Hi! I've recently been trying a similar list to Todd Steven's list, more based in value rather than land destruction (almost the same but removing 2 Stone Rain). I actually run 4 Courser, 2 Tracker and 2 Whisperwood Elemental, and I'm pretty happy with they. Courser helps to fight aggro decks, specially Burn, and provides us better draws, cause one of the biggest problem of the deck is that sometimes we stop the game with B Moon and LD but can't apply pressure because don't find threats. Tracker is good but sometimes I remove she cause is very fragile. W Elemental is a house in a great number of matchups. Ive removed 4 Bonfires and only run 1 sb (plus 2 Anger). After playing lots of games I realized that is a bad card. Have you tried some of those creatures? What do you think?
4 courser feels like too many. they don't provide extra value in multiples besides the minor life gain, which doesn't matter against any deck besides burn. and they don't close out the game fast enough against uninteractive decks, which this deck can struggle against. i do like the idea of tracker but haven't found the room for it. whisperwood elemental feels much too slow for a 5 drop - is that your full suite of creatures?
Goblin Dark-Dwellers used to get talked about on these forums but unless you're on the Boom//Bust plan (which I don't think is a good plan) the value is not high enough.
No offense, but if you aren't running 4 blood moon, you really shouldn't be playing this deck. Trinisphere is a completely different card than Blood Moon, and doesn't even work all that well with land destruction spells. You're already destroying their lands which means they are probably only casting one relevant spell per turn. Making their spells cost 3 doesn't really change anything - but making them unable to cast their colored spells really does.
I've found the opposite, I'm usually much happier to see Nissa than Chandra. Since our threats/creatures are very few they all have to be resilient, and Nissa does a much better job of protecting herself than Chandra, who really only shines when you have a body out to block for her. Nissa also puts pressure on more quickly, allowing you to +1 the turn she comes down and then use the ultimate the very next turn to start burying your opponent in cards. The main point Chandra has going for her is the cheaper cost.
Chandra is useful because she can remove threats AND generate card advantage. Nissa can't remove threats, but she is better at being a threat herself and at generating card advantage. That said, I play 2 Chandra and 1 Nissa - both are great in this build.
Both have their uses but I like Chandra because she comes down a turn earlier (sometimes even turn 2) and doesn't compete with other 5 mana options.
good points, though I'll mention that Dredge will be hard-pressed to Conflagrate for 8. Also, if Amulet Titan is using their Seal of Primordium on Platinum Emperion, that means they aren't using it on Blood Moon. That's fine with me.
Still going back and forth on the Madcap plan. What are the match ups that Madcap wins us that we would otherwise lose? Does anyone have any tournament experience that could share games where the card came up big for them vs. where they wish they would of had another big creature instead?
Most of the big name decks (death shadow, bant eldrazi, grixis) have removal and some match ups (infect) don't care about it.
Let's just go through each popular deck and see who cares about Madcap:
Affinity: doesn't care (inkmoth)
Burn: cares preboard, can path post-board
Infect: doesn't care
elves: can't win
dredge: can't win
living end: can't win
death's shadow: difficult to win; needs kolaghan's command
junk: can get path or maelstrom pulse
jund: kolaghan's command / terminate
abzan company: doesn't care (can gain infinite life and kill it with something eventually; post-board can kill with redcap combo)
bant company: usually plays path
merfolk: can't win unless they play vapor snag
bant eldrazi: can path or karn
8-rack: difficult; has to lili -2
mirror: difficult; needs beast within
tron: doesn't care
lantern control: doesn't care
sun and moon: doesn't care
death and taxes: can path
esper control: doesn't care
grixis control: doesn't care
jeskai copycat: can path
skred red: can't win
amulet titan: can't win
scapeshift: doesn't care (can kill with valakut triggers)
grishoalbrand: can't win
ad nauseum: if they have two win conditions they don't care
storm: just need to get 8 more storm count
cheerios: doesn't care
Here is the list I took to SCG Open Dallas yesterday - I went 6-3 (49th out of 270). I don't have a full tournament report because I have the memory of a hamster.
Any comments/criticism welcome - I'm thinking since I raised the curve a little I may need to cut a bonfire for a 3rd Birds of Paradise. Testing required.
Can you talk about the Madcap combo? What matchups do you like it against and what matchups is it bad against? Do you feel like you have enough threats?
