@Calibretto: One of my friends suggested Wall of Denial and my initial response was to doubt it strongly. But the more I look at it, the more I like it. It is a very weak color combo for gold and it plays its role perfectly. I guess because that combo is so weak I have been trying to fill it with hybrid cards.
oh i totally know what that's like, man. we replaced sky spirit w/ the wall. and at first we were a bit weary of it, but after seeing it in a few games, we're all sold on it's effectiveness. i highly recommend it. like i said, it just fits perfectly into any UW deck.
What does the cube forum think of exalted? Which exalted cards are worth playing and how well does it play. For example, I want to use it as a bump to aggro, but does it really work that way? Or does it more act as a bump to control because it focuses you on attacking with one creature?
You should add Noble Hierarch as well. Akrasan Squire is sub par. However, Rafiq of the Many... he's kinda house-ish. Finest Hour is solid as well... swing with one Exalted guy, the exalted bonus lasts until end of turn, and during the 2nd attack phase you can swing with the entire team (or swing with just one guy and let the exalted bonus trigger again). With Rafiq and Finest Hour in play, he swings for TWENTY FOUR by himself!? Busted. (3 power + exalted x2 = 5 + Double Strike = 10... 2nd phase exalted triggers again and he's power 7 + Double Strike = 14 +10 = 24).
Exalted is pretty good. It's not an aggro or control boost, really. It is just situationally useful. It's stronger in mid-range than anywhere else when you draft lots of it.
What does the cube forum think of exalted? Which exalted cards are worth playing and how well does it play. For example, I want to use it as a bump to aggro, but does it really work that way? Or does it more act as a bump to control because it focuses you on attacking with one creature?
If the card isn't playable in a cube without exalted, I don't think that it's worth running unless the card makes you really really want to attack alone (Angel/Rafiq.)
Noble Hierarch, forgot about that, I do own one too.
*facepalm*
Will certainly include. I like to find really good green 5 color/ramp cards as I want to support that archetype more.
And I think Usman's principle encapsulates Exalted in the cube:
Quote from Usman »
If the card isn't playable in a cube without exalted, I don't think that it's worth running unless the card makes you really really want to attack alone (Angel/Rafiq.)
Hence I am again leaning towards keeping in Mistral Charger over Aven Squire. Aggro likes it better. And damnit, I'm gonna make aggro work!
Can you at least put up the new list, so I can see it? I promise I won't comment on it if you don't want me to. (I'm just eager to see what we'll be playing next week.)
Here's the update for the cube, but this one is a little late in coming as the cube has been in this state for a while. So actually, another update is due for right afterward. Also, because I waited a little too long, I'm not 100% sure this is totally accurate. But I did take decent notes, from which I will replicate this update that I did a couple of months ago. Still, here is update number 4:
Update #4
The biggest news with this update is not just the increase of the card quality, but the increase of overall size of the cube. Now the cube moves to being 40 cards of each category (40 of each color and gold and artifact and land). Not only does this mean that each card now finally has an exactly equal chance of appearing instead of being slightly higher for gold/artifact/land as there were fewer of each of them but an equal chance that a card would be a land versus a white card, for example. Well, with a total of 320 cards now, I can support 6 drafters and 4 sealed players. That means that finally emperor draft is viable! Well, on to the cards!
The following cards were added (mostly just adds with few replacements this time to bring the total up to 320 overall. It was like being a kid in a candy store being able to add cards without having to take anything out!)
Why no Rakdos Carnarium? Does BR mid-range/control not deserve it's own bounceland?
In a move of retroactive reasoning, I decided it was unnecessary because those are the most aggressive colors and don't need a tempo stalling mana accelerator. But the real reason is that I don't own one. They are easy enough to get but for some reason I just haven't gotten one.
Though I have to say that I really like them. The Ranvica Bouncelands have got to be, hands down, the best budget way to do duals in the cube. For commons they are amazingly solid. I'm not sure if I would run them, or run all ten if I had the budget to ramp up the power of my lands to include a full set of duals and pains and fetches but for now they are great. (My cube's not a budget cube, but I'm not really spening on the lands right now.)
