There wasn't much discussion on yesterday's card, unfortunately. Is that just a weekend thing, or is the Recruiter just not that interesting of a card?
Abrupt Decay is a great removal spell, especially in powered cubes.
There's no set number for "too many" removal spells. It will vary wildly between playgroups. It should be in the sweet spot where there are enough answers to cards that you don't feel hopeless against them, but no so many that every time you cast a threat it just dies.
With the world championship going on, the Magic community will be distracted this weekend.
Abrupt decay is good. With the increase in manlands it has become "worse", but only by a small margin. One of the hard parts of golgari is that it has really good removal spells, which makes it hard for a creature to compete with in small cubes.
trying to pinpoint how much removal to have in your cube comes down to what you consider "removal"
Do you mean cards that destroy other cards?
What about counterspells? or card stripping like thoughtseize?
The more of these types of cards you have the less "kill this creature" type cards you need to run.
Are you running a lot of tutors and board wipes? If so you can play fewer creature kill spells in your cube since players can tutor for a board wipe if they need etc.
I think balancing amounts and types of removal is the hardest part of managing a cube. That said, Abrupt Decay is safely in for now. It's just too efficient. Being able to snipe a baby Jace or Sulfuric Vortex or Sword or Sylvan Library or Walking Ballista with one card for BG is just great.
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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.
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I think Abrupt Decay clearly gets in just on raw power level, but it is also competing with Maelstrom Pulse and Pernicious Deed in the Golgari section, and for smaller cubes only running 3 or 4 cards in each guild, I think that running all three may be too much, and not give Golgari enough space for cards that proactively help support that guild's game plan. If this is true, and we had to choose one of these to cut, it might be Decay, since Pulse hits more targets and Deed is a sweeper. Or is it correct to just run all removal in Golgari?
It never really interested me, though to be fair I have never seen it in action. I think I would prefer Maelstrom Pulse over it as it is more veritable and has upsides against token strategies.
It's correct to just run all removal, IMO. They're all too good to exclude, at least for what else brings to the table. If there were some really busted build-around or important cards being pushed out by them, it might be okay to cut one of the three ...but that's not the case. I'd rather have access to the premium removal spells.
I play 3 Golgari cards: Deed, Pulse, and Decay. Feels a little bad to have all removal, but there just isn't something else drawing me in. I tried Meren for a while, but it was just too slow. Lotleth Troll is interesting, but pretty redundant with all the discard options in both black and green these days.
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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
TNN has been incredibly good for us, but not unfair yet. He's insane with equipment (I've gotten to live the dream of having one equipped with Batterskull once), but on its own it's not unbeatable. Still, I have had games where I just lose to it while having a board of bigger creatures and a hand full of removal and that does feel terrible.
Would you say that cards like this, Thrun, Heist, etc. existing in cube influence which removal spells you run? For example, running a card like Doomfall instead of something more efficient, but less flexible?
Big fan of True-Name Nemesis. I wish the name players originally translated had been correct: Identity Nemesis. That would've made the card even sweeter.
Yeah, it's good, and yes, it does a good job of winning games, but so do other 3cmc cards like Liliana of the Veil, Recurring Nightmare, and even Jitte at 2cmc. Yeah, they all require a little more building around, but whatever. For us, cube is about getting to cast powerful stuff and play powerful games. Our EDH meta is a little more 75%ish, so we play that if people get really concerned about not having fun . . . until people spend 5 minutes in the tank on every turn and the game turns into 3 hours. Long live cube.
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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 like Guardian well enough; it's a fine curve topper for creature-heavy/token shells. But I think without the Kiki/Twin combo that goes ultimate w/ Guardian, it falls short of being good enough.
No treehouse for me, but I had a few sweet forts that I built out in the desert.
I really like the idea of a Kiki-combo piece in green, but I have never had room for the guardian. The only green 6 I run is Prime Time, and there isn't a card I would cut for this.
I never had a tree house despite my father being a carpenter.
