When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
I guess we prioritize different things when playing aggressive black decks then. If I had redundancy such as Wasteland, Strip Mine, or Rishadan Port it becomes much more likely that I will have the Sinkhole in my 40. A random LD spell by itself, no matter how efficient, is often just not what I am looking for when trying to build myself the best aggressive deck I can. I understand where you all are coming from, but try to look at it from a alternate perspective here. I won't play Stone Rain by itself in a mono-red aggro deck as it will too often miss the exact window in the game where it is an effective card. Targeted LD without redundancy in the deck generally isn't worth the slot over a more universal effect I mentioned earlier such as creatures, removal, and discard. All of those effects will generally (not always, but more often than not) have a greater lifespan for what point you can draw them and still have them be potent.
Stone Rain by itself and Sinkhole by itself is not the same thing at all. Sinkhole >>>>>>> Stone Rain. LD simply should not cost two mana. It's always good. There is no B/x aggro deck I've ever built where Sinkhole doesn't end up in the final 40. Not one.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
Before the set came out, we knew we would have many playable artifacts. I saw this as an excellent excuse to trim some more multicolor. Cutting gold cards, which are at the hardest to play end of the spectrum for the other end should have a pretty dramatic effect. It makes deckbuilding easier for sealed and Winston, which I believe was still a little too hard and it allows more cards to see play more consistently. Not to mention I am pretty happy with my artifacts section and needed to cut somewhere (There are about 5-7 artifacts that I want to cut, but it was a lower priority for me than multicolored, since the change will not be too visible and I had a lot of bad multicolored cards to cut. Another factor was that finding 5-7 artifacts in Mirrodin Besieged is always more likely than finding 10, so I’d rather use what was printed now when I still can).
That’s still only a change of 10 cards out of 720, but looking at the quality of the cards cut compared to the cards added, it should have a noticeable impact.
Soul Manipulation is narrow in what it can counter, and while it can create a two for one relatively cheaply and easily, most mono-blue counters are way better than it. Watchwolf is not that special nowadays like it was a few years ago, no one will notice it’s gone. Crime//Punishment is too expensive for what it does, it saw next to no play over the last year. Tidehollow Sculler is merely a temporary answer strapped to a fragile and not very efficient or impressive body. Hellkite Overlord is not the type of reanimation targets reanimator decks need – it doesn’t help them recover the board position they have lost while trying to get their pieces together. It’s the fastest clock you can recur, maybe, but reanimator decks here aren’t built about winning on the third turn consistently anyway. Unmake was a removal tailored for mono white mostly, but white weenie doesn’t need the help much and many good removal spells were printed during the last one and a half years. Blazing Specter is a solid card, but black has many good four drops and the R/B decks we have here are mostly just plain aggro, with no conspicuous discard themes, and they have to be picky of what they get for four mana. Army Ants is a fragile, slow and annoying card. It can lock games, but in a very unfun way anyway and many R/B decks won’t pick it. Azorius Guildmage is playable, and again mostly for mono white. Blue and white just have access to a higher quality of cards. Debtor’s Knell is very slow and expensive for what it does. It has accumulative advantage but white and black have faster finishers and better reanimation spells.
So overall, I don’t think there are any great losses here.
Sword of Body and Mind, the first card spoiled, is the next generation of the mirrodin swords and if it’s somewhere between Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow in powerlevel it is definitely worth it. Double protection, +2/+2, a game-winning triggered ability and generation of card advantage in one package.
Chimeric Mass is a scalable Chimeric Idol, a card which I’ve been happy with. Resistant to mass removals, costs only meager one mana per turn and always useful, I expect many decks to pack it in.
Palladium Myr is the creature version of Worn Powerstone. Since that card performed well here, I expect Palladium Myr to be of about an equal powerlevel. Sure, it dies to removal, but it can also attack and win the game for you, block an opposing threat and carry equipment.
Perilous Myr is an efficient two drop that I believe many decks will take to fill their curve. The effect is always desirable, especially against an aggro rush, and it is cheap. Not to mention it's another way for red decks to kill Silver Knight.
Ratchet Bomb shares many of what made Powder Keg bad in my experience: it is slow, foreseeable and gives your opponent control of his effect but being a colorless answer to planeswalkers is tempting enough to at least try it.
Nim Deathmantle is a card I was skeptic about, but after playing with it a bit in various environments, I think it will perform well. Nullifying removal spells, abusing attacks and blocks and reusing ETB/LTB effects holds much promise. Not staple or anything, but good enough at least until Mirrodin Besieged comes out.
Precursor Golem offers nine points of power for five mana, for any deck. I don’t think his increased weakness to removal spells can make that deal bad. It also interacts nicely with bounce and global pump effects.
Wurmcoil Engine – shouldn’t need any explanation.
Molten-Tail Masticore – Because throwing Flame Javelins every turn and attacking with a 4/4 is a solid way to win.
I like the new cycle of Mirrodin lands very much. I had some trouble fitting it, and I think this is the most reasonable solution. The filter lands (which are always mediocre) are cut in favor of five aggro-oriented lands and five control oriented lands. The mirrodin lands are more powerful in aggro color combinations and the bouncelands are weaker in them, so it should even out.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
Dwarven Blastminer was added to the cube in the last update instead of the 1R 2/1 that forced your opponent to discard a card when it connected if you control a swamp. I forgot to write about it because it's not in the new set. Nonbasic-heavy deck are powerful enough currently that they need the hate anyway.
I know it’s kinda late, but it’s time to post my Mirrodin Besieged cube update. The cube was actually updated a long time ago in paper, but I just haven’t got around to posting them online. Obviously that was a hard burden for my soul, so I am happy to get that off my chest
We did not cube with the new cards too much yet, so I cannot judge the additions just yet. This set was not too exciting, with relatively few additions, and most swaps being simple upgrades, strict and near-strict alike. Because there are few changes to write and few to say about each of them, I’ll break my habit and post the whole update in 1 post. I don’t expect it to be controversial.
Galepowder is okay, but does not have the raw power of hero. Hero is also better after a mass removal, better if you are ahead, better with tokens, is a faster clock, doesn’t die to Lightning Bolt and is just generally better.
Better black aggro card IMO, as it beats for 3 without paying two mana each turn, can block and has 3 toughness instead of one. More splash friendly too.
Black had got a ton of good midrange and control cards in the last few years, Xiahou isn’t that special nowadays. The sorcery limitation is bad, the body is good but not overly impressive.
A better mass removal IMO, due to scalability and the fact that 8 mana is hard to come by. Even if we only compare them at X=2, the fact that it’s permanent and a one mana cheaper, especially important on a mass removal, is a serious contender for the instant speed, card draw and the uncounterability. With the flexible X cost, and the reshuffle part, I think it’s better, and not slightly so.
Emissary isn’t reliably getting you a land for the next turn, OTOH it’s card advantage and much more powerful and useful for and against aggro, and he’s more powerful in Winston/sealed.
Green has many four drops, and cutting them is hard, but has to start somewhere. Zenith is narrow, so I fear it will not fare well, but I have the space to try it out so I do. Being splashable is a major thumbs up here.
Rachet Bomb is very slow and a bad topdeck like his ancestor. No worries though as wizards have printed a different 2cc answer for planeswalkers instead for us.
