CA in green is becoming more common, but Cultivate/Kodama's Reach are still very valuable. They also focus on what green does best (ramp) and are another shuffle effect.
I was never a big fan of running functional reprints, so I avoided running both. I preferred cultivate since it didn't have the "arcane" tag, and I avoid additional rules baggage whenever possible. The art on reach I think is better though.
Someone mentioned Harrow, and I think that is a very good card as well, so running that along side one of these two is what I'd probably recommend in larger lists (especially if you support landfall).
I have cats. Plants cannot live in my house, so I do not have any at present.
I do like Disenchant A LOT more than Fragmetize. Instant speed alone is often worth the extra 1 and those effects should be unconditional imo. It will be pretty annoying when you pack a Fragmetize to deal with your opponents artifacts/enchantments and then he drops a problematic permanet that costs 5 or more and your anwser-card is dead in your hand.
I am not completely certain, but as far as I know there is no precedence in Magic that instants are worth one colorless mana more than sorceries. There is plenty of evidence for the other direction: WOTC repeatedly claim that Stone Rain is too strong for modern magic however Volcanic Upheaval was printed a year ago and to my knowledge even had no impact on any format. Some small cubes already cut Searing Spear variants yet Chain Lightning is still near the top of the burn food chain. Divination was more powerful than Inspiration in limited and constructed.
Disenchant is anyways not a good answer to most expensive artifacts in a color that has plenty that are. Fragmentize is the perfect answer (or at least the best we have got) in quite a lot of situations.
Disenchant is not a card you can go wrong with. You might feel a little bad including it in your deck as you're putting together your initial forty, but you won't ever regret it and you probably won't feel as bad about it the next time you find it in your forty cards.
It happened several times that I have sided Disenchant out when it was in my maindeck.
I play both Cultivate and Kodama's Reach and have no plans to stop. They provide card advantage, fixing and they are splashable. I no longer run Harrow.
I am not completely certain, but as far as I know there is no precedence in Magic that instants are worth one colorless mana more than sorceries.
It depends a lot on the kind of effect it is, and if that effect gets a big bonus from being played as an instant. Reactive decks often would rather pay a premium on a spell than be forced to play it in a worse window. Like I think I'd rather play Jace's Ingenuity than Concentrate, for example, because my blue decks are often reactive shells. Stroke of Genius vs Braingeyser is another close one, despite the X value being worth less, even in decks that can easily cast both, Stroke was often the preferable card. It's certainly not a hard and fast rule either way; I think instant speed delivers value to a card that's often worth 1.
The other important factor is that Fragmentize is not just a sorcery Disenchant for 1 less. It's only ~90% of a Disenchant, and a lot of the targets that it misses are pretty important cards to be able to kill.
I like Fragmentize, but I don't like it more than Disenchant.
Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are both great. I can't see cutting either anytime soon (I play both in my Eternal and Peasant cubes).
I don't have a green thumb. My wife, however, has a black thumb. I manage to keep the plants alive. If I'm ever out of town for a few days, I expect to come home to the shriveled husks of plants we used to have. Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet.
Apparently lawn care is just as contentious as today's card. I didn't see that one coming. I, on the other hand, have strong opinions about cat care.
I have cats. Plants cannot live in my house, so I do not have any at present.
Your cats would probably really appreciate having access to a planter of cat grass. It's an important source of fiber that's lacking in a lot of commercial cat foods, and is beneficial for their digestive tracts. Even if your cats are indoor/outdoor cats, it's a good idea to give them access to cat grass so that they're less likely to eat poisonous plants from outside or grass that's been treated with pesticides. If your cats are like mine, you'll probably have to be strategic about where you put the planter so they don't knock it over, but it's easy to grow and more than worth it. Here's a short article on the health benefits of cat grass.
Explosive Vegetation is more attractive in a multiplayer focused cube, there's a lot of mana dork / Rampant Growth effects that I'd rather play over it.
I, on the other hand, have strong opinions about cat care.
So do I.
