Long time has passed since my last post. During the past four months I was away from home and couldn't cube. Obviously the cube didn't sit idle and was given to a friend, but naturally saw less activity. The cube was updated with the obvious, basic upgrades from Dark Ascension a long time ago but the list here wasn't updated to reflect that.
Last week I came back to the action. Now, after the long time away I took a different viewpoint on my cube which resulted in another update, of about equal size.
So this time I decided that rather than to report them both combined, I will review them chronologically, which I think will result in a better read.
That's a mega upgrade. Warpriest destroying the enchantment only after it comes into play makes you keep him in your hand, a behavior that is counterproductive in a 2/2 for 1W, especially in a color as aggressive as white. Not to mention it is redundant with Kami of Ancient Law and Ronom Unicorn, nearly never useful early and anyways not as strong as the alternative here.
If Thalia was just a 2/1 first strike for 1W I would play her still (1W creatures are always welcomed). With the added ability, she will probably never leave a 720 cube (even though how much it helps you compared to how much it hurts you remains to be seen).
Daggerclaw is a 3-drop black creature which is scarce, and costs 2B which is even scarcer, yet it blows too much to stay in.
One drops are the key for aggro anyway. Given there are only 8 other black zombies (including Grave Titan), Gravecrawler will not be recurred often. When it will though, the combo potential is huge (Skullclamp anyone?)
Seal is outdated, many times it was cut out just due to being the worst burn available (sorcery speed, only 2 damage, yuck). Faithless Looting offers red a new effect and I believe the powerlevel is high enough.
I don't think there is need for both of them, together with Thornling and Thrun. Vorapede is better than Kodama because Kodama often dies in combat; green has no efficient ways to kill blockers.
Madness just didn't happen, ever. There is an argument whether it is stronger on the flipped form or not; I believe it is better than Rootwalla for aggro as a mana sink late game and a beater of the same quality in the early game even though you have less control over how it will function.
The vampire lady kills twice as fast, better than the discard effect. She is also harder to kill, cannot be taken and is a sac outlet for all your needs.
I like this update, except my limited playtesting has shown Markov Blademaster to be less good than Zo-Zu. Granted, this is based on two drafts, but the Blademaster is just too easy to chump-block. It's not bad, but I prefer Zo-Zu.
I'm on board 100% with the changes except for the addition of Markov Blademaster. When he's good he's REALLY good. The problem is a lot needs to go right for that to happen, often he can just end up being an overpriced Viashino Slaughtermaster.
I will keep an eye over Markov Blademaster. I am sure the next set or two will provide me a new card try in his place at the worst case scenario
This is the second, more interesting update. I had a few goals in mind with this update.
The first goal, an obvious one in any update, was to add all the bombs that came out in the recent sets that I have missed in the last update, cards that are already adopted by the community (MTGSalvation makes finding those cards so easy, I love this site), like Lingering Souls. This is as a part of the effort the make the cube the collection of the best cards in the game.
The second was to revise my previous taboos on certain cards. After my long time away from cubing my viewpoint has changed. I thought it is an excellent time for revising my previous decisions. Some cards I refused adding before were added (Moat is the biggest example perhaps), and on some the ban has remained (like Mind Twist, which reduces interactivity). For each card I will explain why I removed my taboo.
The third was weakening aggro. There is no way around it, it has to be done. Unlike most cubes here on the site, especially beginner cubes, aggro is too strong. It's hard to recall when was the last time that control won a draft (midrange does win from time to time, probably because it is so good against aggro). Aggro decks are the archetypes with the highest winning percentages, classic control decks usually don't hold a candle. Yes, it's weird, it was not expected, but it happened. This update is just a step in that direction, I don't believe it will fully fix the problem.
The last goal was spreading the aggro viability. White weenie is by far the strongest aggro archetype, red burn a close second. Black and green aggro fall very short in this competition. White weenie is extremely strong in the aggro mirror. I'm fine with white weenie having the upper hand in the matchup, but it should still closer and more interesting to play. One high subgoal here is to cut the number of guys with protection as they reduce interactivity.
Cataclysm is a very, very narrow card even if very powerful. It is a midrange card, that requires very specific setup. You should play a finisher, hope it survives a turn, then play Cataclysm. Oh, and be sure you are not dead by then. An aggro deck with equipment can still win you, by the way. It wasn't played in many months.
Moat is a strong measure to push aggro back. For a very long time I had a moral objection for adding the card. Why? Because it is a very great hoser that doesn't end the game, just blocks it from advancing and lessening everyone's enjoyment. It can create situations where no player can end the game. Added to that is the fact that some decks are helpless against it. Why did I change my view?
Playing with a B/R deck against Moat is not different from playing with a B/G deck against Mirran Crusader. In fact it is a lot better - you can still win with burn, discard it with Thoughtseize, attack with Hell's Thunder and so on. Better yet, you probably have some time to draw the needed cards, you are not under a short clock. This kind of disparity made aggro so unbalanced in the cube.
Obviously there are still fears. If you need to deal 10 damage and you have four burn spells in your deck you will likely feel forced to play the game out until the end, sometimes only to discover it will end after ten turns to a random finisher, with two burn spells countered. A B/R deck might have more removal;s than his opponent has creatures, and the control deck can deal with the two fliers he has easily, a game that is doomed to end by milling.
Very possible obviously, and if it will happen the card will get cut.
Order is not a bad card. It is a mana sink for white aggro decks, beats for two/three comfortably and survives a lot of removal spells. You don't need to pay the mana cost of first strike, the threat of activation usually does the job.
But besides black-heavy decks, Loyal Cathar wins big time. He survives removal spells, leaves you an equippable dude after a mass removal, has vigilance and nullifies Cruel Edict. Even against black decks, he is not shabby as he leaves a black beater behind which is harder for them to remove.
I was seeking to cut a pro black guy, I believe white aggro has way too many of those creatures and it makes the matchup against black aggro impossible. Cathar is probably still very good against black but he makes the game more interactive, complicated and rewarding. I am looking to cut the last pump knight too in the next update (and no, I just believe Elite Inquisitor is too inferior to replace a pump knight).
Tithe is a lot less exciting. It's not a bad card, just never supportive of the deck's goals so it gets cut when you decide your 23 and it does depend somewhat on your opponent. Not a bad source of card advantage but the most cuttable card, simply because it will not be missed by any archetype.
Stoneforge mystic has problems. In a large cube compared to a small cube, the number of equipments doesn't grow significantly (all the good equipments are amazing) so the chance of drafting him with two of them drops significantly. To be clear - the cube has 15 equipments. On average 7 are in your pod.
Will that prevents the card from functioning? IDK, but judging from similar narrow cards like Trinket Mage it might work (Trinket has more targets, and they are stronger cards. Trinket Mage works very well here btw. The number of planeswalkers is also low but still affects significantly on the inclusion of some cards like Vampire Hexmage that hate them specifically). Enough potential here to justify testing. All in all I believe it is a fun card that will generate stories.
Iona has a very nice render available; that means she is ready to be cubed This was not an easy decision.
There is no room for two white reanimation-only creatures in the cube. These two cards are competing for the same spot. Avacyn costs one less, but at this cost that's not very relevant.
Iona varies in her strength. Against mono colored decks or near mono-colored, she is a beast that prevents them from playing spells at all and nullifies all future draws besides artifacts. Against the average deck though she prevents about 50% of the opponent's hand and potential draws, and that's a lot.
But in any case, Iona doesn't help dealing with the board. Besides being a 7/7 flier, she can only block one creature, doesn't help you survive the next combat phase and stuff like Pernicious Deed kill her. Also, it is a risky move to try and block with her as then it opens up opportunities to kill her with a wider array of cards.
Avacyn is on average a lot harder to kill. She can die to Path to Exile, to bounce and to sacrifice effects but not to the second color of removal, not to creatures in combat and not to permanents on board. Also, she has vigilance so she can be a three turn clock while protecting you. If you have any creatures out, you are nearly unpassable for your opponent.
Iona can win you the game against burn, while Avacyn does not prevent your death. In general it is true that Iona becomes stronger the earlier you play her and drops significantly in value from there, in reverse correlation to the board advantage of your opponent. Avacyn is probably the other way around, she is better when you have a few creatures of your own already. That said, an 8/8 indestructible flier with vigilance should win you the game early anyway.
Iona is usually better if your opponent has Control Magic. That said, it totally sucks to have her when you need to cast Day of Judgement to stabilize.
Iona is a card that requires more skill to play. You need to choose a color, to decide whether to attack or whether to block. Avacyn is more of a dumb "I win" play.
But because she deals with the board so much better and she is so much harder to race, I believe Avacyn deserves the spot.
As the reanimate-oriented white fattie I have Avacyn. Akroma was meant to be an appealing target for reanimation yet a playable control finisher. So no, control doesn't reach 8 mana easily. It is good in reanimation, but has the liability of not working with Animate Dead,Necromancy and the like.
Even considering her upsides, Elesh Norn just outclasses her in every way. Elesh not only costs one less, but one white less, very viable for control to cast. Elesh creates an immediate card advantage upon hitting the battlefield and nullifies many of your opponent's future draws (and possibly cards in hand too). Very often, if you control a few creatures, Norn does more damage the turn he comes into play (also, your opponent will have less blockers). He is also a better blocker, because he not only shares the vigilance, he weakens every other creature he cannot block. In summary, he is amazing.
A pretty easy upgrade I believe, copied right from the Cad Evaluation Thread Magpie was not bad at the beginning, and it's still not a bad card, but the cube is a bit too fast now for that sort of slow card advantage grinding. Also, the number of fliers rose.
Dungeon Geists has an immediate impact on board and they kill faster. Also, it's a blue removal, even if temporary, and that's rare. I'll admit, the main drive for this factor is the success other people had with geists.
Blue is in a desperate need of more cheap counters. I know the cards cut her are pretty good in a vacuum, But cutting a cheaper card was not an option. A counter that costs five just isn't practical at this stage of the cube. You don't survive if you don't counter the spell on turn three.
Vision is one the best turn ones for control. But cheap counters are needed, and visions drops in value a lot as you want counter mana up on turn two, then at turn three it is not exciting. Snag is one of the lamer cheap counters there are, but Remove Soul didn't do it for us (equipments, Armageddon, planeswalkers etc. must be countered). I believe it will make the color better overall.
Opportunity is good in the control mirror. It is such a rare matchup though, and even there the card isn't overly special. Alchemy is excellent for reanimation even without the flashback. A very good source of card selection, and with the various flashback cards, Vengevine, Gravecrawler and so on, is sometimes card advantage. Also, it is a great card still for the control mirror.
Both cards are midrange. Servitude depends entirely on what you had in play before. Unlike the cheap reanimation spells, reanimating a fattie with it isn't impressive, because it is expensive and leaves a great liability in the form of a fragile enchantment for your Inkwell Leviathan. So basically it's good with ETB guys and rarely does it recur more than two creatures anyway.
Sewer Nemesis doesn't depend on that. Also, it's good turn 3 after a turn 2 signet and is a decent aggro curve topper.
I decided about 9 months not to support reanimate as a distinct archetype. The point of reanimation is no longer to bust out a fatty turn three and win from there, it's an added synergy to an existing deck. Yes, early wins do happen, but the entire deck is not built just for that. That means the cards need to be good on their own. Twisted abomination is crap without reanimation and not spectacular with it. This place can better serve another archetype and help define it.
Slip is a one mana removal spell. I have very few of those and they are excellent against aggro.
Words of War is a card that could shine, but this was a rare exception. It is totally broken with draw sevens and the like, but it requires tons of mana and usually two colors. As a repeatable shock every turn, it is usally too slow. Yes, against control it is an inevitable win sometimes but control is weak and a source of lifegain will own you. Against aggro it is too slow to burn all their creatures down and equipment ends it. So the bottom line, it saw little play.
Aggro needs one drops and Noble proved to be more than worthy.
Replica is a creature based Disenchant. Historically they were all strong, but the need to sacrifice the creature, to keep G up and the unimpressive body for cost made replica lame. Bad as a Naturalize, bad as a creature, never both and never card advantage.
I'm including a totally different card in its place. Glorious Anthem works very well in white. Green has an aggro element too, albeit not as strong, but even more token producers. I think it will work.
It's not a good answer for planeswalkers and not worth the cost. Hornet queen is praised in this forum. It is a good reanimation, ramp and blink target, immediately stabilizing the board, providing a ton of evasive power and is even recurable with Reveillark.
Swans is one example of a card that just didn't belong in the cube. Yes, it's a flier costed aggressively, but it's so bad against burn, and practically has "Swans can't block". No, nothing spectacular was ever made to break this card.
I didn't like Venser before. The fact that he costs 5 and does nothing at all on an empty board is bad. It is just dependent on other cards being there before him. Why do I include him now? Other people had success with it and planeswalkers are historically strong barring extreme cases, so I give the guy a shot. Also, knowing the local players, a lot of them will enjoy playing with the card.
While I believe Augustin is playable in a wider variety of decks, it is never as good as geist and doesn't have as much impact + usually the decks that play Augustin are UWG or 5cc ramp, in which geist is probably better anyway. I am excited to see what the local drafts will manage to do with geist.
Nishoba is I believe the next worst multi card, from the color combination that has the most cards. It is a good ramp/reanimation target, esp. against aggro but that sums it up. It is terrible against black removal, tappers, white removal and so on. Lingering Souls is a very aggressive card that makes tokens stronger and is hard to deal with.
Artifact/colorless
Now there is slightly less support for aggro in the artifact section
Idol is not a bad card; it is playable in aggro, it is just almost universally worse than any other three drop. That makes the card a curve filler in dire times or a side card against mass removals. It was sometimes used with mass removals but that was rare and became even rarer.
Scroll Rack just does more and is universally more playable. I refrained from adding because like Sensei's Divining Top it has time consumption issues. Now when the games are shorter and long grinding games of midrange vs. midrange are not common, it might be fine.
Souleater is not as scary as I thought he would. He is extremely fragile, everything will block it and it is dangerous to pump it full force. Also, in the aggro mirror it is a practically dead card.
I don't recall what was the reason I didn't include Chrome Mox before, so it is in.
Barbarian ring was intended mainly as a card that could kill dudes with protections from red, like Silver Knight. The second use was as an uncounterable burn, a way to end the game against a blue based control deck. The second use is not needed currently, red decks eat blue control. Killing Knights with barbarian ring is not very effective as both white weenie and red aggro drive to end the game waaay before threshold, and they are getting faster with each set that comes out. In the meanwhile, it just burns you which is super bad in that matchup.
Gavony Township provides a very strong repeatable effect. Just how useful it is I don't know, I think it is a little too situational that's why I didn't include it earlier. It costs a ton of mana, depends on you having multiple creatures in play and happens to be in colors that have a lot of midrange mana sinks that are often more tempting. But anyways it's worth a shot and is stronger than the alternative here.
I was certain I added Vault in the previous update, turns out I didn't. Vault just screws up combat and wins races. Dust Bowl is the weakest colorless land and also the weakest land to destroy nonbasic lands. Unlike a small cube, the concentration of nonbasic lands that need answers is a lot lower therefore it's okay to cut one such answer.
The third was weakening aggro. There is no way around it, it has to be done. Unlike most cubes here on the site, especially beginner cubes, aggro is too strong. It's hard to recall when was the last time that control won a draft (midrange does win from time to time, probably because it is so good against aggro). Aggro decks are the archetypes with the highest winning percentages, classic control decks usually don't hold a candle. Yes, it's weird, it was not expected, but it happened. This update is just a step in that direction, I don't believe it will fully fix the problem.
I think aggro is going to be better after this update if anything.
The addition of Stoneforge Mystic, Arrogant Bloodlord, Stromkirk Noble, Gaea's Anthem, Geist of Saint Traft, Lingering Souls and Chrome Mox without cutting any cards that are critical to aggro's success will be a boon to the archetype, IMO.
The update looks really good, btw. The only things I'd probably keep at this size are Barbarian Ring, Dust Bowl, Words of War and maybe Thieving Magpie, but none of them are crucial.
I love every single one of these updates except for this one:
-Ancestral Vision, +Rune Snag
Vision is one the best turn ones for control. But cheap counters are needed, and visions drops in value a lot as you want counter mana up on turn two, then at turn three it is not exciting. Snag is one of the lamer cheap counters there are, but Remove Soul didn't do it for us (equipments, Armageddon, planeswalkers etc. must be countered). I believe it will make the color better overall.
Don't get me wrong, Rune Snag is a necessary evil in 720 cubes (it is in no danger of leaving mine as it sees heavy play), but Ancestral Vision is still a card that often gets taken within the first 3-4 picks of a pack. I don't think I can ever see removing the card before like 75% of the other blue cards in my section cycle out due to better options in future sets.
With that in mind, I think your cube will thank you for this update as it should make drafts and games all the more awesome.
Don't get me wrong, Rune Snag is a necessary evil in 720 cubes (it is in no danger of leaving mine as it sees heavy play), but Ancestral Vision is still a card that often gets taken within the first 3-4 picks of a pack. I don't think I can ever see removing the card before like 75% of the other blue cards in my section cycle out due to better options in future sets.
You are absolutely correct, I have worse cards in there. Also, one area I could definitely cut cards from is blue aggro/tempo. If the control element of the color doesn't work, I have no luxury to allow the less important archetypes the limited card quantity.
I think aggro is going to be better after this update if anything.
The addition of Stoneforge Mystic, Arrogant Bloodlord, Stromkirk Noble, Gaea's Anthem, Geist of Saint Traft, Lingering Souls and Chrome Mox without cutting any cards that are critical to aggro's success will be a boon to the archetype, IMO.
I hope the whole cube will be better, obviously. Aggro will be better but I hope control got a larger improvement than aggro did. I don't want to cut cards crucial to aggro, that's seems artificial to me and lessens the play experience. I'd rather add more powerful hate cards and cut the less crucial and more "specialized" cards of aggro like creatures with protection.
Actually I am also fine with the amount of aggro decks per table, so I don't want a massive decrease in quantity. However, I did cut some artifact support because it was not needed. It is possible that eventually cutting a few aggro cards is inevitable, I don't rule that option out. But in any case I will cut the weaker cards first.
Arrogant Bloodlord is not a significant update from the previous card, Stoneforge Mystic is not nearly as strong as in a small cube and probably not playable in every draft. The appearance of Geist will not suffice to make UW aggro emerge; I believe it will be played in 5CC, or GWU midrange. Perhaps white weenie will splash blue for it.
But all in all, the change of 15 cards will not have a large effect on the cube level. This is just the first step. The next one is going to be harder, mainly because not a lot of people are dealing with that problem. Currently I am looking at Ghostly Prison.
While I am preparing the AVR update, I present a draft report.
Last week the local drafting group held the final top8 of the season in the cube format. (Btw another pod of 8 played as well). The winning two decks are attached. I was not there when the draft took place, so I'll try to analyze it from the results.
So, yet again, aggro decks reign supreme. Both decks are heavy aggro deck with a curve that ends at four, was is mono red, one is W/B - probably because mono white was impossible to build. The black splash didn't add much to the deck compared to mono white decks, though I wanted to diversify the aggro archetypes and I am happy that a W/B deck can make it to the final.
Stoneforge Mystic proved to be very good here, with four different equipments to fetch. I think it was very good even with only half that many, or only Skullclamp for the matter. A very good performance of the card, that means he will probably stay here for some time.