Bazaar is very narrow and almost always fails to find a deck. I was told to cut it something like a year ago but I refused. Now I finally give up. Edge is worst than Wasteland, but possibly still good enough anyway and I want the extra nonbasic land hate as of late.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
Hello readers. Time for the New Phyrexia update has come…. A month ago. Fact is, I’ve printed the proxies before the prerelease even but I didn’t get the time to explain in words all my choices until today. We have drafted I think 3 times with the NPH cards (just to remind, we have large draft tables). Not enough to draw conclusions, but enough to get a feel.
Even before the update, we had a slight problem – aggro was too dominant. It kept winning drafts and was very common. I didn’t believe it could actually go too far on that direction though and I have explained it as play skill, preferences, people not making the necessary steps to protect against aggro and chance.
But NPH was very generous to aggressive decks. Phyrexian mana cheap beaters, dragons that kill on turn five, a new sword and more compared to a very little gain for control decks. Now aggro is too dominant. One draft we had 6 aggro decks out of 10, and still an aggro deck won. I wish to tone aggro down a bit. That’s why I’ve finally added Maze of Ith and Kor Haven. This change was not tested yet. A few more changes are due, but I didn’t make up my mind on them. The recent discussion about Spellskite got me looking at it too, for example. Any suggestions are welcomed.
Since NPH is old news and most updates are not very interesting I’ve opted for one long post instead of two.
The most obvious cut choice for Blade Splicer is Ballynock Cohort. That’s about as much strictly better as a card can get. But, the Cohort is still a splashable 2W critter, which is much rarer than the angel. It also sees play here more often. The angel got the axe.
I personally think the Nightstalker is a bit better, but people hated seeing him and Wei Assassins all the time, and I didn’t mind the switch. It’s obvious that his place in the cube is not permanent anyway.
Whipflare is functionally another Pyroclasm, a card that is much more beneficial to control than Jaya. Jaya is slow and fragile and costs double red. Most significantly, she is light years slower against an aggro rush. For red aggro decks she’s not efficient enough.
Let’s just forget Iguanar was here. I’ll talk about the souleater instead. I’ve seen only little discussion recently about this guy. He’s one of the most frightening turn two drops, and if your opponent just plays a signet during his turn two in a control deck, he is in a hard time. Sure it’s the BCS, but comparing it to the card I’m taking out I don’t think anyone would argue for leaving it out.
Hungry Spriggan is a subpar card. It’s splashable and offensive but very fragile and 100% uselss on the defense, a 1/1 for 3 mana isn’t gonna trade upwards. It’s tailored for Winston and the trample is nice but low powerlevel is low. You are just asking to be 2-for-1ed with Arc Trail or something random.
I’m not perfectly convinced about Beast Within. It is very broad in what it can deal with. It has a functionality that no other card has. That’s why I will test it (that and that I have the space for it). It can also be used on your own stuff if you need, but I believe dealing with an opposing 3/3 will prove to be difficult to green decks in my cube. Seems bad for Winston yet awesome for 2HG.
ASD is good in very narrow circumstances and is slow as hell. Classic 5CC decks don’t form around here commonly and consistently enough for that type of card anyway. Exarch is another way to deal with planeswalkers in green, and it can tutor up your other fattie if you are in need of some board presence. The card is expensive but not more than a kicked Mold Shambler, so he should be at least as playable.
Phyrexian mana
The phyrexian manas have a classification problem. I planned to include them as artifacts, as they don’t require any colored mana to cast, but when finalizing the update I saw I had exactly 5 of them, which is a nice round number so now they make up their own section. This will probably not last very long (one of them will probably be cut within a year or so), but for now it works just fine.
I decided to cut multicolored cards for them because they just had the lowest powerlevel of all the sections.
Empyrial Angel is a finisher and a reanimation target that seems to be very resilient due to shroud but is actually very fragile. Attacking with 8 points of power will always kill it, burn still works against it and deathtouch owns it. It is a slow clock and was always relatively easily answered. He will never get you back from a losing situation if you fell enough behind and just has too low of a board impact compared to his problematic cost. Moltensteel seems like he should end games quickly in an aggro deck. Somewhat easily answered, yet is a must answer and one of the fastest clocks ever. Red aggro will love it.
Battlemage has a lot of utility but is just a filler when it comes down to it. G/R/W decks are very rare here, and GR and GW decks have multiple creatures that fill similar functions for a cheaper price already. Clone was a solid performer for us, getting comboed nearly every draft with Crystal Shard, Reveillark or whatever’s handy, so a clone that can be 25% cheaper if you need, can copy a sword and is tutorable by [card =Tezzert, the Seeker]Tezzeret[/card] is an auto-include.
Image is very expensive and slow. All colors have enough better six drops that one that doesn’t win on an empty board rarely makes the cut. Dismember is just a versatile removal that kills nearly everything. I can’t see it not getting played.
Wurm suffers from the competition in white and green. I believe it’s the strongest gold card I’m cutting here, yet it’s not a great loss. A 5/5 body without trample will not decide games on turn 6. Thopter is a colorless Mistral Charger, aggro decks rejoice.
So, umm, a mass removal for seven is too late usually. It turns out it’s quite hard to get AiD to be one-sided. Karn seems like a bomb that’s very hard to recover from. Massive card advantage, nearly unkillable and wins the game alone. Yep, it’s better.
Plladium Myr was always underwhelming at best. Slow compared to other fast mana options and fragile. Playing this on your third turn is usually really bad and it only gets worse later. Batterskull is the control dream – life, can play both offense and defense and is very hard to get rid of.
Sphere of the Suns is both acceleration and fixing but is slow, temporary and unremarkable even then in both areas. Parasite is very narrow, which I dislike, but it answers planeswalkers in all the colors. Even if he’s not quite playable now, I believe that it won’t take a very long time until he will be, with the amount of cubeable hard-to-answer planeswalkers they print out every year.
Murmuring Bosk is an okay fixer, but certainly a cuttable one. We missed Library. Not all of us, but most of us, me included. It’s broken for no excuse and gives your deck another play mode and doesn’t increase skill. That’s true. But, every format needs his high profile cards and first picks, something to draw the baseline around, and library is just that. Plus there was an increase in nonbasic land hate over the past year, this doesn’t really balance the card but helps dealing with it somewhat.
Both are control lands, one is better. Being alive until you have six mana is more important than having another thing to do with that mana once you get there.
Cradle needs specific circumstances to work properly. It’s really bad against a mass removal. Unlike a Forest you cannot go Llanowar Elves with it on the first turn. Kor Haven was a metagame need so it earns this slot.
p.s. - I'm glad to see the word "aggro" was finally added to the site's dictionary so the spellchecker doesn't mark it anymore
I have been away from cubing during the last two and a half months – I have been at a vacation in the states. That can only mean one thing now – time for a mega update!
M12, Commander and Innistrad contributed us quite a few cards. Overall I am very happy with this upgrade, as I feel the cards added are significantly better than the cut cards and none of them are useless/last picks/ashaming cards to see in your booster. Of course there are a few serious powerhouses there too, the cube legacy of their respective sets.
As usual, I went with the approach of broad includes. This has a few reasons. One, I believe having five test failures is a fine price to pay for finding one gem. Two, we have the space for it. Third, I like to change and keep things fresh and moving.
