A full list of results, with all cards that received votes, can be found on this google spreadsheet.
Thanks to all 20 voters!
wtwlf123, Cythare, Ennex, cuttups, willdice, LucidVision, TheRift88, pillar15, Metamind, calibretto, hardb0dy, Zetsu_Sensei, rantipole, artbcnco, Salmo, Star Slayer, Griseldaddy, Hicham, hopefulhawkeye, SpEkKiO99
Trivia
* Just Missed: Mishra's Workshop (1.5), Bazaar of Baghdad (0.9), M10/ISD Check Lands (0.8)
* Library of Alexandria gets an perfect 1st place, and Strip Mine a near-perfect 2nd (only two votes didn't had it at second place). Mana Confluence manages to surpass its direct rival City of Brass and gets the 3rd place, displacing Maze of Ith to 5th.
* Rise and Fall: The one newcomer this year is Paliano, the High City, ranked #18. Undiscovered Paradise also gets into the list this year, at the last place. They cause former #19 and #20, Dust Bowl and the Checklands cycle, to be left out of the ranking.
With more people willing to vote on unusual cards, City of Ass rises 4 positions in the ranking (from #18 to #14). The greatest loser this time is Ancient Tomb, with a fall of 5 positions (from #14 to #19). No other card gets
* Bullseye: Three voters - wtwlf123, TheRift88, and rantipole - listed the actual Top 20 lands on their own rankings. TheRift88 got them the closest to the final ranking, nailing 9 positions correctly and getting no one worse than 6 positions away.
* Only 31 different cards received votes (the less varied voting so far).
Nothing too out of the ordinary here, pretty straight-forward results. Good to see the Fetches jump the Duals this year; I think they're better P1P1 choices, as they leave you far more open and go into a lot more decks. Seeing City of Ass below Grand Coliseum is a bummer, considering the card is strictly better than the Coliseum if you see them both P1P1 and have to choose one for your deck.
Why did you put it at #9? You'd take Grand Coliseum above it?
I had it even lower initially, but pushed it a few slots higher because I thought: "It is Strip Mine, after all!" I've seen it table so often in my cube that I don't see the need to pick it highly. And in general, I prefer to pick lands that help me, rather than lands where I hurt myself by playing them in the hope that I hurt my opponent even more. I value mana fixing very highly, which is why I put the fetchlands, good duals and good 5-color fixers over Mine.
I'm very curious about how resource management works differently on your cube.
I am not sure that it works that differently. As far as I can see, the main difference between my cube and others is that my creature count is a good 5% higher than in most other cubes. (50% creatures out of ALL cards, not just 50% creatures out of all nonland cards.) This might have a subtle impact on the mana-denial lands like Mine or Port. If the average deck runs more threats, there are just less opportunities to "waste" 2 mana porting each turn.
Apart from that, I guess that player preference plays an even bigger role. As I mentioned above, Strip Mine typically tables in our ~6 player drafts, because nobody likes it that much.
Land Tax just wasn't good enough.
...
Ok, I better qualify this statement before everyone jumps at me: Land Tax just wasn't consistently good enough.
I don't think that running or not running a single card has a huge influence on how mana denial lands perform in a cube. I suspect that the noticeably higher creature ratio is the culprit here. If it is anything inherent to my cube at all. I think it is more a matter of player preference and group dynamic. Most of our regular drafters value mana fixing really high and a few like to splash a third or even fourth color on a regular basis. This makes lands that produced multiple colors of mana very valuable and lands that only produce colorless mana very undesirable. Of course, this could lead to a metagame where the mana denial lands become even more valuable to punish the color lovers, but nobody really wants to go down that path.
No Land Tax, Strip Mine at #9... Star Slayer clearly has a completely different cubing experience from anything most other cube managers do. Which is fine, because having differing opinions makes for good discussions, etc. But in an environment where Strip Mine "tables often" ...I just can't imagine experiences from that kind of playgroup being pertinent/relevant to playgroups like mine at all. They're just night/day different.
Strip Mine will sometimes table here, but I wouldn't say "often". It's definitely one of the lands that's worthy of taking P1P1 if I'm feeling especially like playing aggro or Pox shenanigans that day, but more often I won't take it until I'm firmly in an archetype that can really take advantage of it.
I am also surprised about the high placement of Rishadan Port.
Not me. I put it right up there with Armageddon and Winter Orb P1P1 for cards that make me want to go aggro. Had it in a rw aggro last weekend:
T1 2/x
T2 2/x
T3 one-drop 2/x, go, upkeep tap your best land is sooooo good.
It is basically an Armageddon at that point, especially on the play. Putting their 3+ drops all off a turn, more if they miss land drops, is all you need with an aggro deck.
And regarding Strip Mine tabling, dude - draft that thing higher and teach your play group the error of their ways. Seriously, it is basically a 0-cost stone rain that says you can't play a land this turn. It's even better because you can use it for mana if that is what the situation calls for. You can play it in a spell slot if your manabase can't handle the colorless.
