"Fast" multiplayer cube
- Thread starter Nanonox
- Start date
@dbs That deck is amazing! Fastbond seems like the key piece to give it all the engines the explosiveness they need to go off hard.
Win Cons
You know, now that I am actively looking at more storm type decks for my cube, Witherbloom Apprentice makes sense again as does Quandrix Apprentice.
What I am on the fence about is Guttersnipe. In my meta he is likely to bring a big target on your head if played early and casually play some spells. Which means it would be more of a finisher type card where you try to untap with it and go off then. Maybe something like Firebrand Archer brings less heat and it is in a less contested spot in the curve. Plus, it's not limited to spells.
Versatile Green spell support
To further enable this in Green, you folks are right, Green Sun's Zenith and Finale of Devastation look like important pieces both as tutors and spells which also go into any Green creature heavy builds. Now that Abundant Harvest is printed for real, it's time I included it too.
This means I will need to make some really tough cuts from my Green section!
Some contenders:
Evolutionary Leap: Leap is there as a way to grind out value in the face of removal or with tokens. Green isn't a big sacrifice color, so I probably don't need it badly. I've actually been thinking that I could use another colorless sacrifice outlet, so removing this would be ok.
Verdurous Gearhulk: Gearhulk was a plant to help random RG Welder decks pop up, but it is absolutely not necessary and might be revisited when we have more Green artifact cards. It's a fine card on it's own, but I don't have the synergies to make it pop.
Polukranos, World Eater: Polukranos is well loved in our group and a nice mana sink. Probably the least likely to get cut considering our preferences.
Bramble Sovereign: Sovereign has a really high ceiling if left alone and the floor of a 4/4 for 4 is ok. Come to think of it, it's the type of target I'd like to keep as a build around especially if I add 2 tutors to Green.
Questing Beast: Not really married to Questing Beast. It's big, fast and deals with walkers, but it's also so wordy and messy that I have no problem cutting it.
So I guess I've argued for the following changes
Out -> In
->
->
->
I'd also like to add Goblin Anarchomancer as a "mana rock" for both storm and stompy decks.
Thoughts?
Win Cons
You know, now that I am actively looking at more storm type decks for my cube, Witherbloom Apprentice makes sense again as does Quandrix Apprentice.
What I am on the fence about is Guttersnipe. In my meta he is likely to bring a big target on your head if played early and casually play some spells. Which means it would be more of a finisher type card where you try to untap with it and go off then. Maybe something like Firebrand Archer brings less heat and it is in a less contested spot in the curve. Plus, it's not limited to spells.
Versatile Green spell support
To further enable this in Green, you folks are right, Green Sun's Zenith and Finale of Devastation look like important pieces both as tutors and spells which also go into any Green creature heavy builds. Now that Abundant Harvest is printed for real, it's time I included it too.
This means I will need to make some really tough cuts from my Green section!
Some contenders:
Evolutionary Leap: Leap is there as a way to grind out value in the face of removal or with tokens. Green isn't a big sacrifice color, so I probably don't need it badly. I've actually been thinking that I could use another colorless sacrifice outlet, so removing this would be ok.
Verdurous Gearhulk: Gearhulk was a plant to help random RG Welder decks pop up, but it is absolutely not necessary and might be revisited when we have more Green artifact cards. It's a fine card on it's own, but I don't have the synergies to make it pop.
Polukranos, World Eater: Polukranos is well loved in our group and a nice mana sink. Probably the least likely to get cut considering our preferences.
Bramble Sovereign: Sovereign has a really high ceiling if left alone and the floor of a 4/4 for 4 is ok. Come to think of it, it's the type of target I'd like to keep as a build around especially if I add 2 tutors to Green.
Questing Beast: Not really married to Questing Beast. It's big, fast and deals with walkers, but it's also so wordy and messy that I have no problem cutting it.
So I guess I've argued for the following changes
Out -> In
-> -> -> I'd also like to add Goblin Anarchomancer as a "mana rock" for both storm and stompy decks.
Thoughts?
Like the changes. If you are specifically supporting "stormy" decks in those colors, the Anarchomancer is a solid option for inclusion. What spells are actually making up the "storm" turns? Do you have an example RGx storm deck from your cube that you are looking to support? The example you posted above is UBR is why I ask.
That's a really good question in regards to RG. The "storm" turn cards are Thousand-Year Storm and Professor Onyx.
This means that I am looking at Temur or Jund storm rather than straight RG.
An example I drafted recently.
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It isn't a storm deck per se, however it does get to loot many cards and recur them via the Witnesses or Loam/W&6. All those lands are then used as mana or cards with Cobra, Provisionner, Tracker, Exploration. The mana can be used on Krasis or Devil's Play and all the card draw can be used to trigger Thassa's Oracle. Lastly Titania can be a secondary win condition with Fetches + Gargadon.
The deck is a little light on Red, but Underworld Breach would have been rock solid here as would some Faithless Lootings or Wheel of Fortune. Finale of Devastation would have played nicely here since it could recur the Oracle from the GY or fetch it from the deck. Plus with all the mana, x=10 seems more probable.
I'm probably using storm loosely, I just mean a deck capable of explosive turns and with a high spell velocity.
Anarchomancer benefits both of these situations, especially with things like underworld breach, so seems like a very decent include. Looking at this deck, it pushes 7 card to 1CMC and another 6 to 2CMC. That can enable some pretty big explosiveness, especially when you are casting and recurring things potentially multiple times.
That, or become Witness number 3 (4 with eternalize mode on Timeless), or get Uro into the equation, or or or
I drafted a fun Boros deck that prompted me to reevaluate a slot I hadn't considered touching.
So the cool thing here is that my Boros deck can actually use Kenrith and Golos thanks to the treasures, Chromatic Star and random Triomes. Little cheat/reanimator support too with Feldon, Sneak and ECD. And lastly decent draw/filtering for a Boros deck with Showdown and Land Tax fueling the Faithless Lootings/Pyromancer.
So the card I am now considering is
It would replace Thundermaw Hellkite as the hasty dragon in the 5 drop slot. It's worse in an aggro deck, but better elsewhere I believe, which is a trade off I think I am ok with. It also can set up some crazy turns in the right deck, something which the Hellkite can't do.
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So the cool thing here is that my Boros deck can actually use Kenrith and Golos thanks to the treasures, Chromatic Star and random Triomes. Little cheat/reanimator support too with Feldon, Sneak and ECD. And lastly decent draw/filtering for a Boros deck with Showdown and Land Tax fueling the Faithless Lootings/Pyromancer.