The W/B deck features a super-low curve, with only 6 cards with CMC >2 and 16 lands. The Mono Red deck, OTOH features a pretty high curve for an aggro deck with five four drops and 17 lands, although one is Mutavault.
The W/B deck has five creatures with evasion, pretty solid with five equipments. Besides Stoneforge, the two swords and Gerrard's Verdict there is no source of card advantage in the deck. It has 4-5 removals, depending on how you count Fume Spitter and Sword of Fire and Ice, and two more ways to remove blockers.
The mono red deck has eight burn spells if we count all the conditional ones in, which is pretty good. It has a lot more sources of card advantage, with Skullclamp, Grim Lavamancer, Magus of the Scroll, two creatures that destroy lands, a mass removal and a self-recurring Chandra's Phoenix.
But if we take a look at the macro, I think my previous updates were not very successful. Aggro decks are still too strong. Both decks have no power, no fast mana, only one planeswalker and one nonbasic land together, no power cards like Armageddon (Skullclamp and the two swords come close though) and few sources of removal and card advantage. It doesn't take a lot for aggro decks to win, it seems. How can I weaken them further besides reducing aggro quantities?
You might want to provide control some more tools to deal with aggro decks. Perimeter Captain comes to mind as an especially potent hoser. Moment's Peace is another option. You could also reduce aggro support a bit, just take out a couple of aggro 1 drops for a midrange and control card.
Avacyn Restored is actually not a particularly good set for large cubes compared to recent years. Obviously it has its share of powerhouses and they were included. Yet again I am continuing the theme of weakening and diversifying aggro decks which are very oppressive in the cube currently.
White
The cut of three two drops here should affect the dominance of aggro somewhat. I hope no further steps will be necessary after this update.
Keeping in mind that in a large cube the chance of returning a mox is way lower, usually the average play with skyfisher is to return an ETB creatures that costs two or more, then immediately playing it again to gain value. In that case, the angel gives a better body for the mana, does it at instant speed, can surprise block, protect from removal and untap a blocker. Of course, Skyfisher is better in white weenie where you would sometimes return a land, but he was not very good there and anyway I want to cut a little bit on white weenie's grip in the cube.
Order is another protection guy to cut. Silverblade seems very good - has an immediate impact when he comes into play, works very well with the shadow guys and is a 2/2 double strike for a reasonable price himself. Seems promising.
Martial Coup is too expensive against aggro, so it moves away for a card that's much better geared towards early creature rushes. Judging by the similarity to Propaganda, it should be good at what it does considering white is a common control color too.
Lynx is a serviceable card. It help white weenie in its most difficult matchup - midrange. The lynx has blocked Blastoderm and Spiritmonger many times. That said, it's mostly a side board card, in the sense that most two drops are better than him on average, and green midrange doesn't pose a threat to white weenie currently that justifies such a card. I never felt bad about playing lynx, but it is probably just a curve filler in the best case. The cat might return in the future if the need will ever arise.
Angel of Jubilation provides a good effect for aggro and token decks. Angel is playable solely in white weenie, which sees a lot of play so it's fine by me. You may wonder why I add cards for aggro. The deal is I am very fine with the number of aggro decks per draft. I am not okay with their dominance. So I don't want to significantly cut the number of aggro cards downs, but cutting lynx will make green midrange decks have an easier time winning in the matchup.
It is mostly there as a curve topper to pump your guys and beat in with evasion, but the ability can be relevant sometimes. Actually, I made a list of cards that can be affected by it, to varying degrees:
Stroke does provide card advantage at instant speed but at a horrible cost. It should have been cut a few months ago over something else, I think, it is barely useable with the current speed of the cube. Tamiyo is a planeswalker with an immediate impact on the board, can protect herself, build up to a game winning ultimate and maybe maybe draw you some cards too.
Persecute usually discarded two cards, so for its price it was a bad card to begin with. It gets even worse when we compare the two cards. I believe Despise is going to be good especially against aggro, as it has the highest creature density. Obviously it is still playable against control, but that's fair. The card brings the number of one mana discard spells to four, the same concentration as in a small cube with Thoughtsieze and Duress. In the last two updates four planeswalkers were added to the cube, a fact that cannot be ignored and will contribute to this card's strengths.
Mind Shatter is an anti midrange card, midrange is currently too weak to justify such a card. Innocent Blood is a great foil to an aggro's one drop. The side effect I don't like about Innocent Blood is that hoses reanimation but hopefully the archetype will cope.
It's time to admit that heavy black decks aren't as good in aggro as white or red. Black is a good aggro color for support, but having BBB is too difficult. Night is as anti-aggro as it can get, though it hoses out tokens too pretty well. Why cannot black have more pinpoint hate cards?
1B instead of BB matches the philosophy above. Surgeon is especially good in the aggro mirror, bonus points for that. The next card I will look to cut is Black Knight.
There are not enough nonbasic lands for that expensive and fragile destroy effect to be worth it. Waif is a good aggro one drop that I have somehow missed in my last update.
Rorix has too much red in it's cost. He doesn't help you when you are behind, which is pretty bad for a ramp creature. Conscripts offer a unique effect in the cube. They are cheaper and splashable and probably will do the same amount of damage the turn they come down. That is of course ignoring the real blowouts this card can cause. A good ETB to blink and bounce, on top. The largest negatives I see about this card is that it's way better against midrange than aggro and that it too hoses reanimation quite a bit.
RRR is hard to stomach. Hound is a lot more accessible as an aggro curve topper, and is probably better in midrange decks too. Double Strike + equipment, undying so it won't disappear after the Wildfire you cast and just impressive stats and card advantage to cost make this card a winner.
Yet again, Disenchant effects without any other uses prove themselves bad here. So this card is a Shatter and not Disenchant, but destroying artifacts was always the more important part. In return, Pillage is never a dead card as it destroys a land. It's just not what red decks want to do on their third turn, however. Yes, destroying a land after a one drop and a two drop is fine but almost always not as good as playing a three drop, especially if you missed your one drop, and after that the card's value becomes lower and lower. I fully understand why the card should be good, with awesome versatility, but it just wasn't.
Lightning Mauler is probably in the top two red two drops. Besides the obvious mode of one drop, hasty mauler, he can hasten your three drop, combine with sacrifice outlets and be played in the same turn with another creature for a ton of hasty damage. That definitely makes him the best red two drop when drawn late.
Five color control doesn't exist here in significant amounts and certainly doesn't need hosing. Striker is a better creature for aggro, though not amazing by any means.
Less cards nowadays need to be dealt with at Split Second. Sudden Shock was very outdated, to the days of before the combat rules change when there were a lot more creatures with sacrifice effects. Searing Blaze is a good burn spell. The double red is not terrible because there are many red burn decks. Plus the card is an aggro hoser.
I know most people on the boards here like him, but he underperformed here for a very long time. For the last few years actually. What it absolutely has going for him is inevitability. Your creatures will keep returning and cannot be dealt with on a one for one card basis. Yet it is expensive and bad on its own. It's basically guaranteed that the matchup against aggro will be over before the ability would ever be relevant. Control has many ways to deal with creatures without sending them to the graveyard, from Icy Manipulator to Control Magic, and even if not it's not like a 4/4 by turn five must be countered. Even worse, that's very hard for creatures to be relevant to the board state if they are cast three turns later than they should (at the best case scenario where you hit a land each turn), which makes it only viable at the very late game. Of course it is also predictable and your opponent doesn't have to kill your creatures just so you will benefit from another ETB effect. Yes, it is good with Survival of Fittest, but Survival is excellent anyway and needs no support.
Baloth is here as another anti aggro card. Especially good against red burn deck but solid otherwise.
Wolfir offers a huge body for his cost and an immediate pump of +4/+4 to one creature. Ant Queen is simply the weakest green five drop so it moves aside.
Ambush Viper is cheap and splashable but a subpar removal and an okay creature at best. Usually it was not among the 23 best cards in a deck. Wolfir Silverheart is a solid beatstick and usually card advantage against aggro decks (Bonus points). He is pretty close to Troll Ascetic. While he is not quite as good, having pseudo-haste is nice and he is better against permission based control as well.
Epochrasite is underwhelming. It is playable in slow decks against aggro, but it isn't exciting. It will die to any creature, any divideable damage. Sometimes it will trade while dying, many times it won't even do that. And then, waiting three turns against a fast deck is too long if what you get in return is just another blocker. Usually, it is just not as good as a random signet even in the matchup where it should be best.
Mana Crypt is obviously very powerful. It was removed before due to being too random. Nowadays, I believe no one will care too much.
Nim Deathmantle provides inevitability, but is expensive. He shines in midrange against midrange or control, but sadly it is way too slow against aggro. I think Birthing Pod is a more exciting card to build your deck with. He provides many more decisions, silver bullets become more playable and it is cheap enough to matter.
Aggro decks have many good four drops in all colors, another one is not needed. Cheap equipment is much more powerful and makes Stoneforge Mystic more playable.
Recoil is always playable but never exciting, never a reason to draft the second color. Tezzeret is a narrow card for sure, it's just a question whether it is too narrow or not. Planeswalkers are historically strong and Tez is a repeatable card advantage and win condition, and better yet was successful in other cubes around this size, so it has promise.
Spire is a slow rainbow land that was seeded here to enforce 5CC. The deck still doesn't see much play but Spire is extremely slow and basically unplayable with the current strength of aggro. Stronghold is an extremely strong land, basically making all your low drops relevant in the land game, all evasive creatures twice as fast and your board twice as frightening.
M13, like every core set (since M11), offers us a moderate amount of cubeworthy cards. Naturally there are fewer cards than in a large set, but compared to the previous core sets the set is quite good. We had done one large draft during the spoiler season, so I made the swaps of all the cards that had a picture available at the time. That means, we have a little bit of testing with some of the cards. Spoiler: the best card was Thragtusk.
As a small side note, I really want to purge ~10 cards from my multicolored section for the last few months now. I am waiting for RTR to come out; it might save my multicolored section from shrinking once again.
About the aggro-control pendulum, I am not quite sure where do I stand. Two drafts ago a control deck won after a long time which is great. Last draft a mono red deck won. However I believe aggro gets overdrafted lately as a result of its strength in the online cube. I do not know where I need to push right now so I am trying to stand in the middle, with both sides getting tools and improvements to fight the other side. The effort to diversify aggro continues strongly in this update, with the addition of the exalted knights over the old knights.
Monk was a midrange filler. It did combo well with the token theme and it is good with blink, bounce and reanimation effects, but nowadays five mana can buy you a whole lot more. It was always one of the few last cards to make the list, if at all.
Sublime archangel was a bomb for us so far. Usually it will eat removal fast, if not it can easily win via attacking the turn he enters the battlefield and his own attack the turn after. Not to mention it is far better than Monk in a token deck.
It hurts me to cut a mass removal for an aggro card, and an exceptionally strong one at that, in the color that was historically the most notorious for creating crushingly oppressive aggro decks. However, six mana is way too much to spend on a mass removal and not acceptable anymore. With Vengeance you don't even get to save the signets that ramped you for it. Usually, it was cycled when an answer was needed early, before six mana were available.
Ajani is an unkillable 5 loyalty creature pump gun, in a comfortable cost for aggro decks.
A major theme of the last 2 or 3 update was to diversify the aggro archetypes. Not anymore were there mono white aggro and mono red aggro, now RG, WB and WG are perfectly competitive and acceptable. I consider the change very positive and successful so far, therefore cutting another WW drop for a 1W drop is great. First strike is very good, but again mostly against other aggro decks, and exalted is nothing to laugh about too. Even the protection is better, because white naturally excels at beating red decks, with his first strike, tokens and lifelink.
Mist Raven did not excite me when I saw it, I was very skeptic. Now after the feedback from other cubes and personal experience both in limited and the cube I can say this card is very playable and worth his mana cost.
Both creatures are defensive. Bank can defend against with higher power than 4, although those that have that without trample are rare. It can be burned, doesn't kill X/1s, cannot attack for 4 randomly in the control mirror. It can block fliers, which is a big plus, but most importantly coming a turn earlier and having an easier mana cost that makes it appealing. Honestly I am not sure if he is better, but I wanted to cut calcite snapper and the set didn't offer anything new, so I am trying it for now.
Having a more splashable cost with a minor decrease in power is very important for enabling B/X aggro decks. Losing first strike and a second point of toughness hurts, but doing something the turn it comes into play and attacking for three on an empty board make up for most of that, and counting in the easier cost make up for much more.
Griselbrand is a mighty reanimation target, Sorin is an outadated control card as it is too expensive against aggro. It's time for black to have his slot of reanimation fatty, after all most reanimation decks if not all are black anyway.
Both creatures are 5/5 flying haste. Hellkite Charger can optimally attack twice the turn after it comes into play, to deal 15 damage by turn seven, which is exactly what Thundermaw can do without any additional investment of mana. On top of that, and being castable without a sixth land, Thundermaw is almost guaranteed to get through the turn he comes into play and might even create card advantage or clear the way out for future attacks. It's especially good against cards that are usually problematic for red decks like Bitterblossom or Meloku tokens.
Harmonize costs too much to have no impact on the board, I decided green can benefit from a few more mana elves to help midrange decks compete with aggro. I am sure it is not as strong as Llanowar Elves, but perhaps it is still strong enough.
Zealot is too heavy on the green mana. It is very rarely playable. About the elves, see above. I saw they were instantly played by a B/G rock deck after their inclusion, so it seems like a promising change.
Thragtusk is nuts. It is easily the best inclusion from the set, baring Ajani and Thundermaw from the lack of testing. If we start by the specific comparison, it seems almost insulting. Pelakka wurm's main function is in reanimation decks and ramp deck. Obviously the wurm is strongest in reanimation decks and not ramp, it gains you life to help cope with the tempo loss you have suffered while getting this to the yard and reanimated it (possibly even the life loss from Reanimate itself). But even then, Thragtusk is probably better. Gaining two less life is a minor concern, no doubt a 7/7 trample is better than a 5/3, but getting a 3/3 instead of a card upon death is so much stronger. Not only is the average card of most decks is worse than a 3/3 creature, with Thragsutk it enters into play immediately with no mana investment, immediately ready to block and attack the very next turn.
But Thragtusk shines at midrange. Of course it costs GG less, making it both more manageable, i.e. it comes down at a much more relevant turn especially against fast decks, but if Thragtusk is on the table you just don't care about mass removals. Starting down with a 3/3 against an empty board is so good it's not funny. It's splashable to boot, ensuring it a place in many midrange decks of different colors.
All that is not taking into account the possible abuse with Crystal Shard et al that absolutely breaks the card.
Broodmate Dragon was a good card back in his day, but today the titans just do more for a much more manageable and playable cost. There is just no reason anymore to play three colors to get that effect.
Baleful Strix is a very solid source of card advantage and tempo advantage. While never amazing, this is exactly the sort of card control decks want - deals with almost any early threat while providing card advantage cheaply. At worst, it's a chump blocker with reach that replaces itself. To boot, it can also be abused with blink and pump effects, be fetched by Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, sacrificed to Tinker or carry an equipment for the win.
Solifuge is another card that suffers from the rise of aggro decks, but it also suffers from the increased competition in the four drop slots. Solifuge sucks against opposing aggro decks. His major weakness is first strike but any token or bear will trade with him. Against control it's still okay, but many more control decks nowadays play early creatures to deal with the pressure of aggro decks, something like Hero of Oxid Ridge, Hellrider of Thundermaw Hellkite is far more valuable.
Flinthoof boar is a 3/3 for two that has a serviceable body even if you haven't drawn your red source and can be a 3/3 for three with haste if the need arises. Overall a solid beater for any R/G deck.
I like all of that except the cutting of Akroma's Vengeance. It's still the best spell for when you absolutely need everything dead. It's also nice for when you have a planeswalker you want to protect.
RTR was one of the most anticipated sets for me - not only as a player who played in the original Ravnica and enjoyed it, but as a cube owner it gives me a chance to trim cards in the smallest yet the worst section of the cube - multicolored. At the end of M13 I've made a list of cards that I'd wanted to cut out of my multicolored section. That section reached about 12 cards. I can say that most of them got cut in this set. Not all replacements are stellar though. I think large overhauls of the multicolor section will occur two more times in the following two sets, simply because it has too much room for improvement still.
Besides allowing me to cut lacking multicolored cards, RTR helped evening the imbalance between the guilds. There is still no balance, but the differences are not as large as before.
As usual with large updates, it will be split to two parts.
This swap doesn't really come from Fencing Ace's excellence, but rather from Harrier's low power level. Harrier is not a true aggro creature, not reliable against aggro and requires an upkeep of W which is too much. It's a cost you don't want to pay early, strapped to a card you want to play on your first turn. Ace is a colorshifted Viashino Slaughtermaster. Viashino was terrible, and he was in a color that needs two drops desperately. Ace is in a color that has tons of them, but also white has many more ways to pump his creatures. I believe Ace will be better than Viashino. That still doesn't mean he is good enough, in that case he will be cut in the next update for the next white aggro creature. About the issue of cutting a one drop - well first Harrier didn't play the role of a one drop anyway and we have got an excellent hybrid one drop in white as a replacement.
Knight of Glory's exalted is not a good fit to white, the color of tokens. The protection from black on early beaters keeps black aggro decks from being competitive. Azorius Arrester removes a blocker when it comes into play, just like Kor Hookmaster. It's a good topdeck late, can be played defensively and sometimes can even be worth bouncing or blinking. It might still not hold up against the competition for long, but it's unlikely that Knight of Glory will find his way back in.
Captain was practically too easy to deal with to serve as a control finisher. A Lightning Bolt deals with him pretty effectively, or effectively enough to neuter him as a game ending threat. As such, as a blink/reanimation target, Angel of Serenity is way better. It might be a better reanimation target than even Avacyn, Angel of Hope herself. For now both will stay in, at some point in the future I'd like to swap one of them for a 6 drop that can also serve as a control finisher.
Functionally the same, Apparition has a better creature type. I don't think a 720 cube has place of three of those guys but it's good that the option is there in case suddenly enchantments becomes too strong or numerous (highly unlikely though).
Confiscate is too slow. Yes, it can steal planeswalkers, but that application is not good enough to warrant that high cost. Jace AoT is not as strong as the other jaces but is still good enough, being cheap, able to protect itself and you and generating card advantage. From the playtesting so far, he was very solid.
Dusk Urchins was never strong to begin with, wizards just don't print any good black three drops. Pact Rat is all kinds of awesome. On its own, he creates 4 power on the third turn, 9 on the fourth, 16 on the fifth and so on. On his own he can win on turn 5 or 6, requiring only 2B available, regardless of what you have in hand. Pointing a removal on one of the rats is not going to solve the problem, as the tokens are copies and have the ability. That makes the rats extremely hard to remove. Not to mention you can activate the ability on instant speed!
Besides that the rats fill an important role as a cheap mono black discard outlet for reanimator. All in all a winner, I believe it is one of the stronger cards in the set.
Ashes to Ashes is card advantage but is just too restrictive, requiring two targetable creatures, paying life and double black. A broad spot removal is usually way better, it will save your ass in great many situations Ashes won't. Ultimate Price is one of the top mass removals actually, somewhere around Doom Blade's powerlevel and that's plenty good enough for a large cube.
