What kind of red aggressive decks can't be relied upon to hit RR on turn two?!? For that matter, why would CC on turn 2 EVER be a problem if it is your primary color? If anything, it should be MORE rare to have two colors of mana on turn two, not two of the same. Unless you always play 50/50ish split decks, this shouldn't be a consistent problem.
I think instead of people worrying about not being able to cast your spells, I think people need to focus more on including/drafting enough lands in their Cubes. I think the notion of not being to reliably hit CC on turn 2 is something people should be looking to solve in other ways besides not running awesome cards. Draft your fixing early and often, people! 10% lands isn't good enough for a lot of Cubes, either! Viva la lands!
Regarding aggressive CC creatures, there is the general advice to run as few of these as possible in cube. I think this is still a good advice. I followed it a few years ago by cutting almost half of my CC aggro dudes and it really improved the quality of my two-color aggro decks. And from what I hear, most aggro decks use two colors. Monored is actually rather rare outside of a few cubes that are skewed towards it (like the MTGO cube). Being able to cast double-colored cards from two different colors in the first few turns is a real issue. An issue that can be helped by reducing the number of those cards in your cube. The gravest instance of this problem is having a 1-drop from color A and a CC 2-drop from color B. You need to have an untapped dual land on your first turn in order to curve one into the other. If your 2-drop were just a 1C guy, you could curve out only using basic lands.
Speaking of basic lands: Those are still the primary mana source in cube, even if you run lots of duals and other fixing lands. Even if you run a good amount of fixing lands, I'd wager that a two-colored aggro deck will rarely have more than four or five dual lands (and this includes fetchlands that can get your true dual). This means that CC guys are a real issue. We just don't have constructed level fixing in cube. You would need a ludicrous amount of dual lands in your cube to come close to that level. And you would probably need to abandon the singleton rule to achieve that, too, unless you want to run suboptimal dual lands. I mean, you need untapped fixing lands to avoid the 1-drop/2-drop problem that I mentioned above - and how many of these exist? Also, at some point, drafting would feel really weird if you run too many lands in your cube. Running roughly 10% dual lands (pluse some more multicolor fixing lands) is a good rule of thumb and should be enough. I'd ruther cut half a dozen CC aggro dudes before I warp my whole environment by running too many lands.
I agree it's best to limit CC creatures, for flexibility of drafting and deck design etc.
But, Im very surprised people are having trouble getting primarily red decks.
Two-color agro decks are common here too, but if drafted well, it's typically base color + 2-5 spells of another color.
Mono-red is by far the most common mono-colored deck.
Even with 5 spells of another color and solid fixing, 12 sources is very doable. (say 3 duals + 4 basics of the other color for a 12-6-1 with a colorless land).
Totally estimating, but I wouldn't be surprised if 5/6 of the cards in red are easily playable in agro. No other color comes close to that.
I've looked at red sections here and they aren't much different than mine, so the only conclusions Im coming to are;
Your drafters aren't drafting it well ,you are playing a lot of small 2-4 man drafts, and/or red is very heavily drafted.
We are usually playing with 6 drafters. On average, I think we have one strictly monocolored deck once in every five drafts. Aggro decks use typically two colors here. Usually with a rather even split, rarely with anything more extreme than a 70%/30% split.
It is not just my cube though: I heard from other cubers around here that monocolored aggro decks are rare, too.
I think preference plays a huge role here. You could take the same cube to two different groups of cubers and the amount of monocolor decks could differ quite a bit. Most people that I know just prefer to draft two colors rather than to force a monocolor deck. As long as you remember to pick up some fixing, a second color usually improves the deck by adding some valuable cards. Now, if a group has more players that prefer to draft monocolor, then those decks happen more often, of course.
Lastly, in my cube drafts at least, there are usually two aggro drafters and since red is such a good color for that archetype, this is often the color that they are both going for. This makes it impossible for either of them to draft monored. Lately, monoblack decks happen more often than monored ones. Or better: Decks that are 80%-90% black, since strict monoblack decks are just as rare as monored ones.
But, Im very surprised people are having trouble getting primarily red decks.
This isn't what's happening. We choose not to run mono red decks, because 2-color red aggro decks are so much better. I'd rather have access to better quality double-color 3 and 4cc cards from my secondary color than the benefit of having access to RR 2-drops. I'd much rather play a Borderland Marauder than an Eidolon of the Great Revel if it means my mana base can better support a Vendilion Clique or Hero of Bladehold now.
