helping agro and helping slower decks. Slaughtermaster would directly help a 'double strike' theme, and Iguana is a great addition/finalization of the draw-discard suite in red, being attached to an efficient blocker. Not sure what direction I want to go, but I'm leaning towards the Iguana. Or I could put in something entirely more generic (3/2 for 2). Dunno yet, need to compare my section for agro/slow support.
->
CROW STORM!! Enough said. But besides that, skulker is annoyingly good and hard to deal with, so bye bye.
->
->
These swaps would go hand in hand, but the primary swap coes from the grove. my RG land section was too 'fast' for my tastes. Thicket comes in as a direct incentive for the lands deck, as well as being searchable with Mountain Valley, and entering tapped to match the archetype speed I want. Punishing Fire was a natural casualty, because it's not stayin' without the grove. Both options are great burn spells with Madness, which I realized I really wanted at least one of to supplement my draw-discard suite in UR. Probably leaning towards Judgment right now.
->
I haven't been super happy with my RB section for awhile now. Both Kolaghan and Olivia seem rather 'meh' both in ability and pick count. I'm really not sure what to do with Olivia's slot (I also just don't like the RB gold card selection in general), so I can see just taking out the Dragon. Kolaghan's ability is definitely decent, and a hard(er) to remove hasty beater is nice, but I want to push the team pumping into RW, and want also to lower my RB curve overall. Falkenrath Aristocrat comes in perfectly here as a hasty beater that's sticky, while not being mind-blowingly OP. Also sac outlet!
This is jsut a potential swap. I don't think my blue section really needs the raw power of the command. Commit is a much more splashable card with a strong front end and cool, if marginally usable backend. Only issue is, Commit would only further tilt my list towards counters that only temporarily deal with things:
unsubstantiate
remand
venser, shaper savant
and then Commit
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does slightly tweak the scale away from hard control and towards more tempo-y, spells midrange strategies. But that aside, I'm not certain my control decks need the cryptic. sigh. Probably just leaving alone for now.
->
->
Silumgar's Command I have not been impressed with, honestly since about day one. It's stayed around because... reasons? Likely because "two for one so good!!!" Regardless, time to clean it out now. My immediate swap is to consign // oblivion, which is a solid front and back end effect stapled together. Issue here is Consign is good enough to run on it's own (no Oblivion), and that makes me feel there are too many 2 mana bounce effects in blue. So cascades down to Perilous Voyage for removal. I'm thinking to put something """unique""" in this slot. Most likely it will become muddle the mixture, which is a really neat tutor effect. I like it more than the raw efficiency of Mystical Tutor.
->
Jace is just too good. It's literally everything almost every U deck wants, in one card! He joins the pile of U cards that are just so first-pickable, and I wanted to trim one of those to help give other colors a little more breathing room out of the gate. Still like the looting effect, and I want to replace it with one of the evasive options. My heart is set right now on the Beeble, both for cuteness factor, and because one mana looter effect!
->
This is another potential swap. I'm not sure I don't like Vanish enough to remove it, but I am watching carefully that it's too 'techy" or something. Blink is definitely the more straightforward effect for the archetype, and would be my swap almost assuredly.
I'm really down on utility lands overall, but especially ones with specific color requirements. Problem, again, is that I don't know what to do with it. Some generic rainbow fixer (City of Brass etc) is likely, but maybe something like Drownyard temple? Probably too slow, but a neat little synergy piece with the draw-discard suites, and also a little bump to the lands deck. Buried Ruin I could also see for artifact decks.
->
Lotleth Troll is honestly fine, but pretty unexciting, and I don't think the GB decks I've been seeing have been dying for a creature discard outlet. Flayer is a popular inclusion round these parts, and with recent testing myself, I'm definitely sold on it being much more interesting in a variety of different angles.
->
Siren is a seven mana card. Just the way it is. That it's stayed in my cube listed as one mana for so long I can only imagine is some minor delusion on my part. I was originally going to swap for Lay Claim, but then I realized this was an opening to include everyone's (mine included) newest favorite spells wincon! So I will.
