General Fight Club
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
So I had some troubles with red based aggro decks being the stromngest thing you could do in my format. I already did some minor tweaks, but not much really. And now I've had an idea: If I would support a different theme for mono red, I would decrease the incidental overlap with support for 
prowess, sacrifice, and madness, which would, hopefully, make it harder to just force red aggro and always end up in very good spot. That new theme would be Goblins.
I want to now, essentially, which option you prefer here, but I need to know it before the end of tomorrow, as that's the last day I am allowed to make changes to my list, since it's featured in the Cube Open in two weeks in Braunschweig.
Please vote until tomorrow evening <3
answer if you want to differentiate or formulate your thoughts of course.
prowess, sacrifice, and madness, which would, hopefully, make it harder to just force red aggro and always end up in very good spot. That new theme would be Goblins.I want to now, essentially, which option you prefer here, but I need to know it before the end of tomorrow, as that's the last day I am allowed to make changes to my list, since it's featured in the Cube Open in two weeks in Braunschweig.
Please vote until tomorrow evening <3
answer if you want to differentiate or formulate your thoughts of course.
The goblins seem like they might be fun, but I think you need more available in the draft to justify the payoffs. Do you already have other goblins in your cube?
They also look like they would support sacrifice decks but not any other archetypes.
The other selection, on the other hand, just doesn’t spark as much joy, though there are cards for discard decks as well as sacrifice.
They also look like they would support sacrifice decks but not any other archetypes.
The other selection, on the other hand, just doesn’t spark as much joy, though there are cards for discard decks as well as sacrifice.
I already have these 17 cards that are goblins or make goblin tokens:
That would make for 27 goblins. At 500 cards, you would see 19.4 goblins in an average 8-player draft. That seems like enough, even though I guess Goblin Engineer and Blast from the Past shouldn't really count.
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I think you should definitely give the goblin package a go. No room for Siege-Gang Commander?
Pretty easy goblin decision for me considering the others you’re running…most of the 27 goblins are good on their own which is my favorite way for tribal to present itself in cube.So I had some troubles with red based aggro decks being the stromngest thing you could do in my format. I already did some minor tweaks, but not much really. And now I've had an idea: If I would support a different theme for mono red, I would decrease the incidental overlap with support for
I want to now, essentially, which option you prefer here, but I need to know it before the end of tomorrow, as that's the last day I am allowed to make changes to my list, since it's featured in the Cube Open in two weeks in Braunschweig.
Please vote until tomorrow evening <3
answer if you want to differentiate or formulate your thoughts of course.
Trying to figure out which of these blue dragons is the most reasonable as a harder-to-interact-with threat that has enough value to make players not feel bad spending 5 on them.
Hraesvelgr of the First Brood lets you get in with your other dudes, Diviner of Mist gives you the most value if you can untag with it, and Iymrith, Desert Doom is the hardest to interact with on turn 1. Which is the most interesting, and are these just too weak for everything I'm trying to do in my Cube?
Hraesvelgr of the First Brood lets you get in with your other dudes, Diviner of Mist gives you the most value if you can untag with it, and Iymrith, Desert Doom is the hardest to interact with on turn 1. Which is the most interesting, and are these just too weak for everything I'm trying to do in my Cube?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I've had the most success with Immy
Thanks folks, I am properly convinced.
vs. I'm in the market for a 1 mana piece of graveyard hate/bauble that can be fetched by Urza's Saga and Brightglass Gearhulk. I've never played much with Claws, but I use Soul-Guide pretty frequently in EDH decks as a cycling piece of graveyard hate to keep decks honest. I think Claws has more play to it, but Soul-Guide is a better bauble option. Which of these do you prefer?
Of the two, I'd prefer Claws, because it lets me get the card while I'm hating on the graveyard... but, for the same reason, my actual selection might end up being Relic of Progenitus? Depending on how many cares-about-bauble-and-graveyard things you have.
There's a surprisingly large number of things to consider:
-how much does the card do the instant it arrives (Lantern > Claws = Relic, because it hits a single target card rather than a single card of your opponent's choice)
-how much do you get for zero additional investment in mana (Lantern > Claws = Relic, because you get an entire graveyard versus one card per turn of opponent's choice)
-the exact opposite of the above line, something like "can grind your opponent's graveyard slowly but repeatedly" (Claws = Relic > Lantern)
-how quick is it to hit an entire entire graveyard (Lantern > Relic > Claws, because it's 0 mana, 1 mana, impossible)
-whether or not it hits your own graveyard (Lantern = Claws > Relic, obviously)
-can you get the card while still graveyard hating (Relic = Claws > Lantern, 1 mana investment vs not possible)
-can you get the card while NOT graveyard hating yourself (Claws = Lantern > Relic, 1 mana investment vs not possible)
-ease of recursion (Lantern > Claws > Relic, because Lantern can put itself in the graveyard for free if you don't need to cycle it, Claws takes 1 mana, Relic always exiles itself)
I think I'd pick Claws if you expect anyone wants to keep their own graveyard intact, because when Relic wrecks your own fun plan it's such a feel-bad even if it's right. When it comes down to Claws vs. Lantern, I think of them - totally unfairly - as Scavenging Ooze vs. Tormod's Crypt. If that incredibly insane comparison helps any, uh, I'm glad!
