Card/Deck Single Card Spotlight

I don’t mind having an obvious archetype (like blink) as it’s an easy thing to latch onto if you are a beginner or want to draft easy mode. This is especially true if you have some other complicated decks that are draftable.
That said, not a huge fan of Soulherder because of how fragile it is. I like Azorius Kykar more as it does a few things and has redundancy with Ghostly Flicker or Displacer Kitten.
 
My Azorius section is pretty unimpressive….but not as bad as Boros
I most often hear complaints about Selesnya but I'm struggling for space there too. There are lots of individually strong Azorius cards but it's hard for me to weave them into a section that feels like it has an identity without it being all about That One Thing (Blink or Artifacts, mostly). Orzhov is probably the most shallow (unless you love sacrifice decks)
White sucks ass. Been struggling with it for Eldrazi a lot lately. Makes no spawns/scions and doesn't do much that the other colors can't.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Sometimes a little bluntness is good. I still like Soulherder but would cut it in a second if I was presented with something more interesting. My Azorius section is pretty unimpressive….but not as bad as Boros
Could that be a preference thing? I like my Boros section plenty, but I also love playing Boros decks, so it feels like there’s some correlation, for me at least.
 
Brightglass Gearhulk is a stud, and does everything I want in Selesnya. I still like KOTR even if it’s showing its age some
Yep, highly recommended. I also feel the colour restriction isn't huge while, at the same time, preventing dumb splashes into other colours.

My Boros section only has two real Boros cards:



I've also slotted this guy in Boros for counting purporses since it has Replenish synergies:

 
Could that be a preference thing? I like my Boros section plenty, but I also love playing Boros decks, so it feels like there’s some correlation, for me at least.

Matter of preference for sure, but also cube context dependent. There’s a lot of interesting cards in the pool to choose from, but I don’t find many appealing for my Boros archetypes and cube power level
 
Boros has been fine for me, but aside from Winota, Joiner of Forces there are very few gold cards that have interested me over the years. It's always been a rotating door of some Lightning Helix variant and some new thing to try out in the 3rd slot. It's not necessarily difficult to design for the R/W decks, but I do feel it has less a defined identity than R/B or W/B Aggro within my environment.

Anyone have experience with Sowing Mycospawn?



I should mention that I do run a ULD so the options for lands are way more plentiful.
 
It's very good in Constructed!

By which I mean:
-It's obviously better if you can pay the kicker, ideally off colorless ramp so you do it early enough that a Caustic Rain matters (remember that card?!)
-It's obviously better as the things you fetch scale upwards - getting a Sanctum of Ugin, or a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, or, god forbid, a Glacial Chasm...

No experience beyond the really obvious but I'm not gonna not post Caustic Rain when I get the chance.
 
Pro: Creature sagas are really cool

Con: This one doesn't have many synergistic hooks

Pro: If you want to push control, this one really hoses aggro decks well

Con: If you want to push aggro, this one really hoses aggro decks well
 
Just stomps all over an Aggro deck; no way you get past a 5/5 Vigilance body + a removal spell + Ghostly Prison for two turns. By then the other side will have stabilized hard after a few draws. It's probably fine to play in higher power levels, but it's going to create an arms race.
 
Vibe check:


Currently in my on-deck binder because of this:

Just stomps all over an Aggro deck; no way you get past a 5/5 Vigilance body + a removal spell + Ghostly Prison for two turns. By then the other side will have stabilized hard after a few draws. It's probably fine to play in higher power levels, but it's going to create an arms race.

Pro: If you want to push control, this one really hoses aggro decks well

Con: If you want to push aggro, this one really hoses aggro decks well

I do miss control having a Elspeth, Sun's Champion type card that very much resets the aggro players stance. Control has gotten much worse in the average Cube that's following new set releases these last five years, because so many creatures like Gut and Ragavan and even ones that are more commonly played amongst this crowd like Luminarch Aspirant are able to snowball without immediate answer. I think Elspeth is a little too slow for that in today's world.

So think Yojimbo helps here. Comes down when you need it to, and really gives you a chance to breathe and reintroduce yourself to the battlefield with a fancy new hat in a few turns.

So I do think, even though it'd be in the top crust of power-level for me, it's probably fine for balance reasons. That said...

Con: This one doesn't have many synergistic hooks

As my Cube gets increasingly Commander-pilled with "do this and you get this!" style cards and I dig into things like graveyards and tokens and the like, this card takes up a pretty valuable slot. White 4s used to be one of the most contested around, though the cards that previously took up that slot are getting dropped from powered, unpowered, and mid-powered lists alike. You don't see the likes of Gisela, the Broken Blade or Gideon, Ally of Zendikar quite as often as you used to. I think if your Cube can handle Gideon/used to play him, it's philosophically a good upgrade and a more interesting card.

All to say: if you're playing a more powerful Cube, I'd include it without a doubt. It's a neat card. Even for me, yeah, I'm now going to go down a rabbit hole today about white 4s.
 
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