As of now, I run Abrupt Decay and Pernicious Deed, but not Maelstrom Pulse. I decided that I wanted to diversify a little, so when I was making a cut, I left Vraska, Relic Seeker and cut Pulse over Decay. I think the uncounterable+instant is relevant often enough to be the better card.
It's okay, but no higher than 4th on my list. I think Deed is leagues better than every other card in the guild. Followed by Pulse and Decay. There are times where Shaman feels great. But in this format, it runs into consistency issues it doesn't face anywhere else it sees play. Overall performance is good enough for inclusion in lists w/ 4+ guild slots available, but I don't think it remotely competes w/ the top 3 cards in the guild.
Deathrite Shaman is pretty unplayable in 720 unless you run double fetches. I agree that Pernicious Deed is much worse today than it was before, it is slow nowadays. I also think Pulse and Decay are better than Deed. That said, I understand running Deed over one of them in a very small multicolored section for variety.
Meren has been consistently good and I rate her as the 4th best Golgari card in my cube.
With the quality of token producers going up, the quantity of manlands going up snd the concentration of moxes and other fast mana so much higher in a small cube, Pernicious Deed has never been better. And building around the effect by being able to play more 'walkers alongside it has increased the number of decks that can can break its symmetry. It's the best card in the guild, and by a pretty big margin, IMHO.
I like DRS in any deck where I want "Bt: Exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard. Each opponent loses 2 life."
If I can make the other two abilities work, that's great, but mostly just will play it if it can provide reach. When I ran 3 cards per guild, it was DRS, Pulse, and Deed. When I went down to 2 cards, I cut Deed, but wtwlf's sold me, I'm going to have to test replacing DRS with Deed.
Like many cube discussions, this one is cube dependent. Personally, I don't run many manlands and I'm unpowered, so Pernicious Deed isn't quite as good. I do like the build around nature of Pernicious Deed, although I don't run it in my cube. In a vacuum, I feel like Abrupt Decay is the best Golgari card FWIW. There's certainly nothing wrong with saying Deed is the best. I think Deed, Decay, and Pulse are all legitimate picks for the best card in the guild.
There are 27 enchantments overall. She's the only payoff for enchantments, mostly because I don't think there are any other payoffs good enough to include (let me know if you think I've overlooked something). It'd be nice to make this an archetype without watering anything down, but I'm not sure that's possible.
I try to make my cube as powerful as possible without anything being busted. I suppose she's the "this" in the discussion. The "that" would be some random green card that should be in my cube that you notice is missing. The obvious omission is Thragtusk and I'll probably re-add it if I cut Argothian Enchantress.
I think 27 enchantments is probably too low to make her worth it. I think you'd have to be pretty all in on an enchantment subtheme to make her good enough.
I think 27 enchantments is probably too low to make her worth it. I think you'd have to be pretty all in on an enchantment subtheme to make her good enough.
How do you think she compares to Stoneforge Mystic? That card is generally regarded as a strong inclusion for smaller cubes since the equipment density is higher, but most cubes run less than 10 equipment anyway. That means the Mystic has at most a third of the amount of synergistic cards as the Enchantress (at 27 enchantments). It's salient to note that the Mystic can go in a deck with any of the classic equipment, whereas the Enchantress doesn't jive well with Necropotence for example. Also, the Mystic gets you a card right away and can save you one mana (or three mana with Batterskull). The Mystic can only get you one card, though. The Enchantress has more upside. It has a lower floor, but I think building around it is easy enough.
How many enchantments (excluding ones that would not often be included in the same deck as Argothian Enchantress) do you think is appropriate at 360 cards?
It's so much worse. SFM is a tutor, so you really only need 1 good equipment at min, whereas Enchantress would be bad in a deck with even only 3-4 enchantments.
On top of that, how many enchantments are there really for each two color combination? Assuming GW has the most naturally, how many of those do I need to make enchantress consistent? All of them?
