General Fight Club

How strong is Yawgmoth, Thran Physician actually? I considered testing him. He's like a anti-creature goblin bombardment that also draws cards.. hmm ok. That seems quite powerful.

Very. Very very. He seems like he's a good combination of a lot of archetypes, but mostly he just wins games if unanswered. The 'Protection against Humans' clause is also really powerful, probably the single best 'Protection from creatures' because he can't be killed by Palace Jailer, etc. AND can tango with probably the most plentiful creature type in most cubes with impunity. And that's the weakest part of the card!

Edit: can't think good in mornings.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
That’s conspiracies, also known as emblem-like effects that buff your side of the board/situation.

Erik Twice mentioned unique win conditions. Do you have some of those? :)

Sure! I think you could take some inspiration from existing cards :) Darksteel Reactor, for example, seems like a pretty fun card to tweak into an avatar:

Darksteel Victory
Emblem - Objective

Nonartifact spells you cast cost {1} more to cast.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a charge counter on Darksteel Victory.
When Darksteel Victory has 20 or more charge counters on it, you win the game.

Clone Army
Emblem - Objective

{4}: Create a token that’s a copy of target creature you control, except it’s a 1/1 blue Shapeshifter.
When you control four or more creatures with the same name, you win the game.

(Obviously you would need to be careful with token makers if you included this in your environment.)

Coalition Victory
Emblem - Objective

{1}, Tap two lands that share a basic land type: Search your library for a basic land card with a different basic land type.
{3}, Tap two permanents that share a color: Search your library for a permanent card with a different color.
When you control a land of each basic land type and a creature of each color, you win the game.

Et cetera.
 


if you support aristocrats and also support +1/+1 counters (although you don't want the counters deck to be overbearing).
I dislike Dark-Dweller Oracle since it's not good as a reactive outlet.

Soothsayer has a weak body and is mana intensive, but I really like its clean design and think it's actually not that bad
Poacher also gives you life and doesn't want as much mana, it also has a bigger butt (heh) but is a one-time activation per turn
Shadowcat is the slowest of them and more of a +1/+1 counters lord, but maybe the most interesting of them all

I played them all in retail draft, but can't really say if they're playable in cube.

How about this one? A bit expensive but repeatable. A bit of a weak body but brings a friend:

 
Can you speak a bit more about what you like better in Force of Virtue than Glorious Anthem? Is it more interesting? How do they compare in power level?
 
Even without the Force text, being able to cast it at instant speed makes a huge difference compared to the anthem, adding the entire layer of "combat trick" on top of the normal effects Anthem has. Then of course, it can be cast for free. That stacks up to a quite flexible and powerful card, but that still only provides +1/+1, so it's not over the top in most scenarios.
 
vs

Been running GDD for a minute now, and I don’t really want to run both.
It depends on your removal power level. I think backdraft hellkite is cooler if you can consistently untap with it. However, if there's a good chance it dies immediately, it shouldn't be in the cube. Goblin Dark-Dwellers isn't as sexy as the hellkite, but the fact that it immediately casts the spell and still has an evasion ability makes it the better card in environments with good removal.
 
backdraft hellkite is insane if you untap with it. It casts past in flames on each attack. That's just a ludicrous amount of value, especially since PiF is contained by having to spend mana on it the turn the effect goes off. With the hellkite you get the effect with 0 mana invested on the attack turn.
 
I hadn't considered Force of Virtue. However, if you don't have enough white cards to pitch, it's four mana, two more than Intangible Virtue. Do you think the card is playable on normal terms?
 


Preference among these Black 6-drops that are best in control/combo and that cost life? I know that they're not precisely competing for the same spot, but there're only so many sixes one can run.

Other Contenders:



stx-276-professor-onyx.jpg


Bonus Question: Why did War of the Spark have so many good cards in this slot? The world may never know.
 
Of all of those, Professor Onyx seems the most interesting to me. Strong draw ability, decent protection ability that isn't adding various tokens, and interesting Ult.
 
Bolas's Citadel for me. I've got many reps with it in EDH at this point and I love it as a top-end card for black in Cube. It's not nearly as busted when you have only 20 life to work with, but it still feels like a great payoff at 6 mana. I also like it as a "fair" and exciting Welder/Tinker target. I'm also a big fan of Liliana, Dreadhorde General from EDH play, but 6 mana is a bit steep of a cost to pay for its effect on curve. It dominates mid-range matchups, but is pretty situational for the most part. Sort of like a weaker version of Elspeth, Sun's Champion who is just great on most boardstates.

Command the Dreadhorde is a bit too situational to be worth it unless you can consistently stack your graveyard and get to the 6 mana necessary to maximize its value. I'm not too high on Professor Onyx at 6 mana; it's a bit high on the curve for something that requires additional set-up beyond with spellslinging to really maximize its value.

Citadel > Dreadhorde General > Professor Onyx > Command the Dreadhorde.
 
Bonus Question: Why did War of the Spark have so many good cards in this slot? The world may never know.

The answer is: It didn’t. Liliana is good, Citadel is niche (only good in the exact right deck) and Command was not a good card. It was only played during the smallest of Standards right after rotation and even then it was a sideboard card.

My vote goes to Citadel as well. It’s super interesting and it rewards you for drafting / building your deck around it.
 
Command the Dreadhorde is much worse than it looks.

Her'es one I'm undecided on:

vs

Gearhulk is not as good as it seems in my cube, as I don't run as many instants. However, Scholar costs seven mana which is a lot. It also has blowout potential with reanimator if you happen to get something tasty in the graveyard at the same time as the Scholar. Thoughts?
 
I'm planning on running both. They fill pretty different roles, or, can fill very similar roles but tend to fill them pretty differently from each other. Flash on the gearhulk tends to make it's play style pretty distinct. Also, it's really playing poorly? Any deck running it should have at least a couple instants in the 'yard to choose from even without really bending deck building that much (pretty standard control considerations), and flash blocking an attacker is usually a pretty good move regardless.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Gearhulk has mana value, card types and ambush potential going for it. Sphinx is more flexible, and has evasion, but 7 mana tends to be two turns slower than 6, and that's a lot of turns.
 
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