The question of topdecks is very valid, but at the same time it's applicable to a large range of cards, including 1-drops such as Akrasan Squire. It's a necessary evil that is outweighed by the positive effects of cards like ramp when they do work.
Furthermore, the subject of topdeck is actually what I consider an advantage of Borderland Ranger. A 2/2 is actually quite relevant for most of the game, and makes it a better topdeck than things like Cultivate.
And yeah, Edge of Autumn is awesome because it's a fine topdeck. =D
Got my last big shipment in the mail. Down to three cards needed. Sadly I neglected to ordered a Death Denied, hopefuly my LGS has one. The False Defeat is in the mail, and I'm sure someone at my LGS has a Golgari Guildgate I can have.
83% foiled
1.5% altered (only non-foilable cards are getting altered)
10.75% normal
4% foiled
.75% missing
I'll try to make a thread this weekend.
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That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
3/3s for 3 are fine in this format, they're just really unexciting. Ones with almost any upside become really good (Centaur Healer is great, but WG is just too stacked). Centaur Courser and friends are playable in nearly any green deck - there are better green three drops though. Trusted Forcemage is a good example. I don't think I need any of the vanilla guys at 360, but they're likely needed in 450.
In regards to ravnica limited, I think it's all about the 2/1s for two (or 2/2s or 3/2s or pumpable 1/4s) rather than the 3/3s for 3. Funny thing is, this makes the 3/3s for 3 better. Anyways, that's kinda off topic.
Unfortunately, I never dug Breath of Life. Reanimator is totally not a strategy in our format because the fatties suck and the reanimation also sucks, and the discard outlets are marginal at best bar a couple of blue two drops (well, 5 blue 2 drops...). In terms of returning dudes in aggro/midrange decks, it's normally more expensive than what it returns, and it's almost impossible to have a target by turn 4. Running another threat seems better in almost any situation. If I'm UWB midrange with Twisted Abomination, Crusher and looters, it'll be good, but that's the only place I think.
3/3s for 3 are fine in this format, they're just really unexciting. Ones with almost any upside become really good (Centaur Healer is great, but WG is just too stacked). Centaur Courser and friends are playable in nearly any green deck - there are better green three drops though. Trusted Forcemage is a good example. I don't think I need any of the vanilla guys at 360, but they're likely needed in 450.
In regards to ravnica limited, I think it's all about the 2/1s for two (or 2/2s or 3/2s or pumpable 1/4s) rather than the 3/3s for 3. Funny thing is, this makes the 3/3s for 3 better. Anyways, that's kinda off topic.
Unfortunately, I never dug Breath of Life. Reanimator is totally not a strategy in our format because the fatties suck and the reanimation also sucks, and the discard outlets are marginal at best bar a couple of blue two drops (well, 5 blue 2 drops...). In terms of returning dudes in aggro/midrange decks, it's normally more expensive than what it returns, and it's almost impossible to have a target by turn 4. Running another threat seems better in almost any situation. If I'm UWB midrange with Twisted Abomination, Crusher and looters, it'll be good, but that's the only place I think.
I agree that reanimation as a strategy doesn't really work, but I like the idea of Breath of Life as a strong lategame card for white midrange decks and such. Bringing back any good creature is really nice. I'm going to give it a shot because those effects have shown to be good. We'll see.
What are peoples thoughts on Azorius Arrester? I've not tried it yet, and the fact it's only a 2/1 makes me loath to, along with the fact it only stops a dude for a turn. It feels like it'd shine if a blink thing was pushed, but as is is not that good.
While that's true, it's mostly a corner case. By far the most common way creatures are dealt with are by death.
One of the good things about Breath of Life is that it gives you the flexibility and choice between a number of different creatures depending on your situation, which would not be possible if I just played another good creature.
I have played, and recently cut, Breath of Life. Spent a bit of time trying to get a 7th ed. foil too.
Overall I had hopes of using it with Tortured Existence and Ulamog's Crusher. I have cut both (not the Existence). It ended up that without more bodies with easier ways to be binned, it often sat till late game. Mind you in Sealed it is AWESOME, in draft, a little less so.
