I've seen a lot of references scattered through some SCD threads regarding the Fires Archetype, but no MCD. If one does exist could one of the mods merge this in with that please?
So as I understand it the purpose would be to ramp into creatures with haste (generally provided by another card). Generally this is a RG mechanic by that nature.
Below are a list of the cards I've seen talked about as enablers
I'm curious to hear what people have to say about this. Currently the main archetype supported by my cube in these colors is wildfire, however this is rather unpopular here for 2 reasons: 1) in a 720 cube there just are not enough wildfires to make a deck with consistently and 2) people end up drafting wildfire as a card to fit in their deck rather then as a build around card and it sits in sideboards (although is some 2HG games it has been super fun).
I like what I see here with Fires because it looks to have a critical mass of cards so a 720 cube can support it, and even if you don't get enough cards to completely focus your deck around it you can still get value out of those cards (maybe not all the time but at least some).
What are people's thoughts? are there other cards which would directly work in these decks that would not already be there?
I would like to see a true Fires archetype work in the cube, because I love the deck. I'm wondering how many affordable global haste effects I'd need to provide in the cube to have it work out well in the cube.
With 3 in a deck:
I have a ~54% chance of having one by T3, and a ~59% chance of having one by T4.
With 4 in a deck:
I have a ~66% chance of having one by T3, and a ~70% chance of having one by T4.
And that's not a chance of casting one ...only simply having one.
I don't think I'd be able to have a reasonable chance of putting a reliable fires deck together in my cube unless my cube was smaller or we always had a full table.
I'd need eight 3-4cc effects in my 450 cube to have a ~64% chance of having the 4 effects I need to show up in a 6-man draft. Since there's only seven of the effects I'd actually consider playing, and we occasionally do 4-man drafts, I only have a ~29% chance of making the deck work (and it would still be relatively inconsistent even when it comes together).
Fires is definitely a RG archetype: Green provides the ramp and the beatsticks while red provides the haste and reach/removal. It's basically a ramp deck swapping out the turn 2/3 ramp (Rofellos, Cultivate, Grim Monolith) and replacing it with haste enablers. We've seen this deck built with a splash of black or a splash of white for the tutors. We've also seen red being splashed in a GW mid-range deck just for Fires and Sarkhan Vol. Here are the pieces of the Fires archetype:
Ramp - You want ramp that comes down on the first turn (green 1-drop mana dorks, abu/diamond/chrome mox). The reason being is you want to drop your haste enablers by second turn (or first turn for the 2-drop ones) if you drew it in your opening hand.
Enabler - The goal of this piece is to give your already efficiently costed creatures even more value by giving them haste. Being able to apply damage before the Wrath hits has been extremely valuable against control.
I include Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots because they have the added bonus of protecting your fatty from sorcery speed removal and control magic type effects, shoring up another one of the biggest weaknesses of mid-range decks.
I don't really like creature based ramp because they're easier to kill. I do understand though that having a body is great, also being able to deal damage. I don't like Crossroads or Hysteria because they also speed up your opponent and it's just horrid in the mirror match. I also don't like cards that do nothing else but give your creatures haste. Having the threat of being able to pump in order to save your own creature from removal/damage, or to deal the fatal blow (Fires of Yavimaya) has been very relevant.
Finishers - Here you want something with high power and some sort of evasion (Trample works best :D). Guys like Kalonian Hydra, Wolfir Silverheart, Deranged Hermit and Siege-Gang get A TON of value from getting haste and can end the game right on the spot. Natural Order has been bananas!
Consistency
I don't know what the math is regarding how many of each piece you need, but when we used to play this in Standard everyone had 8 mana dorks (4 Birds, 4 Elves) and 4 enablers (4 Fires of Yavimaya) in a 60 card deck. Simple math says you need 5-6 pieces of first turn ramp and 3 enablers to match the same ratios in a 40 card deck. Personally I would want 4 enablers when drafting this deck.
I currently have 6 enablers in our cube so I would think you want around 12 in a 720. I really wouldn't want to include Crossroads or Hysteria just to make it work in bigger lists though perhaps some of the creature options are acceptable. I believe with the printing of Elvish Mystic and Hammer of Purphoros (and to an extent, Kalonian Hydra) we have hit critical mass for smaller lists. It was Kalonian Hydra that got me into this archetype in the first place.
