MTG Salvation

Quote from paws2sky

I don't feel like there are enough Gates to make it Cube viable. If you go that route and don't get there, then what? You've picked 1-5 Pillarfield Oxen and gotten some mediocre color fixing out of it. If you double up on the gates, then you're breaking out of one of the core concepts of Cube, aren't you?.

My $.02

The bold part is very wrong. For pauper, the gates are amazing color fixing and so much better than the bounce lands, even in blue pairs. But yeah, Gatekeepers don't warrant bending your cube.

Are people still playing Cabal Torturer? Has it been good? Whenever I draft the cube I get asked if it's good, no one ever plays it. I'm probably replacing it soon with something like a Death's Duet or Grim Harvest unless it's been good for others...

As far as Modern Masters additions, Syphon Life has proved itself, it's been very good so far. Haven't seen any of the others in play yet but I'm really looking forward to drafting the Crypt Rats/Test of Faith combo.

Quote from Runner5678

In limited the bounce lands are insane for any midrange, control and even tempo deck. They represent two land drops. They let those 18 land decks run 17 lands or as few as 16 with two of them and other mana sources. In Ravnica draft, they were picked very highly if you had half the colors even with no intention of splashing. They were used for a time in Unpowered Cubes. It's near impossible to miss land drops with 2 in your deck. They turn many unkeepable hands keepable and in a loose interpretation of card advantage, straight up +1 when they enter the battlefield.

They're are a little slow for aggressive decks who's curve is very much Mono 2-drop but everywhere else, they're great.

I used to think like you, except I think you misuse the word insane and disagree about how good they are in tempo decks. I know all the theories behind why they are good. I think they are still good, but they really don't stack up to the gates.

Hey guys - looking for some last critiques/advice for the 90 cards I'm adding to my 360 (Lanxal's cube with some slight changes)

Here is my original 360;
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/674

These are the 90 I want to add;
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/618

Altogether, here is the 450 mashup if you want to look through that;
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/690

Quote from Prince_Reyson

Are people still playing Cabal Torturer? Has it been good? Whenever I draft the cube I get asked if it's good, no one ever plays it. I'm probably replacing it soon with something like a Death's Duet or Grim Harvest unless it's been good for others...

It hasn't really done that well over here. It's just kind of a bad pinger.

Edit: How would people rate Lingering Death? Just discovered it while perusing Scourge, and the slow death seems to be a good trade for killing everything.

Yeah, Lingering Death seems bad. Still targets, they still get to attack, it is effectively worse than other options since it still has all the weaknesses of auras in the best color of killing pretty much anything anyway.

Quote from Al_Z_Heimer

I like it. It's a slightly better Prodigial Pyromancer but, this slight advatange makes him good enough, IMO. It can get rid of X/1, change combat math and has a great Threshold ability.

I think the mana cost on the activation is really really offputting, I don't know if it is even a strict advantage over the Pyromancer. Not being able to go to the face and the cost to activate versus changing combat math and having that lategame upside... I really don't know.

The Riftwatcher is quite strong. Very difficult to swing into since it's so easy to chump, if not eat a 2/2 or at least trade, with it.

Fume Spitter is my favourite black 1-drop. Seriously. I just love the utility that I get out of this guy. Mogg Fanatic is very similar in that respect.

Quote from Al_Z_Heimer

Black: Less Suicide -> More interesting interactions
-Fume Spitter: Maybe better than Mogg Fanatic, but I'm not sure.
-Fledgling Djinn/Wretched Anurid/Surrakar Marauder/Wei Ambush Force: A bunch of possibly cutable cards. Too much suicide, IMO.
-Lose Hope: If you find a target for it it's great, but it's very restricted.

I think I agree with this. I've won several games due to Pestilence, Crypt Rats, or Evincar's Justice. But too often I've drawn those cards when my life was too low to cast them. In my cube at least, black seems at its best controlling the board and winning slowly with evasion.

I think certain cards with lifegain effects might be worth looking at in order to win a war of attrition, Douse in Gloom/Last Kiss/Sorin's Thirst/Vicious Hunger, Basilica Screecher, Bloodhunter Bat.

Maybe the newly commonized Syphon Life is just the card I'm looking for.

I see a lot more auras in pauper cubes than I see in rare cubes, where they're generally avoided because of the 2:1 potential. Pauper cubes aren't lacking in removal, however, so I'm wondering what makes auras more playable.

Quote from Al_Z_Heimer

There are different possibilities. For 2W you will always get 4 life and then, you can either block up to 3 creatures, with power 2 or less, over 3 turns, chump 1 creature with power 3 or higher, or block once and deal up to 4 damage.
It's often strong on the board, but it has shown, that the card disadvantage can become really problematic, if the game takes very long afterwards.