Your cats would probably really appreciate having access to a planter of cat grass. It's an important source of fiber that's lacking in a lot of commercial cat foods, and is beneficial for their digestive tracts.
I feed my cats raw, which I've witnessed first hand makes a world of difference in their health. It's night and day and there is absolutely no way I'd go back to any other diet. I tried cat grass a few times, but my cats tended to throw it up and I got tired of cleaning it off my floor.
Hmmm... I've never tried going raw with my cats outside of the occasional chicken neck as a treat. I'd love to hear more about it by PM if you don't mind! Moving on from Random Lawn and Pet Care Tips of the Day....
Vampire Lacerator is a serviceable aggro beater for medium-sized lists, but nothing more. He's not one of the premium 1-drops anymore, and he's not a zombie for Gravecrawler, so he is further down on the list than the ones that are.
Run him but looking forward to cutting him when a better version comes along.
When I was sixteen my foot slipped while biking home from school and I sliced open my Achilles tendon on the gears. 29 stitches and 9 months of physical therapy. It was not fun.
I think Vampire Lacerator will be here to stay for a while. 1 cmc 2/2 is pretty pushed and does not come around that often. I run it and I wish there were more vampire synergies in Cube...
Vampire Lacerator was cut a while ago for my group. We tend to stick away from the straight aggro decks and go for the more "fun" cards (Recurring Nightmare, Show and Tell, that ilk). I still support aggro in Red and White, but it's taken a back seat in Green and Black. I'll probably be revisiting this as I revisit a lot of my cube over the next few months, but for now Lacerator is out.
I will say that when I revisit Black Aggro, I'm not even sure that Lacerator will come back in. I like Scarhide for the ability to sit on top of another creature if drawn later. Champion's recursion allows it to play a role in more than just aggro.dec. Viscera Seer is something I could probably cut, but having a quick sac outlet has been a bit useful. Diregraf Ghoul and Gravecrawler are just awesome in their own right.
If I were to really push black aggro (and maybe steer white towards a more midrange color), then Lacerator and Carnophage would probably come in.
I've never had a really bad cut (outside of surgery). So probably a cat scratch from giving my cat a bath a few years back.
I just cut Lacerator. I think I've got the right number of black aggro 1-drops without him. He was the worst of the bunch, given that I need to keep the zombies for Gravecrawler.
I'm not sure what my worst laceration was. I've got a scar on my left index finger from the bite of an almost 6-foot long male iguana. I was trying to treat his gum infection and he was not having it. The bite bled on and off for about three days. I probably should've gotten stitches but had no health insurance at the time.
When Vampire Lacerator came out, he wasn't just one of the top three black 1-drops in cube... he was one of the only three black 1-drops in cube! He is still a serviceable beater for BX aggro decks. I'll cut Carnophage before him, but if we get two or three more good black 1-drops, this little vampire will be cut, too. Until then, he is fulfilling his role nicely.
A few weeks ago, I cut an inch deep into my left thumb with my new kitchen knife. The bleeding just wouldn't stop and my sink was sprinkled red when I was done washing the wound.
I am not completely certain, but as far as I know there is no precedence in Magic that instants are worth one colorless mana more than sorceries.
It depends a lot on the kind of effect it is, and if that effect gets a big bonus from being played as an instant. Reactive decks often would rather pay a premium on a spell than be forced to play it in a worse window. Like I think I'd rather play Jace's Ingenuity than Concentrate, for example, because my blue decks are often reactive shells. Stroke of Genius vs Braingeyser is another close one, despite the X value being worth less, even in decks that can easily cast both, Stroke was often the preferable card. It's certainly not a hard and fast rule either way; I think instant speed delivers value to a card that's often worth 1.
The other important factor is that Fragmentize is not just a sorcery Disenchant for 1 less. It's only ~90% of a Disenchant, and a lot of the targets that it misses are pretty important cards to be able to kill.
I like Fragmentize, but I don't like it more than Disenchant.
