This is mostly for my own reference. I can check cards and my list and updates for my Type 4 Stack. Feel free to leave comments.
What's Type 4 (aka Limited Infinity)? There's a Wizard's article, here. A second article popped up here.
One Spell Per Turn
The key to winning is learning how to break this rule. A lot of cards in my stack break this rule, such as Ghost-Lit Stalker.
Hands
Players start with cards equal to the amount of players to a maximum of six to not detract from Sway of the Stars. Hand-size limit remains at seven.
No Errata
Some Type 4 stacks use errata, such as Alternative Costs make the spell free from the Arcane Laboratory effect or you have an infinite amount of lands to power the Incarnations, such as Anger or Wonder. This also includes the Arcane Laboratory state that Type 4 is in, which means no spells that cast other spells (Counterlash) and creatures that let you cast spells tend to be too weak (Guile).
Out of my stack, this is the only errata: Common Courtesy requires you to ask yourself for permission if you are the controller. Azozius Guildmage - Counters the effect instead of allowing resolution, changing the "Handling Infinity", see below.
Handling Infinity
I didn't want an expert stack manipulator beat out a newbie because they declared they passed priority inappropriately, so I am also following the 'Defender Wins' philosophy. That is, if two forces can enact infinite attack and defence, the defender always wins. The exception to this rule is Azorius Guildmage, as she counters the effect instead of attempting to resolve damage against prevention, for example.
Pick Selection
If I add a card into the Stack, it must be more powerful than another card. Ideally, everyone's "first pick" would be different with each pack. When I make a change, I hope to remove a similar equivalent in exchange for more power. I would be willing to cut a non-creature permanent for a creature, but very rarely for vice versa due to the inherent power of men on the board.
Balancing Combo-Aggro-Control
Victory and Defeat comes quickly in Type 4. To balance the three play styles I had to determine the upper limit for kills. After all, Fireball has been deemed to be against the spirit of the game and therefore too powerful. The rule of thumb for fastest victory should be: Two Cards, One Turn or One Card, Two Turns.
To compensate, Aggro had to be able to win within a single attack phase, necessitating Infinite Power or Infinite Creatures, such as: Skeletal Vampire, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Blightsteel Colossus. Haste on such creatures would be too powerful; however, cheating them into play at the end of an opponent's turn as the two card combo limit.
Control is about incremental advantage and inevitability. Unfortunately, the bombastic nature of Type 4 meant that Control couldn't slowly drain their opponents, drown them in Card Advantage or lock them in a Prison. Control required the safety of Infinite Life. Shield of the Ages could be destroyed or circumvented, but Infinite Life meant that unless Aggro/Combo entered its archetype maxim they wouldn't be able to win.
To make sure those outs worked, I developed a new way to measure what is too ridiculous. I made sure to eliminate any 'Double Infinite' cards. A single Infinity is possible to defeat but two often left the threat unanswerable. For example, Selesnya Guildmage created Infinite Power and Infinite tokens, which meant that a lot of answers wouldn't work, such as Starstorm, Silence the Believers and so on. A card couldn't go Infinite again for a win.
Finally, as with experimentation with different archetypes, there were cards that were simply too good.
Banned
The following cards have been tried in the Type 4 stack but were deemed too powerful. As the power of the stack goes up, these cards may return. Blast from the Past used to be on this 'ban list' but has returned to the stack due to its incremental advantage no longer being overwhelming.
Mischievous Quanar - Too easily won out of nowhere. If your opponent or you cast a good spell, you could easily create infinite copies. What exacerbated the problem was that if an opponent had an answer, the Quanar could in response repeat ad nausea. The Quanar violated the design rule of Double Infinite and 2-1 due to being able to combo off of your opponent's cards instead of your own.
Spell Burst - Too easily shut out the entire board, especially if held in reserve until opponents were depleted. Essentially, once you got ahead you won. The problem was who knew how long it would take for you to win. This was simply too good of a Control Card, it was too far oppressive.
Nezumi Graverobber - The biggest issue with the Graverobber was that it could simply reanimate in response to whatever answer your opponent had. Other reanimation could be checked, such as per turn from Debtor's Knell, one-time Rise of the Dark Realms or life cost from Chainer, Dementia Master. Those cards allowed for answers, Graverobber did not which is why it violated the Double Infinite maxim.
Oath of Lim-Dûl - I originally thought this would be a balanced Treasure Trove; however, the disadvantage of discard or permanent sacrifice was too little. Players would simply draw more to compensate and that's if you managed to score a hit. This was too oppressive if it landed with no one being able to get an upper hand.
Mistmeadow Witch - Made your creatures unanswerable, ignored your opponent's answers, board state and offence. If she resolved, she won you the game no matter how sloppy or stupid you played. The Mistmeadow Witch violated the Double Infinite.
Selesnya Guildmage - Infinite Creatures could be dealt with, Infinite Power can also be answered. The problem is when you have Infinite Power and Infinite Creatures on the same card. Very, very few cards handily deal with both and defense usually operates to stop Infinite Creatures or Power but not both.
Call of the Wild - Tooth and Nail allows a circumvention of the normal speed of the game, placing two game winners into play with one spell. I figured this would be fine but the issue was that Call of the Wild was that it required no skill to draft and was completely mindless. Furthermore, as a permanent, it was far easier to recur and abuse. With the possibility of just activating Call of the Wild again on the stack, this card violated the Double Infinite as well as the 2-1 rules.
Possibility Storm - With one spell per turn, and this causing you to cast a second spell, means it would fizzile. This is a very hard lock and was tried to improve the Control supertype; unfortunately, it is too good at it's job and isn't a fun answer. The gentleman who drafted this last said that he didn't even have fun winning with it.
Kessig Wolf Run - Turned anything and everything into a threat. Simply too dangerous with my stack at this point. If I get rid of my 2-for-1/1-for-2 design rule, then I could see Kessig Wolf Run returning.
Here are some alternative Cubes that have popped up on MTG Salvation. Type 4 Cubes are moreso customizable than other Cubes due to rules changes. Here's a list if you want different Cubes.
I want these cards. They may be suboptimal, but its something I think that could add to the Stack. You never know until you try. The problem is hunting them down in the small city I live in. The old cards are a hassle to get unless I resign myself to ordering online. The new crazy is probably too expensive, unless its a jank rare. I don't have trade bait as I've sold the rest of my collection, so I either trade from the stack (if only for a replacement) or use my Type 4 rejects.
I am not certain I could even remove this due to how unique Rise will be. I think there are a lot of outs, such as counterspells, graveyard management/hate and sometimes you won't have the infinite combo. That's what I think without any play experience with Rise, actual play may tell a completely different story but as far as I'm concerned this is Tooth and Nail 2.0.
Soulfire Grand Master Spellburst was Banned for being too oppressive as a Buyback Counterspell. The Soulfire Grand Master can possibly be more abusive with Buying Back all sorts of good Counterspells, winning with inevitable burn or actually being able to take Infinite turns until the win with Time Stretch.
Nullstone Gargoyle
I previously had this in the stack but it was far too oppressive. Now with Wizards printing a lot more big, beefy ETB creatures that blow up Artifacts, I think it's not that bad. As a previously Banned card, this is being placed back on the Watchlist.
Flamekin Village/Slayers' Stronghold
Both of these, even ignoring their combo potential with Cinder Elemental (outright combo with the Elemental requirement), violate the 2-1/1-2 rule of thumb. Is that a big enough of a violation? After all, it's possible now to T1 Firebreathe someone to death who may have had all the answers in the world as long as they were Sorcery speed. It's something I'm going to keep my mind on.
Mind's Dilation
I might chalk this up to 'you deserve to lose' like Tooth and Nail if it resolves. Part of the game becomes a stamina contest of knowing when there's no counterwall and slam Dilation down. Completely awesome, with savage plays like Dilating a Counter to whatever they played. Overall, great card.
This is mostly for my own reference. I can check cards and my list and updates for my Type 4 Stack. I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section but there is no where else on the forums where I think this would be appropriate.
If you're familiar with the format, please feel free to leave comments.
One Spell Per Turn
The key to winning is learning how to break this rule. A lot of cards in my stack break this rule, such as Ghost-Lit Stalker.
Starting Hands
Hand-size starts with the number of players to a maximum of six, as seven gets silly and detracts from Sway of the Stars. Unlimited hand-size.
No Errata
Some Type 4 stacks use errata, such as Alternative Costs make the spell free from the Arcane Laboratory effect or you have an infinite amount of lands to power the Incarnations, such as Anger or Wonder. Not the case for me, I believed that if you started Errata where would it stop? Also, I don't want to track down a Force of Will.
I do use some Un- Cards, but only ones that are relatively easy to understand. Nothing requiring manual dexterity, nothing with fractions.
Handling Infinity
I didn't want an expert stack manipulator beat out a newbie because they declared they passed priority inappropriately, so I am also following the 'Defender Wins' philosophy. That is, if two forces can enact infinite attack and defense, the defender always wins. The exception to this rule is Azorius Guildmage, as she counters the effect instead of attempting to resolve damage against prevention, for example.
Pick Selection
If I add a card into the Stack, it must be more powerful than another card. Ideally, everyone's "first pick" would be different with each pack. When I make a change, I hope to remove a similar equivalent in exchange for more power. I would be willing to cut a non-creature permanent for a creature, but very rarely for vice versa due to the inherent power of men on the board.
I am thinking of changing the dynamic of my Cube, as I believe that it is too easy to stall. To be more precise, an unintentional stall is the problem. I have no issues with a player locking down and having the rest of the players attempt to break their lock, my issue is when nothing happens for a few turns because no one can do anything. My belief is that there are perhaps a little too many answers in the Stack that sweep too much, I'm going to experiment by cutting Wrath effects for more silver bullets and threats.
300 Cards because it was a nice number. It also tends to go well with the regular number of drafters I have. Usually we do rotisserie, but I'm a fan of packs because I don't like how long it takes people to make selections. I guess I'm patient.
Balancing Combo-Aggro-Control
Control can be done with a variety of elements. My rule of thumb became Two Cards, One Turn or One Card, Two Turns. That's the speed in which you should be able to kill, whether it is one player or everyone. This is the standard at which I held Combo, which meant that Aggro required Firebeathers to keep pace.
Furthermore, there are always a few outs. There might be one to three cards that can solve this particular problem, but they exist. Azorius Guildemage is an exemplar card for this behaviour.
I want these cards. They may be suboptimal, but its something I think that could add to the Stack. I don't have a lot of money and I don't play anything but Type 4 now, so sometimes things are difficult to find/trade. I also live in a relatively small city (only 1 or so million), so its actually hard to find older cards.
Suggestions welcome.
Shadowmoor Woodfall Primus - auto-replace any 187 disenchant
Very cool! I admit I never thought of this (I'm Ashamed). That being said we have a subforum for cube lists, so do not be surprised if the thread moves.
I'm pretty sure that there's no reason for a Type 4 "cube" as Type 4 is regularly drafted, isn't it? Like, the article even talks about drafting Rochester being the norm. The point of a cube is to have all the colors balanced, but is that really necessary when you have infinite mana?
There's two philosophies. Take the best cards and beat your opponents like a red headed step child, or take solid cards so you don't get ganged up on if you're making big flashy plays. Then again, there are so many exceptions to so many rules. I'm personally the latter, as I also tend to know what cards combo together (Thunderheads is one of my favourite kill cards, think about it).
I'm a fan of any of the exceptions. Azorius Guildmage beats the rule of 'Infinity', Decree of Silence beats 'One Spell Per Turn' and is uncounterable (from normal means), Resounding Thunder, etc.
I'm a Timmy-Spike, so I just like to hit hard without pretense. Burn, threatening cards, etc. are my favourite.
But I have to make sure that Johnny gets some love.
I like Type 4 just for the Casual game but Type 1 Power Level.
Q: Do you exclusively draft, or do you sometimes all play from the same library?
Q: How many people do you generally play with in 1 game?
I like your list, but I see a few inconsistencies...maybe, depending on how you play.
Things I most likely would never cut from your 'potential' list: Masticore, Spinal Embrace, Vedalken Orrery
Things I would maybe remove from the 'banned' list: Nezumi Graverobber - Strong, but there's better cards such as Geth, Lord of the Vault and it's a dud in the early game. Mistmeadow Witch - Very strong card but not unbeatable by any means. Maybe add more shroud guys? Spell Burst - Draws a lot of hate and gets significantly weaker the more people are in your game.
You should probably add things like Treasure Trove to the banned list as well. I would also include anything that tutors every turn or can kill in 1 hit...but that's just me. I don't know how yours plays out, but cards like Akroma, Angel of Fury sealed more games than pretty much anything else, barring the other banned cards....Kessig Wolf Run seems downright unfair. Then again a lot of the cards you play seem especially swingy so w/e. =p
I'm sorry I don't have my list in front of me so I can't make any good suggestions...=(
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My apologies, children, for I am afraid I cannot save you all.
Drafting Type 4 can be a lot more fun than just playing from a community library or random stacks. When it's random, very often a player has all removal and no threats or all threats and no removal. Being able to draft also makes cards like Bosh, Iron Golem so much more interesting.
Deathless Angel is worthy of being on your watchlist, it's pretty much a better Armored Guardian most of the time. But still, I don't think she's overpowered. In a draft, I would still value a lot of stuff over her. Bombs (Teferi, etc.), counters, and burn should get picked over her early on in drafts.
Usually 3-4 players, occasionally more. Trying to get it going more regularly. Draft, or if we're really lazy, grab random parts of the stack.
Never ran Treasure Trove, it is obviously too powerful. I ran Oath of Lim-Dul as a "balanced" Treasure Trove, but that proved to be too powerful and it was cut. Also never ran Geth, as he violates my "Rule of Two". One Turn, Two Cards; Two Turns, One Card. He can cause people to die quite easily. Nezumi, while weaker, can do the same. The only exception I'm kosher with is Tooth and Nail.
The Orrery is part of the collection of what I like to think of as the Underwhelming Broken. They're broken, people know this and then move to neuter the card (or you) or always counter/destroy it. Ertai, Arcanis, Sedris, Debtor's Knell, etc. are other examples. Other kinds of broken are not as easily stopped. It also requires you to have other cards, rather than something that comes down and does its broken business (Tower of Fortunes, Kamahl, etc.)
Masticore because I want to add Olivia Valdaren, and I don't want to increase the amount of Wraths due to random stall. Masticore is the weakest "Masticore" and while I would be sad to see him go, I've made cuts to other previously beloved cards: Serra Avatar, Night Dealings, Mischevious Quanar, Nezumi Graverobber, Phage, Twilight's Call, Yawgmoth's Bargain, etc.
Games tend to end with some sort of combo or dudes smashing face, with various players dying from other things. If I remember the last few games, Thunderheads killed Swift Silence, Bosh flung Gleemax, another Gleemax died to Induce Paranoia, someone got Glasticore combo, another was Thrashing Wumpus+Combat Medic and the rest was "simple" beat down, including a Firebreather or two.
Kessig Wolf Run would definitely be a watch list item, but seems easy enough to stop by killing the recipient of the land.
They're rough cuts. Some are easier to understand the parallel, such as Chaos Warp for Reweave or Slice in Twain for Mystic Melting.
I removed Devastation as it was something that people were trading for. Masticore left as well as part of my decision to remove some Wraths in favour for more pin-point solutions to stop unintended stall outs.
Phyrexian Metamorph was interesting to getting put into play as a creature but Clone an Artifact.
Nim Deathmantle was solid, something I was hoping for as I had found Equipment (besides Tatsumasa) to be notoriously poor. Good equipment would find that all its potential targets would be destroyed before being able to wield the armament, Deathmantle counters this. It could also lead to some serious silliness with creatures that can kill themselves. Super solid addition. Nim Deathmantle with Golgari Guildmage was dirty!
Reviving Vapors has always been kind of mediocre. Praetor's Council has some bite.
I put back the Plated Slagwurm because of the disappointing run with Suncrusher. It does not kill well enough, it does not stall well enough, it does not block well enough. Snip. I put in something aggressive to compare.
A card I came across from a left over draft was Lost in the Mist which one of my players suggested trying. The reason I am hesitant is that it requires a target for the bounce effect. I've cut Counters in the past because they relied on excess non-sense, like deal damage to creatures which is useless if there are no creatures. Permanents might be an easier deal; however, I don't want to have a card sitting around doing nothing.
Opinions?
Another card that was suggested and I'm thinking more and more as an interesting card is Lighthouse Chronologist. It may belong in my 'Underwhelming Broken' section, as being too easy to kill but I am beginning to think that the effect is good enough. 3/5 through Sorcery-speed isn't that great, but the extra turns is going well. I used to have Beacon of Tomorrows, but I found that the effect wasn't good enough because you'd spend one of your resources without increasing the threat, which is why the only 'take an extra turn' effect is doubled in Time Stretch. The Time Walk on legs at the end of opponent's turns is interested. The question is how much? Thoughts?
Deathless Angel showed up and was killed by a Exile Wrath, so that pretty much left me with the impression that it isn't as Deathless as she's trying to sell. Still going to keep her on the watch list.
Played quite a few games with the Type 4 Stack, with Combo tending to edge out Control and Aggro. This means that I need to up the ante for Control and Aggro, which I believe the changes I've made have certainly done. What happened since the last time? I decided to not get Kessig Wolf Run. Too easy a way to kill a player and decided Lost in the Mist is another good card, in theory. Picked up a few more cards from random things.
Resounding Wave holds a lot more utility than Wrecking Ball. While does not destroy, sometimes can get rid of a now problem. Wave is free, allowing a quick follow up or defending your cards when you find yourself vulnerable and tapped out.
Cruel Revival is a not very impressive kill spell. I also want to cut back on the ease in which players can kill things. Forbidden Alchemy reduces the overall amount but does not hamper the ability to search for an answer. Twice.
Pestilence Demon is strictly superior to Thrashing Wumpus and was indicated as an auto-changeover as soon as I got my hands on the Demon.
Phyrexian Grimoire had neat effects and cute interactions. It was definitely a low pick. Something that players like enjoy instants and screwing with people's minds. It was never actively targetted, it was just a card that sat around and provided decent card advantage. There were more broken ways to Phyrexian Grimoire than Phyrexian Grimoire. I like the Grimoire but doesn't mean that it was good. Marshal's Anthem will change the game when it comes into play, it is a high pick, must counter or RFG the 'yard. Something that will shake things up sounds more like Type 4 than something that will give decent advantage over the course of the game.
Greater Good has been lacklustre over the last few games. Creeping Renaissance will "draw" you more cards: cards that were good enough to play; card's that were good enough to be destroyed; and lastly, cards you don't need to discard. The biggest complaint of Greater Good. Dropping a permanent does change things, but I think the Flashback and targetted "draw" make for a much more interesting game.
Quicksilver Dragon was a bad aggressive card. He could barely protect himself and was just Morph bait at best. I looked at the rest of the subpar creatures and found him to be the most lacking. Progenitus seems like a natural inclination, definitely another "deal with me!" creature. Dropping the Dragon also means one less flying blocker. Considering Combo has been winning a lot of the last matches, giving Timmy and his Large Men a plus is good in my book.
Now comes my problem: I have stumbled onto Eladamri's Call, which some consider to be a Type 4 staple; Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief a killing firebreather; and lastly, Increasing Ambition a tutor with Flashback. I don't know if I should add them or ignore them and I need your advice.
Eladamri's Call is an instant tutor, which I seem to have a few less than stellar options like Forbidden Alchemy and Intuition; however, Call is limited by searching for a creature. The other Instant tutors don't have this limitations. That's why I'm on the fence. Perhaps a weak kill spell? Something else? I don't know what to trade it with.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief has an interesting tension. When I first got her, I thought of her as a stronger Smokespew Invoker but I realized that Smokespew can reduce Power to 0 when facing against an Infinite Attacker or something strange. Drana and her own would just roll over. She also requires another target to Firebreathe. Every other Firebreather looks at an open board as an invitation to party, but this 'lil vamp takes caution. Possible a bad card for the Aggro/Control nature of her. I don't know what I should take out, if anything for this little lady.
Removing Praetor's Grasp in favour of Increasing Ambition sounds like a quick trade, but Grasp is such a unique effect. I am not too fond of it, but I know some players absolutely love smacking another player upside the head with their own toy. The fact that it is RFGed means random "Get Rid of Hands" effects are untouched by the Grasp. Triple Demonic Tutor sounds so juicy, but is it possible that the speed is now too breakneck? I'm not sure, as everybody loves Tutoring for either their Combo piece, the Control piece or their next BAMF.