Whew! That was a lot of word-barf. But I'm glad more than anything to just get it out there. Might improve my odds of making actionable changes in the near future. Besides all that, I must say that my #1 victory for my format has definitely been Green, and GR in particular. I'm just very happy with the depth of archetypes the section is showing off, and the overall viability of the lands archetype. Here's a recent deck I tossed together, funky curve aside, it looks great! and critically, great without Loam. The density of land recursion effects has really payed off, and we can see here the secondary "land get" effects at play here with Yavimaya Elder and The Gitrog Monster, which is near-combo level with Vortex. Unearth can also grind out more Elder activations, or bring back something critical like Feldon/Excavator. Sweet!
And then here's another one that plays less on the engine side, wanting to use that sparingly in conjunction with Excavator only to control the board, while really aiming to hit every land drop and get to Dromoka and Convergence to close the game out.
All-in-all, really pleased with the health of the archetype and colors. Need to focus on something else now, I think. I have two plans for that. Firstly is overall the color. It's fine, but I think I can really buckle down and help make the color more viable and interesting. Second, I really am intrigued and enamored with the idea of The Baron. I definitely think it could be a Sultai archetype in my format, especially with green already being setup for slower decks. Here's a sample deck I drafted a little while back that I think homes in on some of the ideas I have around how to make the archetype work at this power level. It's only missing a couple pieces here imo, with a discard outlet at the top of the list. Thinking of Raven's Crime as a potential re-include, because it can work from both hand and grave off of gifts.:
Another holdiay season, another Holiday vacation. Perfect time to delve a little deeper into cube polishing! I've been very happy with my format as of late, but even still, over the past couple months I've been collecting ideas and notes from discussion here on RTL and form drafts, and I think it's high time to make some moves. When it comes to slot selection, I find I have very high inertia to making changes. That can be a good thing to help maintain format stability, and to properly think things through when I don't get as much IRL playing as I'd like, but it also can leave subpar cards in the list longer than they should be. Anyways, time to lay them out on the line so I can make som decisions!
The list, with card for removal on the left, possible swaps on the right
-> Simic Charm is really lackluster for a gold slot. It performs three decent duties, at an efficiency hit, but the UG decks I've been seeing don't really need or want this effect. And it's not evocative or good enough to lead someone into the colors, so clear time for a swap. Urban Evolution I've been keen on since I saw it in Rasmus' cube in a RUG list. I think it will be great in the same decks here, and also provide a good draw effect for a variety of decks in UG. Not as good for the tempo decks, but I've been seeing more draw + Ramp in my UG lately, so I'm down.
-> ?Thought-Knot has not been seeing play round these parts, so time to go. The
theme never really panned out anyways. No eraly clue what to do with the slot, is the only problem! Sword comes to mind as a really neat card that gives Stoneforge something spicy to tutor for. -> Dynavolt tower similarly is just.. not seeing play. I think it's one too many bridge to cross for the spells deck, and I don't have any other energy cards that could really make much use of the energy. Again not sure what to do with the slot. First things that come to mind are effects that are similarly meant for more spells/controlly decks, but seems far more runnable.
Dunno man, just haven't been very happy with this card. I'm not sure my format really wants this effect at this cost. Also no idea what to put in it's place. Maybe something totally out of left field like tithe. I think 4 is a little much for spot removal in this format, and I've already got Cast Out which I like a lot.
-> Anafenza is a great card, but this is textbook a card that isn't fit into the proper framework. One of my primary archetype focuses in white is tokens! That immediately lowers her stock tremendously. Skyfisher is a cube staple, and while it also doesn't really work with tokens, it does help other themes so I'm happy to make this swap. Also easier to cast!
-> Ashling is also another effect that my format just doesn't really want/need. There are plentiful removal/wipe effects for slower decks, and agro decks weren't really looking to spend time on her. My two options are basically between helping agro and helping slower decks. Slaughtermaster would directly help a 'double strike' theme, and Iguana is a great addition/finalization of the draw-discard suite in red, being attached to an efficient blocker. Not sure what direction I want to go, but I'm leaning towards the Iguana. Or I could put in something entirely more generic (3/2 for 2). Dunno yet, need to compare my section for agro/slow support.
-> CROW STORM!! Enough said. But besides that, skulker is annoyingly good and hard to deal with, so bye bye.
