Dryad Militant: where does it go on my spreadsheet? Do I classify it as mono white because I do not support green aggro, in its own special "miscellaneous" section with all the other hybrid cards, or Selesnya just because?
This case study isn't to tell you what's wrong or right, but to show you what the before / after of my own cube was when I re-organized my multicolored section.
About a year and a half ago, my cube was 75 cards per color, 10 cards per guild (5 spells / 5 duals). My cube excluded the swords / jitte / clamp, had no artifact package / signets, colorless matters and vehicles didn't exist yet, etc. During this time, I had a "flex" section where I put all my hybrid / other cards because.... why not!?
The miscellaneous section looked like this:
* Rakdos Cackler
* Dryad Militant
* Tattermunge Maniac
* Kitchen Finks
* Life // Death
* Fire // Ice
* Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
* Wild Nacatl
* Sphinx of the Steel Wind
* Hellkite Overlord
(Figure of Destiny / Boros Reckoner were always classified as Boros since they're more color intensive than other hybrids. I've always classified Phyrexian mana cards such as Dismember and Porcelain Legionnaire in their respective colors).
Since then, I've re-added the broken equipment package, supported colorless matters, the artifact and the artifact deck package with all the signets. Luckily, this all happened over time and I didn't have to cut 30+ cards at once to figure all this out, so let's go over what I did in the order that I did them.
Cut a few mono cards from each color
* No biggie, I was able to identify a few cards that were just taking up space. Cutting 10 cards (2 from each color) wasn't bad.
Cut down the guild cards from 5 to 4 spells each
* This one was a tougher pill to swallow, but it made sense when I was adding the colorless package since multicolored / colorless matters cards are inherently more difficult to play than normal cards.
Here's a list of guild spells that I would currently be playing if I had a 5th slot:
* Dragonlord Ojutai
* Shadowmage Infiltrator
* Falkenrath Aristocrat
* Kird Ape
* Voice of Resurgence
* Anguished Unmaking
* Lotleth Troll
* Kiora, Master of the Depths
* Electrolyze
* Boros Reckoner (or Nahiri, I dunno)
These cards are good, but I really didn't need them. Would be nice to still play Dragonlord Ojutai / Falkenrath Aristocrat though.... Anyways, 3-6 months later, I need more cuts for the re-introduction of equipment and to test the artifact package complete with signets.
Cut more mono colored cards!
* Not as easy as last time, but whatever. I think I cut 15 cards (3 from each color)
Cut more guild cards! (or not)
* Here's where things get messy. Like I said earlier, when I cut one card from the mono / multicolored section, I have to cut from every other section to keep the balance. I didn't want or need to cut 10 cards again, but I still needed SOME cuts.....
This is where Dryad Militant and friends come in.... The most logical way to make room was to move the hybrid cards in the misc flex section to their respective guilds, which meant cutting SOME guild cards. The following cards got re-classified:
* Rakdos Cackler
* Dryad Militant
* Tattermunge Maniac (this actually just ended up getting cut all together)
* Kitchen Finks
* Life // Death
* Fire // Ice
This re-classification act was purely done for real estate reasons and not philosophical ones. I still have some cards in misc section that many people would have otherwise (Wild Nacatl, Horizon Canopy is classified as a misc land and not a guild land).
ANALYZING THE BEFORE / AFTER OF MY CUBE
OLD CUBE
* 75 mono colored cards, 10 guild card (5 spells / 5 lands), 10 or so "misc" cards
NEW (CURRENT) CUBE
* 71 mono colored cards, 9 guild cards (4 spells not counting signets / 5 lands), 4 "misc" cards, a hell lot more artifacts, and a few more lands
Going back to the multicolored cards I COULD be playing, let's go over why I'm (mostly) okay without them.
Dragonlord Ojutai
* While white has an embarrassment of riches in the 5-cmc creature department, blue could use a hand. While Ojutai is a great card, it doesn't help support any particular archetype and finishers are what I'm worried about the least as far as card types go.
Shadowmage Infiltrator
* Card has always been okay, 3-drops are the new 4-drops in terms of power level and Shadowmage Infiltrator is kind of embarrassing in comparison to some of its mono blue / black contemporaries.
Falkenrath Aristocrat
* Huge pet card of mine, but red aggro doesn't need any help in the curve-topper department. Was nice to have an indestructible sac-outlet planeswalker killer of doom though. Redundancy aside, I'd still be rocking Aristocrat as a pet card if it weren't for the printing of Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast.