Thanks for the input. I don't think Increasing Ambition is such an utter bomb, compared to other search effects in the stack; such as, Gifts Ungiven, Conflux, All Suns' Dawn, Aladin's Lamp, Planar Portal, etc. While Intuition and Promise of Power are listed as my weakest Draw/Search, they're powerful in their own right. Intuition gets you two things in the 'yard, one thing in your hand - and they're going to be broken. Promise of Power is never Countered, displaying a nice "under the radar" effect and netting you at least a 5/5 Flier (which seems to be the bar for beat down).
I've had a few runs before the last Changes, so haven't seen those Cards in action but I would make a note about the Necrotic Ooze: its very powerful but not overly so. It single handedly got the entire table against me and I did manage to fend off their attempts to kill me or the Ooze, but did not win me the game. I like the tension. Its not a Mischievous Quanar or Nezumi Graverobber that causes an auto-win, but is very powerful.
It has the same vulnerabilities as the Graverobber of its just a creature and requires a 'yard to get to work, but because the Ooze isn't putting everything into play I don't need to worry as much. Some creatures with their 187s can cause some serious headaches or wins when combined with other creatures, which the Ooze has to work a bit harder to get. Though it will be nice to be able to set off a Glasticore win with this guy.
Deathless Angel hasn't really had much play time, so no comment on her; however, the Blightsteel Colossus has me less concerned. The Colossus can kill a player with one hit and is Indestructible, but doesn't seem that over the top. Not going to remove him from the list quite yet, but I think he's not that broken. Perhaps Progenitus should replace him as the Aggro-Card on the list. Nothing deals with him: Wraths or Get Out, and if you manage to kill him you better pray that he isn't re-drawn (or Tutored).
There were some funny plays, especially when a Kaervek the Merciless was put directly into play opposing a Stuffy Doll in play choosing Kaervek's player. Heat Ray targeting the Stuffy Doll for 20, with a Captain's Maneuver made for a lot of dead players. Compulsion was drafted with Knollspine Invocation, ensuring maximum damage each time we were unable to counter the combo.
After doing a search for "Limited Infinity" I find that perhaps I am a bit too serious about my collection. Most of the Type 4 stuff is in the Casual Section, yet here I am with a list including Spoilers. I just browsed other player's threads to get ideas.
In this thread, I found a few interesting picks. I don't play real Magic anymore. Other hobbies or don't have time/money/patience/location to play anymore. Shows my unfamiliarity with the cards. Sure, I browse through the spoilers but how often do I notice a solid Type 4 pick.
Sheoldred, Whispering One seemed interesting. A way better Reya, but Reya was cut because she was a bit too weak. Could the Edict effect be worth it? I'd have to give her a whirl to see.
One of the cards I noticed, which I would only use half of its effect is Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. Unlimited Hand size would do nothing when your hand shrinks by a mere seven, but the temptation to include a 'Draw 7' is so compelling. The only other 'Draw 7' is Sway of the Stars which is pretty interesting on its own. Perhaps this guy could finally replace Arcanis for a card that does something. He actually gets his draw effect off! 'Draw 7' is such a signature broken ability I feel like I need to include it.
Felidar Sovereign is a way to actually win the game, instead of the "tedious" act of knocking people dead. It would also give the guy who gained Infinite Life a way to end the game quickly, instead of have the whole table turn against him in an attempt to find a combo piece that will kill him (and possibly the rest of the table), or have the Infinite Life player slowly whittle his opponents down. Pretty vulnerable, though...
Don't you hate it when everybody's at low life, but you're going to waste a few turns bashing your opponents and hope your men don't get killed? Hydra Omnivore is an answer to this situation, but as an 8/8 that has a huge target on its head... I don't imagine it connecting with anyone and whoever it does, well the entire table is going to hate you now.
As for removal, I found Nemesis Trap to be very interesting. I think I've gotten rid of all the vanilla RFG Attacker spells (as silly as that statement is...), but Nemesis Trap certainly has a nice combination there. Chill to the Bone might be the best, most vanilla kill spell - I don't think I have a single Snow creature.
Lurking Predators seems really interesting. I find that my opponents could bait me into overextending before killing everything, but its a way for a beatdown deck to quickly cycle through its deck. More intriguing but less powerful than "Ach, Hans Run!".
The Cthulu guys seem really popular. The problem I am having is deciding which ones might be too powerful or lacklustre. They all rely on "Cast" instead of 187, which means they're not as abusiveness with recursion; however, they're big, they annihilate and the effects they're attached to are solid. It That Betrays is in my want list because he does not rely on 187s and seems so abusive with Annihilate. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Artisan of Kozilek and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn seem larger than life - maybe that's what aggro needs (as Control-Combo would try to cheat these guys into play, which may still be worth doing).
One of the things I am slightly regretting is not using errata'd cards. Being able to use free stuff would make for some interesting cards. Furthermore, the unlimited hand size has detracted from otherwise really interesting cards, such as Jin-Gitaxias. I'm not changing now, as that would require a complete re-vamp of the Cube and I'd have to start hunting down real rares like Force of Will.
Mimic Vat is another interesting card. I initially removed Soul Foundry because it was such a juicy 2-for-1 that it would almost always get nailed. Mimic Vat doesn't seem to have that weakness, it offers more flexibility by copying opponent's creatures and its possible to lock out some creatures from the game that tend to self-recur. I would gladly ensure my opponent cannot get his Darksteel Colossus back if my Vat dies, but until then I'm pumping out Darksteel Colossuses.
After talking with friends, I am thinking of getting rid of Intuition in exchange for Eladamri's Call. Intuition does not give you complete control while Eladamri gets you exactly what you want and considering the diversity of creatures - it's an answer or threat.
The other suggestion was instead of looking at Draw/Tutor effects, look for other cards that are "meh" to remove for Increasing Ambition. Well, I found that in Blatant Thievery. I am a little saddened to admit it, but Blatant Stealery has gone the way of the dinosaur. If you resolve it, you may not get the maximum effect by virtue of not enough permanents, can't get the permanents you want due to Hexproofed (or something else) and will get the table to hate you. It is very key to win the game when the table hates you. If Stealery resolved, very rarely will you be able to immediately win (and bypassed those Counters, somehow). Increasing Ambition can get you the cards to win and Flashback can help you get some gas back when you're running low.
Finally, Firemane Angel is the one to go in favour of Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief. Firemane is annoying to deal with, gains you very little life and is a nuisance. Drana isn't as good as a pure kill creature, but she certainly is threatening enough to join the ranks of Aggro creatures.
The changes didn't quite go the way I predicted. One of my players made a very convincing argument against Eladamri's Call. Blatant Thievery and Increasing Ambition made the swap, but that was all that happened.
My player's argument was that Firemane Angel is a control creature, while Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is an aggressive kill card. If I was going to take out anything it would need to be an aggressive creature. The axe fell on Skinthinner because I was obviously not pushing the Morph agenda - I had previously cut Quicksilver Dragon and I wasn't pushing it with other Morphs that may be OK or funny like Krosan Cloudscraper. Skinthinner is a one-time murder something card, Drana can do it repeatedly and while she is a weak Firebreather she is still a Firebreather pushing the aggro agenda.
Speaking of other agendas, I am getting pretty jelly of 'free effects'. With my hard One Spell Per Turn rule, I am unable to throw in any 'free spells' - such as Counterlast or using creatures that cause spells to happen. I don't want to start including the entire Free Rule. That would be too much to hunt down 'staples' like Fist of Suns or more importantly expensive cards like Force of Will.
Any idea of neat creatures or spells with that sort of thing? I know there was an entire mechanic based on free stuff(tm). Anything else comes to mind? Keep the stack the same? Make the change? Thoughts?
Fun side-effect of Increasing Ambition without cutting Intuition: C-c-c-combo! Intuition for Increasing Ambition EOT, something they'd want to put in your hand and another card. You can then Flashback and search for two cards. If they still put Increasing Ambition into your hand, I guess you just search and re-search the turn after that.
I don't play with free spells because they lean the stack more towards Control. Control and Combo are in a slight dominance in the stack, which is why I try to balance Aggro with Infinite Power creatures. Aggro with just plain old creatures didn't do it, especially with players who could through a variety of means go to a million life.
This means while Morphs would remain more lackluster, the Control elements would not gain a substantial strength. The only change to 'free spells' I'm willing to negotiate is Spells that say you can play another spell without paying its mana cost. If I open up the floodgates, I would need to completely overhaul my Cube. I currently don't want to do even the small change because it violates the strict "One Spell Per Turn".
My play group got into a discussion about the Pestilence Demon. One of my players suggested putting in Thrasing Wumpus in conjunction with Pestilence Demon. I couldn't really articulate why I thought that was too good, but your argument is part of the reason why. The Pestilence effect very rarely wins outright, especially when someone can always gain life or Redirect, usually it involves some arrangement of beatdown. Its not very much an "auto I win" but I think two might be the case, making it far easier to maneuver to highest life and Pestilence everyone to death. I currently don't mind Combat Medic or Glarecaster as part of the combo, but I'd like my players to work for it a bit better.
Dread Cacodemon is an interesting pick. It is something that I am interested in. I usually want creatures that have "Comes into Play" not "When Cast" unless the effect is amazing, such as Hypnox. I don't have a creature that Wraths when it 'comes into play' so the Dread Cacodemon may be a great addition.
Glen Elendra Archmage is really solid. Even if it is just Countering the kill spell aimed at her. Hell, she makes for more "Wrath Push" but letting you cast a Wrath and be able to push the spell through. And if it resolves without anyone batting an eye, you still have a solid Counterspell.
Phyrexian Ingester is really cool! I don't think I would replace Duplicant but compliment him. The Ingester must be better than some other Kill Creature I have. Though if Duplicant has to go, I won't be sad.
Sphinx of Magosi is way too good! I currently don't have a maximum hand size, which I may need to change. But drawing Infinite Cards and making a big, flying guy is too much in one Card. It is nice that it immediately can draw you cards but I would prefer Consecrated Sphinx purely because drawing cards would be limited. Sphinx of Lost Truths may be too weak. If you put it directly into play, you'll need to draw and discard. 3/5 isn't that impressive maybe draw cards when I already have Sphinx of Uthuun - 5/6 Flying Fact or Fiction on 187.
Terastodon would not necessarily replace Necrotic Sliver. Activated abilities can be mised from a variety of effects, Riptide Replicator can pump out Slivers. Also, Necrotic Sliver hits a permanent while Terastodon is firmly non-creature. It sounds like it would be way better than Acidic Slime. Bigger to kill, making Deathtouch a little irrelevant but more importantly bigger to smash face. If I blow up three permanents, they're most likely not going to be the same player - making the triple 3/3 irrelevant. But if they are angry, just keep the 9/9 back who can chump the 3/3s with ease.
I am not sold on Grixis Sojourners. I feel like the amount of Graveyard hate I currently have is the correct amount. I have a some creatures, some permanents and a little bit of spell removal. On top of that, I have a lot of exile effects with kill, countermagic or something else. So, I don't want to tip the scales any particular way but if I feel like I need slightly more, these guys will be on my mind.
I am not quite sure if you are condemning or appraising Spine of Ish Sah. It seems to be an OK card. Weak on the side of kill but seems to be a better Desert Twister in so many ways.
Thran Tome seems like a lot of fun. My problem is two-fold. I just cut Phyrexian Grimoire - while Thran Tome is drawing cards I am having doubts. If a 'cute utility' artifact like the Grimoire gets cut, how can the Tome stand a chance? The second is a little more mundane. Its going to be a pain in the ass to track down!
Rite of Replication and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker violate my rule of requiring another card (specifically a creature). Some cards do break that rule, but they're "good enough". I think the only card I have that breaks that rule is Nim Deathmantle - which helps keep your creatures alive. Kiki-Jiki and those effects are basically asking your opponent to destroy whatever you've targetted - that's why I had to remove Soul Foundry. When you create a 2-for-1 situation in Type 4, its basically begging your opponent to axe something.
Hmm... I never thought that Creeping Renaissance would be too weak. I'll keep an eye on it.
With Army of the Damned I am having trouble swallowing the "Comes into Play Tapped". It is better on offense and defense than Crush of Wurms but part of the appeal is lost because I don't play the same way as you - with Flashback being free. Same deal with Spell Crumple - while you can tutor it back or redraw after a shuffle, the same could be the same as your target. If that's the case, why even cast this particular Counterspell?
My issue with Vanish into Memory is that you need to discard cards. Sure, drawing a lot of cards is cool but you need to discard. That is a huge no-no. Especially if I institute a hand limit. Furthermore, it doesn't kill anything but puts it away for a bit. I can see the awesomeness with your own creature or killing tokens, but that seems like a very niche effect.
I'll still bring your list forward to my play group. These are some very interesting picks! Thank you so much for your help.
I've decided that the power level has reached a point that Spell Burst can make a return. I'm keeping a close eye on it but I think it might be OK. Rewind was the weakest counter, so it was an easy cut.
Simple swap for Dominus of Fealty. Bringer of the Red Dawn leaves. Sure, it is bigger and has Trample but Dominus has flying which is a better evasion. Furthermore, Dominus takes any permanent - I can already see someone putting a Dominus into play at end of turn, grabbing the Door and chucking it at someone.
I like Palichron. It was a tough cut to make, but Glen Elendra Archmage is much more powerful. Palichron kept a static game, Glen can force the game to keep going but on your own terms. Control in the form of a good blocker for control in the form of a counterspell on legs.
This was not exactly an even swap. I think I may have miscategorized but I took out Myojin of Infinite Rage for Phyrexian Ingester. Red Myojin usually ended up as an Indestructable 7/4 - Lands were rarely seen. There are enough destroy non-creature effects in the game, plus general sweepers that happen to hit lands that I wanted to get rid of this unimpressive "kill card" (more aggro, now that I think about it) for the deadly Duplicant effect.
A concern of mine is unintential stall. I could play a card that kills a target, but because it stays around, people need to deal with it before they can resume play. Predator, Flagship was the weakest of these effects. Sure, it offered utility by making creatures Fly but I dislike cards that rely on other cards. Lurking Predators seemed like a good swap. Take away from Control to give Aggro a shot, plus it allows you sneak in your Combo pieces. It may be Wrath bait, I'm not sure - I'll have to see. Also, both have Predator in their names.
At first, I wanted to get rid of Kodama of the North Tree for Gaea's Revenge. But then I realized it was 6/4 untargettable Trampler. I started looking for worst 'hard to deal with Attackers'. Jareth, Leonine Titan came to mind. 4/7 Pro Everything attacker or 11/14 Pro Everything blocker? People liked to keep him back for the block. Gaea's Revenge is Uncounterable, Haste and hard to deal with. Sounded like a way to upgrade Aggro with all of the upgrades Combo/Control were getting. Another Pit Fighter bites the dust.
Firemane Angel seems a lot better than it actually is. I ran her in Standard in GWR Control, she was great because her life gain kept you ahead of the insignificant pings you were taking as you blocked until you got your bomb. In Type 4, a decent beater isn't a 2/2 - its a 6+ Power creature. It That Betrays seems be a better pick overall, you need to kill him or you'll be in a land of hurt.
Flash Conscription has been lacklustre lately. Mystical Teachings is quite a gem I am disappointed I didn't notice it before. At the very worst, it can search for two Counterspells.
Tidespout Tyrant tended to get killed or neutered without having its effect go off, but when it did I bounced something. Yawn. Lighthouse Chronologist is going to be worth it even if it goes off once. Taking extra turns is awesome, but there has been no reliable way to make that happen in Type 4. With some protection, the Chronologist has a chance, but more importantly, he can succeed without backup as well.
I also changed up the formatting, just to make things easier to search for. Though I did realize that Spell Crumple is "strictly better" AND "strictly worse" than Hinder. If I figured Crumple was strictly better, I could just swap with Hinder but I cannot make that claim. Now, I'm conflicted about how to proceed. I am not certain if Spell Crumple is better than Discombobulate, the next counter on the Chopping Block.
@ HetisjeboiM: How many cards is your stack? I kept mine at 300 as just an arbitary number. I should perhaps raise it to 315 to have 7 players evently draft. Normally we do packs, but sometimes Rochester as well. This way I can also concentrate on making the list more powerful. I prefer packs as there is less pressure on the newbie, also its fun not knowing who took what. I recently had a discussion with a player on that I should set criteria so I will know when I should put a new card in.
For example, I previously thought that "At the beginning of your Upkeep" was took weak, which means I should remove Charmbreaker Devils and Sheoldred, Whispering One from my thoughts. Also, "Cast" must be really good if the creature (or permanent) does not say "Comes Into Play".
I see a bunch of Firebreathers, why don't you accept more into your stack? You have free spells, I am certain you must notice that creatures have a hard time winning with beatdown. I'm guessing its usually due to some combo. I looked at your black and noticed the Consumptive Goo and Fleshformer. Why not add a few more, especially since the Fleshformer already has the hard to block motif of Fear. I also saw Lim-Dul the Necromancer who I had forgotten about. Maybe I should look him up.
I see you have quite a lot of "reliance" affects. Reliance means they require another card to use, which in my mind is begging your opponent to kill that permanent, such as the Scourge Expansion's CMC mechanic. If killing your Godsire means that I don't need to discard my hand, then it's happening. I have also found this out with Equipment, which is why I only run Tatsumasa and Nim Deathmantle - one is hard to kill Equipment that turns into a hard to kill creature, the other keeps all my creatures alive.
I see Cinder Elemental going to the dome but otherwise the burn you have, besides the staples, is not very encouraging. No Pyromancy, just deal 2 damage. Pretty small increments. Madness. This is Type 4!
You have some random Life Payment for effects. I think that is interesting and possibly why you don't have Firebreathers. People's life is theoritically low enough that beatdown would work. I prefer to not use life unless the effect is stupidly broken, like Chainer or Yawgmoth's Bargain.
After going through HetisjeboiM's list again, I noticed something that really made it stand out. It was alphabetical! I decided to do the same and I noticed that the readability of the Cube List has shot up.
I also decided to cut a few 'wants'. I had decided to get hip with whatever the new terms kids are using nowadays: EtB instead of CiP or 187. Cast, instead of Played. And a few others. After I made that connection and could just connect the dots, my attitude toward a lot of cards changed. I could now evalulate by skimming and looking for "Blah blah blah Eblah tblah Bblah" or "Blah blah Cblah blah blah". Before I had to read the entire card and that would sometimes trick me.
Dread Cacodemon, who I did spend a mighty $1 on, would not make the cut. EtB is great, Cast is not. The creatures that require Cast are Myojins and Hypnox. This is why I think I instinctively decided to cut Myojin of Infinite Rage. If I put him directly into play, he is not Indestructible nor does he destroy lands. I have to put extra effort into actually Casting him. Screw that noise, It That Betrays is so much more dangerous and it doesn't matter how he shows up to the party.
Which now matters, thanks to my addition of Lurking Predators on top of the other EtB friendly tutors, such as Tooth and Nail, Wargate and Chord of Calling. Why cheat myself on cheating them into play ala Timmy, Power Gamer or Quicksilver Amulet? Hells yes, I would spend the effort to hard cast Hypnox, Myojin of Cleansing Fire or Myojin of Night's Reach. They're great effects that come with bodies, the creature is incidential so I am willing to treat them as Sorceries. Sorceries that are worth casting, Sorceries that come with a body (ala Promise of Power). If a joe-smoe creature was worth hard casting, it better a great combo piece, an excellent control piece or an incredibly threatening attacker.
My decision to forgo Charmbreaker Devils or Sheoldred, Whispering One is previous experience with Upkeep Creatures. Bringer of the White Dawn was replaced with Sharuum the Hegemon for the immediate effect. I cut Reya, Dawnbringer for Debtor's Knell and those effects for immediate recursion in the form of Karmic Guide or Miraculous Recovery. I had fallen in love with the idea of them being broken, but forgetting the reality that they would merely die because it is a "Reliance" effect. The creature does not stand alone, finished by it duties - it needs to wait for its turn. It relies on itself, which is the biggest liability, especially without a way to protect itself. Reliance on others may cause something else to die, still allowing the potential to 'combo off.' Lighthouse Chronologist may suffer the same fate, but its effects are much more immediate with next player's turn instead of rolling the dice that no one is going to take it out or "Accidentally Wrath" by the time its your turn again.
In addition to cutting my wants, I looked at the spoiler for Avacyn Restored. So far three items are what I would consider Type 4 worthy - at least for my current rules set: Griselbrand Killing Wave Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Killing Wave is a great wrath, its very flexible. You can have it low enough that you are willing to spare one or two of your creatures or high enough that no one is spared. You may want to tease your opponents. Is Creature X worth paying 10 life? Would that amount put me to the "Magic Number" (10 or 6, due to the amount of direct damage set to that amount). Its also a way to deal with so many of my increasingly tough to deal with creatures.
Griselbrand may finally complete my campaign to cut Phantom Nishoba. Phantom Nishie has been at the bottom of the power level for a while, but due to Lifelink and Phantom, it has managed to survive cuts of much better cards due to his pure survivability. Now we have something that can make you draw cards. I wouldn't be surprised if someone makes a convincing argument to cut Etched Monstrosity first. We'll see.
Avacyn is probably going to be ridiculously expensive, being a 1) Legend, 2) Angel, 3) Titular Character. Griselbrand might be in the same boat. Hopefully she won't break the piggy bank too much. The question I have is do I cut? Armored Guardian or Eight-and-a-Half Tails?
Which leads me to the thought that I'm going to really have to think about what is worthwhile about adding. I need some criteria. I obviously don't just cut worst-for-new. When I throw in a Masticore, I take a Masticore out instead of whatever I deem to be the weakest creature. I am maintaining a balance of Aggro-Control-Combo but I need to think of what is good to add. The Penumbra Wurm and Symbiotic Wurm have been weak for a while but they're still staying in, for example. How do I cut them, when do I cut them?
I am also thinking of cutting an Artifact and Enchantment kill spell. They don't seem to stick around long enough. Maybe another generic kill spell in addition to this, perhaps a Wrath as well. Just to push the game forward, letting the more Active strategies (Combo and Aggro) don't lose because someone let the Passive Control strategy win out by Wrathing one more time.
Wow, what an educational night. Spell Burst got banned again. Rewind goes back in. I wish there was another good Counter I could start replacing them with... With the current rule set I have, its annoying. Also, I don't want to use 2-for-1 because if there is no legal target, then Lost in the Mist turns from Card Advantage to a dead card.
Dominus of Fealty immediately showed results over the Bringer. There was only non-creature Permanents when it resolved, which made an immediate effect. I won shortly afterwards but the gain control could've really screwed me over. I am pleased with the change. Though perhaps I should interrogate my thoughts towards why Dominus Upkeep is OK, but other Upkeeps are not (yet Debtor's Knell is OK too).
Speaking of other pleasant changes, Lurking Predators and Mystical Teachings were both incredible to discover. When Lurking Predators was played, I immediately saw the power of it. Even if it is just shuffling random instants out of your top deck. I can easily see this being a very deadly card, especially since he started filling up his 'yard and had drafted Sedris, the Traitor King. You might want to walk into Wraths, especially with some recursion like Marshal's Anthem.
I drafted Mystical Teachings fairly high. I found it to be a wise decision and would treat it highly again. First game I got it, I grabbed a Counter and Chord of Calling which allowed me to set up Glasticore (Glarecaster + Damage Dealing Creature = Infinite Damage). Second game, I realized it could be any creature with Flash so I searched up Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and set up a soft lock with Voidmage Prodigy and Grim Harvest. If I had a threat on the board, it would've been a fast finish but my opponents managed to break my lock.
Gaea's Revenge is a house! It does not feel like a green creature but more like mobile burn. Lighthouse Chronologist was killed or countered, I don't remember which, before we could start seeing it tick away. I guess that's good, another "Underwhelming Broken" - always uses up an opponent's resource because they don't want to know what it does.
No combos, some stalling with control elements but mostly concentrated efforts to kill. I did kill one player with Glasticore, but the Glarecaster was killed by a Sudden Death, leaving the remaining players still standing. And pissed. I didn't win that one. When an opponent went to Over 9000 with Who/When/Where/Why/What, another played a Silklash Spider and I quite cooperatively killed the smart alec.
One of my players was concerned over too much creatures. I said that I felt control/combo had a slight edge, he warned if I included too much crazy stuff like the Eldrazi, then aggro would completely push combo and control out. I was trying to think of Wraths or Spot Removal that would perhaps swing the balance back. I immediately thought of Martial Coup, I previously didn't hunt it down because I thought it might have been too broken.
After all that smack talk, I still put in the Dread Cacademon (its funny 'cause its poo). I came to the realization that I have quite a few random Cast creatures instead of EtB. I also want to add in more bodies by virtue that bodies are more valuable than Sorceries. Stall outs are not fun, there should be more creatures and there should be more Instants so that more action happens.
I still need to create a threshold for introducing a creature to the stack. Sure, Avacyn and Griselbrand are auto-includes but what about when the line is more blurred?
Myojin of Night's Reach, Thicket Elemental and Hypnox all require cast. The three of which have different qualities that make them special. Myojin is Legendary, protects herself and causes a powerful effect. Hypnox can cause combos such as the Nightmare EtB and LtB trigger shenanigans. Thicket Elemental is unique: there are creatures that put creatures from your graveyard or hand into play, only Thicket does so from your library.
How can I justify the Dread Poo Demon? Its unique. There is no EtB Wrath Creature, which is important to deal with all the Protection, Shroud and Hexproof creatures. And of all the Wraths to emulate, it selects a superb one: Plague Wind. It is far better than the Desolation Giant I previously had, which I cut due to the amount of times it screwed its owner over - same fate occurred to Phage the Untouchable.
Phew! A lot o' talk over a Poop Demon. Moving on...
Wurmcoil Engine is strictly better than Penumbra Wurm. Oh sure, its more vulnerable as an Artifact but wasting Artifact Spot Removal on a creature is somewhat of a waste. Wurmcoil gains you life, kills creatures it chumps and can do some serious damage when it turns sideways. Its little buddies cannot be deal with spot removal, are large enough to be a credible threat and the Deathtouch means his little buddy can still kill random guys.
Acidic Slime sure does have Deathtouch, which makes for a great blocker once its done its business. Terastodon is a 9/9 and up to destroys three noncreature permanents. 9/9 is a real clock, 2/2s are not. If some reason a single player has all the annoying noncreature permanents, you can decide how many 3/3s you want to invite to the party. I think that he's a great addition, especially with the EtB stipulation (take that Poo Demon!).
I passed Debtors' Knell as a last pick last draft. The Knell is really slow but more importantly, there is very rarely anything to take with Exiling Counterspells, Exiling Removal and general cleaning of 'yards. I thought of making changes, making 'yards more viable but I feel that is treating a natural evolution instead of accepting how Stacks evolve. As previously mentioned, I also have a hate-on for Your Upkeep triggers, especially on creatures.
I thought the Knell would be safe, non-creature and all. I obviously do make exceptions, such as Dominus of Fealty (fomerly Bringer of the Red Dawn), Glory and Genesis but I don't think the last two count as to where they hide. But that's it. No other Your Upkeep permanents. Furthermore, there's a lot of graveyard hate. I am having Second Thoughts on Sedris, the Traitor King being too weak which is strange considering how crazy his ability is. Maybe HetisjeboiM's call on Creeping Renaissance was quite accurate. I've yet to see it even get played (3-5 drafters using 45 cards each means anywhere between 165 to 75 random cards don't even make it into the draft pool).
So, I wanted a non-creature, permanent that can be threatening. I came across Baneful Omen while looking at Multiplayer Guides (where else will jank rares be played seriously? :P). It burns opponents at the end of your End Step, has no Reliance and happens "immediately". If someone has a Sorcery speed resolution they're still going to take some amount of damage, plus random Combo with Gleemax - though I have no idea how you would set that up (Yagmoth's Bargain + Bringer of the Black Dawn? Search, place on top and don't draw).
And now, I'm going to blatantly exasperate the issue with the removal of Storm Seeker for Suffer the Past. At first, I was tempted to remove Honor the Fallen because of the remove and gain life clause but then I thought of the damage portion of Suffer the Past and Storm Seeker came to mind. Storm Seeker has been slightly underwhelming, with 6 or 7 damage being if you're lucky. It is nice to ambush the control player with damage once they've used their spell, but why not add insult to injury? RFG their 'yard, possibly even causing a spell to fizzle.
I talked to my players and asked around for some advice (from Cz, who has awesome Multiplayer Stickies) to see what else could be changed. My concern is stall, so one of my players made a radical suggestion to cut all stall. I define stall as indiscriminate halting of spells, attacking, and activated abilities. Its incriminate because it costs you nothing. Basically, anything that grinds the game to halt as someone searches for a silver bullet. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what would qualify as stall.
This is further hampered by all the Wraths, which is further hampered by jumping through the gauntlet of Spot Removal and/or Counters. I didn't bother to include the "Rattlesnake" cards like Child of Alara or Pernicious Deed, because you need to sacrifice them (in the literal or not sense) to get their effect.
I am also finding a curious situation. Recursion has always been a powerful strategy, but it has been taking a beating. It is no longer that powerful, so just like the indiscriminate use of stall effects, I wonder about cards that rely and hate on graveyards. I would want to make changes, the most obvious is cutting hate for card that rely.
There seems to be an equal amount of cards that hate on graveyards and cards that benefit from graveyards. Flashback was thrown in there 'cause I was curious. The majority of graveyard hate; however, is asymmetrical. It is not one card for one card, its one card for all your graveyards into perpetuity until you deal with this. Even the lowly Withered Wretch seriously wreck face and he's just a bear.
In conclusion, I need to definitely cut back on graveyard hate as well as reduce stall effects. This has given me serious food for thought. I think I'm going to need to take a serious look at cards and ask the question of their uniqueness or power level.
Le PS: I sent Cz a PM asking for any cards he'd suggest and he gave me a whole bunch of goodies. Going through his suggestions, I have placed the following into consideration:
Before I start on this change-a-thon, I would like to say that I am impressed by Baneful Omen. No one Countered, no one destroyed and we all took 4 damage off of a revealed Vedalken Orrery. That set the tone for the game and that 4 damage mattered. The ability to quickly toss damage at opponents at practically changed the entire game. The Omen was dealt with very quickly but I still had the four damage to recover from.
I wonder how great it can be when you flip a 10 CMC Dread Cacodemon or Gleemax. Incidentally, I added cards that made stacking the top possible. I didn't realize this until later and is not done intentionally at all.
Hail of Arrows, Chastise and Terminate are the weakest Removal/Wraths. Chastise and Hail require them to be attacking, Type 4 creatures tend to be dangerous without attacking, such as Ertai, Wizard Adept or Azorious Guildmage. Terminate while has the least amount of restrictions is a little lackluster. With the removal of Removal, I added Burn, Counters and Search to help speed up the process. Damage to shorten the game, Counter that stops a dangerous card but provide a card for everyone which keeps the game going and Search for the combo piece or necessary counter. Lim-Dul's Vault's Pay Life is intentional, to push the game forward. Riddle was previously in the stack but was cut due to lackluster performance, I think the average CMC has increased since Future Sight making this a much better card. Probably still the weakest Burn spell...
Necrogenesis and Honor the Fallen provided too much easy 'yard hate. Returning Debtors' Knell was the fastest way to re-focus that graveyards should be important. Wheel of Fortune was a way to full up 'yards quickly as well as mitts, keeping lulls to a minimum. I played Wheel today and I was surprised at how good it was - good addition for Control and Combo arch-types. In the Type 4 I previously played with, the Wheel wasn't good because it too easily gave them the combo (he was a Johnny player instead of attempting to create a 'balanced' Stack). Aggro will hate this card but considering how much I've been improving Aggro, I am fine with a few solid additions that merely push the pendulum back.
Moving onto the remaining non-creature permanents, Spine was always too weak. Sneak Attack and Holistic Wisdom, previous staples and examples of backbreaking broken, are too slow. Sneak Attack is difficult to setup, much less try to build a combo around. Holistic Wisdom provides cards at the cost of cards, I think we're beyond 1-for-1 trades when it comes to recursion. Browse generates Card Advantage out of thin air trading longevity. When you need to search for a Counter or Removal right now that is not an issue. Checks and Balances looks fun so its in the place of Sneak and Splintering Wind is a way to stop willy-nilly destruction. If you pay to play, there is a cost - the benefit may be infinite 1/1s but any abuse may lead to your death. I know some ballsy players will swing for the fences with it, but I am concerned that it may be too weak.
Glory was another card that I realized was too slow. Skeletal Scrying increased the theme of searching after solutions instead of having dead cards that may be the case. Having the Lose X Life as not being part of the Additional Cost is very good, I think countering a Recursion Spell with a Scry in response is the biggest flip off you can give. I hope that Glory returns but I am concerned that the analysis that it does nothing may be true. Let's play without and see...
Volrath's Shapeshifter was a great combo piece in certain legacy formats. I thought this degree of broken would carry to Type 4. It didn't but I am such a fan of that I through it in. Once Wizards removed "Damage on the Stack," the usefulness of the Shapeshifter (and Phage) plummeted. The Guildmage would most likely be a dangerous threat that still dies to most Wraths.
Multani has been weak for a while, not all that impressive when the "vanilla version" is a guaranteed 9/9 to his randomness. In fact, you'd also prefer environments where Multani was small, allowing you to play solid creatures without worrying about counter magic. Red Myojin returns simply due to being a relatively difficult to deal with threat.
Silklash Spider, another staple, bit the dust today. Thrashing Wumpus returns due to a very convincing argument on whether Pestilence effects should be in the Type 4 stack. The Wumpus is better than the Spider, who was I willing to remove on the principal of being the weakest wrath creature. The return of the Wumpus (cool sci-fi b-movie title warning) pushes for more aggro and combo. Good control is often seen as stall - pushing the Spider which can block and stall by killing Fliers drops in the favour of a creature that wins games.
The other day, the Nantuko Vigilante flipped straight off of a EtB effect like Thicket Elemental. If he had been a mere EtB instead of Morph, he could've killed a troubling artifact. This inspired me to cull the Morphs further, replacing the Vigilante with the Acidic Slime. Less size but hits more and can kill with Deathtouch.
Removed Mimc Vat from the Wants list. Cute, but might be too slow. Added Back from the Brink, or as I would like to call it, Back from the Drink (its a bar in my city, as I am pretty sure its a bar in many cities). I don't know how I didn't notice this before, but Terminus is a beast! It is the best Wrath aside from Final Judgment - Terminus doesn't even allow the creatures to hit the 'yard.
On the topic of Wraths, Dregs of Sorrow is Official The Worst Wrath. This makes me sad, I am a fan of Dregs. It allows specific targeting, shenanigans with Indestructible or Pro creatures and draws you cards. The issue has become the targeting. As for drawing cards, Overwhelming Forces gets that done, ignores 'can't target me, nyah nyah!' and Plague Winds for good measure. Terminus, Killing Wave. Perhaps Martial Coup. You've got an auto-replace.
I am thinking more and more of adding Martial Coup because the Selesnya Guildmage has surprisingly been held in check. Splintering Wind was useful too. It is the sort where you need to be careful but can win you the game. Just need balls the size of Watermelons to pull off. I passed it to someone's last pick. Whoops?
The reduction of graveyard hate has paid off. Things are back in order, with graveyards being a thing. Hence my desire from Back from the Drink, which is the best Dreams of the Dead ever. I was sad when I had to remove Dreams of the Dead, but I couldn't reliably count on having White or Black dead dudes (Yes, racist out of context!). In our draft pool, we had Withered Wretch, Creakwood Ghoul and Suffer the Past but Flashback and various "I like graveyards" still had a chance. I drafted the Ghoul and Suffer, so it was nice being able to control 'yards. Even then Creeping Renaissance, which I know HetisjeboiM thought would be too weak, was solid enough.
Lurking Predators really requires a lot of creatures. I had 17 or so in my 45 card deck and that wasn't enough. Still makes Predators amazing through. This is a lesson in hate-drafting in Type 4 - doesn't quite work and only dilutes your power. Glen Elendra Archmage is some awesome sauce. I've found that she basically draws all the removal, which is fine, because unlike the Coalition Honor Guard she stops players from casting spells and counters them. Play her as a feint to your knockout bomb! Body Double has also shown to be a shining example of this, where you send out your bomb creature as a sacrificial lamb to get countered or killed - followed up with a Body Double to see if someone has something better.
Lim-Dul's Vault and Riddle of Lightning are surprisingly solid. I had them in before, but I guess they weren't good enough previously because there wasn't stuff worth digging/blasting with. As the power level goes up, card search takes a precedence. Skeletal Scrying was previously in as well, but is a ***** to play with. I got killed attempting to resolve one when I got double teamed with Parallectric Feedback and Riddle - the life loss finished me. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any other good Instant speed card draw that can't be used as an auto-win (I'm looking at you, Stroke of Genius).
At first, I was a bit nervous about Cruel Ultimatum. Was it Sorcery worthy? Was it good enough? Well, yesterday dispelled that. Sorcery worthy is that creatures and enchantments take up your 'Sorcery-slot' during play. If you have too many Sorceries and creatures, you lose because your hand fills up with crap. You want to land a permanent during this small window of play - so Sorceries need to be very good. Cruel is - the 'draw 4' in addition to making opponents discard, sacrifice and drain life. Also, its a tough card to counter from the 'spectators'. You want one of those guys to get screwed over, but you don't want one of them to draw that many cards. Overall, I like the tension. Plus it gets the game going - which is why I explain the card as 'Make target opponent hate you forever'. Well, hopefully not. I hate playing with people who carry grudges between games. But forever within that game. Target acquired.
A few more games, nothing really standed out besides I am pleased with the cut back on graveyard hate. Going to probably have a big draft tonight, getting five or so players. Ye-ah!
I've updated my wants...
First... FML. $40 for Scavenging Ooze!? Its not the most I've paid (maybe), but damn - didn't expect it get so damned expensive. Here I was holding out for it drop after it his $20. I hope Commander gets some sort of reason to drop it, or perhaps have its legality change or something because $40 is ridiculous. It is part of the reason why I stopped playing competitive Magic and have gone strictly to this 'casual Cube'.
Second... Removed Terminus because I discovered Hallowed Burial. Cheaper dollar-wise, but either could be an unknown due to the poor card selection in my city. Terminus is more expensive and has effectively no "Miracle" cost because I don't use Alt CCs as free stuff. The issue is whether I would be able to find it.
Realized Griselbrand would be an easy shill in for Promise of Power. Griselbrand does basically the same thing, but can be snuck in - and can gain you life. Promise has been a staple merely because it is the biggest straight up draw spell in the Stack and because it does 5 damage to its owner, I'd be surprised by the amount of times people would let it resolve.
In another "D'oh!" move, I completely missed Dark Impostor! I think swapping out Duplicant is the correct call here. He can also Exile the board. I am worried about Masticore affects and this seems like the real-ultimate Masticore; however, I believe that accidental stall is at a new low.
I find Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Artisan of Kozilek are the only other playworth Eldrazi; however, their affects are not worth the stipulation of Cast. Angel of Despair and Karmic Guide are their respective EtB counterparts. Furthermore, you shouldn't try to hold back such a beast - you should windmill slam them when you draw.
Emrakul and Kozilek count in that. Ironically, I think Kozilek would have higher worth due to the worth of four cards. Emrakul has the best form of haste but a single or even two extra turns is surprisingly not that game breaking in Type 4 due to the inherent rules of an Arcane Laboratory. Emrakul's protection from coloured spells is also pretty good in constructed, but doesn't stop the usual death dealing ways of Type 4. Sure, both of these titans may die but Kozilek has re-filled your hand.
After taking a deeper comb through the latest sets, we found a few gems. In addition to this, we decided to cut back on the amount of "Disenchants" that are in the stack as we felt it was a bit overmuch with the amount of general board wipes, EtB kill and then instants sitting in hand, waiting for something to happen.
The idea was to reduce the amount of 'dead cards' in hand, which we felt improved the format in a two-fold fashion. First, the lower amount of incredibly specific cards increased player's ability to be more proactive. They no longer had cards that they needed to wait for them to come "online" but had other cards that did stuff. Secondly, it slightly raised the value of Artifacts and Enchantments. A minuscule amount, but a statistically significant one.
Tribute to the Wild, Altar's Light and Indrink Stomphowler were causalities in the selection. There are very few times when multiple artifacts or enchantments were out from various players, limiting Tribute's effectiveness. Altar's Light is strictly worse than Return to Dust. Indrink Stomphowler is a good card but was replaced by an even better one.
