I like Izzet Charm in my 360. Each mode is relevant. I'm usually happiest if I get to cast the Spell Pierce mode, but never unhappy casting Shock on a creature either. Careful Study is nice for Goblin Welder and further rewards Reanimator if they splash Red for Sneak Attack or Faithless Looting. I like that Izzet Charm bumps the Careful Study mode from a Sorcery to an Instant without toning it down, as well.
Favorite Modal is Mystic Confluence. Mana Leak + Draw 2? Yes please! It's super unlikely that anyone is going to be able to pay 9 for their spell, at least for anything I would want to counter with Confluence, so worst case it's a hardcast Force of Will, and I've hardcast some FoWs in cube and felt good about it. More likely, it's Dismiss or better. EoT, bounce 3 creatures, attack for the win is also a nice option to have. Also, holding up the counter, and if the opponent doesn't cast anything, casting it as Jace's Ingenuity is fine, too. There's just so much the card can do!
Izzet Charm is a strong spell. Not the best charm, but it's still really solid and does everything you could want out of a 2 cmc instant. Fantastic isochron target as well, and considering that Fire // Ice was recently CMC nerfed, it's probably izzet's best option for it now.
My favorite modal spell is probably Boros Charm right now, because it's just so flexible. Need to punch a face for 4? Done. Need to turn a beat stick into an alpha strike? Done. Need to spend 2 mana to make a board sweeper hilariously 1 sided? Done.
Izzet charm is ok. I dont think izzet is a really deep guild, but the top of thr guild are too good for me to include it. If it were a choose 2 instead of 1 then it might make the cut
I love Izzet Charm. Goes into any deck that can cast it. Loot mode is probably my favorite.
Favorite modal spell is Kolaghan's Command. One of the cheaper 2 for 1s available, and burning a creature and blowing up a rock or Sword for 1BR is insane.
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EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
I run Charm, but Izzet Charm, Electrolyze and Prophetic Bolt are all in he same spot for me: they do things I usually want to do and they're never dead, but the second I get a more unique Izzet effect, they're getting cut.
Dack Fayden already displaced Electrolyze, just waiting for the other two. To the point of trying to force Gelectrode and Goblin Electromancer a bunch of times, both to bad results.
EDIT: Forgot Keranos and Dack's Duplicate, so I don't really have an excuse now except cost.
Stupid pet multimodal spell is Funeral Charm, but I think Primal Command has the least replaceable role in Cube.
Izzet Charm doesn't pull you into Izzet the way Dack Fayden might, but I'm always glad to have it once I'm already in both colors. There's always something useful to do with it, so you'll always get your card and 2 mana's worth out of it.
Fiery Confluence is probably my favorite modal spell, it's pretty much always backbreaking whenever it gets cast.
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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.
Condemn is okay, but being limited to defensive roles really hurts the number of decks it can go into.
For casual groups, preventing commander tucking increases the quality of the experience. The really cutthroat players can do abusive things with certain generals once they're impervious to being removed though.
Condemn is a decent removal but suffers from attacking creatures clause. In addition white has non condotional removal so condemn is often on the outside looking in.
I dont play edh becuase i thinj the competitive edh scene sucks, and cube is a more fun casual environment.
As efficient as Condemn is, typically only control decks prioritize it particularly highly, so it's a bit too narrow for my tastes. I'm happier with both Declaration in Stone and Journey to Nowhere as removal that has a place in any deck that makes W. However, I'm happy to run it in my Peasant cube, where I think that control decks could use the help of a premium removal spell that other decks don't particularly want. I'd only recommend running this if control decks are struggling in your cube.
I'm not a fan of the elimination of tuck in EDH. Every permanent should have an answer, and there are plenty of commanders that just need to get gotten rid of for longer than a turn or 2.
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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.
I love Earthquake. Not only can it function as an efficient sweeper, but the player damage can kill planeswalkers, and the non-flying clause opens up opportunities to create asymmetry in decks featuring lots of flying creatures and cards like Moat.
I've been in a couple small 'quakes, but none of any significance.
Earthquake is great. It can be built and played around in a huge number of ways, whether as a straight-up sweeper, a finisher, Creature+Planeswalker removal or a plague wind if you have bigger/flying creatures. Plus it gives me another piece of Richard Kane Ferguson art.
I've been on the edge of the Pacific shelf all my life, but never been in an earthquake worth talking about.