Besides that, I have finally after three years decided to go over all the cards in the list and find all the cards that were missing from it. As you may know, some cards will get lost if you draft for a long enough time. This is not such a big deal in a proxy cube, but a few of the missing cards are just horrible for the current powerlevel of the cube, so I took them out too.
The cube saw tons of play in my absence. Two-headed giants, double tables, you name it. We’ve drafted three more times since I returned, one of them was breaking the all time record of player participation at 20! (we reduced the number of cards per booster to accommodate)
Looking at their results, I think there was one main problem. Aggro was good, a healthy number of decks were drafted consistently. But white weenie was too good. It was historically so, but now I realized it doesn’t let any other aggro deck thrive. Red burn decks were known to win drafts, but any other creature based aggro is just crushed by white weenie, most notably green and black. I took several measures to counter this. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but the one draft we have done post-update was won by R/G aggro, for the first time ever in the history of the cube.
As usual, the update will be split to two parts.
White:
As noted, I specifically wanted to weaken white weenie against other types of aggro decks. Obviously, I didn’t want to just cut good cards or not include the new tech, so I had to be craftier. This update alone did not fix the situation, it will be a long process, but I think this is a good first step.
One of the first things I have realized is that white, unlike any other color in my cube, has to trim down a little bit of it’s aggro component. Unfortunately, the only control-only card that came out in the last few sets that I deem cubeworthy is Reinforcements. Cohort is just the most subpar three drop in white and it’s useful only in aggro – a pure gain for the slow decks.
White has too many protection guys in my cube. That + first strike simply slaughters randomly opposing aggro decks. White Knight is one of the weaker two drop anyway so he just got kicked a set or two earlier. Youth is a very strong card but subtly enough, it isn’t as good against opposing aggro decks, especially red that can kill the 1/1 with dividable damage and against which the life loss is dangerous.
Eight and a half tails was also not too hot. Because of the heavy white cost of his activation and cost, he was restricted to WW, and he didn’t excel there. Usually he just helped evade a blocker or two in the late game. Fiend Hunter is another white removal, which is in high demand. I believe he will serve well.
Note: Fiend Hunter, is not as good in control as he is in aggro (double white early, holds equipment, poor as a blocker yet good as an attacker with anthems, not a true removal yet is very good at temporarily clearing blockers) and I am aware of that. Yet even if he will end up in aggro 80% of the time it’s still an improvement over 100%.
Wayfarer is also one of those “looks universally good but in practice is played in aggro“ cards and he is just not that strong no matter how you look it. Would have been cut anyway. Lunarch is sure to find a home here, I’m not worried about that
Crusader I have found as one of my lost cards. Else, he would have been cut like two years ago. Monk is not a Cloudgoat Giant, but until they print a new white midrange card it will do.
Blue:
The last two years, blue didn’t get much besides Jace, the Mind Sculptor. It’s not surprising blue got the least cards this time too, neither does the fact that they have the highest powerlevel by far.
- Rite of Replication, +[card]Phantasmal Image
[/card]
Rite is ultimately expensive for what it does. Clone is better because of the easier cost and bounce/reanimation shenanigans. Phantasmal Image is half his price and copies ETB effects, kills legends or doubles your bomb for the low, low price of 2. Bargain.
Mage, though not a permanent addition by any means, is better than Apprentice due to being able to draw a card the turn you play him, can still attack and can draw you two cards in the late game. Besides that, he is a bit better than the next few cards in blue’s chopping block so he gets in.
Evacuation is expensive and doesn’t hurt aggro that much as they can play 2-3 of their bounced dudes per turn (and they will rarely have to discard after the bounce). The new Jace seems like a super finisher in that he can win the turn after he ETBs and nearly nothing can stop him. On top of that, he can still draw you cards if you are about to die next turn.
Pact is a card that by its nature is narrow in its applications; he is not just another counter to add to your blue control deck. Snapcaster is a natural source of card advantage that can basically do anything and will get played everywhere. I had two mages in my prerelease deck, and if he was good there he has to be godly here.
Black:
Black got a few more aggro card which it direly needs. I don’t feel black has quite the depth of supporting aggro in a black cube just yet, but we are constantly getting closer and closer. This time we hit another milestone with a brand new one drop.
Wumpus never performed here well. As a mass removal against aggro he is slow, fragile and loses you life. As a beater for seven per turn he requires BBBB and still loses you life. Bloodgift seems like a more universally useful creature in both aggro and control. Aggressive body, card advantage and direct burn do that. Also, not insignificantly for his color, he is way better when reanimated (and yes, I believe him to be reanimate-worthy).
Hatchling was the placeholder type of card which will obviously get cut in the next set yet is still marginally better than something you ran so it gets in. Ghoul is too important not to have. Possibly the best black one drop yet.
Undead Gladiator was there as a reanimation engine, which Lilly serves better besides providing card advantage. Likely the best black planeswalker yet.
We want aggro! Shortfang is good against control in a slow deck, but not in aggro where he costs too much mana. Since the number of black aggro cards had to be increased, the marginal cards had to be cut. Interloper is the bread and butter that the aggro decks feed off.
A slight curve drop and quality increase. Djinn was tried three years ago and cut, but now that I try to support aggro I believe he will stay for good. Black still has a severe problem at the three drop slot, I hope some salvation will come soon.
I love this update and it's good to have you back. I think I agree with eidolon and would remove Sphinx of Lost Truths instead of Rites of Replication.
I like your changes except the exclusion of Rites of Replication we used to kick it quite a bit and while you usually wouldn't add a 9 drop to your deck, having a (slightly worse) Clone is still fine.
You could remove Sphinx of Lost Truths instead, since while it is easier to kick, neither the regular nor the kicked version are really impressive.
That's a possibility, though we have found sphinx to be solid in his 5 mana form against aggro and a clone effect is rarely better in this scenario. He is also passable in reanimator, because he helps you dig and discard other targets when you return him.
Nice updates! And it's good to hear from you Metamind! Are you gonna be back often enough to join us in discussions again?
I should have lots of free time starting from the middle of next week and to at least the next month and a half or so. But I guess you will see me then You will find this part of the update more controversial.
Red:
Red had relatively many cards which I considered chaff. I was happy to cut here.
So yes, torch is worse than Demonfire by a lot so he was the first Blaze variant to be cut from this cube, ever. Devil’s Play has a built-in card advantage, he cannot possibly be worse than those two.
Hooligan became obsoleted in the last few sets which provided us many cards that kill artifacts. Phoenix is a cheap recurring source of damage for burn decks and aggro decks.
Flames was not a bad card but he was too narrow. Chaos warp is the other extreme, offering unmatched versatility in his color. An interesting story-making card.
Instigator is a four drop better suited for aggro. Had him at the prerelease and release (went 5-1 and 4-0-split) where he crushed face. It’s fun card to have on the board as it requires thinking and adjusting your plays.
Green:
Green didn’t have many structural changes, besides the constant increase in it’s aggro component. This update was mostly an upgrade to the two drops.
