I know 11 is not a beautiful number, but I'd had Voltaic Brawler to this list. This guy hits so hard. Probably the best agressive 2-drop without drawback ever printed. It can easily connects for 9+ damage and ask for a trade.
I'd agree with Steve_Man above that Atarka and BBE are the only true Gruul staples. This probably replaces whatever's third on that list. I wouldn't add this in over the dragon. There's not a single thing on that list of ten that I feel has proven itself to be so good that it's not cuttable to at least test this guy for a few drafts.
I run Burning-Tree Emissary, Bloodbraid, and Dragonlord. This replaces Dragonlord for me.
A top 10 for the RG section in no order now is?
Wren and Six
Dragonlord Atarka
Atarka's Command
Burning-Tree Emissary
Tattermunge Maniac
Huntmaster of the Fells
Sarkhan Vol
Domri, Anarch of Bolas
Bloodbraid Elf
Domri Rade
RG isn't GW when it comes to options, but it's nice that you have options and you can sculpt the section to what you want to do in it. Unlike BW and UR where most of the options don't feel great. And besides Bloodbraid Elf which is far and away the best option, everything else seems justifiable.
Replacing Atarka with this and keeping Burning-Tree Emissary seems like a design mistake, imo.
My Gruul section right now is BBE, Atarka, Huntmaster, Xenagos PW, Domri Anarch, Gruul Spellbreaker, and Kessig Wolf Run. I'd like to give the Spellbreaker a longer look, so it seems like Kessig Wolf Run is gonna go. I really like both Xenagos and new Domri... I've never been a fan of the first Domri, and I think I'm lower on Sarkhan Vol than the rest of this forum.
Sarkhan is leaving my cube for Wrenn. My 4 card Gruul section will be BBE, Atarka, Domri AoB and Wrenn.
I’m excited that we are getting more lands matter cards. This set gives us another couple pieces in Prismatic Vista and this new walker. I really just want an excuse to run the Gitrog Monster and support Jund Lands but I still don’t feel like we are quite there.
Oh yea, lol. Those are probably the most important new additions to the “land matter” archetype. I wonder if it’s time to re-evaluate Titania, Protector of Argoth...
Like Spells Matters, I'm treating Lands Matters more as a sub-theme than I am a full-blown archetype.
The problem with re-evaluating Titania right now is that she has even more competition than ever seeing how we just got Hermit 2.0 and Biogenic Ooze.
This is what I like the most from this set so far. There are a lot of powerful cards that help enable archetypes and force cube designers to choose how they want their particular cube to run. With Wrenn and Six + the canopy lands I think you can now make a fairly compelling argument for Titania and Gitrog, but do you sacrifice manlands for the full suite of Canopies? Same for green aggro with Hexdrinker, artifact deck with Urza, snow cube with Ice Fang/Bastion. You cant support all of them, but the more that bending your cube to support them feels like a "sidegrade" rather than a "downgrade," the healthier this format becomes. I hope this trend continues as we see the rest of the set!
This is what I like the most from this set so far. There are a lot of powerful cards that help enable archetypes and force cube designers to choose how they want their particular cube to run. With Wrenn and Six + the canopy lands I think you can now make a fairly compelling argument for Titania and Gitrog, but do you sacrifice manlands for the full suite of Canopies? Same for green aggro with Hexdrinker, artifact deck with Urza, snow cube with Ice Fang/Bastion. You cant support all of them, but the more that bending your cube to support them feels like a "sidegrade" rather than a "downgrade," the healthier this format becomes. I hope this trend continues as we see the rest of the set!
This has actually been my attitude with a few recent sets now, and I'm really excited about it.
For a long time I've felt like there's been this discourse along the lines of "Well, nobody is STOPPING you from playing with Unusual Card X ... My group just prefers not to do that ..." with the subtext being that, yeah, playing with novel cards that aren't quite as powerful is bad and you should feel bad for making such a rookie mistake. But, I'm always looking to try different archetypes and frequently revisit almost-playables when I think they have potential for strong synergy. I think with recent years we've gotten so many interesting cards that offer new directions for cube-building, and it can really broaden how we think about developing our lists.
It is interesting that this is just now catching on.
Cube isn't different than any other limited environment, and it never has been. You can build and balance a Cube around anything, people just tend to like to balance it around the most powerful cards because that is easiest to do. It also means collaborative efforts are more fruitful. Traditional MTG drafting is an example of limited format design using novel cards every set release. Very rarely do 2 sets ever draft the same, while that cannot always be said for Cube.
But, I will also add that there is something to be said for traditional Cube design as well. It is fun playing with cards like Black Lotus because it offers newer players the chance to experience a part of MTG history in some sense. A lot of people don't really appreciate something like Control Magic until they get to actually cast it.
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How do you guys think this will work without a Lands-Matter theme? For example, in a smaller cube without the Horizon Lands and Titania
If you play fetches at 360, I think this still wants to be on your list, but could be behind BBE and Atarka and maybe Huntmaster, so right on the border. Its backup mode of "really slow Arc Lightning" isn't terrible, but will be disappointing compared to "+1: Draw a land card."
This is a pretty cool two drop PW. I too don't run the lands package. I wonder if he will be worth it. I run fetches, ash barrens, blast zone (This one is extra sweet), terramorphic, evolving wilds and the new prismatic vista. MAybe I will add a couple of the canopy lands. And then add loot effects to that list. From the math side, we would want 6-8 fetch lands in our deck to hit around the 75 % chance to have it alongside Wren on turn 2. But boy does this guy pay off if you do. Drawing a land each turn is quite powerful, and 4 is a healthy loyalty for a two drop PW. Pinging mana dorks, aggro creatures and tokens for only -1 also seems good.
