I like Tolarian Academy. In a Powered Cube, you can get super broken starts, which seems adequate for that format. In an Unpowered Cube without fast mana, it still helps with playing the more expensive artifacts ahead of curve, but without feeling oppressive. It also requires a specific deck in order to be better than an Island (or even as good!).
Demonic Tutor is such a great card in a singleton environment, so many cards that you can get!
A bit late to the Sci Fi movies party, but that is what really made me write this post: Starship Troopers and Pitch Black are two of my favorites and I think they are often undervalued.
Tolarian Academy is awesome. In the right deck, the land can regularly tap for UU or UUU, which is just completely nutty.
Hard to pick a favorite banned card, especially if you count restricted cards that are banned in Legacy. If so, it would probably be Library of Alexandria.
We should probably avoid having the card of the day coincide with the category being voted on to avoid bias. Im sure that wasnt the intent but just a good idea going forward until we conclude.
Random cards are random, I click "Sample Pack" in CTA 720, check if the card's been discussed yet, think of a dumb joke and post it. FWIW, I also don't see the harm in people sharing their opinions on cards currently being voted on. Heck, in the Power Rankings discussion thread, people are talking about what cards they're surprised to see people not ranking highly enough. This entire forum is full of biased opinions about cards. That's pretty much what we do here.
In that spirit, here's my opinion on Tolarian Academy. I've never run Tolarian Academy in my cube, but I suspect it wouldn't be all that good in it if I did since my cube is unpowered. It would be hard to get a high enough density of artifacts to make it even produce mana consistently, much less ramp. However, since the price tag is nowhere near as bad with Academy as it is for Gaea's Cradle, I'd love to hear from unpowered cube managers who have tried it whether or not it's worthwhile.
My favorite banned card is Recurring Nightmare, which is banned in Commander. I'm always a bit more interested to try a card if it's been banned from any format, it must be the thrill of the forbidden.
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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.
And I think it's perfectly fine to discuss cards here while the voting is going on. We have some posters campaigning for their favorite cards to be included on other peoples' lists across multiple threads already, and if that's allowable/encouraged, certainly a random card of the day is just fine.
Tolarian Academy is nuts in the artifact deck, arguably one of the most powerful lands ever printed. I really wish unpowered cubes could comfortably support the artifact deck.
Right now my favorite cube card that's banned in other formats is Oath of Druids, which is banned in Legacy for a very good reason. It's a challenging deck to build that has a really high payoff and creates a fun mini-game since it's a double-edged sword. Selvala's Stampede has also been a stellar card that we recently got in CN2.
I don't run one because I don't have one. And I'm not sure I would if I had one because my cube is focused heavily on multicolor, and there isn't enough support in my cube for artifacts. Though I'd probably restructure my cube to run it. It's stupidly powerful. Like... beyond stupidly powerful.
My favorite banned card is also Recurring Nightmare, because it's one of my all time favorite cards, and the engine for my very first self built deck. I always feel dirty whenever I play it, but in a good way. When I draft it early, I actually have a hard time about keeping a straight face with it.
Turns out, 0-mana any-color Dark Ritual is terribly broken. No surprises here. The fact it isn't the top Power card just speaks volumes about the rest of them...
I don't have any Power currently. The closest was when I found a gold-border Timetwister for a price that wasn't as cutthroat-y as everywhere else, so I ordered it together with other singles from a site. Later I received a call from the store, the clerk saying there was a storage miscount and they didn't really had the Timetwister , and if would I like a refund or store credit...
I don't own any power either, but I do own several copies of Blacker Lotus, so that's actually even better, right? (And I run Jack-in-the-Mox as one of my few silver-border inclusions.)
I own no power and my cube will likely remain unpowered for a lot of reasons, not least because even the Collector's Editions of the cards are outrageous these days. I wish they'd print somewhat fixed versions of some of these cards in some supplemental product that would only be legal in EDH and Cube. Time Walk for 2UU, Ancestral Recall for 1U, maybe moxen that cost 1, stuff like that.
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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
I've never cast a Black Lotus either, in any format. I'm curious, though, how I should value it vs. other power for whenever I do draft a powered cube. Should I take it over an off-color mox? An on-color mox?
I own no power and my cube will likely remain unpowered for a lot of reasons, not least because even the Collector's Editions of the cards are outrageous these days. I wish they'd print somewhat fixed versions of some of these cards in some supplemental product that would only be legal in EDH and Cube. Time Walk for 2UU, Ancestral Recall for 1U, maybe moxen that cost 1, stuff like that.
It's interesting to see how WotC has struggled with making callback cards that work without being too problematic. Jace's Ingenuity is where they seem to have settled on for Recall, and Treasure Cruise broke Modern and Eternal formats within weeks of being printed. Time Warp seems like it can't be reprinted again without an exile clause even if it costs more, and they seem hesitant to print mana rocks that cost only 2 any more, so even Signets and Diamonds only get reprinted in Commander products. the last one they printed for 2 in a Standard-legal set is nearly impossible to use on turn 3. Unfortunately, all that means I don't think you'll be getting your wish on this one.
I don't own any either, but I've made a set of proxies for a "holiday cube" expansion that I'll break out any time anyone wants to draft near Christmas. That's probably the closest I'll ever get to owning any power, aside from the time I had to face a Turn 1 Ihsan's Shade that had been powered out by Black Lotus and Dark Ritual back in 1998.
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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.
There's a reason it's the single most iconic magic card. I'll never afford one, and even if I do have that much spare change, I doubt I'd spend it on one. Also, I have no true power pieces.
Cheat mode: I really learned how to play with Micropose's MTG Shandalar video game, which used cards from ABUR-The Dark, and getting some power 9, Library of Alexandria and Shivan Dragon were about the best things you could do to just steamroll to victory.
Imperial Recruiter is a fine cube card and is in no danger of getting cut, however, I don't think he's worth the price tag. You'd be better off spending that money on other cube staples that are much less expensive.
I despise white borders. They are the ugliest thing WotC has ever done to Magic cards. I will Sharpie them all.
Imperial Recruiter falls in the same category as Tarmogoyf for me: cards that do not do enough in cube to warrant paying for in cash terms.
As far as borders are concerned, I am not a snob about them (i have a few gold borders). My cube is about having fun with my friends down my LGS and a gold bordered wasteland plays just the same as a 20x more expensive tempest version. Same goes for white bordered cards.
Imperial Recruiter falls in the same category as Tarmogoyf for me: cards that do not do enough in cube to warrant paying for in cash terms.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat here. However, they've reprinted quite a few P3K cards lately, and Recruiter of the Guard's showed us that WotC wants this kind of effect to be available to Eternal formats. Maybe we'll get a reprint in the upcoming Commander precons?
White borders aren't a deal breaker for me either. For a lot of iconic older cards like Sylvan Library, City of Brass and Demonic Tutor where the black bordered version's too pricey, I'd rather have a white bordered version with the original art than a black border reprint with different art. I've been gradually replacing my gold-bordered editions, but there are still some cards like Survival of the Fittest and Rishadan Port that would be too expensive for me to run in my cube otherwise.
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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.
If I had to purchase this card outright I wouldn't include it but it is one of the 20 or so high quality proxies I have in my cube (ABU duals, Ravages, Burning of Xinye, ect) and I'm not cutting it anytime soon. The effect is great.
I have a few sharpied gold bordered cards in my cube as well. Force and Grim Monolith I think. White is ugly but I don't mind because it's kind of retro at this point. Gold borders are atrocious though, imo.
As many have said before me: quite the solid cube card, not worth its price tag to me personally (and I've long moved on from proxies in my cube).
I'm very snobbisch about borders in my cube, I only run modern black border cards and even try to upgrade to post modern border wherever possible (and sensible, pricewise). It makes me quite happy when an old cube staple finally makes it to modern border with some supplemental product (e.g. Wildfire in MM15).
I've never cast a Black Lotus either, in any format. I'm curious, though, how I should value it vs. other power for whenever I do draft a powered cube. Should I take it over an off-color mox? An on-color box?