-> -> These swaps would go hand in hand, but the primary swap coes from the grove. my RG land section was too 'fast' for my tastes. Thicket comes in as a direct incentive for the lands deck, as well as being searchable with Mountain Valley, and entering tapped to match the archetype speed I want. Punishing Fire was a natural casualty, because it's not stayin' without the grove. Both options are great burn spells with Madness, which I realized I really wanted at least one of to supplement my draw-discard suite in UR. Probably leaning towards Judgment right now.
-> I haven't been super happy with my RB section for awhile now. Both Kolaghan and Olivia seem rather 'meh' both in ability and pick count. I'm really not sure what to do with Olivia's slot (I also just don't like the RB gold card selection in general), so I can see just taking out the Dragon. Kolaghan's ability is definitely decent, and a hard(er) to remove hasty beater is nice, but I want to push the team pumping into RW, and want also to lower my RB curve overall. Falkenrath Aristocrat comes in perfectly here as a hasty beater that's sticky, while not being mind-blowingly OP. Also sac outlet!
This is jsut a potential swap. I don't think my blue section really needs the raw power of the command. Commit is a much more splashable card with a strong front end and cool, if marginally usable backend. Only issue is, Commit would only further tilt my list towards counters that only temporarily deal with things:
unsubstantiate
remand
venser, shaper savant
and then Commit
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does slightly tweak the scale away from hard control and towards more tempo-y, spells midrange strategies. But that aside, I'm not certain my control decks need the cryptic. sigh. Probably just leaving alone for now.
-> -> Silumgar's Command I have not been impressed with, honestly since about day one. It's stayed around because... reasons? Likely because "two for one so good!!!" Regardless, time to clean it out now. My immediate swap is to consign // oblivion, which is a solid front and back end effect stapled together. Issue here is Consign is good enough to run on it's own (no Oblivion), and that makes me feel there are too many 2 mana bounce effects in blue. So cascades down to Perilous Voyage for removal. I'm thinking to put something """unique""" in this slot. Most likely it will become muddle the mixture, which is a really neat tutor effect. I like it more than the raw efficiency of Mystical Tutor.
-> Jace is just too good. It's literally everything almost every U deck wants, in one card! He joins the pile of U cards that are just so first-pickable, and I wanted to trim one of those to help give other colors a little more breathing room out of the gate. Still like the looting effect, and I want to replace it with one of the evasive options. My heart is set right now on the Beeble, both for cuteness factor, and because one mana looter effect!
-> This is another potential swap. I'm not sure I don't like Vanish enough to remove it, but I am watching carefully that it's too 'techy" or something. Blink is definitely the more straightforward effect for the archetype, and would be my swap almost assuredly.
I'm really down on utility lands overall, but especially ones with specific color requirements. Problem, again, is that I don't know what to do with it. Some generic rainbow fixer (City of Brass etc) is likely, but maybe something like Drownyard temple? Probably too slow, but a neat little synergy piece with the draw-discard suites, and also a little bump to the lands deck. Buried Ruin I could also see for artifact decks.
-> Lotleth Troll is honestly fine, but pretty unexciting, and I don't think the GB decks I've been seeing have been dying for a creature discard outlet. Flayer is a popular inclusion round these parts, and with recent testing myself, I'm definitely sold on it being much more interesting in a variety of different angles.
-> Siren is a seven mana card. Just the way it is. That it's stayed in my cube listed as one mana for so long I can only imagine is some minor delusion on my part. I was originally going to swap for Lay Claim, but then I realized this was an opening to include everyone's (mine included) newest favorite spells wincon! So I will.
Whew! That was a lot of word-barf. But I'm glad more than anything to just get it out there. Might improve my odds of making actionable changes in the near future. Besides all that, I must say that my #1 victory for my format has definitely been Green, and GR in particular. I'm just very happy with the depth of archetypes the section is showing off, and the overall viability of the lands archetype. Here's a recent deck I tossed together, funky curve aside, it looks great! and critically, great without Loam. The density of land recursion effects has really payed off, and we can see here the secondary "land get" effects at play here with Yavimaya Elder and The Gitrog Monster, which is near-combo level with Vortex. Unearth can also grind out more Elder activations, or bring back something critical like Feldon/Excavator. Sweet!
fzzyhmstrs's draft of Sigh, A Cube on 24/12/2017 from CubeTutor.com
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And then here's another one that plays less on the engine side, wanting to use that sparingly in conjunction with Excavator only to control the board, while really aiming to hit every land drop and get to Dromoka and Convergence to close the game out.
