Reusable, flexible burn seems pretty staple-y to me. The hoop you have to jump through is a tough one, but especially if you have pro color weenies in your cube I think it deserves its slot.
I ran it since the inception of my cube until last week when I cut it for Fleetwheel Cruiser. It was good but increasingly seemed to get edged out of lists in my group in favor of higher impact cards. There are some decks that can totally abuse it but ultimately it stopped feeling necessary and I really needed another artifact slot.
Pretty much everything is replaceable these days. Not sure "staple" has the same meaning anymore.
I like scroll a lot. Nice piece of colorless reach for aggressive decks. My cube isn't bleeding edge, but I'd be surprised if this card wasn't still good enough even in power lists.
Not a staple, but it's a good form of colorless reach and removal for decks with a low-to-the-ground curve. Not looking to replace it in my powered list.
Too expensive and low impact. It is playable in aggro sometimes, but will not be among the better cards in your deck and is forgettable. We have cut it years ago, no one missed it.
Too expensive and low impact. It is playable in aggro sometimes, but will not be among the better cards in your deck and is forgettable. We have cut it years ago, no one missed it.
Same for us. It's great when it's great, but when you can't guarantee damage you feel like a ******* idiot for playing it.
I'm surprised by some of the negative responses honestly. Coming from a guy who generally avoids hard aggro like the plague and runs a heavy midrange cube, cards like scroll are pure incentive for pushing my curve lower during deck building. It's one of those great pay off cards that drags me into playing decks I normally wouldn't run. I really appreciate cards like this.
And even if I wind up a bit higher curve than is ideal, you can almost always sequence out some plays and get this card to trigger. It's even OK to go 50/50 sometimes if you really don't have a better play. And scroll avoids wraths and gives green decks in particular access to a direct damage effect. This is one the best cards to have in play once you hit top deck mode too. And it only costs 1 mana to play it. What's not to like?
Activating costs three mana, and in aggro I'd rather have real one drops and real burn spells as they are better tempo. Scroll is also suffering from the increase of three toughness creatures of recent years - it just doesn't kill as many men as it used to.
That said I do not run green aggro.
I hate cursed scroll. I never want to play it in any of the decks I draft. I cut it forever ago and have never missed it. It's too slow for what aggro decks can do in cube nowadays.
It provides reach for aggro when the rest of the deck's speed failed to get all the way there. It's not about speed, it's about reach and inevitability. Aggro can struggle with that, and Scroll shores up that weakness.
It provides reach for aggro when the rest of the deck's speed failed to get all the way there. It's not about speed, it's about reach and inevitability. Aggro can struggle with that, and Scroll shores up that weakness.
So much this. It's fundamentally what I hate about aggro. Scroll is a bit like vortex in that it gives your clock some resilience regardless of how badly plan "A" unfolds for you (which is going to happen). Honestly, without cards like these I'd completely cut aggro from cube. It would be unsupportable. Not suggesting scroll is a must-run card, just that it's one of a handful of cards that make the archetype viable and worth supporting.
I'm shocked by the negative reactions to Cursed Scroll. I think it's a fantastic aggro card, I wouldn't dream of cutting it and I think that would be true even if I cut the cube down to 360. But that's just me I guess
I've been loving Cursed Scroll since it was legal in Type 2 and I was playing it alongside Dauthi Slayer and Hatred. It's not exactly a P1P1 powerful card in cube, but I'm never unhappy to have it in my aggro decks.
Since the discussion's happening in this thread I guess I'll post here now.
I'm still a big fan of Cursed Scroll, even though power creep has made the 3 activation cost less attractive than it was even a year ago. While it's often not the most efficient use of your mana in a red-heavy aggro decks it's fantastic to have access to repeatable shocks in a non-red aggro deck. I especially love this card in a Dimir tempo deck which sometimes needs a little help getting the last few points of damage in.