Great card. I like this in W/R or U/R where I usually have several fliers that survive. Even if you just have ground troops, Earthquake is great for its ability to kill planeswalkers or just dome your opponent out.
I have been thru a couple of small earthquakes. The most recent was 2011. A few of us were in a server room and I thought the rack was going to fall on one of my coworkers (thankfully, it just shimmied and shook but didn't fall).
I undervalued Earthquake for a long time. It's not always a great sweeper since you can often find yourself chasing high toughness creatures being mana short (this is not nearly as good as something like Toxic Deluge). It also deals damage to you. That said, because it doesn't hit flyers you have opportunities for abuse there. This is also sweet as additional reach in some aggressive decks or as a conditional reset button of sorts if you are way behind on the board. In much the same way Death Cloud is good because even though it's inefficient at everything it can be a lot of things when you need it to be, Earthquake is the same sort of card.
And I live in CA, so lots of Earthquakes. Though fortunate enough to not have been at the epicenter of anything major (knock on wood).
I love Quake and similar cards. In fact, I love most red X burn spells. Sweepers are even better. My Quake is a revised quake that somebody sharpied the border black in hopes of passing it off as an alpha/beta card, not realizing that the text structure is different on all three. I got it super cheap anyways.
Earthquake has been a recent but impressive addition. It is an like X burn spell stapled to a pretty effective post-combat sweeper.#
Most red decks can get some use out of it; agro likes the reach it offers, midrange decks appreciate clearing the field of small creatures and the control decks like the option of nuking the board whilst removing a walker as well as being most likly to break the symmetry (though your own life total can be a issue). It is also very splashable so it is a good option if you have afew extra red sources.
Currently I have been running Rolling Earthquake, but I just picked up a moat. I am still trying to decide what to cut for it.
When I do, I guess the next question is if it's better to stick with rolling earthquake, or give a little support to the Moat deck and trade it for Earthquake?
I don't think you need to be running Moat to make Earthquake great, and I don't think it's an either/or question. I run both Quakes and like them quite a bit. Having both does a lot to help red play a stronger role in control decks, and there are all kinds of ways to break the symmetry on Earthquake.
I'm running an M10 quake in foil, mostly because it was the cheapest way to foil one out, but while looking over the different versions available, I can't help but think that the 7th Edition Earthquake would look fantastic in foil, and I'm tempted to splurge on it.
I was in a 6.4 quake when I lived in Seattle, and I was at work in my office on the 20th floor at the time. The quake made the whole building wobble back and forth for what was probably the longest 30 seconds of my life. Earthquake-proof buildings are meant to do that, but it didn't make it any less frightening. No one was seriously hurt or killed in the quake.
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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.
Earthquake is awesome. I'd run both Earthquake and Rolling Earthquake all the way down to 360. It helps diversify the section.
I play the Portal version, although I really like the Portal Second Age one, too, and may trade out next time I make an order.
When I lived in Illinois, there were a fewer minor quakes, but nothing worth mentioning. Now that I live in the northern Rockies, the next big quake will be Yellowstone ending the planet . . . or so the Learning Channel used to tell me one every show.
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EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Earthquake is the bomb. Versatile, splashable, abusable, etc. Scalable sweeper, can kill planeswalkesr, or just outright kill your opponent / end the game in a draw. I will often splash red just for Earthquake effects, they're that damn good.
I just wrote a tournament report today when I literally lived and died by my Earthquakes. They won me many games, but I ended up getting Mindslavered by Emrakul game 3 of the finals and was forced to kill myself with my own Earthquake, haha.
Terminate is behind Dreadbore for me, and Dreadbore would be the next card I'd add.
At 450, I run Rakdos Cackler, Kolaghan's Command, and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast. I only play 3 guild cards so I can feel okay about running a variably sized rainbow section, currently 7 cards, to fit stuff I want in the cube but haven't got a spot for. I could move Cackler to that section if another sweet Rakdos card came out, but Dreadbore or Terminate or Aristocrat or whatever else aren't sweet enough for me to make that move.
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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
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Favorite Modal is Mystic Confluence. Mana Leak + Draw 2? Yes please! It's super unlikely that anyone is going to be able to pay 9 for their spell, at least for anything I would want to counter with Confluence, so worst case it's a hardcast Force of Will, and I've hardcast some FoWs in cube and felt good about it. More likely, it's Dismiss or better. EoT, bounce 3 creatures, attack for the win is also a nice option to have. Also, holding up the counter, and if the opponent doesn't cast anything, casting it as Jace's Ingenuity is fine, too. There's just so much the card can do!