EDIT: looking at the few cards I took out from the last update, I am pleased with the shapeshifter over the doppleganger, and jokulhaups is better as wildfire, but I am wondering about the consensus about sudden shock. How good is that card actually?
This update is massive. And awesome. A lot of cards get upgraded here in some very obvious ways. Not all of the cards that are taken out are crappy per se, but many of them are, at least compared to what replaces them. This massive update of 74 cards (okay, 72 if you don't count the art swaps) boasts some serious power and long-desired cards, including Mana Crypt, Land tax, Treachery, Bitterblossom, Recurring Nightmare, Garruk, and Figure of Destiny. Some of the cards end up playing remarkably powerfully, though this will come as no surprise to those who have used them. These gems include Mirror Entity, Twinblade Slasher, Genesis, and Reviellark. I'm also stoked to finally have a cryptic command. And some of the chaff being blown away in the wind includes devout Witness, Mindslicer, and Defense Grid. (Gone are the days of running anti-blue cards, as the by far best solution is simply to give the other colors better game on their own terms.)
For the time being, I am going to leave the first posts as is because I have another update to do soon, so it will be easier to just do one big update at the end. Without further ado, here is the update:
What a wonderful upgrade! Every card you added is fantastic. There are a few cards that were cut that I think deserve to stay in, but overall... incredible changes.
I like Silver Knight. I think I'd find something else to cut, or leave out the Stonecloaker. (I'd probably keep Celestial Crusader and Mystic Crusader as well, but I can see cutting them for a super-small cube)
I really like Frantic Search. Some people don't seem to, but it has a permanent home in my cube.
I really like Magus of the Scroll (and I think I'd keep in Jaya Ballard, Task Mage as well).
I would not cut Call of the Herd. I'd replace something else instead. Also, I'm a fan of Wild Dogs, but you've gotta make some cuts when the cube is small.
I would not cut Gelectrode... and certainly not for Dominus of Fealty.
Lightning Greaves is really good, but all your additions are better. Perhaps there's another artifact you could pull instead?
Excellent update! I love almost all of the changes.
I definitely would have kept Ninja of the Deep Hours over Voidmage Prodigy. I doubt Ninja performs in the cube as it did in it's Type 2 heyday or it's own limited format, but it's still a decent creature and, IMO, much better than the prodigy. He seems very mana intensive and simply not worth it. Also I would have kept Gelectrode in over Dominus of Fealty. All of the Eventide hybrid avatars are excellent creatures once they hit play, but their five hybrid mana casting cost makes it hard to want to pick any of them unless you're already very dedicated to both of the colors. I won't run any of them because of that. Gelectrode, on the other hand, is one of the best ping creatures available and it's perfect for the decks that can play him. "EOT, ping you, Brainstorm, ping you." Not a bad deal at all.
The rest of the addtions are excellent, but I don't agree with a few subtractions, however you've got such a tight list that it'd be hard to cut anything else, really.
I don't like losing Serra Avenger or Silver Knight, but you've already cut pretty much everything that's worse, so I guess it was just the right time for these guys to go. Although, it'd be tough for me to choose between Silver Knight and Stonecloaker. The only creature I see that I'd cut to make room for either Avenger or Knight would be Noble Templar. Plainscycling is good, but he seems kind of meh to me.
I already mentioned Ninja of the Deep hours, but Hinder is another card that I think would be tough for me to lose. Cryptic Command is certainly an upgrade, but I probably would have cut Dismal Failure before I cut Hinder.
Death Denied and Rend Flesh have both been excellent additions for us. Again, though, it looks like you've taken out everything possible, so these were probably the worst of the best, so to speak.
I also would have cut Furnace Whelp over Gathan Raiders. The whelp can be decent, I suppose, as a firebreathing flyer, but four mana for a 2/2 guy is a bit overpriced especially in the cube. Gathan Raiders on the other hand, is a morph guy that can be played in any deck. His versatility alone keeps him on my list. I would have also had a hard time cutting Pyrcoclasm, but seeing as how there really isn't anything else to cut for it and you completely upgraded it, I'd agree that it was probably the right call.