Reweave was taken out previously, but I've put it back in because I think that its fun and can hit any possible threat. While you may not like the results, it will be an answer to your opponent's permanent.
Tidings is being tried out. Previously, the game philosophy was that you "had better things to do" in your Sorcery-speed spells than "just draw cards." Instants should be saved to be used on your opponent's turn. Altar's Light wasn't even being played, I would be quite fine with windmill slamming Tidings right off the top. We're trying it out and we're thinking of taking a look at Jace's Ingenuinty. Worse than Opportunity but maybe than other Instants.
I completely skipped over the gem that is Tyrant of Discord. I linked because I am sure you skipped over what this bad boy does when you read it. Rather, it is mediocre in a real game of Magic. In Type 4, Tyrant of Discord essentially reads "When Tyrant of Discord enters the battlefield, wreck target opponent's entire board." Didn't even realize until I had a friend make me do a double check. Tyrant is an example of a great Type 4 card, incredibly janky and easy to get a hold of but incredibly powerful in the format.
I added in Disk because its not a wasted Sorcery-speed spell, you play it before it is relevant. I found that Soulscour was not very effective in hitting troublesome permanents (aka all the Artifacts, such as creatures). Disk may be very slow, especially in comparison to its faster cousins, Pernicious Deed and Plague Boiler; however, its definitely a card you would have no problem tossing onto the stack because it is not a very urgent card.
Resounding Wave is a tempo card and not that great of one. The Evil Twin is merely an inclusion as another Clone. I don't expect to use the Backstab ability, but perhaps trade with Legendary Creatures. I would prefer another Clone altogether; however, you learn to use what you've got.
Greel, Infernal Spawn and Kederekt Leviathan are all chopping block creatures so it feels great to give them the axe. Greel was great if I duelled one-on-one which defeats the purpose of Type 4. Infernal Spawn is funny and has an interesting combo that I've been removing from the Cube for years now. A Eternal Dragon engine isn't as impressive anymore. I threw Kederekt Leviathan in because I didn't quite know what it does, so I figured out a way to make it do something - get cut.
The Leviathan is a mass removal card, so I felt that Dark Impostor was a good fit. It was either poor Duplicant taking the bullet, or I realized that the function of the Vamper Assassin is similar to the Leviathan but he is strictly superior.
Skeletal Vampire is merely another inclusion to the 'infinite tokens' shenanigans. Time will tell if he is too much to handle, like the Selesnya Guildmage.
Deadeye Navigator is good, so good that its on the Watchlist. Its a weaker Mistmeadow Witch, which is still crazy intense strong. The Deadeye can only effect his own men and only comes online is there is another Creatures for him to buddy-buddy with. It seems fairly restrictive but after the last few games I've noticed a trend. Vanilla 5/5s are credible threats, even without backup. Once he does go online, he's impossible to get rid of barring a Wrath effect. If his Soulmate has a EtB ability, may God have mercy upon the soul of your opponent.
Its ridiculous. No matter how of a 'reliance effect' the Navigator may have, he's silly broken as is and thus earns a close examination via the Watch List.
For a long time, I thought Gleemax was a hated card - as soon as it came into play someone hit it with targetted removal. That was because I had too much targetted removal and not enough targets, people jumped at the opportunity to kill Gleemax so they could actually spend a card that was otherwise dead in their hand. Once Gleemax was free to roam, I realized it wasn't that good.
It pained me to cut Gleemax, as it had quite a few funny combos with it but other cards had previously shared the same fate. When the deck was slower and control reigned supreme, Gleemax was a way to ensure your opponents couldn't easily disrupt you. Now, cards like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir exist, which are leagues more efficient at protecting your cards and enhancing the board state in one fell swoop.
Back from the Brink was thrown in, as I previously indicated, because if it resolves - it "unearths" your graveyard. Sure, it is vulnerable to the same hate that 'yard suffer but I've made efforts to curtail that and I think the balance is great. Back from the Brink didn't do much this round, mostly because I never drew it at a convenient time when we drafted.
Dregs of Sorrow is a fun wrath with some strange applications. Killing Wave is similar, especially if you decide to forgo 'pay 100 life' and make it more interesting with 'pay 4 life'. The effect is nice to 'trick' your opponents into paying life (so you can hit them with Burn, of course), but when you want to use it for real, you hit cards you can't normally target with a Sacrifice effect. The distinction between the two is immense.
I am not a fan of Evil Twin. I like Clone effects in general but the Twin isn't as awesome as other available Clones. At first, I thought Cackling Counterpart would not be good. It is under my 'reliance' effect; however, in practice the Counterpart is very good. If someone is killing your important non-legendary dude, the Counterpart makes for great back up. Its a way to put a creature into play at Instant speed, too.
Checks and Balances slowed the game down and I found very often that no one wanted to play Checks and Balances. Primal Surge can be lackluster but can also be game-breakingly awesome. I like encouraging cards that are 'build around me' or 'draft me' so people can really enjoy making the decks they do, Primal Surge lets you do that and the rewards are so very sweet.
Spiritmonger has been weak for a while now and he's got form of evasion like other Chopping Block creatures. Sheoldred replaces him and while she doesn't have evasion like him, she kills any opposing creatures. Her ability to bring back older creatures is merely gravy, its not something I would expect to be a frequent occurrence.
Olivia Voldaren is strictly superior to Vampiric Dragon. Simple switch.
We're experimenting with 'everybody draw cards' - so far I am pretty hesitant but that could because I got stuck with this as a late pick. For someone who plays a lot of instants and empties their hand, any draw 7 is good - even if it draws for your opponent too. Forbidden Alchemy attempts to have you shift for an answer, Time Reversal may just let you draw it.
I have slowly been losing admiration of Uktabi Kong. He was frequently in the bottom tier of creatures in my book. Army of the Damned places a lethal amount of damage on the board with one spell that has Flashback. They may not block as quickly as Crush of Wurms but Army can chump a lot better.
Spinal Embrace was also not impressing me much anymore. Sorin's Vengeance may not be the best replacement, but it sure does speed up the game for anyone under the clock. Vengeance still gives you life and instead of killing a creature, it may outright kill your opponents. I am not sure if it is worth taking up a 'sorcery slot' but it is worth considering.
I removed Sphinx Ambassador from my Wants because Type 4 is supposed to be the format where the casual and competitive player can win. The casual player is no way going to memorize every card in his library from the draft, even if the Sphinx's effect is 'obvious'. While I think the effect is cool, its something I don't think that would add very much to my deck.
I am finding that random, large numbers of 1/1s are actually possible to handle in a Type 4 environment. With this discovery, I am adding Martial Coup to my Wants.
1. Good eye for Temporal Cascade. I think its a unique, great card that I probably dismissed previously as merely a draw 7. My first thought was "Awesome, a card that all players can utilize - Aggro to strip everyone's hand when they have a dominate board position, Control to reset everyone's hand to 7 and Combo to draw 7 to look for their last piece." After thinking about the card, it incidentally hits Graveyards. This makes me sad as I am trying to not hate on 'yards.
And there's no longer a 'hate on graveyards' card I can go after anymore. Yard hate is exclusively on Creatures, with Decree of Annihilation and Suffer the Past being the remaining non-permanent solution. Decree does more than wipe yards and Suffer hits one player with burn. Perhaps Time Reversal could be a potential cut but I'd need to be incredibly vigilant with the decision.
Your stack is larger, which is why I try to fine tune mine to the best balance. Sway of the Stars may be inferior to Once More with Feeling but Once More is a helluva harder to track down. Once More is also faster, as it Exiles everything instead of requiring players to Shuffle up. Only one will be in the Stack.
2. Reliance is when your spell relies on your permanents, not relying on an opponents. If I cast a spell that relies on my creature or permanents, then my opponents will gladly kill it. If I cast a spell that 'relies' on my opponent's permanents, then I don't think anybody would be that upset if you ice your opponent's permanent (even you). Twisted Justice is a great example of this, if someone else kills the creature so you don't draw the cards then it isn't that bad as the objective is still completed to kill but now you're sad that you didn't draw cards.
Clones are incredibly helpful utility. They allow you to copy the best creature on the board or they're a legendary kill spell that avoids any Protection, Hexproof or Shroud nonsense. The Clones I run are interesting and powerful, even if you don't like Clone theme. Dimir Doppelganger alone is a holy terror with full yards. Sakashima the Impostor lets you copy that Legend and bounces EOT so you can do some really abusive things. Vesuvan Shapeshifter allows you to copy any creature, always upgrading and can possibly get under the Counterwall by being a mysterious Morph (or get hit by a Counter so your real bomb sneaks through). Phyrexian Metamorph is being called the best Clone ever printed due to the unique ability to Clone Artifacts, while my new personal favourite is a Body Double - you get the most threatening creature amongst all the players. He's great play after an counterwar or Wrath - you bounce back with the best.
I am a U/B Mage at heart, so I like stealing or cloning my opponent's best stuff. I don't need the best, I'll just take your own and then smack you with it.
Cackling Counterpart is the exception that proves the rule. It allows you to double your powerful creatures or at least get a back-up copy if they manage to destroy the original. Playing creatures at Instant speed is a pretty big deal as well, which means you could Counterpart other Flash creatures like Mystic Snake or Bogardan Hellkite and really take advantage of their abilities.
The Instant speed is what makes Cackling Counterpart function. Instead of using your Sorcery-slot to set up a 2-for-1, you double your creature EOT of an opponent while they're "tapped out".
3. Good call. Now I'm going to have to hunt down a O-Stone... Yeah... Traded my O-Stone...
4. You haven't played with Primal Surge. Do an experiment with your Cube, grab a random pile and 'Primal Surge' it. You'd be surprised. Even 1 is good enough in theory to avoid Countermagic and you can have some insane stretches. The time it resolved it got 3 permanents onto the board. Granted, it has only resolved once. Every other time it got Countered which is a fine yard stick by me - if they aren't willing to let you have it then its good.
5. I had an Exclude but it was cut because too often you wanted a Counterspell that hit anything instead of a 'dead card'. Soul Manipulation might be a possibility, but its just an Exclude variant so I am uncertain. Though it 'draws' you your best Creature...
6. I've already done many blasphemies in the game of the health of the Cube. Phantom Nishoba just keeps outliving every other aggro cut because of how much I've under-appreciated the Lifelink. I got red of Infernal Spawn 2 because I had removed all the Combos. Serra Avatar has been dead for a while now and is no longer even in my collection.
Also, a 20/20 (or more likely 14/14 or something) isn't that scary. Marit Lage is scarier. Flying, Black, Indestructible. Plus the random Infinite Power creatures. Avatar no longer competes.
What's Type 4 (aka Limited Infinity)? There's a Wizard's article, here. A second article popped up here.
One Spell Per Turn
The key to winning is learning how to break this rule. A lot of cards in my stack break this rule, such as Ghost-Lit Stalker.
Hands
Players start with cards equal to the amount of players to a maximum of six to not detract from Sway of the Stars. Hand-size limit remains at seven.
No Errata
Some Type 4 stacks use errata, such as Alternative Costs make the spell free from the Arcane Laboratory effect or you have an infinite amount of lands to power the Incarnations, such as Anger or Wonder. This also includes the Arcane Laboratory state that Type 4 is in, which means no spells that cast other spells (Counterlash) and creatures that let you cast spells tend to be too weak (Guile).
Out of my stack, this is the only errata:
Common Courtesy requires you to ask yourself for permission if you are the controller.
Azozius Guildmage - Counters the effect instead of allowing resolution, changing the "Handling Infinity", see below.
Handling Infinity
I didn't want an expert stack manipulator beat out a newbie because they declared they passed priority inappropriately, so I am also following the 'Defender Wins' philosophy. That is, if two forces can enact infinite attack and defence, the defender always wins. The exception to this rule is Azorius Guildmage, as she counters the effect instead of attempting to resolve damage against prevention, for example.
Pick Selection
If I add a card into the Stack, it must be more powerful than another card. Ideally, everyone's "first pick" would be different with each pack. When I make a change, I hope to remove a similar equivalent in exchange for more power. I would be willing to cut a non-creature permanent for a creature, but very rarely for vice versa due to the inherent power of men on the board.
Victory and Defeat comes quickly in Type 4. To balance the three play styles I had to determine the upper limit for kills. After all, Fireball has been deemed to be against the spirit of the game and therefore too powerful. The rule of thumb for fastest victory should be: Two Cards, One Turn or One Card, Two Turns.
This philosophy become a necessity, as Combo-oriented drafts can easily combine two cards for an infinite win, such as: Glarecaster/Olivia Voldaren, Pyromancy/Eternal Dragon or Deadeye Navigator/Bogarden Hellkite.
To compensate, Aggro had to be able to win within a single attack phase, necessitating Infinite Power or Infinite Creatures, such as: Skeletal Vampire, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Blightsteel Colossus. Haste on such creatures would be too powerful; however, cheating them into play at the end of an opponent's turn as the two card combo limit.
Control is about incremental advantage and inevitability. Unfortunately, the bombastic nature of Type 4 meant that Control couldn't slowly drain their opponents, drown them in Card Advantage or lock them in a Prison. Control required the safety of Infinite Life. Shield of the Ages could be destroyed or circumvented, but Infinite Life meant that unless Aggro/Combo entered its archetype maxim they wouldn't be able to win.
Furthermore, I always ensured that there were outs. Perhaps only a single card might solve this particular problem but they existed in the stack and it was your responsibility to draft them. Azorius Guildmage/Glarecaster stops aggro and combo dead, Teferi, Mage of ZhalfirMyojin of Night's Reach stops combo and control dead and Lighthouse Chronologist/Consumptive Goo stops aggro and control dead.
To make sure those outs worked, I developed a new way to measure what is too ridiculous. I made sure to eliminate any 'Double Infinite' cards. A single Infinity is possible to defeat but two often left the threat unanswerable. For example, Selesnya Guildmage created Infinite Power and Infinite tokens, which meant that a lot of answers wouldn't work, such as Starstorm, Silence the Believers and so on. A card couldn't go Infinite again for a win.
Finally, as with experimentation with different archetypes, there were cards that were simply too good.
The following cards have been tried in the Type 4 stack but were deemed too powerful. As the power of the stack goes up, these cards may return. Blast from the Past used to be on this 'ban list' but has returned to the stack due to its incremental advantage no longer being overwhelming.
Mischievous Quanar - Too easily won out of nowhere. If your opponent or you cast a good spell, you could easily create infinite copies. What exacerbated the problem was that if an opponent had an answer, the Quanar could in response repeat ad nausea. The Quanar violated the design rule of Double Infinite and 2-1 due to being able to combo off of your opponent's cards instead of your own.
Spell Burst - Too easily shut out the entire board, especially if held in reserve until opponents were depleted. Essentially, once you got ahead you won. The problem was who knew how long it would take for you to win. This was simply too good of a Control Card, it was too far oppressive.
Nezumi Graverobber - The biggest issue with the Graverobber was that it could simply reanimate in response to whatever answer your opponent had. Other reanimation could be checked, such as per turn from Debtor's Knell, one-time Rise of the Dark Realms or life cost from Chainer, Dementia Master. Those cards allowed for answers, Graverobber did not which is why it violated the Double Infinite maxim.
Oath of Lim-Dûl - I originally thought this would be a balanced Treasure Trove; however, the disadvantage of discard or permanent sacrifice was too little. Players would simply draw more to compensate and that's if you managed to score a hit. This was too oppressive if it landed with no one being able to get an upper hand.
Mistmeadow Witch - Made your creatures unanswerable, ignored your opponent's answers, board state and offence. If she resolved, she won you the game no matter how sloppy or stupid you played. The Mistmeadow Witch violated the Double Infinite.
Selesnya Guildmage - Infinite Creatures could be dealt with, Infinite Power can also be answered. The problem is when you have Infinite Power and Infinite Creatures on the same card. Very, very few cards handily deal with both and defense usually operates to stop Infinite Creatures or Power but not both.
Call of the Wild - Tooth and Nail allows a circumvention of the normal speed of the game, placing two game winners into play with one spell. I figured this would be fine but the issue was that Call of the Wild was that it required no skill to draft and was completely mindless. Furthermore, as a permanent, it was far easier to recur and abuse. With the possibility of just activating Call of the Wild again on the stack, this card violated the Double Infinite as well as the 2-1 rules.
Possibility Storm - With one spell per turn, and this causing you to cast a second spell, means it would fizzile. This is a very hard lock and was tried to improve the Control supertype; unfortunately, it is too good at it's job and isn't a fun answer. The gentleman who drafted this last said that he didn't even have fun winning with it.
Kessig Wolf Run - Turned anything and everything into a threat. Simply too dangerous with my stack at this point. If I get rid of my 2-for-1/1-for-2 design rule, then I could see Kessig Wolf Run returning.
Here are some alternative Cubes that have popped up on MTG Salvation. Type 4 Cubes are moreso customizable than other Cubes due to rules changes. Here's a list if you want different Cubes.
DerBK's:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=425498
Alt:
- Handsize 3
- No Tutors
- No Alt CC
- Stacks
LimDul945's:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=478103
Alt:
- Handsize 7
- Morph Theme
- No Tutors
- Free Chaining (Counterlash lets you play a spell, so this bypasses 'No Alt CC')
- Rochester
Kirblinx's:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=521053
Alt:
- Handsize 5
- No Alt CC
- No Tutors
- Communal Stack
1 Angel of the Dire Hour
1 Angel of Despair
1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
1 Ashen Rider
1 Bane of the Living
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Bosh, Iron Golem
1 Bloodfire Colossus
1 Cinder Elemental
1 Consumptive Goo
1 Dark Impostor
1 Deepfire Elemental
1 Dread Cacodemon
1 Duplicant
1 Flowstone Overseer
1 Harbinger of the Hunt
1 Hythonia the Cruel
1 Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
1 Kalemne's Captain
1 Luminate Primordial
1 Magister of Worth
1 Myojin of Cleansing Fire
1 Myojin of Infinite Rage
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Pestilence Demon
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Terastodon
1 Thrashing Wumpus
1 Tyrant of Discord
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Vampiric Dragon
1 Woodfall Primus
Control - 33
1 Alhammarret, High Arbiter
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Avacyn, Guardian Angel
1 Azorius Guildmage
1 Blazing Archon
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Celestial Force
1 Combat Medic
1 Crowd Favorites
1 Deathless Angel
1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
1 Endbringer
1 Felidar Sovereign
1 Ghost-Lit Stalker
1 Glarecaster
1 Hypnox
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Kaervek the Merciless
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Memnarch
1 Medomai the Ageless
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 New Prahv Guildmage
1 Nullstone Gargoyle
1 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
1 Pontiff of Blight
1 Prince of Thralls
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Vengeful Archon
1 Void Winnower
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Creakwood Ghoul
1 Eternal Witness
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Karmic Guide
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Sedris, the Traitor King
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
1 Vulturous Zombie
Counter - 9
1 Draining Whelk
1 Ertai, Wizard Adept
1 Kheru Spellsnatcher
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Mystic Snake
1 Perplexing Chimera
1 Stratus Dancer
1 Voidmage Apprentice
1 Voidmage Prodigy
Combo - 24
1 Aeon Chronicler
1 Aerial Caravan
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Baleful Force
1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Djinn Illuminatus
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Genesis Hydra
1 Griselbrand
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Lifeblood Hydra
1 Lighthouse Chronologist
1 Metathran Aerostat
1 Myojin of Life's Web
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Root Elemental
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Soulfire Grand Master
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Thicket Elemental
Clones - 7
1 Altered Ego
1 Body Double
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Dimir Doppelganger
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Stunt Double
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Aggro - 55
1 Ætherling
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Atarka, World Render
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Avatar of Slaughter
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Caller of the Pack
1 Colossus of Akros
1 Conquering Manticore
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Deepfathom Skulker
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
1 Etched Monstrosity
1 Fleetfeather Cockatrice
1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
1 Golgari Guildemage
1 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 It That Betrays
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Lord of the Void
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Magmatic Force
1 Moldgraf Monstrosity
1 Molten Primordial
1 Morphling
1 Nicol Bolas
1 Progenitus
1 Protean Hulk
1 Razia, Boros Archangel
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Silent Specter
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Sisters of Stone Death
1 Skeletal Vampire
1 Soul of Zendikar
1 Spirit of the Night
1 Sphinx Ambassador
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Stronghold Overseer
1 Sunscorch Regent
1 Surrak Dragonclaw
1 Thornling
1 Utvara Hellkite
1 Windreaver
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blighted Fen
1 Door to Nothingness
1 Fevered Convulsions
1 Legacy Weapon
1 Lethal Vapors
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Perilous Vault
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Plague Boiler
1 Vraska the Unseen
Control - 25
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Confiscate
1 Grave Betrayal
1 Hedonist's Trove
1 Kor Haven
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mind's Dilation
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Necrogenesis
1 Painful Quandary
1 Panacea
1 Prahv, Spires of Order
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Shield of the Ages
1 Solitary Confinement
1 Soul Conduit
1 Take Possession
1 Tower of Eons
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Winding Canyons
1 Yavimaya's Embrace
1 Yawgmoth's Agenda
1 Common Courtesy
1 Decree of Silence
Draw/Tutor - 12
1 Aladdin's Lamp
1 Blighted Cataract
1 Browse
1 Citanul Flute
1 Compulsion
1 Loreseeker's Stone
1 Mind's Eye
1 Planar Portal
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Thought Reflection
1 Tower of Fortunes
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
Graveyard - 5
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Debtors' Knell
1 Marshal's Anthem
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Liliana Vess
Psuedo-Creature - 11
1 "Ach! Hans, Run!"
