Glen Elendra is a great card and I'd love to run it, it'd be a great fit in any blue archetype. But I still consider my cube budget and so I shy away from it's current price tag. (I do run cards with a similar price tag, but those usually fell into my lap for much less).
I really like Deathrite Shaman. It slices, it dices and sometimes it even ramps. Does Mother of Runes count? She can be a real monster, too.
I love Archmage and have first picked it from weak packs.
Reclamation Sage might be my favorite utility creature. Or Archmage.
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I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Archmage isn't the best creature to have if you're already behind on board, but it can lock the game down if you're even slightly ahead or at parity. It goes from great to awesome if you're lucky enough to be able to name it with Muzzio's Preparations.
Glen Elendra is a great card and I'd love to run it, it'd be a great fit in any blue archetype. But I still consider my cube budget and so I shy away from it's current price tag. (I do run cards with a similar price tag, but those usually fell into my lap for much less).
I hear you. Even in an unpowered cube, Blue is really hard to build on the cheap. Blue 4s are even harder, so many of the best creatures in blue cost a lot. I don't know what the rest of your cube looks like, but when I first started spending more to develop my blue section, Glen Elendra Archmage wasn't one of the first cards I shelled out for.
My favorite utility dork is Qasali Pridemage, which perhaps shouldn't count because it beats down pretty well for a utility dork.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Glen Elendra Archmage is great. You just feel so safe having one in play. On the flipside, there are few things more frustrating than planning to cast that amazing noncreature spell (like Wildfire, for example) on your next turn, only to see your opponent drop Archmage with blue open right before that. You need two removal spells to clear the coast for your big spell. And at that point, your opponent just might have counter mana open again.
The favorite utility creature in my cube isn't run by many (non-peasant) cubes: Catacomb Sifter. It is such a fantastic little package though: As a whole, it is a 3/4 for 3, which is a reasonable combat rate. Those stats are spread over two bodies, which opens up the door for many interactions while simultaneously making spot removal and edicts worse. You may also get a one time ramp if you need that. The repeatable scry helps you smooth your draws and this guy even comes with a way to get at least one scry instantly on-demand. There is just so much going on with this little dude and while he isn't high impact, he is helpful in many situations and synergizes with many different cards and effects. So much utility for so little mana! I love it!
Man, I don't even know where to begin with utility critters. I love them all. Can I say Deadeye Navigator? It's dumb, but it's the kind of dumb that I love, especially in EDH.
If you can come up with a pun to go with this card, you're way better than I am:
You're just not persistent enough.
We were fortunate enough to draft an box of OG Modern Masters a couple of weeks back, and I P1P1ed this. It's a house. And I'm definitely glad I didn't end up passing it to my resident Spike, who went hard at Faeries.
My fave utility creature? That's tough. I'm getting a real appreciation for Temur Sabertooth of late...
See, this is why I love this thread! I see today's card and go: Oh hey, Awakening Zone. I have an Awakening Zone. Wait, why don't I run Awakening Zone? It goes with the Selesnya Weenie/Anthem archetype, the Golgari Sacrifice theme and generally works with Green's ramp plan in my cube. So, now I'm looking to make space for Awakening Zone.
In a more powerful cube it's great value alongside Recurring Nightmare or Skullclamp. But it's not a perfect card, of course. It's slow, has no immediate board impact and therefore is a useless topdeck, especially when you're behind.
I used to get up at 6am, but I have moved closer to work a few years back, so now I can get up at 7am. Without an alarm I usually wake up around 9am.
It is not the most powerfuly card, but I like Awakening Zone. It helps you defend and ramp and has lots of neat interactions: Stax/Braids, Skullclamp, Opposition, Blood Artist, Goblin Bombardment, etc. Alternatively, Anthems can turn the spawns into real threats.
Awakening Zone is okay, but it's pretty slow. It needs to go into a deck that can really take advantage of all its modes, because it's a really mediocre ramp card and a really mediocre token card if you're only using one of those two functions in your deck.
I like awakening Zone a lot. It defends, it ramps, produces bodies for any of you sacrificial needs (clamp, braids, nightmare etc.) and if you have an anthem out get get bigger and swing. Like wtwlf123 pointed out its a bit slow at any one function, but I rarely find myself just using one of its options since there are so many little synergies with it.
I get up at 7:30am or 8:00am depending on what job I am going to (the joys to living a short walk from work). If I'm off I will usually sleep into 9am or 10am. I can't lie in any more, when I was younger I could sleep all day, now regardless of what I was doing the night before I can't manage to sleep in.
I've never tried this card because it seems slow and doesn't have any immediate board impact. I've seen it do decent work in the MTGO cubes in ramp shells about half the time I've seen it played there, and it was a dead card the rest of the time, so I'm really not interested in trying this.
Usually I'm awake at 7:00 a.m. on weekdays to teach morning classes, but this semester I got lucky and don't have to be at work until 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays so I sleep in till 10:00-10:30 just like I usually do on weekends.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
We cut Awakening Zone a while back, but it was never bad. It was just a little too slow. If only it made Scions instead of Spawns.