Call of the Herd would have been another tough cut for me. I don't really see anything else on your list that'd I'd cut for it, though. Actually, I'd probably cut Ice Storm, but only because I don't run land destruction like that in my cube. If a card destroys a land, it needs to also do something else, so cards like Ice Storm and Stone Rain don't a have a spot for us.
And lastly I definitely would've cut Manriki-Gusari over Lightning Greaves. You don't have enough equipments to really justify Gusari's inclusion anyway and Lightning Greaves is a huge help to just about any deck that ends up with it. I truly believe that Haste is probably one of the most broken abilities they can print on a creature. Combine that with Shroud and a free equip cost and Greaves becomes absolutely nuts!
Overall a really good update.
I do however think you should look at these cards again:
Celestial Crusader: I really like this one. Don't have any ideas on what to cut for it, but i think it deserves a spot.
-Ninja of Deep Hours +Voidmage Prodigy: I like the ninja more than Kai.
-Clone +Body Double: I don't really like body double. Especially compared to a cheaper better card.
-Jaya Ballard, Task Mage +Ancient Hydra: Jaya is a reanimator-enabler, and a must kill card. Ancient Hydra is just ok.
Magus of the Scroll: Grim Lavamancer is obviously better. But there should be room for the Scroll on a Stick. Maybe remove just-added Titan's Revenge?
Call of the Herd: A really good card and a source of greed card advantage. There should be something on your list that can go before this.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, this was a huge update and probably one of the biggest power bumps with so many overall better cards than what they are replacing. Soon my Cube will be going up to 360 cards, so there are some cards I will put back in that I took out here.
Ninja of Deep Hours doesn't surprise me that he gets so much love. But call of the Herd does. As for Kai, I think I need to reexamine the numbers more closely when I go up a step in the size of the cube to see if I like where it is. It plays well enough, but it's time for me to look at things like average cost and creature ratio. Call of the Herd seemed very mediocre for us, as no one could get excited about a couple of token creatures for the cost you had to sink into them. Maybe we're just not being flashback-conscious enough, because I get the same feeling over a (not yet posted) recent cut of Deep Analysis.
I think I agree about returning Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, Magus of the Scroll, Serra Avenger, and Frantic Search. I am not feeling Death Denied or Rend Flesh Call out to me. Death denied, maybe, since it can generate a lot of advantage late game. But Rend flesh has so many better options I think. For three mana removal generally hits something other than just a creature. I will probably also return Lightning Greaves as I think a consensus is growing about that card (which to me was of fairly unknown value until recently). Gelectrode, I don't know... It's so dependant, but perhaps it's good board presence removal for blue... the problem being that it doesn't really need that with the red already being represented in other burn. This would be a great mono-blue card - really great. But it isn't.
I'm not disputing the point in its entiretly, but I think the Dominus cost is nowhere near as prohibitive as is being made out. It's easily as castable as Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, a card routinely considered castable.
But I'm due for a massive gold overhaul, especially in the RU department. Fire // Ice is going back in, to compliment the recent readdition of Isochron Scepter.
Dominus of Fealty on the other hand is a giant pile of crap... Ruler of Sideboards, Master of the 15th pick, Emperor of Unplayability, The One Whose Cost Shalt Not Be Paid. You get the idea
So, the last update was larger and had some very obvious improvements. This one is smaller and has some less obvious choices. Some of them are... placeholders (ahem, Silent Arbiter). But some other choices just made me feel good. Finally getting rid of cards that could never deliver is like sucking the poison out of a wound. (braids, static orb, manriki-gusari, ancient hydra) Anyway, on to the cards!
I do agree that Dominus of Fealty is quite weak when compared to other cube wrecking balls, and has no place in a tight 320 (soon to be 360 card) cube. But I don't think he can be portrayed in the light he is being painted, as useless, the king of jank, the regent of worthlessness, etc.