Red has too many four drops. One or two more will need to be cut as well in future sets, but you have to start somewhere. Dragon is too easy to remove and requires too much life payment. Mortars is serviceable as a two mana spot removal or a Flame Wave later. Hopefully the versatility makes him excellent for red control.
This is a pretty strict upgrade for several reasons. First, having haste makes Ash Zealot better against all non-white decks. He is better on an empty board, probably still better on turn two against every white control deck and is a better topdeck due to haste. On top of that he has a hosing ability that might not be relevant most of the time, but is still an upside for you if you are aggressive enough to play him. Ash Zealot is just considerably more maindeckable and that alone should suffice.
Chainwalker is a 3 power two drop. That alone does not guarantee playability, but out of all colors red has the easiest time to clear the way past blockers and the color is still aching for two drops. Ball Lightning was just the least playable card in the red section, offering a reward for people who go mono red that is just not needed, as it gets drafted anyway. A 6/1 creature is not very strong with all the first strike creatures.
Scute Mob is too slow and fragile. The payoff of a big ground dude is not big enough. Goliath as a 5/5 for 4 is above the curve, and creates another giant sized threat even after it dies.
Berserk is just not an effect I want to have in my deck. It can be a conditional removal for attackers if you are willing to pay some life, but doubling a creature's power once and then sacrificing it is so much worse than burn or equipment. I was inspired to try out Channel by the stories of people here on the forums. I have a large artifact section and playing early swords, Myr Battlesphere, Sundering Titan etc. can be devastating. I'm not sure it's broad enough to justify a slot, but I'm trying it anyway.
Destroying planeswalkers becomes more and more important as time goes on. Just in this set, two more planeswalkers were added. Terminate has instant speed and doesn't allow regeneration but is already close in powerlevel to the red and black removal spells and is nothing worth splashing for.
Detention Sphere is basically a harder to cast Oblivion Ring. O-Ring is a great card, able to deal with any threat including planeswalkers, while avoiding graveyard recursions. In a singleton format, the only upside Sphere has is against masses of tokens or copies. It is not actually worth the harder cost per se, but it's true that I'd cube with a 1WW O-Ring as O-Ring is strong enough that a strictly worse version is still playable. It's hard to see why a W/U deck would not play Detention Sphere ever; the fact is it's probably the best W/U card.
Plumeveil gets the hammer because an HHH cost is hard to cast, and the 4/4 blocker has the problem of dying with your mass removal.
Mega upgrade. Spirit Monger is good, but just a ground dude in the bottom line. Vraska has an immediate impact on the board and generates card advantage as well as threatening to finish the game in the meanwhile. She is not as strong as I previously thought. She gets her time in the sun for at least the next set then the multicolored cards will be revamped again.
Gelectrode is very slow and fragile. It can create card advantage but you can see it from miles and it's super easy to deal with. Izzet Charm is perfect for U/W decks, providing answers to almost everything and it always does something useful no matter what situation you are in.
Sledge is mostly just another functional Loxodon Warhammar, just harder to cast. Warhammer itself is falling out of favor quickly, as it's expensive and cannot compete with the new swords. Lol troll is well worth the mana, as a hard to kill, large trampling creature for a bargain cost. Especially good as another discard outlet.
Death Grasp is a Fireball in colors that don't get it but at an extreme cost. It is a sorcery Lightning Helix at 3WB. It's not efficient enough as a removal and not spectacular as a finisher either. Selesnya Charm has a ton of versatility, and while I don't think it's perfect it's better than many multicolored cards and I believe it will survive even after the whole block is released.
Militant is crazy good. Cubes have been playing every Savannah Lions ever printed, an easier to cast version with an ability that is mostly upside is ridiculous. Liege was expensive and HHH is very hard to cast.
Shambling Remains seems like a great card on paper, but a 4/3 on the ground is not that intimidating, even if it is somewhat efficient. Death Cackler is perfect for both red aggro and black aggro, we couldn't ask for anything better.
Oona is an okay finisher, but she has fallen out favor lately. Mainly, she doesn't have protection from removal, doesn't affect the board the turn she comes into play besides blocking and she ties up all your mana. Moreover, years of playing has shown that you cannot count on her creating an army of fliers consistently, creating enough blockers to keep you alive. Psychatog failed us once, but since something like two years have passed, and since then the cube as a whole had changed and a lot of excellent new players have joined I believe one of the more powerful cards in magic's history will find a home.
Wall of Denial is the best blocker possible, but the fact is he will die to your mass removal as one blocker is never enough to survive. Not to mention a lot of aggro beaters nowadays have evasion. 4cc wrath effects are critical for control decks. Another one is highly needed, especially with the boost aggro got from this set.
Angel of Despair is a good reanimation target and fun with blink, but ultimately way too expensive on her own and as a reanimation target she is still not good enough to stabilize you or win you the game. Decay is super efficient at what he does, eliminating more than a half of the cards in the cube, regardless of card type, at instant speed. And you cannot even counter it.
Crystal Ball is a good way to gain slow card quality, it was just too slow with the rise in aggro's powerlevel. Lantern is a very good fixer. The obvious comparison is to Coalition Relic. It's not as strong as relic obviously, as it cannot ramp but it is still the second best fixer after it, a card you will take highly in your four color deck. This cube has a problem supporting 5cc decks, so a help to shore up that weakness is welcomed.
The cube has gone through several updates during the last two and a half months. A new set came out, Gatecrash, with new goodies. Many cards from recent sets were tested by other cubers and shown good results, so they are given a try as well. But most importantly, I've redefined what each color in my cube should do.
Aggro in the cube was too strong. Yes, it may sound weird, but if you played the cube you were many times forced to play aggro. Aggro was present in white, red, black and green with white dominating all the other aggro archetypes, and mono-red rolling control. Control decks were present, mostly blue based. Midrange/ramp decks were few and far between. Reanimator was a pretty popular archetype, supporting 1.5-2 decks per draft on average and getting some wins. Keep in mind we have large drafts though.
In order to allow for a larger breadth of different strategies, I've decided to limit aggro as a main strategy to just white and red. Green and black aggro were just not strong enough in powerlevel and it felt like I was forcing my players to play archetypes they didn't like. Added to that is the outside influence of many different cubes here, which have started defining their colors in different ways in the last year or so.
Blue will remain control, and the color of broken. I think when players draft blue this is what they expect and not blue tempo. Blue control is deep enough to support 96 cards. Red will remain basically as it was, mainly burn based aggro. Red has a few control elements, especially with Wildfire, but they were weak. Aid was given in the form of multiple new mana rocks and more ramp cards in different colors, however. White kept being mostly weenie aggro and some mass removals and stabilization cards for control.
Black still supports aggro, but as a sidekick and not a main player. Mostly all the black midrange was reformed to be a cohesive deck. Green dropped its aggro completely (a few cards still remain, but they will be cut in the near future) in favor of more ramp spells and fatties. Five new mana rocks were added into the artifact section, and while that number seems small, they have made quite an impact on the playability of cards like Wildfire and Upheaval.
After all those tweaks, aggro became weaker than intended for a number of drafts. I've made a few changes to compensate for this loss as I wanted aggro to stay highly competitive for the health of the environment. The humble step was cutting most of the anti-aggro cards, like Timely Reinforcements, for more aggro support. The changes so far were successful with an aggro deck winning the last 10 man draft, with two others being drafted. But the sample size is small so I'll keep my eye open on that issue.
This gigantic update will be split into several parts.
Fencing Ace is a card that does not hold on a spot on his own - he is way underpowered without efficient ways to pump him. It turns out that in a large cube there isn't a high enough concentration of equipments and anthems to make him playable on a consistent basis.
I'm not sure Captain is a top two drop, but it does have potential. You certainly will answer him before the next attack step if you can, and he benefits a lot more out of anthems. This is all assuming he connects, but being a must kill/must block two drop is a good thing.
White has many reanimation targets already, with Angel of Serenity, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Yosei, the Morning Star, Sunblast Angel and Sun Titan, so for a color that doesn't excel in reanimation nor ramp it just has too many. I believe Avacyn is the worst target because she doesn't help you stabilize the turn she comes into play. Also she is unplayable outside of reanimator while most of the others are. On her own, she is fairly easy to answer with Icy Manipulator, Control Magic, Oblivion Ring, Diabolic Edict etc. and even if she isn't dealt with she only blocks one creature. Her ability can be a real pain if you have some board presence, but in reanimator decks this is almost never the case. She got the axe.
Kor Skyfisher is an efficient dude that enables some sweet things with ETB effects and moxen. We missed the guy.
I've decided to try the big two miracle spells (with Bonfire of the Damned). Both Decree and it have the same niche function so they are an obvious swap. Decree in general excels against counter-heavy control; an archetype which was a lot more powerful at the early stages of the cube. With the rise of aggro and midrange (non-white) it lost a lot of its appeal.
An aggro hate card turning into its nemesis. Frontline Medic is a needed splashable three drop in white. The body is serviceable, and the two upsides are situationally powerful.
Reinforcement was perhaps the first anti-aggro card to get cut when aggro dropped in power. Syndic is a splashable beater, but the fact that it adds reach to a color that doesn't have it normally is tempting. It is good in normal limited, and the lifegain even makes it appealing for slower white decks as well.
Pariah is another anti-aggro card. It is a splashable removal, but only works against aggro, not against a deck with utility creature that doesn't want to attack early. Also, it is useless in two headed giant. I'm not sure Javelineers are good enough, but a one drop for aggro deck should be picked up and played.
Fog Bank is too fragile against burn. Even if it can block anything and survive, including fliers and fatties, the main function of walls is to help you survive against aggro, and against aggro the tempo loss of bouncing their creatures is huge. Sure there will be creatures you won't want to bounce, and fliers will also get past it, but as an aggro hate card it is much better. That said, since I'm trying to cut back on aggro hate cards, I might cut it in the near future for something else entirely.
Essence Scatter and its ilk are very self-explanatory cuts. They cannot counter Armageddon, equipments or planeswalkers, pass. Evasive Action can be another cheap soft counter like Mana Leak or Complicate. It is obviously worse than both, but by how much? A few more cheap counters will do a lot of good things to the cube.
Negate is the other half of Essence Scatter, it's just that creatures are what you will usually want to counter. You don't really want it against aggro and many midrange decks, making it a sideboard card. Broken Ambitions could be another cheap situational counter. It's the next best XU counter after Condescend so it gets a spin. If it proves itself I'm inclined to try out some more of them.
Gifts Ungiven is a situational tutor and card advantage machine, but isn't consistent enough, at least in a large cube and therefore never sees play. Meanwhile, Cyclonic Rift is a very playable bounce effect early that can win you the game later, and even if not is almost always a great out to have in your deck. That card is bound to create memorable moments. Early results how it is in fact a bomb.
Misdirection is very inconsistent in its performance. It's just an effect that is not worth a card, let alone two, in most matchups. Show and Tell is another tool to help reanimator decks, and blue is already a popular color in that archetype so a splashable enabler in it should easily see play.
Black had a few structural problems. It is a color that has a little bit in everything, but excels at nothing. It has good aggro elements, but not enough that it can compete with red or white. It has mass removals and finishers for control, but not enough to replace white and not enough card advantage to replace blue. The only archetype that works well in black is reanimator. Yes, it's true many decks will want to splash black for spot removals, a few power cards and tutors, but that doesn't amount to a whole color. In particular, black had too many midrange cards that were not focused to a coherent deck. The busiest slot was the four drop slot.
I've decided to try out the stax subtype that got support from a large number of cubes lately. It has problems of inconsistency in a large cube, but a few factors lessen that. First, there are many cards that fit the archetype and fulfill its different roles; the card quality doesn't fall off significantly after the first few cards. Second, many of the key cards of the archetype are already in, from Gravecrawler and Bitterblossom to the less powerful The Abbys and Abyssal Persecutor.
Black will still feature aggro, but more as a support color than heavy-black. Therefore, cards like Nantuko Shade get axed.
Graveborn Muse is a prime example of a disposable midrange card. The times where it draws you more than one card are extremely rare (especially in a large cube), it has a small body for its cost without protection or any value until your next turn, yet if the games goes on for a couple more turns, she becomes good.
Bloodline is also a midrange creature, the only pure midrange card I've added in this update, but it combines well with the stacks theme I'm trying to include, while being able to win the game on his own, and he works much better on the defense.
Sinkhole is a very powerful card for aggro, and now will also be powerful in stax decks. Death Grasp is just the weakest spot removal and is probably isn't needed even if it does see play. I don't want to have too many BB spells so it's good to swap one for another instead of cutting a 1B costing card.
Night is a black control card that is a bit underpowered, and probably less necessary with all the new cards that force your opponent to sacrifice creatures. Pox is a cornerstone in its archetype, helping you stabilize and lock your opponent. The BBB cost is scary, I hope it will catch.
Wei Assassins is a midrange card that is good against other midrange decks or reanimator, archetypes I'm trying to help currently. Smallpox is another cornerstone in the land denial archetype, and is easier to break.
Shade requires too much black, and heavy-black aggro decks just don't happen. Traitor is a recurring creature, a must for the archetype. The one thing that does dilute significantly in size in the archetype is the amount of recurring creatures.
Fume Spitter is a nice one drop, but with the recurring creatures Carrion Feeder is probably better. When you don't have that he just functions like a Greater Gargadon, eating creatures that are targets to removals, preventing your creatures from getting Mind Controlled, preventing Lifelink from happening etc. Being a zombie is relevant to black aggro decks because of Sacromancy and Gravecrawler.
Plague Sliver is perhaps one of the best cards getting cut, but with Juzam Djinn and Sewer Nemesis as near-duplicates, its spot will not be empty. Death Cloud is another engine card for the archetype. It also costs triple black, but has a high potential. I'm willing to give it a try.
Blind Creeper just doesn't attack for 3 consistently. Many times you will want to play a removal spell or a creature with haste before you attack, or your opponent has an instant. On the defense, he might as well have 2 toughness. It seems stronger on paper, but in reality it played more like a 2/2 for 1B. Yes, it even sometimes got killed by its own ability.
Mind Twist is just a power card in the color. It should raise black's powerlevel, as the color has many powerful tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal in particular) that find it. A splashable bomb that is undoubtedly strong enough and might even be overpowered. That alone is not a reason to hate it, but it reduces interactivity in games. I believe black can use a toplevel bomb, so I'm will give a run. Everything is reversible.
Bane of the Living is a relic of the past; a slow, fragile mass removal. Nether Void is a way to lock the game both for aggro decks and for stacks decks.
Liliana Vess is another disposable midrange card. She is the first of original planeswalkers to be cut in this cube. Unburial Rites has a more immediate impact on the board, is splashable and helps to support the reanimator archetype, which is already blooming.
Scuta is one of the worst black four drops, I had no question about getting it cut. I'll compare it to Juzam Djinn, as it's very straightforward. Scuta costs you more life, on average, as the chance Djinn will survive three upkeeps without getting hit by removal or ending the game is rather low. It's way worse against bounce and Control Magic. You cannot even play it as a 5/5 if you are on 3 or 2 life. It isn't strictly better though because it is splashable and can be played unkicked (although that never happened).
Massacre Wurm is recommended highly in various places on these forums, and it's a good reanimation target and I definitely think black could use one more.
Mirri is actually a decent curve topper for aggro, but the competition at the four drop slot pushes her out. Reassembling Skeleton is perhaps the best of the recurring creatures for all the Pox shenanigans and Skullclamp, while being a good swordwielder.
Bloodlord is a subpar aggro creature with a difficult cost. Mesenger has an even harder cost but a lot more upside, and it combos well with the stacks archetype. I see a lot of people had good experience with him in the forum.
Red doesn't have any other answers to large creatures like Baneslayer Angel. Aftershock does offer versatility. Yet, the red section has too many four drops, and paying 3 life does hurt. Large creatures can be problematic for red decks but they rarely are for red aggro - once big creatures start appearing you go into burn mode.
Squee is a card that has many combos in the cube. From Masticores, through Survival of the Fittest up to Skullclamp. Again, the concentration of these bombs is a lot lower in a large cube, but it can still be high enough. Squee isn't dead on his own either, being able to chump block, or carry an equipment. It gets even better with the new theme for black.
Red has too many four drops. Hound is a big creature that has removal resilience but he is slow. He is a midrange creature in an aggro color, and not a very good midrange creature at that. Reckless Charge is a better fit for the color, offering tons of damage for a very cheap price.
The second miracle card I try. Bonfire is probably better than Comet Storm even if he is not miracle. Being splashable and not hitting your board are serious upsides.
Red has a lot of control cards. Between Pyroclasm and Whipflare, Slagstorm, two earthquakes and three wildfires, Starstorm is not exactly needed and is by far the weakest of them all. It barely saw play. Shrine is adopted by great many here; I want to test it out myself.
Green had a lighter redefinition than black - green's aggro element got reduced, in favor of more cards that help you ramp up your mana and things to seal the game once you get there. Green has excellent cards for aggro, but not a high enough quantity of them for a large cube. It took us far too long to get to that conclusion. I have no doubt it can be very competitive in other cubes.
So far this is the structural change I like the most. Green ramp decks are warmly adopted by the players and get to high places. After green, midrange as a whole in the cube got lifted to a new level.
Geist is one of the best aggro beaters out there. Once it is no longer what green wants to do, it is just wasted space. It has uses outside of aggro as well, as undying is huge, but the nigh unsplashability kills that use for me. Worldly Tutor is a good way to add consistency to midrange decks, its return is welcomed.
Both cards cost eight and usually end the game on the spot. Craterhoof has the edge, because it is a creature than I can fetch with Natural Order or Reanimate. Awakening had weakened significantly over the years as now a larger percentage of your mana sources are not lands.
Anthem did not get picked up even when aggro was supported. Now it has no business staying in. Eureka is a great card that works well with high cost creatures, from across all colors, and will enable insane plays.
Skinshifter is an aggro dude getting cut. Maxing out on mana elves is not quite enough apparently to support ramp consistently at 720, so Utopia Sprawl is added as both a fixer and a one mana ramp spell.
An aggro critter becoming a ramp one. Emissary is specifically good against aggro, and that probably isn't becessary anymore. He is primed to become a different card once we get a better understanding of the new green and what else does it need.
Caller of the Claw is a reactive card that helps agro against mass removals. Now when aggro is absent it is not needed. Zone is good for ramp and has a great synergy with the stacks archetype in black. Not to mention it has many combos with Skullclamp, Craterhoof Behemoth and many more.
Dryad is another aggro card hitting the bin. Sage is a narrow and fragile card that has a huge of potential. I'm willing to try him out, now when the rest of the support cards are there.
Multicolored
Although Gatecrash was not a good set for cube, I am all around very happy with my multicolor section after the change. A nice change considering half a year ago I'd considered it the weakest spot in the cube by far.
Vraska did not hold up to the expectations. She is a five drop in colors that don't need them. But the real problem is that she doesn't have board presence. Her +1 doesn't affect the board, she basically always you use her -3 when she comes into play, as you should be behind by then, having spent a turn or two ramping. and then, she is just an expensive answer, even if a versatile one.
Huntmaster is yet another four drop, but he has raw power, helps you stabilize, generates card advantage and has a nice ETB effect to play with. I knew he was good, just not that good.