Serious upgrade here. Ooze is a better hate card and seems universally playable. The graveyard-chew does not have to matter for this card to shine. The best play we ever had with Loaming Shaman was this:
Turn 1: Play forest, discard Swamp for Mox Diamond, play something Turn 2: Play forest Next few turns: a bit of a game buit a serious mana screw lead the desperate play of Loaming Shaman on your own grave, to raise the chances of drawing a land Turn after: topdeck Farseek, fetching the swamp you have just put in your deck
We did not find Wild Dogs to be a consistent aggro one drop in the cube. The downside was proven too big for the 2/1 body. Maybe it is because green isn’t aggressive enough; it’s the second color that has enough good cards in a small cube yet stretches for aggressive playables in a large cube. Skinshifter however seems highly useful due his versatility. He is a 4/4 at the beginning of the game, a 2/2 flier when you need to attack a planeswalker or gets past fat creatures later a 0/8 blocker when you are behind.
A cube doesn’t have a room for three heavy green five drops (Kodama of the North Tree). Garruk is a huge source of card advantage that seems very good at protecting itself.
Emissary is a marginal card as it allows your opponent control over his usefulness. Sure, sometimes it will be ramp + kill a creature, but that will only be the case when it won’t be fatal to your opponent. Mayor is a two drop that has the potential to win the game, especially useful to punish your opponent for mana screws. I believe Mayor is the best at aggro but also very playable at ramp decks as well.
Invader is a one-shot ramp, which is not very useful or reliable, and an unimpressive (even if solid) two drop body. Viper is a lot better at ramp decks that value their removals highly and need early defense. Viper is not a bad attacker too for his price if you need that. An effect we do not see often in green and might as well fail but worth a shot.
The cube became too fast to allow a four-mana spell that doesn’t affect the board, especially when the spell is not that good to begin with. Ramp decks prefer to have a source of blockers, removals and another win condition for the same price.
These two cards are close in powerlevel. The problem of beastbreaker is that very rarely will you want to go third turn level up. If you cast your second drop on curve, there is nearly no doubt Gatstaf Shepherd is better as he can be turned over by your opponent without requiring any more commitment from you. Even if that does not happen, paying 3 mana is often equivalent to skipping playing spells for a turn, and a 3/3 intimidate is better than a 4/4. The Beastbreaker’s advantages is that he can almost always attack for 4 the turn after you play him and you can sink your excess mana into it (although leveling to the last level never happened).
The 3/3 was a bit too problematic. Bramblecrush should be a better answer to planeswalkers (the main reason Beast Within was added) that is also more playable in general.
Gouger is just not impressive compared to the third drops those colors get anyway. Olivia is a slow card for sure, but she can easily take over a game by herself. It’s not a super POWERFUL argument but the only draft we have played with the new said, the player who played her said she was a serious bomb.
The bouncelands are perfectly fine and playable, but they are only good at slow decks. The main reason for swapping them out is that they don’t see much play and after three years of having them, I think it’s time to shake things up.
Krosan Verge I found as one of the lost cards and should have been cut ages ago. It is card advantage but it’s very slow and pretty narrow. Wolf Run is also narrow but provides a game-ending effect. It is still probably the weakest land, but a significant upgrade nonetheless.
I see nothing controversial about those changes. They all seem like upgrades to me.
Me either. The cards you're cutting aren't all that great, and the cards that are going in are all awesome for larger cubes. I probably wouldn't cut the bouncelands in the control combinations, but if you're only running full cycles, that swap is fine too. I like Wild Dogs more than Skinshifter, but that's okay. Wild Dogs isn't for everybody.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
Mayor of Avabruck was unreasonably good for me in a cube yesterday. He literally won the game by itself when my opponent couldn't find an answer in time. I love Beastbreaker of Bala Ged, and think it should certainly be in a cube this size, but room should also be made for Mayor as well.
Me either. The cards you're cutting aren't all that great, and the cards that are going in are all awesome for larger cubes. I probably wouldn't cut the bouncelands in the control combinations, but if you're only running full cycles, that swap is fine too. I like Wild Dogs more than Skinshifter, but that's okay. Wild Dogs isn't for everybody.
I was thinking about Thrashing Wumpus, actually. Or did it fall out of love during the last few months?
Wild Dogs is certainly a good aggro card, but it's part of the category of cards that thrive in an already established aggro environment. Wild Dogs is not one of the cards that will make you try to draft aggro nor is it any good in a half-aggro half-midrange decks, winston drafts or sealed. He will be good and probably will come back, but only after green aggro has a more serious footprint.
Mayor of Avabruck was unreasonably good for me in a cube yesterday. He literally won the game by itself when my opponent couldn't find an answer in time. I love Beastbreaker of Bala Ged, and think it should certainly be in a cube this size, but room should also be made for Mayor as well.
Based on one draft, Mayor of Avabruck wins games. Beastbreaker was poor for us. I was looking for a reason to cut it out. In any case, it might not have been the right cut because I could have just increased the aggro component but I'd rather avoid adding him again right now. In any case, the number of aggro support cards and green two drops rose dramatically in this update so it's okay to have one less card in both categories.
I really like this update.
Wild Dogs are a quite good card for aggro that beats down hard early+ cycles for a card later, when you don't want a x/1 on the board anymore, so I would rather not add the Snake.
If you want to cut a cycle of etb lands, I would rather cut the Vivids and Trilands, since the card + mana advantage from the Karoos is just way better.
Yea, the snake is not a card for aggro decks.
Vivids and Trilands I have included to support 5cc. Believe it or not, ever since the beginning it was extremely rare to see them in this cube. The number of rainbow lands from a small to a large cube doesn't increase significantly (maybe by one or two) and I believe that to be a major problem for that deck type. To be honest I still don't see many of those decks, perhaps we had one in our 20 player draft.
I know a lot of players hate seeing that deck in their drafts. I can see why since it doesn't require much skill, ****s up the signals and feels like cheating. So no, I don't actively support that strategy, as can be seen in my small multicolored section. Yet I believe that the strategy of picking lands pack one, bombs packs 2 and 3 to be a unique strategy to cube and a very fun one to try, at least for the first 1-2 times. Therefore I try to make sure it is at least possible.
this just straight up makes no sense to me. i would always, always run sinkhole in a black aggro deck.
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this. i love stone rain and i'd like to get it back into the cube, but it's not broken. sinkhole is broken.
Before the set came out, we knew we would have many playable artifacts. I saw this as an excellent excuse to trim some more multicolor. Cutting gold cards, which are at the hardest to play end of the spectrum for the other end should have a pretty dramatic effect. It makes deckbuilding easier for sealed and Winston, which I believe was still a little too hard and it allows more cards to see play more consistently. Not to mention I am pretty happy with my artifacts section and needed to cut somewhere (There are about 5-7 artifacts that I want to cut, but it was a lower priority for me than multicolored, since the change will not be too visible and I had a lot of bad multicolored cards to cut. Another factor was that finding 5-7 artifacts in Mirrodin Besieged is always more likely than finding 10, so I’d rather use what was printed now when I still can).
That’s still only a change of 10 cards out of 720, but looking at the quality of the cards cut compared to the cards added, it should have a noticeable impact.