Kird Ape // Tattermunge Maniac
* The printings of Falkenrath Gorger and Kessig Prowler made Ape / Maniac less necessary.
Voice of Resurgence
* Solid card, but never filled any need. Pre-MM17, my wallet was pretty happy about this cut.
Anguished Unmaking
* I cut this and am still playing too many Vindicate / O-Ring effects.
Lotleth Troll
* The printings of Heir of Falkenrath and Noose Constrictor alleviated the need of Lotleth Troll as a discard outlet.
Kiora, Master of the Depths
* I actually like this card in a lot of Simic builds, but never truly needed it.
Electrolyze
* Unpopular Opinion: Electrolyze has always been a mediocre spell. Fire // Ice is the more useful Izzet card and there's a lot of redundant mono red options such as Arc Trail, Arc Lightning, and Flames of the Firebrand. Electrolyze is still a decent option, but I swear some people defend it as if it were Kolaghan's Command.
Boros Reckoner
* I always loved how Boros Reckoner can go toe-to-toe with a titan sized creature, but its cost was too restrictive. Reckoner was never needed and red / white has gotten some nice mono colored options in the 3-cmc slot over the past few years.
AFTER EFFECTS
So from the last year or so compared to now, I'm down 20 mono colored cards and 15 multicolored cards in exchange for the colorless package and a bunch of artifacts / equipment. The absence of 15 multicolored cards is very noticeable in drafts because there's much less of the same cards wheeling over and over again. Cutting down on pure gold cards has increased the number of more playable options and overall made the cube feel much leaner in draft, deck construction, and gameplay.
The past few years really showed me that I don't need as many gold cards as I felt like I wanted to play. My cube is very archetype based, and most gold cards are more supplemental payoff cards than they are important archetype role-players. An in-depth analysis showed that most cards I cut were redundant compared to mono colored options (Electrolyze / Falkenrath Aristocrat) or became less necessary as mono-colored options became available (Kird Ape / Tattermunge Maniac / Lotleth Troll).
Gold cards are inherently the least played cards due to their nature of being multicolored. A lot of people use the general rule of thumb to have 1 spell / 1 land per 90 cards, but a lot of people (especially new cube managers) go well above that. I'm currently very happy at 4 spells / 5 lands at 540. While I loved having Dryad Militant and friends in the flex section, it just resulted in more gold spells to fill out those guild slots. My goal of this article isn't for people to follow what I'm currently doing, but to have a better understanding of all the pros / cons when deciding where to classify Dryad Militant and friends. Feel free to comment below on why you disagree with my guild card exclusions.
I count it as a card. Whenever I have an opportunity to remove a less playable card for a more playable one, I prefer to make that change over classifying cards in such a way that gets more gold cards and less mono-colored cards into the cube.
Just an aside on your main topic, I consider Falkenrath Aristocrat a curve topper for Black Aggro decks (BBr), not Red ones, which are indeed flush with options, as you mention. I find that it is a powerful option that synergizes well with the BBr decks that I like to build. I can't fault you for your choices in the Rakdos section, as those are all really great cards, and omitting a card that has such a narrow role to shine in (BBr Aggro) is totally understandable.
In my cube, Dryad Militant is classified as a Selesnya hybrid. When I originally built my cube, I allowed each guild two slots for hybrids, splits, and/or fuse cards in addition to the 4 gold spots I allow each guild. Not all guilds have enough hybrids that are good enough to justify those slots, and we haven't gotten any new hybrids since RTR block, so I've cut many of those slots to make room for colorless cards. Hybrids are more flexible than gold cards or mono-colored slots, so I believe they're worth making room for. I'm also happy with the number of gold cards I'm running in each cube. They're narrow, but powerful, and a certain amount is also worth making a limited amount of room for.
On Boros Reckoner and Falkenrath Aristocrat - they're great cards but the red 3 & 4 CMC spots now have such an embarassment of riches that they're a lot less necessary than they used to be. I'm still running Boros Reckoner for now, but I'll probably be cutting it in my next update.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I call it a white card because I don't support Green agro and I have found its not a card green drafters are interested in.
Rackdos Cackler is more of a cheat for me, I have called it black to save space in Red and Rakdos but I do intend to add some more aggressive black creatures.
There's no clear-cut answer like, say, when you calculate the success rate of Ultimate Price vs Go for the Throat, but I'd much rather treat the 70% card like a 40% card than like a 10% card.