Hedge Mage can generate card advantage but is usually just a bear. If I want artifact destruction, I want it right now, not to wait until I draw my second mountain. It doesn't help that it works terribly with most nonbasic lands. Boros Reckoner has a hybrid cost between the two aggro colors. Both of them lack good three drop so it fills a hole. It's hard to deal with him without trading down or suffering card disadvantage, and he is useful with your own Earthquakes as well.
Selesnya Charm was a solid placeholder, but not really a needed card for anything. Boros Charm has three relevant modes and is very aggressive. Nullifying mass removals, doing the last points of damage, saving a key creature n combat, Boros Charm has it all. Probably the best card to come out of gatecrash.
Rafiq requires three colors, and is useful only offensively while being fragile. Deathrite Shaman proved itself to be a great card in various cubes and formats, I expect it to see a lot of play.
Glare of Subdual was once one of the most powerful W/G cards. In the last few years the boards have becomes increasingly less creature heavy, reducing its power. It is a card that does nothing on his own, generally only helping you if you are in an acceptable shape to begin with. Armada Wurm gives you a good return for your investment. She has immediate impact on the board in the form of two gigantic blockers and 10 trample damage. Obviously she is a good target for reanimation and Natural Order as well.
Stormbind is a good card that can work sometimes, but those are few and far between. In most situations, Stormbind is slow, expensive burn that is usually better served by any other burn spell. Death is another cheap reanimation spell to help support the already thriving archetype. More spells like it will increase its consistency.
Nemesis is a good finisher in U/B. No doubt, it will end a game in a couple attacks. It even has a big butt to survive and doesn't even have to connect. But it has a few disadvantages. The obvious fact that he doesn't advance the gameplan the rest of your decks relies upon, rendering his attacks useless unless it kills, is true. However it is not the reason the card is getting cut, as he reliably gets there. It's the fact that finishers are very expandable in his color combination, and in that competition he loses. He doesn't help you stabilize besides blocking the turn it comes into play (and it can only block on the ground). He is not a good finisher to reanimate, which is key in his colors.
Prime Speaker Zegana is a card with varied performance. Sometimes she will draw six cards and be a 6/6, sometimes she will be a really bad Mulldrifter. But on average she should be worth her cost. She is ripe for abuse with Reveillark, Clone, Mimic Vat and all forms of reanimation. I'm sure she will be warmly accepted by the local players.
I had decided to up the amount of mana stones. The more there are, the more playable Wildfire and ramp decks are. They also help control and weaken aggro, however. I thought aggro had enough tools to deal with that but apparently aggro took a harder hit than I'd thought it would.
Scepter requires a critical amount of targets in the deck to be worth it, which is rarely possible to accumulate. Idol is possibly the weakest stone in the cube, as it ETB tapped and has an ability that is only useful offensively at the later stages of the game (if at all) after a mass removal. That said, he can chump block a turn after it ETBs.
It turns out a Mistral Charger that loses you 2 life when you cast it and is also an artifact for fragility, is not worth being colorless. Fellwar stone gives you mana on the turn it ETB, so it's very playable even though you cannot count on it for fixing.
Bonehoard is not big enough on turn 4 to be worth 4 mana, usually ranging between 1/1 and a 2/2. Palladium Myr is an accelerator that got popular in cubes lately; fragile and slow it is but I want to try him out to see if I am missing something.
Chimeric Mass is expensive and doesn't really fit a deck well. Gilded Lotus is the most expensive fixer but should be a good card to help support the super ramp deck. It also fixes should you need that and is a good Tinker target in a pinch.
Vault is too situational and expensive for what it does - in order for the effect to be worth 5 mana, you need to have multiple creatures out that attack or block at the same time, or one giant creature that survives until combat - both not easy if you need to keep five mana up for the case they rise. Gemstone Mine will help aggro decks fix and will probably find a home easily.
Gavony is expensive for the effect and yet again requires a large amount of critters on your board to be present for an acceptable effect. Cradle, while sharing the drawback, will help the green ramp decks. It is also inconsistent, but has a blowout potential.
The mirrodin land cycle is not powerful enough, even in aggro decks. The pain lands are more consistent and are more playable in slower decks, even though they can cost you some life.
A new set gets printed, another update is due. DGM is a better set for cube than GTC. Aside from the new cards around half the update consists of older cards that gets added. There are two small structural changes in black and multicolored. This time I've decided not to split the update to two parts, let's see how well it goes.
At first I shied away from Terminus because of my distrust in miracle cards. After trying out Entreat the Angels and Bonfire of the Damned and getting good results my opinion has changed. Added to that is the recommendation of many cube owners and the card's performance in other formats, it is probably good enough to get in.
With Terminus you often get the option to both Wrath the board and drop a creature at the same turn which is a very powerful play. Putting the creatures at the bottom of the library is not a huge upside but it is relevant, especially against reanimator which is both rising in popularity and getting a serious push in this update.
Austere command allows you to deal with extra card types, but as a mass removal it comes too late against aggro to matter, and nowadays midrange mirrors are rarer. Even then, choosing to wrath the board was the most common choice. I'm happy with this change.
Both cards are basically reanimation targets with uses as control curve toppers (though they are not true finishers). Sunblast does help you stabilize immediately, but doesn't excel even at that and Eternal Dragon is much better in control decks as a fixer and early play if you have some unused mana (perhaps mana you have saved for a counter but did not end up using). Yes, returning him is expensive, but in true control decks you will get to that stage of the game eventually. In reanimator decks he can get himself to the graveyard. Seems like an upgrade.
It's not that I'm excited for Pilgrim, it's that Scepter really needs to go. It's a white control-only card that requires you to have WWW if you want it to do something the turn it comes into play. Pilgrim is a strong creature that many large cubes play, and because it is a fun card should be adopted quickly by the players.
Aetherling seems like the perfect control finisher, being able to dodge removal, attack and block at the same time. It's fast and certainly is the most reliable clock in the cube. Sphinx is just not at the same level of the rest of the blue finishers in the cube being expensive, slow and fragile, and I have enough of those that I don't need another one.
Black
The pox package that was added during the last update doesn't work due to the large cube size. It results in many parasitic cards that are dead, especially in Winston and sealed.
The good news is that most cards are actually good without the package, and the major cuts in black midrange is something I want to keep. The space freed by the package dissolving will be given to black aggro and reanimator.
Nether Traitor is not a good creature in a non-pox deck so it gets cut. Scrivener is a huge aggro card. It will not draw a card every game, but if it is a two drop that draws removal or trades in combat the old way it is still as good as any other two drop you could be playing.
Drana is an expensive midrage creature that requires a large amount of mana to do anything. She is a fast clock and she can create card advantage, but costing BB every activation and doing nothing the turn she comes into play made her unnecessary. Creeper is an aggro card making a return.
Bloodline Keeper is another midrange creature that bites the dust. Now the pox package is not here, and he does nothing the turn he comes into play, is fragile and is slow at winning the game. Black aggro decks need more one drops so I'm trying the Assassin. It's not the most aggressive one drop but it seems one of the most playable ones.
Pulse costing double red and especially only hitting players just made him vastly worse than any other burn spell. Rivalry was never tried here. I hope it will function most of the time as a second Sulfuric Vortex. So yes, it has a high standard to match, but I accept it will be less consistent, as anyway a less consistent vortex should easily make most red decks.
Lowering the curve by a cutting from the cluttered four drop to add to the thin layer of three drops. Skizzik is the weakest of the four drops, a relic of the past. It didn't make the cut in many aggro decks. I'm not, well, wild about Pyrewild, but it is a very playable three drop if only for the bloodrush option and the threat of recursion. I'm pretty confident the situations where you will be able to connect and pay 3, without anything better to do with the mana will be extremely rare but that option is just gravy.
Ravenous Baloth was obsoleted a few times already (Obstinate Baloth, Thragtusk). It was added to help green fight aggro, but now this effect is no longer needed. Fastbond was a request from local players to add and it's a card I think will work better in a large cube. It should wheel to the player who took the draw sevens pretty consistently; similar to how Stoneforge Mystic works (the number of equipments in a large cube is very limited). When Fastbond is good it's really good, and it has synergies with Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Time Spiral, Upheaval, Life from the Loam, Meloku, the Clouded Mirror and probably more.
Multicolored
Since the aggro element was reduced significantly from green, the multicolored green cards started to become dead. It is time for the multicolored section to reflect that change as well.
Psychatog was given a second run and it failed again in that run as well. It can be big but usually big only once. Every removal kills it and every creature blocks it. Usually it cannot close the game on its own. Far and Away is a versatile card. It is potential card advantage in one mode, with two extra modes that should rescue you from most situations. The two sides have synergy with one another. It's a bonus that the card is especially good against reanimator and ramp decks.
Savageborn Hydra is a good ramp target. Even when played on curve, being a 1/1 in turn three, it can beat for 6 on turn four, making it relevant at most stages of the game.
Cavalier is a mana hungry card, and for a double protection guy is extremely easy to deal with. Red decks just burn him, blue just bounces or takes, green just has bigger creatures and can completely ignore it. Only W/B decks have problems with it. But those two colors are the ones that are best equipped to deal with protection creatures, from mass removals to sacrifice effects.
Spike Jester is one of the quickest creatures to ever be printed. It is easy to block and kill, but being this cheap it shouldn't matter much.
Loam Lion is a multicolored green aggro card that gets cut. Voice is very cost efficient, preventing your opponent from casting spells and generating card advantage when it dies.
Turn/Burn can kill any creature, a rare feat for a card in these colors. Added to that is the chance of card advantage and the versatility the card offers.
Ral Zarek is the best U/R card. Planeswalkers that can protect themselves, especially those that cost 4, have been historically great, this is no different.
Phyrexian Processor is an expensive, slow card that almost always results in you losing after a large amount of life loss and a massive tempo loss. It happens quite often that it is just destroyed before your next turn, the first token is bounced or even worse, you don't have enough life to pay for a meaningful token.
Basalt Monolith supports the artifact and ramp decks, helping them reach 6-7 mana with ease. It now has synergy with not only Tezzeret but also Ral Zarek, and it goes infinite with Wake Thrasher.
Gemstone Mine was the weakest land in the cube. Now that I limit the multicolored aggro card, it becomes less relevant. Ancient Tomb was tried and cut before, but now that ramp strategies are pushed it should find a home.
Kjeldoran outpost is an aggro card in nature, because the drawback is too steep for control and midrange decks, yet is too slow to matter in aggressive decks. In earlier incarnations of the cube it was a great card, because control had problems with an endless source of threats, but its days in the sun have ended years ago. Port is a great land for aggro decks of all types and colors, I don't really know why it was not in the cube before.
M14 was quite good for a core set. I believe many of the new cards will stay for a while. Besides cards from the new set there was only one swap for an older card. Nothing groundbreaking happened, mostly just swaps of lesser to better versions of the same effects.
Crusader survived for so long because the double protection is very good. The threshold is irrelevant in white weenie, therefore having first strike and lifelink is probably way better than having full protection. Fiendslayer is a better card on average. Against red decks, I'm not even sure he is worse, as lifelink is crucial. A better creature to hold equipments for sure. An easy swap.
Pianna is not the worst creature, but she is just a 3/3 for 1WW by herself, and the battlecry is not worth the hard cost. She will usually just get blocked or eat a removal spell, which is not the worst, but is far from exciting considering her difficult cost. Banisher Priest removes a blocker immediately and beats for 2 every turn after. Judging by Fiend Hunter or the even closer in function Kor Hookmaster, this should be enough to grant him playability status. But on top of that, you play the card defensively, turning losses into manageable positions or even wins. It lost the shenanigans Fiend Hunter had, but in return it is a much better creature for white weenie, which is by far the most common deck Fiend Hunter gets played at anyway. I can't see myself not including Priest in a white aggro deck. An easy include.
Mikaeus is very slow at what he does. He is good at pumping tokens, if you have the mana and a few turns. That is close to never. In aggro deck he is decent as a curve filler but he is extremely subpar no matter how much mana did you invest in him. He was playable, but unexciting filler.
Sovereign is an easy to cast two drop that delays all blockers by a turn, nullifies haste and in general just buys a lot of tempo in a race situation. Testing is needed, but first impression is that a lot of aggro decks would be happy to pack her.
Clone was on the chopping block for a long time. What was good about him are his splashable cost to allow combos (Reveillark, Recurring Nightmare etc) and that he was somewhat passable on his own. Now that he cannot kill opposing legendary creatures, he is no longer good enough.
Mystical Tutor was in the cube a few years ago, but failed in practice. The thing that got me to look at the card again is the miracle mechanic. Although I have only three miracle cards, the combo with them seems lethal enough to try. It's not that without them the tutor is bad. I hope it will find renewed interest like Worldly tutor and Enlightened Tutor did over the years.
Stinkweed is a filler. It is a reanimation outlet, but a bad one. Reaver is devastating when it connects and it can trade with any size of creature to do so. It is fragile to burn, but they will have a short window of time to deal with him before he creates massive card advantage. A scary four drop.
Clique is a card that creates stories. Some of the most memorable plays in the cube involve the card. But in order to shine the whole cube has to be more dragony - midrange creatures have to be common. Returning an aggro creature is not worth the cost, control decks have few creatures and most of them are finishers and not impressive when they get to beat just once. It hoses reanimator but most decks will already get the fattie out of the yard by the time you have five mana. It is not a bad card still, just not consistently good enough anymore.
Demon has an immediate board impact, helps you stabilize and he is huge. Many times you won't care sacrificing a creature or two because this evasive guy will seal the game.
Blademaster is a filler because red three drops suck. Pyromancer should be one of the best of them, creating card advantage and more threats with no mana investment while still applying good pressure on his lonesome. Getting one token is already good value, getting two is pretty incredible.
Baboons are expensive and extremely bad if they have no target. The competition in red four drops is stiff and most pack more punch and immediate impact than baboons. Chandra draws cards, pings and nullifies blockers. She has a lot of versatility, which is rare for a red card and she is probably good in most red decks. Does she stand against the competition? That remains to be seen.
Baloths is slow and very unexciting compared to Avenger of Zendikar. It does nothing if answered at Vindicate speed, and is not very impressive even if isn't as a mere 6/6 trampler if you don't have a land to follow. Hydra attacks for 8 trample damage for one mana less and kills on her own in two attacks. As an upside, she will also sometimes buff your other creatures with +/+1 counters, from Phantom Centaur to your whole team with Ajani Goldmane.
Nest Invader ramps only once and is just not very good. Witchstalker as a 3/3 hexproof guy for 3 should be better. I'm not cutting Great Sable Stag because while the card is not great we still like it and in any case it is better than nest invader.
Last week I came back to the action. Now, after the long time away I took a different viewpoint on my cube which resulted in another update, of about equal size.
So this time I decided that rather than to report them both combined, I will review them chronologically, which I think will result in a better read.
This is the original dark ascension upgrade:
White
- Warpriest of Thune, + Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
That's a mega upgrade. Warpriest destroying the enchantment only after it comes into play makes you keep him in your hand, a behavior that is counterproductive in a 2/2 for 1W, especially in a color as aggressive as white. Not to mention it is redundant with Kami of Ancient Law and Ronom Unicorn, nearly never useful early and anyways not as strong as the alternative here.
If Thalia was just a 2/1 first strike for 1W I would play her still (1W creatures are always welcomed). With the added ability, she will probably never leave a 720 cube (even though how much it helps you compared to how much it hurts you remains to be seen).
Black
-Daggerclaw Imp, +Gravecrawler
Daggerclaw is a 3-drop black creature which is scarce, and costs 2B which is even scarcer, yet it blows too much to stay in.
One drops are the key for aggro anyway. Given there are only 8 other black zombies (including Grave Titan), Gravecrawler will not be recurred often. When it will though, the combo potential is huge (Skullclamp anyone?)
Red
-Viashino Slaughtermaster, +Torchfiend
The last of the red filler 2 drops is finally purged! I don't think there is a red deck, aggro or not, that will not maindeck Torch Fiend.
-Instigator Gang, +Hellrider
Hellrider just does so much more damage the turn he comes down it's funny, plus he is better on an empty board.
-Zo-Zu, the Punisher, +Markov Blademaster
Markov will do a ton more damage, and no damage to you, if he survives. A must-be-dealt-with threat. Bonkers with equipment.
-Seal of Fire, +Faithless Looting
Seal is outdated, many times it was cut out just due to being the worst burn available (sorcery speed, only 2 damage, yuck). Faithless Looting offers red a new effect and I believe the powerlevel is high enough.
Green
-Kodama of the North Tree, +Vorapede
I don't think there is need for both of them, together with Thornling and Thrun. Vorapede is better than Kodama because Kodama often dies in combat; green has no efficient ways to kill blockers.
-Gatstaf Shepherd, +Strangleroot Geist
Geist has a horrid mana cost but unlike Shepherd who is always mediocre, is absolutely amazing if played early.
-Into the North, +Three Visits
The latter can fetch duals and brings the land untapped. Better for green ramp, might be worse for splashing.
-Basking Rootwalla, +Wolfbitten Captive
Madness just didn't happen, ever. There is an argument whether it is stronger on the flipped form or not; I believe it is better than Rootwalla for aggro as a mana sink late game and a beater of the same quality in the early game even though you have less control over how it will function.
Multicolored
-Blazing Specter, +Falkenrath Aristocrat
The vampire lady kills twice as fast, better than the discard effect. She is also harder to kill, cannot be taken and is a sac outlet for all your needs.
-Gelectrode, +Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Gelectrode is not very high on the powerlevel while Sorin wins games.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
My Tribal Cube
EDH Decks
GOmnath, Locus of ManaG
WUBSen TripletsWUB
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG
This is the second, more interesting update. I had a few goals in mind with this update.
The first goal, an obvious one in any update, was to add all the bombs that came out in the recent sets that I have missed in the last update, cards that are already adopted by the community (MTGSalvation makes finding those cards so easy, I love this site), like Lingering Souls. This is as a part of the effort the make the cube the collection of the best cards in the game.
The second was to revise my previous taboos on certain cards. After my long time away from cubing my viewpoint has changed. I thought it is an excellent time for revising my previous decisions. Some cards I refused adding before were added (Moat is the biggest example perhaps), and on some the ban has remained (like Mind Twist, which reduces interactivity). For each card I will explain why I removed my taboo.
The third was weakening aggro. There is no way around it, it has to be done. Unlike most cubes here on the site, especially beginner cubes, aggro is too strong. It's hard to recall when was the last time that control won a draft (midrange does win from time to time, probably because it is so good against aggro). Aggro decks are the archetypes with the highest winning percentages, classic control decks usually don't hold a candle. Yes, it's weird, it was not expected, but it happened. This update is just a step in that direction, I don't believe it will fully fix the problem.
The last goal was spreading the aggro viability. White weenie is by far the strongest aggro archetype, red burn a close second. Black and green aggro fall very short in this competition. White weenie is extremely strong in the aggro mirror. I'm fine with white weenie having the upper hand in the matchup, but it should still closer and more interesting to play. One high subgoal here is to cut the number of guys with protection as they reduce interactivity.
White
-Cataclysm, +Moat
Cataclysm is a very, very narrow card even if very powerful. It is a midrange card, that requires very specific setup. You should play a finisher, hope it survives a turn, then play Cataclysm. Oh, and be sure you are not dead by then. An aggro deck with equipment can still win you, by the way. It wasn't played in many months.
