What do you think of this cards in an unpowered cube. Are they too strong or do you think they are fine and needed for supporting specific archetypes like the artifact.dec?
Yeah, Sol Ring is definitely honorary power. Grim Monolith seems within the realm of fairness, and Mana Vault seems on the fence. Mana Crypt is also too broken for unpowered to me.
I run Mana Vault and Grim Monolith, but cut Sol Ring, and that seems like a good compromise position to me. The other are really good in my cube, but are by no means automatic first picks. They usually provide a nice one-time acceleration, occasionally more in longer games, but you don't just want to scoop when they hit play, like you do with Sol Ring.
I actually kept Sol Ring in my cube for a long time, hoping it would turn out to be fairer than others said. I was able to win a few early games when it came out T1, so I kept it in for almost a year. But it really became clear that it was about 50% better than the next best card in the cube. I would probably pick Sol Ring P1P1 even if I had to skip my next 4 picks.
True unpowered, I would run Grim as it's basically a 1 time effect until turns later when you can untap it/use it in other ways. Sol Ring is so much of an advantage. Coming out the gates T1 land + sol ring is brutal. Mana Vault is a grey line. The 1 damage per turn can be relevant, especially against fast cube decks. However, it provides a very potent "oomph" stronger than Grim. The rest of the cube would determine if MV is too good or not.
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I mean, hell, we're all on a forum for something that most people would describe as a "children's card game"...do what makes you happy. You are never too old to enjoy yourself.
I currently run an unpowered cube (mainly due to price reasons), and these cards are all pretty much picked up in picks 1-4, barring any ridiculously stacked packs. My old play group really liked them a lot as it allowed main different decks to be able to play cards much earlier than they typically could otherwise.
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I run an unpowered cube but include all of these cards. Now the first reaction I get from people is that Sol Ring is broken and shouldn't be in a cube that tries to emphasize complex board states while excluding other powerful cards, including Planeswalkers.
However, after playing with my cube most people agree that Sol Ring, as it's the strongest of the three, isn't broken but still powerful. This is a result of the exclusion of things like Titans which generate unheard of advantage if played on turn 3 or 4 on the back of one of these artifacts. There's also no planeswalkers which stems some of the power of dropping a Jace, TMS on turn two in a control match up before they have counter mana up, and Hero of Bladehold is excluded also.
That's not to say powerful plays don't exist off of Sol Ring, a turn 2 Phantom Centaur or turn 3 Deranged Hermit is by no means a weak play, it's just much more manageable than a turn 4 Titan. Though a turn 3-4 Wildfire is silly good.
So in short, Fast mana can be balanced in unpowered cubes, it just takes time and effort to design.
My unpowered cube is currently running Mox Diamond, Mana Vault and Sol Ring, and we haven't had too many issues yet. Amazingly, Sol Ring is the only one of the three my group have cottoned onto so far (and that is only due to its reputation as an EDH auto-include). I have grown very fond of 7-8-picking Mana Vault.
I typically value Grim Monolith higher than Mana Vault in cube draft. The fact that you can only untap the Vault in your upkeep is so annoying, that I would much rather have the Monolith tbh.
I run an unpowered cube but include all of these cards. Now the first reaction I get from people is that Sol Ring is broken and shouldn't be in a cube that tries to emphasize complex board states while excluding other powerful cards, including Planeswalkers.
However, after playing with my cube most people agree that Sol Ring, as it's the strongest of the three, isn't broken but still powerful. This is a result of the exclusion of things like Titans which generate unheard of advantage if played on turn 3 or 4 on the back of one of these artifacts. There's also no planeswalkers which stems some of the power of dropping a Jace, TMS on turn two in a control match up before they have counter mana up, and Hero of Bladehold is excluded also.
That's not to say powerful plays don't exist off of Sol Ring, a turn 2 Phantom Centaur or turn 3 Deranged Hermit is by no means a weak play, it's just much more manageable than a turn 4 Titan. Though a turn 3-4 Wildfire is silly good.
