Flood ruins many fewer games if you run a heavy dose of utility lands. Being able to pump that mana into a Faerie Conclave and chip away at their PW is the difference between a game and non-game of Magic often.
General Why not?
- Thread starter Jesse G
- Start date
110% agree. I'm much more comfortable running 17 lands in low-curve aggro decks if I know I can count on Treetop Village, Mutavault, and Gavony Township to swing the tide of the game when I'm otherwise out of gas.
I've said it before in another thread, but this is why I'm always happy to see what I consider a real mana sink: something you can put excess mana into every turn and feel happy about it. In retail limited they're far too uncommon. Please, fill your cube with things like Gavony Township. It's more than *just* a good card, it's flood insurance.
Preach it!
Gavony Township is one of those innocuous cards that I barely noticed when it was released, but has slowly grown to become one of my favourite cards. Not just favourite spell lands, or favourite lands - but favourite cards, full stop. I've grown to appreciate the flexible mana sinks that Wizards has been seeding into recent sets, and reusable ones that can slowly but surely take over a stalled late game while still being useful early on are, to me, the pinnacle of design.
Gavony Township is one of those innocuous cards that I barely noticed when it was released, but has slowly grown to become one of my favourite cards. Not just favourite spell lands, or favourite lands - but favourite cards, full stop. I've grown to appreciate the flexible mana sinks that Wizards has been seeding into recent sets, and reusable ones that can slowly but surely take over a stalled late game while still being useful early on are, to me, the pinnacle of design.
I feel the same way about Slayers' Stronghold, i really like the design, and how it bends late-game topdeck wars in your favor. Although it's likely nowhere near as good as township in a typical cube setting... I just can't bring myself to play with any of the cool spell lands because they're either nigh-unremovable threats, or too slow/manabase taxing to be playable. I suppose i haven't tried the likes of township in my current, much faster, cube, but I've just never been able to find the power level sweet spot for spell-lands.... except for maybe ghitu encampment, that card is good but fair...
Back on the topic of flood insurance in general though, I kinda want to go through some wotc cards in my cube that need a slight push for the environment and give them an expensive flashback, Forbidden alchemy style..... Speaking of which, I should really get around to updating my list here, the one in my cube thread is woefully out of date.....
Back on the topic of flood insurance in general though, I kinda want to go through some wotc cards in my cube that need a slight push for the environment and give them an expensive flashback, Forbidden alchemy style..... Speaking of which, I should really get around to updating my list here, the one in my cube thread is woefully out of date.....
It's important to note that mana sinks don't have to be lands. I'm also slightly wary of spell lands because I do not want to fully support land destruction. Look at the Guildmages from both Ravnica blocks for a creature example. Just about anything with an activated ability that you can use every turn should qualify. Flashback kinda counts, but it's not consistent enough to be something I normally call a good mana sink.
That's a great point. It's what I love about the level up dudes. Sometimes you really have no other play than to just make Student huge. Having those types of options is great. Not spending your mana for more than one turn (especially early) is a sure fire way of losing a game of Magic.
On a related note, this is why I like cycle so much especially on lands (the cycle lands are awesome IMO). You can run a slightly higher land count so screw is less likely, and then the cycle lands help you get through flood (and can be tossed instant speed so you can still feign/choose to play counterspell or flash creature or instant spell goodness or whatever). Just a great mechanic - really, all lands should have had cycle as a default ability (it could have solved a lot of the flood/screw problem). It would have needed a "remove from game" clause though so you couldn't do graveyard shenanigans, but the game would play better with a less random and finicky resource mechanic.
Scry is awesome too (and serves a similar role), but cycle is even better IMO.