Moat is a strong measure to push aggro back. For a very long time I had a moral objection for adding the card. Why? Because it is a very great hoser that doesn't end the game, just blocks it from advancing and lessening everyone's enjoyment. It can create situations where no player can end the game. Added to that is the fact that some decks are helpless against it. Why did I change my view?
Playing with a B/R deck against Moat is not different from playing with a B/G deck against Mirran Crusader. In fact it is a lot better - you can still win with burn, discard it with Thoughtseize, attack with Hell's Thunder and so on. Better yet, you probably have some time to draw the needed cards, you are not under a short clock. This kind of disparity made aggro so unbalanced in the cube.
Obviously there are still fears. If you need to deal 10 damage and you have four burn spells in your deck you will likely feel forced to play the game out until the end, sometimes only to discover it will end after ten turns to a random finisher, with two burn spells countered. A B/R deck might have more removal;s than his opponent has creatures, and the control deck can deal with the two fliers he has easily, a game that is doomed to end by milling.
Very possible obviously, and if it will happen the card will get cut.
-Order of the White Shield, +Loyal Cathar
Order is not a bad card. It is a mana sink for white aggro decks, beats for two/three comfortably and survives a lot of removal spells. You don't need to pay the mana cost of first strike, the threat of activation usually does the job.
But besides black-heavy decks, Loyal Cathar wins big time. He survives removal spells, leaves you an equippable dude after a mass removal, has vigilance and nullifies Cruel Edict. Even against black decks, he is not shabby as he leaves a black beater behind which is harder for them to remove.
I was seeking to cut a pro black guy, I believe white aggro has way too many of those creatures and it makes the matchup against black aggro impossible. Cathar is probably still very good against black but he makes the game more interactive, complicated and rewarding. I am looking to cut the last pump knight too in the next update (and no, I just believe Elite Inquisitor is too inferior to replace a pump knight).
-Tithe, +Stoneforge Mystic
Tithe is a lot less exciting. It's not a bad card, just never supportive of the deck's goals so it gets cut when you decide your 23 and it does depend somewhat on your opponent. Not a bad source of card advantage but the most cuttable card, simply because it will not be missed by any archetype.
Stoneforge mystic has problems. In a large cube compared to a small cube, the number of equipments doesn't grow significantly (all the good equipments are amazing) so the chance of drafting him with two of them drops significantly. To be clear - the cube has 15 equipments. On average 7 are in your pod.
Will that prevents the card from functioning? IDK, but judging from similar narrow cards like Trinket Mage it might work (Trinket has more targets, and they are stronger cards. Trinket Mage works very well here btw. The number of planeswalkers is also low but still affects significantly on the inclusion of some cards like Vampire Hexmage that hate them specifically). Enough potential here to justify testing. All in all I believe it is a fun card that will generate stories.
-Iona, Shield of Emeria, +Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Iona has a very nice render available; that means she is ready to be cubed This was not an easy decision.
There is no room for two white reanimation-only creatures in the cube. These two cards are competing for the same spot. Avacyn costs one less, but at this cost that's not very relevant.
Iona varies in her strength. Against mono colored decks or near mono-colored, she is a beast that prevents them from playing spells at all and nullifies all future draws besides artifacts. Against the average deck though she prevents about 50% of the opponent's hand and potential draws, and that's a lot.
But in any case, Iona doesn't help dealing with the board. Besides being a 7/7 flier, she can only block one creature, doesn't help you survive the next combat phase and stuff like Pernicious Deed kill her. Also, it is a risky move to try and block with her as then it opens up opportunities to kill her with a wider array of cards.
Avacyn is on average a lot harder to kill. She can die to Path to Exile, to bounce and to sacrifice effects but not to the second color of removal, not to creatures in combat and not to permanents on board. Also, she has vigilance so she can be a three turn clock while protecting you. If you have any creatures out, you are nearly unpassable for your opponent.
Iona can win you the game against burn, while Avacyn does not prevent your death. In general it is true that Iona becomes stronger the earlier you play her and drops significantly in value from there, in reverse correlation to the board advantage of your opponent. Avacyn is probably the other way around, she is better when you have a few creatures of your own already. That said, an 8/8 indestructible flier with vigilance should win you the game early anyway.
Iona is usually better if your opponent has Control Magic. That said, it totally sucks to have her when you need to cast Day of Judgement to stabilize.
Iona is a card that requires more skill to play. You need to choose a color, to decide whether to attack or whether to block. Avacyn is more of a dumb "I win" play.
But because she deals with the board so much better and she is so much harder to race, I believe Avacyn deserves the spot.
-Akroma, Angel of Wrath, +Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
As the reanimate-oriented white fattie I have Avacyn. Akroma was meant to be an appealing target for reanimation yet a playable control finisher. So no, control doesn't reach 8 mana easily. It is good in reanimation, but has the liability of not working with Animate Dead,Necromancy and the like.
Even considering her upsides, Elesh Norn just outclasses her in every way. Elesh not only costs one less, but one white less, very viable for control to cast. Elesh creates an immediate card advantage upon hitting the battlefield and nullifies many of your opponent's future draws (and possibly cards in hand too). Very often, if you control a few creatures, Norn does more damage the turn he comes into play (also, your opponent will have less blockers). He is also a better blocker, because he not only shares the vigilance, he weakens every other creature he cannot block. In summary, he is amazing.
Bonus points for especially punishing aggro.
Blue
-Thieving Magpie, +Dungeon Geists
A pretty easy upgrade I believe, copied right from the Cad Evaluation Thread Magpie was not bad at the beginning, and it's still not a bad card, but the cube is a bit too fast now for that sort of slow card advantage grinding. Also, the number of fliers rose.
Dungeon Geists has an immediate impact on board and they kill faster. Also, it's a blue removal, even if temporary, and that's rare. I'll admit, the main drive for this factor is the success other people had with geists.
-Desertion, +Complicate
Blue is in a desperate need of more cheap counters. I know the cards cut her are pretty good in a vacuum, But cutting a cheaper card was not an option. A counter that costs five just isn't practical at this stage of the cube. You don't survive if you don't counter the spell on turn three.
-Ancestral Vision, +Rune Snag
Vision is one the best turn ones for control. But cheap counters are needed, and visions drops in value a lot as you want counter mana up on turn two, then at turn three it is not exciting. Snag is one of the lamer cheap counters there are, but Remove Soul didn't do it for us (equipments, Armageddon, planeswalkers etc. must be countered). I believe it will make the color better overall.
-Opporunity, +Forbidden Alchemy
Opportunity is good in the control mirror. It is such a rare matchup though, and even there the card isn't overly special. Alchemy is excellent for reanimation even without the flashback. A very good source of card selection, and with the various flashback cards, Vengevine, Gravecrawler and so on, is sometimes card advantage. Also, it is a great card still for the control mirror.
Black
-Diabolic Servitude, +Sewer Nemesis
Both cards are midrange. Servitude depends entirely on what you had in play before. Unlike the cheap reanimation spells, reanimating a fattie with it isn't impressive, because it is expensive and leaves a great liability in the form of a fragile enchantment for your Inkwell Leviathan. So basically it's good with ETB guys and rarely does it recur more than two creatures anyway.
Sewer Nemesis doesn't depend on that. Also, it's good turn 3 after a turn 2 signet and is a decent aggro curve topper.
-Twisted Abomination, +Tragic Slip
I decided about 9 months not to support reanimate as a distinct archetype. The point of reanimation is no longer to bust out a fatty turn three and win from there, it's an added synergy to an existing deck. Yes, early wins do happen, but the entire deck is not built just for that. That means the cards need to be good on their own. Twisted abomination is crap without reanimation and not spectacular with it. This place can better serve another archetype and help define it.
Slip is a one mana removal spell. I have very few of those and they are excellent against aggro.
-Necrogen Scudder, +Arrogant Bloodlord
I didn't want to include Bloodlord for his difficult cost, but Scudder is too suicidal. Good 2B creatures need to be printed at top priority!
Red
-Words of War, +Stromkirk Noble
Words of War is a card that could shine, but this was a rare exception. It is totally broken with draw sevens and the like, but it requires tons of mana and usually two colors. As a repeatable shock every turn, it is usally too slow. Yes, against control it is an inevitable win sometimes but control is weak and a source of lifegain will own you. Against aggro it is too slow to burn all their creatures down and equipment ends it. So the bottom line, it saw little play.
Aggro needs one drops and Noble proved to be more than worthy.
Green
-Sylvok Replica, +Gaea's Anthem
Replica is a creature based Disenchant. Historically they were all strong, but the need to sacrifice the creature, to keep G up and the unimpressive body for cost made replica lame. Bad as a Naturalize, bad as a creature, never both and never card advantage.
I'm including a totally different card in its place. Glorious Anthem works very well in white. Green has an aggro element too, albeit not as strong, but even more token producers. I think it will work.
-Brutalizer Exarch, +Hornet Queen
It's not a good answer for planeswalkers and not worth the cost. Hornet queen is praised in this forum. It is a good reanimation, ramp and blink target, immediately stabilizing the board, providing a ton of evasive power and is even recurable with Reveillark.
Multicolored
-Swans of Bryn Agroll, +Venser, the Sojourner
Swans is one example of a card that just didn't belong in the cube. Yes, it's a flier costed aggressively, but it's so bad against burn, and practically has "Swans can't block". No, nothing spectacular was ever made to break this card.
I didn't like Venser before. The fact that he costs 5 and does nothing at all on an empty board is bad. It is just dependent on other cards being there before him. Why do I include him now? Other people had success with it and planeswalkers are historically strong barring extreme cases, so I give the guy a shot. Also, knowing the local players, a lot of them will enjoy playing with the card.
- Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, +Geist of Saint Traft
While I believe Augustin is playable in a wider variety of decks, it is never as good as geist and doesn't have as much impact + usually the decks that play Augustin are UWG or 5cc ramp, in which geist is probably better anyway. I am excited to see what the local drafts will manage to do with geist.
-Phantom Nishoba, +Lingering Souls
Nishoba is I believe the next worst multi card, from the color combination that has the most cards. It is a good ramp/reanimation target, esp. against aggro but that sums it up. It is terrible against black removal, tappers, white removal and so on. Lingering Souls is a very aggressive card that makes tokens stronger and is hard to deal with.
Artifact/colorless
Now there is slightly less support for aggro in the artifact section
-Chimeric Idol, +Scroll Rack
Idol is not a bad card; it is playable in aggro, it is just almost universally worse than any other three drop. That makes the card a curve filler in dire times or a side card against mass removals. It was sometimes used with mass removals but that was rare and became even rarer.
Scroll Rack just does more and is universally more playable. I refrained from adding because like Sensei's Divining Top it has time consumption issues. Now when the games are shorter and long grinding games of midrange vs. midrange are not common, it might be fine.
-Immolating Souleater, +Chrome Mox
Souleater is not as scary as I thought he would. He is extremely fragile, everything will block it and it is dangerous to pump it full force. Also, in the aggro mirror it is a practically dead card.
I don't recall what was the reason I didn't include Chrome Mox before, so it is in.
Land
-Barbarian Ring, +Gavony Township
Barbarian ring was intended mainly as a card that could kill dudes with protections from red, like Silver Knight. The second use was as an uncounterable burn, a way to end the game against a blue based control deck. The second use is not needed currently, red decks eat blue control. Killing Knights with barbarian ring is not very effective as both white weenie and red aggro drive to end the game waaay before threshold, and they are getting faster with each set that comes out. In the meanwhile, it just burns you which is super bad in that matchup.
Gavony Township provides a very strong repeatable effect. Just how useful it is I don't know, I think it is a little too situational that's why I didn't include it earlier. It costs a ton of mana, depends on you having multiple creatures in play and happens to be in colors that have a lot of midrange mana sinks that are often more tempting. But anyways it's worth a shot and is stronger than the alternative here.
-Dust Bowl, +Vault of the Archangel
I was certain I added Vault in the previous update, turns out I didn't. Vault just screws up combat and wins races. Dust Bowl is the weakest colorless land and also the weakest land to destroy nonbasic lands. Unlike a small cube, the concentration of nonbasic lands that need answers is a lot lower therefore it's okay to cut one such answer.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
I think aggro is going to be better after this update if anything.
The addition of Stoneforge Mystic, Arrogant Bloodlord, Stromkirk Noble, Gaea's Anthem, Geist of Saint Traft, Lingering Souls and Chrome Mox without cutting any cards that are critical to aggro's success will be a boon to the archetype, IMO.
The update looks really good, btw. The only things I'd probably keep at this size are Barbarian Ring, Dust Bowl, Words of War and maybe Thieving Magpie, but none of them are crucial.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Don't get me wrong, Rune Snag is a necessary evil in 720 cubes (it is in no danger of leaving mine as it sees heavy play), but Ancestral Vision is still a card that often gets taken within the first 3-4 picks of a pack. I don't think I can ever see removing the card before like 75% of the other blue cards in my section cycle out due to better options in future sets.
With that in mind, I think your cube will thank you for this update as it should make drafts and games all the more awesome.
(list not current)
My Cube Google Docs Spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AibgWfz0ukmOdDNhOHlucjcxUi1wVy00NDhLbDUtUlE&hl=en_US#gid=8
(list is always current)
You are absolutely correct, I have worse cards in there. Also, one area I could definitely cut cards from is blue aggro/tempo. If the control element of the color doesn't work, I have no luxury to allow the less important archetypes the limited card quantity.
I hope the whole cube will be better, obviously. Aggro will be better but I hope control got a larger improvement than aggro did. I don't want to cut cards crucial to aggro, that's seems artificial to me and lessens the play experience. I'd rather add more powerful hate cards and cut the less crucial and more "specialized" cards of aggro like creatures with protection.
Actually I am also fine with the amount of aggro decks per table, so I don't want a massive decrease in quantity. However, I did cut some artifact support because it was not needed. It is possible that eventually cutting a few aggro cards is inevitable, I don't rule that option out. But in any case I will cut the weaker cards first.
Arrogant Bloodlord is not a significant update from the previous card, Stoneforge Mystic is not nearly as strong as in a small cube and probably not playable in every draft. The appearance of Geist will not suffice to make UW aggro emerge; I believe it will be played in 5CC, or GWU midrange. Perhaps white weenie will splash blue for it.
Control got Elesh Norn, Moat, Dungeon Geists, two cheap counters, Hornet Queen and Vault of the Archangel that specifically deal with aggro, besides general increase in card quality like with the addition of Scroll Rack. I think that's a pretty good start.
But all in all, the change of 15 cards will not have a large effect on the cube level. This is just the first step. The next one is going to be harder, mainly because not a lot of people are dealing with that problem. Currently I am looking at Ghostly Prison.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Last week the local drafting group held the final top8 of the season in the cube format. (Btw another pod of 8 played as well). The winning two decks are attached. I was not there when the draft took place, so I'll try to analyze it from the results.
So, yet again, aggro decks reign supreme. Both decks are heavy aggro deck with a curve that ends at four, was is mono red, one is W/B - probably because mono white was impossible to build. The black splash didn't add much to the deck compared to mono white decks, though I wanted to diversify the aggro archetypes and I am happy that a W/B deck can make it to the final.
Stoneforge Mystic proved to be very good here, with four different equipments to fetch. I think it was very good even with only half that many, or only Skullclamp for the matter. A very good performance of the card, that means he will probably stay here for some time.
The W/B deck features a super-low curve, with only 6 cards with CMC >2 and 16 lands. The Mono Red deck, OTOH features a pretty high curve for an aggro deck with five four drops and 17 lands, although one is Mutavault.
The W/B deck has five creatures with evasion, pretty solid with five equipments. Besides Stoneforge, the two swords and Gerrard's Verdict there is no source of card advantage in the deck. It has 4-5 removals, depending on how you count Fume Spitter and Sword of Fire and Ice, and two more ways to remove blockers.
The mono red deck has eight burn spells if we count all the conditional ones in, which is pretty good. It has a lot more sources of card advantage, with Skullclamp, Grim Lavamancer, Magus of the Scroll, two creatures that destroy lands, a mass removal and a self-recurring Chandra's Phoenix.
Let's take a look at the matchup between the two. The red deck won. An impressive win, considering the opposing Sword of Fire and Ice + tutor for it, Exalted Angel, Gerrard's Verdict, a targetless Ravenous Baboons in the first game. Lightning Ball variants are extremely weak against tappers and Fume Spitter. The superior card advantage probably won the match.
But if we take a look at the macro, I think my previous updates were not very successful. Aggro decks are still too strong. Both decks have no power, no fast mana, only one planeswalker and one nonbasic land together, no power cards like Armageddon (Skullclamp and the two swords come close though) and few sources of removal and card advantage. It doesn't take a lot for aggro decks to win, it seems. How can I weaken them further besides reducing aggro quantities?
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Avacyn Restored is actually not a particularly good set for large cubes compared to recent years. Obviously it has its share of powerhouses and they were included. Yet again I am continuing the theme of weakening and diversifying aggro decks which are very oppressive in the cube currently.
White
The cut of three two drops here should affect the dominance of aggro somewhat. I hope no further steps will be necessary after this update.
-Kor Skyfisher, +Restoration Angel
Keeping in mind that in a large cube the chance of returning a mox is way lower, usually the average play with skyfisher is to return an ETB creatures that costs two or more, then immediately playing it again to gain value. In that case, the angel gives a better body for the mana, does it at instant speed, can surprise block, protect from removal and untap a blocker. Of course, Skyfisher is better in white weenie where you would sometimes return a land, but he was not very good there and anyway I want to cut a little bit on white weenie's grip in the cube.
-Order of Leitbur, +Silverblade Paladin
Order is another protection guy to cut. Silverblade seems very good - has an immediate impact when he comes into play, works very well with the shadow guys and is a 2/2 double strike for a reasonable price himself. Seems promising.
-Martial Coup, +Ghostly Prison
Martial Coup is too expensive against aggro, so it moves away for a card that's much better geared towards early creature rushes. Judging by the similarity to Propaganda, it should be good at what it does considering white is a common control color too.
-Spectral Lynx, + Angel of Jubilation
Lynx is a serviceable card. It help white weenie in its most difficult matchup - midrange. The lynx has blocked Blastoderm and Spiritmonger many times. That said, it's mostly a side board card, in the sense that most two drops are better than him on average, and green midrange doesn't pose a threat to white weenie currently that justifies such a card. I never felt bad about playing lynx, but it is probably just a curve filler in the best case. The cat might return in the future if the need will ever arise.
Angel of Jubilation provides a good effect for aggro and token decks. Angel is playable solely in white weenie, which sees a lot of play so it's fine by me. You may wonder why I add cards for aggro. The deal is I am very fine with the number of aggro decks per draft. I am not okay with their dominance. So I don't want to significantly cut the number of aggro cards downs, but cutting lynx will make green midrange decks have an easier time winning in the matchup.
It is mostly there as a curve topper to pump your guys and beat in with evasion, but the ability can be relevant sometimes. Actually, I made a list of cards that can be affected by it, to varying degrees:
Porcelain Legionnaire
Kami of Ancient Law
Ronom Unicorn
Spined Thopter
Glen Elendra Archmage
Tinker
Force of Will
Deep Analysis
Vampire Hexmage
Phyrexian Scuta
Snuff Out
Dismember
Necropotence
Contagion
Recurring Nightmare
Fume Spitter
Greater Gargadon
Mogg Fanatic
Ember Hauler
Hearth Kami
Torch Fiend
Moltensteel Dragon
Siege-Gang Commander
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Viridian Zealot
Yavimaya Elder
Ravenous Baloth
Spellskite
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Qasali Pridemage
Loxodon Hierarch
Putrid Leech
Phyrexian Metamorph
Phyrexian Processor
Horizon Canopy
Blue
-Azure Mage, +Ancestral Visions
A fix of last update to a cut that shouldn't have been made.
