Search results

But is it less appealing because pros can't make money playing cube? I think that's what I'm arguing at least. If Wizards had a cube format and it was basically something competitive like other formats, are you suggesting it wouldn't attract the best players? Because I think it probably...

Tog is a strange one. I constantly re-include it in my list because there are people (not just wtwlf) that swear by it. I sort of get it in Upheaval strategies but it also seems lackluster most of the time (just from a body standpoint). So I don't know where to really stand on it. I don't...

That's fair. I'm not sure what my current count is, but a lot of creatures in typical cubes have 1 toughness, so Masticore does a lot of work on many board states. It certainly has bad matchups though and there are very likely cubes that just aren't a right fit.

Cube has so much deep gameplay, I think it really appeals to good players. As much if not more than to casuals even.

I've argued many times against the basic power max design philosophy for that reason (RDW being the best deck is a symptom of this flawed design concept). There's simply no rational reason to believe choosing the most powerful cards and putting them together will create a balanced environment...

Whatever people may think of wtwlf123, his cube is still running OG Masticore and he's definitely a pure power maxer. So I think you are underestimating how good the card actually is. I'm not saying Ballista isn't good though. Or that it doesn't have advantages to Masticore. Clearly it is...

I don't know about that. I think cube has been relegated to kitchen tables because it undermines the money making engine that the game flourishes on (buying packs). There's literally no incentive at all for Wizard's to push cube even though it's the best version of the game by a country mile.

Masticore costs 2 per ping whereas Ballista costs 4 and sacrifices power in the process (and has no regeneration clause to protect itself). If you have synergy with the yard (or something like Squee in hand), Masticore offers more board control for less with greater resilience and is the better...

FWIW, I think the information you glean with probe in cube is often a lot weaker than in constructed. Simply because any cube deck will have 23 unique spells versus a constructed deck running multiples and half that many unique cards? On the peek, some decks can be spotted easily (RDW... uh...

I think you have to make sure you are appealing to different types of players. You personally might not think it's fun having your opponent peek at your hand, but as a control or combo player I certainly do want to know what you are playing so I can prioritize how I sequence my plays. This is...

Moltentail is better in aggressive decks (where you have dudes in the yard to trigger the first ability). OG Masticore is better in midrange/control decks with a lot of mana at your disposal. Both cards really require some synergy to make a deck list, but if you have that they are solid...

I think Gitaxian Probe is very good, and probably a lot better the more powerful your list is. It lets you play a 39 card deck at the cost of 2 life - that's probably the best way to look at it. In a combo deck, this is usually worthwhile. In other decks, maybe not. More importantly though, it...

Is this all based on actual gameplay, or are we all just still theory crafting? Because if it's the latter, I've got two more examples of cards that have a similar trigger which should be good that ended up not being. Mentor of the Meek and Molten Vortex. Again, I'm happy to be wrong here and...

My concern with Drake Haven is that you have to pay for the drakes (much like you have to pay for Lightning Rift shocks). Astral Slide has a more narrow trigger, but it's always free and that makes is more powerful and abusable IMO. That said, an army of drakes can definitely do some work...

Yup. I tossed in the new Bicycle lands. The design is sweet and while I haven't played with them much yet, I expect they will be staples in my future cube lists. I was a pretty big fan of the tango duals actually because they were fetchable. Having cycling versions of those is more than I could...

The cycle lands are amazing. They looks like crap (and it often feels bad to be playing them tapped to be fair), but tossing them for a card when you have extra mana is just so much value. LFTL might be the best combo piece with them for obvious reasons, especially if you have a couple early...

So I did make an Abzan list with Slide, and it's considerably better than the janky garbage Jeskai list above. LFTL, cycle lands + Slide feels very legit in a value based midrange/control shell. I'm a fan. Here's the list. I also posted this in the general forum in the Astral Slide thread...

Thought I'd post a deck list here. I've been doing a lot of tweaking/testing with my current combo list and came up with what which I feel might be the best way to get Slide working in cube. Not sure where the power level of this falls (though I suspect reasonably high). What I built is based...

Proliferate cards were good in my midrange list with that theme, Volt Charge in particular. Might also be a good place for skyship plunderer, a card I wanted to try out but never did. 2 power means it's way more useful in combat over Thrumming Bird, even if less combo I think the trade off is...

Walking Ballista in particular is a massive mana sink, so in green I think this wants super ramp strategies - the more mana the better. If you are after overlap, Masticore is also a good mana sink for all that mana and it forces a discard, which then ties in with Goblin Welder / Feldon of the...