I like the Stroke example. I was playing that card in cube before, instant speed was a pretty big deal back then and I did not play Geyser (nor think it would have been good enough for the time). It not perfect as Stroke has one less blue, but it is a good counter. I think that today Geyser would be more powerful in cube as there are way more tap out control decks. I do not think instant speed will prove to be worth one mana for Disenchant, but I have no new arguments and I am getting off topic.
Lacerator is necessary from a certain size upwards if you want to support black aggro. He is not strong, exciting, fun or memorable but that is what we have right now.
Viscera Seer is something I could probably cut, but having a quick sac outlet has been a bit useful.
Why not Carrion Feeder? It has synergy with Gravecrawler and is quite playable if an aggro deck need another cc1 dude, since he can easily grow big and makes blocking more difficult. In non aggro decks, who want to have a sac outlet an do not run Gravecrawler, Seer is probably better, but pretty unplayable in aggro I think and less therefore less flexible
Carrion Feeder is pretty underrated IMO, also excelling in BW token builds. It has performed better for me than a lot of others here, though, so have a grain of salt in tow.
I've always wanted to give Carrion Feeder a test drive haven't taken the plunge yet. Salmo, glad to hear he's working out well for you. If I do try and squeeze him in its likely Lacerator will be the cut.
Viscera Seer is something I could probably cut, but having a quick sac outlet has been a bit useful.
Why not Carrion Feeder? It has synergy with Gravecrawler and is quite playable if an aggro deck need another cc1 dude, since he can easily grow big and makes blocking more difficult. In non aggro decks, who want to have a sac outlet an do not run Gravecrawler, Seer is probably better, but pretty unplayable in aggro I think and less therefore less flexible
That is an excellent question that I do not have an answer to I'm sure I have one in my boxes of cards to slot in. Definite good call, and A+ recommendation. Thanks, yo!
Carrion Feeder is pretty underrated IMO, also excelling in BW token builds. It has performed better for me than a lot of others here, though, so have a grain of salt in tow.
Great point, and I have been transitioning into tokens for my black white section after one of my players became super into it in Modern. This seems like such a no brainer that I totally blanked on.
My lacerations have been wholly unimpressive, but one of my sons managed a beauty at daycare last year. They had a soakwell underneath the sandpit at daycare, and there had been so much rain that it caved in and cracked the concrete lid on the soakwell. But it was under the sand of the sandpit, so you couldn't see it poking up. At least, not until my son went leaping into it feet-first. They couldn't stitch the cut on the bottom of his foot - all they could do was stop the bleeding, tape him up and tell him not to stand on it or get it wet for a week... ever tried doing that with a 4yo boy? That was a fun week...
I think Vampire Lacerator is the 8th best black aggro 1-drop, so it just barely misses the cut for me. This is quite unfortunate for me, since I have 2 foils signed by Steve Argyle. One's doing just fine in my Peasant cube, the other is sitting homeless in my on-deck box. However, I really can't justify cutting Carnophage, Sarcomancy, Tormented Hero, or really anything else in my black section to make room for it.
The worst laceration I ever experienced was the time I shut my finger in the bathroom door when I was 6. I panicked and yanked my finger out of the door leaving behind a hunk of flesh and my entire fingernail. I needed stitches, and the fingernail grew back, but I still have a scar.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Harmonize is great. In the kids' peasant cube, decked frequently in my green free-for-all decks. I keep running out of copies.
I am one of those annoying self-taught musicians that drives classically trained people nuts. I can sing and play guitar well enough to at least stand in front of a crowd and do a song. My wife is a trained pianist and my ability to free-wheel drives her insane.
Harmonize biggest pull is that it is a wholesale colour break like Mana Tithe, that allows you to be blue without playing any blue.
It is fairly costed, which means that it doesn't compete with even unpowered cube draw spells in the mana department. I think it's biggest issue though is that green four drops are stacked to the rafters.
Musically, I play guitar, drums, bass, keys and sing. I also have a degree in music production (yes, really - those exist lol)
Sorcery speed 4 mana spells that do not affect the board have a very high bar of entry, in all colors. Harmonize is below that bar for me, simply more fatties and/or ramp are prioritized higher by green decks here.
