Sure, but what do you actually do with the lands? I like it as a mixture of Loam and landfall elements. You have to use lands for more than just mana, but pauper doesn't have stuff like Seismic Assault. Green likes to loop lands through the graveyard in a cycle of regrowth - going from Rogue Elephant to Harvest Wurm is a classic Stompy combo.
My conclusion is that a lands package in BUG would be interesting at common, but it looks sooooo janky lol. Maybe hope for a downgrade of Hidden Horror or Fallow Wurm to help out
P.S. I finally updated my pauper cube on cube tutor and updated the link in my sig as well. Cubetutor is pretty awesome, eh. My cube was out of date for the last two years! In that time, I broke it down to 450 and I've been slowly building it back up with each set update. Blue is proving surprisingly difficult to cut down in size, but I'm aiming to make this the best pauper 540 yet. Looking forward to another year of awesomeness
I'm leaning more and more towards not restricting abilities to certain colours, but instead use the best cards of each ability, no matter the color.
The truth is 5/6 heads think better and more creatively than 1, and as a cube designer you get surprised all the time, by the other players or even by yourselg as a drafter/player.
For example, auras was originally thought as a green-white archetype (because of armadillo cloak), but over time blue got better hexproof guys and auras, and finally black was very successful also, with Mark of the Vampire and Deepwood Ghoul being a super-nice interaction, and Molting Snakeskin enchanting Silhana Ledgewalker being quite a surprise.
In the end I think that we should put the cards that, for its quality or versatilty, create good interactions with most other cards in the cube, no matter the colors or the archetypes we think can be used. Because the lack of consistency makes more possible to have a deck with a handfull of good, different interactions instead of trying to force an archetype where push all the cards you ended up drafting. Of course the best cards will interact with various cards of the deck and not only with one or two, and very powerful archetype cards can be an exception.
That said, I think that auto-bouncing lands is not the way to go for simic landfall, instead I would use ramp spells. Oh, and break singleton to put 5 evolving wilds. Super cool to all your decks (if and only if you use different art versions, for the sake of appearances x3 )
The same can be applied to auto-bouncing creatures, I am on process of removing all auto-bounce-creature and instead letting blinking take that place. The truth is bouncing your own creatures is a terrible tempo loss. Once again, there are exceptions.
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Holiday Armadillo... Cloak
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
Screecher is fine. Its nice that you can play it in non-w decks and extort triggers no matter the color of the spell. Its pretty useless in creature combat, though.
It's good. It's an acceptable turn 2 play in any deck which is quite rare. It's not the *best* turn 2 play in any deck but you are always happy to run it. Better as an aggressive card than a defensive one, but even for control it's a lot better than not having a turn 2 play, and good turn 2 plays for control are thin.
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Waterfront Bouncer can be a total blowout, if you have board control. Its too fragile in strong cubes, though. Undertaker can win grindy games, but same problem as Bouncer. Slow and fragike.
Now with surge among us, should we reconsider any of the 'untap x lands' spells to exploit izzet's 'play as many spells as you can on your turn' pseudo-archetype interactions?
snap is fine and im already running it. its a strong tempocard. rewind is too slow frantic search is card disadvantage. useless Cloud of faeries are pretty useless and dont trigger spells matters.
How have been Waterfront Bouncer and Undertaker performing?
Booth are 2 drops that must be answered asap. That's fine.
Not... really. Undertaker is definitely not good on turn 2. Bouncer might be ok.
I'm interjecting here because you really shouldn't call undertaker a "2 drop," you can spend 2 mana on it turn 2 but it won't affect the game until much later.
I think cloud of faeries is really close to being good in aggressive blue decks... I might actually try cubing it. Maybe.
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I think it's usually referring to something you can productively play on turn X. Phyrexian Dreadnought and Death's Shadow are not one-drops to me, for instance.
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"We plant the seeds of doubt to harvest the crop of wisdom."
It's very interesting for me to see Cloud of Faeries get attention. I had it in the original inceptions of my powered cube and pauper cube as a historical callback, but it wasn't particularly useful in those slower dragony environments. I don't think it really adds much in a faster tempo-based game either. Unless you're casting it with a karoo every time or following it up with your best spell every time, I doubt it makes the cut.
Well if you sandbagged the untap cards like Frantic Search and Cloud, it could combo Jwar isle Avenger. But that requires too much. We do run "enough" karoos, but not worth it.
How have been BFZ cards for people?
