I started my cube off in 2012, and Dark Ascension was the new hotness. Having been influenced by Cube content on Channel Fireball that may be familiar to a few of you, Gravecrawler was one of a handful of cards I broke singleton for, as it emphasized a combination of themes that I was eager for -- the 'Crawler made recursive graveyard decks shine, it was a favorite card to sacrifice, it helped me integrate aggro into black (which was somewhat supported in all five colors at the time, a silly approach but an approach all the same) -- it was the kind of card I played Cube to see shine. Since then we've gotten quite a few of these recursive black creatures, but even when my cube was new, I did my best to fill out a strong lineup:
You see, I love just dumping cards into my graveyard. I love milling myself and having a second hand available, I love being able to recast my creatures and get double value off of Looting effects.
So I went deep. In the "wild years" of my cube, I experimented a lot.
Some, like Bone Dragon, just didn't quite cut it, having too big of a cost to pay to keep up with a fairmax environment. Cards like Boneyard Scourge relied too much on synergies that weren't supported enough in cube and timings that were nearly impossible to match perfectly with open mana, even if the front side was reasonable on its face. Vengevine has managed to stick around in my cube since I was able to obtain my first copy, but has never been the all-star I'd have hoped.
But my favorite experiments, and the ones I was saddest to cut one-by-one, were all the cards that ended up being much better if they started the game in your graveyard. These cards were wonderful off of a Faithless Looting, but if you had to hardcast them, you felt pretty dumb. Even if they weren't my preferred flavor of pet card, no one would sensibly pick them when confronted with a Grave Titan, and to better meet the expectations of my drafters and the needs of my cube, they've all since been removed:
I went deep. In all honesty, as one of my all-time favorite cards, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge is currently once again in my cube list for testing, even though it's incredibly doubtful he'll stay in for long this time around. I hope to return at least one Knight of the Reliquary from the graveyard while he's in, though!
In the years since, we've had a wealth of powerful aggressive one-drops in black that have been able to recur from the graveyard that have become staples in cubes of all styles, like:
And even the higher CMCs have found a great, powerful cards that are happy to sit in your yard, eagerly waiting for their moment to shine:
Thanks @sigh for the reminders on the last three here!
This last year or so has been particularly good for these kinds of effects, but I also don't want to ignore the creatures that can only be recurred a single time from the graveyard, as they're incredibly important to my list as well. The likes of:
I don't currently run Champion of Wits, Angel of Sanctions, or Timeless Witness but I am looking into them, and I've recently cut the sadly unpopular Glyph Keeper.
Which self-recursive creatures do you run in cube? Do you run extra exile effects / graveyard hate to counter them? What are your favorite synergies with these types of creatures?
You see, I love just dumping cards into my graveyard. I love milling myself and having a second hand available, I love being able to recast my creatures and get double value off of Looting effects.
So I went deep. In the "wild years" of my cube, I experimented a lot.
Some, like Bone Dragon, just didn't quite cut it, having too big of a cost to pay to keep up with a fairmax environment. Cards like Boneyard Scourge relied too much on synergies that weren't supported enough in cube and timings that were nearly impossible to match perfectly with open mana, even if the front side was reasonable on its face. Vengevine has managed to stick around in my cube since I was able to obtain my first copy, but has never been the all-star I'd have hoped.
But my favorite experiments, and the ones I was saddest to cut one-by-one, were all the cards that ended up being much better if they started the game in your graveyard. These cards were wonderful off of a Faithless Looting, but if you had to hardcast them, you felt pretty dumb. Even if they weren't my preferred flavor of pet card, no one would sensibly pick them when confronted with a Grave Titan, and to better meet the expectations of my drafters and the needs of my cube, they've all since been removed:
I went deep. In all honesty, as one of my all-time favorite cards, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge is currently once again in my cube list for testing, even though it's incredibly doubtful he'll stay in for long this time around. I hope to return at least one Knight of the Reliquary from the graveyard while he's in, though!
In the years since, we've had a wealth of powerful aggressive one-drops in black that have been able to recur from the graveyard that have become staples in cubes of all styles, like:
And even the higher CMCs have found a great, powerful cards that are happy to sit in your yard, eagerly waiting for their moment to shine:
Thanks @sigh for the reminders on the last three here!
This last year or so has been particularly good for these kinds of effects, but I also don't want to ignore the creatures that can only be recurred a single time from the graveyard, as they're incredibly important to my list as well. The likes of:
I don't currently run Champion of Wits, Angel of Sanctions, or Timeless Witness but I am looking into them, and I've recently cut the sadly unpopular Glyph Keeper.
Which self-recursive creatures do you run in cube? Do you run extra exile effects / graveyard hate to counter them? What are your favorite synergies with these types of creatures?
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