My biggest complaint about it is (surprise, surprise) about wording. Newer players who don't remember the '90s style Sligh decks have no idea what this card does when they read it, so they often pass it up. There's a limit to how many cards I want in my cube that specifically reward enfranchised players. All the same, I love the scroll and I'll be finding other cuts to make room for some of the newer artifacts from Kaladesh.
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I guess I am going to post in this thread, after all?
This card has been in my cube since its birth over nine years ago. At first, it was a pretty strong card and I considered it a staple. But now, it is on my list of potential cuts for my Kaladesh inclusions. It just got picked lower and lower and made fewer and fewer main decks. It rarely sees play nowadays.
It seems that the term "power creep" is tossed around too lightly again. There really is a lot less true power creep in Magic than many players assume. I'd say the power of the top decks in Standard hasn't really gone up much in twenty years. It's more that the focus shifted. Where once control and combo decks where the top of the pack, now midrange decks rule. The term for what happened is "creature creep", which isn't really power creep. It is a long term readjustment of the power level between card types, mostly pushing creatures.
It is true that Cursed Scroll is one of the cards that suffered from this improvement of creatures. It is far worse at killing creatures than it was 19 years ago. Yes, it still provides reach, but so does Lava Axe. It is not a bad card, but it has fallen out of favor with most people I cube with. And it seems to have suffered a similar fate in other cube groups.
I guess I am going to post in this thread, after all?
This card has been in my cube since its birth over nine years ago. At first, it was a pretty strong card and I considered it a staple. But now, it is on my list of potential cuts for my Kaladesh inclusions. It just got picked lower and lower and made fewer and fewer main decks. It rarely sees play nowadays.
It seems that the term "power creep" is tossed around too lightly again. There really is a lot less true power creep in Magic than many players assume. I'd say the power of the top decks in Standard hasn't really gone up much in twenty years. It's more that the focus shifted. Where once control and combo decks where the top of the pack, now midrange decks rule. The term for what happened is "creature creep", which isn't really power creep. It is a long term readjustment of the power level between card types, mostly pushing creatures.
It is true that Cursed Scroll is one of the cards that suffered from this improvement of creatures. It is far worse at killing creatures than it was 19 years ago. Yes, it still provides reach, but so does Lava Axe. It is not a bad card, but it has fallen out of favor with most people I cube with. And it seems to have suffered a similar fate in other cube groups.
It seems that the term "power creep" is tossed around too lightly again. There really is a lot less true power creep in Magic than many players assume. I'd say the power of the top decks in Standard hasn't really gone up much in twenty years. It's more that the focus shifted. Where once control and combo decks where the top of the pack, now midrange decks rule. The term for what happened is "creature creep", which isn't really power creep. It is a long term readjustment of the power level between card types, mostly pushing creatures.
I think people are just in denial, but what do I know? Someone should build a standard deck from Ravnica time period and play it against today's field. See how it does. I think it gets destroyed personally. How is Firemane Angel control beating anything players are running today?
Cube provides an interesting view into the evolution of the game since it's an eternal format that does not play like Vintage/Legacy due to the draft and singleton nature of it. Power level wise, it's somewhere much lower and so easier to compare to standard. The only cards that aren't being obsoleted by what Wizard's is printing today are the mistake cards which should have been printed in the first place.
I think people are just in denial, but what do I know? Someone should build a standard deck from Ravnica time period and play it against today's field.
You mean like a Wildfire deck or a freaking Urzatron deck in standard? Or are you talking about the decks that ran Umezawa's Jitte?
Staggershock is getting cut from cubes. It is equal to two activations of Scroll for the cost of one, disregarding the initial one colorless mana, is unconditional and has more synergies (Young Pyromancer, Prowess, Iterative Analysis). Just to give a sense how inefficient it is.
I cut staggershock a while ago once tokens started to dominate and we got a second arc lightning, haven't really missed it but I could definitely could see myself adding it back in. Love killing a creature and making it really awkward for my opponent to - on their walkers the following turn.