I am updating my 2nd article about Cross-Pollinating themes. Here is a glimpse at the update. Feedback appreciated.
--Exile Matters--
This comes on the heels of Battle for Zendikar. They introduced Ingest, a mechanic that exiles a card from the top of a library upon combat damage. This is akin to the old Poison mechanic. That dealt damage, did not replace the damage, but added a mediocre “1 Poison” as a bonus. Now, enter Ingest. The mechanic is not meant to be a permanent “Decking” strategy, no there are cards that care about what is in exile. More importantly, what your opponent has in exile. Mind Raker is a cute example here. If you simply had the ability trigger regardless, it would be playable out of the gates. But, it does not; instead you have to jump through unnecessary hoops.
This is from the exact same set as Ingest, so naturally this is supposed to be tied in. Cube-wise though, there are some interesting ways to make Murk Strider. Oracle of Dust, and Ruin Processor playable. Answers lie in the mechanicsDelve, Haunt, Rebound, Suspend and Flashback. They exile themselves, and/or others to pay a cost. There is also things like the blue Skaabs of Dark Ascension, see Stitched Drake, or the “Remove X” to do “_____” like Harvest Pyre.
Where does this cross-over? Flashback can be part of a Graveyard matters theme. And many of the universally praised things like Deep Analysis or Travel Preparations get played for their Flashback cost.
Rebound cards live in Exile for a turn, that leaves a window of opportunity. So do Conditionally Exiled things from Oblivion Ring or Faceless Butcher.
Then there are the ever so To-the-Point Exile cards in Graveyards. i.e. Faerie Macabre, Thoughtpicker Witch and the often replaced Bojuka Bog
To make this even easier to integrated, look at the big, awesome use of Delve.
Where does/can “Exile Matters” go? Well, first you need to find some cards that care about Exile. The aforementioned 3 are a good starting point. Then look to see if you think those effects are worth triggering. If so, look at how many things already, can, or choose to Exile. Sometimes it can be as simple as turning a Card Advantage blue spell like Sift into Treasure Cruise. Or even just having 5+ Flashback cards. Or.. Or.. you get the idea, look for the words “Remove from Game” or Exile. These may have a place if you have hosers-to-counters in a Graveyard Matters cube, want interesting ways to handle Rebound or Suspend.
--Colorless Requiring Cards--
Oath of the Gatewatch introduced a new look to Colorless Mana. To make people notice, and endear them to, the change they made cards that can only be activated by Colorless Mana.
Just some examples, and Wilds can grab Wastes (Basic Land). So, there is the access point. Now, is it worth it? Sort of. The more aggressive ones want the mana early. That may be more of a problem. The midrange bodies like the Pathfinder or Gravity Negator mean they can wait a few turns for the mana to show up, since they cost a bit.
Control decks like their Mana Rocks (Mind Stone). So the Control ones like Blinding Drone, would work rather easily. Even Kozilek’s Pathfinder is a fine finisher.
An odd coincidence is the following christmasland scenario:
You use a Panarama to use the abilities of one of those Drones. They die. Now your LandfallGeyser field Stalker or Wave-Wing Elemental needs to do some damage. Just sac that Panarama for Landfall, or its normal use of finding a 3rd color for your splash Fireball. Quicksand is a common card in 17+ Land control decks, and it makes colorless.
Maybe you need to get another basic type for your Domain cards. Perhaps your Shimmering Grotto makes the 5th color for your Heliophial. That same Heliophial could be in an Artifact -themed Cube with Proliferate.
What color are Artifacts? Colorless. Well that works with Dominator Drone easily enough.
Battle for Zendikar block is giving us tools for odd, misshapen, cubes. All we have to do is find what else goes with the mechanics instead of just tunnel vision on the mechanic itself.
Has anyone cubed Giant Scorpion or Disowned Ancestor as defensive options for the Pestilence deck? I'm on the lookout for an additional one, I feel like Pestilence and Evincar's Justice are really at odds with my current black section and want to give a black controlling deck a couple more tools. Any other good ones?
Has anyone cubed Giant Scorpion or Disowned Ancestor as defensive options for the Pestilence deck? I'm on the lookout for an additional one, I feel like Pestilence and Evincar's Justice are really at odds with my current black section and want to give a black controlling deck a couple more tools. Any other good ones?
i run the ancestor in my t1 and im happy with it. 4 toughness is really a lot. the scorpion is not resilient enough for 3 mana.
