MTG Salvation

Even if you run all of the poison creatures, even the old bad ones, you probably don't have a viable poison deck if you're sticking with singleton.

If you run enough pump spells, you really don't have to have that many poison threats - I think it could possibly be supported if you wanted both your creatures to be sparser and your noncreatures to be worse.

Looking for opinions on some random stuff, especially from people who've played with these.

• infantry veteran
  
• chapel geist
  
• test of faith
  
• kor chant
  
• fowl play
  
• deepcavern imp
  
• darkling stalker
  
• casting of bones
  
• martyr of ashes
  
• skinbrand goblin
  
• furor of the bitten
  
• wild dogs
  
• nest invader
  
• ranger's guile
  

I think I'm going to cut ninja of the deep hours because aggressive blue is not really a thing in my cube. Mentioning it because it feels very weird.

Test of Faith, imo, is an Auto for 360. It does what many Green spells have tried to do.

Kor Chant is a 2-for-1 that is semi-unexpected in White. Preventing damage then sniping something else is sweet.

Wild Dogs is if you really are pushing aggro. I run it, but I have lots of 1cc aggro in the cube to push true aggro of 1-2-3-Top End of the Curve

Quote from Runner5678

Ninja of Deep Hours is good because it's best case scenario is a Stealer of Secrets for 1U that immediately draws a card and allows you to replay an "enters the battlefield" creature. When he works, he's essentially a +1.5. He does sometimes... not work and 1U is deceiving because it can't be optimally played until turn 4.

I think in my cube the decks that have a good chance of using his ninjutsu are quite rare, because aggro decks almost never use blue, and blue itself only has a couple early drops that attack.

I think it's similar to how jungle lion is bad in my cube. It's in the wrong color for the deck it wants to be in.

Quote from metalevolence

I think in my cube the decks that have a good chance of using his ninjutsu are quite rare, because aggro decks almost never use blue, and blue itself only has a couple early drops that attack.

I think it's similar to how jungle lion is bad in my cube. It's in the wrong color for the deck it wants to be in.

Ninja doesn't go in Aggro decks, it's a Tempo creature

Quote from ntDars

Ninja doesn't go in Aggro decks, it's a Tempo creature

This. All the times I've successfully controlled a game with ninja it has been on the back of tempo'ing people out with things like Man-O'-War, undo, and (my favorite) Flood, which is also pretty disgusting with Mistblade Shinobi. Ninja is just a 2/2 version of Scroll Thief that has fun interactions with cards like Man-o'-War and Mulldrifter.

Quote from Mahpkins

This. All the times I've successfully controlled a game with ninja it has been on the back of tempo'ing people out with things like Man-O'-War, undo, and (my favorite) Flood, which is also pretty disgusting with Mistblade Shinobi. Ninja is just a 2/2 version of Scroll Thief that has fun interactions with cards like Man-o'-War and Mulldrifter.

Speaking of Mistblade Shinobi, I wish I knew of his existence so I wasn't forced to run Phantasmal Bear for a few months :/

Okay, well I run none of those cards except man-o'-war, so there we are.

Whoops, missed the mention of mulldrifter. But that plus ninja is like the definition of "win more." Spending all your mana for the next 1 or 2 turns to get even more cards after you just drew 2, and not advancing your board.

I don't think flood is that good. I realize this is not a popular opinion.

Flood is absolutely nuts.

Quote from Al_Z_Heimer

The Shinobi is way worse, than it seems. It has a similar problem as Skarrgan Pit-Skulk. It seems like an awesome Onedrop, but then you realise, that it can't be played in turn 1. Later these cards are way too bad.

Fair enough

What do you guys think of Fire Whip? I haven't been really impressed with it and it doesn't seem to fit well into Red for me, given that Red is usually straight Aggro or splashed for the burn spells and removal.

Quote from Runner5678

I've used it. It's fine. Like you said it doesn't really fit what Red is trying to do because it makes your creature tap down. It is also Sorcery speed, opens you up to 2-for-1's, wants to be played turns 5+, and only can do 2 damage to a creature or split 1 and 1 for two mana which doesn't really cut it in the later turns. But it does give some reach to ping down the opponent into burn spell range, has a place in a Red control deck as turn three it's solid on a wall to immediately split 1 and 1 against aggro, and has really interesting interactions with any Deathtouchers in your cube. So it's a more interesting version of burn, but what are you going to cut for it? I couldn't justify keeping it in when it was keeping something like Fire Ambush out.

Honestly I'd rather have Fire Ambush over Fire Whip lol.

Quote from ntDars

Honestly I'd rather have Fire Ambush over Fire Whip lol.

I wouldn't. Whip is never less than 2 points of burn to up to 2 targets. Over time it's far more damage than Ambush any time you want to.

Quote from boinknet

Flood is absolutely nuts.

This is pretty much always true.
UU might seem like a lot, but it's basically repeatable blue removal that's difficult to remove.

Also Yoked Plowbeast has been MUCH, MUCH better than expected, and has somehow climbed to be my cubes 25th(of 58) highest picked white card. I originally only added as part of my desire to suport ramp in all colors, and increase my over all fatty count.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that has two more power than any other white creature not named Thraben Militia ever printed, and is the biggest white creature ever. Also due to cycling, he doesn't know how to be a dead card.
I'd say the card is definitely cubable, or at least on the cubable side of borderline, and I would always include it at ~400+.

Last night I FINALLY realized why Waterfront Bouncer was a Blue staple thanks to AL; he turns every dead land card draw into an Unsummon.

GG

Quote from ntDars

Last night I FINALLY realized why Waterfront Bouncer was a Blue staple thanks to AL; he turns every dead land card draw into an Unsummon.

GG

Yeah, the bouncer is very strong in nearly all blue decks. He's an easy card to cut in deckbuilding until you see the work that it does in play nearly every game.

I'm curious what the land counts tend to look like for various draft decks out of your cubes? My control decks play 16-17, aggro I've seen go as low as 14 if they have a low curve, but I'm never really sure what the right numbers are. It's a question I get asked a lot by drafters new to the format, so I figure I might as well get some more information. Thoughts?

Quote from Prince_Reyson

I'm curious what the land counts tend to look like for various draft decks out of your cubes?

I personally play 18 in midrange/control-esque decks, and then 17 in everything not aggro. In aggro I play, depending on curve, 14-16 lands.

Usually 16 - 17 is a good number. I'm more often compelled to cut down to 15 (probably not the best idea in most of those situations but sue me) than go up to 18, usually because my control decks have cards like Shoreline Ranger.

They can hit, but the threat of power is often enough to change combat. Also makes unblockable giving options appealing

I wanted to bring up a topic that is based on opinions alone, so I just want to know what people think.

Obviously, with the printing of Lightning Strike we have another auto include common Burn into our Cubes. Honestly though, I don't know how I feel adding another burn spell that is a 100% copy of one we already have on that auto-include list - Searing Spear

There are obviously choices in my list that could be easily replaced by Lightning Strike in terms of straight playability and effectiveness, but I don't think taking those out will make my Cube more "fun". I really like the idea of only having 1 burn spell exactly like that, and if you end up drafting something like Volcanic Hammer instead because of the way you drafted, that's the fun of it. But the fact that there would be two of the same card, really nullifies or at least makes this experience (at least to me) that much less special.

All in all, I really want people to play each other and play something like Searing Spear, and their opponent will be like "DAMNIT I WANTED THAT IN DRAFT", as opposed to someone playing Searing Spear and you on the other hand are like, "Oh whatever, I still have Lightning Strike".

I guess it really does just come down to opinions, but this is how I feel about it anyways. I'm really open for comments/criticisms because I'm still not 100% sure if I'll cut anything for Lightning Strike. I LOVE Volcanic Hammer just because of it's flavour, and the pretty promo I have. Those subtle differences between cards is what I feel like makes the cube unique.

Quote from Catullo

I don't get the point with the two "redirect damage" creatures. I read them as a bad version of Prized Unicorn, that MAYBE i would cube if was common. How do you play them?

Prized unicorn doesn't do anything if they swing with their guys.

Quote from Al_Z_Heimer

@ntDars:
Where is the difference to play Searing Spear, Lightning Strike and Incinerate to play Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves and Elvish Mystic? All are super powerful cards and you want to play them as often as possible.
I think Volcanic Hammer is a bad example, because it's strictly worse.

I don't think, that functional reprints are bad. My cube is big enough not to have every copy in every draft. I don't think, that burn decks are too strong in my cube, so I would need to downgrade them. In order to keep my cube balanced, I have to play the most powered cards in each slot, because I do the same in all the other colors.
If you want your cube to be more fun, you can do so, but you shouldn't make some colors as powered as possible and some weaker, because they contain many reprints.

My definition of fun for my cube, is to see all the astonished faces, when they see which cards have all been common over the years and to have a balanced cube, where everyone has the same chance to win the game, only depending on the drafting and playing skills.
In addition to that, I can include some excotic cards, no one knew before and some strategies, where the power level and balancing doesn't suffer from.

Fair enough, makes sense to me, at this point I'm just trying to find a weaker something weaker in my Red section, just because I love Volcanic hammer too much lol

Was looking for answers to hexproof and came across Necrobite. Feels much more like an actual answer than a deathtouch creature, which they will simply wait to remove before attacking. Pretty cool and more interesting than yet another removal spell. You could also use it to save a guy from removal. If only it was a bit cheaper.

Question is, would you actually ever pick this card over anything else?