MTG Salvation

Mana disruption is a big deal, especially when it happens early. It's a lot harder to recover from your opponent's cheat monster when you literally can't cast your spells. The other cards you mention are great no one is disputing that, but they don't really detract from how Sundering Titan attacks the board either. Like, you could say: Titan is good with blink effects, Titan is an efficient clock when they can't cast their removal spells (especially wraths/white exiling effects), Titan flat out wrecks certain deck strategies.

I don't know if I would say it's the best fatty since the examples your provide are legit and it's really hard to compare them, but it's been the shut-down card in a lot of games where the others wouldn't and that carries some weight. It has also been worse in other windows, but that's the beautiful thing about cube, there are so many ways to attack your opponent and so many different answers that nothing is black and white. (Except orzhov.)

I like this titan and think most cubes should run it inless they are afraid of the degeneracy of the card. I have found its still beatable if it is dropped on you though or cheated i to play

I have never spent much time looking at the masterpiece version and i like the text at the bottim of the card. Reminds me of older cards in a way except its on an ugly frame.

Sundering Titan isn't the kind of fattie that draws me into ramp, reanimator, or Tinker, but it's one I'm always happy to get once I'm already in that strategy. The mana disruption it provides coming and going is so backbreaking anywhere near the beginning the game that I'm willing to overlook the times it gets chump blocked or destroying basic lands just doesn't matter.

The Inventions frame doesn't seem to be popular around here, but I'm a fan, so I was really happy to trade for a copy and add it to my cube. Plus, the art is so much more menacing, and the flavor text is sweet.

If the Cyberdyne Systems model 101 doesn't count as a robot, then I'm going to have to go with Lt. Commander Data from Next Gen.

RIP George Romero, without him we might have never had today's card....

Carnophage



BONUS QUESTION

What's your favorite zombie movie (or TV show or comic book)?

As soon as I get round to adding my black agro package it is one of the cards on the list. A 2/2 for B is solid a being a zombie is more and more relevant. It feels weaker than Diregraf Ghoul, Bloodsoaked Champion, Dread Wanderer and gravecrawler, but I think I would prefer him to Tormented Hero. He is a solid card that might get edged out some day.

2-power 1-drop that also contributes to zombie shenanigans. Solid middle-of-the-pack black aggro 1-drop, and it's a fine man.

Dawn of the Dead (1978) is my favorite Zombie movie.

I'm not super excited by straight black aggro. Carnophage at least has the zombie creature type so does have some synergy with gravecrawler. I think most other tier 1.5 options are more interesting though and I'd prioritize these higher in most lists (carrion feeder, cryptbreaker to name two).

I really liked the remake of Dawn of the Dead. It was well done I thought (original obviously great too). My current favorite zombie themed show is The Strain (I know that's loose since it's more vampires, but really they are more zombie-like than vampire). I used to be really big into Walking Dead, but I feel like the writers of that show have been insulting my intelligence the last few seasons. I was done as soon as the Negen story line came to fruition.

Carnophage is my jam! I've been playing with this card for so many years. I started playing Magic with Stronghold, so this was one of the first cards I fell in love with. Black aggressive decks have been my favorite strategies since those days and it's no different in cube. Obviously, at this point, there are several better options than Carnophage for supporting that archetype in cube, but it will take a lot for me to cut this guy just because of the history.

It's hard to pick a favorite zombie story, but I'm gonna go with The Walking Dead comic. The first story line really drew me in and I've been a monthly subscriber ever since. I also really liked Shawn of the Dead for what it was. And the book version of World War Z was really good as well. And you definitely have to give props to Dawn of the Dead. Without it, none of these other stories exist.

I am happy about black's suite of one drops, 5 of which are Zombies. They don't really give much value except for Gravecrawler, which is enough to justify leaning towards the creature type. If a new zombie comes along, I think I will cut the non-zombie Gnarled Scarhide before the zombies.

I never liked the Zombie/Vampire trope, though I liked how they were executed in Innistrad.
If I were to choose then it would have to be Plants vs. Zombies (game is not a choice but I am forcing an answer here).

never ran carnophage as i prefer some of the other options over him.

I've been reading the walking dead comics since long before the show came out and I even did an art analysis project of the first comic in my English Comics and Visual Literacy class in university! havent been keeping up with the show lately though.

Carnophage is my jam! I've been playing with this card for so many years. I started playing Magic with Stronghold, so this was one of the first cards I fell in love with. Black aggressive decks have been my favorite strategies since those days and it's no different in cube.

Carnophage holds a lot of nostalgia value for me too. I got my start a little before Tempest came out, and suicide black aggro was a dirt cheap deck I could build that could actually win me some games. Dark Ritual into Carnophage, Carnophage, Sarcomancy on turn one crushed a lot of games for me. In a vacuum, Carnophage doesn't look like it's aged well at first glance since we're getting so many two power 1-drops in black with actual upsides like Dread Wanderer and even Gnarled Scarhide. However, since we keep getting zombie tribal cards that function well on their own like Gravecrawler, Relentless Dead, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Liliana, Death's Majesty, just having the word "Zombie" in the type goes a surprisingly long way towards keeping it cube-worthy.

I've loved zombie apocalypse movies since I was a teenager, something about the bleakness of society crumbling at the rotting hands of our own dead has always fascinated me. No one ever's done it better than George Romero's first two zombie movies that defined the genre as a vehicle for social commentary wrapped in a drive-in gore fest. If you've never seen Night of the Living Dead, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's even public domain.