Gold:
-Soul Manipulation, -Watchwolf, -Crime//Punishment, -Tidehollow Sculler, -Hellkite Overlord, -Unmake, -Blazing Scepter, -Army Ants, -Azorius Guildmage, -Debtor’s Knell
Soul Manipulation is narrow in what it can counter, and while it can create a two for one relatively cheaply and easily, most mono-blue counters are way better than it. Watchwolf is not that special nowadays like it was a few years ago, no one will notice it’s gone. Crime//Punishment is too expensive for what it does, it saw next to no play over the last year. Tidehollow Sculler is merely a temporary answer strapped to a fragile and not very efficient or impressive body. Hellkite Overlord is not the type of reanimation targets reanimator decks need – it doesn’t help them recover the board position they have lost while trying to get their pieces together. It’s the fastest clock you can recur, maybe, but reanimator decks here aren’t built about winning on the third turn consistently anyway. Unmake was a removal tailored for mono white mostly, but white weenie doesn’t need the help much and many good removal spells were printed during the last one and a half years. Blazing Specter is a solid card, but black has many good four drops and the R/B decks we have here are mostly just plain aggro, with no conspicuous discard themes, and they have to be picky of what they get for four mana. Army Ants is a fragile, slow and annoying card. It can lock games, but in a very unfun way anyway and many R/B decks won’t pick it. Azorius Guildmage is playable, and again mostly for mono white. Blue and white just have access to a higher quality of cards. Debtor’s Knell is very slow and expensive for what it does. It has accumulative advantage but white and black have faster finishers and better reanimation spells.
So overall, I don’t think there are any great losses here.
Artifacts:
+Sword of Body and Mind, +Chimeric Mass, +Palladium Myr, +Perilous Myr, +Ratchet Bomb, +Nim Deathmantle, +Precursor Golem, +Wurmcoil Engine, +Mimic Vat, +Molten-Tail Masticore
Sword of Body and Mind, the first card spoiled, is the next generation of the mirrodin swords and if it’s somewhere between Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow in powerlevel it is definitely worth it. Double protection, +2/+2, a game-winning triggered ability and generation of card advantage in one package.
Chimeric Mass is a scalable Chimeric Idol, a card which I’ve been happy with. Resistant to mass removals, costs only meager one mana per turn and always useful, I expect many decks to pack it in.
Palladium Myr is the creature version of Worn Powerstone. Since that card performed well here, I expect Palladium Myr to be of about an equal powerlevel. Sure, it dies to removal, but it can also attack and win the game for you, block an opposing threat and carry equipment.
Perilous Myr is an efficient two drop that I believe many decks will take to fill their curve. The effect is always desirable, especially against an aggro rush, and it is cheap. Not to mention it's another way for red decks to kill Silver Knight.
Ratchet Bomb shares many of what made Powder Keg bad in my experience: it is slow, foreseeable and gives your opponent control of his effect but being a colorless answer to planeswalkers is tempting enough to at least try it.
Nim Deathmantle is a card I was skeptic about, but after playing with it a bit in various environments, I think it will perform well. Nullifying removal spells, abusing attacks and blocks and reusing ETB/LTB effects holds much promise. Not staple or anything, but good enough at least until Mirrodin Besieged comes out.
Precursor Golem offers nine points of power for five mana, for any deck. I don’t think his increased weakness to removal spells can make that deal bad. It also interacts nicely with bounce and global pump effects.
Wurmcoil Engine – shouldn’t need any explanation.
Molten-Tail Masticore – Because throwing Flame Javelins every turn and attacking with a 4/4 is a solid way to win.
Lands:
-10 Filterlands, +5 remaining bouncelands, +5 Mirrodin Lands
I like the new cycle of Mirrodin lands very much. I had some trouble fitting it, and I think this is the most reasonable solution. The filter lands (which are always mediocre) are cut in favor of five aggro-oriented lands and five control oriented lands. The mirrodin lands are more powerful in aggro color combinations and the bouncelands are weaker in them, so it should even out.
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Ashenmoor Gouger is way worse than Blazing Specter, thanks for noticing. It will be fixed in the next update.
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We did not cube with the new cards too much yet, so I cannot judge the additions just yet. This set was not too exciting, with relatively few additions, and most swaps being simple upgrades, strict and near-strict alike. Because there are few changes to write and few to say about each of them, I’ll break my habit and post the whole update in 1 post. I don’t expect it to be controversial.
White:
-Leonin Arbiter, +Accorder Paladin
Arbiter was always a placeholder.
-Transcendence Master, +Mirran Crusader
Master was always a C-Grade card, if I knew Mirran Crusader was coming out in a few months I wouldn’t have included it in the first place.
-Galepowder Mage, +Hero of Bladehold
Galepowder is okay, but does not have the raw power of hero. Hero is also better after a mass removal, better if you are ahead, better with tokens, is a faster clock, doesn’t die to Lightning Bolt and is just generally better.
-Indomitable Archangel, +Leonin Relic-Warder
White needed less midrange drops, so the worst one goes. Relic Warder seems promising, as all creature based disenchants were good so far.
Black:
-Dauthi Mercenary, +Necrogen Scudder
Better black aggro card IMO, as it beats for 3 without paying two mana each turn, can block and has 3 toughness instead of one. More splash friendly too.
-Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, +Go for the Throat
Black had got a ton of good midrange and control cards in the last few years, Xiahou isn’t that special nowadays. The sorcery limitation is bad, the body is good but not overly impressive.
-Decree of Pain, +Black Sun’s Zenith
A better mass removal IMO, due to scalability and the fact that 8 mana is hard to come by. Even if we only compare them at X=2, the fact that it’s permanent and a one mana cheaper, especially important on a mass removal, is a serious contender for the instant speed, card draw and the uncounterability. With the flexible X cost, and the reshuffle part, I think it’s better, and not slightly so.
Red:
-Rakka Mar, +Hero of Oxid Ridge
Both are hasty creatures that cost 4, one is better
-Vulshok Replica, +Goblin Wardriver
Replica was a placeholder. Wardriver isn’t super exciting but I believe it is a better placeholder if nothing else.
-Dragonmaster Outcast, +Slagstorm
Slagstorm is a better card for red midrange decks and U/R counterburn, and there is no place for both cards to fill that narrow role.
-Reckless Charge, +Red Sun’s Zenith
Reckless Charge requires a creature to connect and that is too conditional, Zenith seems like a good Fireball variant.
Green:
-Sylvan Ranger, +Viridian Emissary
Emissary isn’t reliably getting you a land for the next turn, OTOH it’s card advantage and much more powerful and useful for and against aggro, and he’s more powerful in Winston/sealed.
-Cudgel Troll, +Thrun, the Last Troll
This Troll is legendary
-Masked Admirers, +Green Sun’s Zenith
Green has many four drops, and cutting them is hard, but has to start somewhere. Zenith is narrow, so I fear it will not fare well, but I have the space to try it out so I do. Being splashable is a major thumbs up here.
Artifact:
-Ratchet Bomb, +Phyrexian Revoker
Rachet Bomb is very slow and a bad topdeck like his ancestor. No worries though as wizards have printed a different 2cc answer for planeswalkers instead for us.
-Gathan Raiders, +Bonehoard
Gathan Raiders is not very good. I’m not sure how good is bonehoard but I think it will prove to be solid in aggro and midrange.
-Sigil of Distinction, +Sword of Feast and Famine
Swords are the goodstuff. Sigil is very expensive for what it does, which isn’t good for aggro, the deck that wants equipments the most.
-Guardian Idol, +Sphere of the Suns
The fixing is better than being able to turn into a creature IMO.
