Staff of Domination is a swiss army knife. It's solid in control decks. It provides a great mana sink, especially for players like me who like to draft green ramp and artifact ramp in the same deck with no payoffs. The real question is, is it good in cube? I run a 360 unpowered (put pretty powerful) cube environment (http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcurve/77160). I am debating running it, but I can't find opinions anywhere. What size cube would you run it in? What archetypes does it support besides control and ramp? Is it even good in those archetypes? Or do you simply think it doesn't translate to cube well?
I ran it way back in the day and found it to be quite slow and expensive in most control decks (outside of Awakening control). Only really shines in ramp, notably with Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary and Metalworker making it infinite. I don't run any of those cards anymore and most of us didn't really like it. But if your cube is slower, it should perform much better, especially in control.
I also seen staff in artifact cubes, making Power Artifact a more desirable pick!
Just give it a shot! Make a few random mock decks and try it out! You clearly want to! Maybe add a couple cards that synergizes with it to help it out!
I run Staff of Domination in my 360 unpowered. I have a heavy artifact support (45 colorless artifacts, 54 total artifacts, 47 cards per color), and even then it is rare for Metalworker to go infinite with Staff. Metalwork + Staff in play + 3 artifacts in hand can be tough to assemble especially when mana rocks are so highly sought after in most decks. Still, I like including it for whenever the mono-brown deck does come together. However, even if Staff+Metalworker is rare, Staff does go infinite with Rofellos rather easily. 5 Forests isn't tough at all. I have actually been surprised on a few occasions when a player was able to gain control of the game using Staff without an infinite combo. I really only included it with the infinite combos in mind, but in a grindy matchup, Staff can be a real threat.
Also, I like to mention since this is often missed by players, when Metalworker or Rofellos goes infinite with Staff, Mishra's Factory is the largest creature in play (with the exception of Infinity Elemental).
In cubes that support multiple ways to create infinite mana, Staff is a great combo support card. Those + Metalworker can be enough to justify it. But I wouldn't run it otherwise.
Staff of Domination is a swiss army knife. It's solid in control decks. It provides a great mana sink, especially for players like me who like to draft green ramp and artifact ramp in the same deck with no payoffs. The real question is, is it good in cube? I run a 360 unpowered (put pretty powerful) cube environment (http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcurve/77160). I am debating running it, but I can't find opinions anywhere. What size cube would you run it in? What archetypes does it support besides control and ramp? Is it even good in those archetypes? Or do you simply think it doesn't translate to cube well?
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
I also seen staff in artifact cubes, making Power Artifact a more desirable pick!
Just give it a shot! Make a few random mock decks and try it out! You clearly want to! Maybe add a couple cards that synergizes with it to help it out!
Also, I like to mention since this is often missed by players, when Metalworker or Rofellos goes infinite with Staff, Mishra's Factory is the largest creature in play (with the exception of Infinity Elemental).
[180 classic cube]
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!