I don't run Harmonize for the exact reason Metamind said, and I think Garruk, Primal Hunter, Cultivate-type effects, and Nissa, Vastwood Seer are better options for green card draw. I don't often see Harmonize on MTGS lists, but it does make Cubetutor Average 360, so it's apparently still quite a bit more popular than it might seem based on the lists we're used to seeing.
Aesthetically, I really love the original Planar Chaos version, not only for the color-shifted frame, but also for the subtle anti-blue smack talk in the flavor text.
I had to take violin and trumpet lessons when I was in elementary school, but had no interest in sticking with it. I love listening to music, but never create it outside of occasionally terrorizing my friends in karaoke rooms.
I was never a big fan of running functional reprints, so I avoided running both. I preferred cultivate since it didn't have the "arcane" tag, and I avoid additional rules baggage whenever possible. The art on reach I think is better though.
Someone mentioned Harrow, and I think that is a very good card as well, so running that along side one of these two is what I'd probably recommend in larger lists (especially if you support landfall).
I have cats. Plants cannot live in my house, so I do not have any at present.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
I am not completely certain, but as far as I know there is no precedence in Magic that instants are worth one colorless mana more than sorceries. There is plenty of evidence for the other direction: WOTC repeatedly claim that Stone Rain is too strong for modern magic however Volcanic Upheaval was printed a year ago and to my knowledge even had no impact on any format. Some small cubes already cut Searing Spear variants yet Chain Lightning is still near the top of the burn food chain. Divination was more powerful than Inspiration in limited and constructed.
Disenchant is anyways not a good answer to most expensive artifacts in a color that has plenty that are. Fragmentize is the perfect answer (or at least the best we have got) in quite a lot of situations.
It happened several times that I have sided Disenchant out when it was in my maindeck.
I play both Cultivate and Kodama's Reach and have no plans to stop. They provide card advantage, fixing and they are splashable. I no longer run Harrow.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
It depends a lot on the kind of effect it is, and if that effect gets a big bonus from being played as an instant. Reactive decks often would rather pay a premium on a spell than be forced to play it in a worse window. Like I think I'd rather play Jace's Ingenuity than Concentrate, for example, because my blue decks are often reactive shells. Stroke of Genius vs Braingeyser is another close one, despite the X value being worth less, even in decks that can easily cast both, Stroke was often the preferable card. It's certainly not a hard and fast rule either way; I think instant speed delivers value to a card that's often worth 1.
The other important factor is that Fragmentize is not just a sorcery Disenchant for 1 less. It's only ~90% of a Disenchant, and a lot of the targets that it misses are pretty important cards to be able to kill.
I like Fragmentize, but I don't like it more than Disenchant.
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 don't have a green thumb. My wife, however, has a black thumb. I manage to keep the plants alive. If I'm ever out of town for a few days, I expect to come home to the shriveled husks of plants we used to have. Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet.
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.
Your cats would probably really appreciate having access to a planter of cat grass. It's an important source of fiber that's lacking in a lot of commercial cat foods, and is beneficial for their digestive tracts. Even if your cats are indoor/outdoor cats, it's a good idea to give them access to cat grass so that they're less likely to eat poisonous plants from outside or grass that's been treated with pesticides. If your cats are like mine, you'll probably have to be strategic about where you put the planter so they don't knock it over, but it's easy to grow and more than worth it. Here's a short article on the health benefits of cat grass.
Back on topic, am I out to lunch for considering replacing Kodama's Reach with Explosive Vegetation?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
So do I.
I feed my cats raw, which I've witnessed first hand makes a world of difference in their health. It's night and day and there is absolutely no way I'd go back to any other diet. I tried cat grass a few times, but my cats tended to throw it up and I got tired of cleaning it off my floor.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Vampire Lacerator
BONUS QUESTION
What was the worst laceration you've ever had?