So in short, Fast mana can be balanced in unpowered cubes, it just takes time and effort to design.
I've read this post several times and still don't understand how it's unfair/broken to have cards like Power 9/Titans/Planeswalkers but it's okay to have Sol Ring in a Cube. I would P1P1 Sol Ring every single time without hesitation.
Nothing in this game is degenerate or completely dominant. They haven't banned anything in standard in a long, long time. Hell they should have banned affinity right away, but they didn't until boxed sales collapsed too. Hasbro had to come in and fire people.
I'll enjoy watching all the whiners eat crow monday.
I've read this post several times and still don't understand how it's unfair/broken to have cards like Power 9/Titans/Planeswalkers but it's okay to have Sol Ring in a Cube. I would P1P1 Sol Ring every single time without hesitation.
Agree with you / disagree with the guy you quoted.
I opted against including Sol Ring in my C/U cube for power reasons. It being the only piece of "power" that fits the rarity criteria meant that it was just so far ahead of the curve set by the rest of the cards. I've seen it do too many degenerate things in my rare cube (which is what I want from that cube) that I felt like it was just too much for a peasant cube.
Of the three cards listed above, I think Grim Monolith would be the only one I'd run without power. The other two just provide too much advantage, especially Sol Ring.
I'd rank Sol Ring as the #1 card in a powered Cube and I'd draft it above pretty much everything else. It is definitly too strong for an unpowered Cube. I would not run Mana Vault either (nor Mana Crypt, if the question comes down). Grim Monolith is probably safe. I'm not a huge fan of fast mana in unpowered Cube, it quite goes against the concept of unpowered.
These posts sum it up. I'm not sure that Grim Monolith is safe either; I usually view it as an auto-first-pick, even over Swords and the like, but then I'm not particularly good at cube.
I...don't understand how it's unfair/broken to have cards like Power 9/Titans/Planeswalkers but it's okay to have Sol Ring in a Cube. I would P1P1 Sol Ring every single time without hesitation.
I basically agree with this. I run neither P9/Titans/PWalkers nor Sol Ring/Mana Vault/G Monolith. The argument "there's nothing to ramp into" seems silly; I agree that I would rather cast a titan, but I'm fine casting an early Woodfall Primus.
I've read this post several times and still don't understand how it's unfair/broken to have cards like Power 9/Titans/Planeswalkers but it's okay to have Sol Ring in a Cube. I would P1P1 Sol Ring every single time without hesitation.
And you wouldn't be particularly wrong for doing it.
Well first of all let's start by clearing up a small misconception, it's not that I believe P9/Titans/Walkers are broken/unfair by their own right, it's mostly that I consider them uninteresting and too good in combination with other cards... Primarily with Sol Ring. Think about it, reanimating a Grave Titan or Wurmcoil is devastating to the other player, sure they can kill it but then that leaves the opponent with 4 to 6 power and toughness on the field, and if they don't they're dead within 2 to 3 turns. Compare that to reanimating something like a Pelaka Wurm which requires an answer but only gives the reanimating player 7 life and a card for their effort. It's still a 3 turn clock but it's also a harder to cast creature that provides a smaller early game advantage. More so, it can't be played on turn 4 off of a Sol Ring, maybe on turn 5 but you'd have to have GGG for that too.
Moving on, Sol Ring has a narrow window in which it's busted. Turns 1-3 Sol Ring is amazing if you have things to do with it (restrictive casting costs such as 1WW can hamper it on turn 2)... But the longer the game runs the worse Sol Ring becomes, just like most ramp spells. Titans and several Walkers don't have that issue, they start off amazing early game if cheated into play and plateau at a rather high power level late game. A 6/6 body for 6 with an extra ability that generates continuous card advantage is amazing at all points of the game, while a very strong mana rock is only ok in the late game and a horrendous top deck once you've reached a certain amount of mana.
