MTG Salvation

Duress is amazing. It's better than Inquisition, I think, and only a tick behind Thoughtseize in cube due to the high concentration of noncreature spells that kill you. I love the old Urza's Saga art and frame, too, although the art with the elf getting tortured is pretty good.

I manage my cube. The playgroup is scattered enough that they don't know the list well enough to make good suggestions. If we start playing more regularly, that would change, I imagine. I have one good friend who suggests cards from time to time that seem really good, especially from newer sets.

Duress is a necessary answer to a lot of permanent types black has no other outs to, but I tend not to main deck it or Inquisition of Kozilek because of their propensity to whiff against entire theaters of decks. Thoughtseize is the only targeted discard spell that always makes my main. Still, Duress gets plenty of play in my cube, and it's been devastating when played against me often enough that it's in zero danger of getting cut even though my own play style leads me not to value it as highly as others do.

I love that there are so many choices of art and frame with Duress, and there are many great choices. However, when the DTK art came out I immediately fell in love and got my wife to make a border extension alter of it. Here's a pic:


I'm always interested to hear feedback from regular and even newer players of my cube about cards and archetypes they'd like to see added or taken out. I also value the opinions of communities of cube managers like this one because I just don't get to playtest my cube often enough to find out in practice how well newer cards work as quickly as others in the cube community. After taking everything into consideration, I'm the final word, but I'm humble enough to know the importance of feedback and research to make my cube the best it can be.

Poor man's Force of Will, or Traumatic Visions that you will be forced to pay for later?

Pact of Negation



BONUS QUESTION

What's your favorite bit of now obsolete rules text from old MTG cards (e.g. "Pact of Negation is blue")?

e: Double-post?

Pact can be a blowout in the right window, and is a strong card for tapout control and decks that win with singular haymakers. But it's pretty rough in everything else, which is why I don't cube with it.

I like cards that reference card types that don't even exist anymore, like references to interrupts and mana sources and the like. For example:

Pact is pretty boom or bust--I don't like how dead it is in a lot of windows vs how on it is in others. In a combo cube I'd be way more inclined to run it.

In addition to interrupts, I like cards that have "can be played as an interrupt" on them. I imagine it like how Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift, except at times not letting the opponent finish.

I don't have one, so I can't really say how it works in mine. Great against combo, but kinda hit or miss against anything else. Can drop a surprise second counter when needed, which is nice.

Mana sources.

never tried pact in cube, dont think i ever will.

i think my favourite is "enchant dead creature" on dance of the dead

There is a lot of value to having counterspells you can play while tapped out, Force of Will and Daze are great and I don't think I'd mind having another, and in some decks and circumstances this certainly seems like it would be better than Daze. If this wasn't such an expensive card, I'd probably give it a try to see if it's good enough.

My favorite obsolete rules text is easily "Mirri, Cat Warrior counts as a Cat Warrior."

Pact of Negation seems good because it's a free counter but I haven't played with it. I don't think I would find a spot for it though, its lack of a hard casting mode is mainly what annoys me since you always have to spend the mana on your next turn. If it wasn't so expensive I would give it a shot but I am unwilling to shell out for it.

As far as obsolete text goes card types that no longer exist amuse me. I have had to explain quite a few times that "Mana Sources" are not lands and interrupts no longer exist for mystic tutor. "Enchant Dead Creature" is also some interesting wording.

On Duress, I put it in my cube last night and it has already been doing some work. Glad this thread made me realise I'd cut it. Not I just need one with better art (not a huge fan of the elf being tortured that they keep using).

I'm not even going to try to come up with a pun for this one....

Genju of the Spires



BONUS QUESTION

Mono-red: Fun archetype that keeps durdly decks in check, or parasitic archetype that only appeals to Magic players without a soul?

I've put some of the genjus in EDH decks, but never tried it in cube, considering my cube has a decent bit of land and creature kill. But it does recur, which is nice.

I might be one of those soulless people who love RDW, but I think it's a necessary kind of deck, because without a super-aggressive-go-for-the-throat type deck, combo and hard control decks become oppressive because they're allowed to prepare for longer games, which is only in their favor.

I've been fairly impressed with Spires. It's not the greatest as a 1 drop since it feels like a massive tempo killer when they have something t2 to block your Genju, so I like it as a Ball Lightning type card that lands on turn 3 and continues to punish that you can play T1 in the times where you don't draw a one drop. (Variance is a thing.) There's really only a set number of cards that interacts with Genju 100% on your turn outside of disenchants i.e. gets rid of the Genju. I'm surprised it's not in more lists and want to put it in mine since we see mono-red or R/x as the major aggressive deck that pops up.

I don't think someone can fully appreciate magic or at least cube without accepting that aggressive decks need to be a thing and mono red due to the nature of the color must naturally exist. Maybe you might not like the simple nature of an aggro deck vs control, but there are still big decisions to make with that deck (arguably more important decisions) and the balance of a cube/format largely hinges on the push-pull of different theaters. It's not like Mono-red is unbeatable, and if your deck folds to mono-red then that's a sacrifice you need to be willing to make and understand that you are making, or else you risk your cube ending up being battlecruisers only which is fine but ultimately becomes stale when everything is about the late stages of the game.

Worse come to worst, throw in a Perimeter Captain.

Perhaps we are not a representative of an average group, but everyone appreciates here a well built aggro deck and correct aggressive plays. Not all players build said decks, and that's natural, but when you play a piece of power it is hard to blame a deck trying to be faster than you.

There are some instances where Genju seems really powerful, and others where the activation cost seems really prohibitive on my own resources. It ultimately didn't make it in my cube long-term.

Aggro is awesome, and mono-red is a part of that.

This looks interesting as a potential mana sink and way to turn excess lands into threats for red-heavy aggro decks. However, since it only works on mountains, I don't think it would be that great in a deck with less than 10 mountains, which makes it a bit more narrow than I'd like for my cube. If they ever printed something similar that could enchant any kind of land, I'd definitely test it.

I love the fact that the most well-crafted combo or control deck still has to live in fear of getting run over by Jackal Pup into Borderland Marauder and a finishing Fireblast to the face. However, straight mono-red doesn't seem to happen that often in my cube. Aggro decks are still usually 2-color, but there seems to be too much competition for burn spells for straight RDW to come together. If it's open, I'm not shy about drafting it, but I usually end up at least splashing something even in my reddest aggro decks.

Would you like some flash with your flash?

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir



BONUS QUESTION

What's the flashiest thing you own?

Teferi is great in other formats, but just doesn't justify his cost in cube. At 5cc, there are better options unless you have a pretty huge cube.

I just set up a nano-reef saltwater tank. That probably counts as the flashiest thing I own.

Cheers,
rant

Teferi is alright in decks that can run him, but it asks a lot. As others said, blue is not lacking in CMC 5 cards.

I'm not a flashy dude by any means. I guess the flashiest thing would be my growing shoe collection--10+ now--but those are literally all pairs I got at Marshall's off the clearance rack, sooooooooo see ya flash.

Blue's 5s are stacked. UUU in the cost is rough. Not much else to say.

The flashiest thing I own is probably ...my cube.

Blue's 5s are stacked. UUU in the cost is rough. Not much else to say.

The flashiest thing I own is probably ...my cube.