How good are they? Are they necessary? Do they often fall in the "No reason to Cube" category?
These question came to mind after many Ixalan drafts this last months. Being a fast format, the combat tricks actually do matter, and open the window to many interactive plays that I feel are fun and interesting. Also gaining "mana advantage" for being so cheap (Sheltering Light, Skulduggery,Vampire's Zeal, etc).
When we translate this to C/Ube, which is a pretty aggresive format, do we like this type of cards? Or does it become easy to notice when someone is holding mana for their tricks?
What tricks do you like the most? Or what tricks do you Cube?
I've got Giant Growth in my pool, but I've been wondering if tricks in other colors would be good?
I have happily upped the number of combat tricks in my cube over the past year (with my Kaladesh update) because I really wanted to open up some more interesting interactions and some different themes. Here are some of the recommendations I have:
1) Cheap tricks are the best tricks. You made the excellent point that combat tricks in Ixalan have been so important because of the tempo advantage you gain. As such, I would almost exclusively recommend 1-mana or 0-mana tricks- Swift Justice, Brute Force, Invigorate, Mutagenic Growth, Gather Courage- to properly capitalize on that theme. Mutagenic Growth is extremely good in almost any aggressive it gets played in.
2) Find tricks that have uses outside of combat. While you can make a case that certain type of removal count as combat tricks as well (Harm's Way, Disfigure), I mostly mean that the pump spell itself does something else to help your creature. Gods Willing or Blossoming Defense can protect creatures from spells or abilities. Supernatural Stamina can help kill a creature and reuse an ETB ability.
3) Find tricks that play into the themes of your cube. One of the things I was most excited to do with combat tricks is give R/G aggro an identity as a hybrid aggro-combo deck with cards like Berserk, Temur Battle Rage, Become Immense, and Vines of Vastwood. Without going that deep, I would cite something like Test of Faith as a card that can be a decent combat trick and also a strong card for a +1/+1 counter archetype.
How has Invigorate performed for you? Does it oftenly help you win combat? I feel its great for protecting Mana dorks in early turns against burn spells
Invigorate in particular I typically play in more aggressive decks, ideally with some combo potential with other tricks, but I will say I still have relatively limit data for how well it will be overall.
I will also admit I have a weird cube compared to most here because I have a larger cube (512 cards) that does not cut cards for power and also plays a larger multi-colored section. I do wonder what the general consensus would be for good combat tricks. I imagine it is much smaller than what I play.
In the hypothetical that all combat tricks were in the "no reason to cube" category, I still think the average cube would be better for including some number of them. No combat tricks at all means that obvious (single) blocks are always safe.
I agree that 1 mana tricks are way more useful than more expensive options, especially if you want to use them on defence.
However, not everyone (random example: me) is comfortable with free tricks. This will be up to you and your playgroup to decide, but unless everyone at the table knows the cube contents well you give yourself a fairly big advantage over your players by knowing that a tapped-out opponent might still represent something.
EDIT: Briarhorn and to a lesser extent Briarpack Alpha are also combat tricks that do more than just being a trick.
I had the same goal of wanting to see more combat tricks get used, and I figured the main barrier to that was having too much (good) removal. Removal pushes out combat tricks in two ways:
1) The presence of instant-speed removal makes combat tricks risky. It's hard to pull the trigger on your Giant Growth to win a combat if your opponent could have one of six variants of Lightning Bolt or Ultimate Price ready to 2-for-1 you.
2) Too much good removal leaves too little space in decks for combat tricks to actually see play. If you take your median cube deck to be around 17 land and 15+ creatures, that only leaves a handful of slots for noncreature spells. If you can reliably fill 4+ of those slots with quality removal, it's that much less likely that a basic combat trick makes the cut in your deck.
To that end, I did a pass a while back to reduce the overall amount of removal available, especially focusing on instant speed 1- and 2-mana spells that could lead to blowouts. I was worried that reducing removal too much would lead to games ending up in board stalls, but that really hasn't been the case. A lot of the games I've seen have had a big emphasis on tempo, which is an environment where combat tricks can do a lot of work. So, mission accomplished?
(While not directly on topic, I'll also mention that all of the above applies to Auras as well - less removal has made them a lot more relevant than before.)
I'm fine with some of the smaller pump spells.
What I don't want in my cube is an excess of Hexproof/Indestructible/etc effects. Those couple with counterspells and blink effects can make it too easy to win a match off a single threat.
How is it going?
Today I want to talk about Combat Tricks.
How good are they? Are they necessary? Do they often fall in the "No reason to Cube" category?
