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Of course they're better than Vale. My concern is they're too useful if you run triplets of them at common. How many Thrivings before you splash like crazy? Am I taking off color ones in slower decks for the hell of it?
 
Of course they're better than Vale. My concern is they're too useful if you run triplets of them at common. How many Thrivings before you splash like crazy? Am I taking off color ones in slower decks for the hell of it?
Not sure that is a bad thing? I put "off" color triomes into my drafts all the time. Grabbing the G/X Thriving for a UB control deck is basically the same as grabbing zagoth triome if you squint and don't think about it super hard. I've considered them before, but overall find the EWilds style lands slightly more useful.
 
Not sure that is a bad thing? I put "off" color triomes into my drafts all the time. Grabbing the G/X Thriving for a UB control deck is basically the same as grabbing zagoth triome if you squint and don't think about it super hard. I've considered them before, but overall find the EWilds style lands slightly more useful.
I guess I don't want to make ABcde too easy to draft, but it's only 5 cards out of 110 commons (I just looked up what RAV had for C/U/R).

They're a lot of bang for your buck in the proper colored deck for a common cycle, which matters in this "retail" environment.

Certainly not about to add Vivids at uncommon in this kind of rarity scheme on top of the Thrivings. If I even continue to mess with it. It's definitely kind of cool.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Of course they're better than Vale. My concern is they're too useful if you run triplets of them at common. How many Thrivings before you splash like crazy? Am I taking off color ones in slower decks for the hell of it?
Shimmerdrift Vale is basically evolving wilds without the shuffling.
Thrivings are closer to fetch/shock (With I guess mono color fetches?)

The huge upside you get with thrivings is many more of them are relevant in the draft. You don't need to be in green to want a green thriving land, as the backup case of Shimmerdrift Vale is fine and you get a proper guildgate if you are.

I don't have a cube with thriving lands, but I think how open they are to a random drafter is great, and the fact they ETB tapped is going to mitigate any 5 color tendencies.
It was real hard to draft gate tribal
 
Thrivings are closer to fetch/shock (With I guess mono color fetches?)
True. It's very close to having a tapped fetch with access to whatever it wants. That plays out fine for greediness. Granted, it needs a target to fetch, but people play 2-3 fetch / 2-3 shock/dual and it seems alright. Should be fine for anything but the slowest format. 5C Thriving Tribal popping up occasionally would be alright.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Thought: Thrivings too good?

Look at Evolving Wilds. I consider it a great common fixer. You can play it in your XY colored deck and get X land or Y land. Simple.

Look at a Thriving land. It's a flexible gate, right? You can play the Z colored Thriving and get Xz or Yz in your XY colored deck.

Is that too flexible?
No. It still etb's tapped, which is a real cost. The biggest strike against Thriving lands is not that they're too flexible, but the memory issues.
 


Huh, this basically is a thriving land, especially if you treat Snow as a 6th color. Now I'm wondering how different @Mown's Aether Hub cube would be if you replaced the snow basics with 45 copies of Vale...
 


Huh, this basically is a thriving land, especially if you treat Snow as a 6th color. Now I'm wondering how different @Mown's Aether Hub cube would be if you replaced the snow basics with 45 copies of Vale...
It only tap for one mana. Thriving taps for two different just like Guildgates. They’re equally flexible on the color it taps for that you can choose, but Vale misses the first color.

In other words, when you have to make your choice…Vale has 5 options because you’re missing all five colors. Thriving has 4 options because you already got one of the five colors.

Finally Vale signals snow so don’t run it unless you have a snow theme. And if you do have a snow theme, you should certainly run it!
 
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@Velrun
https://cubecobra.com/cube/playtest/zmqw

3 of each common, 2 of each uncommon, 1 of each R/M. Super incomplete, but the draft format is set up as 11C 3U 1R+. Your post about retail stuff got me thinking if my Pokemon idea should be set up as a set rather than a cube. This is a test of concept. There's way too much removal, themes are barely fleshed out, but it seems obvious to me that it will work pretty well.

Basically the layout so far was I looked at a pauper cube, got bored, and transferred in a bunch of stuff from one of my Eldrazi lists. Left out anything expensive (Eldrazi titans) because the density of commons seems like a good opportunity to keep this kind of list budget. Expensive cards are likely to be power outliers, anyways.

EDIT: The list is blacker now.
Thank you Brad <3

I think I have settled for a low-powered format but not retail low and structure. Mayhaps I want 2 rares, 4 uncommons and 9 commons in each pack.
 
Thank you Brad <3
Sorry for the black update lol. I realized after doing it that it makes it less applicable to everyone else.
I think I have settled for a low-powered format but not retail low and structure. Mayhaps I want 2 rares, 4 uncommons and 9 commons in each pack.
It definitely felt a little lacking with all the commons.

Another cool option would be some sort of special slot like TSP had. Maybe an old frame card, land slot, if you went with a set/plane you could do a card outside the plane, SLD card if you want to flex some art. Something like that. It gets into the issue of more sorting, so something like old frame is nice because it would stand out.

The commons also got a bit repetitive, so maybe increasing the pool wouldn't be a bad idea, but it comes with the drawback of having to haul around a lot more cards.

The commons being in multiples was definitely cool. Wild Mongrel x3 sets up a lot of stuff. GR Madness would slot in no problem, for example. I bet you could figure out a format with 10 pretty weird archetypes.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
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So which of us is Pemmin?
 
Certainly not me; I am not Riptide enough even though this is my favorite page on the internet.

I nominate @Onderzeeboot because he is always here, acts like a true Riptide, constructe cubes like a true Riptide and even had a snappy comment to Jason that matches the flavor text on Stifle.
 
I just had a horrible realization.

It's entirely possible that we'll see a reprint of the Urza lands in the Brothers' War set coming next year.

Tron. In Standard.
 
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