-Stroke of Genius, +Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Stroke does provide card advantage at instant speed but at a horrible cost. It should have been cut a few months ago over something else, I think, it is barely useable with the current speed of the cube. Tamiyo is a planeswalker with an immediate impact on the board, can protect herself, build up to a game winning ultimate and maybe maybe draw you some cards too.
Black
-Persecute, +Despise
Persecute usually discarded two cards, so for its price it was a bad card to begin with. It gets even worse when we compare the two cards. I believe Despise is going to be good especially against aggro, as it has the highest creature density. Obviously it is still playable against control, but that's fair. The card brings the number of one mana discard spells to four, the same concentration as in a small cube with Thoughtsieze and Duress. In the last two updates four planeswalkers were added to the cube, a fact that cannot be ignored and will contribute to this card's strengths.
-Mind Shatter, +Innocent Blood
Mind Shatter is an anti midrange card, midrange is currently too weak to justify such a card. Innocent Blood is a great foil to an aggro's one drop. The side effect I don't like about Innocent Blood is that hoses reanimation but hopefully the archetype will cope.
-Necropotence, +Night of Soul's Betrayal
It's time to admit that heavy black decks aren't as good in aggro as white or red. Black is a good aggro color for support, but having BBB is too difficult. Night is as anti-aggro as it can get, though it hoses out tokens too pretty well. Why cannot black have more pinpoint hate cards?
-Order of the Ebon Hand, +Gloom Surgeon
1B instead of BB matches the philosophy above. Surgeon is especially good in the aggro mirror, bonus points for that. The next card I will look to cut is Black Knight.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
-Dwarven Blastminer, +Reckless Waif
There are not enough nonbasic lands for that expensive and fragile destroy effect to be worth it. Waif is a good aggro one drop that I have somehow missed in my last update.
-Rorix Bladewing, +Zealous Conscripts
Rorix has too much red in it's cost. He doesn't help you when you are behind, which is pretty bad for a ramp creature. Conscripts offer a unique effect in the cube. They are cheaper and splashable and probably will do the same amount of damage the turn they come down. That is of course ignoring the real blowouts this card can cause. A good ETB to blink and bounce, on top. The largest negatives I see about this card is that it's way better against midrange than aggro and that it too hoses reanimation quite a bit.
-Thunderblust, +Hound of Grislebrand
RRR is hard to stomach. Hound is a lot more accessible as an aggro curve topper, and is probably better in midrange decks too. Double Strike + equipment, undying so it won't disappear after the Wildfire you cast and just impressive stats and card advantage to cost make this card a winner.
-Pillage, +Lightning Mauler
Yet again, Disenchant effects without any other uses prove themselves bad here. So this card is a Shatter and not Disenchant, but destroying artifacts was always the more important part. In return, Pillage is never a dead card as it destroys a land. It's just not what red decks want to do on their third turn, however. Yes, destroying a land after a one drop and a two drop is fine but almost always not as good as playing a three drop, especially if you missed your one drop, and after that the card's value becomes lower and lower. I fully understand why the card should be good, with awesome versatility, but it just wasn't.
Lightning Mauler is probably in the top two red two drops. Besides the obvious mode of one drop, hasty mauler, he can hasten your three drop, combine with sacrifice outlets and be played in the same turn with another creature for a ton of hasty damage. That definitely makes him the best red two drop when drawn late.
-Magus of the Moon, +Kruin Striker
Five color control doesn't exist here in significant amounts and certainly doesn't need hosing. Striker is a better creature for aggro, though not amazing by any means.
-Sudden Shock, +Searing Blaze
Less cards nowadays need to be dealt with at Split Second. Sudden Shock was very outdated, to the days of before the combat rules change when there were a lot more creatures with sacrifice effects. Searing Blaze is a good burn spell. The double red is not terrible because there are many red burn decks. Plus the card is an aggro hoser.
Green
-Genesis, +Ravenous Baloth
I know most people on the boards here like him, but he underperformed here for a very long time. For the last few years actually. What it absolutely has going for him is inevitability. Your creatures will keep returning and cannot be dealt with on a one for one card basis. Yet it is expensive and bad on its own. It's basically guaranteed that the matchup against aggro will be over before the ability would ever be relevant. Control has many ways to deal with creatures without sending them to the graveyard, from Icy Manipulator to Control Magic, and even if not it's not like a 4/4 by turn five must be countered. Even worse, that's very hard for creatures to be relevant to the board state if they are cast three turns later than they should (at the best case scenario where you hit a land each turn), which makes it only viable at the very late game. Of course it is also predictable and your opponent doesn't have to kill your creatures just so you will benefit from another ETB effect. Yes, it is good with Survival of Fittest, but Survival is excellent anyway and needs no support.
Baloth is here as another anti aggro card. Especially good against red burn deck but solid otherwise.
-Ant Queen, +Wolfir Silverheart
Wolfir offers a huge body for his cost and an immediate pump of +4/+4 to one creature. Ant Queen is simply the weakest green five drop so it moves aside.
-Ambush Viper, +Wolfir Avenger
Ambush Viper is cheap and splashable but a subpar removal and an okay creature at best. Usually it was not among the 23 best cards in a deck. Wolfir Silverheart is a solid beatstick and usually card advantage against aggro decks (Bonus points). He is pretty close to Troll Ascetic. While he is not quite as good, having pseudo-haste is nice and he is better against permission based control as well.
Artifacts
-Epochrasite, +Mana Crypt
Epochrasite is underwhelming. It is playable in slow decks against aggro, but it isn't exciting. It will die to any creature, any divideable damage. Sometimes it will trade while dying, many times it won't even do that. And then, waiting three turns against a fast deck is too long if what you get in return is just another blocker. Usually, it is just not as good as a random signet even in the matchup where it should be best.
Mana Crypt is obviously very powerful. It was removed before due to being too random. Nowadays, I believe no one will care too much.
-Nim Deathmantle, +Birthing Pod
Nim Deathmantle provides inevitability, but is expensive. He shines in midrange against midrange or control, but sadly it is way too slow against aggro. I think Birthing Pod is a more exciting card to build your deck with. He provides many more decisions, silver bullets become more playable and it is cheap enough to matter.
-Juggernaut, +Trusty Machete
Aggro decks have many good four drops in all colors, another one is not needed. Cheap equipment is much more powerful and makes Stoneforge Mystic more playable.
Multicolored
-Recoil, +Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Recoil is always playable but never exciting, never a reason to draft the second color. Tezzeret is a narrow card for sure, it's just a question whether it is too narrow or not. Planeswalkers are historically strong and Tez is a repeatable card advantage and win condition, and better yet was successful in other cubes around this size, so it has promise.
Lands
-Rupture Spire, +Slayer's Stronghold
Spire is a slow rainbow land that was seeded here to enforce 5CC. The deck still doesn't see much play but Spire is extremely slow and basically unplayable with the current strength of aggro. Stronghold is an extremely strong land, basically making all your low drops relevant in the land game, all evasive creatures twice as fast and your board twice as frightening.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
M13, like every core set (since M11), offers us a moderate amount of cubeworthy cards. Naturally there are fewer cards than in a large set, but compared to the previous core sets the set is quite good. We had done one large draft during the spoiler season, so I made the swaps of all the cards that had a picture available at the time. That means, we have a little bit of testing with some of the cards. Spoiler: the best card was Thragtusk.
As a small side note, I really want to purge ~10 cards from my multicolored section for the last few months now. I am waiting for RTR to come out; it might save my multicolored section from shrinking once again.
About the aggro-control pendulum, I am not quite sure where do I stand. Two drafts ago a control deck won after a long time which is great. Last draft a mono red deck won. However I believe aggro gets overdrafted lately as a result of its strength in the online cube. I do not know where I need to push right now so I am trying to stand in the middle, with both sides getting tools and improvements to fight the other side. The effort to diversify aggro continues strongly in this update, with the addition of the exalted knights over the old knights.
White
-Geist-Honored Monk, + Sublime Archangel
Monk was a midrange filler. It did combo well with the token theme and it is good with blink, bounce and reanimation effects, but nowadays five mana can buy you a whole lot more. It was always one of the few last cards to make the list, if at all.
Sublime archangel was a bomb for us so far. Usually it will eat removal fast, if not it can easily win via attacking the turn he enters the battlefield and his own attack the turn after. Not to mention it is far better than Monk in a token deck.
-Akroma's Vengeance, +Ajani, Caller of the Pride
It hurts me to cut a mass removal for an aggro card, and an exceptionally strong one at that, in the color that was historically the most notorious for creating crushingly oppressive aggro decks. However, six mana is way too much to spend on a mass removal and not acceptable anymore. With Vengeance you don't even get to save the signets that ramped you for it. Usually, it was cycled when an answer was needed early, before six mana were available.
Ajani is an unkillable 5 loyalty creature pump gun, in a comfortable cost for aggro decks.
-Silver Knight, +Knight of Glory
A major theme of the last 2 or 3 update was to diversify the aggro archetypes. Not anymore were there mono white aggro and mono red aggro, now RG, WB and WG are perfectly competitive and acceptable. I consider the change very positive and successful so far, therefore cutting another WW drop for a 1W drop is great. First strike is very good, but again mostly against other aggro decks, and exalted is nothing to laugh about too. Even the protection is better, because white naturally excels at beating red decks, with his first strike, tokens and lifelink.
Blue
-Jace's Ingenuity, +Mist Raven
Mist Raven did not excite me when I saw it, I was very skeptic. Now after the feedback from other cubes and personal experience both in limited and the cube I can say this card is very playable and worth his mana cost.
-Calcite Snapper, +Fog Bank
Both creatures are defensive. Bank can defend against with higher power than 4, although those that have that without trample are rare. It can be burned, doesn't kill X/1s, cannot attack for 4 randomly in the control mirror. It can block fliers, which is a big plus, but most importantly coming a turn earlier and having an easier mana cost that makes it appealing. Honestly I am not sure if he is better, but I wanted to cut calcite snapper and the set didn't offer anything new, so I am trying it for now.
Black
-Black Knight, +Knight of Infamy
Having a more splashable cost with a minor decrease in power is very important for enabling B/X aggro decks. Losing first strike and a second point of toughness hurts, but doing something the turn it comes into play and attacking for three on an empty board make up for most of that, and counting in the easier cost make up for much more.
-Sorin Markov, +Griselbrand
Griselbrand is a mighty reanimation target, Sorin is an outadated control card as it is too expensive against aggro. It's time for black to have his slot of reanimation fatty, after all most reanimation decks if not all are black anyway.
Red
-Flame Javelin, + Searing Spear
Searing Spear is a more splashable, more efficient burn compared to its cost, both by a large margin.
-Ancient Hydra, +Flames of the Firebrand
Hydra became a little too expensive lately, the cheaper dividable damage is way more playable in aggro decks and against aggro decks.
-Hellkite Charger, +Thundermaw Hellkite
Both creatures are 5/5 flying haste. Hellkite Charger can optimally attack twice the turn after it comes into play, to deal 15 damage by turn seven, which is exactly what Thundermaw can do without any additional investment of mana. On top of that, and being castable without a sixth land, Thundermaw is almost guaranteed to get through the turn he comes into play and might even create card advantage or clear the way out for future attacks. It's especially good against cards that are usually problematic for red decks like Bitterblossom or Meloku tokens.
Green
-Harmonize, +Avacyn's Pilgrim
Harmonize costs too much to have no impact on the board, I decided green can benefit from a few more mana elves to help midrange decks compete with aggro. I am sure it is not as strong as Llanowar Elves, but perhaps it is still strong enough.
-Viridian Zealot, +Elves of the Deep Shadow
Zealot is too heavy on the green mana. It is very rarely playable. About the elves, see above. I saw they were instantly played by a B/G rock deck after their inclusion, so it seems like a promising change.
-Pelakka Wurm, +Thragtusk
Thragtusk is nuts. It is easily the best inclusion from the set, baring Ajani and Thundermaw from the lack of testing. If we start by the specific comparison, it seems almost insulting. Pelakka wurm's main function is in reanimation decks and ramp deck. Obviously the wurm is strongest in reanimation decks and not ramp, it gains you life to help cope with the tempo loss you have suffered while getting this to the yard and reanimated it (possibly even the life loss from Reanimate itself). But even then, Thragtusk is probably better. Gaining two less life is a minor concern, no doubt a 7/7 trample is better than a 5/3, but getting a 3/3 instead of a card upon death is so much stronger. Not only is the average card of most decks is worse than a 3/3 creature, with Thragsutk it enters into play immediately with no mana investment, immediately ready to block and attack the very next turn.
But Thragtusk shines at midrange. Of course it costs GG less, making it both more manageable, i.e. it comes down at a much more relevant turn especially against fast decks, but if Thragtusk is on the table you just don't care about mass removals. Starting down with a 3/3 against an empty board is so good it's not funny. It's splashable to boot, ensuring it a place in many midrange decks of different colors.
All that is not taking into account the possible abuse with Crystal Shard et al that absolutely breaks the card.
Multicolored
-Broodmate Dragon, +Baleful Strix
Broodmate Dragon was a good card back in his day, but today the titans just do more for a much more manageable and playable cost. There is just no reason anymore to play three colors to get that effect.
Baleful Strix is a very solid source of card advantage and tempo advantage. While never amazing, this is exactly the sort of card control decks want - deals with almost any early threat while providing card advantage cheaply. At worst, it's a chump blocker with reach that replaces itself. To boot, it can also be abused with blink and pump effects, be fetched by Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, sacrificed to Tinker or carry an equipment for the win.
-Giant Solifuge, +Flinthoof Boar
Solifuge is another card that suffers from the rise of aggro decks, but it also suffers from the increased competition in the four drop slots. Solifuge sucks against opposing aggro decks. His major weakness is first strike but any token or bear will trade with him. Against control it's still okay, but many more control decks nowadays play early creatures to deal with the pressure of aggro decks, something like Hero of Oxid Ridge, Hellrider of Thundermaw Hellkite is far more valuable.
Flinthoof boar is a 3/3 for two that has a serviceable body even if you haven't drawn your red source and can be a 3/3 for three with haste if the need arises. Overall a solid beater for any R/G deck.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
RTR was one of the most anticipated sets for me - not only as a player who played in the original Ravnica and enjoyed it, but as a cube owner it gives me a chance to trim cards in the smallest yet the worst section of the cube - multicolored. At the end of M13 I've made a list of cards that I'd wanted to cut out of my multicolored section. That section reached about 12 cards. I can say that most of them got cut in this set. Not all replacements are stellar though. I think large overhauls of the multicolor section will occur two more times in the following two sets, simply because it has too much room for improvement still.
Besides allowing me to cut lacking multicolored cards, RTR helped evening the imbalance between the guilds. There is still no balance, but the differences are not as large as before.
As usual with large updates, it will be split to two parts.
White
-Goldmeadow Harrier, +Fencing Ace
This swap doesn't really come from Fencing Ace's excellence, but rather from Harrier's low power level. Harrier is not a true aggro creature, not reliable against aggro and requires an upkeep of W which is too much. It's a cost you don't want to pay early, strapped to a card you want to play on your first turn. Ace is a colorshifted Viashino Slaughtermaster. Viashino was terrible, and he was in a color that needs two drops desperately. Ace is in a color that has tons of them, but also white has many more ways to pump his creatures. I believe Ace will be better than Viashino. That still doesn't mean he is good enough, in that case he will be cut in the next update for the next white aggro creature. About the issue of cutting a one drop - well first Harrier didn't play the role of a one drop anyway and we have got an excellent hybrid one drop in white as a replacement.
White cards that can pump creatures:
Elspeth, Knight Errant
Honor of the Pure
Glorious Anthem
Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Hero of Bladehold
Pianna, Nomad Captain
Mirror Entity
Accorder Paladin
Soltari Champion
Stoneforge Mystic
Sublime Archangel
Angel of Jubilation
Captain of the Watch
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Ajani Goldmane
-Knight of Glory, +Azorius Arrester
Knight of Glory's exalted is not a good fit to white, the color of tokens. The protection from black on early beaters keeps black aggro decks from being competitive. Azorius Arrester removes a blocker when it comes into play, just like Kor Hookmaster. It's a good topdeck late, can be played defensively and sometimes can even be worth bouncing or blinking. It might still not hold up against the competition for long, but it's unlikely that Knight of Glory will find his way back in.
-Captain of the Watch, +Angel of Serenity
Captain was practically too easy to deal with to serve as a control finisher. A Lightning Bolt deals with him pretty effectively, or effectively enough to neuter him as a game ending threat. As such, as a blink/reanimation target, Angel of Serenity is way better. It might be a better reanimation target than even Avacyn, Angel of Hope herself. For now both will stay in, at some point in the future I'd like to swap one of them for a 6 drop that can also serve as a control finisher.
-Ronom Unicorn, +Keening Apparition
Functionally the same, Apparition has a better creature type. I don't think a 720 cube has place of three of those guys but it's good that the option is there in case suddenly enchantments becomes too strong or numerous (highly unlikely though).
Blue
-Confiscate, +Jace, Architect of Thought
Confiscate is too slow. Yes, it can steal planeswalkers, but that application is not good enough to warrant that high cost. Jace AoT is not as strong as the other jaces but is still good enough, being cheap, able to protect itself and you and generating card advantage. From the playtesting so far, he was very solid.
Black
-Dusk Urchins, +Pack Rat
Dusk Urchins was never strong to begin with, wizards just don't print any good black three drops. Pact Rat is all kinds of awesome. On its own, he creates 4 power on the third turn, 9 on the fourth, 16 on the fifth and so on. On his own he can win on turn 5 or 6, requiring only 2B available, regardless of what you have in hand. Pointing a removal on one of the rats is not going to solve the problem, as the tokens are copies and have the ability. That makes the rats extremely hard to remove. Not to mention you can activate the ability on instant speed!
Besides that the rats fill an important role as a cheap mono black discard outlet for reanimator. All in all a winner, I believe it is one of the stronger cards in the set.
-Ashes to Ashes, +Ultimate Price
Ashes to Ashes is card advantage but is just too restrictive, requiring two targetable creatures, paying life and double black. A broad spot removal is usually way better, it will save your ass in great many situations Ashes won't. Ultimate Price is one of the top mass removals actually, somewhere around Doom Blade's powerlevel and that's plenty good enough for a large cube.
Red
-Moltensteel Dragon, +Mizzium Mortars
Red has too many four drops. One or two more will need to be cut as well in future sets, but you have to start somewhere. Dragon is too easy to remove and requires too much life payment. Mortars is serviceable as a two mana spot removal or a Flame Wave later. Hopefully the versatility makes him excellent for red control.
-Blood Knight, +Ash Zealot
This is a pretty strict upgrade for several reasons. First, having haste makes Ash Zealot better against all non-white decks. He is better on an empty board, probably still better on turn two against every white control deck and is a better topdeck due to haste. On top of that he has a hosing ability that might not be relevant most of the time, but is still an upside for you if you are aggressive enough to play him. Ash Zealot is just considerably more maindeckable and that alone should suffice.