Does this card make you smile?

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death



BONUS QUESTION

What's your favorite creature with power 2 or less?

Alesha has been really good for us. A centerpiece for some of the 'Lark/Portal/Feldon/Vat/Recruiter/Nightmare shells designed to abuse ETB triggers.

Favorite creature with power 2 or less might be Mulldrifter.

Alesha is cool. She's definitely more aggressively inclined than other cards with that interaction/style (reveillark, recruiters, etc) but she will still sometimes end up in those decks if it works out that way. As a floor a 3/2 first striker is fine, and the ceiling can have some serious oomph to it.

Dark Confidant. I think it's one of the more powerful creatures in cube while also being one of the more underrated ones, and have no problem getting into black when he's passed to me. It dies to everything, sure, but the first card drawn is sweet, the second is kinda disgusting, and then he just gets kinda silly.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is a card that for some reason never lived up to her potential in our group. And that's a bit baffling because it's clearly a strong card. It also should be even better in a more synergy/midrange focused cube, which is where I was running it. Sometimes cards don't work out.

The few times I did see it in a deck, it underperformed, either not getting much value off the recursion trigger, dying too easily in combat, eating removal when played. Reveillark just works better because of several factors (it's mono colored; it's a better threat alone; the recursion trigger has no mana cost and is more abusable; you can get more than one creature off the trigger). And maybe that is what ultimately killed Alesha. There was a much better card that did her job.

Hard to pick a favorite creature with 2 power or less since there are so many. For me, it's probably Karmic Guide. But Eternal Witness is up there.

I like Alesha a lot. It's an aggro card that's also got game in a lot of graveyard shenanigan decks. I'm a fan.

My favorite 2 or less power creature is Eternal Witness. It's also my favorite creature in all of magic. Dark Confidant and Mother of Runes are strong contenders too. Specific for abuse with Alesha, I love Siege-Gang Commander and Avalanche Riders.

Cheers,
rant

I don't currently run Alesha for space reasons but she was very impressive when I ran her. First Strike is such a great keyword with her ability. If I were to include 2 more red 3-drops she'd be in.

I have an unnatural love for Karmic Guide so she'd be my #1 pick. Uktabi Orangutan is probably #2.

I've loved Alesha from the moment she was spoiled. I think it's just a really fun, powerful creature. Has its limitations, but that's fine.

I know it might be a little bit of a stretch, but I've always been fond of Blade Splicer, I guess partly because I've also always been fond of Venser, the Sojourner. It's also easy to use with skullclamp, not a bad Birthing Pod target (if you play it), white means you have a strong chance of having it alongside Alesha, actually, and the token itself can be used for Tinker or other artifact stuff. And, 4 power among two bodies for 3 is just kinda neat, too. I feel like it's just a card I pretty much always want, if I can play it.

Alesha's been great for me as well, giving Boros and Rakdos aggro decks the chance to do more interesting and broken stuff than just turning dude(tte)s sideways, while still turning dude(tte)s sideways. It's the kind of build-around I'm always happy to have in cube and add to my decks whenever I have the chance.

However, my favorite decks to play are tempo decks, so Man-o'-War is easily my favorite creature with power 2 or less.

Cue the music....

Solemn Simulacrum



BONUS QUESTION

What invitational cards do you run with the original invitational art?

I keep meaning to pick one up but always opt for something else instead. 3-for-1 value on a 2-powered (for Reveillark and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death) artifact body, not a lot bad to say about him.

I have a Sylvan Safekeeper and Ranger of Eos. I feel bad for Terry Soh, all the invitation cards are well known (with some being cube/legacy powerhouse) except for Rakdos Augermage, I had never even heard of it and its fairly lackluster (if not mildly intesting).

Not particuly busted, but solid all around. Fits in a lot of different archetypes, great cube card. Solemn Simulacrum won't win you the game, but he is the guy you share a look and nod slightly when the team is celebrating victory.

Quote from TheGroglord »

I have a Sylvan Safekeeper and Ranger of Eos. I feel bad for Terry Soh, all the invitation cards are well known (with some being cube/legacy powerhouse) except for Rakdos Augermage, I had never even heard of it and its fairly lackluster (if not mildly intesting).

I feel bad for Kai Budde

The original Onslaught Artwork was perceived by many players including Budde as ugly. An alternative artwork was made for a DCI promotional printing of the card. The alternate art was later reused when the card was reprinted as a Timeshifted card in Time Spiral

Solemn Simulacrum is a great 4-drop. Good value, and it can slot into pretty much every non-aggro strategy pretty easily.

Solemn is sweet. It doesn't always make the decks I like to draft (2-4 basics) but it can be great as a value creature and especially in recursion shells. It seems innocuous to newer players, but it's a good card.

Solemn, Snapcaster, and that's it I think.

I love a good value machine. Filigree Familiar makes me want to see a card like this at other points of the curve. I would consider playing two Solemn Simulacrums, but apparently, I don't even have one.

I thought I had Solemn... I really did. I added it to my 3$-6$ wishlist... Apparently the only invitational card I'm actually playing is Avalanche Riders. For quite a while, I played Rootwater Thief. The effect is quite good in a singleton format, but the card was extremely inefficient. I'd like to see the ability put on a better body.