Sets What cards from Theros are you playing?

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
I completely forgot about dragon mantle. Maybe that was for the best, or maybe its a decent piece of tech. Mentor of the Meek is also a card I totally forgot existed that could be of relevance.

Off topic, I really wish Tempt with Vengeance had been white.
 

CML

Contributor
Sorry, forgot to say earlier: Grand Arb is more of a constructed card, it's not cube-worthy for the same reason Rewind and Mystical Teachings aren't.

The best D&T card is Mother of Runes. Then Thalia, probably, and some combination of Spellskite and 8.5 Tails (for Cube). I'd argue Legacy D&T is just a deck meant to abuse Mother of Runes, in the same way Merfolk is for Standstill. Though SFM is the ultimate "win every random game" card in Legacy
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Prognostic sphinx is kinda sweet, blue's 5 drops are kinda limited, and I wanted a 4th (Meloku, Mulldrifter, Riftwing Cloudskate)

Spellskite is evidence that this deck is kinda a control deck, which I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around :p
 
blue's 5 drops are kinda limited, and I wanted a 4th (Meloku, Mulldrifter, Riftwing Cloudskate)
Do you not like Sphinx of Lost Truths or Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir?

As for my theros cards, I'm still working with


Thassa and bident might be cut for their activations being insane; Nylea especially makes people think "I could play this, but could I PLAY this?" And Colossus of Akros was temporarily in as a draft winner's card pick of the month. Shrines will be added when the cycle is out, I like scry.

Cards that were in but cut for power reasons/weren't working/not the effect I wanted:


A number of cards I/my players wanted in but they were just too dumb/not good enough/I judged them unworthy, Xenagos, the Reveler, Anger of the Gods, Erebos's Emissary among them.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
What does everyone have against Mogis Marauder? He's essentially Goblin Chariot + Falter, that seems good and powerful to me. Do people just not have room? Maybe I run more black 3 drops than most people, so I have more room

For reference I have 9 black 3 drops:
(Yes I run a black serendib efreet)
 

CML

Contributor
Spellskite is not really a card I'm looking to play in a white attacking deck. Maybe I'm wrong?


very wrong, D&T is a control deck

Prognostic sphinx is kinda sweet, blue's 5 drops are kinda limited, and I wanted a 4th (Meloku, Mulldrifter, Riftwing Cloudskate)

Spellskite is evidence that this deck is kinda a control deck, which I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around :p


there are a million 5's in every color that are cool for cube, Sphinx is a fun one and i also like the teferi / lost truths suggestions but like i think one can hardly go wrong skimping on 5's for a single color, there will be more than enough in every cube and most decks

What does everyone have against Mogis Marauder? He's essentially Goblin Chariot + Falter, that seems good and powerful to me. Do people just not have room? Maybe I run more black 3 drops than most people, so I have more room

though i love riptidelab and what you guys do here and chris, you especially are a vigilant designer of cards and cubes, i do think that your assessments of power level are often errant, which i'm guessing is due to a lack of practical grounding in competitive and cube MTG. when mogis's was spoilt, there was not a man who did not go apeshit over its power; when mogis's was played in THS limited, there was not a man who wasn't disappointed. i'm not saying it's a bad inclusion, as it has seen a little bit of constructed play, even, but assessing it with the context of ~6 drafts where you played with or against it, or some standard testing where you threw it in a deck or played against your buddy's brew with it, provides a richer context in which to judge the card.

Mogi's Mauraders is great. However, he doesn't do black stuff. Serendib Efreet is much blacker then him.


kobe bryant, chillin out in newport beach: black as fuck
 

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
How has Ember Swallower been? Is it more interesting than the glut of other 4-drops at your disposal?

I can confirm the card is fantastic, and gives red more dimensions than it typically has with its other options at four mana. It's good in either the Big Red or G/R ramp shells, providing a beefy ground blocker and a must-remove time bomb that can take over the game if not dealt with in short order. I like it a lot more than the redundant Hero of Oxid Ridge, who is always passed over if Hellrider is available.
 

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
Ember Swallower does seem interesting, but it seems to be a rough fit. In my latest revison, I'm heavy on sweepers in red (probably need to eliminate one) but light on spot removal. So dropping, say, Flametongue Kavu for him is a step in completely the wrong direction. The available cut here is likely Crater Hellion or Slagstorm and I'm not convinced this is where I want to go.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
there are a million 5's in every color that are cool for cube, Sphinx is a fun one and i also like the teferi / lost truths suggestions but like i think one can hardly go wrong skimping on 5's for a single color, there will be more than enough in every cube and most decks

though i love riptidelab and what you guys do here and chris, you especially are a vigilant designer of cards and cubes, i do think that your assessments of power level are often errant, which i'm guessing is due to a lack of practical grounding in competitive and cube MTG. when mogis's was spoilt, there was not a man who did not go apeshit over its power; when mogis's was played in THS limited, there was not a man who wasn't disappointed. i'm not saying it's a bad inclusion, as it has seen a little bit of constructed play, even, but assessing it with the context of ~6 drafts where you played with or against it, or some standard testing where you threw it in a deck or played against your buddy's brew with it, provides a richer context in which to judge the card.


I've never loved tefari, and while lost truths is a cool card, I love that prognostic sphinx protects itself well-ish, and his beard.

Strangely, I haven't played constructed magic since...Mirrordin? No I played a bit during ravnica. I actually thought Maraduer was kinda mediocre until I noticed haste :p
I haven't drafted noncube either, but Theros Draft is certainly a different animal from my cube from what I've seen.

Correctly or not people keep making black aggro decks in my cube, snatchin up all my gravecrawlers to just attack with, so he's been pretty well recieved.
 

CML

Contributor
Strange that Gravecrawler's price hasn't dropped post-rotation. Trunkers to blame?


eh dog was $10 for a while. $3.50 for a ridiculously powerful & fringe-modern-and-legacy one-drop from a small and bad set is a great price!

though cube d&t will often be aggro, cube d&t has sometimes been controlling over here. a game might involve a green or black deck getting stymied early on by a spellskite, 8.5 tails, mom, and/or plow, then trying to break through but failing due to some combo of suture priest life, samurai of the pale curtain nerfs, the aforementioned dude blockade, and so on.
 

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member


Has this card been ridiculous for anyone else here? In the last few drafts, we've found that the lifelink clause on the Whip tends to drag games out for forever and a half, and its reanimation ability is no slouch, either. There's only a limited amount of artifact hate in my cube, so when the Whip lands, it tends to stick around. I thought it would be a fun trinket for reanimation decks to mess around with. Instead, it's warped games for midrange decks into drawn-out abominations that barely resemble the normal flow of Magic. Since I'm trying to cut down on incidental lifegain, it's now squarely in my crosshairs.

I'm wondering if this is just a result of my cube's peculiar configuration, or whether this effect is more universal.
 
Mass lifelink makes games really grindy, and whip gives it unconditionally unlike a certain other god weapon's keyword.

It's pretty annoying in standard, too, and makes me wonder why Erebos both works with (pay life to draw cards) and takes a dump on (can't gain life) his own weapon. Very strange.
 
I'll toss in my two cents:

Currently playing:


Need to test out/acquire:
, plus a few scry lands.

Quick side question for the masses: what are you all using as a means to trigger Heroic?
 

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
For lots of ideas on cards that trigger heroic, look at my cube. Lots of auras and combat tricks, and couple of sneaky other cards.
 
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