U/X wants this guy because he deals with planeswalkers, and provides more aggressive swinging power, while having evasion as a finisher. For R/X, he interrupts your opponent's plans, steals the best equipment or creature every turn, and generally adds some tricks to red's portfolio. But I know this card is really there to be played as a gold card in both colors. True, Gelectrode has crazy synergy with red blue's goals in casting successive spells and "getting moar." But a lack of synergy with the most common archetype doesn't spell the end of the line for a card. I have played plenty of red blue decks that weren't just counterburn. Obviously there's going to be some countering and some burning, but you can also focus on tempo cards to get into late game bombs like Keiga or Kumano, or use blue's card advantage to stoke the fires of an aggressive red deck's mid-late game. In those decks, DoF is fine. I won't say great because that's not my point. My point is that he's playable, and decent, and makes a dent in the game, like a card should. He's an air elemental that clones the best thing your opponent has every turn. And quite often, you can pick off those pesky sac ability creatures sooner than they would hang around just by targeting them.
So, I wouldn't include him in most small cubes, but he's not horrible there. In larger cubes, I think he's quite acceptable. I really don't think he's as much a pity-include as indicated (then again, your mileage may vary.)
You don't like Silent Arbiter ? I think he's nuts in the U/W control decks.
I don't know! I put him in at the last minute because he was the best thing I could find after scouring my artifact piles. He hasn't been played, and unless someone (you?) offers some kind of reasonable explanation of why he's a good card, he will be cut soon.
So, how does Silent Arbiter do its thing? Does it really affect the game with the one attacker/one blocker? I imagine it applying sometimes, but really not often enough to make you want to play him. How often can he block the worst an aggro deck can throw at you?
I can only see the arbiter making a real difference if you are playing the strict one-creature control deck and your opponent is playing horde. If your opponent has an awesome evasive creature, or hell, just one of those two things (huge or evasive), then this card is no good, as it's a level playing field. And that is the last thing you want a card to provide.
I'd rather have Stonecloaker than Children of Korlis.
Other than Looter il-Kor, I'd rather have the cards you took out of your blue section.
I think taking out Braids is fine. She never performed well for us either.
I'd rather have Ancient Hydra than Shivan Raptor, but the rest of the red changes seem good.
Hystrodon or Master of the Wild Hunt either one would be fine here, I think. Both seem good, but neither of them really impress me that much.
I don't really like Godsire, but I don't really like Gaddock Teeg in the cube either. There are much better GW cards that could be in. Also, why is Terror in the multicolor section? I don't know that I'd replace Terror with Doom Blade. I know you have a small cube, but I'd still want them both.
I agree with all of the cuts in the artifact section, except for Winter Orb which I've heard can be a house in cube. I don't know, though. We've never ran it in our cube. I don't really like that addition of Silent Arbiter and Pit Trap, though. There are better much artifact choices out there.
The addition of the Shard lands is excellent, but there's no way I'd ever cut something like City of Brass or Gemstone Mine for them.
I'm surprised by the Hydra cut as well. He's a splashable removal/creature hybrid. Always solid. Occasionally amazing. You're cutting him for a far superior card.
Everything else looks pretty solid except for the five color land cuts, which appear odd. Are you trying to get rid of them for a reason?
oh i totally know what that's like, man. we replaced sky spirit w/ the wall. and at first we were a bit weary of it, but after seeing it in a few games, we're all sold on it's effectiveness. i highly recommend it. like i said, it just fits perfectly into any UW deck.
calibretto
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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Cards I am currently considering.
Battlegrace Angel
Quasili Pridemage
Aven Squire
Quasili Pridemage
These two are good imo.
The third one - not so much.
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Exalted is pretty good. It's not an aggro or control boost, really. It is just situationally useful. It's stronger in mid-range than anywhere else when you draft lots of it.
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If the card isn't playable in a cube without exalted, I don't think that it's worth running unless the card makes you really really want to attack alone (Angel/Rafiq.)
Therefore, definitely Noble Hierarch is good and Pridemage, I'm not huge on the Akrasan Squire and I don't like the Aven Squire at all.
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*facepalm*
Will certainly include. I like to find really good green 5 color/ramp cards as I want to support that archetype more.
And I think Usman's principle encapsulates Exalted in the cube:
Hence I am again leaning towards keeping in Mistral Charger over Aven Squire. Aggro likes it better. And damnit, I'm gonna make aggro work!