On the other hand, if you try to build them with generic replaceable 2-3 mana cost guys and some burn/kill spells you'll fail miserably, lacking the explosiveness and backbreaking plays these decks need and DESERVE.
I don't think this is true. Replacing a RR guy with a 1R guy isn't going to take a winning decklist and suddenly make it crap. In fact, the easier casting cost will likely make the deck better. There are only really two irreplaceable CC 2-drops, IMO which are Bloodghast and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary. If your deck needs one of those two specific cards, there aren't really any (good) alternatives. But for all the other ones, you're typically better off with the more castable options unless your metagame is heavily comprised of mono-colored decks.
I don't think that is true either, but there are certainly other CC creatures that are worth trying to cast on t2 beyond those 2. While 3/2s for 1C are coldly efficient, I think cards like Eidolon of the Great Revel offer other things to Cubes and games that you cannot get from 1C cards.
Of course they do. But the idea is to weigh their value against the more difficult cost. The only ones I'm really willing to stretch my mana for are the two I mentioned before. I had problems with Eidolon of the Great Revel which extended way beyond just his mana cost, so I wouldn't be sold on him anyways, but all of the other CC bears I was running are pretty much gone (or will be gone soon). They're just not better enough from the 1C options to justify their more difficult mana cost, unless you play a ton of mono-colored decks.
I think that at least part of the issue with CC 2-drops (and other mana-intensive cards) is protecting "casual" drafters against themselves.
Someone with a good grasp on probabilities and drafting and constructing an effective mana base may be able to make good use of (e.g.) Eidolon in a predominantly Red Rakdos aggro deck with (e.g.) a 9 Mountain 5 Swamp 1 Blood Crypt 1 Polluted Delta manabase, but depending on your playgroup, some others will just jam Sinkhole and Hypnotic Specter in that same deck, play an 8/8 manabase and be frustrated all evening because they're unable to cast their spells.
Of course drafting and constructing a decent mana base is an important Magic skill, and even a teachable one for that matter, but do you really want to spend the time to explain such a relatively complex and tedious subject while you could be playing Cube matches instead?
We are mostly in agreement here. Eidolon has worked out much better here (obviously), but I have worked my way out of a lot of CC cards as well, besides those I think are important enough to include that can reward people who draft heavy/mono colored decks and/or cards with late game impact when CC would be easier (something like 8.5 Tails or Kargan Dragonlord, e.g.).
I just believe that, in general, people should be concentrating more on their mana bases while constructing/drafting. I've always pushed for lands as inclusions, and taking them highly. CC cards have seldom, if ever, been a problem for me to cast in most scenarios unless I was unable to draft lands at all.
I just think problems with CC cards can be overcome in other ways that will pay dividends in the future, rather than the method of just cutting them. THAT SAID, I have very few CC cards left than when I did in the early days of the Cube; we have gotten a LOT of 1C cards that are often better than a lot of the CC cards (or at least about on par!) I think about all the WW cards that used to be in the Cube (stuff like the Knights, Longbow Archer, et al), and now we have things like Cloistered Youth and Accorder Paladin! Looking at the red 1C cards we have gotten recently, it's hard to imagine how something like Slith Firewalker is ever going to see Cube play again!
I'm just going to keep championing lands in all forms: adding lands, drafting lands, playing lands. Add it to my list of topics to 'White Knight' along with Upheaval and 8.5 Tails, I guess!
Even if you prioritize your mana perfectly, it's hard to build 2-color decks that can handle 2cc 2-drops in addition to any 3-5 cc cards in your secondary color that have cc in the cost. You're looking at a 13/10 manabase if you want Eidolon and Elspeth in the same deck, which would require 5 mana fixing lands and a 8/5 basic split (and would require 18 lands, and 0 colorless lands!). The only way to accomplish it w/ 17 lands would be with 6 mana fixers. In order to average that kind of mana fixing in the typical draft you'd have to oversaturate the cube with so much fixing that 4-5 color control decks could be drafted with ease (basically auto-draft if inclined). I don't know about you, but if I had to choose between running a more splashable 2-drop and excluding Eidolon from my list, or running a lesser 4-drop and excluding Elspeth, I know what I'd rather choose. The difference in card quality between a splashable 2-drop and a cc 2-drop is a lot less detrimental to your list than downgrading/excluding one of the amazing 3-5cc cards with double-color costs.