I think the stall it provides more than mores up for the card disadvantage in most cases.

Quote from quitequieter

I see a lot more auras in pauper cubes than I see in rare cubes, where they're generally avoided because of the 2:1 potential. Pauper cubes aren't lacking in removal, however, so I'm wondering what makes auras more playable.

Auras are one of the few ways that big, explosive things can happen in Pauper Cube. Putting a Armadillo Cloak on a 2/2 always leads to a radical change in the gamestate, for instant. An Aura theme would be a natural progression of that in order to diversify the archetypes in the cube.

Quote from Al_Z_Heimer

There are different possibilities. For 2W you will always get 4 life and then, you can either block up to 3 creatures, with power 2 or less, over 3 turns, chump 1 creature with power 3 or higher, or block once and deal up to 4 damage.
It's often strong on the board, but it has shown, that the card disadvantage can become really problematic, if the game takes very long afterwards.

I think we've had this discussion before and even after more play Aven Riftwatcher proves itself again and again. I'm really not sure what happens in your cube experiences that would lead to anything other than that this card is very solid. Worst case scenario it says, 2W, your opponent skips their next 3 combat steps. you gain 4 life? There are very few scenarios in which this guy doesn't trade with an attacker and net a substantial life buffer.

Yeah, I don't know about Al_Z_Heimer's particular cube environment but I know that it has to vary a great deal from mine as I agree with roughly 50% of his assessments. I do agree with not playing green removal and the inclusion of Goblin Electromancer though, so there's that.

So are people playing Riot Piker?

Quote from Prince_Reyson

So are people playing Riot Piker?

I am, in my peasant cube. But I really came in to ask about your experiences with fledgling djinn. That card is staple status in peasant and I found it striking that someone would say that it's cutable here.

One of my peasant guys is starting a website and I think it'd be interesting to have an article about cards that don't do well in pauper that do well in peasant.

Quote from Leelue

I am, in my peasant cube.

That's what's prompting me to ask, I figure it's gotta be good enough for a somewhat lower-power format if it's good in peasant.

I've been VERY happy with Fledgling Djinn, and I don't think it's currently cuttable from a pauper cube that supports black aggro. It's like Wretched Anurid, which I like, but way way better because it is way less likely to accidentally kill you. It also has 2 toughness compared to the infinite evasive 2/1s for 2 that black already gets, which is relevant for plenty of reasons.

EDIT: I went back and found the post you're talking about, and while I have felt that black has one or two too many creatures that can kill you in exchange for being aggressive, Fledgling Djinn is definitely not one of the ones I would remove to change that.

Quote from Prince_Reyson

That's what's prompting me to ask, I figure it's gotta be good enough for a somewhat lower-power format if it's good in peasant.

For the record, this isn't inherently true. Maybe peasant has more ways to keep guys from blocking him like pingers or cubable pump spells or bounce.

also

Quote from Al_Z_Heimer

-Mogg Fanatic: I think Seal of Fire is better in the most situations.

I've been saying this for years.

I love Fledgling Djinn. Solid Stormfront Pegasus for black.

Quote from Leelue

I've been saying this for years.

This might be true, but I hesitate before cramming another burn spell into the cube. Mogg Fanatic is a bit more interesting, and I don't know if it's just coincidence over here, but it has been doing an indordinate amount of work with cards like Warren Pilferers and Death's Duet.

Quote from Prince_Reyson

So are people playing Riot Piker?

Tried it, was bad. Came out soon after.

Quote from Izor

There are tons of ways to keep guys from blocking Djinn in Pauper. The card is very strong and as people said, it's a staple in Pauper.

I was talking about riot piker at the time.

I personally like all of the undercosted "must attack each turn" cards in theory, but in practice they were too much of a liability and everyone else in my playgroup hated them too.

Sorry Erg Raiders, I tried to get you a place in the sun again!

I agree that djinn is pretty bad if you could only cast it for BB... But my copy costs 1B and, while not exactly a staple it's a very strong card.

Opinions on Zhur-Taa Druid vs Zhur-Taa Swine? I'm running a relatively large guild section (5 for each guild in a 420 cube) and can't really decide between the two at the moment.

I'm running Kird Ape, Horned Kavu, and Branching Bolt and I don't see myself budging off those. I don't consider Giantbaiting a staple either, but it's okay.

Going through some of my cards today, what does everyone think of Malicious Advice? Cute enough to give a proper test? The fact that it can tapdown their whole board (minus enchantments) seems interesting, but blowout potential on it being countered is huge. At least you would not lose life on the counter, but I don't know, throwing it out to everyone here.