1 Chimeric Staff
1 Dark Depths
1 Deathrender
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mirrorpool
1 Riptide Replicator
1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang
1 Thought Dissector
1 Aladdin's Ring
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Baneful Omen
1 Flamekin Village
1 Knollspine Invocation
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Lurking Predators
1 Mindslaver
1 Pyromancy
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Stensia Bloodhall
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Wound Reflection
1 Absorb
1 Assert Authority
1 Confirm Suspicions
1 Contradict
1 Controvert
1 Counterflux
1 Cryptic Command
1 Desertion
1 Discombobulate
1 Dismal Failure
1 Dismiss
1 Dissipate
1 Dissolve
1 Double Negative
1 Ertai's Meddling
1 Failed Inspection
1 Fall of the Gavel
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Fervent Denial
1 Forbid
1 Hinder
1 Induce Paranoia
1 Insidious Will
1 Last Word
1 Lay Bare
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Mystic Genesis
1 Overwhelming Denial
1 Punish Ignorance
1 Spell Crumple
1 Spelljack
1 Summary Dismissal
1 Swift Silence
1 Time Stop
1 Undermine
1 Void Shatter
1 Voidslime
Conditional Counters - 7
1 Æthersnatch
1 Commandeer
1 Essence Backlash
1 Gather Specimens
1 Overwhelming Intellect
1 Trickbind
1 Wild Ricochet
Spot Removal - 38
1 Agonizing Demise
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Annihilate
1 Banishing Stroke
1 Bant Charm
1 Beast Within
1 Betrayal of Flesh
1 Capsize
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chastise
1 Council's Judgment
1 Crackling Doom
1 Crib Swap
1 Crosis's Charm
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Foul Renewal
1 Hit // Run
1 Krosan Grip
1 Mortify
1 Putrefy
1 Ray of Distortion
1 Resounding Silence
1 Return to Dust
1 Reweave
1 Scour from Existence
1 Sickening Shoal
1 Slice in Twain
1 Spinal Embrace
1 Sudden Death
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Tribute to the Wild
1 Trostani's Judgment
1 Tsabo's Decree
1 Twisted Justice
1 Unexpectedly Absent
1 Unmake
1 Utter End
1 Acquire
1 Blast from the Past
1 Bribery
1 Chord of Calling
1 Conflux
1 Dig Through Time
1 Dragonlord's Prerogative
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Fortune's Favor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Interpret the Signs
1 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Nissa's Revelation
1 Opportunity
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Praetor's Grasp
1 Promise of Power
1 See the Unwritten
1 Sphinx's Revealation
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Steam Augury
1 Summoning Trap
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Wargate
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Whispers of the Muse
Wraths - 35
1 Ætherspouts
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 All is Dust
1 Austere Command
1 Balancing Act
1 Barter in Blood
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Capital Punishment
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Deadly Tempest
1 Decree of Pain
1 Descend upon the Sinful
1 Fated Retribution
1 Final Judgment
1 Fumigate
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Hail of Arrows
1 In Garruk's Wake
1 Jokulhaups
1 Martial Coup
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Necromantic Selection
1 Obliterate
1 Phyrexian Rebirth
1 Plague Wind
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Reign of the Pit
1 Rout
1 Silence the Believers
1 Soulscour
1 Starstorm
1 Street Spasm
1 Subterranean Tremors
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
Burn - 17
1 Breath of Malfegor
1 Brightflame
1 Captain's Maneuver
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Divine Deflection
1 Grab the Reins
1 Inferno
1 Needlebite Trap
1 Parallectric Feedback
1 Searing Wind
1 Sorin's Vengeance
1 Suffer the Past
1 Resounding Thunder
1 Riddle of Lightning
1 Shining Shoal
1 Storm Seeker
1 Urza's Rage
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Corpse Dance
1 Extract from Darkness
1 Fated Return
1 Ghastly Conscription
1 Honor the Fallen
1 Identity Crisis
1 Immortal Servitude
1 Miraculous Recovery
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
Psuedo-Creatures - 9
1 Army of the Damned
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Cackling Counterpart
1 Clone Legion
1 Crush of Wurms
1 Ethereal Ambush
1 Rite of Replication
1 Saheeli's Artistry
1 Wurmcalling
Theft - 5
1 Dominate
1 Expropriate
1 Supplant Form
1 Time Stretch
1 Word of Seizing
Utility - 6
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Reiterate
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Spite // Malice
1 Who/What/When/Where/Why
http://cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/2635
Weakest Creatures:
Razia, Boros Archangel
Metathran Aerostat
Aerial Caravan
Sedris, the Traitor King
Eternal Dragon
Spirit of the Night
Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
Arashi, the Sky Asunder
Kalonian Behemoth
Deathless Angel
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
Sphinx Ambassador
Bloodfire Colossus
Weakest Non-Creature Permanents:
Riptide Replicator
Baneful Omen
Quicksilver Amulet
"Ach! Hans, Run!"
Weakest Counters:
Discombobulate
Weakest Wraths:
Terminus
Weakest Burn:
Riddle of Lightning
Weakest Manipulation:
Beacon of Unrest
Praetor's Council
Immortal Servitude
Vraska the Unseen
Marshall's Anthem
Weakest Draw/Tutors:
-
Weakest Removals:
Trostani's Judgment
Ray of Removal
Sickening Shoal
Crib Swap
Reweave
Annihilate
Suggestions welcome.
1 Ensnaring Bridge
Onslaught
1 Sigil of the New Dawn
Shards of Alara
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Lich's Mirror
New Phyrexia
1 Batterskull
1 Karn Liberated
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
Dark Ascension
1 Drogskol Reaver
Gatecrash
1 Skarrg Goliath
Dragon's Maze
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Price of Knowledge
Commander 2014
1 Siege Behemoth
Fate Reforged
1 Warden of the First Tree
Dragons of Tarkir
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
Battle for Zendikar
1 Quarantine Field
Magic Origins
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
Commander 2015
1 Gigantoplasm
1 Mystic Confluence
1 Soul of Theros
Shadows Over Innistrad
1 Behold the Beyond
Kaladesh
1 Metallurgic Summonings
1 Wildest Dreams
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Combustible Gearhulk
Commander 2016
1 Grave Upheaval
1 Sylvan Reclamation
1 Vial Smasher the Fierce
1 Stonehoof Chieftain
1 Selfless Squire
1 Entrapment Maneuver
I am not certain I could even remove this due to how unique Rise will be. I think there are a lot of outs, such as counterspells, graveyard management/hate and sometimes you won't have the infinite combo. That's what I think without any play experience with Rise, actual play may tell a completely different story but as far as I'm concerned this is Tooth and Nail 2.0.
Soulfire Grand Master
Spellburst was Banned for being too oppressive as a Buyback Counterspell. The Soulfire Grand Master can possibly be more abusive with Buying Back all sorts of good Counterspells, winning with inevitable burn or actually being able to take Infinite turns until the win with Time Stretch.
Cinder Elemental
Every other Infinite Damage possibility creature has some sort of limit, either another card to go off like Deadeye Navigator/Siege-Gang Commander or get into the red zone if you're a Firebreathers. Cinder Elemental does not and even combos with Flamekin Village/Slayers' Stronghold. I'm not too concerned but I'll keep an eye on somebody who can do X to the dome at will.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Just like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, it's just on this list because of its notoritiy. I think it's fine, as it is just a big guy with Annihilator and Tidings slapped on.
Nullstone Gargoyle
I previously had this in the stack but it was far too oppressive. Now with Wizards printing a lot more big, beefy ETB creatures that blow up Artifacts, I think it's not that bad. As a previously Banned card, this is being placed back on the Watchlist.
Flamekin Village/Slayers' Stronghold
Both of these, even ignoring their combo potential with Cinder Elemental (outright combo with the Elemental requirement), violate the 2-1/1-2 rule of thumb. Is that a big enough of a violation? After all, it's possible now to T1 Firebreathe someone to death who may have had all the answers in the world as long as they were Sorcery speed. It's something I'm going to keep my mind on.
Ætherling
Unlike Mist Dragon, I believe that the Ætherling is capable of soloing an entire table, dodging all removal. There is quite a difference of Mist Dragon's 4 Power and Ætherling's 9 - with the potential for infinite toughness combos also at your disposals, such as Miren, the Moaning Wel and Flowstone Overseer. It's ability is in the same classification as Mistmeadow Witch's ability that got her banned.
Mind's Dilation
I might chalk this up to 'you deserve to lose' like Tooth and Nail if it resolves. Part of the game becomes a stamina contest of knowing when there's no counterwall and slam Dilation down. Completely awesome, with savage plays like Dilating a Counter to whatever they played. Overall, great card.
1 Mimic Vat
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Felidar Sovereign
1 Deadly Tempest
1 Subterranean Tremors
1 Sneak Attack
1 Tidings
1 Mist Dragon
1 Duneblast
1 Consign to Dust
1 Overwhelming Denial
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Atarka, World Render
1 Fumigate
1 Summary Dismissal
1 Extract from Darkness
1 Sunscorch Regent
1 Deepfathom Skulker
1 Celestial Force
1 Prince of Thralls
1 Ethereal Ambush
1 Saheeli's Artistry
1 Soul Manipulation
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Plated Slagwurm
1 Decree of Annihilation
1 Dromar's Charm
1 Crime // Punishment
1 Rorix Bladewing
1 Gaea's Revenge
1 Pentavus
1 Greel, Mind Raker
1 Rally the Ancestors
1 All Suns' Dawn
1 In Garruk's Wake
1 Pontiff of Blight
1 Rare-B-Gone
1 Dominus of Fealty
Scatter Arc -> Failed Inspection
Back from the Brink -> Mind's Dilation
Flowstone Slide -> Anguished Unmaking
Overwhelming Forces -> Reign of the Pit
Sway of the Stars -> Capital Punishment
Hamletback Goliath -> Magmatic Force
Blood Tyrant -> Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
Sakashima the Impostor -> Stunt Double
Firemind's Foresight -> Fortune's Favor
Realm Seekers -> Caller of the Pack
Guild Feud -> Council's Judgment
Phantom Nishoba -> Lifeblood Hydra
Biomass Mutation -> Expropriate
Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind -> Altered Ego
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Harbinger of the Hunt
1 Endbringer
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Utvara Hellkite
1 Vampiric Dragon
1 Kalemne's Captain
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Blood Tyrant
1 Hythonia the Cruel
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Silent Specter
1 Alhammarret, High Arbiter
1 Fleetfeather Cockatrice
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Greel, Mind Raker
1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Angel of the Dire Hour
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Blazing Archon
1 Hamletback Goliath
1 Ashen Rider
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Stratus Dancer
1 Vulturous Zombie
1 Void Winnower
1 Baleful Force
1 Conquering Manticore
1 Storm Seeker
1 Corpse Dance
1 Needlebite Trap
1 Dragonlord's Prerogative
1 Contradict
1 Honor the Fallen
1 Spinal Embrace
1 Confirm Suspicions
1 Unexpectedly Absent
1 Chastise
1 Induce Paranoia
1 Consign to Dust
1 Breath of Malfegor
1 Scatter Arc
1 Foul Renewal
1 Æthersnatch
1 Scour from Existence
1 Thwart
1 Tribute to the Wild
1 Hail of Arrows
1 Spite//Malice
1 Dissolve
1 Spell Crumple
1 Lay Bare
1 Shining Shoal
1 Parallectric Feedback
Sorcery - 13
1 Soulscour
1 Descend upon the Sinful
1 Interpret the Signs
1 Nissa's Revelation
1 Phyrexian Rebirth
1 Barter in Blood
1 Wurmcalling
1 Necromantic Selection
1 Identity Crisis
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Clone Legion
1 Promise of Power
1 Ghastly Conscription
1 Blighted Fen
1 Blighted Cataract
1 Mirrorpool
1 Stensia Bloodhall
Artifacts - 3
1 Loreseeker's Stone
1 Chimeric Staff
1 Panacea
Enchantments - 11
1 Hedonist's Trove
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Confiscate
1 Lethal Vapors
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Painful Quandary
1 Necrogenesis
1 Yavimaya's Embrace
1 Wound Reflection
1 Yawgmoth's Agenda
1 Sneak Attack
Planeswalkers - 1
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Karn Liberated
1 Council's Judgment
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Ætherling
1 Avacyn, Guardian Angel
1 Avatar of Slaughter
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Cinder Elemental
1 Djinn Illuminatus
1 Genesis Hydra
1 Kheru Spellsnatcher
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Magister of Worth
1 Medomai the Ageless
1 Myojin of Infinite Rage
1 Nullstone Gargoyle
1 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
1 Perplexing Chimera
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Realm Seekers
1 Sisters of Stone Death
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Soul of Zendikar
1 Soulfire Grand Master
1 Surrak Dragonclaw
1 Vengeful Archon
1 Ætherspouts
1 Biomass Mutation
1 Crackling Doom
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Dig Through Time
1 Fated Retribution
1 Fated Return
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Rally the Ancestors
1 Silence the Believers
1 Street Spasm
1 Supplant Form
1 Utter End
Sorcery
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Brightflame
1 Council's Judgment
1 Duneblast
1 Flowstone Slide
1 Jokulhaups
1 See the Unwritten
Lands
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Flamekin Village
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Deathrender
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Perilous Vault
1 Soul Conduit
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Enchantments
1 Grave Betrayal
1 Solitary Confinement
1 Possibility Storm
1 Thought Reflection
Planeswalkers
1 Karn Liberated
1 Liliana Vess
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Vraska the Unseen
Stuffy Doll -> Colossus of Akros
Meddling Kids -> Lord of the Void
Flowstone Slide -> Curse of the Swine
Izzet Chronarch -> Molten Primordial
Intuition -> Steam Augury
Dwarven Catapult -> Gaze of Granite
Jokulhaups -> Terminus
Firewing Phoenix -> Sepulchral Primordial
Killing Wave -> Merciless Eviction
Lim-Dul's Vault -> Firemind's Foresight
Shining Shoal -> Divine Deflection
Induce Paranoia -> Mystic Genesis
Chromeshell Crab -> Angel of Serenity
Creeping Renaissance -> Immortal Servitude
Acidic Slime -> Sylvan Primordial
Hoverguard Sweepers -> Luminate Primordial
Child of Alara -> Consecrated Sphinx
Silvos, Rogue Elemental -> Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
Time Reversal -> Jace's Ingenuity
Withered Wretch -> New Prahv Guildmage
Panacea -> "Ach! Hans, Run!"
Wurmcalling -> Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rewind -> Fall of the Gavel
Parallectric Feedback -> Essence Backlash
Suffer the Past -> Rakdos Charm
Swords to Plowshares -> Trostani's Judgement
Dream Fracture -> Counterflux
Primal Surge -> Guild Feud
Symbiotic Wurm -> Worldspine Wurm
Splintering Wind -> Dark Impostor
Corpse Dance -> Firewing Pheonix
Sharuum the Hegemon -> Summoning Trap
Dark Impostor -> Rite of Replication
Promise of Power -> Griselbrand
Smokespew Invoker -> Consumptive Goo
Kodama of the North Tree -> Artisan of Kozilek
Willbender -> Meddling Kids
Heat Ray -> Soul Manipulation
Myojin of Infinite Rage -> Avatar of Slaughter
Dregs of Sorrow -> Killing Wave
Evil Twin -> Cackling Counterpart
Checks and Balances -> Primal Surge
Spiritmonger -> Sheoldred, Whispering One
Vampiric Dragon -> Olivia Voldaren
Forbidden Alchemy -> Time Reversal
Uktabi Kong -> Army of the Damned
Spinal Embrace -> Sorin's Vengeance
Resounding Wave -> Evil Twin
Soulscour -> Nevinyrral's Disk
Kederekt Leviathan -> Dark Impostor
Greel, Mind Raker -> Skeletal Vampire
Altar's Light -> Tidings
Indrik Stomphowler -> Tyrant of Discord
Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil -> Deadeye Navigator
Terminate -> Lim-Dul's Vault
Chastise -> Riddle of Lightning
Honor the Fallen -> Wheel of Fortune
Spine of Ish Sah -> Splintering Wind
Sneak Attack -> Checks and Balances
Necrogenesis -> Debtors' Knell
Holistic Wisdom -> Browse
Glory -> Skeletal Scrying
Volrath's Shapeshifter -> Selesnya Guildmage
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer -> Myojin of Infinite Rage
Silklash Spider -> Thrashing Wumpus
Nantuko Vigilante -> Acidic Slime
Acidic Slime -> Terastodon
Debtors' Knell -> Baneful Omen
Storm Seeker -> Suffer the Past
Phyrexian Rebirth -> Dread Cacodemon
Bringer of the Red Dawn -> Dominus of Fealty
Palichron -> Glen Elendra Archmage
Myojin of Infinte Rage -> Phyrexian Ingester
Predator, Flagship -> Lurking Predators
Jareth, Leonine Titan -> Gaea's Revenge
Firemane Angel -> It That Betrays
Flash Conscription -> Mystical Teachings
Tidespout Tyrant -> Lighthouse Chronologist
Blatant Thievery -> Increasing Ambition
Cruel Revival -> Forbidden Alchemy
Thrasing Wumpus -> Pestilence Demon
Phyrexian Grimoire -> Marshal's Anthem
Greater Good -> Creeping Renaissance
Quicksilver Dragon -> Progenitus
Mystic Melting -> Slice in Twain
Reweave -> Chaos Warp
Mizzium Transreliquat -> Phyrexian Metamorph
Masticore -> Moldgraf Monstrosity
Storm Herd -> Nim Deathmantle
Reviving Vapors -> Praetor's Counsel
Sisters of Stone Death -> Rune-Scarred Demon
Evangelize -> Mystifying Maze
Cinder Cloud -> Tribute to the Wild
Suncrusher -> Plated Slagwurm
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Very cool! I admit I never thought of this (I'm Ashamed). That being said we have a subforum for cube lists, so do not be surprised if the thread moves.
Welcome to MTGSalvation!
http://hgcube.blogspot.com/ (help me Make my Custom CUBE!)
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=382498
The "Make a Proxy Thread
Redit Proxy Article "current gallery"
MY LEGACY ALTERS
Blimpy's Aggro-Focused Cube (powered 360)
I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve my cube. Take a look and ask a question, or give a constructive critique whenever you can.
It's also a great format that doesn't need any preparation, and most people are alright quitting if we need to go.
Which cards would you say have been especially good in stack?
My Legacy-Legal Cube <--- Draft It!
wtwlf123's Classic Cube
Lanxal's Pauper Cube
Cubers, UNITE! Don't forget to post your cube location on The Great Cube Map Thread
I'm a fan of any of the exceptions. Azorius Guildmage beats the rule of 'Infinity', Decree of Silence beats 'One Spell Per Turn' and is uncounterable (from normal means), Resounding Thunder, etc.
I'm a Timmy-Spike, so I just like to hit hard without pretense. Burn, threatening cards, etc. are my favourite.
But I have to make sure that Johnny gets some love.
I like Type 4 just for the Casual game but Type 1 Power Level.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Q: How many people do you generally play with in 1 game?
I like your list, but I see a few inconsistencies...maybe, depending on how you play.
Things I most likely would never cut from your 'potential' list:
Masticore, Spinal Embrace, Vedalken Orrery
Things I would maybe remove from the 'banned' list:
Nezumi Graverobber - Strong, but there's better cards such as Geth, Lord of the Vault and it's a dud in the early game.
