General Fight Club

I am trying to cut down on removal spells - who should go?

I'm running GU(w) proliferate, and BG(u) self mill/recursion, so the latter two cards have some synergy.
 
I am trying to cut down on removal spells - who should go?

I'm running GU(w) proliferate, and BG(u) self mill/recursion, so the latter two cards have some synergy.
It entirely depends on your cube and your vision for your cube.

Are you looking for simply going as high power as possible, then you can take out the worst performing card. Are you looking to have some synergy in your cube, you will have to do a lot more thinking. You will have to delve into what strategies the different decks have and cut the card that contributes to the fewest decks or cut the card that needs to be switched out for a better or worse card that does something similiar.

Example: Never//Return is good if you have some graveyard strategies in black. If you do not, then you can cut it.
 
It entirely depends on your cube and your vision for your cube.

Are you looking for simply going as high power as possible, then you can take out the worst performing card. Are you looking to have some synergy in your cube, you will have to do a lot more thinking. You will have to delve into what strategies the different decks have and cut the card that contributes to the fewest decks or cut the card that needs to be switched out for a better or worse card that does something similiar.

Example: Never//Return is good if you have some graveyard strategies in black. If you do not, then you can cut it.
You are completely right. For example if you support combat tricks or auras than instant kill spells are very painful…
 
"Destroy/exile target creature or planeswalker" cards in {B} I like, ranked:



OK versions of this effect, ranked:



Versions of this effect I'm no longer interested in:



It's amazing how quickly we went from Hero's Downfall being a chase rare to Feed the Serpent being a card that hardly got any conversation. It's a positive trend IMO.
 
hmm, that's tricky. I'm not super high on either if the picks treasures aren't going to be overtly valuable. How long into the game do hands stay stocked? Shroud can run into the issue of the opponent not having anything to discard, or nothing they care about, which leaves a pretty anemic equipment. Pick at least offers a bit of ramp throughout the game, slightly better stat boost, and apparently artifact synergies. I'd probably lean towards pick, unless you have a deck that can really utilize the shroud to punish an opponents hand effectively.
 
I would say axe for almost 100 % of cubes.
- It adds stuff to the board that can help close out games. More mana, bigger and more threads.
- It can have synergy. Artifact synergy. Sacrifice synergy.
- It can help fixing. It might add a mana the player sorely needs and the game avoids being a ‘non-game.’

The cloak has some issues on the other hand.
- It will not feel very fun to be on the receiving end of a discard each turn left unchecked.
- It can also be very swingy because it’s better against control and worse against aggro.
- Finally it can lead to feel bad moments for the controller if opponent is running madness because it should happen rarely but when it does, feels bad.
 
The toughness boost on the pickaxe pushes it very far ahead of the shroud, IMO. If the shroud gave +1/+1 it would be a lot stronger.
 
The Pick played really well for me in Kaldheim limited. It often allowed a creature to swing in thanks to the extra stats and would allow you to double spell early. I expect similar play patterns in cube in addition to the synergies Velrun mentioned.
 
i think Pick is pretty cool and definitely can be used to do proactive synergies in retail level cubes yeah. it was sick in KHM limited, which is a format i love.
note i rate “retail level” cubes below the power of “commons and uncommons only” cubes as these tend to have very powerful commons and uncommons across time rather than trying to emulate the power level of a particular retail set. i’ve tested this in Arena-only, commons and uncommons -only cubes and it doesn’t quite cut it there, so a little below that is where it can shine.
 
Adeline is definitely the strongest, especially if you run Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant in your cube.

Free buffs by generating human tokens is nasty and then it can be ready to attack as something like 5-6 power creature on T4 after deployment. Being able to create tokens on any attack, not just her attacking, is pretty gross. An x/4 body can crash into most things without fear and at worst will trade up if your board is developed enough.
 
To round things out, Touch the Spirit Realm is my favorite by far. By dint of being a removal spell it requires the player to make far more choices than they would if they had Adeline, which is pretty one-note.

I don't like tutors in general because I don't like how they slow down the game, but Recruiter is a pretty good one. In some cubes 2 toughness is a fine restriction that will require some deckbuilding cleverness, in others it'll fetch almost everything that isn't Gurmag Angler or a reanimation/turboramp target. I like it much more when it's the former.
 
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