i think dark ritual is a great card, but one of the more fair mana acceleration cards in the cube. a one or two mana removal spell can completely reverse the effect and gain you card advantage over the dark rit player. it's very beatable.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
Can I get some opinions on this card in 2018? The vocal majority of cube owners I play with feel like this card has lost a lot of its luster. In fact, quite a few of them have cut this card or are in the process of doing so. Personally, I rarely pick this card and I can't even recall the last time I played it. I've always dreamed of dropping a turn one Lily or Entomb-Exhume combo, but perhaps I need to be more realistic here. FWIW, the environments we play in have neither power nor storm. I suspect not supporting storm may have something to do with it.
I made a t1 play once, while on the draw, which consisted of a Double Stroke'd DR (BBBBBB), into Braids and Bloodghast. My opponent would be forced to sac their only land, then in my turn I would sac the Bloodghast and have a land drop (recurring the Bloodghast), and make a play, rinse and repeat.
It was one of the greatest plays in the history of the cube, but apparently about the only memorable play with DR, so it was eventually cut.
Dark Ritual is always main decked here.It never dissapoints, if you accept the draw back that it might suck late game. It mailny gets pickey by black based aggro decks (1 drop and Sink Hole?) and storm. But a lot of decks are happy to see it come. Nothing wrong with accelarating into a 4, 5 or 6 drop two turns too soon.
Dark Ritual will never leave our Cube and I don't say this out of some nostalgia about the golden days of Necro-decks in Constructed.
I think Ritual is still pretty potent. It enables some powerful early plays, and with the increase in quality of the 3+cc cards in the cube, I think it might be getting better. I removed it for a while, but ultimately added it back in because we missed having access to that explosive effect. I don't think it's in any danger of getting cut.
Dark Ritual provides a great boost and in some instances can give early pressure to an opponent.
I view it as redundant effects with Mana Vault and to a lesser extent Grim Monolith in a sense that they give temporary mana boost in the early game.
I mean I still run Lotus Pedal so I don't think Dark Ritual's in any danger. It's a fun and nostalgic card that does powerful and dumb things. We don't have Mind Twist or anything that broken to do with it, so it's not a "fair" card by any means, but it is a fun one.
Been in my cube since day 1 and not in any risk of getting cut. It makes the maindeck a very high percentage of the time since so many different types of decks are very happy for that 2 mana bump; agro drops bigger/more threats, midrange gets to play its 5 drops on turn 2 and control gets to play a threat and hold up counter magic.
Dark Ritual is extremly good.
I messed around for a little while with 2x of them to give black a more distinct "black" feel, and I quickly realized it was a mistake. Playing with multiple of them in a deck made me realize how good the card really was.
Putting out an "engine" card (mostly planeswalkers) a turn or 2 earlier is so powerful, as many of them get mutliple times better when the board is at parity. Dark confidant turn 1 vs turn 2 is a big deal (turn 1 Ritual -> duress -> bob) . Reanimating a huge creature a turn earlier can often mean the difference between winning and losing.
I have lived the dream of dark ritual -> entomb -> reanimate many many times in cube.
There are black decks I don't love ritual, and have even cut it from some of them, but there are many more where I think the card is top 5-10 card in that deck.
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It was one of the greatest plays in the history of the cube, but apparently about the only memorable play with DR, so it was eventually cut.
Dark Ritual will never leave our Cube and I don't say this out of some nostalgia about the golden days of Necro-decks in Constructed.
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I view it as redundant effects with Mana Vault and to a lesser extent Grim Monolith in a sense that they give temporary mana boost in the early game.
I messed around for a little while with 2x of them to give black a more distinct "black" feel, and I quickly realized it was a mistake. Playing with multiple of them in a deck made me realize how good the card really was.
Putting out an "engine" card (mostly planeswalkers) a turn or 2 earlier is so powerful, as many of them get mutliple times better when the board is at parity. Dark confidant turn 1 vs turn 2 is a big deal (turn 1 Ritual -> duress -> bob) . Reanimating a huge creature a turn earlier can often mean the difference between winning and losing.
I have lived the dream of dark ritual -> entomb -> reanimate many many times in cube.
There are black decks I don't love ritual, and have even cut it from some of them, but there are many more where I think the card is top 5-10 card in that deck.
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My favorite combo with it is as well is Swamp + Lotus Petal + Dark Ritual + Braids = Almost lost a friend
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