MTG Salvation

Both the black and green curses usually ended games in "Did you pack a Naturalize?" If yes, you get to keep playing the game. If no, game's over. While they might not necessarily be as strong as Scepter or the banhammers in terms of power level, they just aren't fun. Curses are banned in my cube and I can't see any foreseeable reason to readd them.

Quote from TheShrike4 »

How do you you guys organise different archetypes in your cubes? Do you just run the best cards in each colour and let the chips fall where they may? Or do you devote, say, X slots to reanimator? Are there better ways to organise archetypes without using some convoluted Venn diagram?

I dedicate a handful of slots in each color to "anchor" cards that clearly signal and support a specific archetype. (keep in mind my "archetypes" are more loose than something like +1/+1 counters, think things like "spells matter", "ramp", and "go wide") I organize my guild slots such that each shard/wedge has some clearly signaled archetype because I usually only have 4 drafters these days, so decks are usually 3 color and I like the competition in colors.

Curse of Predation is way more offensive to me than Curse of Shallow Graves. If you have a couple 2/2s and the green one, you're very quickly generating a dominant board presence. If you have the same and the black one, you're still able to be stonewalled by bigger creatures. The black Curse is definitely great when it's great, but there's also a fair amount of board states where it's okay to bad.

Banned both curses and never looked back. Playgroup is much happier without them.

It was tough for me too, since I had a beautiful Curse of Predation alter...

So, since people are for whatever reason discussing Ramunap Ruins in the general cube discussion, I was reminded of the existence of Keldon Megaliths and that it is uncommon. I am seriously considering adding this card for a test run since even though it comes in play tapped and only works when you are hellbent, the mana cost is very doable, it pings both creatures and players, and aggressive red decks tend to lead to being hellbent more than other archetypes.

I tried it years ago. This was back when pingers were so strong they'd be an archetype to themselves.

It "can" work, but it is usually just a bad version of ghitu encampment which is already just around average.
Honestly, teetering peaks might work out more often. Or so.

Keldon Megaliths at least seems a lot better than the red desert.

I am intrigued by the idea of having a cycle of "spell lands" if each colour has a good option, but it is almost certainly a bad idea.

The best spell lands by far are probably still Lonely Sandbar, etc.

Oh reality, wherefore must thou be so cruel!

You could do worse than cutting the weakest card in each color and replacing it with a spell land. Even if they wind up being late picks, they'll make main decks nearly all the time. I'm not sure if they're what you mean by "spell lands", but Faerie Conclave and Treetop Village are great and you're not running them right now. The rest of the white, red, and black mono-colored manlands from Urza's Legacy are a lot worse, but the black Desert just spoiled might be worth running.

The best spell lands by far are probably still Lonely Sandbar, etc.

Ahadabans from the traditional cube forum has been talking this cycle up quite a bit lately, he's been quite happy with it, but even if you don't want the whole cycle I don't think you can do much better in white or red (although Teetering Peaks or Smoldering Spires might be OK, they're certainly better than the player-only burn).

This was the result of the most random online test draft ever as my first three picks were Scaled Behemoth, Spikeshot Goblin, and Vampire Nighthawk, in that order. Considering how I was just testing a concept, I would say the final result might have turned out surprisingly viable. I would love to test the deck in actual play, although the curve might be a bit much.

I couldnt find much information, but how is Booster tutor in peasant cubes? Is the power level of the card too high? As I run only a 180 cube, I was thinking of building packs of 9 for it from my maybeboard. Any certain way to build it, such as 1 land, 1 colorless, and some randomly selected colors?

A small handful of spell lands might be good enough for cube play, but theyre so boring... Oran-rief, the Vastwood and the Hideaways are fun and don't slot into just any deck, but they're decent enough as light build-arounds.

Also, Booster Tutor's power level is fine. With 15-card packs you can find something decently useful decently often. It's not broken by any means, you're still only grabbing a limited selection of peasant cards. I keep it random.

Quote from gsethi999 »

I couldnt find much information, but how is Booster tutor in peasant cubes? Is the power level of the card too high? As I run only a 180 cube, I was thinking of building packs of 9 for it from my maybeboard. Any certain way to build it, such as 1 land, 1 colorless, and some randomly selected colors?

It's super fun but I would skip the hassle if you play to actually use 100% of your cube in drafting and want to Tutor from the "maybeboard".

You really need access to 4-5 colors to make it a truly strong card; not cards of every color IN your deck, but some random tri-lands or Vivids or whatnot so your B/G-splash-red deck can pop out a Mulldrifter or something.

Booster Tutor is a consistently strong card for me, even most two-color decks are still using tri-lands and vivids so picking a card outside of your colors is very doable and it usually finds something that's good for the situation you're in.

I agree with _i0 though that it seems like a bad choice for a very small c/ube. I increased the size of my c/ube by 15 cards so that even with a full draft I'd have a "pack" left over, and the awkwardness of having to keep cards available to tutor out of comes up a lot. It's a headache, but I think the card is worth it for me.

However, I would be reluctant to use it if it only grabbed cards from a maybeboard, which makes me think that they'd be on average less desirable than cards you actually put in your c/ube, and besides that, unless your maybeboard is quite large, people would end up seeing the same options and knowing what they would get every time, which makes the card considerably less cool.

I love booster tutor, but I think it is a bad choice for a very small c/ube.

Oh, my maybeboard is like a thousand cards.

But who carries that with them?

I'd likely have a maybeboard of 90 cards, and probably carry those with me

The new wurm got me thinking about mwonvuli beast tracker . It seems like there are plenty of good targets, with pretty small opportunity cost.Could lead to some interesting games!

What do you guys think? Anyone have any experience with the card in Peasant?

Top of library kind of sucks because it's not true card advantage. You can't really play this on turn 3 and search up Pelakka Wurm, and it's not like in the late game you can play this and the bomb in the same turn, because again, top of deck. It does curve nicely into Penumbra Spider, and green's top end certainly has a lot of great targets for it. It keeps getting better over time so it's a card to keep an eye on, but green's pool of threes is also growing.

Compare and contrast with Fierce Empath which has fewer targets but actually draws you a card

A mana 2/1 needs better, more consistent upside. And if youre on 3 lands with no 4th, you literally shouldn't play it.

Is there a situation where evolving wilds is better than ash barrens?
I can only think of of being on exactly 1 land

Quote from Leelue »

A mana 2/1 needs better, more consistent upside. And if youre on 3 lands with no 4th, you literally shouldn't play it.

Is there a situation where evolving wilds is better than ash barrens?
I can only think of of being on exactly 1 land

You have 1 mountain and 1 swamp in play. These are the only swamps and mountains in your deck. You want to play a card costing BR ands search for a land this turn.

Does anyone else play the draft-matters cards in their cube like Cogwork Librarian, etc? How about silver-bordered cards like booster tutor? And conspiracies?

I've added a 15 card section to my 360(375 total) cube to use in drafts, and my playgroup seems to really enjoy them. But it seems like a fine line before it gets too crazy. I was wondering if anyone else had some experience with them.

I did librarian once. It was really good and interesting, but I took it out when going to the store for sanctioned events

I think the only draft-matters card I would consider including on the regular is Cogwork Librarian, the others just seem too clunky and require too much bookkeeping. I do not use silver-bordered cards or Conspiracies, either. If I had a group that got together more regularly I would consider using draft-matters cards and Conspiracies as a way to shake things up on occasion.

I cheat and use Lore Seeker, which is pretty easy to keep track of. I like the draft matters cards when they're not annoying to keep track of or a waste of time.

I actually thought the draft matters cards were really cool. In theory.

It would have been "cleaner" to me to have cards like librarian be on tokens, so youd draft the token instead of a card to affect things, but it is more interesting to have to evaluate the value of a 3/3 on top of that.