I'm also not surprised by Port's placement. It's a really good tempo card, and also has good value against the manland suite (which will hopefully grow in the next year).
2 Strip Mine - 18.6
3 Mana Confluence - 15.4
4 City of Brass - 15.0
5 Maze of Ith - 14.7
6 ONS/ZEN Fetch Lands - 14.1
7 Wasteland - 12.5
8 ABU Dual Lands - 12.3
9 Mishra's Factory - 11.8
10 Mutavault - 11.1
11 Rishadan Port - 8.8
12 RAV Shock Lands - 8.8
13 Grand Coliseum - 7.0
14 City of Ass - 6.2
15 Horizon Canopy - 6.1
16 Gemstone Mine - 5.5
17 Evolving Wilds (Terramorphic Expanse) - 5.3
18 Paliano, the High City - 4.9
19 Ancient Tomb - 4.3
20 Undiscovered Paradise - 2.2
A full list of results, with all cards that received votes, can be found on this google spreadsheet.
Thanks to all 20 voters!
wtwlf123, Cythare, Ennex, cuttups, willdice, LucidVision, TheRift88, pillar15, Metamind, calibretto, hardb0dy, Zetsu_Sensei, rantipole, artbcnco, Salmo, Star Slayer, Griseldaddy, Hicham, hopefulhawkeye, SpEkKiO99
Trivia
* Just Missed: Mishra's Workshop (1.5), Bazaar of Baghdad (0.9), M10/ISD Check Lands (0.8)
* Library of Alexandria gets an perfect 1st place, and Strip Mine a near-perfect 2nd (only two votes didn't had it at second place). Mana Confluence manages to surpass its direct rival City of Brass and gets the 3rd place, displacing Maze of Ith to 5th.
* Rise and Fall: The one newcomer this year is Paliano, the High City, ranked #18. Undiscovered Paradise also gets into the list this year, at the last place. They cause former #19 and #20, Dust Bowl and the Checklands cycle, to be left out of the ranking.
With more people willing to vote on unusual cards, City of Ass rises 4 positions in the ranking (from #18 to #14). The greatest loser this time is Ancient Tomb, with a fall of 5 positions (from #14 to #19). No other card gets
* Bullseye: Three voters - wtwlf123, TheRift88, and rantipole - listed the actual Top 20 lands on their own rankings. TheRift88 got them the closest to the final ranking, nailing 9 positions correctly and getting no one worse than 6 positions away.
* Only 31 different cards received votes (the less varied voting so far).
Again, for reference, here's last year's Land Results thread.
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!
I am also surprised about the high placement of Rishadan Port.
Seeing City of Ass on this list at all is a bummer.
All types of dual/fetch lands placed a lot lower than I ranked them. Around five ranks lower for each cycle.
I agree that fetches over ABU duals makes sense.
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
And the very last voter placed it at #3.
Why did you put it at #9? You'd take Grand Coliseum above it?
It is exactly where it should be.
I'm very curious about how resource management works differently on your cube.
But...
I am not sure that it works that differently. As far as I can see, the main difference between my cube and others is that my creature count is a good 5% higher than in most other cubes. (50% creatures out of ALL cards, not just 50% creatures out of all nonland cards.) This might have a subtle impact on the mana-denial lands like Mine or Port. If the average deck runs more threats, there are just less opportunities to "waste" 2 mana porting each turn.
Apart from that, I guess that player preference plays an even bigger role. As I mentioned above, Strip Mine typically tables in our ~6 player drafts, because nobody likes it that much.
I see what you did there.
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
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
You. don't. run. Land. Tax.
Case closed.
...
Ok, I better qualify this statement before everyone jumps at me: Land Tax just wasn't consistently good enough.
I don't think that running or not running a single card has a huge influence on how mana denial lands perform in a cube. I suspect that the noticeably higher creature ratio is the culprit here. If it is anything inherent to my cube at all. I think it is more a matter of player preference and group dynamic. Most of our regular drafters value mana fixing really high and a few like to splash a third or even fourth color on a regular basis. This makes lands that produced multiple colors of mana very valuable and lands that only produce colorless mana very undesirable. Of course, this could lead to a metagame where the mana denial lands become even more valuable to punish the color lovers, but nobody really wants to go down that path.
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
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!
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
Zetsu's Cube on CubeTutor.com
Zetsu's Ebay MTG Online Store
Zetsu's Poker Draft Method
Not me. I put it right up there with Armageddon and Winter Orb P1P1 for cards that make me want to go aggro. Had it in a rw aggro last weekend:
T1 2/x
T2 2/x
T3 one-drop 2/x, go, upkeep tap your best land is sooooo good.
It is basically an Armageddon at that point, especially on the play. Putting their 3+ drops all off a turn, more if they miss land drops, is all you need with an aggro deck.
And regarding Strip Mine tabling, dude - draft that thing higher and teach your play group the error of their ways. Seriously, it is basically a 0-cost stone rain that says you can't play a land this turn. It's even better because you can use it for mana if that is what the situation calls for. You can play it in a spell slot if your manabase can't handle the colorless.
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!
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!