MTG Salvation

Will throw in a plug for Carnivorous Death-Parrot if you're OK with a silver border card.

Quickling has some potential, though haven't yet cubed it. Certainly not for playing T2 in most games.

The cohort has been #1 or #2 on cards I want to acquire for a while. I think the card has potential. The blowout potential is not really a concern because, like he said, it's a flier.

I've considered it. Would probably rather have the new KTK Valley Dasher. Wish that Rakdos Shred-Freak was a 2/2.

The average, worst, and best case scenarios are all sub par.

Quote from _i0 »

Quickling has some potential, though haven't yet cubed it. Certainly not for playing T2 in most games.

Quickling has enabled some of the coolest decks and strategies in the history of...my cube. I've had a lot of fun with it, other cool ETB creatures and Malevolent Awakening.

Quickling is definitely in my on-deck box waiting for a chance to jump in should I feel like it.

Rx, do you like Phyrexian Reclamation? It seems a lot better than Malevolent Awakening, though I'm not sure how much I'm underestimating its use as a sacrifice outlet.

Quote from MagnetMan »

Quickling is definitely in my on-deck box waiting for a chance to jump in should I feel like it.

Rx, do you like Phyrexian Reclamation? It seems a lot better than Malevolent Awakening, though I'm not sure how much I'm underestimating its use as a sacrifice outlet.

Much like Quickling for you, Reclamation has been on my shortlist. I was on the verge of cutting Awakening, but then I started using it to abuse ETB effects, and it really earned its place. It's mana-intensive for sure, though. I'm actually trying to enable it more with creatures with death triggers a la Black Cat.

Quote from MagnetMan »

Rx, do you like Phyrexian Reclamation? It seems a lot better than Malevolent Awakening, though I'm not sure how much I'm underestimating its use as a sacrifice outlet.

Aside from very few cases (blood artists), a "sacrifice outlet" isn't really a frequently serious upside. Especially when it costs mana.
I do suppose, however, that this card can cycle between two ETB guys like a strange crystal shard impersonator. That does, however, require like a brillion mana

They just need to give us Erratic Portal at Uncommon already.

Wing Shards. How hard is it to get 2 attackers out of this card?

Quote from boburning »

Wing Shards. How hard is it to get 2 attackers out of this card?

I'd imagine you just spew it off the first time you have an opportunity, regardless of storm count. The infrequent blowout potential probably is much of an upside as the lower mana cost/ability to hit blockers from Celestial Flare.

Quote from MagicFever »

Browsing through my list I keep thinking that some cards we consider as uncommon for me/us feel more rare than uncommon. Sure they were once printed as uncommons in the early stages of the game when wizards didnt care about limited at all, but for today's standards with regard to limited as a format, those cards clearly would be printed at rare at least. Now I am a new player and for me those cards kinda feel wrong in a peasant. I am curious what your thoughts are. Cards that fall in this category are for example Sylvan Library or Maze of Ith and partly also Strip Mine and Wasteland (compare to Tectonic Edge).

If you want to lower the power level of your cube, then do it. Sure, they wouldn't print those cards now. They also would have never made cards like Pelakka Wurm or Cloudgoat Ranger in 1998 unless they were at rare.

Hell, Volcanic Dragon existed for 15 years at rare, is now cubable for us because of M12, and isn't even a particularly great card for most of us.

edit, with specific evaluation:

Sylvan Library is, like Sensei's Divining Top, close to useless without a way to shuffle.

Maze of Ith is powerful but fine. Missing a land drop is a huge drawback for the ability to stall one fatty for free.

Strip Mine is easily the most busted thing here. It's like Thoughtseize in which you trade one-for-one, but you know the Strip Mine is in your hand so you can just ruin someone who kept two forests, a plains, and white 2 and 3-drop creatures.

Wasteland is obviously the fixed version. I like it. Far from overpowered Not sure it's worth $70 of fun, when you could buy a bunch of whiskey and buffalo wings instead. (I don't think Tectonic Edge is playable at all as a replacement).

Pelakka wurm as far as I know was never admitted to be misraritied, but CGR was. That's a valid point though; some modern cards are still mistakes that we take advantage of. Same goes for Loxadon warhammer. Control magic. But I don't see sylvan library in that class at all except for the amount of time it takes up every turn.

I have no idea how hard wing shards is to pull off, but inconsistent cards that are mostly out of your control are things I avoid.

When you opened a Legends pack, Sylvan Library was uncommon. Not sure what else matters. Not even an iffy situation like "U2" uncommons from Arabian Nights, which were the highest rarity in the set.