So unless a 2-drop is absolutely irreplaceable (or a ton of mono-colored drafting takes place) I generally opt to include splashable 2cc cards instead.
But, Im very surprised people are having trouble getting primarily red decks.
This isn't what's happening. We choose not to run mono red decks, because 2-color red aggro decks are so much better. I'd rather have access to better quality double-color 3 and 4cc cards from my secondary color than the benefit of having access to RR 2-drops. I'd much rather play a Borderland Marauder than an Eidolon of the Great Revel if it means my mana base can better support a Vendilion Clique or Hero of Bladehold now.
There's a reason that agro constructed decks are primarily mono colored and it has little to do with a lack of fixing for the other colors.
Playing other colors sacrifices mana base and consistency and make it much harder to play off color utility lands such as wasteland or mana vault. Curving out consistently is so important.
There's no way that the optimal agro decks that base red want either hero of blade hold or vendillion clique. That's just poor deck design. You can have powerful straight two color agro decks, but it's far from optimal.
For aguments sake let's , gorehouse chain walker is a 5 on the power scale, eidolon of great revels is a 7, and there's some 1WW creature that's a 9. For consistency sake, id stay base red and play double eidolon over 1 chainhouse and the 1WW creature. It's not even close.
But, Im very surprised people are having trouble getting primarily red decks.
This isn't what's happening. We choose not to run mono red decks, because 2-color red aggro decks are so much better. I'd rather have access to better quality double-color 3 and 4cc cards from my secondary color than the benefit of having access to RR 2-drops. I'd much rather play a Borderland Marauder than an Eidolon of the Great Revel if it means my mana base can better support a Vendilion Clique or Hero of Bladehold now.
There's a reason that agro constructed decks are primarily mono colored and it has little to do with a lack of fixing for the other colors.
Playing balanced two color decks sacrifices mana base and consistency and make it much harder to play off color utility lands such as wasteland or mana vault. Curving out VERY consistently is essential for agro decks. The lower the curve the more important consistency is. You also should be playing less lands, which gives you less room for fixing.
There's no way that the optimal agro decks that base red want either hero of blade hold or vendillion clique. That's just poor deck design if you are actively trying to achieve that. You can have powerful straight two color agro decks, but it's far from optimal.
For aguments sake let's , gorehouse chain walker is a 6 on the power scale, eidolon of great revels is a 7, and there's some 1WW creature that's a 10. For consistency sake, id stay base red and play double eidolon over 1 chainhouse and this hypothetical 1WW creature. It's not even close.
for straight two color agro decks, id want something like 7+ on color dual lands before id be ok with it.
Constructed and the cube are different beasts. Being able to use top tier cards from multiple colors, and use cards from one color that shore up the weakness of another color make them much better performers in the cube than mono-colored decks. You have consistency, but you lack diversity and power. And in a singleton format, having a diverse range of effects is good.
And I don't understand your comment about Clique and Hero at all. I'd much rather play Boros aggro with access to Hero of Bladehold than mono-red just to have access to Eidolon of the Great Revel. And it's not remotely close.
And most successful aggro decks in the cube mirror their multicolored brethren in constructed. Boros aggro, Zoo, etc. They play more like the multicolor aggro decks in constructed than the mono-colored ones.
You say powerful 2-color aggro decks are less than optimal; I say that's plain wrong. Especially considering the main flaw. There aren't enough aggro 1-drops to build a good mono-colored aggro deck in the cube. A 2nd color helps ensure early pressure with quality 1-drops, which is far more important than fitting a CC bear into your curve.
Hmmm.. Good argument regarding the critical mass of 1 drops. That is definitely one of the downsides of playing mostly one-colored decks I neglected a bit.
You have additional consistencies in your manabase when you focus on a base one-color agro deck, but due to pack distribution, it's certainly possible to get screwed out of an essential part of your curve.. The 1 drop slot.
That being said, if you are going solid two colors and want to consistantly cast both of those colors on turn 1, better be prioritizing fixing up the A.