-Ball Lightning, +Gore-House Chainwalker
Chainwalker is a 3 power two drop. That alone does not guarantee playability, but out of all colors red has the easiest time to clear the way past blockers and the color is still aching for two drops. Ball Lightning was just the least playable card in the red section, offering a reward for people who go mono red that is just not needed, as it gets drafted anyway. A 6/1 creature is not very strong with all the first strike creatures.
Green
-Scute Mob, +Deadbridge Goliath
Scute Mob is too slow and fragile. The payoff of a big ground dude is not big enough. Goliath as a 5/5 for 4 is above the curve, and creates another giant sized threat even after it dies.
-Berserk, +Channel
Berserk is just not an effect I want to have in my deck. It can be a conditional removal for attackers if you are willing to pay some life, but doubling a creature's power once and then sacrificing it is so much worse than burn or equipment. I was inspired to try out Channel by the stories of people here on the forums. I have a large artifact section and playing early swords, Myr Battlesphere, Sundering Titan etc. can be devastating. I'm not sure it's broad enough to justify a slot, but I'm trying it anyway.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
-Terminate, +Dreadbore
Destroying planeswalkers becomes more and more important as time goes on. Just in this set, two more planeswalkers were added. Terminate has instant speed and doesn't allow regeneration but is already close in powerlevel to the red and black removal spells and is nothing worth splashing for.
-Plumeveil, +Detention Sphere
Detention Sphere is basically a harder to cast Oblivion Ring. O-Ring is a great card, able to deal with any threat including planeswalkers, while avoiding graveyard recursions. In a singleton format, the only upside Sphere has is against masses of tokens or copies. It is not actually worth the harder cost per se, but it's true that I'd cube with a 1WW O-Ring as O-Ring is strong enough that a strictly worse version is still playable. It's hard to see why a W/U deck would not play Detention Sphere ever; the fact is it's probably the best W/U card.
Plumeveil gets the hammer because an HHH cost is hard to cast, and the 4/4 blocker has the problem of dying with your mass removal.
-Spiritmonger, +Vraska the Unseen
Mega upgrade. Spirit Monger is good, but just a ground dude in the bottom line. Vraska has an immediate impact on the board and generates card advantage as well as threatening to finish the game in the meanwhile. She is not as strong as I previously thought. She gets her time in the sun for at least the next set then the multicolored cards will be revamped again.
-Gelectrode, +Izzet Charm
Gelectrode is very slow and fragile. It can create card advantage but you can see it from miles and it's super easy to deal with. Izzet Charm is perfect for U/W decks, providing answers to almost everything and it always does something useful no matter what situation you are in.
-Behemoth Sledge, +Lotleth Troll
Sledge is mostly just another functional Loxodon Warhammar, just harder to cast. Warhammer itself is falling out of favor quickly, as it's expensive and cannot compete with the new swords. Lol troll is well worth the mana, as a hard to kill, large trampling creature for a bargain cost. Especially good as another discard outlet.
-Death Grasp, +Selesnya Charm
Death Grasp is a Fireball in colors that don't get it but at an extreme cost. It is a sorcery Lightning Helix at 3WB. It's not efficient enough as a removal and not spectacular as a finisher either. Selesnya Charm has a ton of versatility, and while I don't think it's perfect it's better than many multicolored cards and I believe it will survive even after the whole block is released.
-Wilt-Leaf Liege, +Dryad Militant
Militant is crazy good. Cubes have been playing every Savannah Lions ever printed, an easier to cast version with an ability that is mostly upside is ridiculous. Liege was expensive and HHH is very hard to cast.
-Shambling Remains, +Rakdos Cackler
Shambling Remains seems like a great card on paper, but a 4/3 on the ground is not that intimidating, even if it is somewhat efficient. Death Cackler is perfect for both red aggro and black aggro, we couldn't ask for anything better.
-Oona, Queen of the Fae, +Psychatog
Oona is an okay finisher, but she has fallen out favor lately. Mainly, she doesn't have protection from removal, doesn't affect the board the turn she comes into play besides blocking and she ties up all your mana. Moreover, years of playing has shown that you cannot count on her creating an army of fliers consistently, creating enough blockers to keep you alive. Psychatog failed us once, but since something like two years have passed, and since then the cube as a whole had changed and a lot of excellent new players have joined I believe one of the more powerful cards in magic's history will find a home.
-Wall of Denial, +Supreme Verdict
Wall of Denial is the best blocker possible, but the fact is he will die to your mass removal as one blocker is never enough to survive. Not to mention a lot of aggro beaters nowadays have evasion. 4cc wrath effects are critical for control decks. Another one is highly needed, especially with the boost aggro got from this set.
-Angel of Despair, +Abrupt Decay
Angel of Despair is a good reanimation target and fun with blink, but ultimately way too expensive on her own and as a reanimation target she is still not good enough to stabilize you or win you the game. Decay is super efficient at what he does, eliminating more than a half of the cards in the cube, regardless of card type, at instant speed. And you cannot even counter it.
Artifacts
-Crystal Ball, +Chromatic Lantern
Crystal Ball is a good way to gain slow card quality, it was just too slow with the rise in aggro's powerlevel. Lantern is a very good fixer. The obvious comparison is to Coalition Relic. It's not as strong as relic obviously, as it cannot ramp but it is still the second best fixer after it, a card you will take highly in your four color deck. This cube has a problem supporting 5cc decks, so a help to shore up that weakness is welcomed.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Aggro in the cube was too strong. Yes, it may sound weird, but if you played the cube you were many times forced to play aggro. Aggro was present in white, red, black and green with white dominating all the other aggro archetypes, and mono-red rolling control. Control decks were present, mostly blue based. Midrange/ramp decks were few and far between. Reanimator was a pretty popular archetype, supporting 1.5-2 decks per draft on average and getting some wins. Keep in mind we have large drafts though.
In order to allow for a larger breadth of different strategies, I've decided to limit aggro as a main strategy to just white and red. Green and black aggro were just not strong enough in powerlevel and it felt like I was forcing my players to play archetypes they didn't like. Added to that is the outside influence of many different cubes here, which have started defining their colors in different ways in the last year or so.
Blue will remain control, and the color of broken. I think when players draft blue this is what they expect and not blue tempo. Blue control is deep enough to support 96 cards. Red will remain basically as it was, mainly burn based aggro. Red has a few control elements, especially with Wildfire, but they were weak. Aid was given in the form of multiple new mana rocks and more ramp cards in different colors, however. White kept being mostly weenie aggro and some mass removals and stabilization cards for control.
Black still supports aggro, but as a sidekick and not a main player. Mostly all the black midrange was reformed to be a cohesive deck. Green dropped its aggro completely (a few cards still remain, but they will be cut in the near future) in favor of more ramp spells and fatties. Five new mana rocks were added into the artifact section, and while that number seems small, they have made quite an impact on the playability of cards like Wildfire and Upheaval.
After all those tweaks, aggro became weaker than intended for a number of drafts. I've made a few changes to compensate for this loss as I wanted aggro to stay highly competitive for the health of the environment. The humble step was cutting most of the anti-aggro cards, like Timely Reinforcements, for more aggro support. The changes so far were successful with an aggro deck winning the last 10 man draft, with two others being drafted. But the sample size is small so I'll keep my eye open on that issue.
This gigantic update will be split into several parts.
White
-Fencing Ace, +Precinct Captain
Fencing Ace is a card that does not hold on a spot on his own - he is way underpowered without efficient ways to pump him. It turns out that in a large cube there isn't a high enough concentration of equipments and anthems to make him playable on a consistent basis.
I'm not sure Captain is a top two drop, but it does have potential. You certainly will answer him before the next attack step if you can, and he benefits a lot more out of anthems. This is all assuming he connects, but being a must kill/must block two drop is a good thing.
-Avacyn, Angel of Hope, +Kor Skyfisher
White has many reanimation targets already, with Angel of Serenity, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Yosei, the Morning Star, Sunblast Angel and Sun Titan, so for a color that doesn't excel in reanimation nor ramp it just has too many. I believe Avacyn is the worst target because she doesn't help you stabilize the turn she comes into play. Also she is unplayable outside of reanimator while most of the others are. On her own, she is fairly easy to answer with Icy Manipulator, Control Magic, Oblivion Ring, Diabolic Edict etc. and even if she isn't dealt with she only blocks one creature. Her ability can be a real pain if you have some board presence, but in reanimator decks this is almost never the case. She got the axe.
Kor Skyfisher is an efficient dude that enables some sweet things with ETB effects and moxen. We missed the guy.
-Decree of Justice, +Entreat the Angels
I've decided to try the big two miracle spells (with Bonfire of the Damned). Both Decree and it have the same niche function so they are an obvious swap. Decree in general excels against counter-heavy control; an archetype which was a lot more powerful at the early stages of the cube. With the rise of aggro and midrange (non-white) it lost a lot of its appeal.
-Aven Riftwatcher, +Frontline Medic
An aggro hate card turning into its nemesis. Frontline Medic is a needed splashable three drop in white. The body is serviceable, and the two upsides are situationally powerful.
-Timely Reinforcements, +Syndic of Tithes
Reinforcement was perhaps the first anti-aggro card to get cut when aggro dropped in power. Syndic is a splashable beater, but the fact that it adds reach to a color that doesn't have it normally is tempting. It is good in normal limited, and the lifegain even makes it appealing for slower white decks as well.
-Pariah, +Icatian Javelineers
Pariah is another anti-aggro card. It is a splashable removal, but only works against aggro, not against a deck with utility creature that doesn't want to attack early. Also, it is useless in two headed giant. I'm not sure Javelineers are good enough, but a one drop for aggro deck should be picked up and played.
Blue
-Fog Bank, +Wall of Tears
Fog Bank is too fragile against burn. Even if it can block anything and survive, including fliers and fatties, the main function of walls is to help you survive against aggro, and against aggro the tempo loss of bouncing their creatures is huge. Sure there will be creatures you won't want to bounce, and fliers will also get past it, but as an aggro hate card it is much better. That said, since I'm trying to cut back on aggro hate cards, I might cut it in the near future for something else entirely.
-Essence Scatter, +Evasive Action
Essence Scatter and its ilk are very self-explanatory cuts. They cannot counter Armageddon, equipments or planeswalkers, pass. Evasive Action can be another cheap soft counter like Mana Leak or Complicate. It is obviously worse than both, but by how much? A few more cheap counters will do a lot of good things to the cube.
-Negate, +Broken Ambitions
Negate is the other half of Essence Scatter, it's just that creatures are what you will usually want to counter. You don't really want it against aggro and many midrange decks, making it a sideboard card. Broken Ambitions could be another cheap situational counter. It's the next best XU counter after Condescend so it gets a spin. If it proves itself I'm inclined to try out some more of them.
-Gifts Ungiven, +Cyclonic Rift
Gifts Ungiven is a situational tutor and card advantage machine, but isn't consistent enough, at least in a large cube and therefore never sees play. Meanwhile, Cyclonic Rift is a very playable bounce effect early that can win you the game later, and even if not is almost always a great out to have in your deck. That card is bound to create memorable moments. Early results how it is in fact a bomb.
-Misdirection, +Show and Tell
Misdirection is very inconsistent in its performance. It's just an effect that is not worth a card, let alone two, in most matchups. Show and Tell is another tool to help reanimator decks, and blue is already a popular color in that archetype so a splashable enabler in it should easily see play.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Black had a few structural problems. It is a color that has a little bit in everything, but excels at nothing. It has good aggro elements, but not enough that it can compete with red or white. It has mass removals and finishers for control, but not enough to replace white and not enough card advantage to replace blue. The only archetype that works well in black is reanimator. Yes, it's true many decks will want to splash black for spot removals, a few power cards and tutors, but that doesn't amount to a whole color. In particular, black had too many midrange cards that were not focused to a coherent deck. The busiest slot was the four drop slot.
I've decided to try out the stax subtype that got support from a large number of cubes lately. It has problems of inconsistency in a large cube, but a few factors lessen that. First, there are many cards that fit the archetype and fulfill its different roles; the card quality doesn't fall off significantly after the first few cards. Second, many of the key cards of the archetype are already in, from Gravecrawler and Bitterblossom to the less powerful The Abbys and Abyssal Persecutor.
Black will still feature aggro, but more as a support color than heavy-black. Therefore, cards like Nantuko Shade get axed.
-Graveborn Muse, +Bloodline Keeper
Graveborn Muse is a prime example of a disposable midrange card. The times where it draws you more than one card are extremely rare (especially in a large cube), it has a small body for its cost without protection or any value until your next turn, yet if the games goes on for a couple more turns, she becomes good.
Bloodline is also a midrange creature, the only pure midrange card I've added in this update, but it combines well with the stacks theme I'm trying to include, while being able to win the game on his own, and he works much better on the defense.
-Grasp of Darkness, +Sinkhole
Sinkhole is a very powerful card for aggro, and now will also be powerful in stax decks. Death Grasp is just the weakest spot removal and is probably isn't needed even if it does see play. I don't want to have too many BB spells so it's good to swap one for another instead of cutting a 1B costing card.
-Night of Souls' Betrayal , +Pox
Night is a black control card that is a bit underpowered, and probably less necessary with all the new cards that force your opponent to sacrifice creatures. Pox is a cornerstone in its archetype, helping you stabilize and lock your opponent. The BBB cost is scary, I hope it will catch.
-Wei Assassins, +Smallpox
Wei Assassins is a midrange card that is good against other midrange decks or reanimator, archetypes I'm trying to help currently. Smallpox is another cornerstone in the land denial archetype, and is easier to break.
-Nantuko Shade, +Nether Traitor
Shade requires too much black, and heavy-black aggro decks just don't happen. Traitor is a recurring creature, a must for the archetype. The one thing that does dilute significantly in size in the archetype is the amount of recurring creatures.
-Fume Spitter, +Carrion Feeder
Fume Spitter is a nice one drop, but with the recurring creatures Carrion Feeder is probably better. When you don't have that he just functions like a Greater Gargadon, eating creatures that are targets to removals, preventing your creatures from getting Mind Controlled, preventing Lifelink from happening etc. Being a zombie is relevant to black aggro decks because of Sacromancy and Gravecrawler.
-Plague Sliver, +Death Cloud
Plague Sliver is perhaps one of the best cards getting cut, but with Juzam Djinn and Sewer Nemesis as near-duplicates, its spot will not be empty. Death Cloud is another engine card for the archetype. It also costs triple black, but has a high potential. I'm willing to give it a try.
-Blind Creeper, +Mind Twist
Blind Creeper just doesn't attack for 3 consistently. Many times you will want to play a removal spell or a creature with haste before you attack, or your opponent has an instant. On the defense, he might as well have 2 toughness. It seems stronger on paper, but in reality it played more like a 2/2 for 1B. Yes, it even sometimes got killed by its own ability.
Mind Twist is just a power card in the color. It should raise black's powerlevel, as the color has many powerful tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal in particular) that find it. A splashable bomb that is undoubtedly strong enough and might even be overpowered. That alone is not a reason to hate it, but it reduces interactivity in games. I believe black can use a toplevel bomb, so I'm will give a run. Everything is reversible.
-Bane of the Living, +Nether Void
Bane of the Living is a relic of the past; a slow, fragile mass removal. Nether Void is a way to lock the game both for aggro decks and for stacks decks.
- Liliana Vess , +Unburial Rites
Liliana Vess is another disposable midrange card. She is the first of original planeswalkers to be cut in this cube. Unburial Rites has a more immediate impact on the board, is splashable and helps to support the reanimator archetype, which is already blooming.
- Phyrexian Scuta, +Massacre Wurm
Scuta is one of the worst black four drops, I had no question about getting it cut. I'll compare it to Juzam Djinn, as it's very straightforward. Scuta costs you more life, on average, as the chance Djinn will survive three upkeeps without getting hit by removal or ending the game is rather low. It's way worse against bounce and Control Magic. You cannot even play it as a 5/5 if you are on 3 or 2 life. It isn't strictly better though because it is splashable and can be played unkicked (although that never happened).
Massacre Wurm is recommended highly in various places on these forums, and it's a good reanimation target and I definitely think black could use one more.
-Mirri the Cursed, +Reasssembling Skeleton
Mirri is actually a decent curve topper for aggro, but the competition at the four drop slot pushes her out. Reassembling Skeleton is perhaps the best of the recurring creatures for all the Pox shenanigans and Skullclamp, while being a good swordwielder.
-Arrogant Bloodlord, +Geralf's Messenger
Bloodlord is a subpar aggro creature with a difficult cost. Mesenger has an even harder cost but a lot more upside, and it combos well with the stacks archetype. I see a lot of people had good experience with him in the forum.
Red
-Aftershock, +Squee, Goblin Nabob
Red doesn't have any other answers to large creatures like Baneslayer Angel. Aftershock does offer versatility. Yet, the red section has too many four drops, and paying 3 life does hurt. Large creatures can be problematic for red decks but they rarely are for red aggro - once big creatures start appearing you go into burn mode.
Squee is a card that has many combos in the cube. From Masticores, through Survival of the Fittest up to Skullclamp. Again, the concentration of these bombs is a lot lower in a large cube, but it can still be high enough. Squee isn't dead on his own either, being able to chump block, or carry an equipment. It gets even better with the new theme for black.
-Hound of Griselbrand, +Reckless Charge
Red has too many four drops. Hound is a big creature that has removal resilience but he is slow. He is a midrange creature in an aggro color, and not a very good midrange creature at that. Reckless Charge is a better fit for the color, offering tons of damage for a very cheap price.
-Comet Storm, +Bonfire of the Damned
The second miracle card I try. Bonfire is probably better than Comet Storm even if he is not miracle. Being splashable and not hitting your board are serious upsides.
-Startstorm, +Shrine of Burning Rage
Red has a lot of control cards. Between Pyroclasm and Whipflare, Slagstorm, two earthquakes and three wildfires, Starstorm is not exactly needed and is by far the weakest of them all. It barely saw play. Shrine is adopted by great many here; I want to test it out myself.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
I think you mean Frontline Medic, not Combat Medic.
I'd keep Gifts Ungiven and probably find room for Graveborn Muse, but otherwise I like this.
I assume gold, green, and artifact changes are coming.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Green had a lighter redefinition than black - green's aggro element got reduced, in favor of more cards that help you ramp up your mana and things to seal the game once you get there. Green has excellent cards for aggro, but not a high enough quantity of them for a large cube. It took us far too long to get to that conclusion. I have no doubt it can be very competitive in other cubes.
So far this is the structural change I like the most. Green ramp decks are warmly adopted by the players and get to high places. After green, midrange as a whole in the cube got lifted to a new level.
-Strangleroot Geist, +Worldly Tutor
Geist is one of the best aggro beaters out there. Once it is no longer what green wants to do, it is just wasted space. It has uses outside of aggro as well, as undying is huge, but the nigh unsplashability kills that use for me. Worldly Tutor is a good way to add consistency to midrange decks, its return is welcomed.
-Rude Awakening, +Craterhoof Behemoth
Both cards cost eight and usually end the game on the spot. Craterhoof has the edge, because it is a creature than I can fetch with Natural Order or Reanimate. Awakening had weakened significantly over the years as now a larger percentage of your mana sources are not lands.
-Gaea's Anthem, +Eureka
Anthem did not get picked up even when aggro was supported. Now it has no business staying in. Eureka is a great card that works well with high cost creatures, from across all colors, and will enable insane plays.
-Pouncing Jaguar, +Boreal Druid
Green now has no use for 2/2 one drops. Boreal is maxing out on mana elves, to the extreme.
-Skinshifter, +Utopia Sprawl
Skinshifter is an aggro dude getting cut. Maxing out on mana elves is not quite enough apparently to support ramp consistently at 720, so Utopia Sprawl is added as both a fixer and a one mana ramp spell.
-Vines of Vastwood, +Wild Growth
Vines is a combat trick geared towards aggro, and its cost isn't easy for that deck. Wild Growth is another one mana ramp spell.
-Wolfbitten Captive, +Viridian Emissary
An aggro critter becoming a ramp one. Emissary is specifically good against aggro, and that probably isn't becessary anymore. He is primed to become a different card once we get a better understanding of the new green and what else does it need.
-Albino Troll, +Devoted Druid
Troll is a god two drop, but not in a ramp deck. Druid is one of the best ramp machines making a return.
-Caller of the Claw, +Awakening Zone
Caller of the Claw is a reactive card that helps agro against mass removals. Now when aggro is absent it is not needed. Zone is good for ramp and has a great synergy with the stacks archetype in black. Not to mention it has many combos with Skullclamp, Craterhoof Behemoth and many more.
-Twinblade Slasher, +Nest Invader
An aggro dude turns into a ramp dude. Nest Invader is, again, better suited against aggro so perhaps it will get cut soon.
-Dryad Sophisticate, +Somberwald Sage
Dryad is another aggro card hitting the bin. Sage is a narrow and fragile card that has a huge of potential. I'm willing to try him out, now when the rest of the support cards are there.
Multicolored
Although Gatecrash was not a good set for cube, I am all around very happy with my multicolor section after the change. A nice change considering half a year ago I'd considered it the weakest spot in the cube by far.
-Vraska the Unseen, +Huntmaster of the Fells
Vraska did not hold up to the expectations. She is a five drop in colors that don't need them. But the real problem is that she doesn't have board presence. Her +1 doesn't affect the board, she basically always you use her -3 when she comes into play, as you should be behind by then, having spent a turn or two ramping. and then, she is just an expensive answer, even if a versatile one.
Huntmaster is yet another four drop, but he has raw power, helps you stabilize, generates card advantage and has a nice ETB effect to play with. I knew he was good, just not that good.
-Duergar Hedge-Mage, +Boros Reckoner
Hedge Mage can generate card advantage but is usually just a bear. If I want artifact destruction, I want it right now, not to wait until I draw my second mountain. It doesn't help that it works terribly with most nonbasic lands. Boros Reckoner has a hybrid cost between the two aggro colors. Both of them lack good three drop so it fills a hole. It's hard to deal with him without trading down or suffering card disadvantage, and he is useful with your own Earthquakes as well.
-Selesnya Charm, +Boros Charm
Selesnya Charm was a solid placeholder, but not really a needed card for anything. Boros Charm has three relevant modes and is very aggressive. Nullifying mass removals, doing the last points of damage, saving a key creature n combat, Boros Charm has it all. Probably the best card to come out of gatecrash.
-Rafiq of the Many, +Deathrite Shaman
Rafiq requires three colors, and is useful only offensively while being fragile. Deathrite Shaman proved itself to be a great card in various cubes and formats, I expect it to see a lot of play.
-Glare of Subdual, +Armada Wurm
Glare of Subdual was once one of the most powerful W/G cards. In the last few years the boards have becomes increasingly less creature heavy, reducing its power. It is a card that does nothing on his own, generally only helping you if you are in an acceptable shape to begin with. Armada Wurm gives you a good return for your investment. She has immediate impact on the board in the form of two gigantic blockers and 10 trample damage. Obviously she is a good target for reanimation and Natural Order as well.
-Stormbind, +Life//Death
Stormbind is a good card that can work sometimes, but those are few and far between. In most situations, Stormbind is slow, expensive burn that is usually better served by any other burn spell. Death is another cheap reanimation spell to help support the already thriving archetype. More spells like it will increase its consistency.
-Nemesis of Reason, +Prime Speaker Zegana
Nemesis is a good finisher in U/B. No doubt, it will end a game in a couple attacks. It even has a big butt to survive and doesn't even have to connect. But it has a few disadvantages. The obvious fact that he doesn't advance the gameplan the rest of your decks relies upon, rendering his attacks useless unless it kills, is true. However it is not the reason the card is getting cut, as he reliably gets there. It's the fact that finishers are very expandable in his color combination, and in that competition he loses. He doesn't help you stabilize besides blocking the turn it comes into play (and it can only block on the ground). He is not a good finisher to reanimate, which is key in his colors.
Prime Speaker Zegana is a card with varied performance. Sometimes she will draw six cards and be a 6/6, sometimes she will be a really bad Mulldrifter. But on average she should be worth her cost. She is ripe for abuse with Reveillark, Clone, Mimic Vat and all forms of reanimation. I'm sure she will be warmly accepted by the local players.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
I had decided to up the amount of mana stones. The more there are, the more playable Wildfire and ramp decks are. They also help control and weaken aggro, however. I thought aggro had enough tools to deal with that but apparently aggro took a harder hit than I'd thought it would.
-Brittle Effigy, +Coldsteel Heart
Effigy is a colorless answer to everything but is very expensive. Heart can fix you, but it is a slow stone.
-Isochron Scepter, +Guardian Idol
Scepter requires a critical amount of targets in the deck to be worth it, which is rarely possible to accumulate. Idol is possibly the weakest stone in the cube, as it ETB tapped and has an ability that is only useful offensively at the later stages of the game (if at all) after a mass removal. That said, he can chump block a turn after it ETBs.
-Spined Thopter, +Fellwar Stone
It turns out a Mistral Charger that loses you 2 life when you cast it and is also an artifact for fragility, is not worth being colorless. Fellwar stone gives you mana on the turn it ETB, so it's very playable even though you cannot count on it for fixing.
-Bonehoard, +Palladium Myr
Bonehoard is not big enough on turn 4 to be worth 4 mana, usually ranging between 1/1 and a 2/2. Palladium Myr is an accelerator that got popular in cubes lately; fragile and slow it is but I want to try him out to see if I am missing something.
-Chimeric Mass, +Gilded Lotus
Chimeric Mass is expensive and doesn't really fit a deck well. Gilded Lotus is the most expensive fixer but should be a good card to help support the super ramp deck. It also fixes should you need that and is a good Tinker target in a pinch.
Lands
-Vault of the Archangel, +Gemstone Mine
Vault is too situational and expensive for what it does - in order for the effect to be worth 5 mana, you need to have multiple creatures out that attack or block at the same time, or one giant creature that survives until combat - both not easy if you need to keep five mana up for the case they rise. Gemstone Mine will help aggro decks fix and will probably find a home easily.
-Gavony Township, +Gaea's Cradle
Gavony is expensive for the effect and yet again requires a large amount of critters on your board to be present for an acceptable effect. Cradle, while sharing the drawback, will help the green ramp decks. It is also inconsistent, but has a blowout potential.
-5*Razorverge Thicket, +5*Underground River
The mirrodin land cycle is not powerful enough, even in aggro decks. The pain lands are more consistent and are more playable in slower decks, even though they can cost you some life.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
White
-Austere Command,+Terminus
At first I shied away from Terminus because of my distrust in miracle cards. After trying out Entreat the Angels and Bonfire of the Damned and getting good results my opinion has changed. Added to that is the recommendation of many cube owners and the card's performance in other formats, it is probably good enough to get in.
With Terminus you often get the option to both Wrath the board and drop a creature at the same turn which is a very powerful play. Putting the creatures at the bottom of the library is not a huge upside but it is relevant, especially against reanimator which is both rising in popularity and getting a serious push in this update.
Austere command allows you to deal with extra card types, but as a mass removal it comes too late against aggro to matter, and nowadays midrange mirrors are rarer. Even then, choosing to wrath the board was the most common choice. I'm happy with this change.
-Sunblast Angel,+Eternal Dragon
Both cards are basically reanimation targets with uses as control curve toppers (though they are not true finishers). Sunblast does help you stabilize immediately, but doesn't excel even at that and Eternal Dragon is much better in control decks as a fixer and early play if you have some unused mana (perhaps mana you have saved for a counter but did not end up using). Yes, returning him is expensive, but in true control decks you will get to that stage of the game eventually. In reanimator decks he can get himself to the graveyard. Seems like an upgrade.
-Scepter of Dominance,+Nearheath Pilgrim
It's not that I'm excited for Pilgrim, it's that Scepter really needs to go. It's a white control-only card that requires you to have WWW if you want it to do something the turn it comes into play. Pilgrim is a strong creature that many large cubes play, and because it is a fun card should be adopted quickly by the players.
Blue
-Aetherling,+Sphinx of Lost Truths
Aetherling seems like the perfect control finisher, being able to dodge removal, attack and block at the same time. It's fast and certainly is the most reliable clock in the cube. Sphinx is just not at the same level of the rest of the blue finishers in the cube being expensive, slow and fragile, and I have enough of those that I don't need another one.
Black
The pox package that was added during the last update doesn't work due to the large cube size. It results in many parasitic cards that are dead, especially in Winston and sealed.
The good news is that most cards are actually good without the package, and the major cuts in black midrange is something I want to keep. The space freed by the package dissolving will be given to black aggro and reanimator.
-Nether Traitor,+Blood Scrivener
Nether Traitor is not a good creature in a non-pox deck so it gets cut. Scrivener is a huge aggro card. It will not draw a card every game, but if it is a two drop that draws removal or trades in combat the old way it is still as good as any other two drop you could be playing.
-Pox,+Stinkweed Imp
Stinkweed Imp was added because the reanimator decks needs more discard outlets.
-Death Cloud,+Putrid Imp
See above, only this is a much stronger enabler.
-Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief,+Blind Creeper
Drana is an expensive midrage creature that requires a large amount of mana to do anything. She is a fast clock and she can create card advantage, but costing BB every activation and doing nothing the turn she comes into play made her unnecessary. Creeper is an aggro card making a return.
-Bloodline Keeper,+Guul Draz Assassin
Bloodline Keeper is another midrange creature that bites the dust. Now the pox package is not here, and he does nothing the turn he comes into play, is fragile and is slow at winning the game. Black aggro decks need more one drops so I'm trying the Assassin. It's not the most aggressive one drop but it seems one of the most playable ones.
Red
-Pulse of the Forge,+Rivalry
Pulse costing double red and especially only hitting players just made him vastly worse than any other burn spell. Rivalry was never tried here. I hope it will function most of the time as a second Sulfuric Vortex. So yes, it has a high standard to match, but I accept it will be less consistent, as anyway a less consistent vortex should easily make most red decks.
-Skizzik,+Pyrewild Shaman
Lowering the curve by a cutting from the cluttered four drop to add to the thin layer of three drops. Skizzik is the weakest of the four drops, a relic of the past. It didn't make the cut in many aggro decks. I'm not, well, wild about Pyrewild, but it is a very playable three drop if only for the bloodrush option and the threat of recursion. I'm pretty confident the situations where you will be able to connect and pay 3, without anything better to do with the mana will be extremely rare but that option is just gravy.
Green
-Ravenous Baloth,+Fastbond
Ravenous Baloth was obsoleted a few times already (Obstinate Baloth, Thragtusk). It was added to help green fight aggro, but now this effect is no longer needed. Fastbond was a request from local players to add and it's a card I think will work better in a large cube. It should wheel to the player who took the draw sevens pretty consistently; similar to how Stoneforge Mystic works (the number of equipments in a large cube is very limited). When Fastbond is good it's really good, and it has synergies with Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Time Spiral, Upheaval, Life from the Loam, Meloku, the Clouded Mirror and probably more.
Multicolored
Since the aggro element was reduced significantly from green, the multicolored green cards started to become dead. It is time for the multicolored section to reflect that change as well.
-Psychatog,+Far/Away
Psychatog was given a second run and it failed again in that run as well. It can be big but usually big only once. Every removal kills it and every creature blocks it. Usually it cannot close the game on its own. Far and Away is a versatile card. It is potential card advantage in one mode, with two extra modes that should rescue you from most situations. The two sides have synergy with one another. It's a bonus that the card is especially good against reanimator and ramp decks.
-Boggart Ram-Gang,+Savageborn Hydra
Savageborn Hydra is a good ramp target. Even when played on curve, being a 1/1 in turn three, it can beat for 6 on turn four, making it relevant at most stages of the game.
-Stillmoon Cavalier,+Spike Jester
Cavalier is a mana hungry card, and for a double protection guy is extremely easy to deal with. Red decks just burn him, blue just bounces or takes, green just has bigger creatures and can completely ignore it. Only W/B decks have problems with it. But those two colors are the ones that are best equipped to deal with protection creatures, from mass removals to sacrifice effects.
Spike Jester is one of the quickest creatures to ever be printed. It is easy to block and kill, but being this cheap it shouldn't matter much.
-Loam Lion,+Voice of Resurgence
Loam Lion is a multicolored green aggro card that gets cut. Voice is very cost efficient, preventing your opponent from casting spells and generating card advantage when it dies.
-Kird Ape,+Turn/Burn
Turn/Burn can kill any creature, a rare feat for a card in these colors. Added to that is the chance of card advantage and the versatility the card offers.
-Flinthoof Boar,+Ral Zarek
Ral Zarek is the best U/R card. Planeswalkers that can protect themselves, especially those that cost 4, have been historically great, this is no different.
Artifact
-Phyrexian Processor,+Basalt Monolith
Phyrexian Processor is an expensive, slow card that almost always results in you losing after a large amount of life loss and a massive tempo loss. It happens quite often that it is just destroyed before your next turn, the first token is bounced or even worse, you don't have enough life to pay for a meaningful token.
Basalt Monolith supports the artifact and ramp decks, helping them reach 6-7 mana with ease. It now has synergy with not only Tezzeret but also Ral Zarek, and it goes infinite with Wake Thrasher.
Land
-Gemstone Mine,+Ancient Tomb
Gemstone Mine was the weakest land in the cube. Now that I limit the multicolored aggro card, it becomes less relevant. Ancient Tomb was tried and cut before, but now that ramp strategies are pushed it should find a home.
-Kjeldoran Outpost,+Rishadan Port
Kjeldoran outpost is an aggro card in nature, because the drawback is too steep for control and midrange decks, yet is too slow to matter in aggressive decks. In earlier incarnations of the cube it was a great card, because control had problems with an endless source of threats, but its days in the sun have ended years ago. Port is a great land for aggro decks of all types and colors, I don't really know why it was not in the cube before.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
White
-Mystic Crusader,+Fiendslayer Pladin
Crusader survived for so long because the double protection is very good. The threshold is irrelevant in white weenie, therefore having first strike and lifelink is probably way better than having full protection. Fiendslayer is a better card on average. Against red decks, I'm not even sure he is worse, as lifelink is crucial. A better creature to hold equipments for sure. An easy swap.
-Pianna, Nomad Captain,+Banisher Priest
Pianna is not the worst creature, but she is just a 3/3 for 1WW by herself, and the battlecry is not worth the hard cost. She will usually just get blocked or eat a removal spell, which is not the worst, but is far from exciting considering her difficult cost. Banisher Priest removes a blocker immediately and beats for 2 every turn after. Judging by Fiend Hunter or the even closer in function Kor Hookmaster, this should be enough to grant him playability status. But on top of that, you play the card defensively, turning losses into manageable positions or even wins. It lost the shenanigans Fiend Hunter had, but in return it is a much better creature for white weenie, which is by far the most common deck Fiend Hunter gets played at anyway. I can't see myself not including Priest in a white aggro deck. An easy include.
-Mikaeus, the Lunarch,+Imposing Sovereign
Mikaeus is very slow at what he does. He is good at pumping tokens, if you have the mana and a few turns. That is close to never. In aggro deck he is decent as a curve filler but he is extremely subpar no matter how much mana did you invest in him. He was playable, but unexciting filler.
Sovereign is an easy to cast two drop that delays all blockers by a turn, nullifies haste and in general just buys a lot of tempo in a race situation. Testing is needed, but first impression is that a lot of aggro decks would be happy to pack her.
Blue
-Clone,+Mystical Tutor
Clone was on the chopping block for a long time. What was good about him are his splashable cost to allow combos (Reveillark, Recurring Nightmare etc) and that he was somewhat passable on his own. Now that he cannot kill opposing legendary creatures, he is no longer good enough.
Mystical Tutor was in the cube a few years ago, but failed in practice. The thing that got me to look at the card again is the miracle mechanic. Although I have only three miracle cards, the combo with them seems lethal enough to try. It's not that without them the tutor is bad. I hope it will find renewed interest like Worldly tutor and Enlightened Tutor did over the years.
Black
-Stinkweed Imp,+Liliana's Reaver
Stinkweed is a filler. It is a reanimation outlet, but a bad one. Reaver is devastating when it connects and it can trade with any size of creature to do so. It is fragile to burn, but they will have a short window of time to deal with him before he creates massive card advantage. A scary four drop.
-Puppeteer Clique,+Shadowborn Demon
Clique is a card that creates stories. Some of the most memorable plays in the cube involve the card. But in order to shine the whole cube has to be more dragony - midrange creatures have to be common. Returning an aggro creature is not worth the cost, control decks have few creatures and most of them are finishers and not impressive when they get to beat just once. It hoses reanimator but most decks will already get the fattie out of the yard by the time you have five mana. It is not a bad card still, just not consistently good enough anymore.
Demon has an immediate board impact, helps you stabilize and he is huge. Many times you won't care sacrificing a creature or two because this evasive guy will seal the game.
Red
-Markov Blademaster,+Young Pyromancer
Blademaster is a filler because red three drops suck. Pyromancer should be one of the best of them, creating card advantage and more threats with no mana investment while still applying good pressure on his lonesome. Getting one token is already good value, getting two is pretty incredible.
-Ravenous Baboons,+Chandra, Pyromancer
Baboons are expensive and extremely bad if they have no target. The competition in red four drops is stiff and most pack more punch and immediate impact than baboons. Chandra draws cards, pings and nullifies blockers. She has a lot of versatility, which is rare for a red card and she is probably good in most red decks. Does she stand against the competition? That remains to be seen.
Green
-Jungle Lion,+Elvish Mystic
Lion is a remnant from the days green featured aggro (before last update that is). More redundancy in mana elves is exactly what green wants.
-Rampaging Baloths,+Kalonian Hydra
Baloths is slow and very unexciting compared to Avenger of Zendikar. It does nothing if answered at Vindicate speed, and is not very impressive even if isn't as a mere 6/6 trampler if you don't have a land to follow. Hydra attacks for 8 trample damage for one mana less and kills on her own in two attacks. As an upside, she will also sometimes buff your other creatures with +/+1 counters, from Phantom Centaur to your whole team with Ajani Goldmane.
-Nest Invader,+Witchstalker
Nest Invader ramps only once and is just not very good. Witchstalker as a 3/3 hexproof guy for 3 should be better. I'm not cutting Great Sable Stag because while the card is not great we still like it and in any case it is better than nest invader.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022