The Fires archetype has been amazing for us. Not only has it been winning games (probably the most successful mid-range deck we have versus control) it's also a lot of fun to play :nod:.
Pretty cool. In my GR midrange decks, I had always dedicated the non ramp/fattie/pump/burn slots to utility spells and creatures. Do these decks have to skip those?
Pretty cool. In my GR midrange decks, I had always dedicated the non ramp/fattie/pump/burn slots to utility spells and creatures. Do these decks have to skip those?
I'd definitely still draft utility creatures when drafting Fires. Still gotta kill those Moats and Swords and silly Winter Orbs.
How would One rank the enablers? Are fires and boots really good enough?
I understand that Fires is a stretch for Gruul. I'm lucky to have a flex spot I can just throw it into (I wouldn't touch my Gruul section to include Fires). Having said that if I were to eliminate my 5 flex spots I would still include Fires... by putting it into green. It's green that wants it really. Red decks wouldn't splash green for Fires. It's green decks that are splashing red for Fires.
It's difficult ranking the enablers card vs card (that is to say, it's hard to rank Lightning Greaves to Lightning Mauler or to Sarkhan Vol since they're all in different spots in the cube). This is how I would rank the ones we run based on how important they are specifically to the 'Fires' archetype that we've been building:
1. Lightning Greaves - Almost always these guys are just as good as Fires in terms of giving all your creatures haste (just keep equipping the new beatstick). The drawback is that it doesn't work well with armies in a can. However, the upside is huge: avoiding control magic and sorcery speed removal has literally decided games. Lightning Greaves is a phenomenal card in any mid-range deck (after playing with it again I'd say it's a 360 staple) and the haste makes it fantastic in this archetype.
2. Hammer of Purphoros - I rank this highly because it gives all your creatures haste and it comes down on curve (assuming you got a mana dork). However, I'd like to say that he mana cost for this is actually more restrictive than Fires. Yeah it's just one colour but this deck (and ramp decks in general) tend to be more green (you're more likely to have GG than RR on turn 3). I'm ranking this #2 still because the ability to bring in 3/3 hasty beats is just ridiculous in this deck.
3. Fires of Yavimaya - I rank this highly because it gives all your creatures haste and it comes down "on curve" (assuming you got the mana dork). Being an enchantment it also ducks under a lot of removal which ensures you're playing your game plan every turn after. And yes the +2/+2 does make a big difference.
4. Sarkhan Vol - The only thing holding this guy back is his casting cost. The Fires deck is just so much more explosive when you get haste by turn 3. He's outstanding in every other department though. Perhaps time will tell with this one... I can certainly see him moving up and being more valuable in different matchups (just need to play with this archetype more).
5. Swiftfoot Boots - Having to pay 1 actually does make a huge difference (unless you have two mana dorks it nasty).
6. Lightning Mauler - Get's to business right away and applies damage himself. Problem is he comes with a body and he's susceptible to getting killed. Definitely moving up the ranks in my 2-drops who eat the most removal list.
Out of those six cards, I would say that Sarkhan, Lightning Mauler and Greaves are safe in my 360 without any attempt to support the archetype. I'm not a great fan of the Swiftfoot Boots, but the Hammer is certainly something I'm pretty keen to test. It's better and fewer colours than Fires of Yavimaya. That's pretty cool. Just throwing a few of these cards in a midrange deck is sure to be entertaining, and crucially none are dead cards without the other bits.
I haven't considered adding Reckless Charge back in since I've added in Young Pyromancer. Maybe that and Guttersnipe should get considered in my next update...
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It's easily castable off of elves (only a single red in the cost), and it can get in an extra 2 points of damage if the board is clear when you cast him (if not, you cast him in the post-combat main). The "must attack" drawback, while not negligible, hasn't been an issue for us — as the fires deck, your creatures tend to be the biggest things in play anyway.
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I'm more or less thinking this is a necessity given the cards like Oko, Teferi and the relentless wave of unconditional white removal based removal spells.
