Chris Taylor
Contributor
Big fan of Thalia 3, that card is really annoying but you can't ever feel that bad about losing to a card that dies to shock
Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight
- Thread starter Dom Harvey
- Start date
I think you have all the disruptive spells and lands you need for tempo decks. You even run Winter Orb! The big issue as I see it for the archetype are creatures, since they need to be small and the selection in blue is scarce. But I've drafted your cube a ton and I keep getting cool tempo decks with it so I think you are doing well.
In fact, they are my favourite deck to draft in your cube!
In fact, they are my favourite deck to draft in your cube!
This is a good one! It's always tough finding a spot in the White 3 drop section though
I am not (because the rate won't mesh well with the rest of the cube), but I do appreciate the insight. I haven't seen these in a long time and it gets my gears turning! I've also thought about Tectonic Break, but it's a little too narrow.
As for Daze, it's already in
.That is a good point. It's why Inscho's Thalia suggestion makes a lot of sense. I also think Tishana's Tidebender might be worth a second look. Stifle attached to a decent body is what these decks want.
Was reading some early 2000s tournament reports (as you do on a Wednesday night near midnight) and found this card:
Anyone have any experience with it? It seems zany and fun. You can kind of build your deck around it to have close-to-even chances of getting your mana back, and it seems like it would have great story equity. That said, it's a big mana investment to do literally anything. Am I crazy for considering this?
Anyone have any experience with it? It seems zany and fun. You can kind of build your deck around it to have close-to-even chances of getting your mana back, and it seems like it would have great story equity. That said, it's a big mana investment to do literally anything. Am I crazy for considering this?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
To be fair, it's also a 12-mana Explosive Vegetation, and the lands even enter the battlefield untapped, provided you have a land drop left for the turn, of course. I think you're being too negative
Honestly though, this seems like an extreme late game card advantage machine. Yes, it's random, but so is drawing a card off of Arcane Encyclopedia. Sometimes you're revealing a land (well, roughly 60% of the time, assuming you only run this in a slow control deck), sometimes you're revealing something you actually can cast for free (probably less than 40%, assuming you're also running interaction that you might want to sandbag, or can't cast because Counterspell need a target and you're not activating this on your opponent's turn). You know, the more I think about, the more convinced I am that Arcane Encyclopedia is just the superior card for decks that might be interested in Temporal Aperture, and that card isn't that hot in most environments.Would you run Urza, Lord High Artificer if it just had this ability?
I think it’s too slow, but a cool card.
I think it’s too slow, but a cool card.
Depends. Is your cube slow? Then yes it is worth it since it draws and plays the card. Is it fun to pay yes. It is not a cheat card per se, but could be if your cube is battlecruiser style. I have a Urza block cube and it is a middle tier card. Great card if you do not have card draw in your color.Was reading some early 2000s tournament reports (as you do on a Wednesday night near midnight) and found this card:
Anyone have any experience with it? It seems zany and fun. You can kind of build your deck around it to have close-to-even chances of getting your mana back, and it seems like it would have great story equity. That said, it's a big mana investment to do literally anything. Am I crazy for considering this?
My Cube is fast and mostly modern cards, thank you all for helping me come back down to Earth
I love this forum because sometimes we will just be talking about the jankiest stuff in the world only for one of the most broken cards of all time to be mentioned in the same post like they all belong together.If you're willing to consider some more out-there options:
And, of course, there's this thing if you hate fun:
Never change, Riptide.
Wanted to put a quick spotlight on this card since I know we have a lot of "just print your own shit" enjoyers on here. This alchemy variant of Symmetry Sage gets played in the izzet wizard tribal prowess deck in Historic on Arena and is basically the cornerstone card for that deck. It's absurdly pushed and can help that style of deck win games crazy fast. I feel like if it was a real card a lot of mid to high power cubes would be running it as a solid blue tempo one-drop, but since it's only in a fake format I feel like most people probably haven't even seen it. But I have and now you have too. Okay thanks later.
Wanted to put a quick spotlight on this card since I know we have a lot of "just print your own shit" enjoyers on here. This alchemy variant of Symmetry Sage gets played in the izzet wizard tribal prowess deck in Historic on Arena and is basically the cornerstone card for that deck. It's absurdly pushed and can help that style of deck win games crazy fast. I feel like if it was a real card a lot of mid to high power cubes would be running it as a solid blue tempo one-drop, but since it's only in a fake format I feel like most people probably haven't even seen it. But I have and now you have too. Okay thanks later.