RG control :) from CubeTutor.com
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All-in-all, really pleased with the health of the archetype and colors. Need to focus on something else now, I think. I have two plans for that. Firstly is overall the color
. It's fine, but I think I can really buckle down and help make the color more viable and interesting. Second, I really am intrigued and enamored with the idea of The Baron. I definitely think it could be a Sultai archetype in my format, especially with green already being setup for slower decks. Here's a sample deck I drafted a little while back that I think homes in on some of the ideas I have around how to make the archetype work at this power level. It's only missing a couple pieces here imo, with a discard outlet at the top of the list. Thinking of Raven's Crime as a potential re-include, because it can work from both hand and grave off of gifts.:Sultai Gifts Baron from CubeTutor.com
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I'm loving these swaps, sigh. In my personal experience, Avacyn's Judgment and Treasure Map have both overperformed in power and flexibility. Even without a dedicated madness theme, the Judgment has been a reliable way for decks with discard outlets to stabilize early or finish late, and the Map plays a bit like a Gilded Lotus with suspend that fixes draws and reduces non-games on the way there. It's yet another way for nonblue control decks in interesting colors to flourish. As for the inclusion of Drownyard Temple, I'd recommend checking out this ramp deck from PT Shadows over Innistrad. It does a lot of things you've discussed with your RG section, notably stuff like Nissa's Pilgrimage + Looters to create card and mana advantage and the Goggles + X Spells finisher. Excited to see where you go from here!
Thanks! Yeah, the Judgment looked really great in your list, so figure it has similar functionality here. That PT list was one of my many inspirations for the deck structure, cool it's found its way back here again . Forgot that list ran the temples. Right now, though, I think I'm pondering Buried Ruin a little more closely. Gives decks a way to grab/recur important wincons from the grave, helping with consistency. Namely
. Forgot that list ran the temples. Right now, though, I think I'm pondering Buried Ruin a little more closely. Gives decks a way to grab/recur important wincons from the grave, helping with consistency. NamelyMore in-depth draft post later, but these guys were #problematic today. I need to refocus slightly on my midrange creatures, working on finding slots that build on archetypes without just being 'strong'.
We were playing multiplayer primarily, but I also saw these in action in a 1v1 on the side while waiting for next game. Common thread: they generate absurd value for little effort, and also stress removal. Also all recent inclusions. I think I need to take a lil step back on my midrange and figure out where I want to go with it. More focus on building into archetypes is where I think I want to be. for instance
This card is great for RW go-wide, giving the critical +1 power effect, while enabling killer alpha strike closers with the flip side. Strongly considering it over Phoenix
We were playing multiplayer primarily, but I also saw these in action in a 1v1 on the side while waiting for next game. Common thread: they generate absurd value for little effort, and also stress removal. Also all recent inclusions. I think I need to take a lil step back on my midrange and figure out where I want to go with it. More focus on building into archetypes is where I think I want to be. for instance
This card is great for RW go-wide, giving the critical +1 power effect, while enabling killer alpha strike closers with the flip side. Strongly considering it over Phoenix
Dom Harvey
Contributor
That post pro-tour Hollow One hype. I feel like half these cards have doubled in price :\
That 10th edition Goblin Lore price tho
Super sweet deck indeed! I haven't really been spending a lot of time thinking about how aggressive decks would come together in RG since I've been so focused on Lands etc, but I feel like this is it. Nice!
Super sweet deck indeed! I haven't really been spending a lot of time thinking about how aggressive decks would come together in RG since I've been so focused on Lands etc, but I feel like this is it. Nice!
Four Man Draft - 12/28/17
This is not actually the draft that I 'promised' I would elaborate on above, this is another draft! That's the shortest time between them, I think... woo! Also one of the most solid feeling ever, with very, very few cards feeling out of place in much of any way. We ended up doing two drafts in a row using two separate half-pools, and it worked out pretty well. All eight decks ended up feeling great, games were insanely fun and close. One game ended via decking, with the other player surviving at one life at the last possible turn. Unfortunately I didn't record the first decks, but we had a Sultai Sidisi reanimator-style deck with Razaketh and Overseer as solid finishers, an esper control deck that had... bitterblossom? I think, as a wincon. An Azorius blink-value deck, and an RG discard/flashback/monsters deck with Borborygmos and Stormbind as the hearts of the engine (this one was mine). Very Fun!I got to test this little guy out, and I am decently pleased:
really binding the Sultai deck for a few turns I think helped progress the game quite a bit more evenly. Loaming shaman was also helpful in this role, and to recycle my discarded stuff too. Great card.