Breath-ing a Mulldrifter was generally the best I consistently did/saw. But the cube shifts all the time from set to set. And bringing back Blastoderm, Mulldrifter, even Aethersnipe is valuable. I had to remove it for more aggro, as some of you saw in my earlier articles, I needed more, cheaper, curves.
It's not just the thing to have 4 in the cube, you also need 3-4 in your deck, otherweise this cards are useless.
That's why he's suggesting one copy in the actual cube to draft with, but whoever drafts the card gets up to 4 copies to put into the deck.
I've thought about including Aurochs Herd in response to the recent discussion about deemphasizing ramp in green. I've tried different large creatures in Green, but Aurochs Herd would give those sorts of decks a chance to compete with controlling decks heavy on removal, while also being a cheaper, and thereby more relevant, finisher against midrange and aggro decks. The Green decks people have been drafting tend to run out of steam if their large creature gets dealt with, so a continuous stream of threats would help them greatly.
As for Squadron Hawks, I personally wouldn't try it with my cube because White has been overperforming in my playgroup for going on two years now, so I'm not in the market for quality White cards at the moment.
I have played, and recently cut, Breath of Life. Spent a bit of time trying to get a 7th ed. foil too.
Overall I had hopes of using it with Tortured Existence and Ulamog's Crusher. I have cut both (not the Existence). It ended up that without more bodies with easier ways to be binned, it often sat till late game. Mind you in Sealed it is AWESOME, in draft, a little less so.
Breath-ing a Mulldrifter was generally the best I consistently did/saw. But the cube shifts all the time from set to set. And bringing back Blastoderm, Mulldrifter, even Aethersnipe is valuable. I had to remove it for more aggro, as some of you saw in my earlier articles, I needed more, cheaper, curves.
I'm hoping to BoL or FD quite a few Twisted Abominations, Noble Templars, and Krosan Tuskers.
Speaking of which, got the last card for my common cube today.
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That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
It seems like it could be a fun thing to try but the ability to sure up 4 deck slots with 1 pick seems a like it could be overbearing.
Certainly an interesting addition to the cube, but I'm not a fan personally because it's sort of weird on the power level - like you said, being able to draft 4 in one go is quite nuts.
That's a choice you'd get to make in deckbuilding. I mean a 4/4 for 6 isn't really all that amazing so to have 4 in your deck might just bog your draws down and make you lose to aggression.
It just seems like a cool way to give the natural ramp of green an extra boost and not let it fall off late game.
Actually, aurochs is really really good. A six mana 4/4 is not very good, but it also draws you options for you to do on your next couple turns. It is incredibly powerful. Squardron Hawk is even better, since you can cast it most of the time.
If you're going to go down that line, both hawk and aurochs are really good cards. Aurochs is more just comparitively so because the other green fatties suck so much, but it really does pass the terminate test very well.
I think we all know that Squadron Hawk was good (still is in pauper).
I like the Aurochs Herd idea and would be interested to hear how this pans out in testing. Squadron Hawk seems like it might be too overpowered to run in the cube, however.
In a somewhat similar vein (bending the rules a bit), I've been considering adding in Gangrenous Zombies and making it playable by taking the word "snow" out of the rules text. (I suppose I could start running snow lands, but I'd rather not have to hunt them down just for one card and I have no intention of switching away from the Zendikar full-art lands I currently use in my cube.) I think this could be another interesting board sweeper creature for the cube. Thoughts?
I'm not really a fan of changing up how draft works. Like house rules and drafting 4 cards in one. It creates an odd imbalance in drafting and requires people to have prior knowledge of what cards do. Especially with the 4 cards in one go. It's surprisingly powerful to get 4 card slots in 1. That completely changes how you'd draft. I like keeping pauper nice and pure. It keeps at a nice simplistic form that's easy on people new to it, but still is incredibly skill testing for more experienced drafters as it requires tight game play and very streamlined deck building as mana curve and tempo are paramount as you can't rely on to raw power of cards to carry you. (Well mostly, there are a couple of outliers.)
