I love Mana Tithe. It's the easiest counter for your opponent to play right into. No one ever sees it coming. And it feel so good to Mana Tithe that big four or five drop.
I'm still waiting on a color shifted Savannah Lions in green. Maybe 2017 is the year.
Everyone knows about this card. Everyone has a story about being blown out by it. And still, we get blown out by it. That's awesome.
As far as colorshifted stuff: Land Tax in G or Snapcaster Mage in R.
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I have the unpopular opinion. Mana Tithe, Force Spike and Daze never worked here, after years of trying. There were many games where the cards had no opportunity to do anything, or were only able to do something irrelevant. They are horrid topdecks. This is a counter that makes its caster a beggar rather than a chooser. They had low deck inclusion rates, and as situational reactive cards it is not surprising.
I've countered my fair share of expensive targets with Spike/Tithe/Daze over the years. I think they're fine topdecks, assuming the opponent is curving out well, they're always good. They're much worse against clunky decks casting 3-drops on T5, but the better my opponent's curve is, the better the effects are. It's really rare that they can't catch a spell during a game. If the opponent is having a hard time using their mana efficiently, the effects can be lackluster; but that's really rare around here. Mana generally doesn't go unused.
Mana Tithe is the sneakiest counterspell if you're playing it in a non-blue deck. Walking into a Mana Tithe is a lot more surprising than running into a Force Spike / Daze.
I run Mana Tithe because of the sweet, sweet "I got you!"-feeling. I think I'd cut Force Spike before Tithe from my cube, because a blue tax counter is far more expeted than a white one.
As for colorshifted stuff, I'm still holding out for a black Day of Judgement, but with the ban on 4 cmc wrath spells R&D has put on themselves I'm not having high hopes. I'd take an affordable reprint of Damnation, but I'd prefer it without the "can't be regenerated"-clause.
Mana Tithe and Force Spike are great. Most cube decks seem to curve out fairly well, so it's not hard to find a target. Leaving one coloured mana open is much easier than two coloured mana. They also nearly always work on the end-of-curve finisher, unless the opponent is leaving counter mana up specifically.
You might not always get to counter the spell you want with Force Spike/Mana Tithe, but as long as you're not holding up mana just to have it available and you counter something that costs more than 1 it's a pretty good tempo swing. It's perfectly solid value to just run either spell out against the first target available. Plus, the extra tension that comes from just one open W or U representing a potential counterspell adds enough excitement to the cube environment that I couldn't see cutting any of the cheap counterspells from my cube.
Not that I'd ever run a textless card in my cube, but the art on this particular text promo has always confused me. How does that scene have anything to do with Mana Tithe?
I like it but I feel like countering is blues thing and it is really weird seeing it in other colours (I know it happens from time to time). I actually think it could be more effective than force spike; game one people aren't playing round counters if your not in blue, then game two/three they are constantly playing round it.
I had forgotten I was playing Gods Willing so I may give it a shot over that.
I would like Squee in blue, he is an awesome fun card but I have a bunch of red 3 drops and could do with another blue 3.
I like it but I feel like countering is blues thing and it is really weird seeing it in other colours (I know it happens from time to time). I actually think it could be more effective than force spike; game one people aren't playing round counters if your not in blue, then game two/three they are constantly playing round it.
It absolutely is more effective than Force Spike. At what point are you expecting Force Spike from non-blue decks?
A good 5 drop color-shifted into black so we have one past Custodi Lich & Shriekmaw.
I love Lotleth Troll. He's a great discard outlet / backup kill condition. Trample + regenerate makes him very hard to deal with. I ended up retiring Troll when we got Heir of Falkenrath / Noose Constrictor.
I really enjoy LOLTeh Troll. Good discard outlet, tough to kill, aggressive in the early game, and has trample so with a quick discard you can still push damage through. Solid for reanimator strats, or agro strats.
I still run and like Lotleth Troll. A lot of reanimation decks are in BG, so they could always use the extra discard outlet, and it's such an efficient beast.
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You might not always get to counter the spell you want with Force Spike/Mana Tithe, but as long as you're not holding up mana just to have it available and you counter something that costs more than 1 it's a pretty good tempo swing. It's perfectly solid value to just run either spell out against the first target available. Plus, the extra tension that comes from just one open W or U representing a potential counterspell adds enough excitement to the cube environment that I couldn't see cutting any of the cheap counterspells from my cube.
The tempo argument has two problem. First, many blue decks do not seek to win with tempo. Second, in decks that do care about tempo, curving out is more important than keeping that mana open. A subjective argument, but those cards were never considered exciting here - people rarely played around them (which I think is correct) and once something important was countered by them, which was fairly infrequently, it felt more like a cheap trick that you got lucky with than a clever play.
I've countered my fair share of expensive targets with Spike/Tithe/Daze over the years. I think they're fine topdecks, assuming the opponent is curving out well, they're always good. They're much worse against clunky decks casting 3-drops on T5, but the better my opponent's curve is, the better the effects are. It's really rare that they can't catch a spell during a game. If the opponent is having a hard time using their mana efficiently, the effects can be lackluster; but that's really rare around here. Mana generally doesn't go unused.