Well cloud of faeries is better than zephyr sprite because you can play a 1 drop before it. 1 drops are thin in this format but blue has a couple great ones for aggro. Also cycling matters.
But yeah cloud isn't going to get played for power level alone. We need some more synergetic nut-draw potential stuff to go with it. I mean imagine playing a 1 drop turn 1, then turn 2 cloud and the surge goblin.
I also like it with ninjas but that's just cuteness
oh and disowned ancestor is good yeah
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Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Has anyone cubed Giant Scorpion or Disowned Ancestor as defensive options for the Pestilence deck? I'm on the lookout for an additional one, I feel like Pestilence and Evincar's Justice are really at odds with my current black section and want to give a black controlling deck a couple more tools. Any other good ones?
Disowned Ancestor works wonders. Turn 1 play and aggro is almost off. the 4 toughness are simply too much for many creatures to handle it.
So ways to sac lands:
threats: Rogue Elephant, Foul Spirit, Fault Riders
manafixing: Harrow, Edge of Autumn, Crop Rotation (not worth it with pauper's lack of value lands imo), Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Grisly Salvage, Mulch, Satyr Wayfinder
removal: Magma Burst, Drown in Filth
ways to recur lands:
ways to bounce lands:
peripheral synergy: Retrace (Cenn's Enlistment), spellshapers (Waterfront Bouncer), looters (Looter il-Kor) etc
My conclusion is that a lands package in BUG would be interesting at common, but it looks sooooo janky lol. Maybe hope for a downgrade of Hidden Horror or Fallow Wurm to help out
P.S. I finally updated my pauper cube on cube tutor and updated the link in my sig as well. Cubetutor is pretty awesome, eh. My cube was out of date for the last two years! In that time, I broke it down to 450 and I've been slowly building it back up with each set update. Blue is proving surprisingly difficult to cut down in size, but I'm aiming to make this the best pauper 540 yet. Looking forward to another year of awesomeness
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
The truth is 5/6 heads think better and more creatively than 1, and as a cube designer you get surprised all the time, by the other players or even by yourselg as a drafter/player.
For example, auras was originally thought as a green-white archetype (because of armadillo cloak), but over time blue got better hexproof guys and auras, and finally black was very successful also, with Mark of the Vampire and Deepwood Ghoul being a super-nice interaction, and Molting Snakeskin enchanting Silhana Ledgewalker being quite a surprise.
In the end I think that we should put the cards that, for its quality or versatilty, create good interactions with most other cards in the cube, no matter the colors or the archetypes we think can be used. Because the lack of consistency makes more possible to have a deck with a handfull of good, different interactions instead of trying to force an archetype where push all the cards you ended up drafting. Of course the best cards will interact with various cards of the deck and not only with one or two, and very powerful archetype cards can be an exception.
That said, I think that auto-bouncing lands is not the way to go for simic landfall, instead I would use ramp spells. Oh, and break singleton to put 5 evolving wilds. Super cool to all your decks (if and only if you use different art versions, for the sake of appearances x3 )
The same can be applied to auto-bouncing creatures, I am on process of removing all auto-bounce-creature and instead letting blinking take that place. The truth is bouncing your own creatures is a terrible tempo loss. Once again, there are exceptions.
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
What are your experiences with Basilica Screecher?
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
Or are you interested in a Fiora flavor cube? Conspire and win!
Level 2 Judge
I don't remember them being played in quite a lot.
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
Undertaker can win grindy games, but same problem as Bouncer. Slow and fragike.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/662849-400-pauper-a-cube-with-a-soul
- Cloud of Faeries
- Frantic Search
- Rewind
- Snap
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
rewind is too slow
frantic search is card disadvantage. useless
Cloud of faeries are pretty useless and dont trigger spells matters.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Not... really. Undertaker is definitely not good on turn 2. Bouncer might be ok.
I'm interjecting here because you really shouldn't call undertaker a "2 drop," you can spend 2 mana on it turn 2 but it won't affect the game until much later.
I think cloud of faeries is really close to being good in aggressive blue decks... I might actually try cubing it. Maybe.
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
http://www.cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/7023
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
So not pauper.
How have been BFZ cards for people?
I am updating my 2nd article about Cross-Pollinating themes. Here is a glimpse at the update. Feedback appreciated.
