General Elegance in cube card selection

[Dom Harvey]

My biggest issue with Anger of the Gods is that it shuts down reanimator strategies in a colour that relies on small bodies to enable said strategies (Goblin Welder, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, and Feldon of the Third Path). I don't think Radiant Flames is winning many elegant contests, but it's been a hit over here, and I see it as being pretty low on the complexity scale.

Actually, developing a complexity scale might be an even better usage of this thread.. But I assume we're going to need a lot more posts before it begins to emerge.

idk if this is such a big concern, my decks that want the red reanimation creatures don't necessarily want a sweeper like that in the MD, and you usually can't/won't get those creatures back into play from your GY anyhow

 

[RavebornMuse]

idk if this is such a big concern, my decks that want the red reanimation creatures don't necessarily want a sweeper like that in the MD, and you usually can't/won't get those creatures back into play from your GY anyhow

I typically pair either or for Alesha or Feldon shenanigans, in which case there are plentiful routes of recursion. Unearth is something I've splashed for many, many times, to say nothing of things like Life // Death. I'm always happy to recur a recursion engine (although in all fairness, I get Feldon back waaaay more often than Alesha, who is rarely much of a "reanimator" tool due to all the conditionality). Personally I don't feel the need to give red exile effects, as it's already a strong enough colour and typically fighting very successfully for Coolest Colour Award. As such, I'm happy to let white be fun police on that front, to incentivize its play a bit more.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Opinion on energy, in terms of elegance.

I can add green and red energy makers with little issue of the mechanic feeling vestigial, since they are connected to creatures that act as their own energy dump, and the use of energy adds +1 +1 counters, which synergizes with the G/W counter lords from Khans. The GWR color shard works really well together, and seems well positioned to be solidified with the next set.

The problem is with blue:





As these are cards that just produce energy, but offer no outlet of their own. Glimmer, in particular, I really like, but is very susceptible to ending up in decks where its producing energy, but there is no outlet, or potential for an outlet. It makes the mechanic feel parasitic, but in terms of elegance, rather than being poison.

Running energy in blue seems to work best in a more aggressive RUG deck, but thats it.

Should I keep energy out of blue, and focus instead on the GWR shard and the overlay with counters? Even if there wasn't a risk for inelegance, from a balancing perspective, should I deliberately deny blue the ability to directly participate in such a potentially powerful synergy?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Opinion on energy, in terms of elegance.

Should I keep energy out of blue, and focus instead on the GWR shard and the overlay with counters? Even if there wasn't a risk for inelegance, from a balancing perspective, should I deliberately deny blue the ability to directly participate in such a potentially powerful synergy?

Is there a way for you to provide Aether Hubs to players? Maybe from the basic land box, or from the utility land draft? That would neatly solve your problem imo.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I don't do a ULD and prefer to change the card population before considering changing draft structure or rules.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Fair enough. It was just an idea

 

[CML]

If we're going to go to value town, at least make the trip there more engaging than just tapping 5 lands.

I'm also a fan of 5-drops where you can draft around them without much effort, tap the lands, and then just never lose the game. It's almost like these cards work well together (and are good with Cloudblazer, a card I'd never consider for Cube chiefly because it's gold.)

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I'm also a fan of 5-drops where you can draft around them without much effort, tap the lands, and then just never lose the game. It's almost like these cards work well together (and are good with Cloudblazer, a card I'd never consider for Cube chiefly because it's gold.)

I don't actually like etb effects very much at this point, and think the etb deck is a fallacy, but if we're going to go down that route might as well make the best of it.

 

[japahn]

This Pro Tour was great to watch. After a long time of midrange-fest in standard, we have a dominant aggro deck. The lack of diversity wasn't even an issue to me - I liked seeing the different sideboard strategies, lines of play and opportunities for bluffing.

The lower complexity of the cards played in Ramunap Red made it much easier for commentators and viewers to understand what was going on. Yam's misplay would not have been that appalling had there been a huge decision tree on the table. His ultra aggressive play in the previous turns would also not necessarily be noticed and set up the stage for the finale.


Unrelated: it's not a new article, but is has very interesting points relevant to this thread.
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/natas...psychology-03282013-understanding-complexity/

 

[shamizy]

It feels like a kind of poetic justice that after slowly peeling and slowrolling his own draw steps for like eight turns that Yam would fuck up tand rush through he most important turn of the game.