yeah i wanted to point that out as well. if you want rats along with pestilence and Evincar's Justice shine, you need to support black control. usually it ends up ub or bg, because that creatures tend to have higher toughness.
cards i run that are often found in that archetype are
rats and justice are mandatory in my cube to give control an out against fast aggrodecks like RG or BR, there are still tons of x/1 and x/2 creatures in my cube.
Evincar's justice has been great for me. Much better than rats. Buyback is rare but it happens. Pestilence is in no danger of being cut, either. Justice is a faster sweeper and has buyback as a bonus. Pestilence is just a lot easier to use and more versatile.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
How do you support heavy black control? What fixing lands/artifacts do you run?
A lot of the high-power cards in black are BB (Hymn to Tourach, Victim of Night, Ashes to Ashes, etc.), and some of the strongest cards are swamps/pips matter (Merchant, Pestilence). Fixing isn't a high priority in these decks, I find. My last draft I was actually pretty happy with Mono-B.
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When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
is fixing relevant for the powerlevel of rats outside 3-color decks?
rats are at least a 5-mana evincars justice. which isnt stellar, but still strong. also its one of the two(!) true wrath effects we have in pauper. (the other is pestilence)
besides some shenanigans you can pull with rats (i have nice synergy with obsidian acolyte and vampiric link and the aformentioned recur effects Unearth, Death Denied. many run gravedigger as well
I tried it out for a while, but snow-matters never did anything better or more unique than regular cards. I love Skred (still keep a casual Snow Red deck around for fun) but it doesn't beat Lightning Bolt or Flame Slash for consistency. Chilling Shade is one of like four different shades you can run. Boreal Centaur is a nice beater, but stuff like Snapping Gnarlid and Darkthicket Wolf have made it just redundant rather than necessary. Thermopod is a nice sac outlet, but only in cubes with a massive sacrificial theme across colors as it's overpriced and underwhelming. Into the North is just another Rampant Growth.
Balduvian Conjurer seems interesting if it can stick around for more than a couple turns, but I feel like blue can do better than a chump blocker and a couple manlands for that investment.
Gangrenous Zombies is really quite strong, it's basically the only card I would consider for snow and including only one snow card seems iffy. I also dislike the snow land art.
Rimebound Dead and Rimewind Taskmage also offer interesting alternatives, but remain underpowered. The skeleton is a 1/1 blocker and Taskmage doesn't do much that Gideon's Lawkeeper doesn't already do better.
Skred is an insane card. Ofc its no Bolt, because it cant target players, but it outclasses Flame Slash quite fast and will become a non-toughness dependant removal for just R.
The Shade is by far the best shade, since it has evasion and can be pumped with colorless mana... Its even better than Nantuko Shade (in limited)
Where are you getting colorless snow mana from? You must mean any color of mana. That makes it pretty awesome with snow basics, yeah
Skred's ceiling is high, but in the early game it's worse, while mid-to late game it requires you to make your land drops, so its value goes down with the amount of lands in your deck, i.e. aggro. I prefer my removal to be universally useful.
And I don't doubt that the shade is the better option, but whether it's better enough to add to the cube's complexity for the sake of one to three cards that have good-enough analogues is a valid question.
well, im still on the max powerlevel quest for my cube so i want/need those 3 cards. It doesnt add much to the complexity (as complex as cubes already are), I just have a rough 50/50 mix of snowbasics/normal, but it adds flavor!! I like the snowlands very much. At some point I want to have 4 cubes, 1 for each season.
If you want to keep it cheap and simple just treat your basics like snow-ones.
As others have said the best snow cards are Chilling Shade, Skred, Boreal Centaur, and Gangrenous Zombies. I consider the Shade to be a bomb, and one of the top picks for black. Even off a splash he represents game over very quickly if unanswered. Skred is essentially a red Swords to Plowshares with no lifegain.
I ran Rimebound Dead for a while since he's the best Drudge Skeletons variant by far, but it just didn't do enough to warrant inclusion sadly.
I'd rather have Oppressive Rays. Gelid Shackles is aggro-slanted removal. If you need to take out that Wall of Roots or Sentinel Spider in your way, then it's passable removal. Worse than every other removal aura currently cubed in white.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
is fixing relevant for the powerlevel of rats outside 3-color decks?
The better the fixing, the less likely mono black or close to monoblack is viable. Splashing off color cards is just the better option.
Id think its the other way around. Heavy Multicolordecks (3+color goodstuff) tend to be slower, because all fixing comes tapped and less consistent. Monocolordecks get an advantage of consistency in this meta, especially black since its powerlevel rises the deeper you draft that color and the slower the meta is. On the other hand its much easier to splash 2-3 cards in a 2nd or 3rd color, without losing black mana sources.
I think, I will get Holdout Settlement for my cube. Looks very good. Propably even a land for Modern Affinity? Crumbling Vestige is weird, but looks okay, I'll see, if I put one in the cube.
I don't think I like either of the new lands mentioned. Crumbling Vestige is a very odd card that fixes your mana the turn you play it, but makes it more difficult every turn after. Holdout Settlement seems even worse. It doesn't help you make your primary colors, since you needed access to those to cast creatures in the first place. If you're using it just for a splash color, why not just run a basic for that?
These both might be better in Oath if producing the <> is important.
cards i run that are often found in that archetype are
i also added cuombajj witches recently
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
128 of 206 creatures have tougness 2 or less...
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
A lot of the high-power cards in black are BB (Hymn to Tourach, Victim of Night, Ashes to Ashes, etc.), and some of the strongest cards are swamps/pips matter (Merchant, Pestilence). Fixing isn't a high priority in these decks, I find. My last draft I was actually pretty happy with Mono-B.
http://www.cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/7023
http://www.cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/7023
rats are at least a 5-mana evincars justice. which isnt stellar, but still strong. also its one of the two(!) true wrath effects we have in pauper. (the other is pestilence)
besides some shenanigans you can pull with rats (i have nice synergy with obsidian acolyte and vampiric link and the aformentioned recur effects Unearth, Death Denied. many run gravedigger as well
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
check my cube http://www.cubetutor.com/draft/4632
besides skred im running Gangrenous Zombies and Chilling Shade
at first i ruled every basic as snow, but now its up to the player whether he want to or not.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Balduvian Conjurer seems interesting if it can stick around for more than a couple turns, but I feel like blue can do better than a chump blocker and a couple manlands for that investment.
Gangrenous Zombies is really quite strong, it's basically the only card I would consider for snow and including only one snow card seems iffy. I also dislike the snow land art.
Rimebound Dead and Rimewind Taskmage also offer interesting alternatives, but remain underpowered. The skeleton is a 1/1 blocker and Taskmage doesn't do much that Gideon's Lawkeeper doesn't already do better.
EDIT: Added card tags.
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
The Shade is by far the best shade, since it has evasion and can be pumped with colorless mana... Its even better than Nantuko Shade (in limited)
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Skred's ceiling is high, but in the early game it's worse, while mid-to late game it requires you to make your land drops, so its value goes down with the amount of lands in your deck, i.e. aggro. I prefer my removal to be universally useful.
And I don't doubt that the shade is the better option, but whether it's better enough to add to the cube's complexity for the sake of one to three cards that have good-enough analogues is a valid question.
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
If you want to keep it cheap and simple just treat your basics like snow-ones.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Skred doesn't hit players.
I ran Rimebound Dead for a while since he's the best Drudge Skeletons variant by far, but it just didn't do enough to warrant inclusion sadly.
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
uh. nice find. might try
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
I used to run it, when I ruled every basic as snow. Its a very good card then. But my players didnt like that ruling, so I changed it and cut it.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
The better the fixing, the less likely mono black or close to monoblack is viable. Splashing off color cards is just the better option.
Id think its the other way around. Heavy Multicolordecks (3+color goodstuff) tend to be slower, because all fixing comes tapped and less consistent. Monocolordecks get an advantage of consistency in this meta, especially black since its powerlevel rises the deeper you draft that color and the slower the meta is. On the other hand its much easier to splash 2-3 cards in a 2nd or 3rd color, without losing black mana sources.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Or are you interested in a Fiora flavor cube? Conspire and win!
Level 2 Judge
These both might be better in Oath if producing the <> is important.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t