Battle Tricks Making the Combat Step Exciting Again in Powered/Unpowered Cubes
The Problem: I feel powered/unpowered cubes lack complexity during the combat step, something that seems very important to modern set design and leads to an overall more interesting game play experience (IMO of course). This is attributed to the lack of combat altering cards present in most cube environments because they simply don't stack up, power wise, to other cards competing for slots in each color. Complex combat, to me, is made up of three main ingredients: A plethora of diverse stat changing instants; strong, but not overwhelming removal; and creature abilities. Most powered/unpowered cubes have the latter two in excess, but are nearly void of the first. This leads to easy combat math and a lack of interesting/memorable plays during the combat step.
The Fix: The only thing I've come up with is lowering the average overall power level of the cube to something in between peasant and standard unpowered. I'd like to get everyone's opinion on this though. Do you agree/disagree with my assessment? Do you think it's worth fixing, and if so how? Keep in mind that there would need to be a good number of these pump effects to make a noticeable difference in how drafters approach combat steps.
This post by TheTennesseeFireman sums up the steps one would have to take to make combat more interesting:
Adding combat complexity to the cube is no small endeavor. One significant thing I think needs to be taken into account during cube design is greater Power/Toughness balance. In most limited formats, creatures skew slightly towards higher toughness in order to make combat tricks interesting and prevent the game from devolving into a race. In cube, where each creature needs to justify its existence independently, it skews towards higher power. As a result, we tend to rely too hard on removal and self-protecting planeswalkers to trade off creatures and slow down races, thus making combat uninteresting.
Some suggestions I'd make to improve combat quality:
-Skew back towards higher toughness creatures. This will help lower the number of mindless trades.
-In turn, increase the number of finisher effects/pump abilities in aggro to prevent them from getting bogged down.
-Cut back on instant speed removal and wrath. Fear of a 2-for-1 hurts the viability of combat tricks. Additionally, winning crucial battles over board state shouldn't constantly be undone by Supreme Verdict next turn.
-Add combat tricks, but make sure they truly punish the opponent for not respecting it. Hatred, Ghor-Clan Rampager, and damage redirection are good examples.
-Lower the number of evasion creatures. I've advocated the removal of the Soltari 2-drops for some time: they offer no interaction with which to work.
Possible Inclusions people can include in each color:
Attacking and blocking decisions and planeswalker interactions, dodging instant removal/bounce and the few combat tricks we have seem to keep the combat step interesting enough for me. It would be nice if there were a handful of additional playable combat tricks, but I wouldn't do anything more than adding 1 additional combat trick to each color at most. If you add too many combat tricks, combat becomes disinteresting for the opposite reason. If every time something gets blocked it gets hit with a Giant Growth, that's just as lame as having combat be guaranteed at face value.
If you're not playing Contagion, I'd suggest adding that to the top of your list. It's free, it's surprising, and it can absolutely wreck multi-creature combat math.
If you were to play one more in each color, what would they be? And I do play Contagion
White would probably be Harm's Way (or maybe Shelter). Shining Shoal isn't bad.
Blue might be Shaper Parasite (it gives me a combat trick and a Morph). Piracy Charm is unique and flexible.
Black could be interested in Disfigure perhaps, in addition to Contagion. Funeral Charm has some cool modes too.
Red would probably be Blood Lust. That card is far better than it looks. Brute Force isn't horrible, because the effect is arguably better in red.
In green, I like Mutagenic Growth. Being free is a big deal. Or Setessan Tactics, which has all kinds of cool stuff it can do.
Adding combat complexity to the cube is no small endeavor. One significant thing I think needs to be taken into account during cube design is greater Power/Toughness balance. In most limited formats, creatures skew slightly towards higher toughness in order to make combat tricks interesting and prevent the game from devolving into a race. In cube, where each creature needs to justify its existence independently, it skews towards higher power. As a result, we tend to rely too hard on removal and self-protecting planeswalkers to trade off creatures and slow down races, thus making combat uninteresting.
Some suggestions I'd make to improve combat quality:
-Skew back towards higher toughness creatures. This will help lower the number of mindless trades.
-In turn, increase the number of finisher effects/pump abilities in aggro to prevent them from getting bogged down.
-Cut back on instant speed removal and wrath. Fear of a 2-for-1 hurts the viability of combat tricks. Additionally, winning crucial battles over board state shouldn't constantly be undone by Supreme Verdict next turn.
-Add combat tricks, but make sure they truly punish the opponent for not respecting it. Hatred, Ghor-Clan Rampager, and damage redirection are good examples.