Another absolute all-star in my deck, and a fast fan-favorite with the group:
Even with only one cycling land in my deck, this was basically always online with fetches and the discard outlets/engines. A 3/4 man land is seriously no joke, and it's insanely cheap to activate. Very glad I tried this.
After all said and done, I do think I have a few swaps I want to try for next time:
-> Venser is pure and simple value for a 4 drop, a class of card I'm trying to live with fewer of in the cube. Commit is a very similar removal effect without the free 2/2 value body, and Memory is a late game back-end that I feel will be more valuable in the multiplayer games my group has been favoring recently.
-> dread wanderer just feels like a third wheel to the other recursive 1 drops in black. Tracker is two things I think will be useful: grave hate, and a value engine that will be more useful for "agro" decks in multiplayer matches, but still not useless 1v1.
-> Recently discussed, I feel like this will be more generally relevant in my cube with the UR draw-discard suite, and menace feels quite a bit better than 1 free damage T1, tbh. Holds equipment like a champ too.
-> this card has been a running suggestion for a couple weeks. Grave Hate in general has been a running suggestion. Wolf Run is annoyingly hard to deal with and powerful, so I'll try this swap. Could see bringing in something like expedition map to help grab stuff like this.
And because I like looking at this sort of stuff, my basics count:
: 11: 11: 7: 10: 11pretty dang even! Nice.
Anyways, here are the second round of decks we ended up with!
Gitrog Jund
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This was a sweet build-around deck, with a first-pick Gitrog Monster which wasn't let down by stuff like Edge of Autumn, Harrow, and Excavator later. An awkward positioning led to me getting the Molten Vortex and them the Loam,when both of us wanted both. Oh well. The deck ended up being very smooth, powering out impressive draw streaks, and maintaining upwards of 18 life off of one of my faves: Courser. Very glad I have some of the more evocative style of cards like Gitrog. The deck could've used one or two more finishers, but all-around solid and resilient.
Boros Goggles Aggro
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Probably my vote for most fun/creative deck of the night, this deck couched what ended up being about three strats into one shell: an agro deck focused around beefier threats and Wargear, Goggles + red burn, and a super creative reveillark combo! we never got to see that fully pulled of, unfortunately, but the goggles "combo" was a very effective finisher in the slower multiplayer games. Confluence being 12 damage to each opponent is super gassy. But yeah, the 'lark combo:
Where you use the wargear as the sac outlet, and reveillark is bringing back the Kiki and Guide, the Kiki is making a second Guide to bring back the Doom Engine, rinse and repeat. So COol!
Esper Mentor
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This was an... interesting build. I think it would have been killer in 1v1. A definite game plan, but lacking a little of that "go-big" that can really help with multi-player. The Monastery Mentor plan looks incredibly sold though, built behind a wall of draw, removal, and blue fliers. Wouldn't have wanted to face 1v1 for sure.
Simic Monsters
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My deck! A relatively simple game plan of landing a board state and smashing. It worked out relatively well, with the fat top end really pulling through the later the game went. Body Double was a solid include here, to recur an evenmore solid include: Dromoka. The proactiveness of not allowing people to cast spells on your turn is surprisingly relevant, forcing removal at sorcery speed, which allowed me to Double her back and swing for lethal in-impeded. Stormtamer also showedit colors today as a very respectable Spellskite variant that forced people to play around with their removal, I guess a subtheme of how I kept advantage.
I really like the utility of Dissenter's Deliverance and Watchers of the Dead in your simic deck. Occupies a great spot in the curve, and both have reasonable backup plans (grizzly bear & cantrip).
Has Linvala, the Preserver made an appearance in 1v1 yet? What are your thoughts on her?
Has Linvala, the Preserver made an appearance in 1v1 yet? What are your thoughts on her?