Mistmeadow Witch - Very strong card but not unbeatable by any means. Maybe add more shroud guys?
Spell Burst - Draws a lot of hate and gets significantly weaker the more people are in your game.
You should probably add things like Treasure Trove to the banned list as well. I would also include anything that tutors every turn or can kill in 1 hit...but that's just me. I don't know how yours plays out, but cards like Akroma, Angel of Fury sealed more games than pretty much anything else, barring the other banned cards....Kessig Wolf Run seems downright unfair. Then again a lot of the cards you play seem especially swingy so w/e. =p
I'm sorry I don't have my list in front of me so I can't make any good suggestions...=(
Deathless Angel is worthy of being on your watchlist, it's pretty much a better Armored Guardian most of the time. But still, I don't think she's overpowered. In a draft, I would still value a lot of stuff over her. Bombs (Teferi, etc.), counters, and burn should get picked over her early on in drafts.
Never ran Treasure Trove, it is obviously too powerful. I ran Oath of Lim-Dul as a "balanced" Treasure Trove, but that proved to be too powerful and it was cut. Also never ran Geth, as he violates my "Rule of Two". One Turn, Two Cards; Two Turns, One Card. He can cause people to die quite easily. Nezumi, while weaker, can do the same. The only exception I'm kosher with is Tooth and Nail.
The Orrery is part of the collection of what I like to think of as the Underwhelming Broken. They're broken, people know this and then move to neuter the card (or you) or always counter/destroy it. Ertai, Arcanis, Sedris, Debtor's Knell, etc. are other examples. Other kinds of broken are not as easily stopped. It also requires you to have other cards, rather than something that comes down and does its broken business (Tower of Fortunes, Kamahl, etc.)
Masticore because I want to add Olivia Valdaren, and I don't want to increase the amount of Wraths due to random stall. Masticore is the weakest "Masticore" and while I would be sad to see him go, I've made cuts to other previously beloved cards: Serra Avatar, Night Dealings, Mischevious Quanar, Nezumi Graverobber, Phage, Twilight's Call, Yawgmoth's Bargain, etc.
Games tend to end with some sort of combo or dudes smashing face, with various players dying from other things. If I remember the last few games, Thunderheads killed Swift Silence, Bosh flung Gleemax, another Gleemax died to Induce Paranoia, someone got Glasticore combo, another was Thrashing Wumpus+Combat Medic and the rest was "simple" beat down, including a Firebreather or two.
Kessig Wolf Run would definitely be a watch list item, but seems easy enough to stop by killing the recipient of the land.
Bosh with Memnarch is also very interesting.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Mystic Melting -> Slice in Twain
Reweave -> Chaos Warp
Mizzium Transreliquat -> Phyrexian Metamorph
Masticore -> Moldgraf Monstrosity
Storm Herd -> Nim Deathmantle
Reviving Vapors -> Praetor's Counsel
Sisters of Stone Death -> Rune-Scarred Demon
Evangelize -> Mystifying Maze
Cinder Cloud -> Tribute to the Wild
Suncrusher -> Plated Slagwurm
They're rough cuts. Some are easier to understand the parallel, such as Chaos Warp for Reweave or Slice in Twain for Mystic Melting.
I removed Devastation as it was something that people were trading for. Masticore left as well as part of my decision to remove some Wraths in favour for more pin-point solutions to stop unintended stall outs.
Phyrexian Metamorph was interesting to getting put into play as a creature but Clone an Artifact.
Nim Deathmantle was solid, something I was hoping for as I had found Equipment (besides Tatsumasa) to be notoriously poor. Good equipment would find that all its potential targets would be destroyed before being able to wield the armament, Deathmantle counters this. It could also lead to some serious silliness with creatures that can kill themselves. Super solid addition. Nim Deathmantle with Golgari Guildmage was dirty!
Reviving Vapors has always been kind of mediocre. Praetor's Council has some bite.
I put back the Plated Slagwurm because of the disappointing run with Suncrusher. It does not kill well enough, it does not stall well enough, it does not block well enough. Snip. I put in something aggressive to compare.
A card I came across from a left over draft was Lost in the Mist which one of my players suggested trying. The reason I am hesitant is that it requires a target for the bounce effect. I've cut Counters in the past because they relied on excess non-sense, like deal damage to creatures which is useless if there are no creatures. Permanents might be an easier deal; however, I don't want to have a card sitting around doing nothing.
Opinions?
Another card that was suggested and I'm thinking more and more as an interesting card is Lighthouse Chronologist. It may belong in my 'Underwhelming Broken' section, as being too easy to kill but I am beginning to think that the effect is good enough. 3/5 through Sorcery-speed isn't that great, but the extra turns is going well. I used to have Beacon of Tomorrows, but I found that the effect wasn't good enough because you'd spend one of your resources without increasing the threat, which is why the only 'take an extra turn' effect is doubled in Time Stretch. The Time Walk on legs at the end of opponent's turns is interested. The question is how much? Thoughts?
Deathless Angel showed up and was killed by a Exile Wrath, so that pretty much left me with the impression that it isn't as Deathless as she's trying to sell. Still going to keep her on the watch list.
Cool combos from the evening:
Vedalkin Orrery with Aerial Caravan - some serious shenanigans there
Jiwari, the Earth Aflame with Captain's Maneuver for a kill off of a Beast created by Beast Within
Mindslaver a Miren, the Moaning Well on his last creature and then have that player cast Biorhythm
Door to Nothingness chalks up one more kill
Tatsumasa and Nim Deathmantle were equipped to a Chimeric Staff - I find this image really funny, as a staff is running around with a Sword and Helmet
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Made some changes to the stack:
Wrecking Ball -> Resounding Wave
Cruel Revival -> Forbidden Alchemy
Thrasing Wumpus -> Pestilence Demon
Phyrexian Grimoire -> Marshal's Anthem
Greater Good -> Creeping Renaissance
Quicksilver Dragon -> Progenitus
Resounding Wave holds a lot more utility than Wrecking Ball. While does not destroy, sometimes can get rid of a now problem. Wave is free, allowing a quick follow up or defending your cards when you find yourself vulnerable and tapped out.
Cruel Revival is a not very impressive kill spell. I also want to cut back on the ease in which players can kill things. Forbidden Alchemy reduces the overall amount but does not hamper the ability to search for an answer. Twice.
Pestilence Demon is strictly superior to Thrashing Wumpus and was indicated as an auto-changeover as soon as I got my hands on the Demon.
Phyrexian Grimoire had neat effects and cute interactions. It was definitely a low pick. Something that players like enjoy instants and screwing with people's minds. It was never actively targetted, it was just a card that sat around and provided decent card advantage. There were more broken ways to Phyrexian Grimoire than Phyrexian Grimoire. I like the Grimoire but doesn't mean that it was good. Marshal's Anthem will change the game when it comes into play, it is a high pick, must counter or RFG the 'yard. Something that will shake things up sounds more like Type 4 than something that will give decent advantage over the course of the game.
Greater Good has been lacklustre over the last few games. Creeping Renaissance will "draw" you more cards: cards that were good enough to play; card's that were good enough to be destroyed; and lastly, cards you don't need to discard. The biggest complaint of Greater Good. Dropping a permanent does change things, but I think the Flashback and targetted "draw" make for a much more interesting game.
Quicksilver Dragon was a bad aggressive card. He could barely protect himself and was just Morph bait at best. I looked at the rest of the subpar creatures and found him to be the most lacking. Progenitus seems like a natural inclination, definitely another "deal with me!" creature. Dropping the Dragon also means one less flying blocker. Considering Combo has been winning a lot of the last matches, giving Timmy and his Large Men a plus is good in my book.
Now comes my problem: I have stumbled onto Eladamri's Call, which some consider to be a Type 4 staple; Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief a killing firebreather; and lastly, Increasing Ambition a tutor with Flashback. I don't know if I should add them or ignore them and I need your advice.
Eladamri's Call is an instant tutor, which I seem to have a few less than stellar options like Forbidden Alchemy and Intuition; however, Call is limited by searching for a creature. The other Instant tutors don't have this limitations. That's why I'm on the fence. Perhaps a weak kill spell? Something else? I don't know what to trade it with.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief has an interesting tension. When I first got her, I thought of her as a stronger Smokespew Invoker but I realized that Smokespew can reduce Power to 0 when facing against an Infinite Attacker or something strange. Drana and her own would just roll over. She also requires another target to Firebreathe. Every other Firebreather looks at an open board as an invitation to party, but this 'lil vamp takes caution. Possible a bad card for the Aggro/Control nature of her. I don't know what I should take out, if anything for this little lady.
Removing Praetor's Grasp in favour of Increasing Ambition sounds like a quick trade, but Grasp is such a unique effect. I am not too fond of it, but I know some players absolutely love smacking another player upside the head with their own toy. The fact that it is RFGed means random "Get Rid of Hands" effects are untouched by the Grasp. Triple Demonic Tutor sounds so juicy, but is it possible that the speed is now too breakneck? I'm not sure, as everybody loves Tutoring for either their Combo piece, the Control piece or their next BAMF.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I've had a few runs before the last Changes, so haven't seen those Cards in action but I would make a note about the Necrotic Ooze: its very powerful but not overly so. It single handedly got the entire table against me and I did manage to fend off their attempts to kill me or the Ooze, but did not win me the game. I like the tension. Its not a Mischievous Quanar or Nezumi Graverobber that causes an auto-win, but is very powerful.
It has the same vulnerabilities as the Graverobber of its just a creature and requires a 'yard to get to work, but because the Ooze isn't putting everything into play I don't need to worry as much. Some creatures with their 187s can cause some serious headaches or wins when combined with other creatures, which the Ooze has to work a bit harder to get. Though it will be nice to be able to set off a Glasticore win with this guy.
Deathless Angel hasn't really had much play time, so no comment on her; however, the Blightsteel Colossus has me less concerned. The Colossus can kill a player with one hit and is Indestructible, but doesn't seem that over the top. Not going to remove him from the list quite yet, but I think he's not that broken. Perhaps Progenitus should replace him as the Aggro-Card on the list. Nothing deals with him: Wraths or Get Out, and if you manage to kill him you better pray that he isn't re-drawn (or Tutored).
There were some funny plays, especially when a Kaervek the Merciless was put directly into play opposing a Stuffy Doll in play choosing Kaervek's player. Heat Ray targeting the Stuffy Doll for 20, with a Captain's Maneuver made for a lot of dead players. Compulsion was drafted with Knollspine Invocation, ensuring maximum damage each time we were unable to counter the combo.
Any thoughts to Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief or Eladamri's Call? Or Increasing Ambition, for that matter?
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
In this thread, I found a few interesting picks. I don't play real Magic anymore. Other hobbies or don't have time/money/patience/location to play anymore. Shows my unfamiliarity with the cards. Sure, I browse through the spoilers but how often do I notice a solid Type 4 pick.
Sheoldred, Whispering One seemed interesting. A way better Reya, but Reya was cut because she was a bit too weak. Could the Edict effect be worth it? I'd have to give her a whirl to see.
One of the cards I noticed, which I would only use half of its effect is Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. Unlimited Hand size would do nothing when your hand shrinks by a mere seven, but the temptation to include a 'Draw 7' is so compelling. The only other 'Draw 7' is Sway of the Stars which is pretty interesting on its own. Perhaps this guy could finally replace Arcanis for a card that does something. He actually gets his draw effect off! 'Draw 7' is such a signature broken ability I feel like I need to include it.
Felidar Sovereign is a way to actually win the game, instead of the "tedious" act of knocking people dead. It would also give the guy who gained Infinite Life a way to end the game quickly, instead of have the whole table turn against him in an attempt to find a combo piece that will kill him (and possibly the rest of the table), or have the Infinite Life player slowly whittle his opponents down. Pretty vulnerable, though...
Don't you hate it when everybody's at low life, but you're going to waste a few turns bashing your opponents and hope your men don't get killed? Hydra Omnivore is an answer to this situation, but as an 8/8 that has a huge target on its head... I don't imagine it connecting with anyone and whoever it does, well the entire table is going to hate you now.
At the very worst, Dominus of Fealty is superior to Bringer of the Red Dawn, especially with my No Errata rule.
As for removal, I found Nemesis Trap to be very interesting. I think I've gotten rid of all the vanilla RFG Attacker spells (as silly as that statement is...), but Nemesis Trap certainly has a nice combination there. Chill to the Bone might be the best, most vanilla kill spell - I don't think I have a single Snow creature.
Lurking Predators seems really interesting. I find that my opponents could bait me into overextending before killing everything, but its a way for a beatdown deck to quickly cycle through its deck. More intriguing but less powerful than "Ach, Hans Run!".
The Cthulu guys seem really popular. The problem I am having is deciding which ones might be too powerful or lacklustre. They all rely on "Cast" instead of 187, which means they're not as abusiveness with recursion; however, they're big, they annihilate and the effects they're attached to are solid. It That Betrays is in my want list because he does not rely on 187s and seems so abusive with Annihilate. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Artisan of Kozilek and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn seem larger than life - maybe that's what aggro needs (as Control-Combo would try to cheat these guys into play, which may still be worth doing).
One of the things I am slightly regretting is not using errata'd cards. Being able to use free stuff would make for some interesting cards. Furthermore, the unlimited hand size has detracted from otherwise really interesting cards, such as Jin-Gitaxias. I'm not changing now, as that would require a complete re-vamp of the Cube and I'd have to start hunting down real rares like Force of Will.
Mimic Vat is another interesting card. I initially removed Soul Foundry because it was such a juicy 2-for-1 that it would almost always get nailed. Mimic Vat doesn't seem to have that weakness, it offers more flexibility by copying opponent's creatures and its possible to lock out some creatures from the game that tend to self-recur. I would gladly ensure my opponent cannot get his Darksteel Colossus back if my Vat dies, but until then I'm pumping out Darksteel Colossuses.
After talking with friends, I am thinking of getting rid of Intuition in exchange for Eladamri's Call. Intuition does not give you complete control while Eladamri gets you exactly what you want and considering the diversity of creatures - it's an answer or threat.
The other suggestion was instead of looking at Draw/Tutor effects, look for other cards that are "meh" to remove for Increasing Ambition. Well, I found that in Blatant Thievery. I am a little saddened to admit it, but Blatant Stealery has gone the way of the dinosaur. If you resolve it, you may not get the maximum effect by virtue of not enough permanents, can't get the permanents you want due to Hexproofed (or something else) and will get the table to hate you. It is very key to win the game when the table hates you. If Stealery resolved, very rarely will you be able to immediately win (and bypassed those Counters, somehow). Increasing Ambition can get you the cards to win and Flashback can help you get some gas back when you're running low.
Finally, Firemane Angel is the one to go in favour of Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief. Firemane is annoying to deal with, gains you very little life and is a nuisance. Drana isn't as good as a pure kill creature, but she certainly is threatening enough to join the ranks of Aggro creatures.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
My player's argument was that Firemane Angel is a control creature, while Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is an aggressive kill card. If I was going to take out anything it would need to be an aggressive creature. The axe fell on Skinthinner because I was obviously not pushing the Morph agenda - I had previously cut Quicksilver Dragon and I wasn't pushing it with other Morphs that may be OK or funny like Krosan Cloudscraper. Skinthinner is a one-time murder something card, Drana can do it repeatedly and while she is a weak Firebreather she is still a Firebreather pushing the aggro agenda.
Speaking of other agendas, I am getting pretty jelly of 'free effects'. With my hard One Spell Per Turn rule, I am unable to throw in any 'free spells' - such as Counterlast or using creatures that cause spells to happen. I don't want to start including the entire Free Rule. That would be too much to hunt down 'staples' like Fist of Suns or more importantly expensive cards like Force of Will.
Any idea of neat creatures or spells with that sort of thing? I know there was an entire mechanic based on free stuff(tm). Anything else comes to mind? Keep the stack the same? Make the change? Thoughts?
Fun side-effect of Increasing Ambition without cutting Intuition: C-c-c-combo! Intuition for Increasing Ambition EOT, something they'd want to put in your hand and another card. You can then Flashback and search for two cards. If they still put Increasing Ambition into your hand, I guess you just search and re-search the turn after that.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
This means while Morphs would remain more lackluster, the Control elements would not gain a substantial strength. The only change to 'free spells' I'm willing to negotiate is Spells that say you can play another spell without paying its mana cost. If I open up the floodgates, I would need to completely overhaul my Cube. I currently don't want to do even the small change because it violates the strict "One Spell Per Turn".
My play group got into a discussion about the Pestilence Demon. One of my players suggested putting in Thrasing Wumpus in conjunction with Pestilence Demon. I couldn't really articulate why I thought that was too good, but your argument is part of the reason why. The Pestilence effect very rarely wins outright, especially when someone can always gain life or Redirect, usually it involves some arrangement of beatdown. Its not very much an "auto I win" but I think two might be the case, making it far easier to maneuver to highest life and Pestilence everyone to death. I currently don't mind Combat Medic or Glarecaster as part of the combo, but I'd like my players to work for it a bit better.
Dread Cacodemon is an interesting pick. It is something that I am interested in. I usually want creatures that have "Comes into Play" not "When Cast" unless the effect is amazing, such as Hypnox. I don't have a creature that Wraths when it 'comes into play' so the Dread Cacodemon may be a great addition.
Glen Elendra Archmage is really solid. Even if it is just Countering the kill spell aimed at her. Hell, she makes for more "Wrath Push" but letting you cast a Wrath and be able to push the spell through. And if it resolves without anyone batting an eye, you still have a solid Counterspell.
Phyrexian Ingester is really cool! I don't think I would replace Duplicant but compliment him. The Ingester must be better than some other Kill Creature I have. Though if Duplicant has to go, I won't be sad.
Sphinx of Magosi is way too good! I currently don't have a maximum hand size, which I may need to change. But drawing Infinite Cards and making a big, flying guy is too much in one Card. It is nice that it immediately can draw you cards but I would prefer Consecrated Sphinx purely because drawing cards would be limited. Sphinx of Lost Truths may be too weak. If you put it directly into play, you'll need to draw and discard. 3/5 isn't that impressive maybe draw cards when I already have Sphinx of Uthuun - 5/6 Flying Fact or Fiction on 187.
Terastodon would not necessarily replace Necrotic Sliver. Activated abilities can be mised from a variety of effects, Riptide Replicator can pump out Slivers. Also, Necrotic Sliver hits a permanent while Terastodon is firmly non-creature. It sounds like it would be way better than Acidic Slime. Bigger to kill, making Deathtouch a little irrelevant but more importantly bigger to smash face. If I blow up three permanents, they're most likely not going to be the same player - making the triple 3/3 irrelevant. But if they are angry, just keep the 9/9 back who can chump the 3/3s with ease.
I am not sold on Grixis Sojourners. I feel like the amount of Graveyard hate I currently have is the correct amount. I have a some creatures, some permanents and a little bit of spell removal. On top of that, I have a lot of exile effects with kill, countermagic or something else. So, I don't want to tip the scales any particular way but if I feel like I need slightly more, these guys will be on my mind.
I am not quite sure if you are condemning or appraising Spine of Ish Sah. It seems to be an OK card. Weak on the side of kill but seems to be a better Desert Twister in so many ways.
Thran Tome seems like a lot of fun. My problem is two-fold. I just cut Phyrexian Grimoire - while Thran Tome is drawing cards I am having doubts. If a 'cute utility' artifact like the Grimoire gets cut, how can the Tome stand a chance? The second is a little more mundane. Its going to be a pain in the ass to track down!
Rite of Replication and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker violate my rule of requiring another card (specifically a creature). Some cards do break that rule, but they're "good enough". I think the only card I have that breaks that rule is Nim Deathmantle - which helps keep your creatures alive. Kiki-Jiki and those effects are basically asking your opponent to destroy whatever you've targetted - that's why I had to remove Soul Foundry. When you create a 2-for-1 situation in Type 4, its basically begging your opponent to axe something.
Hmm... I never thought that Creeping Renaissance would be too weak. I'll keep an eye on it.
With Army of the Damned I am having trouble swallowing the "Comes into Play Tapped". It is better on offense and defense than Crush of Wurms but part of the appeal is lost because I don't play the same way as you - with Flashback being free. Same deal with Spell Crumple - while you can tutor it back or redraw after a shuffle, the same could be the same as your target. If that's the case, why even cast this particular Counterspell?
