Inspired by a discussion in the Peasant Cube Discussion Thread, I wanted to review the number of duals we play in Peasant. What I find kind of interesting about this discussion is that Peasant CUbes tend to run way fewer duals than powered Cubes do. I looked at 9 of the more popular drafted (non-Peasant) Cubes on Cubetutor, and they tend to be around 4 duals at the 360 level, up to about 5 at the 540 level. So why do we play so few?
One interesting thing for us is that we tend to play 10 tri-lands, which you can theoretically count as either 1 (10 lands for 10 guilds) or 3 (because each guild is represented on three total tri-lands). I tend to lean towards counting them as 1, just because there is so much competition between each two color deck for them.
Even my CUbe runs 512 cards, leans heavier on multi-color and only has 3 duals per pair (excluding rainbow lands like the Vivids, City of Brass, Evolving Wilds, etc). Is this just a result of us having only ETBT dual lands? Having so little variation in our dual lands? Or because our multi-colored cards are necessarily less powerful than Cubes which include higher rarities?
Phitt, it is that last paragraph I am interested in delving into deeper. Obviously, ABUR duals, shocks, and fetches are miles ahead of what we have at Peasant and their inclusion into any Cube which supports them is unquestioned. They also tend to be much higher picks in their formats than fixing is in Peasant.
My thought behind them being picked higher is two-fold. First, they are much more powerful and fetches can sometimes fix more than two colors. Second, I think the idea is that you can take dual lands higher because all of the cards are so strong. In a typical CUbe draft, you can easily get 30+ playables, so you might as well draft lands highly so you can support the playables you draft and also make certain cards *more* playable. We had a discussion about Angel of Despair being essentially unplayable outside of a dedicated Orzhov deck. How much more playable does Angel get if we play Karoos, Gain lands, Tri-lands AND Gates in CUbe?
I think I am going to try out cutting a spell and adding a land in each guild to see if it has a noticeable impact on drafting or not. I would love to see if mana fixing can have the same level of priority at the Peasant level as it does at the Powered level.
I'm on Tri-lands, Karoos, Vivids, and then various rainbow fixers for 32 total at 360. I both have a high multicolour count and really value good fixing, so 32 is about where I want to be.
In rare cubes you get a very tangible benefit out of duals. In drafting taking fetches or an ABUR duals early can often give multiple additional colour sources in deck building (far more than the 1 we normally get in peasant) in addition to potentially giving a free 3-4 sources for a splash at little cost. In peasant taking an off colour fixer will rarely reward you enough to justify taking it even at the middle of the pack.
Higher power level cubes also have access to man lands as duals, which do far more at less deckbuilding cost than anything we have access to.
Additionally, in peasant there is some degree of too many fixers, as we mainly have ETBT lands. There is a number of ETBT lands in a deck that is too many, which makes taking lands highly less appealing, but high power level duals don't have that problem.
One thing that I noticed while doing the average cube this year was the lack of fixing in a lot of people's cubes. I can only assume that's because people share Phitt77's opinion that no fixing is better than the bad fixing that's available at our rarity. It was fairly common for people to just leave out the ETBT lands all together or to break the C/U limitations only for their lands section in order to include pain lands. I actually did this in my peasant cube for a while as well due to the fixing being mostly mediocre.
I've come around, though. I agree that filling a cube with "bad" lands is mostly for those of us that really want to stick to that peasant common/uncommon limitation, but I don't think it's all that detrimental to include these lands as your fixers of choice. It probably does make the format a little slower than the average rare cube, but again, I don't think that's a bad thing. While, yes, a tap land isn't necessarily what your Boros aggro deck wants, I think that deck would rather play slightly slower than to be stuck on colored mana. And in an ideal world, the Boros player will have another play so they aren't taking the turn off (like a tap land plus a 1-drop on turn two). In non-aggressive decks, the duals available at C/U aren't terrible. A control deck doesn't really mind if some of its lands are coming into play tapped.
It's also important to note that we have several powerful 5-color lands available in addition to the ETBT lands. Gemstone Mine and City of Brass are basically staples. Aether Hub and Mirrodin's Core also go a long way to help with fixing. At 360 I'm running the ten gain lands, the ten tri lands, the four previously mentioned 5-color lands, the Vivids, the two Terramorphic Expanses and Ash Barrens. Most of these lands are definitely slow, but I think fixing is that important. I'd much rather have an ETBT dual in my midrange deck than be trying to survive on basics alone. If I went up to 450, I'd honestly probably add in a second cycle of two color duals.