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It's a good thread to reopen. Since it just came out I have to mention Invigorating Hot Spring as a great addition to this archetype. There have been a few nice targets to grant haste since 2013 (!) like Elder Gargaroth.
Also, even though I don't have a Fires archetype, I've brought back Anger to great effect since around a year ago. Getting a card in the graveyard is laughably easy in most decks. There are so many cards that allow you to pitch something, and getting a free enchantment-removal-proof Fervor and offsetting the card disadvantage is awesome.
I'm more or less thinking this is a necessity given the cards like Oko, Teferi and the relentless wave of unconditional white removal based removal spells.
Most of those cards are weak and/or not real fires, but I think this is a great time to reopen this discussion because of RabbitB Battery and Invigorating hot springs.
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It's a good thread to reopen. Since it just came out I have to mention Invigorating Hot Spring as a great addition to this archetype. There have been a few nice targets to grant haste since 2013 (!) like Elder Gargaroth.
Also, even though I don't have a Fires archetype, I've brought back Anger to great effect since around a year ago. Getting a card in the graveyard is laughably easy in most decks. There are so many cards that allow you to pitch something, and getting a free enchantment-removal-proof Fervor and offsetting the card disadvantage is awesome.
I'm actually so curious about this, has Anger been that good? I suppose a Fervor that costs 0 mana that you get to madness for value is like mana advantage and card advantage. What decks and color combos does it see play in? And do you think it would scale well to smaller and faster cubes?
My favorite of the newer Fires variants is definitely Samut, Tyrant Smasher. She's pretty similar to Sarkhan Vol on the face, and she appears less versatile. But that's deceptive, and hybrid mana makes a world of difference.
Unlike almost every other haste enabler, this plays in mono-green, where you find all the mana dorks and fatties. Sarkhan (and fires of yavimaya for that matter) shine in exactly RG, where Samut also shines in a UG tempo deck, or a BR reanimator deck. It's difficult to put in proportion just how much better 2(R/G)(R/G) is than 2RG in limited. Frankly she'd be pretty good if she just cost 2GG.
Not to mention the scry engine in colors that desperately need it. That has saved me many times.
I've been very impressed with her, and she's my favorite Red/Green planeswalker as well as favorite fires variant. Although she doesn't hold a candle to Lightning Greaves.
It's a good thread to reopen. Since it just came out I have to mention Invigorating Hot Spring as a great addition to this archetype. There have been a few nice targets to grant haste since 2013 (!) like Elder Gargaroth.
Also, even though I don't have a Fires archetype, I've brought back Anger to great effect since around a year ago. Getting a card in the graveyard is laughably easy in most decks. There are so many cards that allow you to pitch something, and getting a free enchantment-removal-proof Fervor and offsetting the card disadvantage is awesome.
I'm actually so curious about this, has Anger been that good? I suppose a Fervor that costs 0 mana that you get to madness for value is like mana advantage and card advantage. What decks and color combos does it see play in? And do you think it would scale well to smaller and faster cubes?
Anger (and to an extent its cycle fellows Genesis, Brawn, Glory and Wonder, which all saw some play in cubes*) used to be a staple, maybe 6-8 years ago, before better creatures and discard outlets were widely available. But also the big creatures available were less worth giving haste, being generally of much lower power level, and it was also tougher to actually get Fires into the graveyard. I have a lot of newer discard outlets as reanimator support and thought to try adding it again, and it's been pretty fun. I'll try to make space in any R/x deck running more than a couple discard outlets/filterers/looters, including midrange decks, reanimator decks and the Goblin Welder/Daretti/Tinker decks with Wurmcoil/Trip Titan payoffs. It also is a slightly better top-deck than traditional Fires effects since you can play it as a hasty bear in a pinch if you just need a body post-Wrath, which is the main issue with many of those cards.
*I wish the black entry to the cycle, Filth, was better. It's probably the worst one.
Of the cards you listed, I really like Bloodsoaked Champion (floor is absolutely fine, and it's easy to recur) and quite like Kroxa (far from a staple, but good value and creates an interesting Delve mini-game in the graveyard).
With some more playtesting and theorycrafting, some more thoughts here for Fires aficionados.