Upside is relative too. How am I going off with enchantress? Am I just drawing 1 off my o-rings and coursers and etc? Is that better than the upside of having the option between Jitte/Batterskull/Clamp/Sword/whatever in a deck?
Enchantress is a good constructed card, but it seems really bad in cube for now.
I'd need to draw at least 2-3 cards off Enchantress to make me want to play it in a deck. I might need ~10 enchantments in the same deck as Enchantress to have a reasonable chance of playing drawing 2+ of them in the same game. Seems wildly unreliable.
I'd want more than one "payoff" card to warp my drafting/deckbuilding decisions so heavily around a single theme. I think an enchantment subtheme can be quite powerful, and Argothian Enchantress can be one of the best cards in that deck. But I don't think it's a card that will be successful on its own.
I went deep on an enchantress theme for a bit, one of the amusing win cons was Heliod, God of the Sun combined with Serra's Sanctum and a few enchantments already kicking about. It was GWb with Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, Eidolon of Blossoms, Sigil of the Empty Throne (this one felt terrible), Opalescence, enchantment-based ramp in green, enchantment-based removal in white, Master of the Feast, Herald of Torment and Doomwake Giant in black. The the full cycle of Theros gods (was already running Thassa and Purphoros) and the cycle of Honden, oh and Form of the Dragon.
It was very daft but actually won a draft when the other decks were fair and no aggro. Honden of Infinite Rage becomes pretty scary once you have a 2nd or 3rd shrine in play. It was just hard to interact with all the enchantments and removal while they drew cards. A big issue is how linear it is, and if you miss on some of the win-cons your deck is unplayable as I found out once. Pretty fun deck to play though.
Yeah, if I get my hands on a copy of Imperial Recruiter, it would never leave my cube, 360 or higher. Recruiter of the guard is nutso and this is either just as good or slightly worse IN RED. Yes please.
Guttersnipe. In burny decks it can win you games turns ago without looking like a threat. It either throws out a lot of damage or just dies. Sin Prodder's good by itself, it maybe gets in for 3, maybe draws a card, maybe bolts them. But with support, Guttersnipe has a much higher ceiling.
It's def a good card, can't forget how splashable it is too since it's great in any deck with targets. Also it's pretty much a requirement for playing the kiki package IMO.
Have we asked the Ral Zarek vs. Dack Fayden question in a while? I'd sure like to add more discard support, and my next question is also quite relevant...
I'm trying really hard to add a couple swords to my 410 cube. I'm super hesitant of the color protection. Which do you think is the better color balancing move?
1) Running Fire & Ice, Body & Mind, and Light & Shadow. This doubles protection on blue, the color probably affected the least by protection. (Not many targeting spells, less creatures on average)
1) Running just Fire & Ice and Light & Shadow. This leaves green as the only un-protected color.
Slight advantage to a color, or slight disadvantage to a color? What would you do?
Dack Fayden is so much better than Ral Zarek that there hasn't been much discussion since Dack became an option. The question is whether or not to run both. There is no debate about which one is better.
I run all 5 swords in my 405 card cube, and have no issues with the protection. If your playgroup is adverse to protections, ask them what they're more comfortable with.
Dack is in a whole different league than Ral Zarek. I am not a fan of Ral but I cannot see him leaving my cube anytime soon as Izzet is so shallow.
I'd start by adding less swords, probably only sword of fire and ice. See if your playgroup likes playing with and against it. If you add 3 swords, you'd see a sword in almost every matchup and have a higher chance of having one deck with two swords. The protection imbalance is negligible. SoFaI will not have a noticeable impact on the viability of U/R as an archetype. BTW, Dack is a great answer to SoFaI.
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Meren has been consistently good and I rate her as the 4th best Golgari card in my cube.