Deliverance is a card I highly recommend for many/most formats, especially ones with artifact themes. The cheap cantripping is very valuable on the useful sort of safety valve cards like shatters (see also abrade). Watcher I'm pleased with so far. A bear with a very decent and needed type of effect is pretty solid for this type of format.
Linvala is a bomb card in both 1v1 and multiplayer for me, and it's also in a "fair" way. It's the sort of control finisher that requires some elbow grease to function, isn't an auto-path to victory, but is effective in a fairly elegant way. Very happy with her in that slot. Her abilities also keep her away from the purely midangerous creature decks, so she is available for the decks that can capitalize more on her. The Boros deck above didn't really get wide boards (barring pyromancer) so she really packed a punch, whereas my deck flooded out the board. I like that sort of built in deck-limiter.
Linvala is a bomb card in both 1v1 and multiplayer for me, and it's also in a "fair" way. It's the sort of control finisher that requires some elbow grease to function, isn't an auto-path to victory, but is effective in a fairly elegant way. Very happy with her in that slot. Her abilities also keep her away from the purely midangerous creature decks, so she is available for the decks that can capitalize more on her. The Boros deck above didn't really get wide boards (barring pyromancer) so she really packed a punch, whereas my deck flooded out the board. I like that sort of built in deck-limiter.
It's so difficult to find room for a card like Deliverance, but I'll definitely look into it. I can say that I've had zero regrets including Renewed Faith and Forsake the Worldly, which are comparable.
Good to know about Linvala....I've been rotating between Yosei, the Morning Star and Angel of Serenity in that slot, and I think it could be better served with an elegant control finisher. Maybe I'll give it a spin.
Good to know about Linvala....I've been rotating between Yosei, the Morning Star and Angel of Serenity in that slot, and I think it could be better served with an elegant control finisher. Maybe I'll give it a spin.
I like both Yosei and Angel, but they serve more midrange top-end or reanimator roles imo. I've enjoyed having both Angels as my white high drops, but would likely keep Linvala over Angel at this point if I were to cut one.
I think Deliverance is a pretty nice include in your format if you are really going in on artifact decks.
I think Deliverance is a pretty nice include in your format if you are really going in on artifact decks.
Man, I've been slacking on cube updates recently. Haven't even updated for DOM, let alone Battlebond. Not enough time or energy right now for detailed analysis, but these are cards I might look at for swaps (in no particular order or guarantee of swap):
....that is quite a list. Now, again, I didn't really put a lot of effort right now into deciding how likely it is a swap will be made for any of these.
....that is quite a list. Now, again, I didn't really put a lot of effort right now into deciding how likely it is a swap will be made for any of these.
I'd be interested to hear reports on how Multani plays. I was very excited to add him when he was first spoiled, but shied away after a little consideration. He has so many cool interactions, but I was afraid the overall power level would overwhelm the more interesting elements in my environment. Your cube looks to be a notch or so higher powered then mine, so I'm sure he'll be an excellent card for you; I'll just be curious to see if he ends up being one of your top-end cards or if there are more things that will hold him in check then I've considered.
Man, I've been slacking on cube updates recently. Haven't even updated for DOM, let alone Battlebond. Not enough time or energy right now for detailed analysis, but these are cards I might look at for swaps (in no particular order or guarantee of swap):
....that is quite a list. Now, again, I didn't really put a lot of effort right now into deciding how likely it is a swap will be made for any of these.
Spellseeker is such a cool card. Search up a flicker spell with your tutor to hide information and REALLY play mind games with your opponent
I'm excited to try Multani, but certainly cognisant of how powerful the card is. It's a very assertive finisher that is also quite resilient. One of the major attractors for me is that ramping him out without using lands ends up being a non-bo, which is what I want. I want him used as a finisher in lands-centric strategies, and he is all that and more.
It probably wouldn't be a bad play to search out something like momentary blink with Spellseeker, tbh. Get a couple turns of chump blocks and more card advantage out of it; seems sweet. My fave is still one mentioned in the Battlebond thread:
It probably wouldn't be a bad play to search out something like momentary blink with Spellseeker, tbh. Get a couple turns of chump blocks and more card advantage out of it; seems sweet. My fave is still one mentioned in the Battlebond thread: