Card/Deck MCD -- Anthems

[CML]

So anyone who reads Wescoe's articles (and you should, if you like Magic media) knows that BW Tokens is a thing in Modern, and that it has, in his words, "game against anything." There's nothing quite like laughing at their Wrath and making four vigilant flying 3/3's the next turn. The strategy is pretty bad against specific answers like Engineered Explosives and Maelstrom Pulse and (most hilariously) Echoing Truth, but its raw power makes it perennially playable.

That being said, the deck is very clunky and reliant on drawing a right mix of token spells, disruption (sometimes), and ANTHEMS

I remember playing Crusade as a small child in my WW deck (which is the nut deck given the allowance constraint). The deck felt unbeatable, and though WW strategies are traditionally thought of as "bad" in Cube (see Andy Cooperfauss' Rebel errata as a possible fix), I haven't found this to be the case with my current build: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/114

My most recent post in the "3-0" thread illustrates the power of what a good friend calls "Death and Taxes cards." Check out this lineup of 1's:

Champion of the Parish, Champion of the Parish, Dryad Militant, Dryad Militant, Loam Lion, Loam Lion, Figure of Destiny, Student of Warfare, Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Mother of Runes, Weathered Wayfarer, Wild Nacatl

See? Two Champs! And they say I hate tribal Cube. So then you have to play lame 2's like Thalia, Imposing Sovereign (new favorite), and Eight-and-a-Half-Tails (old favorite) and by the time you've tossed in filler removal like Plow and Path your deck is just a pile. Overall White is good in Cube, and if you throw in enough little dudes your deck will be too.

HOWEVER

Anthems are just so classic and sweet that I still want to support them. The bad news is, I've tried almost all of them and found them wanting:

Honor of the Pure (and Crusade, the interesting Divine Sacrament etc.) -- ties the drafter into mono-color, which I don't think highly of as a design choice. It does make me wonder if Jason's considered Bad Moon, though ...
Legion's Initiative -- wtf nice Mythic I guess
Knight Exemplar -- see above except replace "mono-color" with "tribal" and then add some crude epithets to my design biases (also: Shared Triumph -- exception: Mayor of Avabruck)
Leonin Sun Standard -- kinda intriguing, probably just bad (see also Gerrard's Battle Cry, Selesnya Guildmage, Sunhome Guildmage)
Chaos Moon -- too sober most of the time (not right now)
Gaea's Anthem and Glorious Anthem -- nobody ever played with these cards, they seem kinda underpowered to me
Celestial Crusader -- kinda the same problem, and it costs 4 just like every other White card ever (I obsess about the curves of my colors)
Jelenn Sphinx -- not like Magellan
Intangible Virtue -- this is the kind of card I try to avoid putting in my Cube, even if I had a big token theme; only one person will want it; how dull IMHO
Marshal's Anthem -- I do love this card, but it's so clunky these days (also CMC4)
Path of Bravery -- Is this a real thing?
Pianna, Nomad Captain and Soltari Champion -- Have aged really poorly (poor, poor Wild Beastmaster)
Zealous Persecution and Orzhov Pontiff -- Insane Modern cards, and -1/-1'ing their team is really good in Legacy too (cf. Golgari Charm and Dread of Night) but naaaaaaaah Cube guys are usually a little big and who wants to pay WB ever.

This depressing state of affairs led me to

Angel of Jubilation -- another card I love in every possible way, but did they have to make it cost TRIPLE WHITE?

So now I just run two anthemish things and make do with them ...

... these cards are really delightful. but I would like to do better. Help me out here

 

[Jason Waddell]

I found a really terrible card for my Eldrazi cube:


EDIT: Oh jeez, this is like when you say something out loud and then realize how terrible it sounds. This card is worse than I thought. Yet still interesting.

 

[Lucre]

Oh man me and Chris "The Dandyman" Taylor totally had a conversation about this on salvation where we actually figured out (as old friends) that we were talking to each other.

I think we proposed that you needed an unconventional cube (you guys are obvs the people to talk to) or a relatively low power level for cards like glorious anthem to be pulling their weight or feel like they are worth the 3cc card they are taking up in your hand. Like it's one of those pivitol moments in learning magic, having your zest for +1 to all your creatures drained out of you.

I think planeswalkers do a great job of making effects that have fallen out of favor exciting and fresh again.

Me and chris also just love making or fixing cards. Maybe I should be talking to cooperfauss.

 

[Eric Chan]

Great topic, Chris. I feel like I've been having this kind of discussion with various folks, too, and like Lucas, coming to the depressing conclusion that Crusade just ain't what it used to be. I think that Honor of the Pure had been actively bad in my cube for about a year before I finally came to that realization and axed it. I'm still too attached to Glorious Anthem to chop it, though. Just let me have my one anthem!

These days, it would seem that all of the good anthems come on a stick. Have you considered:



And I assume you already run Gavony Township in your utility land draft. Besides being arguably the best anthem ever printed, that one wins my award for "best anthem that most drafters don't recognize as a real card".

 

[CML]

Mikaeus got cut due to "sucking complaints." Entity I took out for perhaps no reason. How's the Archangel been performing for y'all up in Toronto? I wanna give her a try

Mmmmm yeah Gavony. Your assumption is right on. It pleases me GW beats is good in Magic cards now.

 

[Rob Dennis]

I run glorious anthem but I don't know if I've ever seen it played, much less be good. Honor of the Pure has the benefit of slotting in to a "2 drop that adds 6-8 damage over the course of the game" role (e.g. ankh of mishra for white) which isn't nothing

I don't necessarily agree that Pianna and Soltari Champion have aged so poorly as to be out of the running. I have committed on lots of cheap equipment (instead of all the swords) after breaking singleton, so that helps.

I may just try to replace glorious anthem with Path of Bravery since there's some synergy with Archangel of Thune and I've been very intentional about lifegain being available to help make races a bit more dynamic.

 

[tomchaps]

I push tokens much harder than most, and as a result run far more anthems than most cubers. They are best in multiples--if I cut Glorious Anthem, I'd also cut Honor of the Pure. Currently I run:
Glorious Anthem
Honor of the Pure
Mikaeus the Lunarch
Ajani 1.0
Soltari Champion
Mirror Entity
Gavony Township
Mirari's Wake

GW tokens is one of the very best decks you can draft in my cube, and in general I've found the anthems help WW massively. Soltari Champion is about 1800 times better than Pianna, who only survives one combat step in my experience.

I'm avoiding Path of Bravery since I've gone the other direction and removed most lifegain, in an attempt to bolster aggro a bit in a rather topheavy cube.

 

[HannesVersmissen]

I think the thing with path of bravery is that it actually only embraces aggro/token decks, since those are the only deck with enough attackers to make the enchantment worthwhile? hence giving them more game even after a control deck lands a bomb Most of the lifegaincards aren't context-dependant, but i don't see a the non-aggro decks running path of bravery.