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If I can make the other two abilities work, that's great, but mostly just will play it if it can provide reach. When I ran 3 cards per guild, it was DRS, Pulse, and Deed. When I went down to 2 cards, I cut Deed, but wtwlf's sold me, I'm going to have to test replacing DRS with Deed.
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There are 27 enchantments overall. She's the only payoff for enchantments, mostly because I don't think there are any other payoffs good enough to include (let me know if you think I've overlooked something). It'd be nice to make this an archetype without watering anything down, but I'm not sure that's possible.
I try to make my cube as powerful as possible without anything being busted. I suppose she's the "this" in the discussion. The "that" would be some random green card that should be in my cube that you notice is missing. The obvious omission is Thragtusk and I'll probably re-add it if I cut Argothian Enchantress.
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How do you think she compares to Stoneforge Mystic? That card is generally regarded as a strong inclusion for smaller cubes since the equipment density is higher, but most cubes run less than 10 equipment anyway. That means the Mystic has at most a third of the amount of synergistic cards as the Enchantress (at 27 enchantments). It's salient to note that the Mystic can go in a deck with any of the classic equipment, whereas the Enchantress doesn't jive well with Necropotence for example. Also, the Mystic gets you a card right away and can save you one mana (or three mana with Batterskull). The Mystic can only get you one card, though. The Enchantress has more upside. It has a lower floor, but I think building around it is easy enough.
How many enchantments (excluding ones that would not often be included in the same deck as Argothian Enchantress) do you think is appropriate at 360 cards?
On top of that, how many enchantments are there really for each two color combination? Assuming GW has the most naturally, how many of those do I need to make enchantress consistent? All of them?
Upside is relative too. How am I going off with enchantress? Am I just drawing 1 off my o-rings and coursers and etc? Is that better than the upside of having the option between Jitte/Batterskull/Clamp/Sword/whatever in a deck?
Enchantress is a good constructed card, but it seems really bad in cube for now.
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I'd want more than one "payoff" card to warp my drafting/deckbuilding decisions so heavily around a single theme. I think an enchantment subtheme can be quite powerful, and Argothian Enchantress can be one of the best cards in that deck. But I don't think it's a card that will be successful on its own.
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It was very daft but actually won a draft when the other decks were fair and no aggro. Honden of Infinite Rage becomes pretty scary once you have a 2nd or 3rd shrine in play. It was just hard to interact with all the enchantments and removal while they drew cards. A big issue is how linear it is, and if you miss on some of the win-cons your deck is unplayable as I found out once. Pretty fun deck to play though.
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guttersnipe vs sin prodder? maybe it matters that recruiter can find me my guttersnipe?
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Guttersnipe. In burny decks it can win you games turns ago without looking like a threat. It either throws out a lot of damage or just dies. Sin Prodder's good by itself, it maybe gets in for 3, maybe draws a card, maybe bolts them. But with support, Guttersnipe has a much higher ceiling.
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I'm trying really hard to add a couple swords to my 410 cube. I'm super hesitant of the color protection. Which do you think is the better color balancing move?
1) Running Fire & Ice, Body & Mind, and Light & Shadow. This doubles protection on blue, the color probably affected the least by protection. (Not many targeting spells, less creatures on average)
1) Running just Fire & Ice and Light & Shadow. This leaves green as the only un-protected color.
Slight advantage to a color, or slight disadvantage to a color? What would you do?
This is still the best place for high-power-level cube chat & debate.
Here's to many more years at MTGS *clink*
I run all 5 swords in my 405 card cube, and have no issues with the protection. If your playgroup is adverse to protections, ask them what they're more comfortable with.
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I'd start by adding less swords, probably only sword of fire and ice. See if your playgroup likes playing with and against it. If you add 3 swords, you'd see a sword in almost every matchup and have a higher chance of having one deck with two swords. The protection imbalance is negligible. SoFaI will not have a noticeable impact on the viability of U/R as an archetype. BTW, Dack is a great answer to SoFaI.
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