MTG Salvation

I don't see many cubes that run any of these. Why? I think Disfigure in particular is a cheap answer for a good number of two- and three- drops. It sees play in Legacy and it isn't "synergy dependent," which is usually a good place to look for cube-viable cards.

I liked Disfigure a lot, but it ultimately was replaced by Dismember, and then cards like Go For the Throat were printed, and it just hits a huge number of additional targets for an extra 1 mana. Black has so many proactive 1cc spells that I think it's harder to find room for these kinds of removal spells than it would in other colors.

This is a good question. I have run Ulcerate and Tragic Slip at various points, because you are right, one mana spells rule. For me it speaks to a lot of how the black decks play out. IN my cube these are the most common acrhtypes

1. Reanimator - Doesn't care much about creatures that could be killed by these spells
2. Midrange - Wants more value out of each card, wither through flexibility or two-for-ones
3. Aggro - Being cheap makes them work in this deck but being proactive with creatures and discard is usually preferred
4. Tempo (U/B) - Generally really good here

The other issue is just like white wolf pointed out, black has amazing removal in the 2-3, plus dismember. Black also lacks any spells matter cards like what is now found in red, blue, and white, which add to the value of cheap spells in a color.

Someday they will screw up and give us something that kills for one mana in black that will find room, but right not most of these card are on the outside of the 540 cubes. Most of them are good mind you, but I just dont think most people have the need or the room.

Quote from metagame »

I don't see many cubes that run any of these. Why? I think Disfigure in particular is a cheap answer for a good number of two- and three- drops. It sees play in Legacy and it isn't "synergy dependent," which is usually a good place to look for cube-viable cards.

Cheap (1 mana or less) black answers in my cube: Snuff Out, Contagion, Dismember. I don't feel the need to add another one.

There's also Innocent Blood which I think is a very good control card that costs B.

Much of the removal out there today that was more mainstream years ago has become somewhat niche these days. And by that I mean it isn't as objectively powerful as the suite we now have available to us so you are only going to run it for specific meta based reasons. Power creep from M10 will continue to provide us years worth of new cards that obsolete prior "staples" from a purely power perspective, so expect this trend to continue. But depending on what you are doing in your meta, there can be times you may want to consider including some of these more narrow (technically weaker) choices over the objectively more powerful ones.

Good example would be Innocent Blood. If you want to help push black control (maybe even some flavor of MBC), this is an indicator card you can use. Do you need to run cards like that to make black control viable? Of course not, but it's an option and it will help nudge drafters in that direction. Condemn is another one along the same lines. You don't generally want that in any aggressive deck. But control loves it. Pretty much any deck with plains or a way to generate white mana will run Swords to Plowshares, so a card like that (while clearly a very high pick) doesn't push a drafter in any specific direction other than Wx.

If you explore other design space at a lower power level (somewhere between C/Ubes and max power cubes), you may find it necessary to cull some of the more powerful removal. If your removal is too efficient, it effectively prevents some decks from being competitive.

I run Innocent Blood in my Cube and it gets played pretty regularly by the UBx Control decks that don't have Swords/Path. I've thought about adding in another but I just don't think they hit the same power level as it. Tragic Slip is probably the next best one, and I like it, but I think the number of times it's just -1/-1 is too frequent. Dismember is king and is backed up by the 2-drop removal such as Go for the Throat such that I don't really think more is necessary. And it's really difficult to find room if you do want to play more, really.

Tragic Slip is in my Multiplayer cube, and is wonderful. Morbid triggers more often with more players, so it reads "B: Kill the thing you hate" very, very frequently.

I haven't tried Darkblast yet, but I can already see the potential...

Just in its colors, I can see good interaction with
-Liliana of the Veil
-Tasigur/Gurmag Angler
-Putrid Imp

As well as
-Grim Lavamancer
-Delve cards
-Flashback

Darkblast is absurdly powerful as a sideboard card.

Problem is it's dead in too many matches, but when put in a deck that uses the GY and darkblast has valid targets it's by far the most powerful card of the ones listed here. Borderline opressive.
If you are looking for a general one mana removal spell, I like tragic slip.

Disfigure and Innocent Blood are just fine for having tested both in a underpower environment. Darkblast feels more like a construct card only.

I like Disfigure the most out of all these cards. It kills the greatest percentage of cube creatures with no drawback and no contingencies. Consistency is key with removal, IMO.

Quote from CadaverousBl00m »

Tragic Slip is in my Multiplayer cube, and is wonderful. Morbid triggers more often with more players, so it reads "B: Kill the thing you hate" very, very frequently.

Yeah. This card is very powerful. Things die in cube all the time, so this card kills anything without protection from black (even indestructible dudes). I actually took it out for being over the bar for what I was after. I think it is probably perfectly at home in most powered lists.