So the card I am now considering is
It would replace Thundermaw Hellkite as the hasty dragon in the 5 drop slot. It's worse in an aggro deck, but better elsewhere I believe, which is a trade off I think I am ok with. It also can set up some crazy turns in the right deck, something which the Hellkite can't do.
I'm narrowing down the broad archetypes I want to support.
I have these in mind (capital letter means heavy support, lower case means slight support).
Lands
Gwrub
Spells
URWBg
Artifacts
RUwb
ETB
WUg
Sacrifice
BRwg
GY
GBURw
The color distribution isn't perfect, but I don't really care. The cards just aren't there at my power level in some colors.
In reality, White gets shafted a bit and is less likely to show up.
What I am struggling with right now is getting the sacrifice theme to blend into more decks/colors.
By that I mean combine with different archetypes for more synergy.
Take this Sultai deck for example
It combines the GY with spells matter cards as well as a small Lands package.
For sacrifice, there are a few cards that bridge gaps like Greater Gargadon playing well in Lands. Plumb the Forbidden in spells. Woe Strider andSyr Konrad, the Grim in GY.
I could see myself adding
Since it plays well with pretty much everything. I've considered cards like Angelic Purge, but they seem too low powered.
Any recommendations to opening up the archetype to more than just creature matter?
I have these in mind (capital letter means heavy support, lower case means slight support).
Lands
Gwrub
Spells
URWBg
Artifacts
RUwb
ETB
WUg
Sacrifice
BRwg
GY
GBURw
The color distribution isn't perfect, but I don't really care. The cards just aren't there at my power level in some colors.
In reality, White gets shafted a bit and is less likely to show up.
What I am struggling with right now is getting the sacrifice theme to blend into more decks/colors.
By that I mean combine with different archetypes for more synergy.
Take this Sultai deck for example
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It combines the GY with spells matter cards as well as a small Lands package.
For sacrifice, there are a few cards that bridge gaps like Greater Gargadon playing well in Lands. Plumb the Forbidden in spells. Woe Strider andSyr Konrad, the Grim in GY.
I could see myself adding
Since it plays well with pretty much everything. I've considered cards like Angelic Purge, but they seem too low powered.
Any recommendations to opening up the archetype to more than just creature matter?
i get a lot of mileage out of Chromatic Star as a colorless cantrip to help decks in general smooth their draws, cast their splashes, hit Delirium, etc etc.
it also has applications in the Trinket Mage toolbox, or can be sacrificed to Pia&Kiran or Breya since you still draw the card regardless of what you sac it to.
i currently run 5 of this card at 224 size and am very happy with the role it fills as a decent glue card with higher priority in some synergy packages. if you have effects in your sac package that let you sac artifacts + creatures, you can probably get mileage from it too
it also has applications in the Trinket Mage toolbox, or can be sacrificed to Pia&Kiran or Breya since you still draw the card regardless of what you sac it to.
i currently run 5 of this card at 224 size and am very happy with the role it fills as a decent glue card with higher priority in some synergy packages. if you have effects in your sac package that let you sac artifacts + creatures, you can probably get mileage from it too
I actually have a couple of Stars in my list and you are right: they are really solid.
I could see myself replacing Urza’sand Mishra’s Baubles with a couple more.
I was looking back at some old drafts and I saw a few “off-color” (BG and BU) decks using Marionette Master and various artifacts. Really makes me want to include it again as a sacrifice/artifact payoff. Tough decision!
I could see myself replacing Urza’sand Mishra’s Baubles with a couple more.
I was looking back at some old drafts and I saw a few “off-color” (BG and BU) decks using Marionette Master and various artifacts. Really makes me want to include it again as a sacrifice/artifact payoff. Tough decision!
Drafted my friend's cube over the weekend and it was a lot of fun. I had a BG splash blue lands deck that had some explosive starts. I was able to play with or see a few cards I don't have in my list:
Mox Diamond played very well, I had a Crucible of Worlds to go with it and that led to some solid ramp + value. However, it wasn't as glorious as I remember it. The 2 for one aspect was a real cost as there were hands where I had the Mox + 3 lands which I kept, but then I was stuck at 2 lands for some time.
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Grist was also very strong and did a number when I had it on turn 2 (thanks to the Mox). The +1 helped mill my lands for Loam + Crucible and gave me chump or sacrifice fodder. I also had Volrath's Stronghold to recur it which felt filthy. I was worried about the complexity of the creature/planeswalker part, but it wasn't a factor this time around.
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Bident of Thassa drew a lot of cards. Once again, finding an open opponent isn't too hard when you have multiple. The person with the Bident also had a bunch of flying tokens for maximum value. Despite being powered, I think their cube is a little slower than mine because of the higher curve. This means that taking turn 4 for a do nothing card is easier. I'd love to play Bident as a complement to Edric, Spymaster of Trest, but not sure if it is worth it. Maybe Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar fits what I want better, even though it is more vulnerable and less explosive in the amount of cards drawn.
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Other than that, I saw Fallen Shinobi do its thing a few times and I don't believe it's the type of play patterns I want in my cube, even if it is powerful. Same thing with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista.
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I'm not sure what to cut to include Grist. I already have a ton of Golgari slots, the most expendable being Fiend Artisan maybe? Grist hits a lot of similar notes being a sacrifice outlet that cares about the GY (ultimate) or fuels self-mill.
For Mox Diamond, I can see myself cutting one of the following: The Immortal Sun or Elixir of Immortality (it's a bad day to be immortal!).
Up next, DnD, AFR includes and some tough cuts!
Mox Diamond played very well, I had a Crucible of Worlds to go with it and that led to some solid ramp + value. However, it wasn't as glorious as I remember it. The 2 for one aspect was a real cost as there were hands where I had the Mox + 3 lands which I kept, but then I was stuck at 2 lands for some time.
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Grist was also very strong and did a number when I had it on turn 2 (thanks to the Mox). The +1 helped mill my lands for Loam + Crucible and gave me chump or sacrifice fodder. I also had Volrath's Stronghold to recur it which felt filthy. I was worried about the complexity of the creature/planeswalker part, but it wasn't a factor this time around.
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Bident of Thassa drew a lot of cards. Once again, finding an open opponent isn't too hard when you have multiple. The person with the Bident also had a bunch of flying tokens for maximum value. Despite being powered, I think their cube is a little slower than mine because of the higher curve. This means that taking turn 4 for a do nothing card is easier. I'd love to play Bident as a complement to Edric, Spymaster of Trest, but not sure if it is worth it. Maybe Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar fits what I want better, even though it is more vulnerable and less explosive in the amount of cards drawn.
