General Fight Club

[sigh]

Cradle of the Accursed if you want to play around with Crucible effects, dread statuary otherwise.

hostile desert is also really fun if you have any number of lands consistently hitting the 'yard

 

[ravnic]

But doesn't the continious activation of Statuary cumulate to much more than the one time 6 of Stones?

I already have these:

 

[Erik Twice]

I like Stalking Stones but I think it's out of place in Modern Magic. 6 mana plus a seventh land is a lot and limited manabases are shaky enough that colorless lands are hard to justify.

I don't like Cradle of the Accursed at all. Sacrificing a land to get a 2/2 at sorcery speed when you have nothing else to do is not worth the colorless slot.

I lean towards Dread Statuary because a 4/2 is significant and 4+1 mana is not too difficult to get.

 

[LadyMapi]

The whole idea behind manlands is that they have a built-in way to dodge sorcery-speed removal. I actually missed that Stones' effect was permanent — that actually makes it worse.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Another nice one that only requires you to run snow basics in your land station is

 

[japahn]

The whole idea behind manlands is that they have a built-in way to dodge sorcery-speed removal. I actually missed that Stones' effect was permanent — that actually makes it worse.

I don't think this makes them worse. Not having to spend a lot of mana every turn is a much bigger upside than vulnerability to sorcery speed removal. Stalking stones can be activated EoT for 6 including itself, while Dread Statuary needs 5 mana to function. I have run both and I think Stalking Stones is a little better, but both are pretty low power. They are playable in slower environments only.

 

[Brad]

Crawling Barrens over Dread, Dread over options given.

 

[Velrun]

Not an actual Fight Club (but then again Jason didn’t start this thread the way we are treating it these days)

I am part of a Commander group on Facebook. There was a topic about most underrated cards according to each user. I thought it would be fun to share to see if you feel like any of them are gems for your cube. Here goes:


Argument: “Instant board wipe for flyers that super often kills an opponent.”


Argument: “I really like twilight prophet and next to no one uses it. Its card draw with damage on a creature with flying.”


Argument: “Play group stable to some. Unknown to others.”


Argument: “A ‘free’ spell that is often overlooked and kicks ass.”


Argument: “Ah heck I saw this in my list and couldn't just leave it hanging. Why just counter a spell for free when you can own it. Now it's not a far fetch to hard cast this but the look on an opponents face when you take their game winning spell and just give it to yourself for ''free'' is priceless. Make sure the spell is back breaking or offers insane value to overcome the tremendous -3card disadvantage from using the alternate casting cost on this. (The 2 pitched cards and Commandeer going to the graveyard). I repeat this is an endgame spell. This targets any Noncreature spell so it's got more targets than at first glance. Some good targets are Expropriate, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Isocron Scepter, Omniscience, Overloaded Cyclonic Rift, and so much more. The 2 blue card dump will be difficult in 3+ color decks but that depends on their reliance on blue. Happy hunting my Fellow Spell Stealers.“


Argument: While it's conditional, it's a condition that seems to get met at some point in most games; and while it can be removed before it goes off, people seem to undervalue it until they're staring at big fat trouble on board.


Argument: “Prying Blade can come out turn 1 and in some cases equip turn 1-2. It's treasure ramp is relevant in a lot of colors that struggle with ramping.”

Cards with no comments that had a lot of likes:



Is there anything you would consider for your cube?
I wanted to share the best ones but I also feel like a lot of these cards are better in games with multiple opponents where you can be pretty sure to get the maximum value from the card.

Anyways that’s what I had <3

 

[Chris Taylor]

But doesn't the continious activation of Statuary cumulate to much more than the one time 6 of Stones?

I already have these:

I've actually switched to double mutavault over mutavault/factory, both because occasionally someone will find otherwise overlooked tribal synergy (Siege-gang commander was the latest), and that Factory can block as a 3/3, and nobody sees that coming.

 

[ravnic]

Sadly, I am too poor to buy 10€ cards, and I don't wanna proxy for that small of an upgrade.
Also, there is a cheap old bordered version of factory.

 

[ravnic]

Okay friends, I think I 've got an interesting fight.

I was looking for a cheap green creatures that fills the 'yard/selfmills, but still is enough value that other decks than dredge might be interested in it (within a lower powered environment). I've found a common choice and an exotic new contester:



With the Satyr you get immediate value. It draws you a land and can mill flashback/dredge/etc. cards. That's enough value to play a 1/1 for 2, but after it's etb it's just a chump blocker.

The Seer doesn't give you value immediately, but over the course of the game it can draw you many lands and also mill more than 3 or 4 cards, which also might have relevant abilities. Also, since it's a draw effect, you can have dredge replace it. And since it's a didcard effects, it works with madness. I think it should be pretty easy to increase the number of hits further than your 17 lands.

Am I crazy for considering the slower Seer over the "cube staple" Satyr Wayfinder?

PS: I know Dryad Greenseeker exists and is good card advantage, but it doesn't have the graveyard synergies.

 

[whydirt]

Another challenger enters the ring

 

[sigh]

Wayfinder over the Seer for me. It takes a hella long time to gain value off the Seer, which might make it a non-card if you draw it late. Wayfinder can still immediately dig into the deck no matter how late it's drawn.

Hermit Druid is an obscenely powerful card in the right context, but of note, it can't give you a non-basic land. That matters in a "fair" deck that is trying to utilize it.