There's a surprisingly large number of things to consider:
-how much does the card do the instant it arrives (Lantern > Claws = Relic, because it hits a single target card rather than a single card of your opponent's choice)
-how much do you get for zero additional investment in mana (Lantern > Claws = Relic, because you get an entire graveyard versus one card per turn of opponent's choice)
-the exact opposite of the above line, something like "can grind your opponent's graveyard slowly but repeatedly" (Claws = Relic > Lantern)
-how quick is it to hit an entire entire graveyard (Lantern > Relic > Claws, because it's 0 mana, 1 mana, impossible)
-whether or not it hits your own graveyard (Lantern = Claws > Relic, obviously)
-can you get the card while still graveyard hating (Relic = Claws > Lantern, 1 mana investment vs not possible)
-can you get the card while NOT graveyard hating yourself (Claws = Lantern > Relic, 1 mana investment vs not possible)
-ease of recursion (Lantern > Claws > Relic, because Lantern can put itself in the graveyard for free if you don't need to cycle it, Claws takes 1 mana, Relic always exiles itself)
I think I'd pick Claws if you expect anyone wants to keep their own graveyard intact, because when Relic wrecks your own fun plan it's such a feel-bad even if it's right. When it comes down to Claws vs. Lantern, I think of them - totally unfairly - as Scavenging Ooze vs. Tormod's Crypt. If that incredibly insane comparison helps any, uh, I'm glad!
That's where I was leaning as well. I'm very used to the efficiency of Lantern from EDH mostly, but I don't necessarily want the graveyard decks to get completely smacked out of game. Being able to snipe the specific card is mostly what I'm looking for and wasn't sure how well this one has aged with the Relic tap ability. I'm more a fan of including incidental hate throughout the cube, but needed just one more utility bauble for consistency.
Also, that Baxa art from Mirrodin is sick:
Also, that Baxa art from Mirrodin is sick:
Going deep on this one. I already have a "historic/legendary matters" subtheme and I loved the Kethis, the Hidden Hand combo deck in Standard, so I'm trying out adding a few cards to get most of that deck into the cube: we've got Mox Amber, Rona, Herald of Invasion, Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler, Honest Rutstein, the whole nine yards.
What's the pick:
The former works with Tyvar and more easily becomes Kethis or Rona. It's better in the actual combo deck, but you (generally) would be embarrassed to play it in other decks - though I do have Abhorrent Oculus / Helping Hand / Sevinne's Reclamation so it's certainly not impossible.
The latter requires a crime, but you can also just turn it into a Griselbrand or whatever, and I do have Reanimator as well. So a bit of cross-theme synergy.
...alternatively, do I just say screw it and play Baleful Strix because nobody in the history of Magic has ever been sad to cast that one? I think that's not right, but I never know how deep is too deep.
Current list is at https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/seekerscube.
What's the pick:
The former works with Tyvar and more easily becomes Kethis or Rona. It's better in the actual combo deck, but you (generally) would be embarrassed to play it in other decks - though I do have Abhorrent Oculus / Helping Hand / Sevinne's Reclamation so it's certainly not impossible.
The latter requires a crime, but you can also just turn it into a Griselbrand or whatever, and I do have Reanimator as well. So a bit of cross-theme synergy.
...alternatively, do I just say screw it and play Baleful Strix because nobody in the history of Magic has ever been sad to cast that one? I think that's not right, but I never know how deep is too deep.
Current list is at https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/seekerscube.
There's definitely a spectrum from "real looking" to "fake looking" but it's a pretty broad one. Selecting entirely from my cube...
Normal Lazav and/or every Magic: the Gathering card from 1993-2020 -> Samwise Gamgee -> Senu, Keen-Eyed Protector -> Lazav With Cowboy Hat -> Poxwalkers -> Hildibrand Manderville -> Securitron Squadron -> ...
The right terminus is Patrick Star, slightly past Transformers/ponies/other Secret Lairs I've surely forgotten, but honestly I'll basically play anything. I was trying out Casal, Lurkwood Pathfinder (which is Doric, Nature's Warden, making it a double fake card) and if I haven't cut Headliner Scarlett for being ugly as sin I'm not going to cut a single cowboy hat.
(also the cowboy hat kinda works for specifically Lazav, even if I wasn't a fan of the aesthetic in general, it has a big brim to cast a big shadow over his face)
Oh, and I'm making a separate post to complain: Headliner Scarlett is already overdue to lose my personal fight club to a weaker card with normal art and borders. I won't replace her with Amber Gristle O'Maul, but the instant they give me something at 3R that is even close to Scarlett, I'm out. Might just be Sawhorn Nemesis one of these days, even, and that one doesn't exist in foil! (I like foils.)
I respect that. But maybe it's noteworthy that there are some players out there, like me, that pay a lot of attention to aesthetics. When I am checking the cubes for an upcoming cube event and I see Securitron Squadron in a list, I mark that as "I don't want to play this cube" upon registration. Seeing that in a pack would kill the joy for me and I would never pick it.
That being said, cowboy lazav isn't as bad certainly.
That being said, cowboy lazav isn't as bad certainly.
I cannot tell you how much I simultaneously respect this and it makes me sad. It's legitimately one of my favorite designs of the last few years.
I myself took out Headliner Scarlett recently for aesthetics, and a little bit for power-level. I get the feeling she'll come back in, but Thundermane Dragon is a much sillier card, and it's not like the red aggro decks even need a real top-end these days considering the state of 3-drops. If they want one, they can get nostalgic with me with Hero of Oxid Ridge.
You're going to hate me for this, but I unironically like the art for Familiar Stranger more than the art for Multifarious. It's the one art out of his four cards where the sneaky shapeshifter that could be disguised as anyone is actually in disguise and not just posing in a room somewhere.
I'm generally against "what if MtG character, but cosplay?!?", but it does kinda work for Lazav.