The only cards I wouldn't take P1P1 over it are Sol Ring and Library of Alexandria, and even then I can see arguments to do that, especially for the latter which is more like a 50-50 to me. Playing t1 4 drops and t2 5 drops is almost always better than anything you could do with a moxen, and in terms of comparing it to Library it'll just about always beat the deck that's 'only' drawing 2 cards/turn. Sol Ring tends to be better overall since you get the massive mana bonus turn after turn, meaning you're not just slamming your opponent with one ahead of curve play but many. Some decks will also see this with mana crypt i.e. decks that want the free sol ring and don't care about the life loss, but you're still better off taking Black Lotus versus Mana Crypt in a lot of those scenarios. If I'm heavy blue I might take Ancestral Recall over it, with more of an argument if I have something like double stroke/snapcaster mage/etc.
I don't have any P3K cards, and I don't even remember seeing any in the few shops that were around when it came out. It was always scarce. Though I greatly respect this card's power.
I don't mind a white border card at all. I started playing during the Rath cycle, and bought quite a few 4th and 5th edition cards, so it never bothered me as much as it bothers other people.
I do have a sharpied revised Earthquake that somebody tried to pass off as beta, which is hilarious because the formatting of the two cards is completely different. Paid a dollar for it. Don't care.
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Demonic Tutor is such a great card in a singleton environment, so many cards that you can get!
A bit late to the Sci Fi movies party, but that is what really made me write this post: Starship Troopers and Pitch Black are two of my favorites and I think they are often undervalued.
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
Hard to pick a favorite banned card, especially if you count restricted cards that are banned in Legacy. If so, it would probably be Library of Alexandria.
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!
Random cards are random, I click "Sample Pack" in CTA 720, check if the card's been discussed yet, think of a dumb joke and post it. FWIW, I also don't see the harm in people sharing their opinions on cards currently being voted on. Heck, in the Power Rankings discussion thread, people are talking about what cards they're surprised to see people not ranking highly enough. This entire forum is full of biased opinions about cards. That's pretty much what we do here.
In that spirit, here's my opinion on Tolarian Academy. I've never run Tolarian Academy in my cube, but I suspect it wouldn't be all that good in it if I did since my cube is unpowered. It would be hard to get a high enough density of artifacts to make it even produce mana consistently, much less ramp. However, since the price tag is nowhere near as bad with Academy as it is for Gaea's Cradle, I'd love to hear from unpowered cube managers who have tried it whether or not it's worthwhile.
My favorite banned card is Recurring Nightmare, which is banned in Commander. I'm always a bit more interested to try a card if it's been banned from any format, it must be the thrill of the forbidden.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
And I think it's perfectly fine to discuss cards here while the voting is going on. We have some posters campaigning for their favorite cards to be included on other peoples' lists across multiple threads already, and if that's allowable/encouraged, certainly a random card of the day is just fine.
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!
Right now my favorite cube card that's banned in other formats is Oath of Druids, which is banned in Legacy for a very good reason. It's a challenging deck to build that has a really high payoff and creates a fun mini-game since it's a double-edged sword. Selvala's Stampede has also been a stellar card that we recently got in CN2.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
My favorite banned card is also Recurring Nightmare, because it's one of my all time favorite cards, and the engine for my very first self built deck. I always feel dirty whenever I play it, but in a good way. When I draft it early, I actually have a hard time about keeping a straight face with it.
Black Lotus
BONUS QUESTION
How did you get your first piece of Power?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I don't have any Power currently. The closest was when I found a gold-border Timetwister for a price that wasn't as cutthroat-y as everywhere else, so I ordered it together with other singles from a site. Later I received a call from the store, the clerk saying there was a storage miscount and they didn't really had the Timetwister , and if would I like a refund or store credit...
I believe the first piece of power that I owned was an UNL Mox Pearl that I picked up from a FLGS.