Also I might not have much time to post up many of my Pauper rankings.
The thing I like about pauper cube (and cube in general, but to a lesser extent) is it's a great format for someone if they have a group of friends who use to play, but kind of stoped playing for one reason or another.
I love "all in one box" formats.
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That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
The thing I like about pauper cube (and cube in general, but to a lesser extent) is it's a great format for someone if they have a group of friends who use to play, but kind of stoped playing for one reason or another.
I love "all in one box" formats.
This is one of the main reasons I put together my first Cube, which was a Pauper one.
After everyone started having so much fun with it and I knew I'd have people to play with, I went ahead and upgraded.
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My Black & Silver Cube [360/Peasant/Draft It! EDH Decks: - Reya Dawnbringer // - Mistform Ultimus // - Balthor the Defiled // - Urabrask the Hidden // - Mirri, Cat Warrior
The thing I like about pauper cube (and cube in general, but to a lesser extent) is it's a great format for someone if they have a group of friends who use to play, but kind of stoped playing for one reason or another.
I love "all in one box" formats.
I couldn't agree more. I play with my friends that haven't played in years, and they always pick it up really quickly. There's some "what the hell is this mechanic?" moments but it's great fun.
The thing I like about pauper cube (and cube in general, but to a lesser extent) is it's a great format for someone if they have a group of friends who use to play, but kind of stoped playing for one reason or another.
I love "all in one box" formats.
This is exactly the reason why I am against adding in foreign cards. Well except for vanilla goodness. I don't want to just assume that people know what everything means and does. It also is a great way to get newer players and chance to draft/cube with out the distraction of money cards/rare drafting and convoluted card text.
Sure newer player don't have much chance of winning against a well tuned deck but they learn a lot about valuing removal, tempo, curve and card advantage. Also there isn't much of the miss leading incentive of throwing too many expensive cards into a single deck. Also I'm always surprised with what I learn from newer players when thy draft. They have a tendancy to try out things you never thought about and sometimes that isn't half bad.
Furthermore, the subject of topdeck is actually what I consider an advantage of Borderland Ranger. A 2/2 is actually quite relevant for most of the game, and makes it a better topdeck than things like Cultivate.
And yeah, Edge of Autumn is awesome because it's a fine topdeck. =D
And guys! Remember to get your White Top 20 lists in for the Pauper Power Rankings!
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
83% foiled
1.5% altered (only non-foilable cards are getting altered)
10.75% normal
4% foiled
.75% missing
I'll try to make a thread this weekend.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
False Defeat is intriguing to me. I intend to test it soon enough. Keep us updated on its performance!
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Loose Change Pauper Cube-cast
Pauper Cube Article #1
Pauper Cube Article #2
Personal Enjoyment Cube
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
In regards to ravnica limited, I think it's all about the 2/1s for two (or 2/2s or 3/2s or pumpable 1/4s) rather than the 3/3s for 3. Funny thing is, this makes the 3/3s for 3 better. Anyways, that's kinda off topic.
Unfortunately, I never dug Breath of Life. Reanimator is totally not a strategy in our format because the fatties suck and the reanimation also sucks, and the discard outlets are marginal at best bar a couple of blue two drops (well, 5 blue 2 drops...). In terms of returning dudes in aggro/midrange decks, it's normally more expensive than what it returns, and it's almost impossible to have a target by turn 4. Running another threat seems better in almost any situation. If I'm UWB midrange with Twisted Abomination, Crusher and looters, it'll be good, but that's the only place I think.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I agree that reanimation as a strategy doesn't really work, but I like the idea of Breath of Life as a strong lategame card for white midrange decks and such. Bringing back any good creature is really nice. I'm going to give it a shot because those effects have shown to be good. We'll see.