Update #4
The biggest news with this update is not just the increase of the card quality, but the increase of overall size of the cube. Now the cube moves to being 40 cards of each category (40 of each color and gold and artifact and land). Not only does this mean that each card now finally has an exactly equal chance of appearing instead of being slightly higher for gold/artifact/land as there were fewer of each of them but an equal chance that a card would be a land versus a white card, for example. Well, with a total of 320 cards now, I can support 6 drafters and 4 sealed players. That means that finally emperor draft is viable!
The following cards were added (mostly just adds with few replacements this time to bring the total up to 320 overall. It was like being a kid in a candy store being able to add cards without having to take anything out!)
+Isamaru, Hound of Konda
+Swords to Plowshares
+Vesuvan Shapeshifter (replacing Vesuvan Doppelganger)
+Mulldrifter
+Brine Elemental
+Shriekmaw
+Skittering Skirge
+Terror (replacing Slaughter Pact)
+Mogg Fanatic
+Jackal Pup
+Urza's Rage
+Wildfire
-Sudden Shock
-Jokulhaups
+Masked Admirers
+Briarhorn
+Nucklavee
+Unmake
+Wydwen, the Biting Gale
+Tattermunge Maniac
+Who/What/Where/When/Why
+Vexing Shusher
+Kitchen Finks
+Winter Orb
+Static Orb
+Platinum Angel
+Lightning Greaves
+Vedalken Shackles
+Masticore
+Coalition Relic
+Blood Crypt
And all of the Ravnica Karoo (bouncelands) have been included, except for Rakdos Carnarium
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In a move of retroactive reasoning, I decided it was unnecessary because those are the most aggressive colors and don't need a tempo stalling mana accelerator. But the real reason is that I don't own one. They are easy enough to get but for some reason I just haven't gotten one.
Though I have to say that I really like them. The Ranvica Bouncelands have got to be, hands down, the best budget way to do duals in the cube. For commons they are amazingly solid. I'm not sure if I would run them, or run all ten if I had the budget to ramp up the power of my lands to include a full set of duals and pains and fetches but for now they are great. (My cube's not a budget cube, but I'm not really spening on the lands right now.)
EDIT: looking at the few cards I took out from the last update, I am pleased with the shapeshifter over the doppleganger, and jokulhaups is better as wildfire, but I am wondering about the consensus about sudden shock. How good is that card actually?
This update is massive. And awesome. A lot of cards get upgraded here in some very obvious ways. Not all of the cards that are taken out are crappy per se, but many of them are, at least compared to what replaces them. This massive update of 74 cards (okay, 72 if you don't count the art swaps) boasts some serious power and long-desired cards, including Mana Crypt, Land tax, Treachery, Bitterblossom, Recurring Nightmare, Garruk, and Figure of Destiny. Some of the cards end up playing remarkably powerfully, though this will come as no surprise to those who have used them. These gems include Mirror Entity, Twinblade Slasher, Genesis, and Reviellark. I'm also stoked to finally have a cryptic command. And some of the chaff being blown away in the wind includes devout Witness, Mindslicer, and Defense Grid. (Gone are the days of running anti-blue cards, as the by far best solution is simply to give the other colors better game on their own terms.)
For the time being, I am going to leave the first posts as is because I have another update to do soon, so it will be easier to just do one big update at the end. Without further ado, here is the update:
-Noble Templar +Reviellark
-Aven Riftwatcher +Exalted Angel
-Breath of Life +Martial Coup
-Serra Avenger +Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
-Mystic Crusader +Paladin En-Vec
-Silver Knight +Stonecloaker
-Icatian Javelineers +Path to Exile
-Soltari Crusader +Mirror Entity
-Devout Witness +Land Tax
-Celestial Crusader +Knight of Meadowgrain
-Psionic Blast +Psionic Blast (textless promo)
-Frantic Search +Time Spiral
-Hinder +Cryptic Command
-Chromeshell Crab +Treachery
-Clone +Body Double
-Riptide Survivor +Morphling
-Spiketail Hatchling +Forbid
-Ninja of Deep Hours +Voidmage Prodigy
-Death Denied +Damnation
-Fallen Askari +Bitterblossom
-Pestilence +Living Death
-Ravenous Rats +Thoughtsieze
-Mindslicer +Recurring Nightmare
-Rend Flesh +Profane Command
-Magus of the Abyss +Corpse Dance
-Befoul +Vampiric Tutor
-Tahngarth, Talruum Hero +Flameblast Dragon
-Fortune Thief +Blistering Firecat
-Gathan Raiders +Akroma, Angel of Fury
-Jiwari, the Earth Aflame +Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
-Suq'ata Lancer +Avalanche Riders
-Bloodrock Cyclops +Slith Firewalker
-Jaya Ballard, Task Mage +Ancient Hydra
-Red Elemental Blast +Sulfuric Vortex
-Pyroclasm +Volcanic Fallout
-Grab the Reins +Starstorm
-Pyroblast +Demonfire
-Pyrohemia +Flame Javelin
-Magus of the Scroll +Grim Lavamancer
-Pain Kami +Titan's Revenge
-Call of the Herd +Garruk Wildspeaker
-Gemhide Sliver +Rude Awakening
-Golgari Grave-Troll +Survival of the Fittest
-Glissa Sunseeker +Chameleon Colossus
-Arashi, the Sky Asunder +Tooth and Nail
-Wild Dogs +Twinblade Slasher
-Quagnoth +Genesis
-Carnassid +Krosan Tusker
-Joiner Adept +Noble Hierarch
-Scryb Ranger +Sylvan Library
-Gruul Guildmage +Bloodbraid Elf
-Brion Stoutarm +Figure of Destiny
-Savage Twister +Stormind
-Azorious Guildmage +Wall of Denial
-Minister of Impediments +Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
-Selesnya Guildmage +Ajani Vengeant
-Dimir Guildmage +Slave of Bolas
-Nucklavee +Maelstrom Pulse
-Terminate +Terminate (ARB art)
-Recoil +Nemesis of Reason
-Crime // Punishment +Vindicate
-Who // What // Where // When // Why +Defiler of Souls
-Gelectrode +Dominus of Fealty
-Vexing Shusher +Sarkhan Vol
-Suffocating Blast +Gaddock Teeg
-Wrecking Ball +Quasili Pridemage
1
-Jester's Cap +Mana Crypt
-Aeolipile +Sword of Light and Shadow
-Defense Grid +Duplicant
-Culling Scales +Memory Jar
-Spectral Searchlight +Grim Monolith
-Lightning Greaves +Scroll Rack
t
-Mikokoro, Center of the Sea +Rakdos Carnarium
-Shizo, Death's Storehouse +Treetop Village
I like Silver Knight. I think I'd find something else to cut, or leave out the Stonecloaker. (I'd probably keep Celestial Crusader and Mystic Crusader as well, but I can see cutting them for a super-small cube)
I really like Frantic Search. Some people don't seem to, but it has a permanent home in my cube.
I really like Magus of the Scroll (and I think I'd keep in Jaya Ballard, Task Mage as well).
I would not cut Call of the Herd. I'd replace something else instead. Also, I'm a fan of Wild Dogs, but you've gotta make some cuts when the cube is small.
I would not cut Gelectrode... and certainly not for Dominus of Fealty.
Lightning Greaves is really good, but all your additions are better. Perhaps there's another artifact you could pull instead?
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I definitely would have kept Ninja of the Deep Hours over Voidmage Prodigy. I doubt Ninja performs in the cube as it did in it's Type 2 heyday or it's own limited format, but it's still a decent creature and, IMO, much better than the prodigy. He seems very mana intensive and simply not worth it. Also I would have kept Gelectrode in over Dominus of Fealty. All of the Eventide hybrid avatars are excellent creatures once they hit play, but their five hybrid mana casting cost makes it hard to want to pick any of them unless you're already very dedicated to both of the colors. I won't run any of them because of that. Gelectrode, on the other hand, is one of the best ping creatures available and it's perfect for the decks that can play him. "EOT, ping you, Brainstorm, ping you." Not a bad deal at all.
The rest of the addtions are excellent, but I don't agree with a few subtractions, however you've got such a tight list that it'd be hard to cut anything else, really.