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Other than that, I saw Fallen Shinobi do its thing a few times and I don't believe it's the type of play patterns I want in my cube, even if it is powerful. Same thing with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista.
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I'm not sure what to cut to include Grist. I already have a ton of Golgari slots, the most expendable being Fiend Artisan maybe? Grist hits a lot of similar notes being a sacrifice outlet that cares about the GY (ultimate) or fuels self-mill.
For Mox Diamond, I can see myself cutting one of the following: The Immortal Sun or Elixir of Immortality (it's a bad day to be immortal!).
Up next, DnD, AFR includes and some tough cuts!
I'll take a page from Erik's blog and mention some cards I am either unhappy or ambivalent about.
Multicolor
The trend here is that these cards are good, but don't support the themes I am trying to promote. Geist of Saint-Traft is a 3 mana attacker of which I have plenty.
Hostage Taker is a good removal spell, but casting the card you exile is far from a guarantee with 3-4 other players.
Venerable Warsinger is a cool Sun Titan variant, but it is very wordy and once again at the awkward 3 CMC.
Finally, I think Niv-Mizzet Reborn is too much. I don't want someone just taking all the guild cards and warping the draft. I think Golos, Tireless Pilgrim + Kenrith, the Returned King are enough of a 5 color archetype for now.
I was thinking I could swap these cards out for some of the new DnD: AFR cards. Specifically:
I'm thinking that the creature lands will help Boros aggro in a few ways:
1. Recover from a wrath. Between these two lands and Needle Spires in the guild section, you might not be safe even if no creatures are left on the board.
2. Give the aggressive colors a mana sink. Aggressive Boros decks tend to run out of cards, so these are like an extra spell, but one that is taking up a land slot in the deck.
As for Teleportation Circle, I can't figure out if I want it in addition to Thassa, Deep-Dwelling or instead. Between these two, Restoration Angel and Panharmonicon, if feels like too many 4 CMC blink permanents. I'm leaning of cutting the God so that White has a clearer blink identity that isn't upstaged by a Blue card.
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Colorless
The Immortal Sun was requested by one of our players, but it doesn't really fit into any archetypes of the cube except maybe Tinker/Goblin Welder decks which he usually doesn't play. He also famously loves Planeswalkers, so...
The card can still be found in my friend's cube, so it won't be totally lost.
Elixir of Immortality is a fail safe for the self-mill decks or a recursion piece meant for UR decks. However, I have since added Underworld Breach which totally changes the game for Izzet decks.
Spawning Pit is just a 2 CMC sacrifice outlet. It's perfectly fine, but I to trade my creatures for a different ressource, like mana for example! I want to keep this slot's function of sacrificing creatures though.
Instead of these, I am eyeing:
I talked about the Mox in the above post, ties into lands and helps broken plays with a real draw back.
Paradox Engine, I recommended in another thread and realized that it could fit in my cube too! This is definitely explosive and plays with my 6 artifact mana rocks and/or 7 Green 1CMC dorks. What I wonder is, is that enough to justify playing the Engine?
In Blue I have Emry, Urza, Baby Jace and Enclave Cryptologist which can get value from the Engine as well.
Typing this out, makes the Engine a mostly Simic card, but one that fits a very specific deck. Probably too narrow, no?
If I ever do pull the trigger on Grim Monolith, this should come back into consideration.
Phyrexian Altar would replace Pit. 3 CMC isn't ideal, but converting creatures into mana leads to bigger turns which is a goal of mine.
Ashnod's Altar is a consideration too. Not sure how to decide which one I want.
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With Mox Diamond entering the fray, I was thinking I could add these
as tie ins between artifacts and lands decks. Bauble would likely replace a mana rock (Everflowing Chalice?). It's just as playable as a mana rock IMO, but also fits into landfall decks.
Urza's Saga could be a sweet Golos/Reclaimer/KotR pick up that is easily recurred in Green. With Tireless Tracker, Gilded Goose and Tireless Provisionner the constructs could be huge! Cutting the Chalice above makes sense too as the Bauble would be another hit off the Saga.
So basically:
Out -> In
Spawning Pit -> Phyrexian Altar
Everflowing Chalice -> Wayfarer's Bauble
The Immortal Sun -> Mox Diamond
Elixir of Immortality -> Urza's Saga
Any thoughts/comments? Particularly interested on whether
1. I am off on Paradox Engine
2. Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar? (I'll actually probably just make a fight thread)
3. Does the artifact + land tie in package make sense?
Multicolor
The trend here is that these cards are good, but don't support the themes I am trying to promote. Geist of Saint-Traft is a 3 mana attacker of which I have plenty.
Hostage Taker is a good removal spell, but casting the card you exile is far from a guarantee with 3-4 other players.
Venerable Warsinger is a cool Sun Titan variant, but it is very wordy and once again at the awkward 3 CMC.
Finally, I think Niv-Mizzet Reborn is too much. I don't want someone just taking all the guild cards and warping the draft. I think Golos, Tireless Pilgrim + Kenrith, the Returned King are enough of a 5 color archetype for now.
I was thinking I could swap these cards out for some of the new DnD: AFR cards. Specifically:
I'm thinking that the creature lands will help Boros aggro in a few ways:
1. Recover from a wrath. Between these two lands and Needle Spires in the guild section, you might not be safe even if no creatures are left on the board.
2. Give the aggressive colors a mana sink. Aggressive Boros decks tend to run out of cards, so these are like an extra spell, but one that is taking up a land slot in the deck.
As for Teleportation Circle, I can't figure out if I want it in addition to Thassa, Deep-Dwelling or instead. Between these two, Restoration Angel and Panharmonicon, if feels like too many 4 CMC blink permanents. I'm leaning of cutting the God so that White has a clearer blink identity that isn't upstaged by a Blue card.
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Colorless
The Immortal Sun was requested by one of our players, but it doesn't really fit into any archetypes of the cube except maybe Tinker/Goblin Welder decks which he usually doesn't play. He also famously loves Planeswalkers, so...
The card can still be found in my friend's cube, so it won't be totally lost.
Elixir of Immortality is a fail safe for the self-mill decks or a recursion piece meant for UR decks. However, I have since added Underworld Breach which totally changes the game for Izzet decks.
Spawning Pit is just a 2 CMC sacrifice outlet. It's perfectly fine, but I to trade my creatures for a different ressource, like mana for example! I want to keep this slot's function of sacrificing creatures though.
