If you draft a deck where the mana base only works if you draw the Lantern, the deck is probably pretty bad in all the games where you don't draw the Lantern. That means the Lantern alone cannot be the reason to play all the colors.
I play Pristine Talisman over Chromatic Lantern. The life gain really adds up and can help win close games. If the color fixing is relevant, I'd play Darksteel Ingot in my Cube. I don't have the very color heavy bomb spells like Cruel Ultimatum, which is where the fixing Lantern provides actually becomes much more relevant than the fixing the Ingot provides. So I think Lantern and Ingot do very similar things for decks in my Cube, but the Ingot would have some nice interactions (especially with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas).
If you draft a deck where the mana base only works if you draw the Lantern, the deck is probably pretty bad in all the games where you don't draw the Lantern. That means the Lantern alone cannot be the reason to play all the colors.
Thank you!
This is the problem with many build-around cards in cube. Drafting one Coalition Relic does not make you bad 5CC deck suddenly playable. Of course, if your deck can function without it then it's a good addition in that archetype. But it isn't a magical cure-all for a manabase in any given deck.
Encourages poor draft strategy? I really don't like the design of the card.
I think it encourages really inventive drafting strategy. Thanks mostly to fetches and duals, we have an environment where you can fairly quickly get to a point where a splash (or two) is feasible, and cards like Lantern can help that.
Let's not pretend like this card, or really any card in cube is a panacea for mana issues. I can't draft Chromatic Lantern in my UG deck, and just throw in Vindicate. What actually tends to happen is you have a Bird, a Lotus Cobra, a UW fetch, a GB dual, and then grab Lantern and start weighing the pros and cons of running Vindicate.
- How often will I not be able to cast it?
- What problems does it solve that I can't solve in color(s)?
- Does this open my deck up to mana denial?
- What matchups does this help/hurt?
- Are there other cards I should splash or look for as the draft continues?
- Should I start playing one of my splash colors and splashing one of my main colors?
I find those questions to be fascinating, and not at all poor draft strategy. The only thing that would make those questions irrelevant would be if A) splashing was impossible, or B) splashing was way too easy. If you are having either of these problems in a mid sized cube, I think that the manabase is the issue, not Lantern. If you are not having either of those issues, then Lantern makes for a more interesting draft and deck landscape.
Perhaps Lantern is the best mana rock I'm not running...
I certainly don't mean to oversell it. I don't think it is 360 powered material. I simply think the card has an open ended nature to it that allows for a lot of interesting choices.
I certainly don't mean to oversell it. I don't think it is 360 powered material. I simply think the card has an open ended nature to it that allows for a lot of interesting choices.
Haha nope I don't think you are... I think I'm already running all the "staple" mana rocks it's just I still find that I am one or two short. Problem is EVERYONE around here wants (read: loves) mana rocks. I really want certain decks (Artifact and Wildfire especially) to come together more often and I think a mana rock or two would really help the cause.
If you draft a deck where the mana base only works if you draw the Lantern, the deck is probably pretty bad in all the games where you don't draw the Lantern. That means the Lantern alone cannot be the reason to play all the colors.
Thats not the part I didn't get, its the thinking that you can draft around the lantern and expect to have it every game that baffles me.
Temple Garden is a good card and I would not cut any fetchland or dual land with basic land types from a 360 Cube.
That said, Horizon Canopy is an amazing card as well and should absolutely be played. It plays more like a hybrid card than a true fixing land (it is that as well, of course) in that even white decks without green and green decks without white make use of. If you have a section where anything goes, Horizon Canopy is a good include there.
Horizon Canopy is going to be a nice addition to your RG deck, but you you would not include a Temple Garden in that deck unless you have an Arid Mesa and even then you are running a high chance that the card is going to be worse than a basic.
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Encourages poor draft strategy? I really don't like the design of the card.
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!
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I play Pristine Talisman over Chromatic Lantern. The life gain really adds up and can help win close games. If the color fixing is relevant, I'd play Darksteel Ingot in my Cube. I don't have the very color heavy bomb spells like Cruel Ultimatum, which is where the fixing Lantern provides actually becomes much more relevant than the fixing the Ingot provides. So I think Lantern and Ingot do very similar things for decks in my Cube, but the Ingot would have some nice interactions (especially with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas).
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
Thank you!
This is the problem with many build-around cards in cube. Drafting one Coalition Relic does not make you bad 5CC deck suddenly playable. Of course, if your deck can function without it then it's a good addition in that archetype. But it isn't a magical cure-all for a manabase in any given deck.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I think it encourages really inventive drafting strategy. Thanks mostly to fetches and duals, we have an environment where you can fairly quickly get to a point where a splash (or two) is feasible, and cards like Lantern can help that.
Let's not pretend like this card, or really any card in cube is a panacea for mana issues. I can't draft Chromatic Lantern in my UG deck, and just throw in Vindicate. What actually tends to happen is you have a Bird, a Lotus Cobra, a UW fetch, a GB dual, and then grab Lantern and start weighing the pros and cons of running Vindicate.
- How often will I not be able to cast it?
- What problems does it solve that I can't solve in color(s)?
- Does this open my deck up to mana denial?
- What matchups does this help/hurt?
- Are there other cards I should splash or look for as the draft continues?
- Should I start playing one of my splash colors and splashing one of my main colors?
I find those questions to be fascinating, and not at all poor draft strategy. The only thing that would make those questions irrelevant would be if A) splashing was impossible, or B) splashing was way too easy. If you are having either of these problems in a mid sized cube, I think that the manabase is the issue, not Lantern. If you are not having either of those issues, then Lantern makes for a more interesting draft and deck landscape.
I certainly don't mean to oversell it. I don't think it is 360 powered material. I simply think the card has an open ended nature to it that allows for a lot of interesting choices.
Haha nope I don't think you are... I think I'm already running all the "staple" mana rocks it's just I still find that I am one or two short. Problem is EVERYONE around here wants (read: loves) mana rocks. I really want certain decks (Artifact and Wildfire especially) to come together more often and I think a mana rock or two would really help the cause.
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!
Would you say it's better than an Izzet Signet for Wildfire and Artifact decks?
Stirring Wildwood vs Horizon Canopy
I recently swapped Wildwood for Canopy, to add value to Crucible of Worlds.
Cloudgoat Ranger, or Geist-Honored Monk?
and
Reveillark, or Karmic Guide?
Thats not the part I didn't get, its the thinking that you can draft around the lantern and expect to have it every game that baffles me.
Cloudgoat Ranger.
Reveillark, but I'd run both Guide and 'lark at 450 cards and larger cubes.
Cheers,
rant
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Canopy > Wildwood.
Cloudgoat > Monk.
Reveillark > Guide.
My 630 Card Powered 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.
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Yeah, let's not start cutting fetchable duals, especially when they can be grabbed by Eternal Dragon.
That said, Horizon Canopy is an amazing card as well and should absolutely be played. It plays more like a hybrid card than a true fixing land (it is that as well, of course) in that even white decks without green and green decks without white make use of. If you have a section where anything goes, Horizon Canopy is a good include there.
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
-AA
I use descriptive language. Assume that I'm being nice and respectful. (I'll tell you when I'm not.)
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Captain, I think.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
Unless you are splashing white, that is.
-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