One interesting thing for us is that we tend to play 10 tri-lands, which you can theoretically count as either 1 (10 lands for 10 guilds) or 3 (because each guild is represented on three total tri-lands). I tend to lean towards counting them as 1, just because there is so much competition between each two color deck for them.
Even my CUbe runs 512 cards, leans heavier on multi-color and only has 3 duals per pair (excluding rainbow lands like the Vivids, City of Brass, Evolving Wilds, etc). Is this just a result of us having only ETBT dual lands? Having so little variation in our dual lands? Or because our multi-colored cards are necessarily less powerful than Cubes which include higher rarities?
What are everyone's thoughts on this matter?
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
Complete dual cycles (all 10 pairs):
Arcane Sanctum Tri-lands
Azorius Chancery Karoos
Azorius Guildgate Gates
Bloodfell Caves Gain lands
Cinder Barrens ETBT duals
Incomplete dual cycles (5 or fewer pairs):
Akoum Refuge Gain lands (Allied only)
An-Havva Township Homelands tri-lands (Shards only)
Arctic Flats Snow ETBT duals (Allied only)
Bad River Two-color fetches (Allied only)
Bant Panorama Tri-fetches (Shards only)
Calciform Pools Two-color storage lands (Allied only)
Caldera Lake ETBT pain lands (Enemy only, online only)
Cinder Marsh and Cloudcrest Lake Delayed duals (Allied only)
Coastal Tower Original ETBT duals (Allied only)
Crosis's Catacombs Lairs (Shards only)
Tainted Field Black duals (black pairs only)
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
My thought behind them being picked higher is two-fold. First, they are much more powerful and fetches can sometimes fix more than two colors. Second, I think the idea is that you can take dual lands higher because all of the cards are so strong. In a typical CUbe draft, you can easily get 30+ playables, so you might as well draft lands highly so you can support the playables you draft and also make certain cards *more* playable. We had a discussion about Angel of Despair being essentially unplayable outside of a dedicated Orzhov deck. How much more playable does Angel get if we play Karoos, Gain lands, Tri-lands AND Gates in CUbe?
I think I am going to try out cutting a spell and adding a land in each guild to see if it has a noticeable impact on drafting or not. I would love to see if mana fixing can have the same level of priority at the Peasant level as it does at the Powered level.
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
In rare cubes you get a very tangible benefit out of duals. In drafting taking fetches or an ABUR duals early can often give multiple additional colour sources in deck building (far more than the 1 we normally get in peasant) in addition to potentially giving a free 3-4 sources for a splash at little cost. In peasant taking an off colour fixer will rarely reward you enough to justify taking it even at the middle of the pack.
Higher power level cubes also have access to man lands as duals, which do far more at less deckbuilding cost than anything we have access to.
Additionally, in peasant there is some degree of too many fixers, as we mainly have ETBT lands. There is a number of ETBT lands in a deck that is too many, which makes taking lands highly less appealing, but high power level duals don't have that problem.
I've come around, though. I agree that filling a cube with "bad" lands is mostly for those of us that really want to stick to that peasant common/uncommon limitation, but I don't think it's all that detrimental to include these lands as your fixers of choice. It probably does make the format a little slower than the average rare cube, but again, I don't think that's a bad thing. While, yes, a tap land isn't necessarily what your Boros aggro deck wants, I think that deck would rather play slightly slower than to be stuck on colored mana. And in an ideal world, the Boros player will have another play so they aren't taking the turn off (like a tap land plus a 1-drop on turn two). In non-aggressive decks, the duals available at C/U aren't terrible. A control deck doesn't really mind if some of its lands are coming into play tapped.
It's also important to note that we have several powerful 5-color lands available in addition to the ETBT lands. Gemstone Mine and City of Brass are basically staples. Aether Hub and Mirrodin's Core also go a long way to help with fixing. At 360 I'm running the ten gain lands, the ten tri lands, the four previously mentioned 5-color lands, the Vivids, the two Terramorphic Expanses and Ash Barrens. Most of these lands are definitely slow, but I think fixing is that important. I'd much rather have an ETBT dual in my midrange deck than be trying to survive on basics alone. If I went up to 450, I'd honestly probably add in a second cycle of two color duals.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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