Instead of these, I am eyeing:
I talked about the Mox in the above post, ties into lands and helps broken plays with a real draw back.
Paradox Engine, I recommended in another thread and realized that it could fit in my cube too! This is definitely explosive and plays with my 6 artifact mana rocks and/or 7 Green 1CMC dorks. What I wonder is, is that enough to justify playing the Engine?
In Blue I have Emry, Urza, Baby Jace and Enclave Cryptologist which can get value from the Engine as well.
Typing this out, makes the Engine a mostly Simic card, but one that fits a very specific deck. Probably too narrow, no?
If I ever do pull the trigger on Grim Monolith, this should come back into consideration.
Phyrexian Altar would replace Pit. 3 CMC isn't ideal, but converting creatures into mana leads to bigger turns which is a goal of mine.
Ashnod's Altar is a consideration too. Not sure how to decide which one I want.
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With Mox Diamond entering the fray, I was thinking I could add these
as tie ins between artifacts and lands decks. Bauble would likely replace a mana rock (Everflowing Chalice?). It's just as playable as a mana rock IMO, but also fits into landfall decks.
Urza's Saga could be a sweet Golos/Reclaimer/KotR pick up that is easily recurred in Green. With Tireless Tracker, Gilded Goose and Tireless Provisionner the constructs could be huge! Cutting the Chalice above makes sense too as the Bauble would be another hit off the Saga.
So basically:
Out -> In
Spawning Pit -> Phyrexian Altar
Everflowing Chalice -> Wayfarer's Bauble
The Immortal Sun -> Mox Diamond
Elixir of Immortality -> Urza's Saga
Any thoughts/comments? Particularly interested on whether
1. I am off on Paradox Engine
2. Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar? (I'll actually probably just make a fight thread)
3. Does the artifact + land tie in package make sense?
I'm increasingly of the opinion that the 3 mana value slot on gold cards is a design trap.
First, there are already more interesting 3-drops than 2-drops. It's by far the most congested cost in cube if not Magic as a whole. The vast, vast majority of interesting effects and stats start at that number so we all end up running more cards in it that we should. And, whether we like it or not, 2-drops are far more necessary than 3-drops.
Second, multicolour cards are heavily skewed towards 1AB costs. Even if your monocolor sections are fine, it's very easy to overload your multicolour sections with them.
Lastly, we run a lot of 2-drops that aren't actually 2-drops or that prevent you from playing a 3-drop one turn later. Snapcaster Mage is the most obvious example.
Hence, I've started giving a hard look to any multicoloured 3-drop that isn't playing a big role in my cube. But, really, I think you can cut all those cards and not miss them.
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I don't like Thassa but it might be better to keep one of the effects in blue.
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I like all the other changes and think the lands/artifacts crossover works very well. Only two thoughts:
1) I really like Elixir of Immortality and it's an interesting target for Urza's Saga
2) Paradox Engine is cool but it is very much a Simic card. It seems too narrow to justify a slot in the cube if you are not going full combo.
First, there are already more interesting 3-drops than 2-drops. It's by far the most congested cost in cube if not Magic as a whole. The vast, vast majority of interesting effects and stats start at that number so we all end up running more cards in it that we should. And, whether we like it or not, 2-drops are far more necessary than 3-drops.
Second, multicolour cards are heavily skewed towards 1AB costs. Even if your monocolor sections are fine, it's very easy to overload your multicolour sections with them.
Lastly, we run a lot of 2-drops that aren't actually 2-drops or that prevent you from playing a 3-drop one turn later. Snapcaster Mage is the most obvious example.
Hence, I've started giving a hard look to any multicoloured 3-drop that isn't playing a big role in my cube. But, really, I think you can cut all those cards and not miss them.
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I don't like Thassa but it might be better to keep one of the effects in blue.
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I like all the other changes and think the lands/artifacts crossover works very well. Only two thoughts:
1) I really like Elixir of Immortality and it's an interesting target for Urza's Saga
2) Paradox Engine is cool but it is very much a Simic card. It seems too narrow to justify a slot in the cube if you are not going full combo.
You make a great point Erik. The 3 drop slot is super congested often taking the place of a 2 drop.
Looking at my list, I still have a lot of 3 MV cards in my multicolor section, but they all feel valuable, except for Thief of Sanity which was a request from a drafter. I believe Green can slack a little in that department in my cube because of the 6 1 MV dorks.
Following up on my last update with the lands/artifacts package, I drafted this deck which is exactly what I was hoping for.
A GW midrange token deck that has a land subtheme. What I like is that Urza's Saga (US) is looking really good in this shell. It works as a repeatable token maker that also fetches the best card in the deck Skullclamp. US is not only easy to find with KotR, Weathered Wayfarer and Golos, but also easy to recur with Sun Titan and Ramunap Excavator.
The list is a little light on artifacts other than US and Tireless Tracker, but I don't think that will impact how it plays out. Rhys and Chariot can also take over a game as copying constructs gets out of hand fast.
I've been laying out my more simplified archetypes and realized that Bramble Sovereign doesn't really fit any. Instead I will be adding another token payoff as I feel I am a little short (Esika's Chariot, Garruk Wildspeaker and Earthshaker Giant. 3 contenders:
Ramp or card draw. My ramp suite is definitely not lacking. However, Earthcraft and Gaea's Cradle are incredibly powerful and could fuel out those Secure the Wastes, Devil's Play or Pest Infestations. Cradle would be the better fit with the land tutoring available. My reserve is that it is very feast or famine and that I am not ramping to anything crazy like Eldrazis. So it's probably overkill even if it is an exciting card to draft.
Toski is less risky and card draw is usually more valuable in longer, drawn out games. It is also a nice complement to Edric, Spymaster of Trest. I'm just not a fan of having another 4 casting cost token card in Green (2 Garruks and the Chariot).
Do any of you have cool Urza's Saga decks drafted in your cubes?
Looking at my list, I still have a lot of 3 MV cards in my multicolor section, but they all feel valuable, except for Thief of Sanity which was a request from a drafter. I believe Green can slack a little in that department in my cube because of the 6 1 MV dorks.
Following up on my last update with the lands/artifacts package, I drafted this deck which is exactly what I was hoping for.
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A GW midrange token deck that has a land subtheme. What I like is that Urza's Saga (US) is looking really good in this shell. It works as a repeatable token maker that also fetches the best card in the deck Skullclamp. US is not only easy to find with KotR, Weathered Wayfarer and Golos, but also easy to recur with Sun Titan and Ramunap Excavator.