On the other end of the spectrum I cut staggershock a while back and can't imagine cutting Cursed Scroll. Late game if this sticks it just means inevitable damage every turn until the game is over in a tight aggro deck of any color.
This card has been in my cube since forever, always performing well but not amazing, and only in a very low-curve, aggressive shells...
I would like to discuss with you about the relevance of this card in today's cube standards.
Is this card a staple? Or it is very replaceable with similar aggressive/less niche cards like Smuggler's Copter of example?
http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/993
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/23690
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I like scroll a lot. Nice piece of colorless reach for aggressive decks. My cube isn't bleeding edge, but I'd be surprised if this card wasn't still good enough even in power lists.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
e: In before threads get merged.
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Same for us. It's great when it's great, but when you can't guarantee damage you feel like a ******* idiot for playing it.
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And even if I wind up a bit higher curve than is ideal, you can almost always sequence out some plays and get this card to trigger. It's even OK to go 50/50 sometimes if you really don't have a better play. And scroll avoids wraths and gives green decks in particular access to a direct damage effect. This is one the best cards to have in play once you hit top deck mode too. And it only costs 1 mana to play it. What's not to like?
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
That said I do not run green aggro.
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
So much this. It's fundamentally what I hate about aggro. Scroll is a bit like vortex in that it gives your clock some resilience regardless of how badly plan "A" unfolds for you (which is going to happen). Honestly, without cards like these I'd completely cut aggro from cube. It would be unsupportable. Not suggesting scroll is a must-run card, just that it's one of a handful of cards that make the archetype viable and worth supporting.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
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I'm still a big fan of Cursed Scroll, even though power creep has made the 3 activation cost less attractive than it was even a year ago. While it's often not the most efficient use of your mana in a red-heavy aggro decks it's fantastic to have access to repeatable shocks in a non-red aggro deck. I especially love this card in a Dimir tempo deck which sometimes needs a little help getting the last few points of damage in.
My biggest complaint about it is (surprise, surprise) about wording. Newer players who don't remember the '90s style Sligh decks have no idea what this card does when they read it, so they often pass it up. There's a limit to how many cards I want in my cube that specifically reward enfranchised players. All the same, I love the scroll and I'll be finding other cuts to make room for some of the newer artifacts from Kaladesh.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
This card has been in my cube since its birth over nine years ago. At first, it was a pretty strong card and I considered it a staple. But now, it is on my list of potential cuts for my Kaladesh inclusions. It just got picked lower and lower and made fewer and fewer main decks. It rarely sees play nowadays.
It seems that the term "power creep" is tossed around too lightly again. There really is a lot less true power creep in Magic than many players assume. I'd say the power of the top decks in Standard hasn't really gone up much in twenty years. It's more that the focus shifted. Where once control and combo decks where the top of the pack, now midrange decks rule. The term for what happened is "creature creep", which isn't really power creep. It is a long term readjustment of the power level between card types, mostly pushing creatures.
It is true that Cursed Scroll is one of the cards that suffered from this improvement of creatures. It is far worse at killing creatures than it was 19 years ago. Yes, it still provides reach, but so does Lava Axe. It is not a bad card, but it has fallen out of favor with most people I cube with. And it seems to have suffered a similar fate in other cube groups.
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
Well said, I agree.
I think people are just in denial, but what do I know? Someone should build a standard deck from Ravnica time period and play it against today's field. See how it does. I think it gets destroyed personally. How is Firemane Angel control beating anything players are running today?
Cube provides an interesting view into the evolution of the game since it's an eternal format that does not play like Vintage/Legacy due to the draft and singleton nature of it. Power level wise, it's somewhere much lower and so easier to compare to standard. The only cards that aren't being obsoleted by what Wizard's is printing today are the mistake cards which should have been printed in the first place.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
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
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
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
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I like it too but sometimes too many burn spells were drafted, and it is of the first burn spells to miss the cut in those situations.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022