I'd much rather treat the 70% card like a 40% card than like a 10% card.
I used did the same thing, it resulted in more 10% cards in the cube due to having more guild slots open. Nothing wrong with either method, but I did notice a difference with less overall pure gold cards in the draft.
If you're concerned with the number of gold cards you use, you could always cut those to make room for more mono-colored cards or colorless cards. If you feel you have too many gold cards, the card to cut isn't Murderous Redcap, it's Falkenrath Aristocrat.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
If you're concerned with the number of gold cards you use, you could always cut those to make room for more mono-colored cards or colorless cards. If you feel you have too many gold cards, the card to cut isn't Murderous Redcap, it's Falkenrath Aristocrat.
But I still want 4 slots per guild dedicated to spells. Most guilds have 4 pure gold cards occupying those slots.
But I still want 4 slots per guild dedicated to spells. Most guilds have 4 pure gold cards occupying those slots.
For me, hybrids and gold cards are far enough apart that I prefer not to have them compete with each other. Dryad Militant goes into all kinds of white decks that have no green, and the occasional green deck that has no white, so it shouldn't have to compete with Qasali Pridemage. Four gold cards per guild, plus up to two hybrids is working quite well for me. If I were concerned with the amount of gold cards, the hybrid slots are not what I'd be cutting, it'd be the gold.
On raw power level, I agree, but versatility is a factor. Redcap did work in Orzhov stax decks and Golgari RecSur decks, and Izzet counterburn decks where Falkenrath Aristocrat couldn't fit, so this is actually a fine example of why I prefer to not have my hybrids and golds compete for the same slot.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I would agree with the sentiment that hybrids shouldn't be treated like gold cards (mostly). They are very flexible.
I'd also urge people to not be too dogmatic on having every single section perfectly balanced. If you have one or two extra cards here or there - and you are doing that by making better card choices - you are going to have a more playable cube. Running one less Simic card to run Falkenrath Aristocrat is the right decision if that Simic card endlessly wheels and Aristocrat is highly sought after and would end up drafted. That small imbalance will not be (negatively) relevant in your drafting. Quite the opposite in fact.
Many times this. In fact, Colorless << Hybrid << Mono << Gold.
I have 2 Selesnya and 2 Rakdos hybrids, and 1 extra blue card to balance them.
The more complicated question is, multicolor hybrids such as Wild Nacatl or Warden of the First Tree.
I treat hybrid cards as half a card for both colors, so Murderous Redcap is counted as 0.5 red and 0.5 black. I think this makes the most sense because two R/B hybrids get (essentially) counted as 1 black and 1 red card (for color counts) which allows me to keep the colors even, and works closer in practice to how they play out. This has the added benefit that I can add as many hybrid cards as I want and not worry about my hybrid counts.
I use a similar method for classifying multicolor hybrids.
Flashback cards count as 0.75 for the main color, and 0.25 for the flashback color. lingering souls is counted as 0.75 white, 0.25 black
I try to keep the color count for my cube updated on cubetutor (I try to update them every change because it's easier that way) here.
scrapheap scrounger and phyrexian mana cards are currently being counted as colorless, but I should probably change it to something like 0.75 colorless and 0.25 of their respective color.
Dryad Militant: where does it go on my spreadsheet? Do I classify it as mono white because I do not support green aggro, in its own special "miscellaneous" section with all the other hybrid cards, or Selesnya just because?
This case study isn't to tell you what's wrong or right, but to show you what the before / after of my own cube was when I re-organized my multicolored section.
My cube: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcurve/43897
HOW I DID THINGS BEFORE
About a year and a half ago, my cube was 75 cards per color, 10 cards per guild (5 spells / 5 duals). My cube excluded the swords / jitte / clamp, had no artifact package / signets, colorless matters and vehicles didn't exist yet, etc. During this time, I had a "flex" section where I put all my hybrid / other cards because.... why not!?
The miscellaneous section looked like this:
* Rakdos Cackler
* Dryad Militant
* Tattermunge Maniac
* Kitchen Finks
* Life // Death
* Fire // Ice
* Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
* Wild Nacatl
* Sphinx of the Steel Wind
* Hellkite Overlord
(Figure of Destiny / Boros Reckoner were always classified as Boros since they're more color intensive than other hybrids. I've always classified Phyrexian mana cards such as Dismember and Porcelain Legionnaire in their respective colors).
