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This is what I'm fundamentally arguing against though. The card (or cards) you play don't matter. Why does 6 mana mean game over for aggressive strategies? When did that become a design principle of MTG? It's simply not part of the original game. This is a new concept that has been...

This is what I love about Magic. It's why I keep playing it. 4 very different views on the same card by people who all design cubes and have played enough Magic to know what they are talking about. So why the wide variances of opinion? I think it boils down to the fact that Magic is a...

I want to defend Treasure Cruise. I get that it's a card which has the potential to basically be Ancestral Recall (one of the most broken cards ever printed). But there are a lot of real world factors that make this spell fall way short of that. Early/mid game, this card is either completely...

Anyone besides Grillo run Tibor and Lumia? Seems really interesting to build around.

I like unexpectedly absent. It gets rid of whatever needs to be gone. It's a good tempo card. When you just need that blocker out of your way for one turn. Can be used to save your own dudes from removal or get an extra ETB trigger or whatever (though this is desperation stuff). The WW cost...

My cube is semi-retro, so no DFC's. I would run Heir though if I didn't have that rule. It's definitely cool. I'm going to look at what it would take to re-insert more graveyard support throughout my modules. I think I probably culled too much of that last time anyway.

At least this confirms once and for all that the chicken came before the egg.

Sanctum Gargoyle seems fine from what you listed. I'm drawn to Stonecloaker though. It givers you some anti-graveyard and you can rebuy ETB dudes, vanishing guys, etc. And it flies, so beats pretty well. I adore Dread Return. If I dropped down to one and only one reanimation effect, that...

RG Wildfire used to happen a lot in a previous version of my cube. Mwonvuli Acid-Moss is a key card in that, since it ramps and sets your opponent back. The mana rock RU version I think is more consistent, plus it pairs better for graveyard shenanigans (Delve/reanimator) which I feel is a...

I completely understand. Since I've not played your cube, I don't know where the strengths and weaknesses are so it's hard for me to approach suggestions from that angle. So let me ask you where you feel your weaknesses are and I can try and make some suggestions. Which Wx decks need the...

The other part of the card you can't really quantify is the mind game part of it. Just because you know what the worst two cards you got are does not mean your opponent knows. If there are only two cards that can save you, you can bait a bad choice from your opponent by bluffing you have...

Let me just give you an idea of the crazy stuff Hidden Strings can do. Imagine this board state. You have a 1 drop in play, a bounce land (off T2 play let's say) with a second land you just dropped. So 3 mana available. Think Twice, Hidden Strings, any 4 drop creature, Remand in hand...

Into the Roil then. That card is super janky on T2. And how many bounce effects do you really need? Or cut a counter. Hidden Strings plays much better than it reads, trust me on this. If you get it ciphered onto something that you can connect with each turn, it gives you 2-3 mana end of...

I want to comment on Gifts Ungiven because I've had different views on this card over the years. If it's looked at strictly as a combo engine, there's a really high ceiling and without pieces it looks pretty limp. And I think people get focused on that and assume it's not a good card if you...

You have a lot to choices there. It's most similar to Snap, but the bounce on that card is better early than the repeatable effect on Strings. Telling Time is what I'd probably cut for it because I don't think that's a very good card at 2 mana honestly. Impulse digs deeper and unless you have...

Have you considered Hidden Strings? Feels like a good fit in this cube. It has a lot of functions. The first time you cast it, it can tap potential blockers or untap the lands you used to cast it (with bounce lands, it accelerates; without it's still free). And then after combat and each turn...

I bought a few packs of SOI when it first came out and I got a Pale Rider of Trostad. I had not planned on even testing that since I took Haakon out of my cube, but the more I thought about this card the more I started to like it. Anybody test this yet? I have dreams of T3 rider, discard...

I'm really enjoying your archetype write ups. Thanks for taking the time to do them.

Gravedigger I know Meren makes this look like absolute crap, but on a whim I tossed this into a mono black deck this weekend and it was immensely fun to maximize the value of this card. Re-buying key cards that you discarded to smallpox effects or just creatures that got removed, etc...

I have a soft spot for fear, but it's a bit like protection in that it's feast or famine. Menace/Skulk are much better mechanically.