Great Oak Guardian is a card that does a LOT. It's a passable Overrun effect, letting you get in for surprise burst damage, especially as you can flash it in post-blockers (or lack thereof) for a kill when your opponent thought they had a comfortable 6-8 life buffer. He's even an overrun that works well with Mana Dorks, as you can tap all your Dorks to cast him, untap and swing with bonus P/T. It can also swing combat drastically, turning a set of trades into a one-sided massacre (and setting up your alpha strike to also be able to block the swingback), or surprise-blocking with multiple tapped creatures. Even on an otherwise-empty board, it's a 6/7 flash reach who can materialize in front of and kill something like 90% of creatures in any given cube. AND on top of that, he functions as a Kiki-Jiki/Splinter Twin combo piece for cubes that support that archetype. And just for giggles, he's an uncommon, meaning he can fit into Peasant Cubes, where he's arguably one of green's best six-drop options.
He doesn't fit every Cube, for sure. In something like wtwlf's cube, with a heavy focus on Power and cheating out fatties via reanimation/Tinker/Natural Order/etc, you want creatures that stand alone more powerfully, like Primeval Titan and Carnage Tyrant, and there just isn't room for another green six drop. But in any kind of cube with a heavier focus on incremental value and creature combat, this guy is an all-star.
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Nighthawk is still a solid guy. The lifegain is a good resource in black, and it's nice to have at least 1 3cc creature that plays well in slower black midrange decks and control decks.
Nighthawk is a pretty good dude, nothing spectacular but relevant a lot. Feels fair in the best way, which is not always good but certainly not always bad.
Way more of a night owl. It's very hard for me to get to bed early, no matter how tired I am or how early I have to wake.
I agree Nighthawk is a fair card. It does fill a few roles well, but it has a difficult casting cost and is never more than a solid curve filler.
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Abrupt Decay
How many removals is too many?
There wasn't much discussion on yesterday's card, unfortunately. Is that just a weekend thing, or is the Recruiter just not that interesting of a card?
There's no set number for "too many" removal spells. It will vary wildly between playgroups. It should be in the sweet spot where there are enough answers to cards that you don't feel hopeless against them, but no so many that every time you cast a threat it just dies.
With the world championship going on, the Magic community will be distracted this weekend.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
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trying to pinpoint how much removal to have in your cube comes down to what you consider "removal"
Do you mean cards that destroy other cards?
What about counterspells? or card stripping like thoughtseize?
The more of these types of cards you have the less "kill this creature" type cards you need to run.
Are you running a lot of tutors and board wipes? If so you can play fewer creature kill spells in your cube since players can tutor for a board wipe if they need etc.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
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EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
True-Name Nemesis
Do you have anyone you would consider your nemesis, or just someone you don't really like and they know it?
No nemeses. Living angry is a hard way to live.
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Would you say that cards like this, Thrun, Heist, etc. existing in cube influence which removal spells you run? For example, running a card like Doomfall instead of something more efficient, but less flexible?
Yeah, it's good, and yes, it does a good job of winning games, but so do other 3cmc cards like Liliana of the Veil, Recurring Nightmare, and even Jitte at 2cmc. Yeah, they all require a little more building around, but whatever. For us, cube is about getting to cast powerful stuff and play powerful games. Our EDH meta is a little more 75%ish, so we play that if people get really concerned about not having fun . . . until people spend 5 minutes in the tank on every turn and the game turns into 3 hours. Long live cube.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Great Oak Guardian
Ever have a sweet treehouse, or have a friend that had one?
No treehouse for me, but I had a few sweet forts that I built out in the desert.
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I never had a tree house despite my father being a carpenter.
Vampire Nighthawk
Are you an early bird, or more of a night owl?
He doesn't fit every Cube, for sure. In something like wtwlf's cube, with a heavy focus on Power and cheating out fatties via reanimation/Tinker/Natural Order/etc, you want creatures that stand alone more powerfully, like Primeval Titan and Carnage Tyrant, and there just isn't room for another green six drop. But in any kind of cube with a heavier focus on incremental value and creature combat, this guy is an all-star.
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Way more of a night owl. It's very hard for me to get to bed early, no matter how tired I am or how early I have to wake.
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