The Power 9 are excluded for a different reason, as I don't view them being too powerful individually but I believe they contribute to a critical mass that creates issues. Much like why many people don't include Signets, I don't include the moxen, as they add 5 ramp spells that any colour can use and as such devalue Greens ramp while also making Sol Ring better. When Sol Ring is a singular power mana card (although the lesser moxen and things like Monolith/Vault exist they aren't as strong or consistent) it's much harder to build the deck that abuses Sol Ring as you simply can't get the consistency to play higher drops... In short, it's very hard to depend on Sol Ring alone in a 40 card stack to advance you quickly in the absence of Moxen. After all there's a reason why cubes will include a multitude of 1 CMC mana dorks (Noble, Birds, Elves 1, Elves 2, etc) so that the green ramp deck can exist, and without the moxen support, the Sol Ring deck becomes worse. As for Recall and Time Walk, I guess Recall is a bit too good but Time Walk might see inclusion if I ever happen to get one.
Walkers are too good for a few reasons. They don't really have enough answers to them as they are a new card type, and they create cumulative card advantage that much like the titans is bad for a cube that wants to focus on a more fishy nature. That's really it, my Cube is more Fish than anything, and if you've seen Vintage Fish lists (or as they are now called "Null Rod based decks) you'll notice most of them run Moxen of relevant colours but not Sol Ring. I want an environment that focuses on complex board states and strong play skill, more than simply powerful plays and broken stuff. I work hard on the design of the cube to achieve this and while I might not be right on everything I think so far everything has a counter to it and for the most part I'm generally happy with it all as I've seen games last over an hour due to back and forth interaction... I've even had several players rage quit as they were mad at their own play mistakes, one of them stating "This is all about being the smarter player, and with the draws I'm getting and the cards I have I should be beating you (other player not me), but I didn't commit to my plan correctly and now I'm losing. I can't do this!" Granted, I'm using the term "rage quit" very liberally here and it wasn't really raging but more of a mild frustration... Guess that's what happens when you cube late at night and all of the resultant decks require strong attention to the game.
But as a whole, I've had many friends who stated Sol Ring was too powerful no matter what and that they didn't understand my cube design for the same reasons you stated. After playing with the cube several times they've all pretty much said "It's weird Sol Ring isn't even that good in your cube, it's great but it's not what I'm used to." I guess it's just something you have to play out a few times to experience.
I don't really agree with anything you just said unfortunately. Sol Ring makes every deck better unless it consists of only colored mana symbols on cards. The card is acceleration and ramp in one card. Having four mana on turn two is absolutely devastating and more powerful than having a Mox in most cases. Even if you turn one mox + cast a 2CC spell and then on turn two lay a land and drop a 3CC spell it's no where near as dangerous as being able to drop a plethora of 4CC spells on turn two. Furthermore, the existence of Moxes in a Cube actually balances out the power of Sol Ring because there increases the chance of other players actually getting a piece of that action. As you describe it now and knowing fully that there are no Moxes in your Cube I would feel like I won the lottery if I open up Sol Ring in a pack because no one else will be able to come near that.
I don't include signets in my own Cube because they're ramp, acceleration and color-fixing in color combinations that shouldn't have it. This is different from running off-color or splash-color Moxen in your deck. None of the P9 Moxes are going to let you change your extra red mana into two different colors so you can cast a clutch gold card.
As for titans/planeswalkers and board states I could understand the notion but just taking a quick look at your Cube I see you're running Elesh-Norn and Sundering Titan, I don't see how this promotes your idea at all. You have Balance in there but that's probably right underneath the P9 spells in terms of power since it's Wrath/Armageddon/Mind Twist all in one. You're running more 6 drop creatures in White than you are in Green and there's definitely something off about that.
But that's just my two cents and if it works for your play group, more power to you.