 

[frostymoose]

Argument: “I really like twilight prophet and next to no one uses it. Its card draw with damage on a creature with flying.”

Well, someone must playing twilight prophet in their EDH decks seeing as it costs more than $20 USD.

Price of fame is a nearly perfect removal spell for low powered cubes. Kills everything, grave synergy (everybody loves graveyard synergy!), card filtering, sometimes equivalent to doom blade & co.

 

[japahn]

Price of fame is a nearly perfect removal spell for low powered cubes. Kills everything, grave synergy (everybody loves graveyard synergy!), card filtering, sometimes equivalent to doom blade & co.

I found it a bit too good at my power level. Though it looks inelegant, the flavor almost on point. Would've been perfect if they had simply inverted the text:

This spell costs 2 less to cast if it targets a legendary creature.
Surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Destroy target creature.

 

[Velrun]

I found it a bit too good at my power level. Though it looks inelegant, the flavor almost on point. Would've been perfect if they had simply inverted the text:

This spell costs 2 less to cast if it targets a legendary creature.
Surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Destroy target creature.

I don’t understand the difference. Can you explain?

 

[japahn]

There's no functional difference, but flavor-wise, it's silly to murder someone then stalk them.

 

[Velrun]

Makes sense

I dislike the card because it punishes a creature for being legendary. I want the opposite.

 

[ravnic]

Okay, I'm updating this fight club.



I used to have the Hermit Druid in this slot, but it seemed like no deck other than self mill had any interest in playing it. Was this my players underestimating it? It should be fine in something like landfall or mono ramp, but the selfmill is so dominant on this card. Wayfarer had a similar problem actually.

What I hoped was that the Seer would be more of interest for other decks while still being great for dredge. Maybe landfall or with the discard madness would show some interest in it, while not being scared of by the massive self mill of the druid. Am I thinking BS here?

 

[Velrun]

So the interesting thing about Hermit Druid that the others do not have is it imposes a deck building constraint. You want this card if you want your drafters to think a little extra during deck construction.

 

[sigh]

IMO it's fine for a card to be "dominant" in one archetype. Helps coalesce decks in people's minds and draft processes. Satyr is easily my first pick here. Seer just takes too long for too little impact. Compare to for instance, thought courier, which would play into the same UG landfall deck you mention, and enables filtering of literally any card type to and from the players hand.

 

[Nanonox]

I agree with others: Wayfinder > Seer.

In regards to the Hermit, ask yourself if you want the potential for explosive gameplay. I see you have a Laboratory Maniac in your list. If you draft non-basics highly, that can be a very fast clock. Same thing with cards like World Shaper that have a high ceiling. I had it in my cube for a while and it was good, but unreliable (I didn't have enough non-basics probably) and that is a frustrating feeling when you know it could be better.

I have a series of fights myself if anyone has insight:



I want a flashy card that entices people into Selesnya. Trostani plays well with blink obviously, but there are also a lot of good 5 drops in green and white that are similar (Angel of Invention, Deep Forest Hermit). The floor is higher than March, but the ceiling less so.
How many tokens do you usually get off of March of the Multitudes?



I already have Yorion, Sky Nomad as one of my guild slots (I love hybrids!) and want another blink effect.
Brago is more solid and versatile, but is a 4 drop in two colors that have a lot of options already at 4 mana and he has to attack (it's a downside, but also an upside since getting people to attack is important in multiplayer games).
Soulherder is fragile, but you get value almost immediately and it is cheaper.

 

[Velrun]

Trostani Discordant and March of the Multitudes go into the same deck. I wouldn’t run one in a cube without also running the other. An iconic pair from Standard.

Ixalan -> War of the Spark
&
Guilds of Ravnica -> Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoth

Trostani creates tokens and is worth three bodies to help cast March.
March creates tons of tokens that can ger buffed by Trostani.

They even create the same token.

 

[ravnic]

I think Trostani is stronger than March, which is why I replaced them with it (they were too much for my environment). They are good in almost any situation and can really turn around a game. And I think you can easily run one without the other, as you might just not need two gold card to promote tokens as a theme.

While Brago can be really good, he hasn't been as scary in my cube as people claimed he would be. I think he is pretty equal in power level to Soulherder and it comes down to what fits your needs better.

 

[shamizy]

I already have Yorion, Sky Nomad as one of my guild slots (I love hybrids!) and want another blink effect.
Brago is more solid and versatile, but is a 4 drop in two colors that have a lot of options already at 4 mana and he has to attack (it's a downside, but also an upside since getting people to attack is important in multiplayer games).
Soulherder is fragile, but you get value almost immediately and it is cheaper.

Soulherder for sure. It's at a better spot with 3 CMC to curve into threats, has interactions with other exile effects to get it working, and best of all it's an end-step trigger so you can get immediate value. Brago is more powerful in a vacuum, but he requires a board ready to go AND has to survive a turn cycle AND has to be able to punch through for combat damage. If you want to multi-blink a bunch of permanents he's going to have a bigger impact, but from my testing, you'd rather have the consistency of Soulherder. I run both in my Aminatou EDH deck and often times I just want Soulherder so I can blink a single creature like a Venser, Shaper Savant or Cloudblazer. You don't really need too many blinks to get your money's worth.

I tried Brago for a good stretch in cube when he was first released but he never quite stuck around. Soulherder though? I've gone up to two of them with my Voucher system and loved it in the handful of cube drafts I was able to run pre-pandemic.