Land:
-Bazaar of Baghdad, +Tectonic Edge
Bazaar is very narrow and almost always fails to find a deck. I was told to cut it something like a year ago but I refused. Now I finally give up. Edge is worst than Wasteland, but possibly still good enough anyway and I want the extra nonbasic land hate as of late.
-Undiscovered Paradise, +Dust Bowl
Basically the same as the above swap.
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Even before the update, we had a slight problem – aggro was too dominant. It kept winning drafts and was very common. I didn’t believe it could actually go too far on that direction though and I have explained it as play skill, preferences, people not making the necessary steps to protect against aggro and chance.
But NPH was very generous to aggressive decks. Phyrexian mana cheap beaters, dragons that kill on turn five, a new sword and more compared to a very little gain for control decks. Now aggro is too dominant. One draft we had 6 aggro decks out of 10, and still an aggro deck won. I wish to tone aggro down a bit. That’s why I’ve finally added Maze of Ith and Kor Haven. This change was not tested yet. A few more changes are due, but I didn’t make up my mind on them. The recent discussion about Spellskite got me looking at it too, for example. Any suggestions are welcomed.
Since NPH is old news and most updates are not very interesting I’ve opted for one long post instead of two.
White
-Guardian Seraph, +Blade Splicer
The most obvious cut choice for Blade Splicer is Ballynock Cohort. That’s about as much strictly better as a card can get. But, the Cohort is still a splashable 2W critter, which is much rarer than the angel. It also sees play here more often. The angel got the axe.
Black
-Predatory Nightstalker, +Dark Hatchling
I personally think the Nightstalker is a bit better, but people hated seeing him and Wei Assassins all the time, and I didn’t mind the switch. It’s obvious that his place in the cube is not permanent anyway.
Red
-Jaya Ballard, +Whipflare
Whipflare is functionally another Pyroclasm, a card that is much more beneficial to control than Jaya. Jaya is slow and fragile and costs double red. Most significantly, she is light years slower against an aggro rush. For red aggro decks she’s not efficient enough.
-Hissing Iguanar, +Immolating Souleater
Let’s just forget Iguanar was here. I’ll talk about the souleater instead. I’ve seen only little discussion recently about this guy. He’s one of the most frightening turn two drops, and if your opponent just plays a signet during his turn two in a control deck, he is in a hard time. Sure it’s the BCS, but comparing it to the card I’m taking out I don’t think anyone would argue for leaving it out.
Green
-Hungry Spriggan, +Beast Within
Hungry Spriggan is a subpar card. It’s splashable and offensive but very fragile and 100% uselss on the defense, a 1/1 for 3 mana isn’t gonna trade upwards. It’s tailored for Winston and the trample is nice but low powerlevel is low. You are just asking to be 2-for-1ed with Arc Trail or something random.
I’m not perfectly convinced about Beast Within. It is very broad in what it can deal with. It has a functionality that no other card has. That’s why I will test it (that and that I have the space for it). It can also be used on your own stuff if you need, but I believe dealing with an opposing 3/3 will prove to be difficult to green decks in my cube. Seems bad for Winston yet awesome for 2HG.
-All Sun’s Dawn, +Brutalizer Exarch
ASD is good in very narrow circumstances and is slow as hell. Classic 5CC decks don’t form around here commonly and consistently enough for that type of card anyway. Exarch is another way to deal with planeswalkers in green, and it can tutor up your other fattie if you are in need of some board presence. The card is expensive but not more than a kicked Mold Shambler, so he should be at least as playable.
Phyrexian mana
The phyrexian manas have a classification problem. I planned to include them as artifacts, as they don’t require any colored mana to cast, but when finalizing the update I saw I had exactly 5 of them, which is a nice round number so now they make up their own section. This will probably not last very long (one of them will probably be cut within a year or so), but for now it works just fine.
I decided to cut multicolored cards for them because they just had the lowest powerlevel of all the sections.
-Empyrial Archangel, +Moltensteel Dragon
Empyrial Angel is a finisher and a reanimation target that seems to be very resilient due to shroud but is actually very fragile. Attacking with 8 points of power will always kill it, burn still works against it and deathtouch owns it. It is a slow clock and was always relatively easily answered. He will never get you back from a losing situation if you fell enough behind and just has too low of a board impact compared to his problematic cost. Moltensteel seems like he should end games quickly in an aggro deck. Somewhat easily answered, yet is a must answer and one of the fastest clocks ever. Red aggro will love it.
-Thornscape Battlemage, +Phyrexian Metamorph
Battlemage has a lot of utility but is just a filler when it comes down to it. G/R/W decks are very rare here, and GR and GW decks have multiple creatures that fill similar functions for a cheaper price already. Clone was a solid performer for us, getting comboed nearly every draft with Crystal Shard, Reveillark or whatever’s handy, so a clone that can be 25% cheaper if you need, can copy a sword and is tutorable by [card =Tezzert, the Seeker]Tezzeret[/card] is an auto-include.
-Spitting Image, +Dismember
Image is very expensive and slow. All colors have enough better six drops that one that doesn’t win on an empty board rarely makes the cut. Dismember is just a versatile removal that kills nearly everything. I can’t see it not getting played.
-Vithian Regenades, +Porcelain Legionnaire
Renegades is unnecessary with all the Viridian Shaman likes in green. Legionnaire is a house.
-Enlistwed Wurm, +Spined Thopter
Wurm suffers from the competition in white and green. I believe it’s the strongest gold card I’m cutting here, yet it’s not a great loss. A 5/5 body without trample will not decide games on turn 6. Thopter is a colorless Mistral Charger, aggro decks rejoice.
Artifacts
-All is Dust, +Karn Liberated
So, umm, a mass removal for seven is too late usually. It turns out it’s quite hard to get AiD to be one-sided. Karn seems like a bomb that’s very hard to recover from. Massive card advantage, nearly unkillable and wins the game alone. Yep, it’s better.
-Sword of Vengeance, +Sword of War and Peace
No need for the sucky sword now that we have the whole cycle. It’s just waaay outclassed now.
-Palladium Myr, +Batterskull
Plladium Myr was always underwhelming at best. Slow compared to other fast mana options and fragile. Playing this on your third turn is usually really bad and it only gets worse later. Batterskull is the control dream – life, can play both offense and defense and is very hard to get rid of.
-Sphere of the Suns, +Hex Parasite
Sphere of the Suns is both acceleration and fixing but is slow, temporary and unremarkable even then in both areas. Parasite is very narrow, which I dislike, but it answers planeswalkers in all the colors. Even if he’s not quite playable now, I believe that it won’t take a very long time until he will be, with the amount of cubeable hard-to-answer planeswalkers they print out every year.
Lands
-Murmuring Bosk, +Library of Alexandria
Murmuring Bosk is an okay fixer, but certainly a cuttable one. We missed Library. Not all of us, but most of us, me included. It’s broken for no excuse and gives your deck another play mode and doesn’t increase skill. That’s true. But, every format needs his high profile cards and first picks, something to draw the baseline around, and library is just that. Plus there was an increase in nonbasic land hate over the past year, this doesn’t really balance the card but helps dealing with it somewhat.
-Gargoyle Castle, +Maze of Ith
Both are control lands, one is better. Being alive until you have six mana is more important than having another thing to do with that mana once you get there.