Crucible of Worlds didn't work for us (was only ever a two card combo with Strip Mine), and Ramunap Excavator has been on the chopping block for a long time and only recently saw some significant play. I don't think Wren is better than those two cards.
With Blast Zone, a new fetch and 5 new Horizon lands they are better than ever, but I am still unlikely to play Wren before Crucible.
Crucible of Worlds didn't work for us (was only ever a two card combo with Strip Mine), and Ramunap Excavator has been on the chopping block for a long time and only recently saw some significant play. I don't think Wren is better than those two cards.
With Blast Zone, a new fetch and 5 new Horizon lands they are better than ever, but I am still unlikely to play Wren before Crucible.
Wait, do you sincerely think Ramunap Excavator is better than a 2mana planeswalker that is a crucible effect and a pinger?
Crucible of Worlds didn't work for us (was only ever a two card combo with Strip Mine), and Ramunap Excavator has been on the chopping block for a long time and only recently saw some significant play. I don't think Wren is better than those two cards.
With Blast Zone, a new fetch and 5 new Horizon lands they are better than ever, but I am still unlikely to play Wren before Crucible.
Wait, do you sincerely think Ramunap Excavator is better than a 2mana planeswalker that is a crucible effect and a pinger?
For cube yes. Ramunap is a color less so it should see a lot more play. It also has a higher floor. A deck that wants Wren wants Excavator too but not the other way around.
Crucible of Worlds didn't work for us (was only ever a two card combo with Strip Mine), and Ramunap Excavator has been on the chopping block for a long time and only recently saw some significant play. I don't think Wren is better than those two cards.
With Blast Zone, a new fetch and 5 new Horizon lands they are better than ever, but I am still unlikely to play Wren before Crucible.
Wait, do you sincerely think Ramunap Excavator is better than a 2mana planeswalker that is a crucible effect and a pinger?
The fact that redundancy doesn’t make this useless is itself a gigantic plus in comparison to those cards. If I have ramunap and crucible I have one dead draw. If I have wren and crucible I don’t.
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Especially considering that Tattermunge Maniac -- a horrible card that doesn't even need to be listed as Gruul -- is in that top 10
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Replacing Atarka with this and keeping Burning-Tree Emissary seems like a design mistake, imo.
I’m excited that we are getting more lands matter cards. This set gives us another couple pieces in Prismatic Vista and this new walker. I really just want an excuse to run the Gitrog Monster and support Jund Lands but I still don’t feel like we are quite there.
And 5 more Canopy lands!
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The problem with re-evaluating Titania right now is that she has even more competition than ever seeing how we just got Hermit 2.0 and Biogenic Ooze.
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This is what I like the most from this set so far. There are a lot of powerful cards that help enable archetypes and force cube designers to choose how they want their particular cube to run. With Wrenn and Six + the canopy lands I think you can now make a fairly compelling argument for Titania and Gitrog, but do you sacrifice manlands for the full suite of Canopies? Same for green aggro with Hexdrinker, artifact deck with Urza, snow cube with Ice Fang/Bastion. You cant support all of them, but the more that bending your cube to support them feels like a "sidegrade" rather than a "downgrade," the healthier this format becomes. I hope this trend continues as we see the rest of the set!
This has actually been my attitude with a few recent sets now, and I'm really excited about it.
For a long time I've felt like there's been this discourse along the lines of "Well, nobody is STOPPING you from playing with Unusual Card X ... My group just prefers not to do that ..." with the subtext being that, yeah, playing with novel cards that aren't quite as powerful is bad and you should feel bad for making such a rookie mistake. But, I'm always looking to try different archetypes and frequently revisit almost-playables when I think they have potential for strong synergy. I think with recent years we've gotten so many interesting cards that offer new directions for cube-building, and it can really broaden how we think about developing our lists.
Cube isn't different than any other limited environment, and it never has been. You can build and balance a Cube around anything, people just tend to like to balance it around the most powerful cards because that is easiest to do. It also means collaborative efforts are more fruitful. Traditional MTG drafting is an example of limited format design using novel cards every set release. Very rarely do 2 sets ever draft the same, while that cannot always be said for Cube.
But, I will also add that there is something to be said for traditional Cube design as well. It is fun playing with cards like Black Lotus because it offers newer players the chance to experience a part of MTG history in some sense. A lot of people don't really appreciate something like Control Magic until they get to actually cast it.
THE JUICE[BOX]³ CUBE
I suppose I'll have to just add all of them new canopy lands.
If you play fetches at 360, I think this still wants to be on your list, but could be behind BBE and Atarka and maybe Huntmaster, so right on the border. Its backup mode of "really slow Arc Lightning" isn't terrible, but will be disappointing compared to "+1: Draw a land card."
My prediction is Wren and Six is the most powerful RG card ever printed. But requires strip mine to be truly busted.
Though, it is a card you don't slam into any deck and have it be great. It should play out very much like a crucible of worlds effect.
If you don't have fetches/Horizon lands or stripmine/wasteland in your deck, it's not playable.
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With Blast Zone, a new fetch and 5 new Horizon lands they are better than ever, but I am still unlikely to play Wren before Crucible.
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Wait, do you sincerely think Ramunap Excavator is better than a 2mana planeswalker that is a crucible effect and a pinger?
For cube yes. Ramunap is a color less so it should see a lot more play. It also has a higher floor. A deck that wants Wren wants Excavator too but not the other way around.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
The fact that redundancy doesn’t make this useless is itself a gigantic plus in comparison to those cards. If I have ramunap and crucible I have one dead draw. If I have wren and crucible I don’t.
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