Card/Deck Swords to Plowshares too good for my cube?

[Tyrole]

Speaking for myself, it kind of sucks that so much of the black 1-2 drops in higher power formats can't block. It creates this weird void in the section where 2/3 of the major deck types can't venture, places a heavy burden on the rest of the creature section (I hate vampire nighthawk but you are kind of priced into running it), and generally feels weird with blacks generally more flexible spell selection.

I feel the same way and recently wrote a note for an open slot in my black section "B 2 drop that can block". It is kind of ridiculous how few decent powered cards there are there. And as someone who also hates Nighthawk, Grillo, do you regret that you run it, or is the role it plays important enough to justify the boring generic power design?

Also, I like Abbot because the extra card is much more meaningful later in a game when 2-drops are significantly worse.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Its not really an issue for me but no, I don't run it. With low power environments, you don't have the same heavy top end, so aggro decks have room to spread out and be more versatile. Black 2-3 drops, in particular, can shift very easily between disruptive aggression or controling roles, and the disruptive ETBs mean they work very well with cheap value reanimation.

I would rather have that kind of black section in a higher power environment, but I have no idea how you would do it.

 

[Dom Harvey]

black 2-drops that can block:

 

[blacksmithy]

Reassembling skeleton and pack rat can block all day, yall.
If you need another blocky black 2-drop, im testing a sharpie-custom liliana's shade that costs BB. It... Seems like a really good defensive threat in a control deck. On paper anyway.

 

[RavebornMuse]

Reassembling skeleton and pack rat can block all day, yall.
If you need another blocky black 2-drop, im testing a sharpie-custom liliana's shade that costs BB. It... Seems like a really good defensive threat in a control deck. On paper anyway.

Pack Rat blocking "all day" is a dreadful waste of mana and cards generally and imo has issues finding a format of the appropriate power level to house him.

Reassembling Skeleton is an insanely bad card that should be scoured from the Earth as part of a humanitarian relief program (I'm in talks with Bill Gates to finance this, will have more by December probably but he's v busy)

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

So given that we've been getting a lot more playable black one drops, is it possible maybe we should go back to more singletons in the one drop section and get more liberal with the breaking at the two spot? What card's can we find that fits the power level we're looking for that also can, pull their load, block, make us draft interesting decks etc? And then just play those ones and not worry about filling it out with junk?

edit:


Here's a list on a bunch of cards, some of them can block. Black two drops really are lacking. I was thinking about maybe doubling up on blood-chin rager and battle brawler to do an in-color combo with a bunch of the warrior one-drops as well as just being decent bodies.