-Gaea’s Cradle, +Kor Haven
Cradle needs specific circumstances to work properly. It’s really bad against a mass removal. Unlike a Forest you cannot go Llanowar Elves with it on the first turn. Kor Haven was a metagame need so it earns this slot.
p.s. - I'm glad to see the word "aggro" was finally added to the site's dictionary so the spellchecker doesn't mark it anymore
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M12, Commander and Innistrad contributed us quite a few cards. Overall I am very happy with this upgrade, as I feel the cards added are significantly better than the cut cards and none of them are useless/last picks/ashaming cards to see in your booster. Of course there are a few serious powerhouses there too, the cube legacy of their respective sets.
As usual, I went with the approach of broad includes. This has a few reasons. One, I believe having five test failures is a fine price to pay for finding one gem. Two, we have the space for it. Third, I like to change and keep things fresh and moving.
Besides that, I have finally after three years decided to go over all the cards in the list and find all the cards that were missing from it. As you may know, some cards will get lost if you draft for a long enough time. This is not such a big deal in a proxy cube, but a few of the missing cards are just horrible for the current powerlevel of the cube, so I took them out too.
The cube saw tons of play in my absence. Two-headed giants, double tables, you name it. We’ve drafted three more times since I returned, one of them was breaking the all time record of player participation at 20! (we reduced the number of cards per booster to accommodate)
Looking at their results, I think there was one main problem. Aggro was good, a healthy number of decks were drafted consistently. But white weenie was too good. It was historically so, but now I realized it doesn’t let any other aggro deck thrive. Red burn decks were known to win drafts, but any other creature based aggro is just crushed by white weenie, most notably green and black. I took several measures to counter this. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but the one draft we have done post-update was won by R/G aggro, for the first time ever in the history of the cube.
As usual, the update will be split to two parts.
White:
As noted, I specifically wanted to weaken white weenie against other types of aggro decks. Obviously, I didn’t want to just cut good cards or not include the new tech, so I had to be craftier. This update alone did not fix the situation, it will be a long process, but I think this is a good first step.
-Ballynock Cohort, + Timely Reinforcements
One of the first things I have realized is that white, unlike any other color in my cube, has to trim down a little bit of it’s aggro component. Unfortunately, the only control-only card that came out in the last few sets that I deem cubeworthy is Reinforcements. Cohort is just the most subpar three drop in white and it’s useful only in aggro – a pure gain for the slow decks.
-White Knight, +Cloistered Youth
White has too many protection guys in my cube. That + first strike simply slaughters randomly opposing aggro decks. White Knight is one of the weaker two drop anyway so he just got kicked a set or two earlier. Youth is a very strong card but subtly enough, it isn’t as good against opposing aggro decks, especially red that can kill the 1/1 with dividable damage and against which the life loss is dangerous.
-Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, +Fiend Hunter
Eight and a half tails was also not too hot. Because of the heavy white cost of his activation and cost, he was restricted to WW, and he didn’t excel there. Usually he just helped evade a blocker or two in the late game. Fiend Hunter is another white removal, which is in high demand. I believe he will serve well.
Note: Fiend Hunter, is not as good in control as he is in aggro (double white early, holds equipment, poor as a blocker yet good as an attacker with anthems, not a true removal yet is very good at temporarily clearing blockers) and I am aware of that. Yet even if he will end up in aggro 80% of the time it’s still an improvement over 100%.
-Weathered Wayfarer, +Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Wayfarer is also one of those “looks universally good but in practice is played in aggro“ cards and he is just not that strong no matter how you look it. Would have been cut anyway. Lunarch is sure to find a home here, I’m not worried about that
-Celestial Crusader, +Geist-Honored Monk
Crusader I have found as one of my lost cards. Else, he would have been cut like two years ago. Monk is not a Cloudgoat Giant, but until they print a new white midrange card it will do.
Blue:
The last two years, blue didn’t get much besides Jace, the Mind Sculptor. It’s not surprising blue got the least cards this time too, neither does the fact that they have the highest powerlevel by far.
- Rite of Replication, +[card]Phantasmal Image
[/card]
Rite is ultimately expensive for what it does. Clone is better because of the easier cost and bounce/reanimation shenanigans. Phantasmal Image is half his price and copies ETB effects, kills legends or doubles your bomb for the low, low price of 2. Bargain.
-Jushi Apprentice, +Azure Mage
Mage, though not a permanent addition by any means, is better than Apprentice due to being able to draw a card the turn you play him, can still attack and can draw you two cards in the late game. Besides that, he is a bit better than the next few cards in blue’s chopping block so he gets in.
-Evacuation, +Jace, Memory Adept
Evacuation is expensive and doesn’t hurt aggro that much as they can play 2-3 of their bounced dudes per turn (and they will rarely have to discard after the bounce). The new Jace seems like a super finisher in that he can win the turn after he ETBs and nearly nothing can stop him. On top of that, he can still draw you cards if you are about to die next turn.
-Pact of Negation, +Snapcaster Mage
Pact is a card that by its nature is narrow in its applications; he is not just another counter to add to your blue control deck. Snapcaster is a natural source of card advantage that can basically do anything and will get played everywhere. I had two mages in my prerelease deck, and if he was good there he has to be godly here.
Black:
Black got a few more aggro card which it direly needs. I don’t feel black has quite the depth of supporting aggro in a black cube just yet, but we are constantly getting closer and closer. This time we hit another milestone with a brand new one drop.
-Thrashing Wumpus, +Bloodgift Demon
Wumpus never performed here well. As a mass removal against aggro he is slow, fragile and loses you life. As a beater for seven per turn he requires BBBB and still loses you life. Bloodgift seems like a more universally useful creature in both aggro and control. Aggressive body, card advantage and direct burn do that. Also, not insignificantly for his color, he is way better when reanimated (and yes, I believe him to be reanimate-worthy).
-Dark Hatchling,+Diregraf Ghoul
Hatchling was the placeholder type of card which will obviously get cut in the next set yet is still marginally better than something you ran so it gets in. Ghoul is too important not to have. Possibly the best black one drop yet.
-Undead Gladiator, +Liliana of the Veil
Undead Gladiator was there as a reanimation engine, which Lilly serves better besides providing card advantage. Likely the best black planeswalker yet.
-Nezumi Shortfang, +Vampire Interloper
We want aggro! Shortfang is good against control in a slow deck, but not in aggro where he costs too much mana. Since the number of black aggro cards had to be increased, the marginal cards had to be cut. Interloper is the bread and butter that the aggro decks feed off.
-Ravenous Skirge, +Fledgling Djinn
A slight curve drop and quality increase. Djinn was tried three years ago and cut, but now that I try to support aggro I believe he will stay for good. Black still has a severe problem at the three drop slot, I hope some salvation will come soon.
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That's a possibility, though we have found sphinx to be solid in his 5 mana form against aggro and a clone effect is rarely better in this scenario. He is also passable in reanimator, because he helps you dig and discard other targets when you return him.
I should have lots of free time starting from the middle of next week and to at least the next month and a half or so. But I guess you will see me then You will find this part of the update more controversial.
Red:
Red had relatively many cards which I considered chaff. I was happy to cut here.
-Kaervek’s Torch, +Devil's Play
So yes, torch is worse than Demonfire by a lot so he was the first Blaze variant to be cut from this cube, ever. Devil’s Play has a built-in card advantage, he cannot possibly be worse than those two.