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 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
When I was sixteen my foot slipped while biking home from school and I sliced open my Achilles tendon on the gears. 29 stitches and 9 months of physical therapy. It was not fun.
Right now at 450 my black one drop creatures are:
Bloodsoaked Champion
Diregraf Ghoul
Gravecrawler
Viscera Seer
Gnarled Scarhide
I will say that when I revisit Black Aggro, I'm not even sure that Lacerator will come back in. I like Scarhide for the ability to sit on top of another creature if drawn later. Champion's recursion allows it to play a role in more than just aggro.dec. Viscera Seer is something I could probably cut, but having a quick sac outlet has been a bit useful. Diregraf Ghoul and Gravecrawler are just awesome in their own right.
If I were to really push black aggro (and maybe steer white towards a more midrange color), then Lacerator and Carnophage would probably come in.
I've never had a really bad cut (outside of surgery). So probably a cat scratch from giving my cat a bath a few years back.
Tappedout
Cubetutor
I'm not sure what my worst laceration was. I've got a scar on my left index finger from the bite of an almost 6-foot long male iguana. I was trying to treat his gum infection and he was not having it. The bite bled on and off for about three days. I probably should've gotten stitches but had no health insurance at the time.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
A few weeks ago, I cut an inch deep into my left thumb with my new kitchen knife. The bleeding just wouldn't stop and my sink was sprinkled red when I was done washing the wound.
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 like the Stroke example. I was playing that card in cube before, instant speed was a pretty big deal back then and I did not play Geyser (nor think it would have been good enough for the time). It not perfect as Stroke has one less blue, but it is a good counter. I think that today Geyser would be more powerful in cube as there are way more tap out control decks. I do not think instant speed will prove to be worth one mana for Disenchant, but I have no new arguments and I am getting off topic.
Lacerator is necessary from a certain size upwards if you want to support black aggro. He is not strong, exciting, fun or memorable but that is what we have right now.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Carrion Feeder is pretty underrated IMO, also excelling in BW token builds. It has performed better for me than a lot of others here, though, so have a grain of salt in tow.
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That is an excellent question that I do not have an answer to I'm sure I have one in my boxes of cards to slot in. Definite good call, and A+ recommendation. Thanks, yo!
Great point, and I have been transitioning into tokens for my black white section after one of my players became super into it in Modern. This seems like such a no brainer that I totally blanked on.
Thanks guys
Tappedout
Cubetutor
My lacerations have been wholly unimpressive, but one of my sons managed a beauty at daycare last year. They had a soakwell underneath the sandpit at daycare, and there had been so much rain that it caved in and cracked the concrete lid on the soakwell. But it was under the sand of the sandpit, so you couldn't see it poking up. At least, not until my son went leaping into it feet-first. They couldn't stitch the cut on the bottom of his foot - all they could do was stop the bleeding, tape him up and tell him not to stand on it or get it wet for a week... ever tried doing that with a 4yo boy? That was a fun week...
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The worst laceration I ever experienced was the time I shut my finger in the bathroom door when I was 6. I panicked and yanked my finger out of the door leaving behind a hunk of flesh and my entire fingernail. I needed stitches, and the fingernail grew back, but I still have a scar.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Harmonize
BONUS QUESTION
Speaking of harmony, how musical are you?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I am one of those annoying self-taught musicians that drives classically trained people nuts. I can sing and play guitar well enough to at least stand in front of a crowd and do a song. My wife is a trained pianist and my ability to free-wheel drives her insane.
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
It is fairly costed, which means that it doesn't compete with even unpowered cube draw spells in the mana department. I think it's biggest issue though is that green four drops are stacked to the rafters.
Musically, I play guitar, drums, bass, keys and sing. I also have a degree in music production (yes, really - those exist lol)
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Aesthetically, I really love the original Planar Chaos version, not only for the color-shifted frame, but also for the subtle anti-blue smack talk in the flavor text.
I had to take violin and trumpet lessons when I was in elementary school, but had no interest in sticking with it. I love listening to music, but never create it outside of occasionally terrorizing my friends in karaoke rooms.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.