-Lower the number of evasion creatures. I've advocated the removal of the Soltari 2-drops for some time: they offer no interaction with which to work.
@TheTennesseeFireman: A lot of those suggestions are great ones. I particularly like dropping the wrath count. It simultaneously makes wraths much more valuable, which is a good thing in my eyes.
I think one of the problems any cube manager is going to run into is dropping more powerful cards (in a vaccum) for less powerful ones to make a better environment.
For instance, if one were to cut Tarmogoyf for almost any other green card, at least one player in your playgroup would likely be upset. Some cards are just so powerful and worshipped by players that it's not worth it to cut them.
Perhaps the cube environment is fun because you get to take all these overtly powerful cards, even if they don't always create the best play experience. At least, that's why I started cubing. I wanted to jam turn 1 Jace the Mindsculptors off Black Lotus.
Some more cards I've liked in my cube that make combat more interesting:
Wrecking Ogre - In bloodrush mode, this card just ends games out of nowhere with a surprise 10-12 extra damage. It's kind of like Hatred, where once an opponent loses to it in Game 1, they have no choice but to play around it for the rest of the match.
Pyrewild Shaman - The recursion is mana intensive, but it has enough different uses as a combat trick, as Masticore/looter fodder, or 3 drop curve filler/random warm body that it's pretty much always useful for something. I've recently replaced this with Squee, but if Squee doesn't get drafted more I'm bringing back Pyrewild.
In blue, instead of classic combat tricks, I'd probably add more cheap instant speed bounce like Unsummon, Vapor Snag, or Snap. You might also want to try Ray of Command for instant speed blowouts on offense or defense.
To keep your players guessing, you might want to dedicate a few spots in each color you want to support combat tricks in that you rotate cards in and out of on a regular basis. It will be a lot harder for your players to play around the combat tricks in your cube if they're different every time they play.
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I really like Unsummon and Vapor Snag. The tempo they give you can give your control decks a little more breathing room before drawing/casting their removal and Wrath effects. But more importantly, they give your aggro decks playing blue (which cut unto the blue control decks can play) some means of getting past Walls or other general road blocks--this can decide games even when you use them out of combat.
Updated OP with the various choices. Thank you everyone, especially TheTennesseeFireman (whom I quoted in the OP) for a great analysis. It's exactly what I was looking for, and I think I'm going to start pushing my cube towards that just to see what the environment will play like. I'll report back with results when I get a good idea of how the changes affected gameplay
We are also playing Vines of Vastwood, it is pretty good due to the fact that it also counters removal spell but doubles as a combat trick. I am constantly rooting for new cubeable combat tricks. There are not enough of them and I agree that they would make combat more interesting.
I agree with OPs opinion with combat tricks whole heartedly. Don't think its worth including cards that will rarely get played to fix it though.
It would require redesigning a lot of your cube to make it REALLY viable. Something I hope someone does someday.
Vines of vastwood is by far my fav combat trick in cube, since +4/+4 is pretty huge for an agro deck, but it also serves to protect your stupidly powerful cube creatures that die to doomblade/path to exile. Nothing quite beats the feeling of smashing someone for 4 extra damage and blanking their removal spell. For an agro deck that's a pure 2 for 1 for 2 mana.
Looking forward to a couple more good ones being printed. I'd happily cube 10 or so card that are 90% as powerful as their competition, if they have a clear home and lead to a more dynamic combat step.
One trick that's made an impression on me from my friend's pauper cube and I've seen run in some unpowered cube is Embolden. It can easily save a couple guys out of nowhere, and makes combat miserable for your opponent as long as it's still in the yard.
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You know the addition of the Prowess mechanic has me really thinking about this line of discussion. Ways to increase combat complexity without actually having to use Giant Growth itself is quite appealing. I think only Seeker of the Way makes the mark so far (though some of the others are fine to test) but I'm super curious to see how that mechanic evolves. I'm thinking I may want to give Vines of the Vastwood another go. Maybe even Mutagenic Growth!
You know the addition of the Prowess mechanic has me really thinking about this line of discussion. Ways to increase combat complexity without actually having to use Giant Growth itself is quite appealing. I think only Seeker of the Way makes the mark so far (though some of the others are fine to test) but I'm super curious to see how that mechanic evolves. I'm thinking I may want to give Vines of the Vastwood another go. Maybe even Mutagenic Growth!
I am actually thinking about including Mutagenic Growth. The pump is small, but being free is HUGE.