So completely unrelated to the discussion on hand about aggro I nearly have my list nearing completion lacking roughly 30 cards (Mostly ABUR duals and Fetches) in any case it was more than enough to actually get to booster draft the thing for the first time with 6 people. I personally decided to go hard on A black aggro deck after P1P1 Confidant and being passed a Hymn to Tourach and ended up drafting every single black one drop I saw. I eventually ended up with a B/r Aggro Deck with a top end of Desecration Demon and Flametongue Kavu. Other decks I saw were Naya and Junk midrange, U/W tempo, G/U Ramp with two of the three Eldrazi Titans and a nearly creatureless grixis superfriends deck that managed to cast Karn and Nicol Bolas and have both in play at the same time.
Hmmm.. Good argument regarding the critical mass of 1 drops. That is definitely one of the downsides of playing mostly one-colored decks I neglected a bit.
You have additional consistencies in your manabase when you focus on a base one-color agro deck, but due to pack distribution, it's certainly possible to get screwed out of an essential part of your curve.. The 1 drop slot.
That being said, if you are going solid two colors and want to consistantly cast both of those colors on turn 1, better be prioritizing fixing up the A.
Agreed about the fixing prioritization. It has to be #1. But if you do pay attention to it, your mana bases can be fine if you dodge CC in your primary color and CC/1CC in your secondary color.
If there were enough 1-drops in each color that I could reach my critical mass with only that color (for every color that supports aggro) that would really help to incentivize the mono-color aggro decks even more than the CC bears would. If I had 9+ aggro 1-drops in every color, those decks would make more appearances and I would be playing more of those powerful but narrow 2-drops. But as it stands, I basically have to assume a 2-color baseline in order to reach my critical mass of aggro 1-drops unless I'm willing to add in a bunch of lesser aggro beaters to fill that gap, and we just don't have enough good ones at the moment.
So completely unrelated to the discussion on hand about aggro I nearly have my list nearing completion lacking roughly 30 cards (Mostly ABUR duals and Fetches) in any case it was more than enough to actually get to booster draft the thing for the first time with 6 people. I personally decided to go hard on A black aggro deck after P1P1 Confidant and being passed a Hymn to Tourach and ended up drafting every single black one drop I saw. I eventually ended up with a B/r Aggro Deck with a top end of Desecration Demon and Flametongue Kavu. Other decks I saw were Naya and Junk midrange, U/W tempo, G/U Ramp with two of the three Eldrazi Titans and a nearly creatureless grixis superfriends deck that managed to cast Karn and Nicol Bolas and have both in play at the same time.
This sounds like a good time. Makes me wish I was a cubin' right now. Are you just using proxies for those last 30?
I am not using any proxies for the last 30. Most of it is lands and none of the cards I am lacking are absolute huge losses to be lacking right now. It does mean my cube is slightly imbalanced colorwise though.
I am not using any proxies for the last 30. Most of it is lands and none of the cards I am lacking are absolute huge losses to be lacking right now. It does mean my cube is slightly imbalanced colorwise though.
Interesting, which colors took a hit? (Besides blue of course.)
White is missing Weathered Wayfarer, red is missing Wheel of Fortune and Through the Breach and the artifact section is missing Metalworker and Sensei's divining top.
Most of them are just because my local store was out of stock with them or I haven't asked yet (namely the red spells) Not really a huge hit from any of the colors it's just the really expensive lands part that will hold me back for awhile.
White is missing Weathered Wayfarer, red is missing Wheel of Fortune and Through the Breach and the artifact section is missing Metalworker and Sensei's divining top.
Most of them are just because my local store was out of stock with them or I haven't asked yet (namely the red spells) Not really a huge hit from any of the colors it's just the really expensive lands part that will hold me back for awhile.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
Regarding aggressive CC creatures, there is the general advice to run as few of these as possible in cube. I think this is still a good advice. I followed it a few years ago by cutting almost half of my CC aggro dudes and it really improved the quality of my two-color aggro decks. And from what I hear, most aggro decks use two colors. Monored is actually rather rare outside of a few cubes that are skewed towards it (like the MTGO cube). Being able to cast double-colored cards from two different colors in the first few turns is a real issue. An issue that can be helped by reducing the number of those cards in your cube. The gravest instance of this problem is having a 1-drop from color A and a CC 2-drop from color B. You need to have an untapped dual land on your first turn in order to curve one into the other. If your 2-drop were just a 1C guy, you could curve out only using basic lands.