I'm thinking that you want your enablers to be 0-2 mana for these decks. You need to be aggressive with your 3-4-5 drops being bombs, to recoup the mana and card value of your enabler. Costing 2 is OK if your haste-granting is free - Lightning Greaves, and I'm going to suggest Crashing Drawbridge here as well, which is a good blocker early-on in relevant matchups, and grants haste for free even for army-in-a-can effects. Anger continues to be the best enabler IMO, since it's 'free' in every sense and adds value to discard/filtering/connive effects.
I think the four mana haste walkers (Sarkhan Vol, Samut, Tyrant Smasher, Zariel, Archduke of Avernus) are on the side of too slow at this point, especially since they are only giving haste plus a small stat buff. Honorable mention to Samut however for being Hybrid and giving haste as a static effect alongside a Samut's Sprint per turn and filtering.
I've also turned a little off of the Gruul enablers (Invigorating Hot Spring, Rhythm of the Wild, of course Fires of Yavimaya itself, although it's by far the worst of the three). Firstly, as mentioned 3 mana is where we can start thinking about some threats, though they are OK turn 2 off an Elf/Mox. Secondly, these are in a really competitive guild with amazing options that also play into the archetype (Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, Dragonlord Atarka etc) and space is limited. Thirdly, they lock you into both red and green which are the colours that have some native hasty creatures like Questing Beast, Thundermaw Hellkite. You can gain a lot of value by sliding into white or black. The problem is a bit of a lack of mono-colour enablers. I'm planning to look again at Mass Hysteria and Concordant Crossroads, and taking a very aggressive midrange approach to these decks.
What I would like to see for this archetype:
1) More cheap global haste enablers. Maybe a black one, trading life for haste? This would be sweet
2) Creatures with high reward tied to attacking, to diversify from ETB effects everywhere
3) Effects with decent added value at 3 mana like Hot Spring, but not in R/G. A 1RR walker with a +Haste seems eminently printable
- I think Crashing Drawbridge can be an excellent Lightning Greaves backup. A 0/4 Artifact in a ramp/ artifact deck seems very strong. I might give this a try.
- Fireflux Squad is something I'll recommend - 4 mana for 4/3 haste is a decent floor, especially for fatty cheat/ aristocrats/ ramp decks that don't have as many answers to planeswalkers. His floor is incredible for chipping in damage/ removing planeswalkers to buy extra time. Its was a card I tested for Polymorph, but he performed well in the Welder Deck, Aristocrats deck, ramp deck, persist deck etc.
- Anyone that knows me will know that Saheeli Rai is one of my fav cards in cube - I've used her -2 as a haste enabler many times. I've had this occasion when I Oath of Druids into a Kozelik, Saheeli -2 to give Kozelik haste (he dies) to remove an opponent's planeswalker + sacrifice 4 permanents.
I'll find room for Crashing Drawbridge and I'll see how it performs.
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I like Lightning Mauler for this archetype. As you mention your hard hitters cost three mana so it curves nicely if you don't have a mana dork on turn 1. Sure you are locked into one creature, but the opponent is heavily incentivized to kill the other soulbound creature, freeing your Mauler for the next threat.
Another card that has played well is Rabbit Battery. When things go perfectly, it is awkward because of the activation cost, but that is rarely the case. It sticks around through wraths and has the bonus of being a creature (compared to Lightning Greaves for example). Definite step down from the others, but at one mana it is solid!
I've seen a lot of references scattered through some SCD threads regarding the Fires Archetype, but no MCD. If one does exist could one of the mods merge this in with that please?
So as I understand it the purpose would be to ramp into creatures with haste (generally provided by another card). Generally this is a RG mechanic by that nature.
Below are a list of the cards I've seen talked about as enablers
Fires of Yavimaya
Hammer of Purphoros
Sarkhan Vol
Swiftfoot Boots
Lightning Greaves
Lightning Mauler
Anger
Ogre Battledriver
For those who have/are using this archetype in their cubes, what are your thoughts about:
Concordant Crossroads
Mass Hysteria
Emblem of the Warmind
Fervor
Urabrask the Hidden
I'm curious to hear what people have to say about this. Currently the main archetype supported by my cube in these colors is wildfire, however this is rather unpopular here for 2 reasons: 1) in a 720 cube there just are not enough wildfires to make a deck with consistently and 2) people end up drafting wildfire as a card to fit in their deck rather then as a build around card and it sits in sideboards (although is some 2HG games it has been super fun).