-Tin-Street Hooligan, +Chandra's Phoenix
Hooligan became obsoleted in the last few sets which provided us many cards that kill artifacts. Phoenix is a cheap recurring source of damage for burn decks and aggro decks.
-Skirk Marauder, +Stormblood Berserker
Marauder was mainly there to serve as a playable two drop, obviously he has no place when real two drops are getting printed.
-Flames of the Blood Hand, +Chaos Warp
Flames was not a bad card but he was too narrow. Chaos warp is the other extreme, offering unmatched versatility in his color. An interesting story-making card.
-Dead/Gone, +Brimstone Volley
Volley has a lot of potential as far as burn spells go, much more than the bounce; even though it’s always playable no one will miss it.
-Rakdos Pit Dragon, +Instigator Gang
Instigator is a four drop better suited for aggro. Had him at the prerelease and release (went 5-1 and 4-0-split) where he crushed face. It’s fun card to have on the board as it requires thinking and adjusting your plays.
Green:
Green didn’t have many structural changes, besides the constant increase in it’s aggro component. This update was mostly an upgrade to the two drops.
-Loaming Shaman, +Scavenging Ooze
Serious upgrade here. Ooze is a better hate card and seems universally playable. The graveyard-chew does not have to matter for this card to shine. The best play we ever had with Loaming Shaman was this:
Turn 1: Play forest, discard Swamp for Mox Diamond, play something
Turn 2: Play forest
Next few turns: a bit of a game buit a serious mana screw lead the desperate play of Loaming Shaman on your own grave, to raise the chances of drawing a land
Turn after: topdeck Farseek, fetching the swamp you have just put in your deck
-Wild Dogs, +Skinshifter
We did not find Wild Dogs to be a consistent aggro one drop in the cube. The downside was proven too big for the 2/1 body. Maybe it is because green isn’t aggressive enough; it’s the second color that has enough good cards in a small cube yet stretches for aggressive playables in a large cube. Skinshifter however seems highly useful due his versatility. He is a 4/4 at the beginning of the game, a 2/2 flier when you need to attack a planeswalker or gets past fat creatures later a 0/8 blocker when you are behind.
-Wolfbriar Elemental, +Garruk, Primal Hunter
A cube doesn’t have a room for three heavy green five drops (Kodama of the North Tree). Garruk is a huge source of card advantage that seems very good at protecting itself.
-Viridian Emmissary, +Mayor of Avarbruck
Emissary is a marginal card as it allows your opponent control over his usefulness. Sure, sometimes it will be ramp + kill a creature, but that will only be the case when it won’t be fatal to your opponent. Mayor is a two drop that has the potential to win the game, especially useful to punish your opponent for mana screws. I believe Mayor is the best at aggro but also very playable at ramp decks as well.
-Nest Invader, +Ambush Viper
Invader is a one-shot ramp, which is not very useful or reliable, and an unimpressive (even if solid) two drop body. Viper is a lot better at ramp decks that value their removals highly and need early defense. Viper is not a bad attacker too for his price if you need that. An effect we do not see often in green and might as well fail but worth a shot.
-Explosive Vegetation, +Garruk Relentless
The cube became too fast to allow a four-mana spell that doesn’t affect the board, especially when the spell is not that good to begin with. Ramp decks prefer to have a source of blockers, removals and another win condition for the same price.
-Beastbreaker of Bala Ged, +Gatstaf Shepherd
These two cards are close in powerlevel. The problem of beastbreaker is that very rarely will you want to go third turn level up. If you cast your second drop on curve, there is nearly no doubt Gatstaf Shepherd is better as he can be turned over by your opponent without requiring any more commitment from you. Even if that does not happen, paying 3 mana is often equivalent to skipping playing spells for a turn, and a 3/3 intimidate is better than a 4/4. The Beastbreaker’s advantages is that he can almost always attack for 4 the turn after you play him and you can sink your excess mana into it (although leveling to the last level never happened).
-Beast Within, +Bramblecursh
The 3/3 was a bit too problematic. Bramblecrush should be a better answer to planeswalkers (the main reason Beast Within was added) that is also more playable in general.
Artifacts:
-Hex Parasite, +Spellskite
Hex Parasite is way too narrow. Spellskite is much needed as a tool every slow deck can use against aggro.
Multicolored:
-Ashenmoore Gouger, +Olivia Voldaren
Gouger is just not impressive compared to the third drops those colors get anyway. Olivia is a slow card for sure, but she can easily take over a game by herself. It’s not a super POWERFUL argument but the only draft we have played with the new said, the player who played her said she was a serious bomb.
Lands:
-10 Bouncelands (Rakdos Carnarium), +10 M12 Lands (Rootbound Crag)
The bouncelands are perfectly fine and playable, but they are only good at slow decks. The main reason for swapping them out is that they don’t see much play and after three years of having them, I think it’s time to shake things up.
-Krosan Verge, +Kessig Wolf Run
Krosan Verge I found as one of the lost cards and should have been cut ages ago. It is card advantage but it’s very slow and pretty narrow. Wolf Run is also narrow but provides a game-ending effect. It is still probably the weakest land, but a significant upgrade nonetheless.
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Me either. The cards you're cutting aren't all that great, and the cards that are going in are all awesome for larger cubes. I probably wouldn't cut the bouncelands in the control combinations, but if you're only running full cycles, that swap is fine too. I like Wild Dogs more than Skinshifter, but that's okay. Wild Dogs isn't for everybody.
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I was thinking about Thrashing Wumpus, actually. Or did it fall out of love during the last few months?
Wild Dogs is certainly a good aggro card, but it's part of the category of cards that thrive in an already established aggro environment. Wild Dogs is not one of the cards that will make you try to draft aggro nor is it any good in a half-aggro half-midrange decks, winston drafts or sealed. He will be good and probably will come back, but only after green aggro has a more serious footprint.
Based on one draft, Mayor of Avabruck wins games. Beastbreaker was poor for us. I was looking for a reason to cut it out. In any case, it might not have been the right cut because I could have just increased the aggro component but I'd rather avoid adding him again right now. In any case, the number of aggro support cards and green two drops rose dramatically in this update so it's okay to have one less card in both categories.
Yea, the snake is not a card for aggro decks.
Vivids and Trilands I have included to support 5cc. Believe it or not, ever since the beginning it was extremely rare to see them in this cube. The number of rainbow lands from a small to a large cube doesn't increase significantly (maybe by one or two) and I believe that to be a major problem for that deck type. To be honest I still don't see many of those decks, perhaps we had one in our 20 player draft.
I know a lot of players hate seeing that deck in their drafts. I can see why since it doesn't require much skill, ****s up the signals and feels like cheating. So no, I don't actively support that strategy, as can be seen in my small multicolored section. Yet I believe that the strategy of picking lands pack one, bombs packs 2 and 3 to be a unique strategy to cube and a very fun one to try, at least for the first 1-2 times. Therefore I try to make sure it is at least possible.
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-Tidings, +Consecrated Sphinx
I believe that every deck that can play the first will prefer the second. Sphinx's name goes before him.
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I still think it's a good card, but I don't run it at 450 anymore. Bloodgift Demon was the straw that broke the Wumpus' back.
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