General Fight Club

I was thinking more on mono color lately and would be curious to hear your thoughts and experiences on the differences between a heavy hybrid like Godhead or Nightveil Specter, which are both present in your list, compared to a light hybrid like Dryad Militant.

It's a bit like having Dread Shade and Phyrexian Rager, manawise. The draft dynamics make it so that heavy hybrids and light hybrids are really different from each other. If you look at all one-, two- and three-colored decks, you get the following numbers for hypothetical inclusion:

Dread Shade goes into 1 of 25 decks.
Phyrexian Rager goes into 11 of 25 decks.
Nightveil Specter goes into 3 of 25 decks.
Undercover Butler goes into 18 of 25 decks.
Psychatog goes into 4 of 25 decks.
Nightveil Predator goes into 1 of 25 decks.

So a heavy hybrids is close to a splashable gold card in flexibility. The question is, what kind of decks you want to promote. In m cube, decks seldom go into a third color. You still get some 3+ colored deck, but just because there are synergies, not because mana symbols force you to do so. So in my cube, Nightveil Specter is more flexible than Psychatog.

Do you feel that you could probably run hybrid sections of wildly different sizes if the cards were primarily light hybrids?

Yup. Just keep an eye of how many cards from that section go in decks of the five colors, so that you don't end up with 20% more cards white decks can play compared to red decks.

How much of a focus on colorless cards did you give in order to assist in enabling mono decks?

My philosophy is to always look for a more flexible option if you don't lose much else. That opens up more possibilities in drafting. I've increased my colorless section to 55 cards, which is over 10% of my cube, not counting fixing - I even have the Talismans listed as hybrids, as that is how they usually play out.

Colorless cards, just like hybrids, help you actually finishing a draft with a mono colored deck, but they don't make you want to do it. More importantly, you need to enable cool and strong mono colored decks. People draft mono red and mono white in the mtgo Vintage cube, because they work. They don't draft mono black really, because it has no real strategy. Then add some signposts or payoffs to lure them in and mono color decks will show up.
 
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Here's a fight for you. Which of these, in a format with pretty high power spells (swords to plowshares, bolt and upheaval) but not that many ETB heavy creatures?

I feel like Mnemonic Wall does have one upside of actually having 4 toughness, which dodges a lot of burn spells, and I believe most smaller creatures (I don't intend to run any creature below 4 cmc with over 3 power). But, Shipwreck Dowser can actually kill the things it blocks.
 
I
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Here's a fight for you. Which of these, in a format with pretty high power spells (swords to plowshares, bolt and upheaval) but not that many ETB heavy creatures?

I feel like Mnemonic Wall does have one upside of actually having 4 toughness, which dodges a lot of burn spells, and I believe most smaller creatures (I don't intend to run any creature below 4 cmc with over 3 power). But, Shipwreck Dowser can actually kill the things it blocks.
I probably wouldn’t put either of these cards in a high power format tbh.
 
Shipwreck Dowser feels like a more dynamic game piece to me. I don't think walls are particularly interesting to play with unless they're doing something really cool and weird. Dowser could fit into a wider variety of decks and will lead to much more interesting combat.

I agree that neither seems particularly strong though.
 
I agree with the Dowser. Attacking gives players more agency (compared to walls) and the Prowess adds even more chances for combat to be relevant.

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I have 5 sets of fixing lands per guild. 2 fetches, 2 shocks and 1 basic-typed dual slot. For this 5th slot I want it to be a value land (otherwise I would just run 3 sets of shocks).

In most cases I want the Surveil land, but not sure for Azorius. I rarely have GY or discard decks in this guild, but think the Farmland is better suited because of it's ability to use mana end of turn in case no interaction was used. Thoughts?
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
If your Azorius decks play for the long game, Irrigated Farmland might seem better, unless they are mana hungry, and don’t want to cycle a land away. In that case go with Azorius Chancery, I mean Restless Anchorage, I mean Meticulous Archive. Seriously though, it’s entirely valid to break up cycles and add the lands that play best in a certain color combination. Personally I run a base of two fetches, two shocks, and a custom fastland with basic land types. The other three land slots per supported guild are flex slots, that depend on the play style of the color pair. For example, Boros gets Battlefield Forge, Clifftop Retreat, and Sunbaked Canyon because it's almost always the aggressive deck with a very low curve, while Dimir gets Creeping Tar Pit, Dimir Aqueduct, and Fetid Pools, because it's typically more tempo- or control-oriented and mana hungry.
 
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Can't decide. Do I want a card that interacts better with blues instant speed interaction or won't blue control decks play it anyway? Do I rather want one with (even more ninja and) discard/graveyard synergies, or is the loot ability too expensice to matter anyway?
 
Blue control decks won't play the Sailor either way, but being able to hold mana open seems useful for tempo decks, too, not just control ones.
 
Depends on the power level, but the sailor is a perfect fit for a lower power level draw go control deck due to the flash, the card draw, and it could even kill your opponent!
 
I want a green card that has a solid base line and is, most importantly, sweet value to mill it over. I want to push golgari and simic selfmill decks.



Which one would you chose and why?

Edit: Updated the cotestants.
 
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Chris Taylor

Contributor
How okay are you with the feelbads of "oh there was a 4/4 flash in their graveyard and I didn't notice"? I don't love that kind of feeling but maybe you feel differently

Personal favorite here is grizzly fate, that card is excellent to cast. I gotta find a way to get that card back in my cube
 
I think genesis is better than the elves. The elves draw a card, genesis the best creature in your yard. Both cost mana to activate.
I like that the beast is instant. It is the epitome of the saying fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…
It is common courtesy to show cards with flashback without using them just like the amount of lands you have.
 
How okay are you with the feelbads of "oh there was a 4/4 flash in their graveyard and I didn't notice"? I don't love that kind of feeling but maybe you feel differently

Personal favorite here is grizzly fate, that card is excellent to cast. I gotta find a way to get that card back in my cube
As much as I like the grizzly fate, it is only worth it if one obtains threshold quite easily in your cube with the deck. I play low power, and yes I do not have it in a treshold deck, but it is even for my environment weak. 7 mana flashback for 4 2/2 is even in a low powered environment just above par.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
You might be right. More of the power might be felt in casting and then threatening to flashback, so it gets less powerful if you mill it over. I think 5 mana for four 2/2s certainly was a great deal when I ran it, but a lots changed in the intervening years
 
Hmm, yeah, so 7 mana is a lot for the flashback if you just mill it over. But with threshold it already provides you with a selfmill payoff on the front if you draw it. It also has the advantage to be better in token strategies as it goes wider. And it creates a token I already cube.

Beast attack has the advantage, mostly, of being more reachable as a flashback, especially if milled. It also asks very little of you to be good, it's just a very efficient 5-drop. However, it has some potential to be a feelbad (although most people would be kind enough to not speculate on that). And, worst part, the beast's legst are far too tiny. I mean, how does it even walk?

I feel like the solution is to test Grizzly Fate first. Then see. Or just both, if finding cuts wasn't the hardest thing in the world...

Edit: Ugh. Why is there no version of Grizzly Fate that explains what threshold means?
 
You might be right. More of the power might be felt in casting and then threatening to flashback, so it gets less powerful if you mill it over. I think 5 mana for four 2/2s certainly was a great deal when I ran it, but a lots changed in the intervening years
If you have threshold at turn five then it is quite strong 5 mana 8 power is even these days still quite strong. It is just not a good self mill target as opposed to the classic
 
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