These question came to mind after many Ixalan drafts this last months. Being a fast format, the combat tricks actually do matter, and open the window to many interactive plays that I feel are fun and interesting. Also gaining "mana advantage" for being so cheap (Sheltering Light, Skulduggery,Vampire's Zeal, etc).
When we translate this to C/Ube, which is a pretty aggresive format, do we like this type of cards? Or does it become easy to notice when someone is holding mana for their tricks?
What tricks do you like the most? Or what tricks do you Cube?
I've got Giant Growth in my pool, but I've been wondering if tricks in other colors would be good?
Glad to hear opinions.
Regards!
My Peasant Cube - CubeCobra
1) Cheap tricks are the best tricks. You made the excellent point that combat tricks in Ixalan have been so important because of the tempo advantage you gain. As such, I would almost exclusively recommend 1-mana or 0-mana tricks- Swift Justice, Brute Force, Invigorate, Mutagenic Growth, Gather Courage- to properly capitalize on that theme. Mutagenic Growth is extremely good in almost any aggressive it gets played in.
2) Find tricks that have uses outside of combat. While you can make a case that certain type of removal count as combat tricks as well (Harm's Way, Disfigure), I mostly mean that the pump spell itself does something else to help your creature. Gods Willing or Blossoming Defense can protect creatures from spells or abilities. Supernatural Stamina can help kill a creature and reuse an ETB ability.
3) Find tricks that play into the themes of your cube. One of the things I was most excited to do with combat tricks is give R/G aggro an identity as a hybrid aggro-combo deck with cards like Berserk, Temur Battle Rage, Become Immense, and Vines of Vastwood. Without going that deep, I would cite something like Test of Faith as a card that can be a decent combat trick and also a strong card for a +1/+1 counter archetype.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
Wow, thank you very much!
This is very useful information.
How has Invigorate performed for you? Does it oftenly help you win combat? I feel its great for protecting Mana dorks in early turns against burn spells
My Peasant Cube - CubeCobra
I will also admit I have a weird cube compared to most here because I have a larger cube (512 cards) that does not cut cards for power and also plays a larger multi-colored section. I do wonder what the general consensus would be for good combat tricks. I imagine it is much smaller than what I play.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
I agree that 1 mana tricks are way more useful than more expensive options, especially if you want to use them on defence.
However, not everyone (random example: me) is comfortable with free tricks. This will be up to you and your playgroup to decide, but unless everyone at the table knows the cube contents well you give yourself a fairly big advantage over your players by knowing that a tapped-out opponent might still represent something.
EDIT:
Briarhorn and to a lesser extent Briarpack Alpha are also combat tricks that do more than just being a trick.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
1) The presence of instant-speed removal makes combat tricks risky. It's hard to pull the trigger on your Giant Growth to win a combat if your opponent could have one of six variants of Lightning Bolt or Ultimate Price ready to 2-for-1 you.
2) Too much good removal leaves too little space in decks for combat tricks to actually see play. If you take your median cube deck to be around 17 land and 15+ creatures, that only leaves a handful of slots for noncreature spells. If you can reliably fill 4+ of those slots with quality removal, it's that much less likely that a basic combat trick makes the cut in your deck.
To that end, I did a pass a while back to reduce the overall amount of removal available, especially focusing on instant speed 1- and 2-mana spells that could lead to blowouts. I was worried that reducing removal too much would lead to games ending up in board stalls, but that really hasn't been the case. A lot of the games I've seen have had a big emphasis on tempo, which is an environment where combat tricks can do a lot of work. So, mission accomplished?
(While not directly on topic, I'll also mention that all of the above applies to Auras as well - less removal has made them a lot more relevant than before.)
I haven't updated my cube for HOU or Ixalan yet, but here are the ones I run:
Swift Justice, Feat of Resistance, Test of Faith
Nothing in blue
Supernatural Stamina, Undying Evil, Unnatural Endurance
Brute Force, Coordinated Assault, considering Invigorated Rampage
Blossoming Defense, Giant Growth, Vines of Vastwood, Predator's Strike, Become Immense
My cube discussion thread
So yeah, I think combat tricks make for a more fun environment.
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
What I don't want in my cube is an excess of Hexproof/Indestructible/etc effects. Those couple with counterspells and blink effects can make it too easy to win a match off a single threat.
[Developing] 430+ Peasant Cube Thread --- [and on Cube Cobra]
Specifically Dauntless Onslaught, Triton Tactics and company. Never did pull the trigger, but the "up to two" is appealing. I've also been eying Test of Faith. I run Mutagenic Growth, Vince of Vastwood (The man growing out of the front yard is Vince), and Briarhorn, which in my opinion is a p1p1.