We had 24 voters! Thank you to everyone for taking time to vote!
preppypoof, scourge of the kitchen table, Bomo, hopefulhawkeye, cuttups, Truesight, rantipole, wtwlf123, Monkey D Luffy, calibretto, TheRift88, Ennex, Metamind, willdice, pillar15, Star Slayer, Fredo, Hicham, Colby Cube, trogdoor, msipes, DerBK, Goodking
Tendencies, Useless Ramblings & Facts
*Just Missed: Solemn Simulacrum (1.8), Myr Battlesphere (1.5) & Smokestack/Mimic Vat (1.3)
*Repeat Champ: Sol Ring once again, repeats as Artifact's #1 card.
*Big Hitters: Sol Ring, Skullclamp and Umezawa's Jitte were the only cards to receive votes from all participants.
*Bi-Polar Award: Sword of Body & Mind. It received 9 votes of 10 or more and 12 votes between 5 and 9 as well as 2 no-votes.
*Rookies: Wurmcoil Engine (#9), Sword of Body & Mind (#11), Batterskull (#13), Karn Liberated (#14), Sword of Feast & Famine (#16) and Sword of War & Peace (#18) are all newcomers to Artifacts's Top 20 (A 4-year layoff will do that!) Basically, amazing creatures, strong equipment and a Planeswalker were all added.
*Fall From Grace: Sensei's Divining Top was #9 in 2010! It received 5 votes (10, 4, 4, 3 and 1) in 2014. It's obviously not the card that we all thought it once was.
*Consistency Award: Sol Ring, obviously. The last 3 PR's have resulted in composites of 20.0, 19.9 and 19.9. Amazing.
*Big Mover: Grim Monolith. Surprisingly, Monolith was on the "Just Missed" list in 2010 with a composite of 1.6 (essentially ranking #22). It leaped up to #8 in 2014.
*51 different cards received votes
Silent Edge's Tidbits of Wisdom: The Lewis Theory - When the presence of a single card makes every other card in your deck better (see Lewis, Ray). The Rubber Edict - You'd rather have it and not use it, than need it and not have it. The Shotgun Wedding - Don't commit early unless you absolutely have to.
so theoretically, people that play "Unpowered cubes" should not be including Jitte in their list, since it rated above Lotus and the Moxen. Not that crazy when I think about how it can take over a game, though!
so theoretically, people that play "Unpowered cubes" should not be including Jitte in their list, since it rated above Lotus and the Moxen. Not that crazy when I think about how it can take over a game, though!
A lack of experience with the Lotus and Moxen by some players (and therefor a lack of votes/ranking) will skew them a bit down from cards that are much easier to acquire and play with. I'm not sure if I'd really rank Jitte as "power" in terms of cube.
so theoretically, people that play "Unpowered cubes" should not be including Jitte in their list, since it rated above Lotus and the Moxen. Not that crazy when I think about how it can take over a game, though!
Don't let the pick order fool you. Umezawa's Jitte isn't comparable to the true power cards in that it doesn't break the fundamental building blocks of the game (like the +1 mana per turn and/or the +1 card per turn principles) and it is also a lot slower. I costs 4 mana (+ an attack or block) before it actually does anything while the power cards cost between 0 and 2 mana. Yes, it is super powerful and can dominate a game on its own, but so do many other cards in cube. It also doesn't start dominating until around turn 5, while the power cards do game breaking stuff on turn 1 or 2.
This Top20 showcases another interesting public opinion to me that i never got behind: Karn. I have no idea why someone would firstpick that card. During Pringles' quilt draft, everyone was also gunning for Karn while i didn't see the appeal. Now it made the Top20 list. I am clearly missing something here that makes a 7 mana card a first pick. All the Swords, Tangle Wire, Winter Orb... those are all equally powerful, but cost much less mana. With one of those cards in the pack, i wouldn't even look at Karn.
Karn Liberated is a great first pick! Sure, picking him puts you into one of the slower archetypes (ramp or control), but at least you don't commit to a specific color. All the cards that you list also put you into certain archetypes (aggro or midrange), so they aren't really more flexible first picks. If you pick a Karn or a Sword comes down to your personal preference and what you want to draft this time: A slow deck or a fast deck. This is actually similar to opening a pack with both Wildfire and Goblin Guide. Nobody would say that one of those is the clear pick and the other card is bad. Both are great, but they put you into fundamentally different types of decks. And Karn is also great! He is one of the best planeswalkers for cube. He is an auto-include into any deck that supports casting 7-drops. Which should be roughly half the decks that you draft in cube. Elspeth, Sun's Champion would also be great in those decks, but Karn is a better first pick since he doesn't commit you to any colors.
so theoretically, people that play "Unpowered cubes" should not be including Jitte in their list, since it rated above Lotus and the Moxen. Not that crazy when I think about how it can take over a game, though!
A lack of experience with the Lotus and Moxen by some players (and therefor a lack of votes/ranking) will skew them a bit down from cards that are much easier to acquire and play with. I'm not sure if I'd really rank Jitte as "power" in terms of cube.
I take Jitte over most power cards in the cube. I'd much rather play against an opponent with a Mox in their deck than a Jitte in their deck.
I don't really like Karn too much any more (sorry mrbrightside!), since at 6-7 mana I really want a creature (makes it viable for reanimation and SnT and other shenanigans), or even better an artifact creature (add Tinker etc.) or green creature (for Natural Order). I have to hardcast Karn and 6-7 mana cards are narrow enough that I want to make them as versatile as possible for the purposes of playing the darned things! Not to mention he's kind of vulnerable just after playing him as you usually want to Vindicate. So I cut him for Aether Searcher, who does fit more of those criteria.