On that note, been playing the Arena Cube lately and wish these cards were Real:
Yes, I've talked about many of these cards here before, but I'm still annoyed they print cards specifically for Arena.
Crucias, Titan of the Waves is of particular interest to me, and I feel could be templated in paper relatively easily, except you'd have to reveal to avoid cheating.
Yeah the cards with seek feel more like real magic cards than a lot of the other alchemy stuff, they could totally just exist as "reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card with x characteristic and put it in your hand, then put the rest on the bottom". I think the seek land cycle like Gate to the Citadel could be really solid in cube with that template.
Does anyone have experience with this thing?
Giving Ward 1 to you and all of your permanents seems annoying enough to be interesting. Not only do you mess up the opponent's curve out or ability to double spell, you also get more bang for your buck with mana denial spells.
(The Changeling text does nothing for me, so I am not evaluating that part of the card)
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I think you run this in a
tempo shell. In a sense it's a weaker Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, because it's gold and doesn't stop wrath effects, but it should be good against roughly the same decks.
Tried it, cut it. You need creature type synergies in your UW tempo deck for this to make the grade.
Does anyone have experience with this thing?
Giving Ward 1 to you and all of your permanents seems annoying enough to be interesting. Not only do you mess up the opponent's curve out or ability to double spell, you also get more bang for your buck with mana denial spells.
(The Changeling text does nothing for me, so I am not evaluating that part of the card)
This was discussed on this thread a few years ago (see below), but I wondered if anyone is having success with Thassa's Oracle as an alternative win condition in their cube currently? I'd want to play it "fairly" with cards that are otherwise useful, rather than as a narrow two-card combo with Doomsday or similar. What conditions and other cards would I need for it to be interesting an fun?
Talking with one of my drafters, he mentioned he really didn't like Jace, Wielder of Mysteries since it didn't protect itself and costs triple blue. I can see that especially in a MP setting where 2-3 people are attacking you. Laboratory Maniac was too fragile for us, so enter:
I like the card as a signpost that you should be milling yourself for value or a spicy win. I also think the opportunity cost is pretty low (1 cube slot) for what it enables.
My question is, do you think a single Thassa's Oracle is a trap in a cube that still encourages self-mill in blue?
I run Oracle next to Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and its been good and fun so far. It was played in 3/5 drafts since it's in and in two of those decks it was a good to strong card.
The first deck was a simic selfmill/landfall deck that aimed to turbo mill their library. The best support card in that deck for Oracle was Hebron crab. In blue the deck also had multiple looters, spells like Fact or fiction, Thought scour etc. Green added cards like Grapple with the Past, Life from the Loam and importantly Eternal Witness and Shigeki, Jukai Visionary to get Oracle back. Also the Jayce. It was not super consistent but very fun to play. I shot myself once or twice in the foot because my recursion did not allow me to get back the right type of card type to get my win con once my library was empty.
Another deck was an izzet Deck with a similar blue backbone that added a lot of the red looting spells and creatures, as well as splashing black for Unearth. This deck was quite consistent and more than half of its wins were with either ThOracle or Jayce.
The third deck was a not very well built Izzet deck where it was mostly a vanilla 1/3 with a bit of top deck manipulation.
All in all I was afraid initially that the card would be too strong for my environment but it has shown to be average but fun. So I'm quite happy with it at the moment.
My cube is a heavy graveyard environment a notch or two below Insho's GCC and Nanonox's 1v1 cube.
The first deck was a simic selfmill/landfall deck that aimed to turbo mill their library. The best support card in that deck for Oracle was Hebron crab. In blue the deck also had multiple looters, spells like Fact or fiction, Thought scour etc. Green added cards like Grapple with the Past, Life from the Loam and importantly Eternal Witness and Shigeki, Jukai Visionary to get Oracle back. Also the Jayce. It was not super consistent but very fun to play. I shot myself once or twice in the foot because my recursion did not allow me to get back the right type of card type to get my win con once my library was empty.
Another deck was an izzet Deck with a similar blue backbone that added a lot of the red looting spells and creatures, as well as splashing black for Unearth. This deck was quite consistent and more than half of its wins were with either ThOracle or Jayce.
The third deck was a not very well built Izzet deck where it was mostly a vanilla 1/3 with a bit of top deck manipulation.
All in all I was afraid initially that the card would be too strong for my environment but it has shown to be average but fun. So I'm quite happy with it at the moment.
My cube is a heavy graveyard environment a notch or two below Insho's GCC and Nanonox's 1v1 cube.