I might just have been blinded by the Death and Taxes resurgence. I planned to put it in for testing, but you're right, it might be disappointing. I agree with the Sanctifiers principle, but I just found that it is quite unwieldy and rarely gets played. The kicker makes it unattractive for tricks, and the double white is often a concern. Also, people in my playgroup rarely bother with sideboarding, so these cards just see less play (though I still insist on maintaining quite a few of them, e.g., Disenchant itself is still in there). If we suppose that Leonin Arbiter disappoints, would you rather see Mana Tithe or Spear leave over Sanctifiers?
Konge's Cube
- Thread starter Konge
- Start date
I might just have been blinded by the Death and Taxes resurgence. I planned to put it in for testing, but you're right, it might be disappointing. I agree with the Sanctifiers principle, but I just found that it is quite unwieldy and rarely gets played. The kicker makes it unattractive for tricks, and the double white is often a concern. Also, people in my playgroup rarely bother with sideboarding, so these cards just see less play (though I still insist on maintaining quite a few of them, e.g., Disenchant itself is still in there). If we suppose that Leonin Arbiter disappoints, would you rather see Mana Tithe or Spear leave over Sanctifiers?
Yeah, that's fair. Maybe Sanctifiers should get the boot in that case. Four mana is a bit unwieldy, and you might just have convinced me to cut it from my own cube. It really only ever makes the cut in control decks, after all.
Spear is nice to have around as an anthem effect, especially since you don't run Ajani Goldmane. Mana Tithe, while fun, is narrower in application, and I could see cubes going without this effect. But I think at this point you might be fine cutting a Disenchant effect, first.
Spear is nice to have around as an anthem effect, especially since you don't run Ajani Goldmane. Mana Tithe, while fun, is narrower in application, and I could see cubes going without this effect. But I think at this point you might be fine cutting a Disenchant effect, first.
Love Earthquake! In an earlier life, I would routinely p1p1 this card and jam it into most any aggro or control deck. I like that it has a whole bunch of modes - creature sweeper, Fireball to the face, planeswalker removal.
Steel Hellkite is pretty cool design, I think it's perhaps a bit below the power level of a, say, Grave Titan / Wurmcoil Engine cube, but I'd love to play a cube where this was one of the premier finishers.
It's also a fine Tinker target in a theoretical Hannes cube.
I have a strong hatred for this card and I will probably never get over it enough to add it to my cube. This is too synonymous with bad Scars of Mirrodin experiences for me.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I hate to be that guy, but Rolling Earthquake is really the card you want. Hitting Fliers is kinda key 
I'm considering adding Karmic Guide, but I'm on the fence. Especially because I'm having real trouble cutting down my white section (just cut Mana Tithe for Unexpectedly Absent). What are people's experiences with it?
Deathrite Shaman? I run two, and they're awesome. And they gain life. And they interact with Gravecrawler. And fetchlands. It's one of my favorite cube cards.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Would you run it without the fetchland density you have? (20/360 IIRC)
More like 22/360 (two in the utility land pile), along with a playset of Wastelands... hard to say, but I probably wouldn't run 2. It's not super reliable ramp with a lower density, but it still does a ton of work. 1-drops that can close out games without attacking are fairly special.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Fair enough. In terms of other meaningless questions, how often is it played with only one mode active? Ie in a black not green deck or a green not black deck?
I think it's more than fine if you can only reliably use either the black or green options, though if you can only have one, the life loss is better. Having access to only the creature exiling half is typically less beneficial, unless your opponent is up to shenanigans. It's also not unreasonable to grab an extra dual land that can produce the off-colour for Shaman - say, a Breeding Pool in your otherwise BU deck - and toss that in.
Yeah, it's fine, and as Eric mentioned, people manage to find their splash color to activate both sides of Deathrite. The green side has become much more relevant with the lifegain update. I would certainly play it in a non-black deck.