Free spells are really good with prowess, btw. During our last draft, I attacked a tapped out opponent with some small creatures. The only blocker that he had was Seeker of the Way. Then he killed my biggest attacker with Snuff Out and blocked a smaller one with an unexpected 3/3 lifelinker (which meant that in the end, he payed only a single life for the kill spell). Ouch.
The more combat tricks you add, the better Prowess and Seeker of the Way get for sure.
IMO, Mutagenic Growth is the best combat trick in the cube. Even if it were only able to be played in green decks, it would still be #1 for me. The fact that any deck can use it is just icing on the cake. Vines of Vastwood is second. Berserk is third.
You could replace it with Rubblebelt Maaka. I think it's better than brute force; less flexible in other situations but always an option to cast as a creature.
I would prefer Brute Strength to Maaka. It can be used to save your creatures from Flametongue Kavu, Fire Imp, etc. It can also be used on defense which is far from irrelevant.
I would prefer Brute Strength to Maaka. It can be used to save your creatures from Flametongue Kavu, Fire Imp, etc. It can also be used on defense which is far from irrelevant.
I also run a couple of Prowess creatures, plus guttersnipe, snapcaster, Delver etc. Probably slightly more relevant than an uncouterable pump only used during your attack phase.
I'm doing something weird with my cube, and it will mean that occasionally one player at the table will start the draft with several (custom, colorless) heroic creatures in his pool of cards for deckbuilding. Because of this, I'd like to include a "more than normal" number of tricks in my cube, specifically tricks that are spells that target your own creatures.
If you had to pick the best four tricks in each color that activate your own heroic triggers, what would they be?
I'll treat the top three as important spells and the fourth spell as a kind of open slot then. I should warn you though - outside of green, the quality of combat heroictricks drops pretty fast.
Mutagenic Growth has been a pretty good card for us. The fact that it's both free and not bound to a color is big game; shores up the biggest weaknesses that other pump spells have.
Making the Combat Step Exciting Again in Powered/Unpowered Cubes
The Problem: I feel powered/unpowered cubes lack complexity during the combat step, something that seems very important to modern set design and leads to an overall more interesting game play experience (IMO of course). This is attributed to the lack of combat altering cards present in most cube environments because they simply don't stack up, power wise, to other cards competing for slots in each color. Complex combat, to me, is made up of three main ingredients: A plethora of diverse stat changing instants; strong, but not overwhelming removal; and creature abilities. Most powered/unpowered cubes have the latter two in excess, but are nearly void of the first. This leads to easy combat math and a lack of interesting/memorable plays during the combat step.
The Fix: The only thing I've come up with is lowering the average overall power level of the cube to something in between peasant and standard unpowered. I'd like to get everyone's opinion on this though. Do you agree/disagree with my assessment? Do you think it's worth fixing, and if so how? Keep in mind that there would need to be a good number of these pump effects to make a noticeable difference in how drafters approach combat steps.
This post by TheTennesseeFireman sums up the steps one would have to take to make combat more interesting:
Possible Inclusions people can include in each color:
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If you're not playing Contagion, I'd suggest adding that to the top of your list. It's free, it's surprising, and it can absolutely wreck multi-creature combat math.
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Red: Titan's Strength is pretty decent, being most of a Giant Growth + Scry. Bloodlust has multiple applications.
Green: Boon Satyr is probably the strongest here. Briarhorn is pretty interesting too.
Black: Hatred?
White: Harm's Way is good, as are similar damage redirect effects like Shining Shoal or Divine Deflection. A few Protection cards like Apostle's Blessing or Shelter aren't terrible either.
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White would probably be Harm's Way (or maybe Shelter). Shining Shoal isn't bad.
Blue might be Shaper Parasite (it gives me a combat trick and a Morph). Piracy Charm is unique and flexible.
Black could be interested in Disfigure perhaps, in addition to Contagion. Funeral Charm has some cool modes too.
Red would probably be Blood Lust. That card is far better than it looks. Brute Force isn't horrible, because the effect is arguably better in red.
In green, I like Mutagenic Growth. Being free is a big deal. Or Setessan Tactics, which has all kinds of cool stuff it can do.
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Some suggestions I'd make to improve combat quality:
-Skew back towards higher toughness creatures. This will help lower the number of mindless trades.
-In turn, increase the number of finisher effects/pump abilities in aggro to prevent them from getting bogged down.
-Cut back on instant speed removal and wrath. Fear of a 2-for-1 hurts the viability of combat tricks. Additionally, winning crucial battles over board state shouldn't constantly be undone by Supreme Verdict next turn.