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 own no power and my cube will likely remain unpowered for a lot of reasons, not least because even the Collector's Editions of the cards are outrageous these days. I wish they'd print somewhat fixed versions of some of these cards in some supplemental product that would only be legal in EDH and Cube. Time Walk for 2UU, Ancestral Recall for 1U, maybe moxen that cost 1, stuff like that.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
It's interesting to see how WotC has struggled with making callback cards that work without being too problematic. Jace's Ingenuity is where they seem to have settled on for Recall, and Treasure Cruise broke Modern and Eternal formats within weeks of being printed. Time Warp seems like it can't be reprinted again without an exile clause even if it costs more, and they seem hesitant to print mana rocks that cost only 2 any more, so even Signets and Diamonds only get reprinted in Commander products. the last one they printed for 2 in a Standard-legal set is nearly impossible to use on turn 3. Unfortunately, all that means I don't think you'll be getting your wish on this one.
I don't own any either, but I've made a set of proxies for a "holiday cube" expansion that I'll break out any time anyone wants to draft near Christmas. That's probably the closest I'll ever get to owning any power, aside from the time I had to face a Turn 1 Ihsan's Shade that had been powered out by Black Lotus and Dark Ritual back in 1998.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Cheat mode: I really learned how to play with Micropose's MTG Shandalar video game, which used cards from ABUR-The Dark, and getting some power 9, Library of Alexandria and Shivan Dragon were about the best things you could do to just steamroll to victory.
Imperial Recruiter
BONUS QUESTION
Do you mind white-bordered cards in your cube?
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I despise white borders. They are the ugliest thing WotC has ever done to Magic cards. I will Sharpie them all.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
As far as borders are concerned, I am not a snob about them (i have a few gold borders). My cube is about having fun with my friends down my LGS and a gold bordered wasteland plays just the same as a 20x more expensive tempest version. Same goes for white bordered cards.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat here. However, they've reprinted quite a few P3K cards lately, and Recruiter of the Guard's showed us that WotC wants this kind of effect to be available to Eternal formats. Maybe we'll get a reprint in the upcoming Commander precons?
White borders aren't a deal breaker for me either. For a lot of iconic older cards like Sylvan Library, City of Brass and Demonic Tutor where the black bordered version's too pricey, I'd rather have a white bordered version with the original art than a black border reprint with different art. I've been gradually replacing my gold-bordered editions, but there are still some cards like Survival of the Fittest and Rishadan Port that would be too expensive for me to run in my cube otherwise.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I don't mind white borders at all.
I love white bordered cards. They're so unique now, and there's something about the aesthetic's 'ugliness' that I particularly love.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
I prefer black-bordered cards if I have a choice between the two, but there are some white-bordered cards out there that are just fine.
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'm very snobbisch about borders in my cube, I only run modern black border cards and even try to upgrade to post modern border wherever possible (and sensible, pricewise). It makes me quite happy when an old cube staple finally makes it to modern border with some supplemental product (e.g. Wildfire in MM15).
The only cards I wouldn't take P1P1 over it are Sol Ring and Library of Alexandria, and even then I can see arguments to do that, especially for the latter which is more like a 50-50 to me. Playing t1 4 drops and t2 5 drops is almost always better than anything you could do with a moxen, and in terms of comparing it to Library it'll just about always beat the deck that's 'only' drawing 2 cards/turn. Sol Ring tends to be better overall since you get the massive mana bonus turn after turn, meaning you're not just slamming your opponent with one ahead of curve play but many. Some decks will also see this with mana crypt i.e. decks that want the free sol ring and don't care about the life loss, but you're still better off taking Black Lotus versus Mana Crypt in a lot of those scenarios. If I'm heavy blue I might take Ancestral Recall over it, with more of an argument if I have something like double stroke/snapcaster mage/etc.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
I don't mind a white border card at all. I started playing during the Rath cycle, and bought quite a few 4th and 5th edition cards, so it never bothered me as much as it bothers other people.
I do have a sharpied revised Earthquake that somebody tried to pass off as beta, which is hilarious because the formatting of the two cards is completely different. Paid a dollar for it. Don't care.