I don't have a list, I've never been asked for one before haha. I guess I'll have to get one up soon.
Anyways, the rough numbers are 300 cards for the entire cube, 40 cards per color, with 6-8 "removal" cards (roughly half is soft removal like niblis of the breath, phantom wings, or sandskin) and 2-4 combat tricks.
I felt like my cube needed more combat tricks just to spice things up, so I cut a third of my removal for them and never looked back. Drafting and actually playing is much more interesting now, and I probably won't even bother with prowess. Triton tactics and weapon surge are two incredible combat tricks that don't 2 for 1 very easily. Also, boon of erebos is a newer addition that does work in my cube.
I'm of the opinion that sometimes to make removal good, you have to put work into it. I find situations where I kill a nessian asp with last gasp because I had a bear sitting around to be the most rewarding part of drafting and that situation comes up often enough to be relevant when considering last grasp. True, your S.O.L. when your opponent drops a 4 toughness flyer, but you're screwed with doom blade when they drop a fallen angel. We could provide counter examples until we're blue in the face, but I think last gasp is a little better than people think and doom blade isn't all it's cracked up to be.
I'm slightly surprised I was the only voter for Terror. It really isn't that much worse than Doom Blade, which scored fairly highly. I can only assume lots of people only voted for cards in their cube (and not running Terror is fair enough, I don't cube it either, as Black has plenty of better/more "interesting" removal options. But purely from a power-level perspective, I hold that it's a legitimate top 20 card).
I don't know about top 20, but I definitely run it and pick it highly. For me though, it skims the edges of the top 20 and would probably make my top 25.
I don't run either because I don't run a very powerful cube, but in the other cube I play I wouldn't pick doom blade over removal like last gasp or nameless inversion because not being able to target more than 1/5th the creatures in a cube is incredibly relevant, even if you are playing most of the black creatures in the best possible scenario (and good luck if you're splashing for removal). last gasp hits more creatures (and definitely hits the utility dorks which require you to spend removal vs the dudes that are swinging), except they can't regenerate in response when they could with doom blade, and last gasp is actually a combat trick. I don't think terror belongs in the top 20 (or anywhere close) when nameless inversion isn't included.
Re: apostrophes - Erebos's Emmissary is grammatically correct. If the word Erebos was itself a plural noun (like one of them would be an Erebo, more than one Erebo would be some Erebos) then Erebos' Emmissary would be correct. It's the same reason Rakdos's Return is also grammatically correct.
You'd also write "Katniss's Bow" even though 3 esses in a row look weird.
Alright. I admit defeat! Ill never correct grammar on this forum again.
Melodrama aside, here's my red rankings. The usual "these are probably going to be changed later when other people suggest cards I've forgotten" disclaimer applies.
I've been unimpressed with zoetic cavern, but none of my decks really need it and its also the only morph in my cube. My cube has a higher creature count, so none of the colors/decks really hurt for the extra creature, and otherwise it's just a colorless land. Maybe I'm missing the point, but it's just not making waves for me. It's coming out soon, but if khans of tarkir winds up putting morphs into my cube, it might get back in.
phyrexian juggernaut looks awesome. It more or less fills the same role as ulamog's crusher (because let's face it, after 2 turns of annihilator 2 most decks aren't going to win either) for 2 less mana and is tinkerable if you run that strategy.
Hahaha What the hell does "when you would naturally pronounce" mean? All that told me was "screw it! Do it however you want!" I feel like Oxford got tired of being stuck in the middle of English fights, said that everyone is correct, and we can all just shut it.
Guess I got pretty close to most folk's top 10 but then diverged. Nobody loves Erebos's Emissary? It absolutely wrecks in my group.
erebos's emissary (the grammar nazi in me is freaking out that it's printed on all these cards as erebos's and not the correct erebos', but I digress) is actually in my cube, but he hasn't been drafted into the reanimator/graveyard or aggro decks yet, and I wasn't impressed enough by vampire hounds to put him into my top 20.
I dunno about posting a disclaimer for why some cards aren't on your list. I personally don't play with shriekmaw, control magic, or mulldrifter because my cube has a lower power level, but I still voted for them. I have played them in a cube once or twice and they actively change the course of the game. You don't need to run a card to be able to say its good.
I see people are voting for Sign in Blood, but not for Read the Bones?
Having Scry 2 added for 1 makes it a much more diverse card in my opinion, was curious why other people don't seem to rate it? I suppose having one less mana in the pool for your drawn cards could be a drawback.
Ah, I knew I was forgetting something. Updated for read the bones.
Although, I will say that I've ended the game a couple times by killing my opponent with sign in blood, so it's definitely not strictly better.
@leelue: triton tactics is definitely worth testing, if only because it gives blue another combat trick besides "bounce target creature." Although, the fact that it untaps your looters/pingers/mana elves and laughs at lightning bolt AND frost breaths attackers all in one card is really what seals it for me. If it were any better it might be broken.
I like Portent too. I'm surprised, though, that you don't run any of Brainstorm's offspring. Do you feel it's too strong? Is blue just doing other things in your cube?
A combination of a few things, mostly that my cube has a lower power level, but also I support blue aggro/tempo which sucks up 1 and 2 drop slots as well as I already had to purge a lot of the cards that say "draw a card" because it was way out of hand (more than half my blue section) and its still pretty high (a little more than 2/5) to give blue some shred of identity. When I finally expand my cube out this last bit to its full 300, I'm thinking spy network might make it in by virtue of not having "draw a card" on it haha. We'll see.