-Add combat tricks, but make sure they truly punish the opponent for not respecting it. Hatred, Ghor-Clan Rampager, and damage redirection are good examples.
-Lower the number of evasion creatures. I've advocated the removal of the Soltari 2-drops for some time: they offer no interaction with which to work.
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I think one of the problems any cube manager is going to run into is dropping more powerful cards (in a vaccum) for less powerful ones to make a better environment.
For instance, if one were to cut Tarmogoyf for almost any other green card, at least one player in your playgroup would likely be upset. Some cards are just so powerful and worshipped by players that it's not worth it to cut them.
Perhaps the cube environment is fun because you get to take all these overtly powerful cards, even if they don't always create the best play experience. At least, that's why I started cubing. I wanted to jam turn 1 Jace the Mindsculptors off Black Lotus.
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Wrecking Ogre - In bloodrush mode, this card just ends games out of nowhere with a surprise 10-12 extra damage. It's kind of like Hatred, where once an opponent loses to it in Game 1, they have no choice but to play around it for the rest of the match.
Pyrewild Shaman - The recursion is mana intensive, but it has enough different uses as a combat trick, as Masticore/looter fodder, or 3 drop curve filler/random warm body that it's pretty much always useful for something. I've recently replaced this with Squee, but if Squee doesn't get drafted more I'm bringing back Pyrewild.
Selesnya Charm - Like Simic Charm and Boros Charm, this combat trick is worth including because it's so versatile.
You could also add more flash creatures to make combat less predictable like Wolfir Avenger, Yeva, Nature's Herald, and Advent of the Wurm. They're all on or above the curve.
If you're running enough beefy token generators, you might also try the populate instants from RTR - Rootborn Defenses and Druid's Deliverance.
In blue, instead of classic combat tricks, I'd probably add more cheap instant speed bounce like Unsummon, Vapor Snag, or Snap. You might also want to try Ray of Command for instant speed blowouts on offense or defense.
To keep your players guessing, you might want to dedicate a few spots in each color you want to support combat tricks in that you rotate cards in and out of on a regular basis. It will be a lot harder for your players to play around the combat tricks in your cube if they're different every time they play.
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It would require redesigning a lot of your cube to make it REALLY viable. Something I hope someone does someday.
Vines of vastwood is by far my fav combat trick in cube, since +4/+4 is pretty huge for an agro deck, but it also serves to protect your stupidly powerful cube creatures that die to doomblade/path to exile. Nothing quite beats the feeling of smashing someone for 4 extra damage and blanking their removal spell. For an agro deck that's a pure 2 for 1 for 2 mana.
Looking forward to a couple more good ones being printed. I'd happily cube 10 or so card that are 90% as powerful as their competition, if they have a clear home and lead to a more dynamic combat step.
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Monastery Swiftspear is also worth considering.
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Free spells are really good with prowess, btw. During our last draft, I attacked a tapped out opponent with some small creatures. The only blocker that he had was Seeker of the Way. Then he killed my biggest attacker with Snuff Out and blocked a smaller one with an unexpected 3/3 lifelinker (which meant that in the end, he payed only a single life for the kill spell). Ouch.
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IMO, Mutagenic Growth is the best combat trick in the cube. Even if it were only able to be played in green decks, it would still be #1 for me. The fact that any deck can use it is just icing on the cake. Vines of Vastwood is second. Berserk is third.
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I also run a couple of Prowess creatures, plus guttersnipe, snapcaster, Delver etc. Probably slightly more relevant than an uncouterable pump only used during your attack phase.
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If you had to pick the best four tricks in each color that activate your own heroic triggers, what would they be?
Green:
1. Mutagenic Growth
2. Vines of Vastwood
3. Berserk
4. Giant Growth / Might of Old Krosa / Prey's Vengeance / Groundswell / Tower Above / Bounty of the Hunt / Setessan Tactics / Invigorate
Blue:
1. Piracy Charm
2. Mizzium Skin
3. Triton Tactics
4. Wings of Velis Vel
White:
1. Apostle's Blessing
2. Otherworldly Journey
3. Ajani's Presence
4. Test of Faith / Emerge Unscathed / Bathe in Light
Black:
1. Funeral Charm
2. Hatred
3. Rouse
4. Virulent Swipe
Red:
1. Brute Force
2. Coordinated Assault / Weapon Surge
3. Blood Lust
4. Blades of Velis Vel / Dynacharge / Fatal Frenzy / Fever Charm / Titan's Strength
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