I'm not concerned with having a slot for each wedge or shard. If a card is cubeworthy, I'll run it. I'm not going to be so obsessed with balancing the color combinations that I force myself to omit or include cards that I shouldn't.
For reference, my 3color cards are Nicol Bolas, maelstrom wanderer, Rafiq, nightscape familiar, and wild Nacatl. I'm also probably going to add the new Mardu demon
I guess I'm not totally sold on supporting morph in cube. +2/+2 only until the end of turn is not a great bargain for 5 mana (let alone the upfront cost of 3 mana), even at instant speed.
really surprised that Kessig Wolf Run and Gavony Township didn't make their respective lists. Are you guys not running those cards? They are insane in cube.
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2. Palace Jailer
3. Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4. Balance
5. Wrath of God / Day of Judgment
6. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
7. Swords to Plowshares
8. Path to Exile
9. Monastery Mentor
10. Restoration Angel
11. Gideon Jura
12. Council's Judgment
13. Recruiter of the Guard
14. Mother of Runes
15. Elspeth, Sun's Champion
16. Stoneforge Mystic
17. Reveillark
18. Parallax Wave
19. Angel of Sanctions
20. Unexpectedly Absent
How do you feel about Abade in lists that don't run Signets or power? I'm having trouble cutting a card like Lightning Strike for it.
what's the fracturing gust for? engineered explosives or shatterstorm seems better against most decks. what enchantments are you scared of...bogles?
4 courser feels like too many. they don't provide extra value in multiples besides the minor life gain, which doesn't matter against any deck besides burn. and they don't close out the game fast enough against uninteractive decks, which this deck can struggle against. i do like the idea of tracker but haven't found the room for it. whisperwood elemental feels much too slow for a 5 drop - is that your full suite of creatures?
6 dorks seem to be core in every list but 4x inferno titan is definitely not. I've seen lists with as few as two.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers used to get talked about on these forums but unless you're on the Boom//Bust plan (which I don't think is a good plan) the value is not high enough.
No offense, but if you aren't running 4 blood moon, you really shouldn't be playing this deck. Trinisphere is a completely different card than Blood Moon, and doesn't even work all that well with land destruction spells. You're already destroying their lands which means they are probably only casting one relevant spell per turn. Making their spells cost 3 doesn't really change anything - but making them unable to cast their colored spells really does.
Chandra is useful because she can remove threats AND generate card advantage. Nissa can't remove threats, but she is better at being a threat herself and at generating card advantage. That said, I play 2 Chandra and 1 Nissa - both are great in this build.
Both have their uses but I like Chandra because she comes down a turn earlier (sometimes even turn 2) and doesn't compete with other 5 mana options.
good points, though I'll mention that Dredge will be hard-pressed to Conflagrate for 8. Also, if Amulet Titan is using their Seal of Primordium on Platinum Emperion, that means they aren't using it on Blood Moon. That's fine with me.
Let's just go through each popular deck and see who cares about Madcap:
Affinity: doesn't care (inkmoth)
Burn: cares preboard, can path post-board
Infect: doesn't care
elves: can't win
dredge: can't win
living end: can't win
death's shadow: difficult to win; needs kolaghan's command
junk: can get path or maelstrom pulse
jund: kolaghan's command / terminate
abzan company: doesn't care (can gain infinite life and kill it with something eventually; post-board can kill with redcap combo)
bant company: usually plays path
merfolk: can't win unless they play vapor snag
bant eldrazi: can path or karn
8-rack: difficult; has to lili -2
mirror: difficult; needs beast within
tron: doesn't care
lantern control: doesn't care
sun and moon: doesn't care
death and taxes: can path
esper control: doesn't care
grixis control: doesn't care
jeskai copycat: can path
skred red: can't win
amulet titan: can't win
scapeshift: doesn't care (can kill with valakut triggers)
grishoalbrand: can't win
ad nauseum: if they have two win conditions they don't care
storm: just need to get 8 more storm count
cheerios: doesn't care
you be the judge.
Can you talk about the Madcap combo? What matchups do you like it against and what matchups is it bad against? Do you feel like you have enough threats?
For reference, my 3color cards are Nicol Bolas, maelstrom wanderer, Rafiq, nightscape familiar, and wild Nacatl. I'm also probably going to add the new Mardu demon