The list is a little light on artifacts other than US and Tireless Tracker, but I don't think that will impact how it plays out. Rhys and Chariot can also take over a game as copying constructs gets out of hand fast.
I've been laying out my more simplified archetypes and realized that Bramble Sovereign doesn't really fit any. Instead I will be adding another token payoff as I feel I am a little short (Esika's Chariot, Garruk Wildspeaker and Earthshaker Giant. 3 contenders:
Ramp or card draw. My ramp suite is definitely not lacking. However, Earthcraft and Gaea's Cradle are incredibly powerful and could fuel out those Secure the Wastes, Devil's Play or Pest Infestations. Cradle would be the better fit with the land tutoring available. My reserve is that it is very feast or famine and that I am not ramping to anything crazy like Eldrazis. So it's probably overkill even if it is an exciting card to draft.
Toski is less risky and card draw is usually more valuable in longer, drawn out games. It is also a nice complement to Edric, Spymaster of Trest. I'm just not a fan of having another 4 casting cost token card in Green (2 Garruks and the Chariot).
Do any of you have cool Urza's Saga decks drafted in your cubes?
Gaea's Cradle is not fear or famine, it's a 10 course buffet. It will easily produce three, four or five mana and run away with the game. I believe it would be the best card in your list by far and the only way for it not to be is you to abandon fairness in your cube. I mean, it's a land, it costs extremely little to add it to your deck compared to how much it does.
If you want a powerful enabler, Earthcraft is already broken enough and it has more play to it. It enables some funky lines of play and is fun to use. I run both it and Chord of Calling to support token decks.
I don't like Toski for the reason you mention. It's yet another 4 mana card and you probably have a good bunch of them. Either way, I think you are doing fine with Skullclamp, Earthcraft and a bunch of other strong token payoffs.
If you want a powerful enabler, Earthcraft is already broken enough and it has more play to it. It enables some funky lines of play and is fun to use. I run both it and Chord of Calling to support token decks.
I don't like Toski for the reason you mention. It's yet another 4 mana card and you probably have a good bunch of them. Either way, I think you are doing fine with Skullclamp, Earthcraft and a bunch of other strong token payoffs.
You make a good argument Erik in favor of Earthcraft. I will be trying it out over Bramble Sovereign, thanks!
While in Green, here are some cards I wouldn't mind replacing for a better fit
I've never been disapointed by the Recruiter, it just doesn't fit any themes. It's either a mana sink or a ramp card.
As for the Command, it's too narrow for what I want. In contrast, I've been very happy with Pest Infestation which has huge amounts of utility and scales as the game progresses.
Some cards I am considering
For some reason, I just realized that the Invader is essentially a 2 drop that creates a colorless treasure token that has upside as a creature.
Looking at @inscho's cube, I saw Turntimber Sower which fits all 3 main themes in Green: tokens, lands and GY matters. The baseline of a 3/3 for 3 is decent, but I am afraid it is not obvious enough for my drafters and that the sac ability will distract them into thinking the card sucks.
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In Red, I want to add a few more effects to fill and payoff the GY. One swap I have been considering is
in for
The Titan is obviously solid, but a little bland for what I am trying to do in my cube (overlapping archetype support using powerful cards). The Cavalier on the other hand does just that. Fills the GY with his ETB, mana sink that pumps tokens, ties into the lands archetype and has a death trigger that hits all opponents. I really hate the mana cost, but I think it is worth it in this context.
Before going on with the rest of Red, I've noticed that my Izzet section could use another payoff to reward drafters for going into that pair.
I am eyeing both
They reward you for doing actions that are already happening in that color pair. Rielle is cheaper, explicitly says instants and sorceries to guide the player, but focusing on discarding instead of drawing is likely to throw off my drafters. The God mentions drawing, has a mana sink and ends games with hasty tokens. However, the God is 6 mana in a guild where I already have Thousand-Year Storm.
I have these guys that are expendable
Laelia is powerful as a growing, card drawing aggro threat, but that's just it. She is just an aggro beater with not much subtilty.
Captain is similarly a card drawing dude, but there isn't much synergy to be had. I am not opposed to having basic solid creatures, but these are definitely the first to go in case of improvements.
Lastly, the Berserker is a nice 2 drop with late game relevance. Not much else to say.
I am open to suggestions here!
While in Green, here are some cards I wouldn't mind replacing for a better fit
I've never been disapointed by the Recruiter, it just doesn't fit any themes. It's either a mana sink or a ramp card.
As for the Command, it's too narrow for what I want. In contrast, I've been very happy with Pest Infestation which has huge amounts of utility and scales as the game progresses.
Some cards I am considering
For some reason, I just realized that the Invader is essentially a 2 drop that creates a colorless treasure token that has upside as a creature.
Looking at @inscho's cube, I saw Turntimber Sower which fits all 3 main themes in Green: tokens, lands and GY matters. The baseline of a 3/3 for 3 is decent, but I am afraid it is not obvious enough for my drafters and that the sac ability will distract them into thinking the card sucks.
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In Red, I want to add a few more effects to fill and payoff the GY. One swap I have been considering is
in for The Titan is obviously solid, but a little bland for what I am trying to do in my cube (overlapping archetype support using powerful cards). The Cavalier on the other hand does just that. Fills the GY with his ETB, mana sink that pumps tokens, ties into the lands archetype and has a death trigger that hits all opponents. I really hate the
mana cost, but I think it is worth it in this context.Before going on with the rest of Red, I've noticed that my Izzet section could use another payoff to reward drafters for going into that pair.
I am eyeing both
They reward you for doing actions that are already happening in that color pair. Rielle is cheaper, explicitly says instants and sorceries to guide the player, but focusing on discarding instead of drawing is likely to throw off my drafters. The God mentions drawing, has a mana sink and ends games with hasty tokens. However, the God is 6 mana in a guild where I already have Thousand-Year Storm.
I have these guys that are expendable
Laelia is powerful as a growing, card drawing aggro threat, but that's just it. She is just an aggro beater with not much subtilty.
Captain is similarly a card drawing dude, but there isn't much synergy to be had. I am not opposed to having basic solid creatures, but these are definitely the first to go in case of improvements.
Lastly, the Berserker is a nice 2 drop with late game relevance. Not much else to say.
I am open to suggestions here!
some suggestions for red stuff to consider that i didn’t notice in your list:
DR Channeler seems like a slam dunk if you are looking for a graveyard card. it surveils often whether it’s online as a burninator or not and gives you a nice payoff for doing so.
Magmatic Channeler similarly seems like a nice graveyard engine for a multiplayer format where you can leave it up as a blocker, tap for value, then start beating down later on.