I like what I see here with Fires because it looks to have a critical mass of cards so a 720 cube can support it, and even if you don't get enough cards to completely focus your deck around it you can still get value out of those cards (maybe not all the time but at least some).
What are people's thoughts? are there other cards which would directly work in these decks that would not already be there?
With 3 in a deck:
I have a ~54% chance of having one by T3, and a ~59% chance of having one by T4.
With 4 in a deck:
I have a ~66% chance of having one by T3, and a ~70% chance of having one by T4.
And that's not a chance of casting one ...only simply having one.
I don't think I'd be able to have a reasonable chance of putting a reliable fires deck together in my cube unless my cube was smaller or we always had a full table.
I'd need eight 3-4cc effects in my 450 cube to have a ~64% chance of having the 4 effects I need to show up in a 6-man draft. Since there's only seven of the effects I'd actually consider playing, and we occasionally do 4-man drafts, I only have a ~29% chance of making the deck work (and it would still be relatively inconsistent even when it comes together).
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Ramp - You want ramp that comes down on the first turn (green 1-drop mana dorks, abu/diamond/chrome mox). The reason being is you want to drop your haste enablers by second turn (or first turn for the 2-drop ones) if you drew it in your opening hand.
Enabler - The goal of this piece is to give your already efficiently costed creatures even more value by giving them haste. Being able to apply damage before the Wrath hits has been extremely valuable against control.
I include Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots because they have the added bonus of protecting your fatty from sorcery speed removal and control magic type effects, shoring up another one of the biggest weaknesses of mid-range decks.
I don't really like creature based ramp because they're easier to kill. I do understand though that having a body is great, also being able to deal damage. I don't like Crossroads or Hysteria because they also speed up your opponent and it's just horrid in the mirror match. I also don't like cards that do nothing else but give your creatures haste. Having the threat of being able to pump in order to save your own creature from removal/damage, or to deal the fatal blow (Fires of Yavimaya) has been very relevant.
Finishers - Here you want something with high power and some sort of evasion (Trample works best :D). Guys like Kalonian Hydra, Wolfir Silverheart, Deranged Hermit and Siege-Gang get A TON of value from getting haste and can end the game right on the spot. Natural Order has been bananas!
Consistency
I don't know what the math is regarding how many of each piece you need, but when we used to play this in Standard everyone had 8 mana dorks (4 Birds, 4 Elves) and 4 enablers (4 Fires of Yavimaya) in a 60 card deck. Simple math says you need 5-6 pieces of first turn ramp and 3 enablers to match the same ratios in a 40 card deck. Personally I would want 4 enablers when drafting this deck.
I currently have 6 enablers in our cube so I would think you want around 12 in a 720. I really wouldn't want to include Crossroads or Hysteria just to make it work in bigger lists though perhaps some of the creature options are acceptable. I believe with the printing of Elvish Mystic and Hammer of Purphoros (and to an extent, Kalonian Hydra) we have hit critical mass for smaller lists. It was Kalonian Hydra that got me into this archetype in the first place.
The Fires archetype has been amazing for us. Not only has it been winning games (probably the most successful mid-range deck we have versus control) it's also a lot of fun to play :nod:.
I'd definitely still draft utility creatures when drafting Fires. Still gotta kill those Moats and Swords and silly Winter Orbs.
I understand that Fires is a stretch for Gruul. I'm lucky to have a flex spot I can just throw it into (I wouldn't touch my Gruul section to include Fires). Having said that if I were to eliminate my 5 flex spots I would still include Fires... by putting it into green. It's green that wants it really. Red decks wouldn't splash green for Fires. It's green decks that are splashing red for Fires.
It's difficult ranking the enablers card vs card (that is to say, it's hard to rank Lightning Greaves to Lightning Mauler or to Sarkhan Vol since they're all in different spots in the cube). This is how I would rank the ones we run based on how important they are specifically to the 'Fires' archetype that we've been building:
1. Lightning Greaves - Almost always these guys are just as good as Fires in terms of giving all your creatures haste (just keep equipping the new beatstick). The drawback is that it doesn't work well with armies in a can. However, the upside is huge: avoiding control magic and sorcery speed removal has literally decided games. Lightning Greaves is a phenomenal card in any mid-range deck (after playing with it again I'd say it's a 360 staple) and the haste makes it fantastic in this archetype.
2. Hammer of Purphoros - I rank this highly because it gives all your creatures haste and it comes down on curve (assuming you got a mana dork). However, I'd like to say that he mana cost for this is actually more restrictive than Fires. Yeah it's just one colour but this deck (and ramp decks in general) tend to be more green (you're more likely to have GG than RR on turn 3). I'm ranking this #2 still because the ability to bring in 3/3 hasty beats is just ridiculous in this deck.
3. Fires of Yavimaya - I rank this highly because it gives all your creatures haste and it comes down "on curve" (assuming you got the mana dork). Being an enchantment it also ducks under a lot of removal which ensures you're playing your game plan every turn after. And yes the +2/+2 does make a big difference.
4. Sarkhan Vol - The only thing holding this guy back is his casting cost. The Fires deck is just so much more explosive when you get haste by turn 3. He's outstanding in every other department though. Perhaps time will tell with this one... I can certainly see him moving up and being more valuable in different matchups (just need to play with this archetype more).
5. Swiftfoot Boots - Having to pay 1 actually does make a huge difference (unless you have two mana dorks it nasty).
6. Lightning Mauler - Get's to business right away and applies damage himself. Problem is he comes with a body and he's susceptible to getting killed. Definitely moving up the ranks in my 2-drops who eat the most removal list.
Reckless Charge is the other one I run, and it's really good, especially with the recent Young Pyromancer love.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Perhaps I haven't given Reckless Charge enough consideration.
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It's easily castable off of elves (only a single red in the cost), and it can get in an extra 2 points of damage if the board is clear when you cast him (if not, you cast him in the post-combat main). The "must attack" drawback, while not negligible, hasn't been an issue for us — as the fires deck, your creatures tend to be the biggest things in play anyway.
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I'm more or less thinking this is a necessity given the cards like Oko, Teferi and the relentless wave of unconditional white removal based removal spells.
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Also, even though I don't have a Fires archetype, I've brought back Anger to great effect since around a year ago. Getting a card in the graveyard is laughably easy in most decks. There are so many cards that allow you to pitch something, and getting a free enchantment-removal-proof Fervor and offsetting the card disadvantage is awesome.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Most of those cards are weak and/or not real fires, but I think this is a great time to reopen this discussion because of RabbitB Battery and Invigorating hot springs.
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I'm actually so curious about this, has Anger been that good? I suppose a Fervor that costs 0 mana that you get to madness for value is like mana advantage and card advantage. What decks and color combos does it see play in? And do you think it would scale well to smaller and faster cubes?
We love the efficient card advantage aspect of pitching Bloodghast/Scrapheap Scrounger/Lingering Souls, but cards like Bloodsoaked Champion, Narfi, Betrayer King, Vengevine, Honored Hydra, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Squee/Master of Death, and even Prized Amalgam have been too weak/clunky. I could be forgetting more, but the cheaper the better, and this Anger static being free seems like big game. Never even considered it for cube, and seems a little narrow, but I'm curious as to your experience with it.
Unlike almost every other haste enabler, this plays in mono-green, where you find all the mana dorks and fatties. Sarkhan (and fires of yavimaya for that matter) shine in exactly RG, where Samut also shines in a UG tempo deck, or a BR reanimator deck. It's difficult to put in proportion just how much better 2(R/G)(R/G) is than 2RG in limited. Frankly she'd be pretty good if she just cost 2GG.
Not to mention the scry engine in colors that desperately need it. That has saved me many times.
I've been very impressed with her, and she's my favorite Red/Green planeswalker as well as favorite fires variant. Although she doesn't hold a candle to Lightning Greaves.