Nothing in this game is degenerate or completely dominant. They haven't banned anything in standard in a long, long time. Hell they should have banned affinity right away, but they didn't until boxed sales collapsed too. Hasbro had to come in and fire people.
I'll enjoy watching all the whiners eat crow monday.
I play Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, and Grim Monolith. I don't play power, but ONLY because of financial concerns, and I don't like playing with proxies.
I get that Sol Ring is the best card in the cube. So? If you cut it, then something else will be. Are you going to cut that too? There's gotta be a best card. If you'd rather the best card in your cube be Umezawa's Jitte, then that's a valid decision, but somebody is going to have an utterly broken card.
And if they don't have an utterly broken card, then why am I cubing again? Cube, to me, is all about playing ridiculous things.
Sol Ring causes stories. I had a new player to my group insist that Sol Ring was too powerful, and that he had never lost a game where he'd played sol ring, and that if I didn't have power in the cube, I needed to cut it. I told him I was keeping it, he drafted it, and we played. On the draw, he goes T1 Sol Ring, T2 Phyrexian Metamorph copying Sol ring, T3 land, Karn (at exactly 7 mana). Karn met my friend Mana Tithe, and I won the game with my aggressive R/W deck. That story was awesome. It doesn't exist if I don't give him access to fast mana to do ridiculous things.
I just dont approve of "way too good" as a description for anything. There are no cards banned from my cube because they're too good, and I think supporting the artifact deck with fast mana makes for a really fun environment.
I don't really agree with anything you just said unfortunately. Sol Ring makes every deck better unless it consists of only colored mana symbols on cards. The card is acceleration and ramp in one card. Having four mana on turn two is absolutely devastating and more powerful than having a Mox in most cases. Even if you turn one mox + cast a 2CC spell and then on turn two lay a land and drop a 3CC spell it's no where near as dangerous as being able to drop a plethora of 4CC spells on turn two. Furthermore, the existence of Moxes in a Cube actually balances out the power of Sol Ring because there increases the chance of other players actually getting a piece of that action. As you describe it now and knowing fully that there are no Moxes in your Cube I would feel like I won the lottery if I open up Sol Ring in a pack because no one else will be able to come near that.
Cool, and I won't fault you for that. Though you should recognize that your broken scenario for Sol Ring is revolving around having it in your opening 7, along with a relevant play that feeds off of it. Getting the Sol Ring alone is an 18.97% chance in your opening 7, and if you play three rounds of six games you'll see it 1.18 times in your opening hand... At three rounds and nine games you'll see it 1.7 times in your opening hand. That's also not accounting for potential issues of keeping sketchy hands or drafting awkwardly because you have a Sol Ring, nor the potential of Sol Ring to be a mana dork when your best turn 2 play off of it is something like Lingering Souls.
Moxen and Mana Crypt offer other players some more fast mana, but they also lead to the higher chance of the Sol Ring deck being a thing where otherwise it might be too undependable. More so, the probability of Sol Ring showing up once is much lesser than multiple forms of fast mana showing up in a draft. Though that being said, Moxens might show up at some point, though mostly as a special event type of thing where they hang out for a certain amount of drafts and then cycle out again.
I don't include signets in my own Cube because they're ramp, acceleration and color-fixing in color combinations that shouldn't have it. This is different from running off-color or splash-color Moxen in your deck. None of the P9 Moxes are going to let you change your extra red mana into two different colors so you can cast a clutch gold card.
But again, the Moxen are coloured sources that go into any deck. They are essentially a strictly better basic land that in my opinion is stronger than Sol Ring in a more general case, where Sol Ring can be stronger in a more specific case.
As for titans/planeswalkers and board states I could understand the notion but just taking a quick look at your Cube I see you're running Elesh-Norn and Sundering Titan, I don't see how this promotes your idea at all. You have Balance in there but that's probably right underneath the P9 spells in terms of power since it's Wrath/Armageddon/Mind Twist all in one. You're running more 6 drop creatures in White than you are in Green and there's definitely something off about that.
Elesh Norn is a house and I love her beauty, but really she's not a card that wins quickly without support, and is vulnerable to a lot of removal. I'd often times first pick her but she's very passable, whereas I wouldn't pass Titans. Generally decks shouldn't have a problem winning out from Elesh Norn if they are ahead already, unless something went terribly wrong.
Sundering Titan is a card I really enjoy, but his power really requires to be built around. I know he's one of my favorite reanimator targets, especially when I already have a Welder in the deck, but he can still fail given the situation... And usually requires at least some loss on your side by one land if not more. The fixing is also weaker so mana bases tend to be tighter.
Balance, well it's one of the most misplayed cards out there. Sure it's great, and often times it does what you want it to do, but often times it's not very one sided. I've had those games where I got Greater Gorgadon and forced my opponent to sacrifice all their lands and creatures while facing down a 9/7 haste dude that either came into play after the Balance or the turn after, but generally Balance results in you killing X amount of creatures by discarding X amount of cards or sacrificing X lands, it's a very good Firestorm in that regard, but it's not exactly all of those cards you mentioned. Balance is also balanced by the absence of moxens so that mana is more land dependent and as such you'll usually get less of an Armageddon effect from it then you'd like.
As for the White and Green thing... Well, I like green being a utility colour, it has all the goodies of such, and White has some rather powerful big guys that also double as utility creatures. Sure Yosie and my boo Elesh Norn are high end drops, but Eternal Dragon and Exalted Angel aren't exactly six drops as they serve other purposes while waiting to be played.
But that's just my two cents and if it works for your play group, more power to you.
I wouldn't say it's just my play group, I've used my cube with various groups of different mentalities and so far the results have been the same. Sure it's anecdotal evidence, but rarely have I seen the deck with Sol Ring being the dominant deck in a draft with my cube.
Also, if I'm not particularly coherent in this post, I apologize as I haven't slept enough and have had a couple of drinks so my ability to string together long trains of thought isn't exactly optimal.
I play Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, and Grim Monolith. I don't play power, but ONLY because of financial concerns, and I don't like playing with proxies.
I get that Sol Ring is the best card in the cube. So? If you cut it, then something else will be. Are you going to cut that too? There's gotta be a best card. If you'd rather the best card in your cube be Umezawa's Jitte, then that's a valid decision, but somebody is going to have an utterly broken card.
And if they don't have an utterly broken card, then why am I cubing again? Cube, to me, is all about playing ridiculous things.
Sol Ring causes stories. I had a new player to my group insist that Sol Ring was too powerful, and that he had never lost a game where he'd played sol ring, and that if I didn't have power in the cube, I needed to cut it. I told him I was keeping it, he drafted it, and we played. On the draw, he goes T1 Sol Ring, T2 Phyrexian Metamorph copying Sol ring, T3 land, Karn (at exactly 7 mana). Karn met my friend Mana Tithe, and I won the game with my aggressive R/W deck. That story was awesome. It doesn't exist if I don't give him access to fast mana to do ridiculous things.
I just dont approve of "way too good" as a description for anything. There are no cards banned from my cube because they're too good, and I think supporting the artifact deck with fast mana makes for a really fun environment.
I think the better illustration is how much better a card is than those of similar effects. I feel that Sol ring, and Mana crypt to a lesser extent are at least twice as good as all other options (including power). To each their own, but Sol Ring is quite a bit better than the next card down the list.
I still run grim monolith in my unpowered cube and it does good things. But it's nowhere near the power of the other fast mana cards. I've been liking that the blowout and explosive games come from the way you build decks now, and not from getting fast mana. Though I'm not completely sure I don't want to reinclude moxen.
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I think the better illustration is how much better a card is than those of similar effects. I feel that Sol ring, and Mana crypt to a lesser extent are at least twice as good as all other options (including power). To each their own, but Sol Ring is quite a bit better than the next card down the list.