--Exile Matters--
This comes on the heels of Battle for Zendikar. They introduced Ingest, a mechanic that exiles a card from the top of a library upon combat damage. This is akin to the old Poison mechanic. That dealt damage, did not replace the damage, but added a mediocre “1 Poison” as a bonus. Now, enter Ingest. The mechanic is not meant to be a permanent “Decking” strategy, no there are cards that care about what is in exile. More importantly, what your opponent has in exile. Mind Raker is a cute example here. If you simply had the ability trigger regardless, it would be playable out of the gates. But, it does not; instead you have to jump through unnecessary hoops.
This is from the exact same set as Ingest, so naturally this is supposed to be tied in. Cube-wise though, there are some interesting ways to make Murk Strider. Oracle of Dust, and Ruin Processor playable. Answers lie in the mechanics Delve, Haunt, Rebound, Suspend and Flashback. They exile themselves, and/or others to pay a cost. There is also things like the blue Skaabs of Dark Ascension, see Stitched Drake, or the “Remove X” to do “_____” like Harvest Pyre.
Where does this cross-over? Flashback can be part of a Graveyard matters theme. And many of the universally praised things like Deep Analysis or Travel Preparations get played for their Flashback cost.
Rebound cards live in Exile for a turn, that leaves a window of opportunity. So do Conditionally Exiled things from Oblivion Ring or Faceless Butcher.
Then there are the ever so To-the-Point Exile cards in Graveyards. i.e. Faerie Macabre, Thoughtpicker Witch and the often replaced Bojuka Bog
To make this even easier to integrated, look at the big, awesome use of Delve.
Easy to find those in some cubes.
Where does/can “Exile Matters” go? Well, first you need to find some cards that care about Exile. The aforementioned 3 are a good starting point. Then look to see if you think those effects are worth triggering. If so, look at how many things already, can, or choose to Exile. Sometimes it can be as simple as turning a Card Advantage blue spell like Sift into Treasure Cruise. Or even just having 5+ Flashback cards. Or.. Or.. you get the idea, look for the words “Remove from Game” or Exile. These may have a place if you have hosers-to-counters in a Graveyard Matters cube, want interesting ways to handle Rebound or Suspend.
--Colorless Requiring Cards--
Oath of the Gatewatch introduced a new look to Colorless Mana. To make people notice, and endear them to, the change they made cards that can only be activated by Colorless Mana.
Now, the trick is how do you get Colorless Mana without it being ‘Colored’? Answer:
Just some examples, and Wilds can grab Wastes (Basic Land). So, there is the access point. Now, is it worth it? Sort of. The more aggressive ones want the mana early. That may be more of a problem. The midrange bodies like the Pathfinder or Gravity Negator mean they can wait a few turns for the mana to show up, since they cost a bit.
Control decks like their Mana Rocks (Mind Stone). So the Control ones like Blinding Drone, would work rather easily. Even Kozilek’s Pathfinder is a fine finisher.
An odd coincidence is the following christmasland scenario:
You use a Panarama to use the abilities of one of those Drones. They die. Now your Landfall Geyser field Stalker or Wave-Wing Elemental needs to do some damage. Just sac that Panarama for Landfall, or its normal use of finding a 3rd color for your splash Fireball. Quicksand is a common card in 17+ Land control decks, and it makes colorless.
Maybe you need to get another basic type for your Domain cards. Perhaps your Shimmering Grotto makes the 5th color for your Heliophial. That same Heliophial could be in an Artifact -themed Cube with Proliferate.
What color are Artifacts? Colorless. Well that works with Dominator Drone easily enough.
Battle for Zendikar block is giving us tools for odd, misshapen, cubes. All we have to do is find what else goes with the mechanics instead of just tunnel vision on the mechanic itself.
Loose Change Pauper Cube-cast
Pauper Cube Article #1
Pauper Cube Article #2
Personal Enjoyment Cube
Level 1 Judge
i run the ancestor in my t1 and im happy with it. 4 toughness is really a lot. the scorpion is not resilient enough for 3 mana.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
But yeah cloud isn't going to get played for power level alone. We need some more synergetic nut-draw potential stuff to go with it. I mean imagine playing a 1 drop turn 1, then turn 2 cloud and the surge goblin.
I also like it with ninjas but that's just cuteness
oh and disowned ancestor is good yeah
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Disowned Ancestor works wonders. Turn 1 play and aggro is almost off. the 4 toughness are simply too much for many creatures to handle it.
Or are you interested in a Fiora flavor cube? Conspire and win!
Level 2 Judge