MTG Salvation

I searched for a thread on this card and couldn't find one. I'm curious to see if any of you guys run/ran this in your cubes. It seems to be a slightly weaker Sol Ring that comes at the cost of dealing two damage to you/ only ramping you to 3 on turn 2 assuming a second land. I don't recall seeing this in other lists. Is it because it's degenerate or because the drawback is too great? It seems like a card that could be useful in aggressive strategies that additionally has a drawback for the control player.

If I recall correctly, a lot of cubes used to run Ancient Tomb, but it has fallen out of favor recently. I still run it at 360-unpowered because there are combo and ramp decks that can make serious use of the early mana acceleration. I'm sure if another couple of cubable colorless/utility lands get printed soon, Ancient Tomb will be one of the first to go. I actually use it less often in aggressive decks than in the aforementioned ramp/combo because I find that the aggro decks can be color hungry and tapping for 2 colorless mana is usually a risk.

We run it. It's good if you support either the artifact deck or the super ramp deck, and it's perfectly playable in midrange. I do think people play it in decks where it's not great too often though, and don't side it out when it's bad in the matchup enough. I don't love it in aggressive decks because they tend to have a lot of color-intensive cards or you want to be casting multiple spells a turn.

Card is very good, and can't imagine it not being included. Even in the aggressive decks, it makes a great third land to get to the 4th mana early!

-AA

It's a powerful card, but it's currently in my on-deck binder. Tapping for colorless is a big drawback, and I prefer the effects on the other colorless lands to Tomb's effect. There were too many times where I had to choose between this and a Manland or this and a Waste/Strip, and it just always lost out. Don't get me wrong, it's a strong card, but ultimately it got cut.

turn 1 mana rock into turn 2 4-drop is my favourite play with ancient tomb. it's not leaving my 360 powered anytime soon.

I cut it a while ago when I increased the amount of mana-fixing lands in my cube.

In some decks, it is a great early mana boost. In a few other decks (like big ramp), it is always a great mana boost. In several decks (mostly aggro), it is not really needed.

The drawback is real though and the damage can cost you the game if you aren't careful.

I run it at 450, but it is probably the next colorless card to get cut. It's good but I don't think small to medium cubes need it.

Cheers,
rant

I run it in my C/Ube, where it's solid. It got the axe from the other cube a while ago.

I'm running it currently. In the right decks it's powerful but I don't think its a staple.

Has anyone added this back to their Cubes with the release of OGW? I run a 450 powered Cube and I'm trying to decide if the addition of half a dozen of the new colorless cards warrants adding this to my Cube over something like Tendo Ice Bridge.

Well, I did happen to cut Ancient Tomb once or twice from my list, but it always came back eventually. It was already on my list when OGW's colorless theme was revealed, so I can't say I 'added it back' but it certainly went from something I could see myself cutting out to a core card that'll stay at least as long as I have those colorless-costed cards.

That was pretty much my history with it as well. It feels very well positioned with the change to colorless mana, but I'm interested in other manager's opinions.

Depending on the size of your cube, I think Ancient Tomb is a pure staple. From 360 to 450, I can understand justifications about not running it, but above that it's clearly a must IMO. It's just another easy way to get some fast mana in the format. If you like when none green colors can have acces to it, then I think this definitly has to be in. The drawback can be huge sometimes, but most of the time, the upside worth it. For our playgroup, it is not on the chopping block at all and OGW has nothing to do about it.

It can be hard to find room for at the smaller sizes, but for me it's easy to include. It's not great in every match up, but it can be like the best possible land you have in a lot of scenarios.

I proxied it in a month or so ago and have been quite happy with it (so much so that I went and acquired an expedition one cuz it's so pretty). It's been great with things like Balance, Wildfire and Upheaval. Acceleration from a straight up land is pretty strong too.

It's been in and out of the list a few times, but it's been here to stay for a while now. The need for C really cemented its spot.

I've had it in my unpowered cube since I made it and never really consider it cuttable. It's a very strong card and i've found it's downside very relevant which I quite like. I don't outright support colorless just yet either. My only issue with it is I already have the FTV foil and I actually like it's expedition printing.

I always found this card interesting but never got around to securing a copy. I also find it somewhat difficult to evaluate without seeing gameplay with it involved. Can anyone post a decklist where it fits in well or describe a draft situation where you would highly want to see Ancient Tomb passed to you?

A staple for me. I'd play it in any any deck that can take the hit in mana consistency. Some focused aggro decks and decks with tons of double and triple cc might not need it, but the majority of decks could use it.

I disliked it and I've cut it and it will never come back in. One game, it was insane acceleration (Turn one Signet into turn two 4-drop? Whaaaaat?). The next game, it was a terrible land that dealt lots of damage without a meaningful mana boost. Basically, it was all the wrong kinds of swingy and felt out of place in my unpowerd cube. Probably fits better into a powered cube that runs other swingy fast mana acceleration anyway.

It tends to be a lot better when you heavily support the win-now archetypes. (Get a big fatty into play, combo decks, etc.) Depending on Tomb turn-to-turn is a risky endeavor, but if you're casting turn 2 Natural Order or t3 sneak attack then it's a LOT better since your life total is fairly irrelevant in those decks. Fair decks can abuse Tomb as well, but do a much worse job since the Tomb is easily turned in match ups where your life total is aggressively attacked.

And how do you guys rank City of Traitors?

I mean, I know it's not better, but how were your experiences with it in the cube?

I already thought highly of this land, but it just got even better considering it is a great enabler for the Colorless required -cards out of Oath of the Gatewatch.

Quote from Zetsu_Sensei »

And how do you guys rank City of Traitors?

I mean, I know it's not better, but how were your experiences with it in the cube?

It's mostly garbage. It works well in eternal formats since it's typically the last land you play on turns 2 or 3 or you don't need it once you play a colored source the next turn. Rarely cube game play out like this and most of the time it's not really worth it for the free wasteland.