The other ones are just good cards that you may find more interesting than your current expendables. though i’d personally keep Laelia
DR Channeler seems like a slam dunk if you are looking for a graveyard card. it surveils often whether it’s online as a burninator or not and gives you a nice payoff for doing so.
Magmatic Channeler similarly seems like a nice graveyard engine for a multiplayer format where you can leave it up as a blocker, tap for value, then start beating down later on.
The other ones are just good cards that you may find more interesting than your current expendables. though i’d personally keep Laelia
Exactly what I was looking for, thanks.
I dismissed the DRC for it's wordinessand because of the "must attack clause" which is really annoying in MP. But maybe it does set up the GY well enough while also promoting spell velocity that it is worth it anyways. My drafters will adapt after seeing the card in play a bunch.
I also always forget about Abbot of Keral Keep, which plays well even if unexciting.
I had considered the Magmatic Channeler, but decided against it because
1. You need to tap it during your turn to play lands, creatures and sorceries which means it isn't doing its job at blocking.
2. It exiles the cards meaning you can lose a critical part of your deck.
I dismissed the DRC for it's wordinessand because of the "must attack clause" which is really annoying in MP. But maybe it does set up the GY well enough while also promoting spell velocity that it is worth it anyways. My drafters will adapt after seeing the card in play a bunch.
I also always forget about Abbot of Keral Keep, which plays well even if unexciting.
I had considered the Magmatic Channeler, but decided against it because
1. You need to tap it during your turn to play lands, creatures and sorceries which means it isn't doing its job at blocking.
2. It exiles the cards meaning you can lose a critical part of your deck.
It’s is not obvious and most will think it sucks. I run it’s mostly as a combo piece. It’s not something I’d recommend for most cubes
Abbot also exiles, and is really a 3 or 4 drop if you want to have a better chance of getting value of it. I've found it doesn't play as well as it looks like it should because of that.
If you like the repeatable tap-to-filter effect but don't like the way Channeler shakes out, dismissive pyromancer might be more up your alley?
EDIT: regarding verdant command, maybe
?In MP you should ahve a bit more time to get the kicker online, and I like all three effects individually too. I also like that you can do something sneaky like mess up a combat between two other people by having the defender gain life (Target player gains life)
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You know what, I do think the Inscription is cool, but the floor is so bad if your target gets removed in response. And with 3-4 opponents, it's not a risk I am willing to take. I think I would need an split second fight spell to play one. When they are attached to a body that is a different story though.
I have made a few changes however (In -> Out)
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The God is easy mode compared to Thousand-Year Storm. It's less sweet when it works, but it is more reliable. The goal here is to "force" my drafters to pick up cantrips (Gitaxian Probe) and cheap draw spells (Faithless Looting) to trigger the tokens ability. I would like to come back to the enchantment later on however.
With Storm out, free spells lose a bit of value. So in keeping with the Lands theme card and the newly added token card, Meloku makes sense. He is definitely fragile, but not that threatening making his chances of survival decent. I love evasive tokens to close out the game. My biggest worry other than his frailty is the almost infinite combo with [[Fastbond]], which boils down to pay 1 life, make a flyer.
I was also complaining that my sacrifice themes were isolated in the cube. So I am trying to remove the really solid Spawning Pit for another sacrifice outlet. The Pit converts creatures into ... more creatures. So the Altar providing a different ressource will hopefully open the possibilities.
This has me eyeing these cards:
Altar and Plunderer are a way to convert sacrifices into a different ressource to open the archetype up. While Pod is a classic that I had cut for online play, but would like to include again now that paper is more of a thing (might just replace Verdant Command with Pod. My Green curve is low enough!).
I have made a few changes however (In -> Out)
-> -> -> The God is easy mode compared to Thousand-Year Storm. It's less sweet when it works, but it is more reliable. The goal here is to "force" my drafters to pick up cantrips (Gitaxian Probe) and cheap draw spells (Faithless Looting) to trigger the tokens ability. I would like to come back to the enchantment later on however.
With Storm out, free spells lose a bit of value. So in keeping with the Lands theme card and the newly added token card, Meloku makes sense. He is definitely fragile, but not that threatening making his chances of survival decent. I love evasive tokens to close out the game. My biggest worry other than his frailty is the almost infinite combo with [[Fastbond]], which boils down to pay 1 life, make a flyer.
I was also complaining that my sacrifice themes were isolated in the cube. So I am trying to remove the really solid Spawning Pit for another sacrifice outlet. The Pit converts creatures into ... more creatures. So the Altar providing a different ressource will hopefully open the possibilities.
This has me eyeing these cards:
Altar and Plunderer are a way to convert sacrifices into a different ressource to open the archetype up. While Pod is a classic that I had cut for online play, but would like to include again now that paper is more of a thing (might just replace Verdant Command with Pod. My Green curve is low enough!).
Cheating into play strategies
Today I want to think out loud about cheating into play archetypes in my environment. More specifically, getting it to work in colors that are not Red or Black.
But before getting into that, what does a Rakdos cheat deck look like?
This is a pretty typical deck for my cube. Black offers Persist Dread Return, while Red's cheat suite is more permanent based and cares about artifacts with Daretti, Scrap Savant and Goblin Welder. This particular deck has a spells matter subtheme that churns out tokens to help stay alive. I think of these decks as control decks that can get their win cons into play early.
The important part to keep in mind is that in order for this strategy to be consistent in Red, you need a lot of your payoffs to be artifact creatures.
With my card choices, Blue and White are natural control colors, which means that incorporating some cheat into play would likely work well. And it does!
Why can't I get these decks to pop up in Izzet? I was looking for a deck to showcase the strategy and it turns out I cannot find one. I should be able to since Red has wraths, Blue has counters+draw and both can cheat out artifacts. Is it that other colors are stronger than what UR offers? Am I missing some enablers? I need an outside look!
Now onto my initial reason for writing this. Do any of you have a recommendation for a Green cheat card that would fit with the others (maybe to enable a Gruul or Golgari cheat deck)?
Now cards I am considering more seriously
Oath of Druids: It's rare that decks have very few creatures, but this fits with GY stuff very well. I think this would play more as a splash card in a non-Green deck, because of the amount of creatures in Green.
Selvala's Stampede: The upside might just be too much here. Plus it's at a spot in the curve where you could almost already cast your card. I do enjoy the voting aspect in MP.
