General What are the best green cards in your cube?
- Thread starter Tom
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Dom Harvey
Contributor
^YES
If Modern becomes all about Zoo and Pod I'mma bring that deck back.
If Modern becomes all about Zoo and Pod I'mma bring that deck back.
Academy Ruins with Baleful Strix makes you feel like a bad person. It's a lot less dorky than the classic Solemn Simulacrum version. Great way to spend your bored turns while waiting to do something mean in your tinker deck.
Is it just me, or has Polukranos surely but quietly become the best green creature in everyone else's cubes, too? It's a sturdy brick wall in the early game, a scary critter muncher in the mid-game, and a Plague Wind-on-a-Colossus of Sardia late game. In short, there's never a bad time to welcome a World Eater to the club.
For as worried as I was that Thragtusk would warp my environment, it's actually the legendary hydra that's been consistently breaking games open. After Deadbridge Goliath didn't do much of anything last year, I wasn't expecting a lot from the latest
5/5. I'm not sure how I could've been more wrong.
I don't imagine Polukranos is ever coming out of my cube. But I wouldn't call it the best either. I do love me some green removal / ramp intersection though.
CML
Contributor
Is it just me, or has Polukranos surely but quietly become the best green creature in everyone else's cubes, too? It's a sturdy brick wall in the early game, a scary critter muncher in the mid-game, and a Plague Wind-on-a-Colossus of Sardia late game. In short, there's never a bad time to welcome a World Eater to the club.
For as worried as I was that Thragtusk would warp my environment, it's actually the legendary hydra that's been consistently breaking games open. After Deadbridge Goliath didn't do much of anything last year, I wasn't expecting a lot from the latest
it's pretty good, I thought it'd suck for sure when I first saw it but the best comparison I can draw is with Master of the Wild Hunt, another 2GG dude that fights shit and takes over a game by himself
from a design standpoint i am a big fan of pukey. lots going on there.
This is the only Titan that I have seriously considered breaking my no titan rule for because it's ability is soooo green. It's also powerful without being utterly retarded (like Inferno/Grave Titan).
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
In order to connect tokens with auras in a unique way, I recently added Wild Beastmaster. It'll probably be terrible (flimsy, no trample), but its certainly an interesting overrun alternative.
I've always liked cards that care about their own power, while not having a way on-card to boost power. It's a little heavy-handed, but it makes new players (who aren't extra-thick) think like a Johnny and I think everyone should at least try that kind of thinking before locking themselves into one of the other psychographs.
None of that makes it a good Cube card, but it's still a family of card I have a soft spot for.
None of that makes it a good Cube card, but it's still a family of card I have a soft spot for.
Back when I was still "PowerMaxing" my cube, I took overrun out and it occurred to me how much that hurts swarm/ramp decks. I know most people run the overrun Garruk, but I don't run walkers. So I had effectively gimped an entire arch type without realizing it. Took me a long time to figure that out. There are stronger individual cards than overrun. Lots of them at 5 CMC in green, but that isn't what building a good cube it about.
My problem has always been that Overrun is a card that causes you to win on the spot without warning. The guy who isn't casting Overrun thinks that they are in a commanding lead. Then they're dead. Most of the other big green finishers say "I'm going to win in a turn or two if you don't answer me." Or they when when the opponent is at low life totals and know that they're living dangerously.
To put a weirder spin on this, I'm the only person in the play group that has ever drafted/cast Overrun. I've won every time. Nobody has complained. It's that I didn't feel like it was fair or fun for my opponent and instead of feeling like I needed to teach them to take it higher or teach them to play around it constantly, I just feel like it feels bad. Maybe I should explicitly ask my play group instead of relying on volunteered feedback (which is non-existant...).
It should also be noted that my "swarm" strategy has sortof merged into the sac engine strategy and Overrun is just about the *only* card that encourages you to swing with all your 1/1 critters.
To put a weirder spin on this, I'm the only person in the play group that has ever drafted/cast Overrun. I've won every time. Nobody has complained. It's that I didn't feel like it was fair or fun for my opponent and instead of feeling like I needed to teach them to take it higher or teach them to play around it constantly, I just feel like it feels bad. Maybe I should explicitly ask my play group instead of relying on volunteered feedback (which is non-existant...).
It should also be noted that my "swarm" strategy has sortof merged into the sac engine strategy and Overrun is just about the *only* card that encourages you to swing with all your 1/1 critters.
I can't help but think though that if your opponent has left you 2 mana elves. a couple "harmless" utility creature, and 5 lands - and chosen not to do anything about any of that for X turns - then they sort of deserve to lose to overrun.
I never thought of overrun as unfair. Because it's useless if you don't have 5 mana and a bunch of dorks on the board.
I never thought of overrun as unfair. Because it's useless if you don't have 5 mana and a bunch of dorks on the board.
Might also make a difference that we usually wind up with three players and play free for all. I'm usually the most innocuous looking person when I cast Overrun. But I think I've convinced myself that the right course of action would be to specifically ask instead of relying on volunteered feedback, especially since I have gotten zero complaints. Perhaps they also don't think it's unfair when I win with that card.
Multi-player free for all is unfair regardless. You always end up with guys ganging up and often the weakest guy wins because people forget about him, etc. Our group tends towards two headed giant (if we have 4 guys) or if we do multi-player, it's a variant (attack right/left) where all you need to do to win is kill the guy to your right or left. The game ends as soon as someone does that, so it makes the game much faster and it also allows fast decks to win. There's more strategy to it as well. If someone is about to win, do you come to the aid of his opponent to prolong the game in the hopes you can kill your target? Sometimes that backfires on you as you weaken your own position and the guy attacking you wins.
I really like multi-player variants because they ARE more casual. But pure free-for-alls really favor control too much IMO so they break the fundamentals of the game a little too much for my liking. I don't love the roshambo - aggro > control > midrange > aggro - but I do like the balance between fast decks being stronger early and slow decks being stronger later in the game. It's a nice dynamic - tempo vs pure CA - as long as it remains a battle of skill and not just about matchups. At least for me, that is my ideal magic environment.
I really like multi-player variants because they ARE more casual. But pure free-for-alls really favor control too much IMO so they break the fundamentals of the game a little too much for my liking. I don't love the roshambo - aggro > control > midrange > aggro - but I do like the balance between fast decks being stronger early and slow decks being stronger later in the game. It's a nice dynamic - tempo vs pure CA - as long as it remains a battle of skill and not just about matchups. At least for me, that is my ideal magic environment.