The issue is more about hitting the relevant cards than missing completely if drawn in the opening hand. You so often just counter the first thing you can, even if it a mana rock, just because you have a high chance of never having the opportunity to counter anything with the Mana Tithe again later. We play counters in the cube to answer key cards and Force Spike doesn't do that.
It absolutely is more effective than Force Spike. At what point are you expecting Force Spike from non-blue decks?
White decks are usually much more focused on curving out, especially during the early game.
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Lotleth Troll is an archetype support card. It is both not very playable outside of it and is two colors, so it is a narrow card. I'd play the mono colored discard outlets over Troll, but could see packing it in addition to them.
I liked Lotleth for a long time but I have been losing some interest in him as black has gotten some more discard outlets; like others have said, there are a lot more solid mono colour alternatives available than when he was printed.
Having said that, he is still solid and fairly interesting.
It absolutely is more effective than Force Spike. At what point are you expecting Force Spike from non-blue decks?
White decks are usually much more focused on curving out, especially during the early game.
You can be focused on curving and still have W open on a large number of turns, I don't think that has any effect on my opponent playing around mana tithe. (Or rather, them never/rarely playing around mana tithe.)
As much as I love Terese Nielsen and everything she does, I love the original art with the doofy mystic. It's just classic MTG. I don't run [/c]Control Magic[/c], but I have thought about making space for it.
I typically like combos, but I can run a good control deck.
Control Magic is a top blue card and should be in every cube. Frankly I think it's a 'perfect' cube card--powerful, feels appropriately costed, has readily-accessible answers but wins the game when unanswered, fits in pretty much any cube environment, and a cheap card to purchase a copy of. Really what I mean when I say 'perfect' is that I could recommend it for any cube environment where it's legal (so not pauper) and it would feel like a good recommendation, a card that is inherently strong but never broken.
I do enjoy control decks. I don't know if I would prefer it, but I prefer playing blue and blue is the best control color so that would be a fair conclusion to come to.
Still solid after all those years. This is blue's form of removal, and steal cards create great stories.
The one thing I do not like about this effect in general is that it punishes the deck that is already the best matchup for blue control - midrange. It also disproportionately hoses reanimator and/or cheat decks.
Mana Tithe
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I'm still waiting on a color shifted Savannah Lions in green. Maybe 2017 is the year.
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As far as colorshifted stuff: Land Tax in G or Snapcaster Mage in R.
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I want my blue Wall of Blossoms/Omens please.
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Color-shifted Reclamation Sage in white please.
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As for colorshifted stuff, I'm still holding out for a black Day of Judgement, but with the ban on 4 cmc wrath spells R&D has put on themselves I'm not having high hopes. I'd take an affordable reprint of Damnation, but I'd prefer it without the "can't be regenerated"-clause.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Not that I'd ever run a textless card in my cube, but the art on this particular text promo has always confused me. How does that scene have anything to do with Mana Tithe?
I really wish they'd print a white Reclamation Sage, and if they ever shaved a mana off of Lapse of Certainty to give us a white Memory Lapse I'd run it in a heartbeat.
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I had forgotten I was playing Gods Willing so I may give it a shot over that.
I would like Squee in blue, he is an awesome fun card but I have a bunch of red 3 drops and could do with another blue 3.
Don't we already have Savannah Lions with upside in Kessig Prowler?
It absolutely is more effective than Force Spike. At what point are you expecting Force Spike from non-blue decks?
A good 5 drop color-shifted into black so we have one past Custodi Lich & Shriekmaw.
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This was a big hit during NYE:
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Last thing that made me laugh really hard was the Legend of Bork'd Schlong.
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The tempo argument has two problem. First, many blue decks do not seek to win with tempo. Second, in decks that do care about tempo, curving out is more important than keeping that mana open. A subjective argument, but those cards were never considered exciting here - people rarely played around them (which I think is correct) and once something important was countered by them, which was fairly infrequently, it felt more like a cheap trick that you got lucky with than a clever play.
The issue is more about hitting the relevant cards than missing completely if drawn in the opening hand. You so often just counter the first thing you can, even if it a mana rock, just because you have a high chance of never having the opportunity to counter anything with the Mana Tithe again later. We play counters in the cube to answer key cards and Force Spike doesn't do that.
White decks are usually much more focused on curving out, especially during the early game.
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Lotleth Troll is an archetype support card. It is both not very playable outside of it and is two colors, so it is a narrow card. I'd play the mono colored discard outlets over Troll, but could see packing it in addition to them.
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Having said that, he is still solid and fairly interesting.
You can be focused on curving and still have W open on a large number of turns, I don't think that has any effect on my opponent playing around mana tithe. (Or rather, them never/rarely playing around mana tithe.)
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Do you prefer to play control decks?
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I typically like combos, but I can run a good control deck.
I do enjoy control decks. I don't know if I would prefer it, but I prefer playing blue and blue is the best control color so that would be a fair conclusion to come to.
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I do like playing control, and Control Magic is surely a good card in those shells.
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The one thing I do not like about this effect in general is that it punishes the deck that is already the best matchup for blue control - midrange. It also disproportionately hoses reanimator and/or cheat decks.
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