See the Unwritten: 6 mana is more than what I'd want to pay for a cheat effect, but 2 big upsides:
1. Build around potential to get 2 creatures in a fair monsters deck.
2. Card is actually a GY dump (which I never noticed before).
I am actually leaning towards See the Unwritten for the multiple synergies it presents if I add a single card, but at the same time Oath and Stampede play really well together and could make an unique cheat package in Green. My fear is that Oath just rots in sideboards because of the extreme deckbuilding requirements.
Help!
Today I want to think out loud about cheating into play archetypes in my environment. More specifically, getting it to work in colors that are not Red or Black.
But before getting into that, what does a Rakdos cheat deck look like?
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This is a pretty typical deck for my cube. Black offers Persist Dread Return, while Red's cheat suite is more permanent based and cares about artifacts with Daretti, Scrap Savant and Goblin Welder. This particular deck has a spells matter subtheme that churns out tokens to help stay alive. I think of these decks as control decks that can get their win cons into play early.
The important part to keep in mind is that in order for this strategy to be consistent in Red, you need a lot of your payoffs to be artifact creatures.
With my card choices, Blue and White are natural control colors, which means that incorporating some cheat into play would likely work well. And it does!
Here are my enablers for cheating things into play in those colors
Here the artifacts being payoffs allow both Tinker and Dakkon to shine. I am playing with fire as the power level is high, but that is where my current design goals lie. ECD is cool because it's serviceable removal spell that doubles as support. Priest is an interesting one in the sense that it's an early reanimator that has late game value. Being a creature means Lurrus of the Dream-Den can abuse it, as can cards like Reveillark, Luminous Broodmoth, Unearth and more. You can self-mill it or discard it for later use as well if you don't need it early which gives it nice flexibility.
Here is an example Esper deck that showcases some of these cards:
Priest, Dakkon and Technique do the cheating, while you control the board with removal/wraths and walkers. Nothing too fancy, but a good example of what the decks look like. Sometimes you have a spells package with Sedgemoor With and Monastery Mentor serving as blockers, sometimes it's more artifact oriented with Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Urza, Lord High Artificier and Smothering Tithe.
Here the artifacts being payoffs allow both Tinker and Dakkon to shine. I am playing with fire as the power level is high, but that is where my current design goals lie. ECD is cool because it's serviceable removal spell that doubles as support. Priest is an interesting one in the sense that it's an early reanimator that has late game value. Being a creature means Lurrus of the Dream-Den can abuse it, as can cards like Reveillark, Luminous Broodmoth, Unearth and more. You can self-mill it or discard it for later use as well if you don't need it early which gives it nice flexibility.
Here is an example Esper deck that showcases some of these cards:
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Priest, Dakkon and Technique do the cheating, while you control the board with removal/wraths and walkers. Nothing too fancy, but a good example of what the decks look like. Sometimes you have a spells package with Sedgemoor With and Monastery Mentor serving as blockers, sometimes it's more artifact oriented with Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Urza, Lord High Artificier and Smothering Tithe.
Why can't I get these decks to pop up in Izzet? I was looking for a deck to showcase the strategy and it turns out I cannot find one. I should be able to since Red has wraths, Blue has counters+draw and both can cheat out artifacts. Is it that other colors are stronger than what UR offers? Am I missing some enablers? I need an outside look!
Now onto my initial reason for writing this. Do any of you have a recommendation for a Green cheat card that would fit with the others (maybe to enable a Gruul or Golgari cheat deck)?
Cards I considered, but ultimately dismissed:
Pattern of Rebirth: Love the sacrifice synergy, hate the aura more.
Defense of the Heart: Big payoff, but no synergy and tends to stall out the game as no one wants to play anything.
Natural Order: If only it wasn't limited to Green targets. I just don't think I have enough Green fatties to warrant this.
Court of Bounty: Monarch is a fun one, but I don't like the conditional nature of the effect.
Channel (!!): Works wonders with artifacts, but I think we are all too cowardly in my group to pay a significant amount of life.
Tooth and Nail: 7 mana is so much! Plus there isn't really a combo finish to go for.
Turntimber Symbiosis: 7 mana is so much! However, the utility of having a land as an option is really solid. At that point, you aren't really cheating on mana though.
Pattern of Rebirth: Love the sacrifice synergy, hate the aura more.
Defense of the Heart: Big payoff, but no synergy and tends to stall out the game as no one wants to play anything.
Natural Order: If only it wasn't limited to Green targets. I just don't think I have enough Green fatties to warrant this.
Court of Bounty: Monarch is a fun one, but I don't like the conditional nature of the effect.
Channel (!!): Works wonders with artifacts, but I think we are all too cowardly in my group to pay a significant amount of life.
Tooth and Nail: 7 mana is so much! Plus there isn't really a combo finish to go for.
Turntimber Symbiosis: 7 mana is so much! However, the utility of having a land as an option is really solid. At that point, you aren't really cheating on mana though.
Now cards I am considering more seriously
Oath of Druids: It's rare that decks have very few creatures, but this fits with GY stuff very well. I think this would play more as a splash card in a non-Green deck, because of the amount of creatures in Green.
Selvala's Stampede: The upside might just be too much here. Plus it's at a spot in the curve where you could almost already cast your card. I do enjoy the voting aspect in MP.
See the Unwritten: 6 mana is more than what I'd want to pay for a cheat effect, but 2 big upsides:
1. Build around potential to get 2 creatures in a fair monsters deck.
2. Card is actually a GY dump (which I never noticed before).
I am actually leaning towards See the Unwritten for the multiple synergies it presents if I add a single card, but at the same time Oath and Stampede play really well together and could make an unique cheat package in Green. My fear is that Oath just rots in sideboards because of the extreme deckbuilding requirements.
Help!
I think the pieces are already there:
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mainly brings Tinker to the table to differentiate the deck from /.Maybe the build with
feels better as you don't need anything in play but only in the graveyard (Dread Return, Persist, Incarnation Technique)? So you get more consistency as your Faithless Looting effects help you?In a multiplayer environment I think that decks that cheat big stuff in to play need a lot of consistency/redundancy or a removal suite that doesn't hit your big targets (e.g. Go for the Throat) to not create feel bad moments.
A fun micro archetype might be the Polymorph deck that has its key pieces in
. It is a lower power level though and needs you to have tokens + Polymorph + a target.In desperate times you can also hit your own manlands or Urza's Saga tokens.
This deck has a nice
/ crossover with Oath of Druids as the Oath doesn't want many creatures as well.In slower environments Proteus Staff can be fun, especially as it can be run in a blink deck alongside Panharmonicon.
I ran See the Unwritten for some time and I like the idea of it very much.