I don't like losing Serra Avenger or Silver Knight, but you've already cut pretty much everything that's worse, so I guess it was just the right time for these guys to go. Although, it'd be tough for me to choose between Silver Knight and Stonecloaker. The only creature I see that I'd cut to make room for either Avenger or Knight would be Noble Templar. Plainscycling is good, but he seems kind of meh to me.
I already mentioned Ninja of the Deep hours, but Hinder is another card that I think would be tough for me to lose. Cryptic Command is certainly an upgrade, but I probably would have cut Dismal Failure before I cut Hinder.
Death Denied and Rend Flesh have both been excellent additions for us. Again, though, it looks like you've taken out everything possible, so these were probably the worst of the best, so to speak.
I also would have cut Furnace Whelp over Gathan Raiders. The whelp can be decent, I suppose, as a firebreathing flyer, but four mana for a 2/2 guy is a bit overpriced especially in the cube. Gathan Raiders on the other hand, is a morph guy that can be played in any deck. His versatility alone keeps him on my list. I would have also had a hard time cutting Pyrcoclasm, but seeing as how there really isn't anything else to cut for it and you completely upgraded it, I'd agree that it was probably the right call.
Call of the Herd would have been another tough cut for me. I don't really see anything else on your list that'd I'd cut for it, though. Actually, I'd probably cut Ice Storm, but only because I don't run land destruction like that in my cube. If a card destroys a land, it needs to also do something else, so cards like Ice Storm and Stone Rain don't a have a spot for us.
And lastly I definitely would've cut Manriki-Gusari over Lightning Greaves. You don't have enough equipments to really justify Gusari's inclusion anyway and Lightning Greaves is a huge help to just about any deck that ends up with it. I truly believe that Haste is probably one of the most broken abilities they can print on a creature. Combine that with Shroud and a free equip cost and Greaves becomes absolutely nuts!
calibretto
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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I do however think you should look at these cards again:
Celestial Crusader: I really like this one. Don't have any ideas on what to cut for it, but i think it deserves a spot.
-Ninja of Deep Hours +Voidmage Prodigy: I like the ninja more than Kai.
-Clone +Body Double: I don't really like body double. Especially compared to a cheaper better card.
-Jaya Ballard, Task Mage +Ancient Hydra: Jaya is a reanimator-enabler, and a must kill card. Ancient Hydra is just ok.
Magus of the Scroll: Grim Lavamancer is obviously better. But there should be room for the Scroll on a Stick. Maybe remove just-added Titan's Revenge?
Call of the Herd: A really good card and a source of greed card advantage. There should be something on your list that can go before this.
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Ninja of Deep Hours doesn't surprise me that he gets so much love. But call of the Herd does. As for Kai, I think I need to reexamine the numbers more closely when I go up a step in the size of the cube to see if I like where it is. It plays well enough, but it's time for me to look at things like average cost and creature ratio. Call of the Herd seemed very mediocre for us, as no one could get excited about a couple of token creatures for the cost you had to sink into them. Maybe we're just not being flashback-conscious enough, because I get the same feeling over a (not yet posted) recent cut of Deep Analysis.
I think I agree about returning Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, Magus of the Scroll, Serra Avenger, and Frantic Search. I am not feeling Death Denied or Rend Flesh Call out to me. Death denied, maybe, since it can generate a lot of advantage late game. But Rend flesh has so many better options I think. For three mana removal generally hits something other than just a creature. I will probably also return Lightning Greaves as I think a consensus is growing about that card (which to me was of fairly unknown value until recently). Gelectrode, I don't know... It's so dependant, but perhaps it's good board presence removal for blue... the problem being that it doesn't really need that with the red already being represented in other burn. This would be a great mono-blue card - really great. But it isn't.
But I'm due for a massive gold overhaul, especially in the RU department. Fire // Ice is going back in, to compliment the recent readdition of Isochron Scepter.
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So, the last update was larger and had some very obvious improvements. This one is smaller and has some less obvious choices. Some of them are... placeholders (ahem, Silent Arbiter). But some other choices just made me feel good. Finally getting rid of cards that could never deliver is like sucking the poison out of a wound. (braids, static orb, manriki-gusari, ancient hydra) Anyway, on to the cards!
