When I think of powered cubes, I'm not thinking only of the mana accelerators and other power nine. I'm thinking also of cards like Mana Drain, Moat, Mind Twist, and Library of Alexandria. These are all very powerful cards that can basically shut down a game, some of them out of no where. A common scenario for Mana Drain would be a game at parity, your opponent attempts to cast a four or five drop to break that parity, you counter with Mana Drain, then cast your own six or seven drop and break the parity in your favor. All the while you still get to keep up mana to counter any answers your opponent might now have. Mana Drain is a huge offender, in my opinion, of a swingy card for powered cubes.
I don't think it's at the top of the list of the most egregious non-power9 cards that would be left over, but it's up there. I wouldn't auto-ban it from an unpowered list, but it would certainly be on my watch list.
Then there is a second tier of cards that you could remove, in order to further decrease variance; these cards may include Library of Alexandria, Time Walk, Umezawa's Jitte, Mana Drain and Mind Twist (although people disagree on which cards exactly, and I don't find all of these too good). However, this second tier is much closer in power level to the rest of the cards than to the tier 1 power cards.
Library of Alexandria is stronger in a non-powered cube than it is in a powered cube since unpowered cubes are inherently slower.
A lot of the good aggro support cards are probably already in (Rancor, Cobra, Plow Under, BBE, 4cc Garruks, Edric, Yasova, etc) so make sure you have the creatures you need to fill out your aggro/tempo curves (E1, Captive, Lion, Leopard, Warden, Nacatl and they hybrid 2-power 1-drops in green). Sylvan Advocate has been good too, and pairs well with manlands and joins the other "oversized" 2-drops that green brings to aggro that it can't get elsewhere ('Goyf, Ooze, Vinelasher & Mongrel). Should give you both the green cards that pull you into the deck AND the additional base support to make sure your curve is low, threatening and full. Loam is cool too, because it can provide "reach" by recurring manlands, generate card advantage which the deck doesn't do well, and gives additional disruption when you pair it with strip/waste effects.
Sea Gate Wreckage is not pulling its weight. A) It's hard to get hellbent, especially since not all C decks are aggressive shells. B) Unlike Blood Scrivener, it's hard to chain multiple draws together in the same game, because you have to pay for the draw. The first free card costs mana, making it hard to cast multiple non-land draws in the same turn AND pay for the Wreckage activation. C) C is easier to assemble than I originally thought, which drives the need for Wreckage down.
Matter Reshaper is going to take its place. It's not a stellar card, but it's a solid body that will help the mono-color (well, X/C) decks flesh out their curve. Early testing was trending towards 2C being a hard cost because getting enough sources to make it available on curve was difficult. As we play with the colorless cards more and more, that's not so hard of a cost to achieve, and in a deck with enough sources to get Reshaper down on time, it should be a solid performer.
Your results are basically the same as my playgroup. I'll try the switch as well
Btw, I notice that you have quite a few alters from someone with the signature SIC. I really like the artwork, is this someone you found on ebay or something?
That's seesic. It's Masamune's new handle. I have quite a few cards altered by him. His real name is Michael Noel, and he's a hell of an artist, both card altering and traditional art.
The Change Log post in the OP has been updated with a "Potential SOI Additions" section where I'll be tracking the SOI cards I'm interested in playing.
I'm in that phase of Magic where I pretty much only read this thread and then occasionally go look at spoilers to pick up cards for my cube so I don't comment much but I check it all the time for new info. This card seems amazing. It does everything that I want it to do. I mean . . . this is an awesome card. Freaking amazing. Heir of Falkenrath // Heir to the Night
[Thinks for a bit] I'm wondering which I would typically choose between this and oona's prowler. Is the repeatable discard significantly better? Maybe I'll let it sit for a moment before I jump to any big conclusions. But that card looks sick.
I still slightly prefer the Prowler, because it puts the opponent to the test of having to pitch cards to prevent taking 3 damage when beating down. But Heir is more reliable as a beatdown creature because of that. The repeatable discard is also randomly valuable in some cases, like with Living Death in particular. But I do like Heir a lot.
Is Eternal Dragon even worth it in a cube with only 1 set of non basics it can fetch? I've been trying it for awhile and haven't really seen it in action much.
hi dude, looking forwat for the changes with shadows over innistrad ,i think this card its an absolute must go in the cube with the new colorless section,http://mythicspoiler.com/soi/cards/warpedlandscape.html, my cube its a copy of yours, the only differents its two or three cards that i put in the guild section beacause sentimental reasons i think, like olivia voldaren, and knight of the reliquary, im mission some cards like magus of the wheel, and tinker, can i ask you how this two cards work on your cube and why you cur olivia and master of the felts from you cube
I was looking at your cube on cube tutor earlier, and I noticed your pet card tags. Care to share what you like about each card that gets in as a pet card? I always like hearing your opinions on your cards and I love your set reviews.
They're mostly just good cards that are starting to show their age, but that my particular group of players still love to use and know how to win with. I have quite a few in there, but if you have a couple in particular you'd like me to go over, I can certainly do that.
I think the one that I was looking at was Triskelion.
I call that a pet card, but it probably shouldn't be. A lot of cubes play and love Trike. It's a colorless solution to a lot of problematic low-toughness creatures, in addition to being able to close out a game by crashing in for 7 damage and providing some reach. At face value it's a good card advantage body, often functioning like an Arc Trail or Arc Lightning that leaves a body behind, but the real strength is when it can be abused. Decks that can find ways to get multiple resolutions/triggers out of it can get some tremendous value. White can blink it with 'Wisp and Displacer and stuff. Blue can bounce it and replay it for extra tokens and damage, or clone it, or rebuy it with Ruins. Black can reanimate it or break it with Nightmare to get more bullets. Red can use Feldon. It's also an artifact, so it works in decks with Welder and Daretti. It can also be targeted by Imperial Recruiter, Reveillark and Alesha because it's a "1-power" creature. Its counters can be doubled up by Hydra. It's a savage Mimic Vat target.
So it's a good card on its own, but it has a LOT of ways to make it great.
The spoilers for SOI are getting interesting! I've been peeking at this thread to see what you've been considering. One question: Considering we already have Vindicate, why is Anguished Unmaking interesting and which card(s) are you considering removing to fit it in?
The spoilers for SOI are getting interesting! I've been peeking at this thread to see what you've been considering. One question: Considering we already have Vindicate, why is Anguished Unmaking interesting and which card(s) are you considering removing to fit it in?
Here is a whole section of the forum where Anguished Unmaking is discussed. You can see why everyone thinks it is interesting there.
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I don't think it's at the top of the list of the most egregious non-power9 cards that would be left over, but it's up there. I wouldn't auto-ban it from an unpowered list, but it would certainly be on my watch list.
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Library of Alexandria is stronger in a non-powered cube than it is in a powered cube since unpowered cubes are inherently slower.
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My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Matter Reshaper is going to take its place. It's not a stellar card, but it's a solid body that will help the mono-color (well, X/C) decks flesh out their curve. Early testing was trending towards 2C being a hard cost because getting enough sources to make it available on curve was difficult. As we play with the colorless cards more and more, that's not so hard of a cost to achieve, and in a deck with enough sources to get Reshaper down on time, it should be a solid performer.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Btw, I notice that you have quite a few alters from someone with the signature SIC. I really like the artwork, is this someone you found on ebay or something?
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Welcome to the game Heir of Falkenrath // Heir to the Night!
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[Thinks for a bit] I'm wondering which I would typically choose between this and oona's prowler. Is the repeatable discard significantly better? Maybe I'll let it sit for a moment before I jump to any big conclusions. But that card looks sick.
UBR Thraximundar, the Who's Who of Red, Black, and Blue
RWU Zedruu, The Political Player's Personification
URG Animar, The Deck for When You Just Want to Play Creatures
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
That's a functional reprint of Terminal Moraine ...a card that's pretty much unplayable. That's much too steep a cost for what it does.
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I was looking at your cube on cube tutor earlier, and I noticed your pet card tags. Care to share what you like about each card that gets in as a pet card? I always like hearing your opinions on your cards and I love your set reviews.
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I call that a pet card, but it probably shouldn't be. A lot of cubes play and love Trike. It's a colorless solution to a lot of problematic low-toughness creatures, in addition to being able to close out a game by crashing in for 7 damage and providing some reach. At face value it's a good card advantage body, often functioning like an Arc Trail or Arc Lightning that leaves a body behind, but the real strength is when it can be abused. Decks that can find ways to get multiple resolutions/triggers out of it can get some tremendous value. White can blink it with 'Wisp and Displacer and stuff. Blue can bounce it and replay it for extra tokens and damage, or clone it, or rebuy it with Ruins. Black can reanimate it or break it with Nightmare to get more bullets. Red can use Feldon. It's also an artifact, so it works in decks with Welder and Daretti. It can also be targeted by Imperial Recruiter, Reveillark and Alesha because it's a "1-power" creature. Its counters can be doubled up by Hydra. It's a savage Mimic Vat target.
So it's a good card on its own, but it has a LOT of ways to make it great.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Here is a whole section of the forum where Anguished Unmaking is discussed. You can see why everyone thinks it is interesting there.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/cube-new-card-discussion/678280-cube-soi-anguished-unmaking
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