Since then, I've re-added the broken equipment package, supported colorless matters, the artifact and the artifact deck package with all the signets. Luckily, this all happened over time and I didn't have to cut 30+ cards at once to figure all this out, so let's go over what I did in the order that I did them.
Cut a few mono cards from each color
* No biggie, I was able to identify a few cards that were just taking up space. Cutting 10 cards (2 from each color) wasn't bad.
Cut down the guild cards from 5 to 4 spells each
* This one was a tougher pill to swallow, but it made sense when I was adding the colorless package since multicolored / colorless matters cards are inherently more difficult to play than normal cards.
Here's a list of guild spells that I would currently be playing if I had a 5th slot:
* Dragonlord Ojutai
* Shadowmage Infiltrator
* Falkenrath Aristocrat
* Kird Ape
* Voice of Resurgence
* Anguished Unmaking
* Lotleth Troll
* Kiora, Master of the Depths
* Electrolyze
* Boros Reckoner (or Nahiri, I dunno)
These cards are good, but I really didn't need them. Would be nice to still play Dragonlord Ojutai / Falkenrath Aristocrat though.... Anyways, 3-6 months later, I need more cuts for the re-introduction of equipment and to test the artifact package complete with signets.
Cut more mono colored cards!
* Not as easy as last time, but whatever. I think I cut 15 cards (3 from each color)
Cut more guild cards! (or not)
* Here's where things get messy. Like I said earlier, when I cut one card from the mono / multicolored section, I have to cut from every other section to keep the balance. I didn't want or need to cut 10 cards again, but I still needed SOME cuts.....
This is where Dryad Militant and friends come in.... The most logical way to make room was to move the hybrid cards in the misc flex section to their respective guilds, which meant cutting SOME guild cards. The following cards got re-classified:
* Rakdos Cackler
* Dryad Militant
* Tattermunge Maniac (this actually just ended up getting cut all together)
* Kitchen Finks
* Life // Death
* Fire // Ice
This re-classification act was purely done for real estate reasons and not philosophical ones. I still have some cards in misc section that many people would have otherwise (Wild Nacatl, Horizon Canopy is classified as a misc land and not a guild land).
ANALYZING THE BEFORE / AFTER OF MY CUBE
OLD CUBE
* 75 mono colored cards, 10 guild card (5 spells / 5 lands), 10 or so "misc" cards
NEW (CURRENT) CUBE
* 71 mono colored cards, 9 guild cards (4 spells not counting signets / 5 lands), 4 "misc" cards, a hell lot more artifacts, and a few more lands
Going back to the multicolored cards I COULD be playing, let's go over why I'm (mostly) okay without them.
Dragonlord Ojutai
* While white has an embarrassment of riches in the 5-cmc creature department, blue could use a hand. While Ojutai is a great card, it doesn't help support any particular archetype and finishers are what I'm worried about the least as far as card types go.
Shadowmage Infiltrator
* Card has always been okay, 3-drops are the new 4-drops in terms of power level and Shadowmage Infiltrator is kind of embarrassing in comparison to some of its mono blue / black contemporaries.
Falkenrath Aristocrat
* Huge pet card of mine, but red aggro doesn't need any help in the curve-topper department. Was nice to have an indestructible sac-outlet planeswalker killer of doom though. Redundancy aside, I'd still be rocking Aristocrat as a pet card if it weren't for the printing of Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast.
Kird Ape // Tattermunge Maniac
* The printings of Falkenrath Gorger and Kessig Prowler made Ape / Maniac less necessary.
Voice of Resurgence
* Solid card, but never filled any need. Pre-MM17, my wallet was pretty happy about this cut.
Anguished Unmaking
* I cut this and am still playing too many Vindicate / O-Ring effects.
Lotleth Troll
* The printings of Heir of Falkenrath and Noose Constrictor alleviated the need of Lotleth Troll as a discard outlet.
Kiora, Master of the Depths
* I actually like this card in a lot of Simic builds, but never truly needed it.
Electrolyze
* Unpopular Opinion: Electrolyze has always been a mediocre spell. Fire // Ice is the more useful Izzet card and there's a lot of redundant mono red options such as Arc Trail, Arc Lightning, and Flames of the Firebrand. Electrolyze is still a decent option, but I swear some people defend it as if it were Kolaghan's Command.
Boros Reckoner
* I always loved how Boros Reckoner can go toe-to-toe with a titan sized creature, but its cost was too restrictive. Reckoner was never needed and red / white has gotten some nice mono colored options in the 3-cmc slot over the past few years.