[180 classic cube]
My favorite modal spell is probably Boros Charm right now, because it's just so flexible. Need to punch a face for 4? Done. Need to turn a beat stick into an alpha strike? Done. Need to spend 2 mana to make a board sweeper hilariously 1 sided? Done.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
Favorite modal spell is Kolaghan's Command. One of the cheaper 2 for 1s available, and burning a creature and blowing up a rock or Sword for 1BR is insane.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
My favorite modal spell in the cube has become Mystic Confluence.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Dack Fayden already displaced Electrolyze, just waiting for the other two. To the point of trying to force Gelectrode and Goblin Electromancer a bunch of times, both to bad results.
EDIT: Forgot Keranos and Dack's Duplicate, so I don't really have an excuse now except cost.
Stupid pet multimodal spell is Funeral Charm, but I think Primal Command has the least replaceable role in Cube.
Fiery Confluence is probably my favorite modal spell, it's pretty much always backbreaking whenever it gets cast.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
BONUS QUESTION
For the EDH players, how do you feel about the "no tuck" rule?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
For casual groups, preventing commander tucking increases the quality of the experience. The really cutthroat players can do abusive things with certain generals once they're impervious to being removed though.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
I dont play edh becuase i thinj the competitive edh scene sucks, and cube is a more fun casual environment.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I'm not a fan of the elimination of tuck in EDH. Every permanent should have an answer, and there are plenty of commanders that just need to get gotten rid of for longer than a turn or 2.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Earthquake
BONUS QUESTION
Have you ever experienced an earthquake?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I've been in a couple small 'quakes, but none of any significance.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
I've been on the edge of the Pacific shelf all my life, but never been in an earthquake worth talking about.
I have been thru a couple of small earthquakes. The most recent was 2011. A few of us were in a server room and I thought the rack was going to fall on one of my coworkers (thankfully, it just shimmied and shook but didn't fall).
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
And I live in CA, so lots of Earthquakes. Though fortunate enough to not have been at the epicenter of anything major (knock on wood).
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Most red decks can get some use out of it; agro likes the reach it offers, midrange decks appreciate clearing the field of small creatures and the control decks like the option of nuking the board whilst removing a walker as well as being most likly to break the symmetry (though your own life total can be a issue). It is also very splashable so it is a good option if you have afew extra red sources.
I think Rolling Earthquake is better most of the time but Earthquake makes it easier to break the symmetry.
I don't think Northern Ireland has ever had an earthquake.
When I do, I guess the next question is if it's better to stick with rolling earthquake, or give a little support to the Moat deck and trade it for Earthquake?
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I'm running an M10 quake in foil, mostly because it was the cheapest way to foil one out, but while looking over the different versions available, I can't help but think that the 7th Edition Earthquake would look fantastic in foil, and I'm tempted to splurge on it.
I was in a 6.4 quake when I lived in Seattle, and I was at work in my office on the 20th floor at the time. The quake made the whole building wobble back and forth for what was probably the longest 30 seconds of my life. Earthquake-proof buildings are meant to do that, but it didn't make it any less frightening. No one was seriously hurt or killed in the quake.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I play the Portal version, although I really like the Portal Second Age one, too, and may trade out next time I make an order.
When I lived in Illinois, there were a fewer minor quakes, but nothing worth mentioning. Now that I live in the northern Rockies, the next big quake will be Yellowstone ending the planet . . . or so the Learning Channel used to tell me one every show.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
I just wrote a tournament report today when I literally lived and died by my Earthquakes. They won me many games, but I ended up getting Mindslavered by Emrakul game 3 of the finals and was forced to kill myself with my own Earthquake, haha.
Full tournament report here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/773257-xmage-cube-group?page=2#c26
I've definitely felt the ground shake a few times in Illinois, but nothing major.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Terminate
BONUS QUESTION
What are you running in your Rakdos section right now?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
My Rakdos section is:
Murderous Redcap (solid, does work in a few shells)
Olivia Voldaren (on the chopping block)
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden (has been ok, not stellar)
At 450, I run Rakdos Cackler, Kolaghan's Command, and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast. I only play 3 guild cards so I can feel okay about running a variably sized rainbow section, currently 7 cards, to fit stuff I want in the cube but haven't got a spot for. I could move Cackler to that section if another sweet Rakdos card came out, but Dreadbore or Terminate or Aristocrat or whatever else aren't sweet enough for me to make that move.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered