General "Looking for a card"-Thread

My playgroup is strongly against breaking singleton. I just asked them. Maybe they're ignorant...

Either way, give me your best/favorite 3 mana creature removal.

My favorite used to be my personal super-secret tech but is now mainstream in the Cubing world:



(It is busted though.)

I want to second Exile, I love the original Rob Alexander art and ran it for the first 5 years of my Cube's life. My players enjoyed getting both sides of the benefit from Swords to Plowshares, even at a steep cost.

As for your playgroup not wanting to break singleton, good for them. It's good for playgroups to have passionate feelings about anything IMO, and I think we, as people who discuss Cube online, are quite the bubble. For many of the people we convince to play Cube with us, it's a novelty and a selling point that the format is singleton. Taking that away, even for a good reason, undermines one of the few original core elements they understood about the format. They likely don't have a rational reason beyond that for disliking the change, but it's valid all the same. Cube being singleton is cool and what makes Cube "Cube" to them, so if that's what the playgroup wants, I'd go with that!
 
Colours? Conditional? What do you desire?

Do I need to go on?
(no not the blast, but maybe you have a blast with it).
Surely, none of these hit the "best" criteria. I'd run straight up Murder over these, except for probably Exclude.
Have most of those. Absent is one I should definitely consider.
Covenant is scary. Is Exile better than Not on my Watch? I'm running that and Condemn.
Cube being singleton is cool and what makes Cube "Cube" to them, so if that's what the playgroup wants, I'd go with that!
I think I'm gonna slip in an extra Cast Down and see if anyone notices.
Is Cube generally being singleton really that novel anymore, though? For a lot of people, Commander is their main way of playing Magic, so having a format where you can run multiple copies of a card (wow amazing) would be the novelty.
I think people think more cards = more better. I even explained that two Cast Down would be better for the environment than a Cast Down and a Doom Blade. No one cared.

For 3 mana monocolored hard removal, I currently have

It seems that Murder+ in a no walker environment is a little hard to come by.
 
As a legitimate question... how long would it take for your players to notice the difference if you swapped the extra Doom Blade for a Cast Down? Both in the sense of "how much do people actually notice when you break singleton without telling them you're doing so?" and in the sense of "how much would making the swap actually affect your format?"

EDIT: Also...

?

Sure, it's Sorcery... but in the right format...
 
Surely, none of these hit the "best" criteria. I'd run straight up Murder over these, except for probably Exclude.

I'd play Blast from the Past over Murder every day. It's a three-for-one, usually, really helping red controlling decks to get the advantage.

Also, Bone Shredder has a lower ceiling than Murder, but it adds blink, sacrifice and recursion synergies, that would make me want it over murder in many decks. Like, clearly.
 
As a legitimate question... how long would it take for your players to notice the difference if you swapped the extra Doom Blade for a Cast Down? Both in the sense of "how much do people actually notice when you break singleton without telling them you're doing so?" and in the sense of "how much would making the swap actually affect your format?"
As soon as they saw both at once, probably. For me, I want some good 1B removal that doesn't hit Eldrazi titans. This means Cast Down and Ultimate Price are the picks.
Sure, it's Sorcery... but in the right format...
I think a BB Sorcery Murder would be a very reasonable uncommon.
 
If protecting the big mana investment Eldrazis are key then you could also try some of these

https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=(oracle:Destroy+oracle:mana+oracle:value)+type:instant+color=B+(game:paper)

Some really cool ones among there.
I'm running Smother (no walkers in list right now) and Push. I'm looking for 3 mana removal because I do want Eldrazi removal, but at a higher mana value.

I made a post in the cube's thread that I'm tempted to add walkers so that Eliminate, Long Goodbye, Sheoldred's Edict, and Hero's Downfall become stronger picks.

I've also run into the side effect of having midrange threats be weirdly immune to a lot of the removal, hence the temptation for additional Cast Down and Ultimate Price.
 
I think a BB Sorcery Murder would be a very reasonable uncommon.
?

It hits all of your non-Black creatures, but misses on some Vampires and Zombies. A pain to keep track of though.

Either way, give me your best/favorite 3 mana creature removal.


Is fantastic if you don't mind it hitting multiple types of targets. Your Eldrazis are safe, not sure if that is a plus or not at 3 mana.



Not my favorite for a duel format, but certainly very powerful.
 
I kinda realized during my workout that Walk the Plank is a less elegant way of getting 99% of what I was describing. Victim hits a lot for an instant. Trying to nerf things just a little. It's a delicate balance and I may even be wrong with my intent.

Really flavorfully ugly to make an Eldrazi walk off of a narrow little plank and have it drown.
Currently have 4 types of tokens (Treasure, Spirit, Spawn/Scion) and not looking to increase that number.
Similarly, not interested in adding an emblem, especially monarch or initiative. So strong.

I'm giving some consideration to customing "Fatal-er Push" (MV3 and 6) and making them deal with that instead of a second Cast Down lol.
 
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The 'normal' ones I'm running:



Ant Queen is the truth. It has no etb but can take over games where it is not answered. Also scales. People love it. Maybe it also helps that I have a bunch of hand drawn tokens of ants with party hats and cocktails, made by my gf.

Hermit is great too if you have some morphs running around to make it less obvious.

Game warden is my newest addition, can't say much about it yet, but I assume you want a format where decks are lower in colors to have it be consistent.

Of course I have to mention my boy:



The best 5-drop in magic, change my mind. It's ugly, huge, and it allows you to stack your deck for fun times.
 
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Sorry @ravnic , but as much as I love Gurzigost I have to shout out my boy here.



He's a stat monster that has some fun counterplay, especially in a graveyard cube. Do you just let the Frog Horror through? Well, it's a lot larger next turn and it's hampered your ability to do graveyard things. Do you try to fend it off? Haste means that you have to have an answer right now, as it'll grow out of your reach quickly. What's more, this is a finisher that's actually somewhat matchup-dependent, meaning players are encouraged to sideboard more (an underappreciated aspect of Magic!).

I'm in love with 4-5 MV green hasters, and this card is no exception. The lifegain might be a bit of a bummer, but I think of it as a positive for being able to swing races. It's a fun midpower threat with some answer value, especially in a graveyard cube, that strongly encourages people to play in the combat step (the most fun and interactive step of any given turn). Plus the art is great and it's cheap.
 
Hm I do have an Ant Queen, but it seems like a pain to play against with it gumming up the board. Maybe it's not an issue?
It's not an issue because you get (usually) a full turn to deal with it before it starts being silly. It takes two turns to be better at token generation than a Siege-Gang Commander. By the time it snowballs, it's on you for not doing something/killing your opponent first, and you can still just fly over it if need be.
 
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