A 2 mana sorcery can't really compete with a 1 mana instant.
It can't? 2-1ing people with Arc Trail > killing one creature. Is it always better? No. But it sure CAN be. Even killing one creature and doing 2 to the face is pretty good for 2 mana.
Tempo is an advantage that has been highly developped in the last few years especially in Legacy and due to increasing efficiency of creatures.
And Bolt is an insanely good tempo card. One-mana instant removal spell is so much better than a two-mana sorcery spell that can 2-for-one on some occasions.
The fact that it is a sorcery is really hurting the card, as you can't play it and play a relevant threat in the same turn in the early game.
Legacy also has a MUCH faster fundamental turn, and you need the 3 damage instant to kill your opponent/creatures. One mana is also quite a lot in Legacy (think of how many lands are in play in a typical Legacy game compared to standard or even Modern), so both of those things combined make it much better in Legacy. Thing is, this isn't Legacy. You also need to keep in mind that keeping your threats alive/stunting your opponent's board development is a tempo play as well. Please see my above example of that when playing vs. green decks.
For Arc Trail to be better than Bolt, it would have to have a much better effect. Killing a 2-power blocker and dealing one damage to my opponnent is not what I call "through the roof".
Actual recent play:
T1: Jackal Pup
t1: Elf
T2: Ash Zealot, attack for 4
t2: tap elf play Treespeaker, level up
T3: Arc trail your two guys, one-drop
Roof: gone.
Tempo: Obtained
I'd love to be on the receiving end of that deal.
(well no, I don't love to be drafting the same colors as my neighbor, but you get the point)
I'm fine with drafting the same color next to someone if I always get the better cards!
I'm fine with drafting the same color next to someone if I always get the better cards!
What's unusual about cube is that it's so incredibly deep that two in a row can actually be beneficial; you can effectively cut the color and get some of the strongest signaling ever going. I've seen this work a couple times. Not too good if you overlap on two or more colors, but joint cutting green so every pack looks lackluster in green and no one drafts it, so that it all goes around again works surprisingly well.
Specialities about the cube: U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
IF it kills. IF, yes, in some cases where both creatures you kill are relevant to the game, Arc Trail can be better than Bolt. If not, it's worse.
And it's worse most of the time.
All creatures are relevant to the game. Any time you kill two creatures with Arc Trail, or kill the creature you would've bolted anyway and deal additional damage to the creature's controller, it's better than Bolt.
That's right. It CAN be.
But when a spell is better than another in only 10% of the situations, you should serioulsy ask yourself why you are playing it over the other spell.
It's better than Bolt far more than 10% of the time. Bolt is probably better than Arc Trail 10% of the time. The rest of the time, the split damage is relevant, which makes it better.
YES Arc Trail CAN be better than Bolt in some specific situations. But in most cases, Bolt is far superior.
In most cases, the Trail is far superior. It's the exception when I need/want to aim all 3 damage at the same target.
Pay attention to your Arc Lightning/Flames of the Firebrand splits too. I'd bet that at least 3/4 of the time it's played (probably more) it's split at 2/1 over the number of times it's played for 3-damage at a single target.
Everyone who thinks Arc Trail is better should seriously question his objectivity. It's not because it has been good in a few games than you remember than Bolt hasn't been way better in a lot of situations that you can't remember. Situations where Arc Trail would not have done the trick.
Everyone who thinks Bolt is better should record the amount of unused damage from their Bolts. Every time it kills a 1 or 2 toughness creature, you would've wanted a Trail instead. Every time there's multiple small targets, you would've wanted a Trail instead. I'd say the amount of time that Trail is the better spell is at least 2:1 over the bolt, if not much higher. It's about the simple math, really. Add up the number of 1 and 2-toughness targets in the cube, and compare it to the number of creatures with 3 toughness. The percentage of time that the Trail is more worthwhile will vastly outweigh the increase in the percentage of targets.
My main problem with Arc Trail is that it's really punishing to creature decks and weenie strategies which is just not where I want my cube to be. I want to reward people for playing small guys and setting up good curves and Arc Trail just felt like unnecessary hate. It's an amazing card, but for us it simply wasn't needed.
Really depends on what your green section needs. But I'm of the opinion that you can't have too many mana dorks, or ridiculously powerful two drops so I'd run Mayor and the Elf.
Wall of Blossoms > Troll Ascetic = Mayor > Arbor Elf
Arbor Elf is actually pretty good if you want to have a giant plethora of 1cc mana elves, so I guess it depends on what you're going for and cube size there.
I like Troll Ascetic more than Mayor, but they're pretty close. Again, depends on the cube and what you're going for. I think the troll is pretty undervalued though. He's no Thrun but he works so well with equipment/enchantments/counters it's dumb.
Of those green creatures, I like Vorapede the best. Vigilante is such a good role-player. I haven't cubed with Master and Vengevine is really good. At 500 cards, I cube with all of them but the Master.
It can't? 2-1ing people with Arc Trail > killing one creature. Is it always better? No. But it sure CAN be. Even killing one creature and doing 2 to the face is pretty good for 2 mana.
Legacy also has a MUCH faster fundamental turn, and you need the 3 damage instant to kill your opponent/creatures. One mana is also quite a lot in Legacy (think of how many lands are in play in a typical Legacy game compared to standard or even Modern), so both of those things combined make it much better in Legacy. Thing is, this isn't Legacy. You also need to keep in mind that keeping your threats alive/stunting your opponent's board development is a tempo play as well. Please see my above example of that when playing vs. green decks.
Actual recent play:
T1: Jackal Pup
t1: Elf
T2: Ash Zealot, attack for 4
t2: tap elf play Treespeaker, level up
T3: Arc trail your two guys, one-drop
Roof: gone.
Tempo: Obtained
I'm fine with drafting the same color next to someone if I always get the better cards!
-AA
I use descriptive language. Assume that I'm being nice and respectful. (I'll tell you when I'm not.)
My Cube: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/9029
What's unusual about cube is that it's so incredibly deep that two in a row can actually be beneficial; you can effectively cut the color and get some of the strongest signaling ever going. I've seen this work a couple times. Not too good if you overlap on two or more colors, but joint cutting green so every pack looks lackluster in green and no one drafts it, so that it all goes around again works surprisingly well.
450, Peasant*, unpowered**
Specialities about the cube:
U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
I'm leaning towards the elf and Mayor at this point, but I don't know. The other two have long history in my cube.
My cube
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I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
All creatures are relevant to the game. Any time you kill two creatures with Arc Trail, or kill the creature you would've bolted anyway and deal additional damage to the creature's controller, it's better than Bolt.
"All the time" as in "it's commonplace". As in "the majority of the time". Not as in every single time. That's not what I said.
It's better than Bolt far more than 10% of the time. Bolt is probably better than Arc Trail 10% of the time. The rest of the time, the split damage is relevant, which makes it better.
In most cases, the Trail is far superior. It's the exception when I need/want to aim all 3 damage at the same target.
Pay attention to your Arc Lightning/Flames of the Firebrand splits too. I'd bet that at least 3/4 of the time it's played (probably more) it's split at 2/1 over the number of times it's played for 3-damage at a single target.
Everyone who thinks Bolt is better should record the amount of unused damage from their Bolts. Every time it kills a 1 or 2 toughness creature, you would've wanted a Trail instead. Every time there's multiple small targets, you would've wanted a Trail instead. I'd say the amount of time that Trail is the better spell is at least 2:1 over the bolt, if not much higher. It's about the simple math, really. Add up the number of 1 and 2-toughness targets in the cube, and compare it to the number of creatures with 3 toughness. The percentage of time that the Trail is more worthwhile will vastly outweigh the increase in the percentage of targets.
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!
Pick two: Chain Lightning, Forked Bolt, Dead // Gone, Rift Bolt.
Right now, I have Chain Lightning and Dead // Gone.
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!
Is the instant speed really just not that relevant in a traditional cube?
Or the ability to always hit 1 drops that you dont want to see untap?
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Arbor Elf and Troll. The mana elves are critical to basically every green strategy; you can really never get enough of them.
Chain and Rift.
Sure. Those things are good. But nowhere near as good as killing two creatures or removing a blocker and burning your opponent.
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!
Wall of Blossoms = Arbor Elf > Mayor > Troll Ascetic
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!
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
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Pick 3
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I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
Arbor Elf is actually pretty good if you want to have a giant plethora of 1cc mana elves, so I guess it depends on what you're going for and cube size there.
I like Troll Ascetic more than Mayor, but they're pretty close. Again, depends on the cube and what you're going for. I think the troll is pretty undervalued though. He's no Thrun but he works so well with equipment/enchantments/counters it's dumb.
Blimpy's Aggro-Focused Cube (powered 360)
I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve my cube. Take a look and ask a question, or give a constructive critique whenever you can.
Both in every cube. Gun to my head, Treachery.
Of those green creatures, I like Vorapede the best. Vigilante is such a good role-player. I haven't cubed with Master and Vengevine is really good. At 500 cards, I cube with all of them but the Master.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
both as well
360 Uncommons only Cube!
It really depends on the rest of your suite, and what's available in the other CMCs if one of these were to be cut.
It's not the answer you're looking for, but both is the right one.
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!
Playgroup has been finding Bribery really unfun and thought I'd maybe sub in Treachery, or is that even worse?
Lyev Skynight or Azorius Guildmage?
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I would cut Vigilante since it is replaceable by many other green cards and the other three are all much more powerful and unique.
Treachery
Treachery and Skyknight