Nah. Good as a Goblin Shortcutter but white has so many better 2-drops.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
One of the good things about Breath of Life is that it gives you the flexibility and choice between a number of different creatures depending on your situation, which would not be possible if I just played another good creature.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Overall I had hopes of using it with Tortured Existence and Ulamog's Crusher. I have cut both (not the Existence). It ended up that without more bodies with easier ways to be binned, it often sat till late game. Mind you in Sealed it is AWESOME, in draft, a little less so.
Breath-ing a Mulldrifter was generally the best I consistently did/saw. But the cube shifts all the time from set to set. And bringing back Blastoderm, Mulldrifter, even Aethersnipe is valuable. I had to remove it for more aggro, as some of you saw in my earlier articles, I needed more, cheaper, curves.
Loose Change Pauper Cube-cast
Pauper Cube Article #1
Pauper Cube Article #2
Personal Enjoyment Cube
That's why he's suggesting one copy in the actual cube to draft with, but whoever drafts the card gets up to 4 copies to put into the deck.
I've thought about including Aurochs Herd in response to the recent discussion about deemphasizing ramp in green. I've tried different large creatures in Green, but Aurochs Herd would give those sorts of decks a chance to compete with controlling decks heavy on removal, while also being a cheaper, and thereby more relevant, finisher against midrange and aggro decks. The Green decks people have been drafting tend to run out of steam if their large creature gets dealt with, so a continuous stream of threats would help them greatly.
As for Squadron Hawks, I personally wouldn't try it with my cube because White has been overperforming in my playgroup for going on two years now, so I'm not in the market for quality White cards at the moment.
I'm hoping to BoL or FD quite a few Twisted Abominations, Noble Templars, and Krosan Tuskers.
Speaking of which, got the last card for my common cube today.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
Certainly an interesting addition to the cube, but I'm not a fan personally because it's sort of weird on the power level - like you said, being able to draft 4 in one go is quite nuts.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Actually, aurochs is really really good. A six mana 4/4 is not very good, but it also draws you options for you to do on your next couple turns. It is incredibly powerful. Squardron Hawk is even better, since you can cast it most of the time.
My errata'd commons cube
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
I think we all know that Squadron Hawk was good (still is in pauper).
Draft it on Cubetutor!
In a somewhat similar vein (bending the rules a bit), I've been considering adding in Gangrenous Zombies and making it playable by taking the word "snow" out of the rules text. (I suppose I could start running snow lands, but I'd rather not have to hunt them down just for one card and I have no intention of switching away from the Zendikar full-art lands I currently use in my cube.) I think this could be another interesting board sweeper creature for the cube. Thoughts?
Sig courtesy of Disappointing Signet Inc.
My Cubes:
Goblin Pile Shuffler's 360 Card Pauper Cube - updated 1/4/2014
Goblin Pile Shuffler's 270 Card One-Drop Cube - updated 1/4/2014
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=453109
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Also I might not have much time to post up many of my Pauper rankings.
I love "all in one box" formats.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
This is one of the main reasons I put together my first Cube, which was a Pauper one.
After everyone started having so much fun with it and I knew I'd have people to play with, I went ahead and upgraded.
EDH Decks:
I couldn't agree more. I play with my friends that haven't played in years, and they always pick it up really quickly. There's some "what the hell is this mechanic?" moments but it's great fun.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
This is exactly the reason why I am against adding in foreign cards. Well except for vanilla goodness. I don't want to just assume that people know what everything means and does. It also is a great way to get newer players and chance to draft/cube with out the distraction of money cards/rare drafting and convoluted card text.
Sure newer player don't have much chance of winning against a well tuned deck but they learn a lot about valuing removal, tempo, curve and card advantage. Also there isn't much of the miss leading incentive of throwing too many expensive cards into a single deck. Also I'm always surprised with what I learn from newer players when thy draft. They have a tendancy to try out things you never thought about and sometimes that isn't half bad.
Top 5 powerful mechanics
A) Creature based
B) Non-creature based
Loose Change Pauper Cube-cast
Pauper Cube Article #1
Pauper Cube Article #2
Personal Enjoyment Cube