I'd disagree, and point to Vintage as an example of how every deck wants Moxen but not Sol Ring. I fully understand the power of Sol Ring, but as I've said it doesn't always give you that awesome edge, isn't consistent enough alone, and doesn't allow you to cast the double casting cost spells turn one or the triple cost spells turn two. Nor does it replace a basic land as often as you'd like.
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What do you think of this cards in an unpowered cube. Are they too strong or do you think they are fine and needed for supporting specific archetypes like the artifact.dec?
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I actually kept Sol Ring in my cube for a long time, hoping it would turn out to be fairer than others said. I was able to win a few early games when it came out T1, so I kept it in for almost a year. But it really became clear that it was about 50% better than the next best card in the cube. I would probably pick Sol Ring P1P1 even if I had to skip my next 4 picks.
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However, after playing with my cube most people agree that Sol Ring, as it's the strongest of the three, isn't broken but still powerful. This is a result of the exclusion of things like Titans which generate unheard of advantage if played on turn 3 or 4 on the back of one of these artifacts. There's also no planeswalkers which stems some of the power of dropping a Jace, TMS on turn two in a control match up before they have counter mana up, and Hero of Bladehold is excluded also.
That's not to say powerful plays don't exist off of Sol Ring, a turn 2 Phantom Centaur or turn 3 Deranged Hermit is by no means a weak play, it's just much more manageable than a turn 4 Titan. Though a turn 3-4 Wildfire is silly good.
So in short, Fast mana can be balanced in unpowered cubes, it just takes time and effort to design.
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I've read this post several times and still don't understand how it's unfair/broken to have cards like Power 9/Titans/Planeswalkers but it's okay to have Sol Ring in a Cube. I would P1P1 Sol Ring every single time without hesitation.
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Of the three cards listed above, I think Grim Monolith would be the only one I'd run without power. The other two just provide too much advantage, especially Sol Ring.
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These posts sum it up. I'm not sure that Grim Monolith is safe either; I usually view it as an auto-first-pick, even over Swords and the like, but then I'm not particularly good at cube.
I basically agree with this. I run neither P9/Titans/PWalkers nor Sol Ring/Mana Vault/G Monolith. The argument "there's nothing to ramp into" seems silly; I agree that I would rather cast a titan, but I'm fine casting an early Woodfall Primus.
And you wouldn't be particularly wrong for doing it.
Well first of all let's start by clearing up a small misconception, it's not that I believe P9/Titans/Walkers are broken/unfair by their own right, it's mostly that I consider them uninteresting and too good in combination with other cards... Primarily with Sol Ring. Think about it, reanimating a Grave Titan or Wurmcoil is devastating to the other player, sure they can kill it but then that leaves the opponent with 4 to 6 power and toughness on the field, and if they don't they're dead within 2 to 3 turns. Compare that to reanimating something like a Pelaka Wurm which requires an answer but only gives the reanimating player 7 life and a card for their effort. It's still a 3 turn clock but it's also a harder to cast creature that provides a smaller early game advantage. More so, it can't be played on turn 4 off of a Sol Ring, maybe on turn 5 but you'd have to have GGG for that too.
Moving on, Sol Ring has a narrow window in which it's busted. Turns 1-3 Sol Ring is amazing if you have things to do with it (restrictive casting costs such as 1WW can hamper it on turn 2)... But the longer the game runs the worse Sol Ring becomes, just like most ramp spells. Titans and several Walkers don't have that issue, they start off amazing early game if cheated into play and plateau at a rather high power level late game. A 6/6 body for 6 with an extra ability that generates continuous card advantage is amazing at all points of the game, while a very strong mana rock is only ok in the late game and a horrendous top deck once you've reached a certain amount of mana.
The Power 9 are excluded for a different reason, as I don't view them being too powerful individually but I believe they contribute to a critical mass that creates issues. Much like why many people don't include Signets, I don't include the moxen, as they add 5 ramp spells that any colour can use and as such devalue Greens ramp while also making Sol Ring better. When Sol Ring is a singular power mana card (although the lesser moxen and things like Monolith/Vault exist they aren't as strong or consistent) it's much harder to build the deck that abuses Sol Ring as you simply can't get the consistency to play higher drops... In short, it's very hard to depend on Sol Ring alone in a 40 card stack to advance you quickly in the absence of Moxen. After all there's a reason why cubes will include a multitude of 1 CMC mana dorks (Noble, Birds, Elves 1, Elves 2, etc) so that the green ramp deck can exist, and without the moxen support, the Sol Ring deck becomes worse. As for Recall and Time Walk, I guess Recall is a bit too good but Time Walk might see inclusion if I ever happen to get one.
Walkers are too good for a few reasons. They don't really have enough answers to them as they are a new card type, and they create cumulative card advantage that much like the titans is bad for a cube that wants to focus on a more fishy nature. That's really it, my Cube is more Fish than anything, and if you've seen Vintage Fish lists (or as they are now called "Null Rod based decks) you'll notice most of them run Moxen of relevant colours but not Sol Ring. I want an environment that focuses on complex board states and strong play skill, more than simply powerful plays and broken stuff. I work hard on the design of the cube to achieve this and while I might not be right on everything I think so far everything has a counter to it and for the most part I'm generally happy with it all as I've seen games last over an hour due to back and forth interaction... I've even had several players rage quit as they were mad at their own play mistakes, one of them stating "This is all about being the smarter player, and with the draws I'm getting and the cards I have I should be beating you (other player not me), but I didn't commit to my plan correctly and now I'm losing. I can't do this!" Granted, I'm using the term "rage quit" very liberally here and it wasn't really raging but more of a mild frustration... Guess that's what happens when you cube late at night and all of the resultant decks require strong attention to the game.
But as a whole, I've had many friends who stated Sol Ring was too powerful no matter what and that they didn't understand my cube design for the same reasons you stated. After playing with the cube several times they've all pretty much said "It's weird Sol Ring isn't even that good in your cube, it's great but it's not what I'm used to." I guess it's just something you have to play out a few times to experience.
I don't include signets in my own Cube because they're ramp, acceleration and color-fixing in color combinations that shouldn't have it. This is different from running off-color or splash-color Moxen in your deck. None of the P9 Moxes are going to let you change your extra red mana into two different colors so you can cast a clutch gold card.
As for titans/planeswalkers and board states I could understand the notion but just taking a quick look at your Cube I see you're running Elesh-Norn and Sundering Titan, I don't see how this promotes your idea at all. You have Balance in there but that's probably right underneath the P9 spells in terms of power since it's Wrath/Armageddon/Mind Twist all in one. You're running more 6 drop creatures in White than you are in Green and there's definitely something off about that.
But that's just my two cents and if it works for your play group, more power to you.
Who's eating crow?
I get that Sol Ring is the best card in the cube. So? If you cut it, then something else will be. Are you going to cut that too? There's gotta be a best card. If you'd rather the best card in your cube be Umezawa's Jitte, then that's a valid decision, but somebody is going to have an utterly broken card.
And if they don't have an utterly broken card, then why am I cubing again? Cube, to me, is all about playing ridiculous things.
Sol Ring causes stories. I had a new player to my group insist that Sol Ring was too powerful, and that he had never lost a game where he'd played sol ring, and that if I didn't have power in the cube, I needed to cut it. I told him I was keeping it, he drafted it, and we played. On the draw, he goes T1 Sol Ring, T2 Phyrexian Metamorph copying Sol ring, T3 land, Karn (at exactly 7 mana). Karn met my friend Mana Tithe, and I won the game with my aggressive R/W deck. That story was awesome. It doesn't exist if I don't give him access to fast mana to do ridiculous things.
I just dont approve of "way too good" as a description for anything. There are no cards banned from my cube because they're too good, and I think supporting the artifact deck with fast mana makes for a really fun environment.
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Cool, and I won't fault you for that. Though you should recognize that your broken scenario for Sol Ring is revolving around having it in your opening 7, along with a relevant play that feeds off of it. Getting the Sol Ring alone is an 18.97% chance in your opening 7, and if you play three rounds of six games you'll see it 1.18 times in your opening hand... At three rounds and nine games you'll see it 1.7 times in your opening hand. That's also not accounting for potential issues of keeping sketchy hands or drafting awkwardly because you have a Sol Ring, nor the potential of Sol Ring to be a mana dork when your best turn 2 play off of it is something like Lingering Souls.
Moxen and Mana Crypt offer other players some more fast mana, but they also lead to the higher chance of the Sol Ring deck being a thing where otherwise it might be too undependable. More so, the probability of Sol Ring showing up once is much lesser than multiple forms of fast mana showing up in a draft. Though that being said, Moxens might show up at some point, though mostly as a special event type of thing where they hang out for a certain amount of drafts and then cycle out again.
But again, the Moxen are coloured sources that go into any deck. They are essentially a strictly better basic land that in my opinion is stronger than Sol Ring in a more general case, where Sol Ring can be stronger in a more specific case.
Elesh Norn is a house and I love her beauty, but really she's not a card that wins quickly without support, and is vulnerable to a lot of removal. I'd often times first pick her but she's very passable, whereas I wouldn't pass Titans. Generally decks shouldn't have a problem winning out from Elesh Norn if they are ahead already, unless something went terribly wrong.
Sundering Titan is a card I really enjoy, but his power really requires to be built around. I know he's one of my favorite reanimator targets, especially when I already have a Welder in the deck, but he can still fail given the situation... And usually requires at least some loss on your side by one land if not more. The fixing is also weaker so mana bases tend to be tighter.
Balance, well it's one of the most misplayed cards out there. Sure it's great, and often times it does what you want it to do, but often times it's not very one sided. I've had those games where I got Greater Gorgadon and forced my opponent to sacrifice all their lands and creatures while facing down a 9/7 haste dude that either came into play after the Balance or the turn after, but generally Balance results in you killing X amount of creatures by discarding X amount of cards or sacrificing X lands, it's a very good Firestorm in that regard, but it's not exactly all of those cards you mentioned. Balance is also balanced by the absence of moxens so that mana is more land dependent and as such you'll usually get less of an Armageddon effect from it then you'd like.
As for the White and Green thing... Well, I like green being a utility colour, it has all the goodies of such, and White has some rather powerful big guys that also double as utility creatures. Sure Yosie and my boo Elesh Norn are high end drops, but Eternal Dragon and Exalted Angel aren't exactly six drops as they serve other purposes while waiting to be played.
I wouldn't say it's just my play group, I've used my cube with various groups of different mentalities and so far the results have been the same. Sure it's anecdotal evidence, but rarely have I seen the deck with Sol Ring being the dominant deck in a draft with my cube.
Also, if I'm not particularly coherent in this post, I apologize as I haven't slept enough and have had a couple of drinks so my ability to string together long trains of thought isn't exactly optimal.
I think the better illustration is how much better a card is than those of similar effects. I feel that Sol ring, and Mana crypt to a lesser extent are at least twice as good as all other options (including power). To each their own, but Sol Ring is quite a bit better than the next card down the list.
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I'd disagree, and point to Vintage as an example of how every deck wants Moxen but not Sol Ring. I fully understand the power of Sol Ring, but as I've said it doesn't always give you that awesome edge, isn't consistent enough alone, and doesn't allow you to cast the double casting cost spells turn one or the triple cost spells turn two. Nor does it replace a basic land as often as you'd like.