My alarm starts going off at 5 in the morning, and I typically snooze until 6 if I feel like working out before work. If I'm feeling lazier than normal, I snooze until 630. I hate mornings.
Voice of Resurgence is sick. Arguably the best Selesnya card altogether, it's just so efficient and annoying to answer. My voice as sick. As in I sound like a five-year-old and have no vocal range or sense of volume.
I love it, too. It takes an exile effect to prevent you from getting car advantage out of it, and it punishes the use of countermagic. It's a great card in the "mono-fair" archetype - GW aggro-midrange with disruptive weenies like Imposing Sovereign, Qasali Pridemage, Thalia, Heretic of Cathar alongside of efficient beaters - I love to play when other drafters are hogging all the combo cards. I picked up my copy when it rotated out of Standard and was worth about $15. I've given up any hope of foiling it out anytime soon, though.
You can find out what I look and sound like in this video where I help guide a tour of the Suwon Toilet Museum.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Colonnade is easily the best of the man land cycle. Attack for four probably unblockable damage and leave mana up for counters or eot shenanigans? Sign me up.
I went up in the Sears Tower (back when it was still the Sears Tower) in Chicago. That was definitely the highest I've ever been inside a building.
Colonnade is fantastic, and the second best manland in the fixing cycle behind Tar Pit. Manlands with evasion are amazing. When they also fix your mana, they move into the pushed range.
The Sears Tower in Chicago is the tallest building I've been at the top of.
I really like Deathrite Shaman. It slices, it dices and sometimes it even ramps. Does Mother of Runes count? She can be a real monster, too.
Reclamation Sage might be my favorite utility creature. Or Archmage.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
I hear you. Even in an unpowered cube, Blue is really hard to build on the cheap. Blue 4s are even harder, so many of the best creatures in blue cost a lot. I don't know what the rest of your cube looks like, but when I first started spending more to develop my blue section, Glen Elendra Archmage wasn't one of the first cards I shelled out for.
My favorite utility dork is Qasali Pridemage, which perhaps shouldn't count because it beats down pretty well for a utility dork.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
My favorite utility creature is also just straight up my favorite creature, Eternal Witness. I love everything about that card.
Cheers,
rant
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The favorite utility creature in my cube isn't run by many (non-peasant) cubes: Catacomb Sifter. It is such a fantastic little package though: As a whole, it is a 3/4 for 3, which is a reasonable combat rate. Those stats are spread over two bodies, which opens up the door for many interactions while simultaneously making spot removal and edicts worse. You may also get a one time ramp if you need that. The repeatable scry helps you smooth your draws and this guy even comes with a way to get at least one scry instantly on-demand. There is just so much going on with this little dude and while he isn't high impact, he is helpful in many situations and synergizes with many different cards and effects. So much utility for so little mana! I love it!
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
Archmage is at or near the top of my utility creature list. As is Solemn Simulacrum ...big fan of that card.
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Man, I don't even know where to begin with utility critters. I love them all. Can I say Deadeye Navigator? It's dumb, but it's the kind of dumb that I love, especially in EDH.
You're just not persistent enough.
We were fortunate enough to draft an box of OG Modern Masters a couple of weeks back, and I P1P1ed this. It's a house. And I'm definitely glad I didn't end up passing it to my resident Spike, who went hard at Faeries.
My fave utility creature? That's tough. I'm getting a real appreciation for Temur Sabertooth of late...
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Awakening Zone
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What time do you usually wake up?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
In a more powerful cube it's great value alongside Recurring Nightmare or Skullclamp. But it's not a perfect card, of course. It's slow, has no immediate board impact and therefore is a useless topdeck, especially when you're behind.
I used to get up at 6am, but I have moved closer to work a few years back, so now I can get up at 7am. Without an alarm I usually wake up around 9am.
For work, I have to get up at 6 am.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
I'm usually up at 4:00 am on days I have to work.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
I get up at 7:30am or 8:00am depending on what job I am going to (the joys to living a short walk from work). If I'm off I will usually sleep into 9am or 10am. I can't lie in any more, when I was younger I could sleep all day, now regardless of what I was doing the night before I can't manage to sleep in.
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Usually I'm awake at 7:00 a.m. on weekdays to teach morning classes, but this semester I got lucky and don't have to be at work until 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays so I sleep in till 10:00-10:30 just like I usually do on weekends.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
My alarm starts going off at 5 in the morning, and I typically snooze until 6 if I feel like working out before work. If I'm feeling lazier than normal, I snooze until 630. I hate mornings.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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Voice of Resurgence
BONUS QUESTION
What does your voice sound like?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
Cubetutor Link
You can find out what I look and sound like in this video where I help guide a tour of the Suwon Toilet Museum.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Celestial Colonnade
BONUS QUESTION
What's the tallest building you've ever been to the top of?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I went up in the Sears Tower (back when it was still the Sears Tower) in Chicago. That was definitely the highest I've ever been inside a building.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
The Sears Tower in Chicago is the tallest building I've been at the top of.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!