Because the 6 mana is a lot I'd want to cheat something more expensive into play or hit two targets with it of the ferocious.
If you run it you should think about increasing the density of creatures with cmc > 6 to make it worthwile. (Currently there are only five targets)
You should probably do the math on how many targets you need in your deck to make sure you don't miss when revealing 8 cards and how likely it is to draft such a deck. But I'm too lazy for that
I find drafting + building these decks very rewarding as it makes me feel super clever for spotting that the cube builder supports a deck "outside the norm".
I've toyed with Oath of Druids but it hasn't worked well. You need to build around it to a very high degree, it has no redundancy and most of the time just leads to decks that don't work. When the decks did work, they felt oppressive and not fun to play against. There are many issues with the card:
1) Oath reduces your drafting card pool by half. Magic is increasingly creature-centric, not being able to draft them is a huge drawback.
2) The creature-clause is particularly difficult for green. You cannot play mana dorks nor utility creatures. You run only 23 non-creature spells in green and the majority of them aren't good in an Oath shell. Other than ramp, which is dubious value, I count a total of 4 cards I can see myself running in Oath decks.
3) There's only one copy of Oath. This means you not only need to build a deck with few enough creatures to make it work, it needs to work even if you don't draw the Oath or it gets destroyed. You can tutor for it but that probably requires more colours than you can actually work with.
4) You'll get a lot of dumb play patterns. Your opponent makes the mistake of playing Magic, you drop Oath of Druids and then you win with Griselband or Primeval Titan or whatever. Other times you do that, you lose your only good creature and then you lose the game. Most of the time, you don't play Oath or it gets discarded or whatever and you have a terrible deck that doesn't work.
I think there are ways of making the card work but it's difficult to do so.
1) Oath reduces your drafting card pool by half. Magic is increasingly creature-centric, not being able to draft them is a huge drawback.
2) The creature-clause is particularly difficult for green. You cannot play mana dorks nor utility creatures. You run only 23 non-creature spells in green and the majority of them aren't good in an Oath shell. Other than ramp, which is dubious value, I count a total of 4 cards I can see myself running in Oath decks.
3) There's only one copy of Oath. This means you not only need to build a deck with few enough creatures to make it work, it needs to work even if you don't draw the Oath or it gets destroyed. You can tutor for it but that probably requires more colours than you can actually work with.
4) You'll get a lot of dumb play patterns. Your opponent makes the mistake of playing Magic, you drop Oath of Druids and then you win with Griselband or Primeval Titan or whatever. Other times you do that, you lose your only good creature and then you lose the game. Most of the time, you don't play Oath or it gets discarded or whatever and you have a terrible deck that doesn't work.
I think there are ways of making the card work but it's difficult to do so.
That is a great example of what type of deck I am looking for. However, I can't seem to draft them.Here
Maybe the build with
You touch on removal and that might just be the issue here and why RB, BW, BU and BWU cheat decks can exist. Removal in Black lends itself to a controlling build, but Red's removal is much more conditional.
I think I am fine in the consistency department with 4 enablers in Black, 4 in Red as primaries and a lesser amount in other colors (except Green). As for removal, 2 of the biggest ones are resilient (Ancient Stone Idol and Phyrexian Triniform) and Myr Battlesphere at least leaves you a small army. What I might be missing is a another huge artifact fatty like Triplicate Titan maybe? or double up on Phyrexian Triniform to avoid having to deal with the annoying token abilities.
That would be a great idea for another cube! As you mentioned, the power is too low for this one (having your creature killed in response to removal would be game over).A fun micro archetype might be the Polymorph deck that has its key pieces in
Glad to hear you vouching for it. I'll be trying it out.
Well that was a great and convincing post. I will be staying away from Oath for now. Thank you!
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There are a couple of cards that I am missing in my list currently:
Both need heavy artifact support and both are win conditions. What I love about them is that they can be the center of attention for one deck.
For example, here is a UG artifact deck based around Birthing Pod and Urza, Lord High Artificer. Now that there are more artifact in Green (Esika's Chariot and Tireless Provisioner come to mind) it gets even better. And that's just in Simic!
Here is another one, this time in Golgari. Marionette Master is tying the whole thing together. It makes sense to run all the artifact cantrips with it around and it gets buffed by the Garruks and Verdurous Gearhulk.
So here is my big artifact update (In -> Out)
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Earthshaker Giant has been lower on my main deck list. I just find that my go wide decks are low to the ground and don't always want to go to 6 mana. Instead, maybe it's time to bring back the aforementioned Verdurous Gearhulk to achieve critical mass in Green artifact strategies. They are a little all over the place, but that just lets the drafters be creative. It also keeps a fatty for See the Unwritten.
The God-Eternal Bontucut is one I am unsure about. It's between the God and Doom Whisperer. I already have Korvold, Fae-Cursed King at that mana value that sacrifices permanents so it would either give a bit of redundancy or be an unnecessary double, can't decide. However, the Demon is usually just a Baneslayer as paying life can be rough with multiple opponents.
Reins of Power is an effect I am hoping to see more of in the future either in Red for sacrifice/spell combo or in Blue for added redundancy that could help make sacrifice be a small part of Blue's identity. I don't feel too bad removing it as I am adding a win condition in it's stead.
Precursor Golem is a card that I've found more and more unnecessary. There are a lot of good options at 5 mana already and the blow out potential is always risky. Am I evaluating this wrong?
-> -> -> -> -> -> Earthshaker Giant has been lower on my main deck list. I just find that my go wide decks are low to the ground and don't always want to go to 6 mana. Instead, maybe it's time to bring back the aforementioned Verdurous Gearhulk to achieve critical mass in Green artifact strategies. They are a little all over the place, but that just lets the drafters be creative. It also keeps a fatty for See the Unwritten.
The God-Eternal Bontucut is one I am unsure about. It's between the God and Doom Whisperer. I already have Korvold, Fae-Cursed King at that mana value that sacrifices permanents so it would either give a bit of redundancy or be an unnecessary double, can't decide. However, the Demon is usually just a Baneslayer as paying life can be rough with multiple opponents.
Reins of Power is an effect I am hoping to see more of in the future either in Red for sacrifice/spell combo or in Blue for added redundancy that could help make sacrifice be a small part of Blue's identity. I don't feel too bad removing it as I am adding a win condition in it's stead.
Precursor Golem is a card that I've found more and more unnecessary. There are a lot of good options at 5 mana already and the blow out potential is always risky. Am I evaluating this wrong?
If I am thinking this right, this narrows down my number of archetypes, but at the same time opens them up to more options between themselves.