Queen is incredible, and I consider it a top pick, so I’d take Queen between the two. The number of bodies with each one having deathtouch make it nearly impossible for a creature deck to get back into the game after it lands. However we will be playing both cards.
360 unpowered. I'm trying to create a fair environment while still having some powerful cards. Right now I only play one land per color, and can't decide between these two. I lean more towards treetop village but that's partly because I don't have money to buy a the cradle. I had Gaea's Cradle in my cube years ago but sold it , and while the card was swingy it was also lots of fun. At the same time I'd say Treetop village is probably the strongest of the mono color creature lands.
While not having played with a Cradle so far, I'd say it probably opens up more archetype support than the Village. I guess it depends on how the ramp deck is doing versus how midrange decks are doing in your cube right now.
360 unpowered. I'm trying to create a fair environment while still having some powerful cards. Right now I only play one land per color, and can't decide between these two. I lean more towards treetop village but that's partly because I don't have money to buy a the cradle. I had Gaea's Cradle in my cube years ago but sold it , and while the card was swingy it was also lots of fun. At the same time I'd say Treetop village is probably the strongest of the mono color creature lands.
I would cut Gaea's Cradle - The first for financial reasons (but you could always proxy like I do) but the second is Gaea's Cradle is unbelievably powerful - I would argue its one of the most powerful cards in legacy in a vacuum.
This feels like someone sticking a Sol Ring in a peasant cube.
The Queen is better at stabilising but the Huntmaster offers much more offensive power and is easier to hardcast.
If you're playing ramp, fatty cheat or control deck, you need the staying power of Queen more than the offensive power.
Huntmaster does give you another playable 6 drop if you're in short of a fatty. It just feels like way too far off from Grave Titan - which is why I haven't gotten around to testing him.
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I highly disagree with the Sol Ring comparison. Gaea's Cradle is a heavy green build-around / payoff that only goes into very specific decks where Sol Ring is so ubiquitous that it can literally go into any deck. You will see Sol Ring in a deck in every draft that it appears in. Not so much with Gaea's Cradle since it can be difficult to incorporate into your deck if not taken in pack 1, and not every green creature deck really wants it anyways since it might not be ramping that hard and doesn't want the floor of a do-nothing land.
The three non-replaceable pillars of a strong green creature based ramp deck are Gaea's cradle, Natural order and Craterhoof behemoth.
Cube green decks are creature based because mana elfs are so much more powerful relative to non-creature ramp, so you want payoffs that synergize and leverage them.
In an unpowered legacy cube, green ramp might be the best archetype (depending on how hard you support parasitic reanimator cards).. so it missing this peice is not a nail in the coffin for it by any stretch.
It's obviously up to you... It's not "too powerful" for the format, but it's among the most powerful things to be doing. Treetop is nowhere close to as good.
In an unpowered legacy cube, green ramp might be the best archetype (depending on how hard you support parasitic reanimator cards).. so it missing this peice is not a nail in the coffin for it by any stretch.
I realize this is not the place for this at all but at this stage is the green hyper ramp package as parasitic as any other archetype? Taking the green section of the MTGO legacy cube for example it has an absolute ton of cards that won't see play in any archetype except for Green ramp with a small splash. Obviously the best dorks go into any deck but the lower end ones that only tap for G? I don't think that's too far off reanimator on the parasitic scale. Obviously not on the level of dedicated storm cards but not completely flexible either.
On that note I'd run Cradle if you wanted to support hyper ramp and run Treetop if you didn't.
I want to point out that cradle is great in any creature deck with green in it. There was a world championship decklist from when it came out that was just mono-green stompy. It's not just a ramp card, although it is busted there.
It's quite possible I am entirely wrong about how good cradle is, I've never cubed with it because I don't love non fixing lands that don't provide utility. It's definitely very strong and I don't have experience with it. Was more trying to make my point about the weaker green mana dorks, which is off topic anyway.
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2 - Skyclave Apparition vs Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute ?
3 - Svyelun of Sea and Sky vs Stitcher of Dolls ?
4 - Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia vs Skyclave Shade vs Wight? What order ?
Light up the Night > Kaleidoscorch
Skyclave Apparition > Brutal Cathar
Svyleun of Sea and Sky = Stitcher of Dolls (I personally don’t like either of these, so it’s hard to say)
Skyclave Shade > Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia > Wight
[180 classic cube]
2 - Merfolk Branchwalker vs Sylvan Advocate ?
3 - Tireless Provisioner vs Briarbridge Tracker ?
4 - Kaleidoscorch vs Cathartic Pyre ?
advocate, branchwalker
tracker, provisioner
pyre, scorch.
advocate ≥ branchwalker
tracker ≥ provisioner
pyre > scorch
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My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
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My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
The Queen is better at stabilising but the Huntmaster offers much more offensive power and is easier to hardcast.
360 unpowered. I'm trying to create a fair environment while still having some powerful cards. Right now I only play one land per color, and can't decide between these two. I lean more towards treetop village but that's partly because I don't have money to buy a the cradle. I had Gaea's Cradle in my cube years ago but sold it , and while the card was swingy it was also lots of fun. At the same time I'd say Treetop village is probably the strongest of the mono color creature lands.
I would cut Gaea's Cradle - The first for financial reasons (but you could always proxy like I do) but the second is Gaea's Cradle is unbelievably powerful - I would argue its one of the most powerful cards in legacy in a vacuum.
This feels like someone sticking a Sol Ring in a peasant cube.
If you're playing ramp, fatty cheat or control deck, you need the staying power of Queen more than the offensive power.
Huntmaster does give you another playable 6 drop if you're in short of a fatty. It just feels like way too far off from Grave Titan - which is why I haven't gotten around to testing him.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
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Cube green decks are creature based because mana elfs are so much more powerful relative to non-creature ramp, so you want payoffs that synergize and leverage them.
In an unpowered legacy cube, green ramp might be the best archetype (depending on how hard you support parasitic reanimator cards).. so it missing this peice is not a nail in the coffin for it by any stretch.
It's obviously up to you... It's not "too powerful" for the format, but it's among the most powerful things to be doing. Treetop is nowhere close to as good.
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I realize this is not the place for this at all but at this stage is the green hyper ramp package as parasitic as any other archetype? Taking the green section of the MTGO legacy cube for example it has an absolute ton of cards that won't see play in any archetype except for Green ramp with a small splash. Obviously the best dorks go into any deck but the lower end ones that only tap for G? I don't think that's too far off reanimator on the parasitic scale. Obviously not on the level of dedicated storm cards but not completely flexible either.
On that note I'd run Cradle if you wanted to support hyper ramp and run Treetop if you didn't.
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[180 classic cube]