Speaking of basic lands: Those are still the primary mana source in cube, even if you run lots of duals and other fixing lands. Even if you run a good amount of fixing lands, I'd wager that a two-colored aggro deck will rarely have more than four or five dual lands (and this includes fetchlands that can get your true dual). This means that CC guys are a real issue. We just don't have constructed level fixing in cube. You would need a ludicrous amount of dual lands in your cube to come close to that level. And you would probably need to abandon the singleton rule to achieve that, too, unless you want to run suboptimal dual lands. I mean, you need untapped fixing lands to avoid the 1-drop/2-drop problem that I mentioned above - and how many of these exist? Also, at some point, drafting would feel really weird if you run too many lands in your cube. Running roughly 10% dual lands (pluse some more multicolor fixing lands) is a good rule of thumb and should be enough. I'd ruther cut half a dozen CC aggro dudes before I warp my whole environment by running too many lands.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
But, Im very surprised people are having trouble getting primarily red decks.
Two-color agro decks are common here too, but if drafted well, it's typically base color + 2-5 spells of another color.
Mono-red is by far the most common mono-colored deck.
Even with 5 spells of another color and solid fixing, 12 sources is very doable. (say 3 duals + 4 basics of the other color for a 12-6-1 with a colorless land).
Totally estimating, but I wouldn't be surprised if 5/6 of the cards in red are easily playable in agro. No other color comes close to that.
I've looked at red sections here and they aren't much different than mine, so the only conclusions Im coming to are;
Your drafters aren't drafting it well ,you are playing a lot of small 2-4 man drafts, and/or red is very heavily drafted.
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It is not just my cube though: I heard from other cubers around here that monocolored aggro decks are rare, too.
I think preference plays a huge role here. You could take the same cube to two different groups of cubers and the amount of monocolor decks could differ quite a bit. Most people that I know just prefer to draft two colors rather than to force a monocolor deck. As long as you remember to pick up some fixing, a second color usually improves the deck by adding some valuable cards. Now, if a group has more players that prefer to draft monocolor, then those decks happen more often, of course.
Lastly, in my cube drafts at least, there are usually two aggro drafters and since red is such a good color for that archetype, this is often the color that they are both going for. This makes it impossible for either of them to draft monored. Lately, monoblack decks happen more often than monored ones. Or better: Decks that are 80%-90% black, since strict monoblack decks are just as rare as monored ones.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
This isn't what's happening. We choose not to run mono red decks, because 2-color red aggro decks are so much better. I'd rather have access to better quality double-color 3 and 4cc cards from my secondary color than the benefit of having access to RR 2-drops. I'd much rather play a Borderland Marauder than an Eidolon of the Great Revel if it means my mana base can better support a Vendilion Clique or Hero of Bladehold now.
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I don't think this is true. Replacing a RR guy with a 1R guy isn't going to take a winning decklist and suddenly make it crap. In fact, the easier casting cost will likely make the deck better. There are only really two irreplaceable CC 2-drops, IMO which are Bloodghast and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary. If your deck needs one of those two specific cards, there aren't really any (good) alternatives. But for all the other ones, you're typically better off with the more castable options unless your metagame is heavily comprised of mono-colored decks.
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Someone with a good grasp on probabilities and drafting and constructing an effective mana base may be able to make good use of (e.g.) Eidolon in a predominantly Red Rakdos aggro deck with (e.g.) a 9 Mountain 5 Swamp 1 Blood Crypt 1 Polluted Delta manabase, but depending on your playgroup, some others will just jam Sinkhole and Hypnotic Specter in that same deck, play an 8/8 manabase and be frustrated all evening because they're unable to cast their spells.
Of course drafting and constructing a decent mana base is an important Magic skill, and even a teachable one for that matter, but do you really want to spend the time to explain such a relatively complex and tedious subject while you could be playing Cube matches instead?
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I just believe that, in general, people should be concentrating more on their mana bases while constructing/drafting. I've always pushed for lands as inclusions, and taking them highly. CC cards have seldom, if ever, been a problem for me to cast in most scenarios unless I was unable to draft lands at all.