W
-Stonecloaker +Children of Korlis
U
-Cloud of Faeries +Looter Il-Kor
-Time Spiral +Future Sight
-Deep Analysis +Complicate
B
-Braids, Cabal Minion +Putrid Imp
-Terror +Doom Blade
R
-Titan's Revenge +Rolling Thunder
-Ancient Hydra +Shivan Raptor
-Rift Bolt +Magma Jet
G
-Hystrodon +Master of the Wild Hunt
-Tattermunge Maniac +Broodmate Dragon
-Gaddock Teeg +Godsire
1
-Winter Orb +Silent Arbiter
-Meekstone +Pit Trap
-Static Orb +Soul Foundry
-Manriki-Gusari +Isochron Scepter
t
-Tendo Ice Bridge +Junge Shrine
-Gemstone Mine +Savage Lands
-City of Brass +Crumbling Necropolis
-Vesuva +Arcane Sanctum
-Calciform Pools +Seaside Citadel
U/X wants this guy because he deals with planeswalkers, and provides more aggressive swinging power, while having evasion as a finisher. For R/X, he interrupts your opponent's plans, steals the best equipment or creature every turn, and generally adds some tricks to red's portfolio. But I know this card is really there to be played as a gold card in both colors. True, Gelectrode has crazy synergy with red blue's goals in casting successive spells and "getting moar." But a lack of synergy with the most common archetype doesn't spell the end of the line for a card. I have played plenty of red blue decks that weren't just counterburn. Obviously there's going to be some countering and some burning, but you can also focus on tempo cards to get into late game bombs like Keiga or Kumano, or use blue's card advantage to stoke the fires of an aggressive red deck's mid-late game. In those decks, DoF is fine. I won't say great because that's not my point. My point is that he's playable, and decent, and makes a dent in the game, like a card should. He's an air elemental that clones the best thing your opponent has every turn. And quite often, you can pick off those pesky sac ability creatures sooner than they would hang around just by targeting them.
So, I wouldn't include him in most small cubes, but he's not horrible there. In larger cubes, I think he's quite acceptable. I really don't think he's as much a pity-include as indicated (then again, your mileage may vary.)
Bump for update.
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540> 360 Powered CubeI don't know! I put him in at the last minute because he was the best thing I could find after scouring my artifact piles. He hasn't been played, and unless someone (you?) offers some kind of reasonable explanation of why he's a good card, he will be cut soon.
So, how does Silent Arbiter do its thing? Does it really affect the game with the one attacker/one blocker? I imagine it applying sometimes, but really not often enough to make you want to play him. How often can he block the worst an aggro deck can throw at you?
It haven't really impressed in my playgroup.
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Other than Looter il-Kor, I'd rather have the cards you took out of your blue section.
I think taking out Braids is fine. She never performed well for us either.
I'd rather have Ancient Hydra than Shivan Raptor, but the rest of the red changes seem good.
Hystrodon or Master of the Wild Hunt either one would be fine here, I think. Both seem good, but neither of them really impress me that much.
I don't really like Godsire, but I don't really like Gaddock Teeg in the cube either. There are much better GW cards that could be in. Also, why is Terror in the multicolor section? I don't know that I'd replace Terror with Doom Blade. I know you have a small cube, but I'd still want them both.
I agree with all of the cuts in the artifact section, except for Winter Orb which I've heard can be a house in cube. I don't know, though. We've never ran it in our cube. I don't really like that addition of Silent Arbiter and Pit Trap, though. There are better much artifact choices out there.
The addition of the Shard lands is excellent, but there's no way I'd ever cut something like City of Brass or Gemstone Mine for them.
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Stonecloaker underperformed for us as well, but there has to be something better than this to add. Might I suggest Flickerwisp.
I can't see cutting Time Spiral. I've run it to much success in counter-burn. Do you guys not play that archetype?
It took us a while to start abusing Braids, but when we did we never looked back. Also, Oona's Prowler is a superior discard outlet to Imp.
I'm surprised by the Hydra cut as well. He's a splashable removal/creature hybrid. Always solid. Occasionally amazing. You're cutting him for a far superior card.
Everything else looks pretty solid except for the five color land cuts, which appear odd. Are you trying to get rid of them for a reason?