My issue with Vanish into Memory is that you need to discard cards. Sure, drawing a lot of cards is cool but you need to discard. That is a huge no-no. Especially if I institute a hand limit. Furthermore, it doesn't kill anything but puts it away for a bit. I can see the awesomeness with your own creature or killing tokens, but that seems like a very niche effect.
I'll still bring your list forward to my play group. These are some very interesting picks! Thank you so much for your help.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I've decided that the power level has reached a point that Spell Burst can make a return. I'm keeping a close eye on it but I think it might be OK. Rewind was the weakest counter, so it was an easy cut.
Simple swap for Dominus of Fealty. Bringer of the Red Dawn leaves. Sure, it is bigger and has Trample but Dominus has flying which is a better evasion. Furthermore, Dominus takes any permanent - I can already see someone putting a Dominus into play at end of turn, grabbing the Door and chucking it at someone.
I like Palichron. It was a tough cut to make, but Glen Elendra Archmage is much more powerful. Palichron kept a static game, Glen can force the game to keep going but on your own terms. Control in the form of a good blocker for control in the form of a counterspell on legs.
This was not exactly an even swap. I think I may have miscategorized but I took out Myojin of Infinite Rage for Phyrexian Ingester. Red Myojin usually ended up as an Indestructable 7/4 - Lands were rarely seen. There are enough destroy non-creature effects in the game, plus general sweepers that happen to hit lands that I wanted to get rid of this unimpressive "kill card" (more aggro, now that I think about it) for the deadly Duplicant effect.
A concern of mine is unintential stall. I could play a card that kills a target, but because it stays around, people need to deal with it before they can resume play. Predator, Flagship was the weakest of these effects. Sure, it offered utility by making creatures Fly but I dislike cards that rely on other cards. Lurking Predators seemed like a good swap. Take away from Control to give Aggro a shot, plus it allows you sneak in your Combo pieces. It may be Wrath bait, I'm not sure - I'll have to see. Also, both have Predator in their names.
At first, I wanted to get rid of Kodama of the North Tree for Gaea's Revenge. But then I realized it was 6/4 untargettable Trampler. I started looking for worst 'hard to deal with Attackers'. Jareth, Leonine Titan came to mind. 4/7 Pro Everything attacker or 11/14 Pro Everything blocker? People liked to keep him back for the block. Gaea's Revenge is Uncounterable, Haste and hard to deal with. Sounded like a way to upgrade Aggro with all of the upgrades Combo/Control were getting. Another Pit Fighter bites the dust.
Firemane Angel seems a lot better than it actually is. I ran her in Standard in GWR Control, she was great because her life gain kept you ahead of the insignificant pings you were taking as you blocked until you got your bomb. In Type 4, a decent beater isn't a 2/2 - its a 6+ Power creature. It That Betrays seems be a better pick overall, you need to kill him or you'll be in a land of hurt.
Flash Conscription has been lacklustre lately. Mystical Teachings is quite a gem I am disappointed I didn't notice it before. At the very worst, it can search for two Counterspells.
Tidespout Tyrant tended to get killed or neutered without having its effect go off, but when it did I bounced something. Yawn. Lighthouse Chronologist is going to be worth it even if it goes off once. Taking extra turns is awesome, but there has been no reliable way to make that happen in Type 4. With some protection, the Chronologist has a chance, but more importantly, he can succeed without backup as well.
I also changed up the formatting, just to make things easier to search for. Though I did realize that Spell Crumple is "strictly better" AND "strictly worse" than Hinder. If I figured Crumple was strictly better, I could just swap with Hinder but I cannot make that claim. Now, I'm conflicted about how to proceed. I am not certain if Spell Crumple is better than Discombobulate, the next counter on the Chopping Block.
@ HetisjeboiM: How many cards is your stack? I kept mine at 300 as just an arbitary number. I should perhaps raise it to 315 to have 7 players evently draft. Normally we do packs, but sometimes Rochester as well. This way I can also concentrate on making the list more powerful. I prefer packs as there is less pressure on the newbie, also its fun not knowing who took what. I recently had a discussion with a player on that I should set criteria so I will know when I should put a new card in.
For example, I previously thought that "At the beginning of your Upkeep" was took weak, which means I should remove Charmbreaker Devils and Sheoldred, Whispering One from my thoughts. Also, "Cast" must be really good if the creature (or permanent) does not say "Comes Into Play".
I see a bunch of Firebreathers, why don't you accept more into your stack? You have free spells, I am certain you must notice that creatures have a hard time winning with beatdown. I'm guessing its usually due to some combo. I looked at your black and noticed the Consumptive Goo and Fleshformer. Why not add a few more, especially since the Fleshformer already has the hard to block motif of Fear. I also saw Lim-Dul the Necromancer who I had forgotten about. Maybe I should look him up.
I see you have quite a lot of "reliance" affects. Reliance means they require another card to use, which in my mind is begging your opponent to kill that permanent, such as the Scourge Expansion's CMC mechanic. If killing your Godsire means that I don't need to discard my hand, then it's happening. I have also found this out with Equipment, which is why I only run Tatsumasa and Nim Deathmantle - one is hard to kill Equipment that turns into a hard to kill creature, the other keeps all my creatures alive.
I see Cinder Elemental going to the dome but otherwise the burn you have, besides the staples, is not very encouraging. No Pyromancy, just deal 2 damage. Pretty small increments. Madness. This is Type 4!
You have some random Life Payment for effects. I think that is interesting and possibly why you don't have Firebreathers. People's life is theoritically low enough that beatdown would work. I prefer to not use life unless the effect is stupidly broken, like Chainer or Yawgmoth's Bargain.
That's all I can think of for now.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I also decided to cut a few 'wants'. I had decided to get hip with whatever the new terms kids are using nowadays: EtB instead of CiP or 187. Cast, instead of Played. And a few others. After I made that connection and could just connect the dots, my attitude toward a lot of cards changed. I could now evalulate by skimming and looking for "Blah blah blah Eblah tblah Bblah" or "Blah blah Cblah blah blah". Before I had to read the entire card and that would sometimes trick me.
Dread Cacodemon, who I did spend a mighty $1 on, would not make the cut. EtB is great, Cast is not. The creatures that require Cast are Myojins and Hypnox. This is why I think I instinctively decided to cut Myojin of Infinite Rage. If I put him directly into play, he is not Indestructible nor does he destroy lands. I have to put extra effort into actually Casting him. Screw that noise, It That Betrays is so much more dangerous and it doesn't matter how he shows up to the party.
Which now matters, thanks to my addition of Lurking Predators on top of the other EtB friendly tutors, such as Tooth and Nail, Wargate and Chord of Calling. Why cheat myself on cheating them into play ala Timmy, Power Gamer or Quicksilver Amulet? Hells yes, I would spend the effort to hard cast Hypnox, Myojin of Cleansing Fire or Myojin of Night's Reach. They're great effects that come with bodies, the creature is incidential so I am willing to treat them as Sorceries. Sorceries that are worth casting, Sorceries that come with a body (ala Promise of Power). If a joe-smoe creature was worth hard casting, it better a great combo piece, an excellent control piece or an incredibly threatening attacker.
My decision to forgo Charmbreaker Devils or Sheoldred, Whispering One is previous experience with Upkeep Creatures. Bringer of the White Dawn was replaced with Sharuum the Hegemon for the immediate effect. I cut Reya, Dawnbringer for Debtor's Knell and those effects for immediate recursion in the form of Karmic Guide or Miraculous Recovery. I had fallen in love with the idea of them being broken, but forgetting the reality that they would merely die because it is a "Reliance" effect. The creature does not stand alone, finished by it duties - it needs to wait for its turn. It relies on itself, which is the biggest liability, especially without a way to protect itself. Reliance on others may cause something else to die, still allowing the potential to 'combo off.' Lighthouse Chronologist may suffer the same fate, but its effects are much more immediate with next player's turn instead of rolling the dice that no one is going to take it out or "Accidentally Wrath" by the time its your turn again.
In addition to cutting my wants, I looked at the spoiler for Avacyn Restored. So far three items are what I would consider Type 4 worthy - at least for my current rules set:
Griselbrand
Killing Wave
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Killing Wave is a great wrath, its very flexible. You can have it low enough that you are willing to spare one or two of your creatures or high enough that no one is spared. You may want to tease your opponents. Is Creature X worth paying 10 life? Would that amount put me to the "Magic Number" (10 or 6, due to the amount of direct damage set to that amount). Its also a way to deal with so many of my increasingly tough to deal with creatures.
Griselbrand may finally complete my campaign to cut Phantom Nishoba. Phantom Nishie has been at the bottom of the power level for a while, but due to Lifelink and Phantom, it has managed to survive cuts of much better cards due to his pure survivability. Now we have something that can make you draw cards. I wouldn't be surprised if someone makes a convincing argument to cut Etched Monstrosity first. We'll see.
Avacyn is probably going to be ridiculously expensive, being a 1) Legend, 2) Angel, 3) Titular Character. Griselbrand might be in the same boat. Hopefully she won't break the piggy bank too much. The question I have is do I cut? Armored Guardian or Eight-and-a-Half Tails?
Which leads me to the thought that I'm going to really have to think about what is worthwhile about adding. I need some criteria. I obviously don't just cut worst-for-new. When I throw in a Masticore, I take a Masticore out instead of whatever I deem to be the weakest creature. I am maintaining a balance of Aggro-Control-Combo but I need to think of what is good to add. The Penumbra Wurm and Symbiotic Wurm have been weak for a while but they're still staying in, for example. How do I cut them, when do I cut them?
I am also thinking of cutting an Artifact and Enchantment kill spell. They don't seem to stick around long enough. Maybe another generic kill spell in addition to this, perhaps a Wrath as well. Just to push the game forward, letting the more Active strategies (Combo and Aggro) don't lose because someone let the Passive Control strategy win out by Wrathing one more time.
Thoughts?
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Dominus of Fealty immediately showed results over the Bringer. There was only non-creature Permanents when it resolved, which made an immediate effect. I won shortly afterwards but the gain control could've really screwed me over. I am pleased with the change. Though perhaps I should interrogate my thoughts towards why Dominus Upkeep is OK, but other Upkeeps are not (yet Debtor's Knell is OK too).
Speaking of other pleasant changes, Lurking Predators and Mystical Teachings were both incredible to discover. When Lurking Predators was played, I immediately saw the power of it. Even if it is just shuffling random instants out of your top deck. I can easily see this being a very deadly card, especially since he started filling up his 'yard and had drafted Sedris, the Traitor King. You might want to walk into Wraths, especially with some recursion like Marshal's Anthem.
I drafted Mystical Teachings fairly high. I found it to be a wise decision and would treat it highly again. First game I got it, I grabbed a Counter and Chord of Calling which allowed me to set up Glasticore (Glarecaster + Damage Dealing Creature = Infinite Damage). Second game, I realized it could be any creature with Flash so I searched up Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and set up a soft lock with Voidmage Prodigy and Grim Harvest. If I had a threat on the board, it would've been a fast finish but my opponents managed to break my lock.
Gaea's Revenge is a house! It does not feel like a green creature but more like mobile burn. Lighthouse Chronologist was killed or countered, I don't remember which, before we could start seeing it tick away. I guess that's good, another "Underwhelming Broken" - always uses up an opponent's resource because they don't want to know what it does.
No combos, some stalling with control elements but mostly concentrated efforts to kill. I did kill one player with Glasticore, but the Glarecaster was killed by a Sudden Death, leaving the remaining players still standing. And pissed. I didn't win that one. When an opponent went to Over 9000 with Who/When/Where/Why/What, another played a Silklash Spider and I quite cooperatively killed the smart alec.
One of my players was concerned over too much creatures. I said that I felt control/combo had a slight edge, he warned if I included too much crazy stuff like the Eldrazi, then aggro would completely push combo and control out. I was trying to think of Wraths or Spot Removal that would perhaps swing the balance back. I immediately thought of Martial Coup, I previously didn't hunt it down because I thought it might have been too broken.
Thoughts? Any ideas on better removal?
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Penumbra Wurm -> Wurmcoil Engine
Acidic Slime -> Terastodon
Debtors' Knell -> Baneful Omen
Storm Seeker -> Suffer the Past
Phyrexian Rebirth -> Dread Cacodemon
After all that smack talk, I still put in the Dread Cacademon (its funny 'cause its poo). I came to the realization that I have quite a few random Cast creatures instead of EtB. I also want to add in more bodies by virtue that bodies are more valuable than Sorceries. Stall outs are not fun, there should be more creatures and there should be more Instants so that more action happens.
I still need to create a threshold for introducing a creature to the stack. Sure, Avacyn and Griselbrand are auto-includes but what about when the line is more blurred?
Myojin of Night's Reach, Thicket Elemental and Hypnox all require cast. The three of which have different qualities that make them special. Myojin is Legendary, protects herself and causes a powerful effect. Hypnox can cause combos such as the Nightmare EtB and LtB trigger shenanigans. Thicket Elemental is unique: there are creatures that put creatures from your graveyard or hand into play, only Thicket does so from your library.
How can I justify the Dread Poo Demon? Its unique. There is no EtB Wrath Creature, which is important to deal with all the Protection, Shroud and Hexproof creatures. And of all the Wraths to emulate, it selects a superb one: Plague Wind. It is far better than the Desolation Giant I previously had, which I cut due to the amount of times it screwed its owner over - same fate occurred to Phage the Untouchable.
Phew! A lot o' talk over a Poop Demon. Moving on...
Wurmcoil Engine is strictly better than Penumbra Wurm. Oh sure, its more vulnerable as an Artifact but wasting Artifact Spot Removal on a creature is somewhat of a waste. Wurmcoil gains you life, kills creatures it chumps and can do some serious damage when it turns sideways. Its little buddies cannot be deal with spot removal, are large enough to be a credible threat and the Deathtouch means his little buddy can still kill random guys.
Acidic Slime sure does have Deathtouch, which makes for a great blocker once its done its business. Terastodon is a 9/9 and up to destroys three noncreature permanents. 9/9 is a real clock, 2/2s are not. If some reason a single player has all the annoying noncreature permanents, you can decide how many 3/3s you want to invite to the party. I think that he's a great addition, especially with the EtB stipulation (take that Poo Demon!).
I passed Debtors' Knell as a last pick last draft. The Knell is really slow but more importantly, there is very rarely anything to take with Exiling Counterspells, Exiling Removal and general cleaning of 'yards. I thought of making changes, making 'yards more viable but I feel that is treating a natural evolution instead of accepting how Stacks evolve. As previously mentioned, I also have a hate-on for Your Upkeep triggers, especially on creatures.
I thought the Knell would be safe, non-creature and all. I obviously do make exceptions, such as Dominus of Fealty (fomerly Bringer of the Red Dawn), Glory and Genesis but I don't think the last two count as to where they hide. But that's it. No other Your Upkeep permanents. Furthermore, there's a lot of graveyard hate. I am having Second Thoughts on Sedris, the Traitor King being too weak which is strange considering how crazy his ability is. Maybe HetisjeboiM's call on Creeping Renaissance was quite accurate. I've yet to see it even get played (3-5 drafters using 45 cards each means anywhere between 165 to 75 random cards don't even make it into the draft pool).
So, I wanted a non-creature, permanent that can be threatening. I came across Baneful Omen while looking at Multiplayer Guides (where else will jank rares be played seriously? :P). It burns opponents at the end of your End Step, has no Reliance and happens "immediately". If someone has a Sorcery speed resolution they're still going to take some amount of damage, plus random Combo with Gleemax - though I have no idea how you would set that up (Yagmoth's Bargain + Bringer of the Black Dawn? Search, place on top and don't draw).
And now, I'm going to blatantly exasperate the issue with the removal of Storm Seeker for Suffer the Past. At first, I was tempted to remove Honor the Fallen because of the remove and gain life clause but then I thought of the damage portion of Suffer the Past and Storm Seeker came to mind. Storm Seeker has been slightly underwhelming, with 6 or 7 damage being if you're lucky. It is nice to ambush the control player with damage once they've used their spell, but why not add insult to injury? RFG their 'yard, possibly even causing a spell to fizzle.
Thanks for reading, all three of my readers.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I talked to my players and asked around for some advice (from Cz, who has awesome Multiplayer Stickies) to see what else could be changed. My concern is stall, so one of my players made a radical suggestion to cut all stall. I define stall as indiscriminate halting of spells, attacking, and activated abilities. Its incriminate because it costs you nothing. Basically, anything that grinds the game to halt as someone searches for a silver bullet. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what would qualify as stall.
1 Vampiric Dragon
1 Smokespew Invoker
1 Silklash Spider
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
1 Flowstone Overseer
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Deepfire Elemental
1 Azorious Guildmage
1 Crowd Favorites
1 Combat Medic
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
1 Shield of the Ages
1 Panacea
1 Fevered Convulsions
1 Gleemax
1 Legacy Weapon
This is further hampered by all the Wraths, which is further hampered by jumping through the gauntlet of Spot Removal and/or Counters. I didn't bother to include the "Rattlesnake" cards like Child of Alara or Pernicious Deed, because you need to sacrifice them (in the literal or not sense) to get their effect.
I am also finding a curious situation. Recursion has always been a powerful strategy, but it has been taking a beating. It is no longer that powerful, so just like the indiscriminate use of stall effects, I wonder about cards that rely and hate on graveyards. I would want to make changes, the most obvious is cutting hate for card that rely.
1 Dimir Doppelganger
1 Creakwood Ghoul
1 Withered Wretch
1 Necrogensis
1 Duplicant
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 Legacy Weapon
1 Assert Authority
1 Dissipate
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Ertai's Meddling
1 Time Stop
1 Altar's Light
1 Crib Swap
1 Resounding Silence
1 Return to Dust
1 Unmake
1 Treva's Charm
1 Decree of Annihilation
1 Honor the Fallen
1 Final Judgment
1 Crush of Wurms
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Ray of Distrotion
1 Fervant Denial
// Love
1 Dimir Doppelganger
1 Volrath's Shapeshifter
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Eternal Witness
1 Genesis
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Miraculous Recovery
1 Grim Harvest
1 Corpse Dance
1 Glory
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Marshal's Anthem
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Karmic Guide
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Sedris, the Traitor King
1 Body Double
1 Moldgaf Monstrosity
1 All Suns' Dawn
1 Creeping Renaissance
There seems to be an equal amount of cards that hate on graveyards and cards that benefit from graveyards. Flashback was thrown in there 'cause I was curious. The majority of graveyard hate; however, is asymmetrical. It is not one card for one card, its one card for all your graveyards into perpetuity until you deal with this. Even the lowly Withered Wretch seriously wreck face and he's just a bear.
In conclusion, I need to definitely cut back on graveyard hate as well as reduce stall effects. This has given me serious food for thought. I think I'm going to need to take a serious look at cards and ask the question of their uniqueness or power level.
Le PS: I sent Cz a PM asking for any cards he'd suggest and he gave me a whole bunch of goodies. Going through his suggestions, I have placed the following into consideration:
1 Vengeful Archon
1 Magmatic Force
1 Celestial Force
If I am going to want to include some of these, I am going to make some overhauls.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I wonder how great it can be when you flip a 10 CMC Dread Cacodemon or Gleemax. Incidentally, I added cards that made stacking the top possible. I didn't realize this until later and is not done intentionally at all.
Here are the changes:
Hail of Arrows -> Dream Fracture
Terminate -> Lim-Dul's Vault
Chastise -> Riddle of Lightning
Honor the Fallen -> Wheel of Fortune
Necrogenesis -> Debtors' Knell
Spine of Ish Sah -> Splintering Wind
Sneak Attack -> Checks and Balances
Holistic Wisdom -> Browse
Glory -> Skeletal Scrying
Volrath's Shapeshifter -> Selesnya Guildmage
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer -> Myojin of Infinite Rage
Silklash Spider -> Thrashing Wumpus
Nantuko Vigilante -> Acidic Slime
Hail of Arrows, Chastise and Terminate are the weakest Removal/Wraths. Chastise and Hail require them to be attacking, Type 4 creatures tend to be dangerous without attacking, such as Ertai, Wizard Adept or Azorious Guildmage. Terminate while has the least amount of restrictions is a little lackluster. With the removal of Removal, I added Burn, Counters and Search to help speed up the process. Damage to shorten the game, Counter that stops a dangerous card but provide a card for everyone which keeps the game going and Search for the combo piece or necessary counter. Lim-Dul's Vault's Pay Life is intentional, to push the game forward. Riddle was previously in the stack but was cut due to lackluster performance, I think the average CMC has increased since Future Sight making this a much better card. Probably still the weakest Burn spell...
