Torch of Defiance, it's a better overall card and I'm not sure you need Flamecaller in a 360. Side note: why do you have so few red 2s? Budget or choice or still acquiring? It seems like it's tough to draft the red aggressive deck and have something consistently to do on turn 2 that isn't burn, not always the worst but the deck almost seems like a trap. You might be trying to do too much with your red section at that size? Something to consider.
Dread Wanderer is so much better than Diregraf Ghoul, they're essentially the same card but one can recur itself and the other has an extra toughness. The extra toughness is not worth losing the recursion, especially when you have the other recursive 1s as they are better all together instead of in parts, and you run Carrion Feeder/Braids which works better with recursion.
Side note: why do you have so few red 2s? Budget or choice or still acquiring? It seems like it's tough to draft the red aggressive deck and have something consistently to do on turn 2 that isn't burn, not always the worst but the deck almost seems like a trap. You might be trying to do too much with your red section at that size? Something to consider.
Thanks, that's a good observation. I have Kari Zev coming in at the end of the year, which will help buff that section, but I should probably still look for another creature or two there. It is partially by choice. Last May, I cut Hellspark Elemental and Keldon Marauders to push Purphoros and slow the Red deck down slightly, as it felt about a turn too fast for what the other archetypes could reasonably handle. It is something I should keep an eye on though, and see if it needs adjusting the other way now.
Side note: why do you have so few red 2s? Budget or choice or still acquiring? It seems like it's tough to draft the red aggressive deck and have something consistently to do on turn 2 that isn't burn, not always the worst but the deck almost seems like a trap. You might be trying to do too much with your red section at that size? Something to consider.
Thanks, that's a good observation. I have Kari Zev coming in at the end of the year, which will help buff that section, but I should probably still look for another creature or two there. It is partially by choice. Last May, I cut Hellspark Elemental and Keldon Marauders to push Purphoros and slow the Red deck down slightly, as it felt about a turn too fast for what the other archetypes could reasonably handle. It is something I should keep an eye on though, and see if it needs adjusting the other way now.
I get that--it's kind of a hard thing to balance at 360 since you are often seeing a majority/all of the pool during each draft and if the red deck is constantly coming together too often and too easily it can make the format too fast in a bad way. But there are definitely cards in your burn section you could cut for a creature or two that can help lower your curve in the color that wants that the most without wildly warping your cube, like Searing Blood or Rift Bolt.
Does the Kiki package seemed forced at 360, or does it get drafted enough that it's worth keeping? The strength is definitely there, but I imagine there are a number of cards you'd happily run over pestermite, splinter twin, even kiki jiki if the combo wasn't around.
Does the Kiki package seemed forced at 360, or does it get drafted enough that it's worth keeping? The strength is definitely there, but I imagine there are a number of cards you'd happily run over pestermite, splinter twin, even kiki jiki if the combo wasn't around.
Yeah, I plan on cutting Pestermite once I add Combat Celebrant. That will move the combo out of UWR and into just WR with Kiki-Jiki, Twin, Resto Angel, Zealous Conscripts, Combat Celebrant, and Recruiter of the Guard as supporting pieces. With the exception of Twin, I feel like all of those are good enough by themselves to warrant inclusion. Pestermite's the only card that feels really bad outside of the combo. Of course, I don't plan on making that change until late 2019, which is quite a ways away.
Does the Kiki package seemed forced at 360, or does it get drafted enough that it's worth keeping? The strength is definitely there, but I imagine there are a number of cards you'd happily run over pestermite, splinter twin, even kiki jiki if the combo wasn't around.
Yeah, I plan on cutting Pestermite once I add Combat Celebrant. That will move the combo out of UWR and into just WR with Kiki-Jiki, Twin, Resto Angel, Zealous Conscripts, Combat Celebrant, and Recruiter of the Guard as supporting pieces. With the exception of Twin, I feel like all of those are good enough by themselves to warrant inclusion. Pestermite's the only card that feels really bad outside of the combo. Of course, I don't plan on making that change until late 2019, which is quite a ways away.
I don't mean to Barbara Walters you here, but do you wait for everything to rotate or is there a different reason to intentionally wait so long?
I don't mean to Barbara Walters you here, but do you wait for everything to rotate or is there a different reason to intentionally wait so long?
Yeah, I wait for rotation before adding cards. Sets like Commander and Unstable get added immediately, but Standard-legal sets I wait on. The reason for that can be found with my question on which Chandra. We only draft about once a month, and I only include one PW per color, so currently I run Chandra, Pyromaster, and planned to swap her with Flamecaller, who just rotated. But Torch will rotate at the end of the year, so I'd prefer not to acquire Flamecaller, draft with her 10 times or so, then swap her for Torch. I'm not sure if I'll always keep that philosophy, but its how I've been handling additions since building the cube, and I like it for now.
Beyond Dack (and prob charm) you could put a lot of cards in the 3rd slot and be happy. FWIW, we've like Dack's Duplicant a lot, it's a real back breaking play to have a hastey clone, especially if you have a big-mana-creature package and want to give UR decks additional play against it if they're not in sneak/show themselves.
I like Fetid Heath as there is still a good amount of BB/WW cards in those decks + Eldrazi Displacer finds itself there, but otherwise the filter lands have been enough worse than check lands that I'd run the checks before the filters.
If you play decks that need the C mana, filter lands are fine. I wouldn't run them over any of the better cycles (Dual/Fetch/Shock/Man/Pain/Fast) but they're a reasonable option over Checks/Temples/Etc if the colorless matters.
@stonecrowe: Dack Fayden is unquestionably the best Izzet card IMO, powered or unpowered. I'd pick Electrolyze and Izzet Charm next. Ral Zarek is solid, though. I wouldn't put Dack's Duplicate in over any of these cards. I urge you to consider Keranos, God of Storms as well.
@armondazuffi: I really think the Check lands are underrated. I'd run them ahead of the Filter lands, but it is close.
How many would you run in 360 unpowered? Which ones? I support reanimator, run other cards that want stuff in the graveyard (Eternal Witness, Grim Lavamancer, etc.), and I have all the blue staples that card about graveyards (Snapcaster, Dig, Azcanta, etc.)
How many would you run in 360 unpowered? I feel like I only have room for 2 of these. Leaning towards cutting Chalice. While it is flexible, it's never great. Basically a high floor, low ceiling card. And you really only ever cast it for 2 mana to ramp by 1 or 4 mana to ramp by 2. That's not really all that flexible. There are rare times where you can cast it for 0 and Tinker it or cast it for 6 and play Ulamog next turn.
I like the versatility of Soul-Scar Mage. It's a great answer to persist cards which people often forget. Not that it happens often, but it's a nice bonus.
I would add Sarkhan over Firestorm. I don't run Char, but it is solid. Not a fan of Through the Breach.
I am currently running Mage over the Goblin at 555, but I've thought recently about swapping the two out. If nothing else, Mage is near the top of the list of red ones to cut the next time we see a worthy one. Quite literally, I don't believe the -1/-1 counters ability has been relevant one time. YMMV, but I'm leaning toward preferring the potential 2/2 menace.
I don't know that I would lose Char. Firestorm is a card that I've tried running several times and have never been a fan of. It just can't find a home for us. How do you feel about Fire Imp? I'm no longer running it and I'm at a larger size than you. I realize its utility, but I often found it stranded in hand with either no targets or no useful targets. Playing a 2R 2/1 and pinging a 3/3 for two damage feels real bad. Compared to the double effect we get from FTK, it always just felt so underwhelming. These would probably be my two cuts if you want to make room for Sarkhan and Through the Breach.
Wanderer > Ghoul, but even in the smallest of cubes, "both" is the correct answer.
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Torch of Defiance, it's a better overall card and I'm not sure you need Flamecaller in a 360. Side note: why do you have so few red 2s? Budget or choice or still acquiring? It seems like it's tough to draft the red aggressive deck and have something consistently to do on turn 2 that isn't burn, not always the worst but the deck almost seems like a trap. You might be trying to do too much with your red section at that size? Something to consider.
Dread Wanderer is so much better than Diregraf Ghoul, they're essentially the same card but one can recur itself and the other has an extra toughness. The extra toughness is not worth losing the recursion, especially when you have the other recursive 1s as they are better all together instead of in parts, and you run Carrion Feeder/Braids which works better with recursion.
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Thanks, that's a good observation. I have Kari Zev coming in at the end of the year, which will help buff that section, but I should probably still look for another creature or two there. It is partially by choice. Last May, I cut Hellspark Elemental and Keldon Marauders to push Purphoros and slow the Red deck down slightly, as it felt about a turn too fast for what the other archetypes could reasonably handle. It is something I should keep an eye on though, and see if it needs adjusting the other way now.
[180 classic cube]
I get that--it's kind of a hard thing to balance at 360 since you are often seeing a majority/all of the pool during each draft and if the red deck is constantly coming together too often and too easily it can make the format too fast in a bad way. But there are definitely cards in your burn section you could cut for a creature or two that can help lower your curve in the color that wants that the most without wildly warping your cube, like Searing Blood or Rift Bolt.
Does the Kiki package seemed forced at 360, or does it get drafted enough that it's worth keeping? The strength is definitely there, but I imagine there are a number of cards you'd happily run over pestermite, splinter twin, even kiki jiki if the combo wasn't around.
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Yeah, I plan on cutting Pestermite once I add Combat Celebrant. That will move the combo out of UWR and into just WR with Kiki-Jiki, Twin, Resto Angel, Zealous Conscripts, Combat Celebrant, and Recruiter of the Guard as supporting pieces. With the exception of Twin, I feel like all of those are good enough by themselves to warrant inclusion. Pestermite's the only card that feels really bad outside of the combo. Of course, I don't plan on making that change until late 2019, which is quite a ways away.
[180 classic cube]
I don't mean to Barbara Walters you here, but do you wait for everything to rotate or is there a different reason to intentionally wait so long?
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Yeah, I wait for rotation before adding cards. Sets like Commander and Unstable get added immediately, but Standard-legal sets I wait on. The reason for that can be found with my question on which Chandra. We only draft about once a month, and I only include one PW per color, so currently I run Chandra, Pyromaster, and planned to swap her with Flamecaller, who just rotated. But Torch will rotate at the end of the year, so I'd prefer not to acquire Flamecaller, draft with her 10 times or so, then swap her for Torch. I'm not sure if I'll always keep that philosophy, but its how I've been handling additions since building the cube, and I like it for now.
Edit: Stormblood Beserker has been added
[180 classic cube]
Obviously Dack stays, but I'm unsure about the rest.
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Cheers,
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1 - Check Lands vs Filter Lands ?
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@armondazuffi: I really think the Check lands are underrated. I'd run them ahead of the Filter lands, but it is close.
Rank Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Looter Il-Kor, Enclave Cryptologist.
How many would you run in 360 unpowered? Which ones? I support reanimator, run other cards that want stuff in the graveyard (Eternal Witness, Grim Lavamancer, etc.), and I have all the blue staples that card about graveyards (Snapcaster, Dig, Azcanta, etc.)
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Totally agree.
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Yup. Agreed here too.
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How many would you run in 360 unpowered? I feel like I only have room for 2 of these. Leaning towards cutting Chalice. While it is flexible, it's never great. Basically a high floor, low ceiling card. And you really only ever cast it for 2 mana to ramp by 1 or 4 mana to ramp by 2. That's not really all that flexible. There are rare times where you can cast it for 0 and Tinker it or cast it for 6 and play Ulamog next turn.
Dynamo > Chalice > Archive
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Soul-Scar Mage vs. Goblin Glory Chaser
Thinking of adding Through the Breach and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker back in but am struggling for cuts. OK to lose Char and the worst aggro 1-drop? What about Firestorm?
Edit: Keldon Marauders and Release the Gremlins are already on the way out for Harsh Mentor and Abbot of Keral Keep
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I would add Sarkhan over Firestorm. I don't run Char, but it is solid. Not a fan of Through the Breach.
I am currently running Mage over the Goblin at 555, but I've thought recently about swapping the two out. If nothing else, Mage is near the top of the list of red ones to cut the next time we see a worthy one. Quite literally, I don't believe the -1/-1 counters ability has been relevant one time. YMMV, but I'm leaning toward preferring the potential 2/2 menace.
I don't know that I would lose Char. Firestorm is a card that I've tried running several times and have never been a fan of. It just can't find a home for us. How do you feel about Fire Imp? I'm no longer running it and I'm at a larger size than you. I realize its utility, but I often found it stranded in hand with either no targets or no useful targets. Playing a 2R 2/1 and pinging a 3/3 for two damage feels real bad. Compared to the double effect we get from FTK, it always just felt so underwhelming. These would probably be my two cuts if you want to make room for Sarkhan and Through the Breach.
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