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Anger (and to an extent its cycle fellows Genesis, Brawn, Glory and Wonder, which all saw some play in cubes*) used to be a staple, maybe 6-8 years ago, before better creatures and discard outlets were widely available. But also the big creatures available were less worth giving haste, being generally of much lower power level, and it was also tougher to actually get Fires into the graveyard. I have a lot of newer discard outlets as reanimator support and thought to try adding it again, and it's been pretty fun. I'll try to make space in any R/x deck running more than a couple discard outlets/filterers/looters, including midrange decks, reanimator decks and the Goblin Welder/Daretti/Tinker decks with Wurmcoil/Trip Titan payoffs. It also is a slightly better top-deck than traditional Fires effects since you can play it as a hasty bear in a pinch if you just need a body post-Wrath, which is the main issue with many of those cards.
*I wish the black entry to the cycle, Filth, was better. It's probably the worst one.
Of the cards you listed, I really like Bloodsoaked Champion (floor is absolutely fine, and it's easy to recur) and quite like Kroxa (far from a staple, but good value and creates an interesting Delve mini-game in the graveyard).
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I'm thinking that you want your enablers to be 0-2 mana for these decks. You need to be aggressive with your 3-4-5 drops being bombs, to recoup the mana and card value of your enabler. Costing 2 is OK if your haste-granting is free - Lightning Greaves, and I'm going to suggest Crashing Drawbridge here as well, which is a good blocker early-on in relevant matchups, and grants haste for free even for army-in-a-can effects. Anger continues to be the best enabler IMO, since it's 'free' in every sense and adds value to discard/filtering/connive effects.
I think the four mana haste walkers (Sarkhan Vol, Samut, Tyrant Smasher, Zariel, Archduke of Avernus) are on the side of too slow at this point, especially since they are only giving haste plus a small stat buff. Honorable mention to Samut however for being Hybrid and giving haste as a static effect alongside a Samut's Sprint per turn and filtering.
I've also turned a little off of the Gruul enablers (Invigorating Hot Spring, Rhythm of the Wild, of course Fires of Yavimaya itself, although it's by far the worst of the three). Firstly, as mentioned 3 mana is where we can start thinking about some threats, though they are OK turn 2 off an Elf/Mox. Secondly, these are in a really competitive guild with amazing options that also play into the archetype (Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, Dragonlord Atarka etc) and space is limited. Thirdly, they lock you into both red and green which are the colours that have some native hasty creatures like Questing Beast, Thundermaw Hellkite. You can gain a lot of value by sliding into white or black. The problem is a bit of a lack of mono-colour enablers. I'm planning to look again at Mass Hysteria and Concordant Crossroads, and taking a very aggressive midrange approach to these decks.
What I would like to see for this archetype:
1) More cheap global haste enablers. Maybe a black one, trading life for haste? This would be sweet
2) Creatures with high reward tied to attacking, to diversify from ETB effects everywhere
3) Effects with decent added value at 3 mana like Hot Spring, but not in R/G. A 1RR walker with a +Haste seems eminently printable
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
- I think Crashing Drawbridge can be an excellent Lightning Greaves backup. A 0/4 Artifact in a ramp/ artifact deck seems very strong. I might give this a try.
- Fireflux Squad is something I'll recommend - 4 mana for 4/3 haste is a decent floor, especially for fatty cheat/ aristocrats/ ramp decks that don't have as many answers to planeswalkers. His floor is incredible for chipping in damage/ removing planeswalkers to buy extra time. Its was a card I tested for Polymorph, but he performed well in the Welder Deck, Aristocrats deck, ramp deck, persist deck etc.
- Anyone that knows me will know that Saheeli Rai is one of my fav cards in cube - I've used her -2 as a haste enabler many times. I've had this occasion when I Oath of Druids into a Kozelik, Saheeli -2 to give Kozelik haste (he dies) to remove an opponent's planeswalker + sacrifice 4 permanents.
I'll find room for Crashing Drawbridge and I'll see how it performs.
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
Another card that has played well is Rabbit Battery. When things go perfectly, it is awkward because of the activation cost, but that is rarely the case. It sticks around through wraths and has the bonus of being a creature (compared to Lightning Greaves for example). Definite step down from the others, but at one mana it is solid!
My 450ish 1vs1 cube