Necrogenesis and Honor the Fallen provided too much easy 'yard hate. Returning Debtors' Knell was the fastest way to re-focus that graveyards should be important. Wheel of Fortune was a way to full up 'yards quickly as well as mitts, keeping lulls to a minimum. I played Wheel today and I was surprised at how good it was - good addition for Control and Combo arch-types. In the Type 4 I previously played with, the Wheel wasn't good because it too easily gave them the combo (he was a Johnny player instead of attempting to create a 'balanced' Stack). Aggro will hate this card but considering how much I've been improving Aggro, I am fine with a few solid additions that merely push the pendulum back.
Moving onto the remaining non-creature permanents, Spine was always too weak. Sneak Attack and Holistic Wisdom, previous staples and examples of backbreaking broken, are too slow. Sneak Attack is difficult to setup, much less try to build a combo around. Holistic Wisdom provides cards at the cost of cards, I think we're beyond 1-for-1 trades when it comes to recursion. Browse generates Card Advantage out of thin air trading longevity. When you need to search for a Counter or Removal right now that is not an issue. Checks and Balances looks fun so its in the place of Sneak and Splintering Wind is a way to stop willy-nilly destruction. If you pay to play, there is a cost - the benefit may be infinite 1/1s but any abuse may lead to your death. I know some ballsy players will swing for the fences with it, but I am concerned that it may be too weak.
Glory was another card that I realized was too slow. Skeletal Scrying increased the theme of searching after solutions instead of having dead cards that may be the case. Having the Lose X Life as not being part of the Additional Cost is very good, I think countering a Recursion Spell with a Scry in response is the biggest flip off you can give. I hope that Glory returns but I am concerned that the analysis that it does nothing may be true. Let's play without and see...
Volrath's Shapeshifter was a great combo piece in certain legacy formats. I thought this degree of broken would carry to Type 4. It didn't but I am such a fan of that I through it in. Once Wizards removed "Damage on the Stack," the usefulness of the Shapeshifter (and Phage) plummeted. The Guildmage would most likely be a dangerous threat that still dies to most Wraths.
Multani has been weak for a while, not all that impressive when the "vanilla version" is a guaranteed 9/9 to his randomness. In fact, you'd also prefer environments where Multani was small, allowing you to play solid creatures without worrying about counter magic. Red Myojin returns simply due to being a relatively difficult to deal with threat.
Silklash Spider, another staple, bit the dust today. Thrashing Wumpus returns due to a very convincing argument on whether Pestilence effects should be in the Type 4 stack. The Wumpus is better than the Spider, who was I willing to remove on the principal of being the weakest wrath creature. The return of the Wumpus (cool sci-fi b-movie title warning) pushes for more aggro and combo. Good control is often seen as stall - pushing the Spider which can block and stall by killing Fliers drops in the favour of a creature that wins games.
The other day, the Nantuko Vigilante flipped straight off of a EtB effect like Thicket Elemental. If he had been a mere EtB instead of Morph, he could've killed a troubling artifact. This inspired me to cull the Morphs further, replacing the Vigilante with the Acidic Slime. Less size but hits more and can kill with Deathtouch.
Anyway, I'm going to bed. C&C always welcome.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
My updated Dark Ascension Want List is:
Griselbrand
Killing Wave
Terminus
Alchemist's Refuge
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
On the topic of Wraths, Dregs of Sorrow is Official The Worst Wrath. This makes me sad, I am a fan of Dregs. It allows specific targeting, shenanigans with Indestructible or Pro creatures and draws you cards. The issue has become the targeting. As for drawing cards, Overwhelming Forces gets that done, ignores 'can't target me, nyah nyah!' and Plague Winds for good measure. Terminus, Killing Wave. Perhaps Martial Coup. You've got an auto-replace.
I am thinking more and more of adding Martial Coup because the Selesnya Guildmage has surprisingly been held in check. Splintering Wind was useful too. It is the sort where you need to be careful but can win you the game. Just need balls the size of Watermelons to pull off. I passed it to someone's last pick. Whoops?
The reduction of graveyard hate has paid off. Things are back in order, with graveyards being a thing. Hence my desire from Back from the Drink, which is the best Dreams of the Dead ever. I was sad when I had to remove Dreams of the Dead, but I couldn't reliably count on having White or Black dead dudes (Yes, racist out of context!). In our draft pool, we had Withered Wretch, Creakwood Ghoul and Suffer the Past but Flashback and various "I like graveyards" still had a chance. I drafted the Ghoul and Suffer, so it was nice being able to control 'yards. Even then Creeping Renaissance, which I know HetisjeboiM thought would be too weak, was solid enough.
Lurking Predators really requires a lot of creatures. I had 17 or so in my 45 card deck and that wasn't enough. Still makes Predators amazing through. This is a lesson in hate-drafting in Type 4 - doesn't quite work and only dilutes your power. Glen Elendra Archmage is some awesome sauce. I've found that she basically draws all the removal, which is fine, because unlike the Coalition Honor Guard she stops players from casting spells and counters them. Play her as a feint to your knockout bomb! Body Double has also shown to be a shining example of this, where you send out your bomb creature as a sacrificial lamb to get countered or killed - followed up with a Body Double to see if someone has something better.
Lim-Dul's Vault and Riddle of Lightning are surprisingly solid. I had them in before, but I guess they weren't good enough previously because there wasn't stuff worth digging/blasting with. As the power level goes up, card search takes a precedence. Skeletal Scrying was previously in as well, but is a ***** to play with. I got killed attempting to resolve one when I got double teamed with Parallectric Feedback and Riddle - the life loss finished me. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any other good Instant speed card draw that can't be used as an auto-win (I'm looking at you, Stroke of Genius).
At first, I was a bit nervous about Cruel Ultimatum. Was it Sorcery worthy? Was it good enough? Well, yesterday dispelled that. Sorcery worthy is that creatures and enchantments take up your 'Sorcery-slot' during play. If you have too many Sorceries and creatures, you lose because your hand fills up with crap. You want to land a permanent during this small window of play - so Sorceries need to be very good. Cruel is - the 'draw 4' in addition to making opponents discard, sacrifice and drain life. Also, its a tough card to counter from the 'spectators'. You want one of those guys to get screwed over, but you don't want one of them to draw that many cards. Overall, I like the tension. Plus it gets the game going - which is why I explain the card as 'Make target opponent hate you forever'. Well, hopefully not. I hate playing with people who carry grudges between games. But forever within that game. Target acquired.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I've updated my wants...
First... FML. $40 for Scavenging Ooze!? Its not the most I've paid (maybe), but damn - didn't expect it get so damned expensive. Here I was holding out for it drop after it his $20. I hope Commander gets some sort of reason to drop it, or perhaps have its legality change or something because $40 is ridiculous. It is part of the reason why I stopped playing competitive Magic and have gone strictly to this 'casual Cube'.
Second... Removed Terminus because I discovered Hallowed Burial. Cheaper dollar-wise, but either could be an unknown due to the poor card selection in my city. Terminus is more expensive and has effectively no "Miracle" cost because I don't use Alt CCs as free stuff. The issue is whether I would be able to find it.
Realized Griselbrand would be an easy shill in for Promise of Power. Griselbrand does basically the same thing, but can be snuck in - and can gain you life. Promise has been a staple merely because it is the biggest straight up draw spell in the Stack and because it does 5 damage to its owner, I'd be surprised by the amount of times people would let it resolve.
In another "D'oh!" move, I completely missed Dark Impostor! I think swapping out Duplicant is the correct call here. He can also Exile the board. I am worried about Masticore affects and this seems like the real-ultimate Masticore; however, I believe that accidental stall is at a new low.
I am also toying with the idea of adding Eldrazi... Specifically:
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
I find Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Artisan of Kozilek are the only other playworth Eldrazi; however, their affects are not worth the stipulation of Cast. Angel of Despair and Karmic Guide are their respective EtB counterparts. Furthermore, you shouldn't try to hold back such a beast - you should windmill slam them when you draw.
Emrakul and Kozilek count in that. Ironically, I think Kozilek would have higher worth due to the worth of four cards. Emrakul has the best form of haste but a single or even two extra turns is surprisingly not that game breaking in Type 4 due to the inherent rules of an Arcane Laboratory. Emrakul's protection from coloured spells is also pretty good in constructed, but doesn't stop the usual death dealing ways of Type 4. Sure, both of these titans may die but Kozilek has re-filled your hand.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Resounding Wave -> Evil Twin
Soulscour -> Nevinyrral's Disk
Kederekt Leviathan -> Dark Impostor
Greel, Mind Raker -> Skeletal Vampire
Altar's Light -> Tidings
Indrik Stomphowler -> Tyrant of Discord
Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil -> Deadeye Navigator
After taking a deeper comb through the latest sets, we found a few gems. In addition to this, we decided to cut back on the amount of "Disenchants" that are in the stack as we felt it was a bit overmuch with the amount of general board wipes, EtB kill and then instants sitting in hand, waiting for something to happen.
The idea was to reduce the amount of 'dead cards' in hand, which we felt improved the format in a two-fold fashion. First, the lower amount of incredibly specific cards increased player's ability to be more proactive. They no longer had cards that they needed to wait for them to come "online" but had other cards that did stuff. Secondly, it slightly raised the value of Artifacts and Enchantments. A minuscule amount, but a statistically significant one.
Tribute to the Wild, Altar's Light and Indrink Stomphowler were causalities in the selection. There are very few times when multiple artifacts or enchantments were out from various players, limiting Tribute's effectiveness. Altar's Light is strictly worse than Return to Dust. Indrink Stomphowler is a good card but was replaced by an even better one.
Reweave was taken out previously, but I've put it back in because I think that its fun and can hit any possible threat. While you may not like the results, it will be an answer to your opponent's permanent.
Tidings is being tried out. Previously, the game philosophy was that you "had better things to do" in your Sorcery-speed spells than "just draw cards." Instants should be saved to be used on your opponent's turn. Altar's Light wasn't even being played, I would be quite fine with windmill slamming Tidings right off the top. We're trying it out and we're thinking of taking a look at Jace's Ingenuinty. Worse than Opportunity but maybe than other Instants.
I completely skipped over the gem that is Tyrant of Discord. I linked because I am sure you skipped over what this bad boy does when you read it. Rather, it is mediocre in a real game of Magic. In Type 4, Tyrant of Discord essentially reads "When Tyrant of Discord enters the battlefield, wreck target opponent's entire board." Didn't even realize until I had a friend make me do a double check. Tyrant is an example of a great Type 4 card, incredibly janky and easy to get a hold of but incredibly powerful in the format.
I added in Disk because its not a wasted Sorcery-speed spell, you play it before it is relevant. I found that Soulscour was not very effective in hitting troublesome permanents (aka all the Artifacts, such as creatures). Disk may be very slow, especially in comparison to its faster cousins, Pernicious Deed and Plague Boiler; however, its definitely a card you would have no problem tossing onto the stack because it is not a very urgent card.
Resounding Wave is a tempo card and not that great of one. The Evil Twin is merely an inclusion as another Clone. I don't expect to use the Backstab ability, but perhaps trade with Legendary Creatures. I would prefer another Clone altogether; however, you learn to use what you've got.
Greel, Infernal Spawn and Kederekt Leviathan are all chopping block creatures so it feels great to give them the axe. Greel was great if I duelled one-on-one which defeats the purpose of Type 4. Infernal Spawn is funny and has an interesting combo that I've been removing from the Cube for years now. A Eternal Dragon engine isn't as impressive anymore. I threw Kederekt Leviathan in because I didn't quite know what it does, so I figured out a way to make it do something - get cut.
The Leviathan is a mass removal card, so I felt that Dark Impostor was a good fit. It was either poor Duplicant taking the bullet, or I realized that the function of the Vamper Assassin is similar to the Leviathan but he is strictly superior.
Skeletal Vampire is merely another inclusion to the 'infinite tokens' shenanigans. Time will tell if he is too much to handle, like the Selesnya Guildmage.
Deadeye Navigator is good, so good that its on the Watchlist. Its a weaker Mistmeadow Witch, which is still crazy intense strong. The Deadeye can only effect his own men and only comes online is there is another Creatures for him to buddy-buddy with. It seems fairly restrictive but after the last few games I've noticed a trend. Vanilla 5/5s are credible threats, even without backup. Once he does go online, he's impossible to get rid of barring a Wrath effect. If his Soulmate has a EtB ability, may God have mercy upon the soul of your opponent.
Its ridiculous. No matter how of a 'reliance effect' the Navigator may have, he's silly broken as is and thus earns a close examination via the Watch List.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Dregs of Sorrow -> Killing Wave
Evil Twin -> Cackling Counterpart
Checks and Balances -> Primal Surge
Spiritmonger -> Sheoldred, Whispering One
Vampiric Dragon -> Olivia Voldaren
Forbidden Alchemy -> Time Reversal
Uktabi Kong -> Army of the Damned
Spinal Embrace -> Sorin's Vengeance
For a long time, I thought Gleemax was a hated card - as soon as it came into play someone hit it with targetted removal. That was because I had too much targetted removal and not enough targets, people jumped at the opportunity to kill Gleemax so they could actually spend a card that was otherwise dead in their hand. Once Gleemax was free to roam, I realized it wasn't that good.
It pained me to cut Gleemax, as it had quite a few funny combos with it but other cards had previously shared the same fate. When the deck was slower and control reigned supreme, Gleemax was a way to ensure your opponents couldn't easily disrupt you. Now, cards like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir exist, which are leagues more efficient at protecting your cards and enhancing the board state in one fell swoop.
Back from the Brink was thrown in, as I previously indicated, because if it resolves - it "unearths" your graveyard. Sure, it is vulnerable to the same hate that 'yard suffer but I've made efforts to curtail that and I think the balance is great. Back from the Brink didn't do much this round, mostly because I never drew it at a convenient time when we drafted.
Dregs of Sorrow is a fun wrath with some strange applications. Killing Wave is similar, especially if you decide to forgo 'pay 100 life' and make it more interesting with 'pay 4 life'. The effect is nice to 'trick' your opponents into paying life (so you can hit them with Burn, of course), but when you want to use it for real, you hit cards you can't normally target with a Sacrifice effect. The distinction between the two is immense.
I am not a fan of Evil Twin. I like Clone effects in general but the Twin isn't as awesome as other available Clones. At first, I thought Cackling Counterpart would not be good. It is under my 'reliance' effect; however, in practice the Counterpart is very good. If someone is killing your important non-legendary dude, the Counterpart makes for great back up. Its a way to put a creature into play at Instant speed, too.
Checks and Balances slowed the game down and I found very often that no one wanted to play Checks and Balances. Primal Surge can be lackluster but can also be game-breakingly awesome. I like encouraging cards that are 'build around me' or 'draft me' so people can really enjoy making the decks they do, Primal Surge lets you do that and the rewards are so very sweet.
Spiritmonger has been weak for a while now and he's got form of evasion like other Chopping Block creatures. Sheoldred replaces him and while she doesn't have evasion like him, she kills any opposing creatures. Her ability to bring back older creatures is merely gravy, its not something I would expect to be a frequent occurrence.
Olivia Voldaren is strictly superior to Vampiric Dragon. Simple switch.
We're experimenting with 'everybody draw cards' - so far I am pretty hesitant but that could because I got stuck with this as a late pick. For someone who plays a lot of instants and empties their hand, any draw 7 is good - even if it draws for your opponent too. Forbidden Alchemy attempts to have you shift for an answer, Time Reversal may just let you draw it.
I have slowly been losing admiration of Uktabi Kong. He was frequently in the bottom tier of creatures in my book. Army of the Damned places a lethal amount of damage on the board with one spell that has Flashback. They may not block as quickly as Crush of Wurms but Army can chump a lot better.
Spinal Embrace was also not impressing me much anymore. Sorin's Vengeance may not be the best replacement, but it sure does speed up the game for anyone under the clock. Vengeance still gives you life and instead of killing a creature, it may outright kill your opponents. I am not sure if it is worth taking up a 'sorcery slot' but it is worth considering.
I removed Sphinx Ambassador from my Wants because Type 4 is supposed to be the format where the casual and competitive player can win. The casual player is no way going to memorize every card in his library from the draft, even if the Sphinx's effect is 'obvious'. While I think the effect is cool, its something I don't think that would add very much to my deck.
I am finding that random, large numbers of 1/1s are actually possible to handle in a Type 4 environment. With this discovery, I am adding Martial Coup to my Wants.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1. Good eye for Temporal Cascade. I think its a unique, great card that I probably dismissed previously as merely a draw 7. My first thought was "Awesome, a card that all players can utilize - Aggro to strip everyone's hand when they have a dominate board position, Control to reset everyone's hand to 7 and Combo to draw 7 to look for their last piece." After thinking about the card, it incidentally hits Graveyards. This makes me sad as I am trying to not hate on 'yards.
And there's no longer a 'hate on graveyards' card I can go after anymore. Yard hate is exclusively on Creatures, with Decree of Annihilation and Suffer the Past being the remaining non-permanent solution. Decree does more than wipe yards and Suffer hits one player with burn. Perhaps Time Reversal could be a potential cut but I'd need to be incredibly vigilant with the decision.
Your stack is larger, which is why I try to fine tune mine to the best balance. Sway of the Stars may be inferior to Once More with Feeling but Once More is a helluva harder to track down. Once More is also faster, as it Exiles everything instead of requiring players to Shuffle up. Only one will be in the Stack.
2. Reliance is when your spell relies on your permanents, not relying on an opponents. If I cast a spell that relies on my creature or permanents, then my opponents will gladly kill it. If I cast a spell that 'relies' on my opponent's permanents, then I don't think anybody would be that upset if you ice your opponent's permanent (even you). Twisted Justice is a great example of this, if someone else kills the creature so you don't draw the cards then it isn't that bad as the objective is still completed to kill but now you're sad that you didn't draw cards.
Clones are incredibly helpful utility. They allow you to copy the best creature on the board or they're a legendary kill spell that avoids any Protection, Hexproof or Shroud nonsense. The Clones I run are interesting and powerful, even if you don't like Clone theme. Dimir Doppelganger alone is a holy terror with full yards. Sakashima the Impostor lets you copy that Legend and bounces EOT so you can do some really abusive things. Vesuvan Shapeshifter allows you to copy any creature, always upgrading and can possibly get under the Counterwall by being a mysterious Morph (or get hit by a Counter so your real bomb sneaks through). Phyrexian Metamorph is being called the best Clone ever printed due to the unique ability to Clone Artifacts, while my new personal favourite is a Body Double - you get the most threatening creature amongst all the players. He's great play after an counterwar or Wrath - you bounce back with the best.
I am a U/B Mage at heart, so I like stealing or cloning my opponent's best stuff. I don't need the best, I'll just take your own and then smack you with it.
Cackling Counterpart is the exception that proves the rule. It allows you to double your powerful creatures or at least get a back-up copy if they manage to destroy the original. Playing creatures at Instant speed is a pretty big deal as well, which means you could Counterpart other Flash creatures like Mystic Snake or Bogardan Hellkite and really take advantage of their abilities.
The Instant speed is what makes Cackling Counterpart function. Instead of using your Sorcery-slot to set up a 2-for-1, you double your creature EOT of an opponent while they're "tapped out".
3. Good call. Now I'm going to have to hunt down a O-Stone... Yeah... Traded my O-Stone...
4. You haven't played with Primal Surge. Do an experiment with your Cube, grab a random pile and 'Primal Surge' it. You'd be surprised. Even 1 is good enough in theory to avoid Countermagic and you can have some insane stretches. The time it resolved it got 3 permanents onto the board. Granted, it has only resolved once. Every other time it got Countered which is a fine yard stick by me - if they aren't willing to let you have it then its good.
5. I had an Exclude but it was cut because too often you wanted a Counterspell that hit anything instead of a 'dead card'. Soul Manipulation might be a possibility, but its just an Exclude variant so I am uncertain. Though it 'draws' you your best Creature...
6. I've already done many blasphemies in the game of the health of the Cube. Phantom Nishoba just keeps outliving every other aggro cut because of how much I've under-appreciated the Lifelink. I got red of Infernal Spawn 2 because I had removed all the Combos. Serra Avatar has been dead for a while now and is no longer even in my collection.
Also, a 20/20 (or more likely 14/14 or something) isn't that scary. Marit Lage is scarier. Flying, Black, Indestructible. Plus the random Infinite Power creatures. Avatar no longer competes.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs