Painful Truths
Rare
2B
Sorcery
Converge - Draw X cards and loose X life, where X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast Painful Truths.
I'm not really sure how to evaluate this card, but on first pass it looks really strong. It's super easy to generate three colors of mana consistently in cube. It may be the two colors you are playing and a random third color, but it's totally doable in like 80% of games I feel like. So, my question is if ACS for this card is 3 cards for 3 mana, would I cut Phyrexian Arena? It would take Arena three turns and an upkeep to do the work this card can do immediately.
Or, maybe this card should be slotted in "rainbow" instead of black. Either way, I'm super intrigued.
I think Read the Bones is better than this. Scry 2 (before the draw!) and 1 less life loss seems almost as good as 1 extra card. And Read can be cast without a third (or even a second) color of mana.
As other users said, Read the Bones/Night's Whisper/Sign in Blood should consistently draw as many cards for less or see more for the same cost. Not very good for cube IMO.
Drawing 3 cards for 3 mana is sweet and would be surprised if it doesn't see standard play, but the 3 life loss is a bit too vicious of a price tag.
It's an unfortunate design of a lot of black cards, but life loss and card draw are anti-synergistic.
Spending mana and a card to draw cards relinquishes tempo, making you more susceptible to beat downs, which in turns makes your life more precious. Part of the reason why sphinx's revelation was unanimously underrated at first was the underestimation of life GAIN + card draw... Just like I think life loss + card draw tends to get overrated.
What is a killer for me on this is that it is just another sorcery card draw. Read teh bones with it's scry was slick in limited but necer took off in cube because doing nothing on turn 3 is just so ugly in cube. And if you wait for later the life loss doesn't feel better.
I am actively looking for a card to beat arena but this isn't it.
I'm very interested in this. Draw 3 for 3 mana is a genuinely powerful effect worthy of respect; I like it much better than Read the Bones, even if it doesn't dig you as deep. I'll be testing it out at the very least.
I have to agree with the Rumor Mill on this one, that Read the Bones is probably better overall. To be superior to that card, this needs to cost CDE, and it isn't strictly better even then. It's not a great discount from Ancient Craving considering the triple colour cost. At instant speed it would be more interesting.
I think Truths will be a good card in the current Standard environment though, FWIW.
Agreed. If cube was a format where every deck that ran this drew 3 for 3 every time like standard is, it would prob be good in cube as well. BUT unfortunately you have to draft your lands.
The fact that black tends to be the most monocolor-focused section in cube is the one thing that's preventing me from just windmill slamming this. I think this is absolutely a cube staple if it were a simple 3 mana Ancient Craving.
As is, I still think I'll be giving it a test run. Card draw is even more powerful in cube than it is in most other formats (because you're drawing cube cards), and having 3 colors available is far from an impossible hoop to jump through. Y'all have been spoiled by Delve draw; draw 3 for 3 doesn't come around very often, and every time it does it deserves thorough consideration.
I just find myself and other decks when cubing to be solidly in 2 colors when drafting B/x (or any color combination, for that matter) enough of the time that even though the BCS is better than all the other spells in comparison with this, the seemingly-ACS is a lot worse than Read the Bones, and the other options costing 2 seem better as well.
My initial assessment could be off though; as you've said, it certainly isn't impossible to draft the lands, and even if the ACS happens more than preferred it's certainly not bad and the alternative is definitely really awesome.
The fact that black tends to be the most monocolor-focused section in cube is the one thing that's preventing me from just windmill slamming this. I think this is absolutely a cube staple if it were a simple 3 mana Ancient Craving.
As is, I still think I'll be giving it a test run. Card draw is even more powerful in cube than it is in most other formats (because you're drawing cube cards), and having 3 colors available is far from an impossible hoop to jump through. Y'all have been spoiled by Delve draw; draw 3 for 3 doesn't come around very often, and every time it does it deserves thorough consideration.
Even in a multi color deck, you'll be casting this with 2 colors like 10+% of the time.
The scry 2 vs draw 1 debate has been done to death and the conclusion has been draw 1 is slightly better. Tack on an extra point of life loss. Add in variance where you won't have all your colors...
It can't possible be much better than read the bones, when the cards are so similar and the downsides are clear.
FWIW, I believe read the bones is very close to cubable tho, maybe should be looked at in larger cubes. My environment is too fast for it, tried it before. Painful truths will still be an OK cube card at least.
I think the full on ancient craving effect is much better than Bones, and we've got a lot of fixing. Will definitely test, although slots are getting tighter every set.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
This card is terrible for cube IMO. It's basically a split card, with BBB draw 1 lose 1, BBX draw 2 lose 2, BXY draw three lose three. It's absolute BCS is the third (I'm not going to consider the edge scenarios where there's a tax effect in play), and that absolute BCS is, I think, often worse than read the bones, and probably only marginally better than nights whisper and sign in blood, because you are more likely to be able to cast the spell you drew with an extra mana. So, this is the cards BCS, which means if we're evaluating it this way it's basically already going to be a lot narrower than any of the three previously mentioned cards, because it can only go in 3-color decks. If you are evaluating its worse scenarios, all of them are just strictly worse than any of the previously mentioned cards (with the exception of possibly costing a colored mana less than sign in blood). This isn't even considering the various 3-color charms that let you draw 2, all of which also have great flexibility.
So, unless you are desperate for a fourth, middling, hard to cast for full value black draw spell, I'd give this a pass. It's just way too often worse than read the bones, a card I'm not super thrilled about anyway.
I think the full on ancient craving effect is much better than Bones, and we've got a lot of fixing. Will definitely test, although slots are getting tighter every set.
How the hell can draw 1 lose one life be MUCH better than scry 2. (I'm OVER selling the difference)
Is there something I'm missing here or are people throwing out exaggerations left and right.
Craving gives you +2 CA rather than +1, and it's common to play them in early enough in the game, and in decks that want lots of land, where the scry is relatively less powerful.
Edit: To be clear, I'm aware that Truths is much worse than 3cmc Craving. I just need to put it in for a while to see if it's worse enough not to play.
I don't know if it's definitely much better, but I would rather a consistent draw 3 lose 3 than read the bones, pretty much every time. Having that 3rd card in hand is much more useful than getting the generally-best-of-4 cards as it's a resource you can actually use instead of ensuring your future resources are better/more consistently useful. I'm not sure of the gap between Read the Bones v hypothetical CMC 3 Ancient Craving, but it's enough to want the latter if I could only use one. Like, if I'm keeping the top 2 or even just one of the top 2 anyways, then Ancient Craving is doing the same thing + getting me an extra card, with the latter case not always necessarily bad as sometimes you're putting stuff on the bottom because you're digging for a more specific card. That seems pretty great and is worth it over the potentially 4th-card-dug.
Rare
2B
Sorcery
Converge - Draw X cards and loose X life, where X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast Painful Truths.
I'm not really sure how to evaluate this card, but on first pass it looks really strong. It's super easy to generate three colors of mana consistently in cube. It may be the two colors you are playing and a random third color, but it's totally doable in like 80% of games I feel like. So, my question is if ACS for this card is 3 cards for 3 mana, would I cut Phyrexian Arena? It would take Arena three turns and an upkeep to do the work this card can do immediately.
Or, maybe this card should be slotted in "rainbow" instead of black. Either way, I'm super intrigued.
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It's an unfortunate design of a lot of black cards, but life loss and card draw are anti-synergistic.
Spending mana and a card to draw cards relinquishes tempo, making you more susceptible to beat downs, which in turns makes your life more precious. Part of the reason why sphinx's revelation was unanimously underrated at first was the underestimation of life GAIN + card draw... Just like I think life loss + card draw tends to get overrated.
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I am actively looking for a card to beat arena but this isn't it.
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That's about where I see it, and I think Skeletal Scrying is also superior.
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Agreed. If cube was a format where every deck that ran this drew 3 for 3 every time like standard is, it would prob be good in cube as well. BUT unfortunately you have to draft your lands.
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As is, I still think I'll be giving it a test run. Card draw is even more powerful in cube than it is in most other formats (because you're drawing cube cards), and having 3 colors available is far from an impossible hoop to jump through. Y'all have been spoiled by Delve draw; draw 3 for 3 doesn't come around very often, and every time it does it deserves thorough consideration.
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My initial assessment could be off though; as you've said, it certainly isn't impossible to draft the lands, and even if the ACS happens more than preferred it's certainly not bad and the alternative is definitely really awesome.
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Even in a multi color deck, you'll be casting this with 2 colors like 10+% of the time.
The scry 2 vs draw 1 debate has been done to death and the conclusion has been draw 1 is slightly better. Tack on an extra point of life loss. Add in variance where you won't have all your colors...
It can't possible be much better than read the bones, when the cards are so similar and the downsides are clear.
FWIW, I believe read the bones is very close to cubable tho, maybe should be looked at in larger cubes. My environment is too fast for it, tried it before. Painful truths will still be an OK cube card at least.
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So, unless you are desperate for a fourth, middling, hard to cast for full value black draw spell, I'd give this a pass. It's just way too often worse than read the bones, a card I'm not super thrilled about anyway.
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How the hell can draw 1 lose one life be MUCH better than scry 2. (I'm OVER selling the difference)
Is there something I'm missing here or are people throwing out exaggerations left and right.
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1R
Instant
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Draw a card and lose a life.
Than Magma Jet. And I would much rather play
XU
Instant
Counter target spell unless it's controller pays X. Draw a card and lose a life.
Than Condescend.
Craving gives you +2 CA rather than +1, and it's common to play them in early enough in the game, and in decks that want lots of land, where the scry is relatively less powerful.
Edit: To be clear, I'm aware that Truths is much worse than 3cmc Craving. I just need to put it in for a while to see if it's worse enough not to play.
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