Anyways, here's my black list. This is definitely subject to change because I have a lot of black pet cards and I had to seriously reevaluate them all as I was listing these. I don't think I got them all out.
I think the reason it's all over the place is redundancy.
This. I was reading through the lists in this thread today and I was thinking "yeah, you could probably get away with a mono blue peasant cube." There are soooooo many options and between the several roles blue can play, its ridiculous.
Spy network might get really good if morph becomes a thing in cube with khans of tarkir. Honestly, I don't run brainstorm or it's disciples, but if I was looking for one it would have to be preordain because of its ability to separate good and bad cards where the others can't. Spy network falls into the can't category, but definitely impresses by making up for its card disadvantage with its wealth of information. It's an interesting trade off and it reminds me of portent, which is a bit of a pet card for me.
I was reading through the lists and thought triton tactics wasn't getting enough love, so here you go folks. Ill admit I'm not any kind of expert and my cube is definitely unorthodox, but between building mine and playing another these have been the game changers in my experience. My "formula" is if I got all these cards in one pack, this is my pick order.
Anyways, the rough numbers are 300 cards for the entire cube, 40 cards per color, with 6-8 "removal" cards (roughly half is soft removal like niblis of the breath, phantom wings, or sandskin) and 2-4 combat tricks.
I don't run either because I don't run a very powerful cube, but in the other cube I play I wouldn't pick doom blade over removal like last gasp or nameless inversion because not being able to target more than 1/5th the creatures in a cube is incredibly relevant, even if you are playing most of the black creatures in the best possible scenario (and good luck if you're splashing for removal). last gasp hits more creatures (and definitely hits the utility dorks which require you to spend removal vs the dudes that are swinging), except they can't regenerate in response when they could with doom blade, and last gasp is actually a combat trick. I don't think terror belongs in the top 20 (or anywhere close) when nameless inversion isn't included.
Alright. I admit defeat! Ill never correct grammar on this forum again.
Melodrama aside, here's my red rankings. The usual "these are probably going to be changed later when other people suggest cards I've forgotten" disclaimer applies.
02 Lightning bolt
03 Burst lightning
04 Gore-house chainwalker
05 Staggershock
06 Rolling thunder
07 Aftershock
08 Chain lightning
09 Arc trail
10 Lightning mauler
11 Jackal pup
12 Fault riders
13 Bloodfray giant
14 Stonewright
15 Markov warlord
16 Arc lightning
17 Wrap in flames
18 Mogis's warhound
19 Madcap skills
20 Smash to smithereens
phyrexian juggernaut looks awesome. It more or less fills the same role as ulamog's crusher (because let's face it, after 2 turns of annihilator 2 most decks aren't going to win either) for 2 less mana and is tinkerable if you run that strategy.
erebos's emissary (the grammar nazi in me is freaking out that it's printed on all these cards as erebos's and not the correct erebos', but I digress) is actually in my cube, but he hasn't been drafted into the reanimator/graveyard or aggro decks yet, and I wasn't impressed enough by vampire hounds to put him into my top 20.
Ah, I knew I was forgetting something. Updated for read the bones.
Although, I will say that I've ended the game a couple times by killing my opponent with sign in blood, so it's definitely not strictly better.
@leelue: triton tactics is definitely worth testing, if only because it gives blue another combat trick besides "bounce target creature." Although, the fact that it untaps your looters/pingers/mana elves and laughs at lightning bolt AND frost breaths attackers all in one card is really what seals it for me. If it were any better it might be broken.
A combination of a few things, mostly that my cube has a lower power level, but also I support blue aggro/tempo which sucks up 1 and 2 drop slots as well as I already had to purge a lot of the cards that say "draw a card" because it was way out of hand (more than half my blue section) and its still pretty high (a little more than 2/5) to give blue some shred of identity. When I finally expand my cube out this last bit to its full 300, I'm thinking spy network might make it in by virtue of not having "draw a card" on it haha. We'll see.
Anyways, here's my black list. This is definitely subject to change because I have a lot of black pet cards and I had to seriously reevaluate them all as I was listing these. I don't think I got them all out.
02 Twisted abomination
03 inquisition of kozilek
04 Curse of the shallow graves
05 Animate dead
06 Necromancy
07 Victimize
08 Skinrender
09 Vampire nighthawk
10 Go for the throat
11 Ultimate price
12 Plagued rusalka
13 Lilianas specter
14 read the bones
15 Tortured existence
16 Diabolic servitude
17 Nezumi graverobber
18 Sign in blood
19 disfigure
20 Wakedancer
This. I was reading through the lists in this thread today and I was thinking "yeah, you could probably get away with a mono blue peasant cube." There are soooooo many options and between the several roles blue can play, its ridiculous.
Spy network might get really good if morph becomes a thing in cube with khans of tarkir. Honestly, I don't run brainstorm or it's disciples, but if I was looking for one it would have to be preordain because of its ability to separate good and bad cards where the others can't. Spy network falls into the can't category, but definitely impresses by making up for its card disadvantage with its wealth of information. It's an interesting trade off and it reminds me of portent, which is a bit of a pet card for me.
02 Mana leak
03 Psionic blast
04 Crystal shard
05 Fact or fiction
06 Counterspell
07 Mulldrifter
08 Preordain
09 Waterfront bouncer
10 man-o-war
11 Wash out
12 Mind control
13 Pestermite
14 Triton tactics
15 mist raven
16 Choking tethers
17 Looter il-kor
18 Jetting glasskite
19 Dakra mystic
20 phantom wings
@delandel: I like to think of withdraw as more of an unsummon with a creature ETB effect stapled on.