I just think problems with CC cards can be overcome in other ways that will pay dividends in the future, rather than the method of just cutting them. THAT SAID, I have very few CC cards left than when I did in the early days of the Cube; we have gotten a LOT of 1C cards that are often better than a lot of the CC cards (or at least about on par!) I think about all the WW cards that used to be in the Cube (stuff like the Knights, Longbow Archer, et al), and now we have things like Cloistered Youth and Accorder Paladin! Looking at the red 1C cards we have gotten recently, it's hard to imagine how something like Slith Firewalker is ever going to see Cube play again!
I'm just going to keep championing lands in all forms: adding lands, drafting lands, playing lands. Add it to my list of topics to 'White Knight' along with Upheaval and 8.5 Tails, I guess!
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So unless a 2-drop is absolutely irreplaceable (or a ton of mono-colored drafting takes place) I generally opt to include splashable 2cc cards instead.
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There's a reason that agro constructed decks are primarily mono colored and it has little to do with a lack of fixing for the other colors.
Playing other colors sacrifices mana base and consistency and make it much harder to play off color utility lands such as wasteland or mana vault. Curving out consistently is so important.
There's no way that the optimal agro decks that base red want either hero of blade hold or vendillion clique. That's just poor deck design. You can have powerful straight two color agro decks, but it's far from optimal.
For aguments sake let's , gorehouse chain walker is a 5 on the power scale, eidolon of great revels is a 7, and there's some 1WW creature that's a 9. For consistency sake, id stay base red and play double eidolon over 1 chainhouse and the 1WW creature. It's not even close.
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There's a reason that agro constructed decks are primarily mono colored and it has little to do with a lack of fixing for the other colors.
Playing balanced two color decks sacrifices mana base and consistency and make it much harder to play off color utility lands such as wasteland or mana vault. Curving out VERY consistently is essential for agro decks. The lower the curve the more important consistency is. You also should be playing less lands, which gives you less room for fixing.
There's no way that the optimal agro decks that base red want either hero of blade hold or vendillion clique. That's just poor deck design if you are actively trying to achieve that. You can have powerful straight two color agro decks, but it's far from optimal.
For aguments sake let's , gorehouse chain walker is a 6 on the power scale, eidolon of great revels is a 7, and there's some 1WW creature that's a 10. For consistency sake, id stay base red and play double eidolon over 1 chainhouse and this hypothetical 1WW creature. It's not even close.
for straight two color agro decks, id want something like 7+ on color dual lands before id be ok with it.
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And I don't understand your comment about Clique and Hero at all. I'd much rather play Boros aggro with access to Hero of Bladehold than mono-red just to have access to Eidolon of the Great Revel. And it's not remotely close.
And most successful aggro decks in the cube mirror their multicolored brethren in constructed. Boros aggro, Zoo, etc. They play more like the multicolor aggro decks in constructed than the mono-colored ones.
You say powerful 2-color aggro decks are less than optimal; I say that's plain wrong. Especially considering the main flaw. There aren't enough aggro 1-drops to build a good mono-colored aggro deck in the cube. A 2nd color helps ensure early pressure with quality 1-drops, which is far more important than fitting a CC bear into your curve.
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You have additional consistencies in your manabase when you focus on a base one-color agro deck, but due to pack distribution, it's certainly possible to get screwed out of an essential part of your curve.. The 1 drop slot.
That being said, if you are going solid two colors and want to consistantly cast both of those colors on turn 1, better be prioritizing fixing up the A.
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Agreed about the fixing prioritization. It has to be #1. But if you do pay attention to it, your mana bases can be fine if you dodge CC in your primary color and CC/1CC in your secondary color.
If there were enough 1-drops in each color that I could reach my critical mass with only that color (for every color that supports aggro) that would really help to incentivize the mono-color aggro decks even more than the CC bears would. If I had 9+ aggro 1-drops in every color, those decks would make more appearances and I would be playing more of those powerful but narrow 2-drops. But as it stands, I basically have to assume a 2-color baseline in order to reach my critical mass of aggro 1-drops unless I'm willing to add in a bunch of lesser aggro beaters to fill that gap, and we just don't have enough good ones at the moment.
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!
This sounds like a good time. Makes me wish I was a cubin' right now. Are you just using proxies for those last 30?
Interesting, which colors took a hit? (Besides blue of course.)
Most of them are just because my local store was out of stock with them or I haven't asked yet (namely the red spells) Not really a huge hit from any of the colors it's just the really expensive lands part that will hold me back for awhile.
Praise The Lord for khans eh?
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