AFTER EFFECTS
So from the last year or so compared to now, I'm down 20 mono colored cards and 15 multicolored cards in exchange for the colorless package and a bunch of artifacts / equipment. The absence of 15 multicolored cards is very noticeable in drafts because there's much less of the same cards wheeling over and over again. Cutting down on pure gold cards has increased the number of more playable options and overall made the cube feel much leaner in draft, deck construction, and gameplay.
The past few years really showed me that I don't need as many gold cards as I felt like I wanted to play. My cube is very archetype based, and most gold cards are more supplemental payoff cards than they are important archetype role-players. An in-depth analysis showed that most cards I cut were redundant compared to mono colored options (Electrolyze / Falkenrath Aristocrat) or became less necessary as mono-colored options became available (Kird Ape / Tattermunge Maniac / Lotleth Troll).
Gold cards are inherently the least played cards due to their nature of being multicolored. A lot of people use the general rule of thumb to have 1 spell / 1 land per 90 cards, but a lot of people (especially new cube managers) go well above that. I'm currently very happy at 4 spells / 5 lands at 540. While I loved having Dryad Militant and friends in the flex section, it just resulted in more gold spells to fill out those guild slots. My goal of this article isn't for people to follow what I'm currently doing, but to have a better understanding of all the pros / cons when deciding where to classify Dryad Militant and friends. Feel free to comment below on why you disagree with my guild card exclusions.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
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!
On Boros Reckoner and Falkenrath Aristocrat - they're great cards but the red 3 & 4 CMC spots now have such an embarassment of riches that they're a lot less necessary than they used to be. I'm still running Boros Reckoner for now, but I'll probably be cutting it in my next update.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Rackdos Cackler is more of a cheat for me, I have called it black to save space in Red and Rakdos but I do intend to add some more aggressive black creatures.
40% can cast Skinrender.
70% can cast Murderous Redcap.
There's no clear-cut answer like, say, when you calculate the success rate of Ultimate Price vs Go for the Throat, but I'd much rather treat the 70% card like a 40% card than like a 10% card.
I used did the same thing, it resulted in more 10% cards in the cube due to having more guild slots open. Nothing wrong with either method, but I did notice a difference with less overall pure gold cards in the draft.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
But I still want 4 slots per guild dedicated to spells. Most guilds have 4 pure gold cards occupying those slots.
Also, Falkenrath Aristocrat >>> Murderous Redcap.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
For me, hybrids and gold cards are far enough apart that I prefer not to have them compete with each other. Dryad Militant goes into all kinds of white decks that have no green, and the occasional green deck that has no white, so it shouldn't have to compete with Qasali Pridemage. Four gold cards per guild, plus up to two hybrids is working quite well for me. If I were concerned with the amount of gold cards, the hybrid slots are not what I'd be cutting, it'd be the gold.
Hybrids =/= Gold
On raw power level, I agree, but versatility is a factor. Redcap did work in Orzhov stax decks and Golgari RecSur decks, and Izzet counterburn decks where Falkenrath Aristocrat couldn't fit, so this is actually a fine example of why I prefer to not have my hybrids and golds compete for the same slot.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I'd also urge people to not be too dogmatic on having every single section perfectly balanced. If you have one or two extra cards here or there - and you are doing that by making better card choices - you are going to have a more playable cube. Running one less Simic card to run Falkenrath Aristocrat is the right decision if that Simic card endlessly wheels and Aristocrat is highly sought after and would end up drafted. That small imbalance will not be (negatively) relevant in your drafting. Quite the opposite in fact.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Many times this. In fact, Colorless << Hybrid << Mono << Gold.
I have 2 Selesnya and 2 Rakdos hybrids, and 1 extra blue card to balance them.
The more complicated question is, multicolor hybrids such as Wild Nacatl or Warden of the First Tree.
I use a similar method for classifying multicolor hybrids.
Flashback cards count as 0.75 for the main color, and 0.25 for the flashback color.
lingering souls is counted as 0.75 white, 0.25 black
soulfire grand master, wild nacatl, etc. are counted as 0.5 for the main color, and 0.25 for each of the supporting colors.
I try to keep the color count for my cube updated on cubetutor (I try to update them every change because it's easier that way) here.
scrapheap scrounger and phyrexian mana cards are currently being counted as colorless, but I should probably change it to something like 0.75 colorless and 0.25 of their respective color.