'Feels like an uncommon' is ascending to a level of subjectivity that I don't think I can handle. It was easier when we were talking about fixing lands.

My first games of magic were during timespiral.

Quote from MagicFever »

but still these cards feel way more uncommon than S. Library in my view. I dont know how to say it better ;-). Maybe that is also beacuse I started playing Magic with the old Ravnica block ...

This is purely subjective, and as a player that started in Tempest block I don't share this feeling at all. It's all about power level to me. If you choose your inclusions based on another qualifier that's your prerogative as a cube designer. If they don't feel right to you, take them out. No one is holding you to any particular standard. I agree with _i0 in that so many of the cards that are printed now at common and uncommon would've been printed as rares back in the day so it all comes out in a wash for me. People pick Cloudgoat Ranger over Mana Drain in my cube...Shriekmaw over Juzám Djinn...etc

If cubing DIDN'T let us use weird old cards, I wouldn't do it.

People can obviously do whatever they'd like, and I understand the perspective of not using online-only peasant cards (Goblin Trenches) or Arabian Nights "U2" rarity (Old Man of the Sea) though I'm happy to play both.

But Sylvan Library WAS uncommon in an actual cardboard set, alongside real rares. If the power level is fair (I certainly think it is), I don't see any reason NOT to play with it.

I started playing around Mirage, and I really like including some of those old favorites. The tough part, though, is that when it comes time to make room for new cards, it's usually these oldies that get the boot. It's kind of a bummer, really. There have been a great many cards that I've cut because they've been either outclassed or other players just didn't care for them. Delirium is a great example of the latter case. I love this card, but if I'm the only one picking it (and winning a few games off of it), then why have it in there? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like oddball cards that are a little off the beaten path.

However, this whole "feels uncommon/rare" thing is really difficult to quantify, and thus tough to discuss. My advice is similar to others though: do what you feel is right for your cube.

So how do you feel about the control magic effects? Rosewater and his band of merry men have said those cards are no longer considered uncommons (at least not the really good ones for limited)

Quote from RxPhantom »

However, this whole "feels uncommon/rare" thing is really difficult to quantify, and thus tough to discuss. My advice is similar to others though: do what you feel is right for your cube.

I agree with this sentiment. Play with whatever cards you want.

Which effects belong at which rarities is a paradigm that shifts over time. Control Magics aren't uncommon anymore. Dual lands aren't exclusively rare like they were in the old days. Some rules can be ignored in a particular expansion for the sake of making a better limited format; e.g. Pelakka Wurm and Artisan of Kozilek wouldn't be uncommons in any set other than Rise of the Eldrazi. Sometimes they realize that individual cards were printed at too low of the rarity and change them, e.g. Loxodon Warhammer. I don't think Magic will ever get to a point where every effect gets properly assigned to a specific rarity and just stays there. Magic changes.

I want my cube to use cards and ideas from throughout the history of Magic, so I have no issue running cards that wouldn't be printed as uncommons today.

For those of you who run reanimator, how often do you just not get enough pieces?

Also, even if we had enough pieces, would anyone run shrapnel blast?

I'd love to sacrifice a Perilous Myr though. Haha!

Couldn't someone else in the draft be drafting a deck that just happens to use some of your pieces? Reanimate is a fine card for aggro, looters are fine cards for control., and the fatties go into a couple decks.

Quote from Leelue »

Couldn't someone else in the draft be drafting a deck that just happens to use some of your pieces? Reanimate is a fine card for aggro, looters are fine cards for control., and the fatties go into a couple decks.

This is usually the case over here when the pieces are in the draft pool. You have to prioritize the essentials of the archetype over inherently better cards if you really want it to come together. I like having Exhume and other less attractive reanimation spells in the cube so there's a little a bone thrown to someone drafting the archetype.

I see reanimator probably once in every 5-6 drafts, but I also rarely get an opportunity to draft with a full pod of 8. As discussed in Majikian's thread, that makes the probability significantly less for it to come together. Especially since we've only used a traditional draft mechanic. I'm thinking more and more than I need to just use a different drafting method when we have few people.

I think I have commented on this before but I would likely run Galvanic Blast before considering Shrapnel Blast. In the very beginning of my Cube when I tried to support artifacts as an archetype, both were in. However, Galvanic Blast is a Shock at its worst and 4 damage for 1 mana at its best. I would say that the best case scenario is comparable but the worst case scenario is actually still bearable, unlike in Shrapnel Blast's case. Of course, Metalcraft takes thrice the work that Shrapnel Blast requires but having a sufficient amount of support requires, IMHO, that there should be enough artifacts that metalcraft could also be reliably used.