Castle Ardenvale
Land
Castle Ardenvale enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Plains. t: Add W. 2WW, t: Create a 1/1 white Human creature token.
Obviously, this isn't as powerful as Kjeldoran Outpost at first glance (setting aside the sacrificing a Plains). That said, is it crazy to consider the swap? There's a lot to be said for cleaner text, and I'm interested in the land creating Humans instead of Soldiers (no upside in the cube either way for the pilot, but it makes for more interesting tension against Stromkirk Noble and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician). Also, I like foils.
I'm also considering making room to run both, but am not sure that's correct.
Haven't played the Outpost in a while. Like the other Castles, the opportunity cost on this is very low; if you cube it, it will find its way onto a lot of decklists. But a vanilla 1/1 token doesn't do a whole lot to stop most strong cube threats.
I think I'd rather have a more reliable land than be forced to sacrifice a Plains to Kjeldoran Outpost. Like all the other castles in this set, the opportunity cost is pretty low in most decks, just have to make room for them in the cube. Not sure if this makes it for me though.
A mono-color Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree that makes tokens of a more relevant type that ALSO taps for colored mana. That card was a house for me in constructed, and I have no doubt this card will be pretty great in cubes that can justify the slot.
I think it compares favorably to Outpost or Vitu-Ghazi, but I can't imagine a cube game where paying 5 mana for a 1/1 is a satisfying play. Even if the odds of this slowing you down are very slim, it just isn't worth a slot to me. Especially when we have better options in White already (Karakas, Kor Haven) The only reason I ran Westvale Abbey was for that Profane Prince.
I actually like Outpost more. Sacrificing a plains sucks but I ran outpost for years as a pet card for my Friend Brad. He found everyway possible to maximize that card. Strage uses of balance and land tax aside most of the ways involved lots of counterspells. And I am vert confident that costing 5 mana is too much. Especially since it really means getting to WWW which only white wheenie decks ever want to do.
Legions landing is the card that finally killed outpost, but it didn't stick either.
I also think Kjeldoran Outpost is better. The cheaper activation cost is so meaningful on this kind of effect. I'd rather have 5 lands (w/ an Outpost) than 6 lands (w/ the Castle) because it allows me to play 2cc spells and activate my land in the same turn. If I don't ever activate the card, the Castle is better. But if the plan is to actually use the thing, the repeated cheaper activation cost on the Outpost will add up quickly, and it'll actually be worth sacrificing the land to make it cheaper. Plus, there are some cool secondary benefits to sacrificing the land, like making Balance better, making Land Tax live, snagging it w/ Sun Titan/Reclamation or feeding a Crucible/Loam effect which can essentially just mitigate the drawback altogether.
Land
Castle Ardenvale enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Plains.
t: Add W.
2WW, t: Create a 1/1 white Human creature token.
Obviously, this isn't as powerful as Kjeldoran Outpost at first glance (setting aside the sacrificing a Plains). That said, is it crazy to consider the swap? There's a lot to be said for cleaner text, and I'm interested in the land creating Humans instead of Soldiers (no upside in the cube either way for the pilot, but it makes for more interesting tension against Stromkirk Noble and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician). Also, I like foils.
I'm also considering making room to run both, but am not sure that's correct.
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Sacrificing a plains is a huge huge drawback... this one has a very minimal one.
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Legions landing is the card that finally killed outpost, but it didn't stick either.
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