That said, I wouldn't be really sad about first picking him from someone else's cube, as long as I ended up in ramp.
I agree with wtwlf about Jitte and Moxen. The Jitte is more busted, I believe.
Just realised I crossed 5,000 posts today. Huzzah!
Karn is awesome if people like playing 7 drops from your cube. While he doesn't provide the boot-stomp quick-kill that many of the high-mana bombs bring to the table, the turn-by-turn dismantling of their board and hand while also having an escape by restarting the game is huge. Even though Karn isn't putting pressure on your opponent's life total, nailing a card every turn with a PW that is really tough to out-race in that sense can stonewall so many boards. Heavy green decks love him too since they can find themselves stuck against a board where they can't attack profitably but can't be hit themselves. Also Karn looks like a badass.
These are final and now open for group discussion.
2 Umezawa's Jitte - 17.9
3 ABU Mox Jewelry - 15.0
3 Black Lotus - 15.0
5 Skullclamp - 13.1
6 Sword of Fire and Ice - 12.7
7 Mana Crypt - 11.6
8 Mana Vault - 10.6
9 Wurmcoil Engine - 9.3
10 Mox Diamond - 8.8
11 Sword of Body and Mind - 8.4
12 Grim Monolith - 8.3
13 Batterskull - 7.4
14 Karn Liberated - 6.8
15 Sword of Light and Shadow - 5.8
16 Sword of Feast and Famine - 5.4
17 Tangle Wire - 5.2
18 Sword of War and Peace - 4.6
19 Winter Orb - 3.9
20 Coalition Relic - 3.1
We had 24 voters! Thank you to everyone for taking time to vote!
preppypoof, scourge of the kitchen table, Bomo, hopefulhawkeye, cuttups, Truesight, rantipole, wtwlf123, Monkey D Luffy, calibretto, TheRift88, Ennex, Metamind, willdice, pillar15, Star Slayer, Fredo, Hicham, Colby Cube, trogdoor, msipes, DerBK, Goodking
Tendencies, Useless Ramblings & Facts
*Just Missed: Solemn Simulacrum (1.8), Myr Battlesphere (1.5) & Smokestack/Mimic Vat (1.3)
*Repeat Champ: Sol Ring once again, repeats as Artifact's #1 card.
*Big Hitters: Sol Ring, Skullclamp and Umezawa's Jitte were the only cards to receive votes from all participants.
*Bi-Polar Award: Sword of Body & Mind. It received 9 votes of 10 or more and 12 votes between 5 and 9 as well as 2 no-votes.
*Rookies: Wurmcoil Engine (#9), Sword of Body & Mind (#11), Batterskull (#13), Karn Liberated (#14), Sword of Feast & Famine (#16) and Sword of War & Peace (#18) are all newcomers to Artifacts's Top 20 (A 4-year layoff will do that!) Basically, amazing creatures, strong equipment and a Planeswalker were all added.
*Fall From Grace: Sensei's Divining Top was #9 in 2010! It received 5 votes (10, 4, 4, 3 and 1) in 2014. It's obviously not the card that we all thought it once was.
*Consistency Award: Sol Ring, obviously. The last 3 PR's have resulted in composites of 20.0, 19.9 and 19.9. Amazing.
*Big Mover: Grim Monolith. Surprisingly, Monolith was on the "Just Missed" list in 2010 with a composite of 1.6 (essentially ranking #22). It leaped up to #8 in 2014.
*51 different cards received votes
NorCal Crew Collective Cube on Cube Tutor
My 2009 Cube Draft Article - "With The First Pick..."
2009 Official Cube Power Rankings
2010 Official Cube Power Rankings
2014 Official Cube Power Rankings
Silent Edge's Tidbits of Wisdom:
The Lewis Theory - When the presence of a single card makes every other card in your deck better (see Lewis, Ray).
The Rubber Edict - You'd rather have it and not use it, than need it and not have it.
The Shotgun Wedding - Don't commit early unless you absolutely have to.
Twitter: @archplus3
Crazy how high Jitte is rated...wow. I'm not saying it's wrong but still...wow.
My 540 card Powered Cube last updated March 2022
A lack of experience with the Lotus and Moxen by some players (and therefor a lack of votes/ranking) will skew them a bit down from cards that are much easier to acquire and play with. I'm not sure if I'd really rank Jitte as "power" in terms of cube.
Tappedout
Cubetutor
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Karn Liberated is a great first pick! Sure, picking him puts you into one of the slower archetypes (ramp or control), but at least you don't commit to a specific color. All the cards that you list also put you into certain archetypes (aggro or midrange), so they aren't really more flexible first picks. If you pick a Karn or a Sword comes down to your personal preference and what you want to draft this time: A slow deck or a fast deck. This is actually similar to opening a pack with both Wildfire and Goblin Guide. Nobody would say that one of those is the clear pick and the other card is bad. Both are great, but they put you into fundamentally different types of decks. And Karn is also great! He is one of the best planeswalkers for cube. He is an auto-include into any deck that supports casting 7-drops. Which should be roughly half the decks that you draft in cube. Elspeth, Sun's Champion would also be great in those decks, but Karn is a better first pick since he doesn't commit you to any colors.
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 take Jitte over most power cards in the cube. I'd much rather play against an opponent with a Mox in their deck than a Jitte in their deck.
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!
That said, I wouldn't be really sad about first picking him from someone else's cube, as long as I ended up in ramp.
I agree with wtwlf about Jitte and Moxen. The Jitte is more busted, I believe.
Just realised I crossed 5,000 posts today. Huzzah!
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic