"Castle of Locthwain"
Land
Castle of Locthwain enters the battlefield untapped, if you control a swamp.
T: Add B.
1BB, T: Draw a card, then you lose life equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Very low opportunity cost for some late-game flood insurance. Not always entering the battlefield tapped and tapping for colored mana is especially nice. The lifeloss can be quite steep, especially against aggro. I'm a bit skeptical, but I might give this a test.
Low opportunity cost in a heavy black deck and a reasonably cheap activation cost to draw a card.
It should play out a lot like a seagate wreckage that can make black mana and you can have a card in hand to activate!
The best way to think about the loss of life penalty is, in matchups where the life loss matters the most (agro), you probably wouldn't have time to activate the ability anyways. In matchups where you have a lot of time, the lifeloss will matter the least and your want for drawing cards with your lands will be at a maximum.
I wish there were more sources of lifegain in black, and this is even more reason to try and support/draft cards that gain life.
The life loss will matter, but when your hand is full of cards, you'd rather cast those cards than activate this ability anyway. This won't usually ping you for more than two.
You generally only want to be spending (effectively) 4 Mana to draw a card late in the game, but this card will win you a lot of late game topdeck wars. I don't think the life loss should matter at that point in the game.
I could see this slotting in over something like Phyrexian Arena l, although I'm not sure it's actually better than arena.
Probably a 540+ or 450+ card. I don't think this makes 360 lists.
I'm not a fan even at 540. I think spending four mana to draw a card only against a control deck will be too narrow an ability in my powered environment. My main concern is how often does this ability need to be activated to justify the land being in your Cube? I think it will just be a swamp too often.
Low opportunity cost and has matchups and windows where it can start to take over games. It looks like an Arguel's Blood Fast that you can safely have in your mainboard for the matchups and board states where it shines ...and it doesn't cost you a card. Potential card advantage strapped to a land is a pretty spicy effect.
I'm not a fan even at 540. I think spending four mana to draw a card only against a control deck will be too narrow an ability in my powered environment. My main concern is how often does this ability need to be activated to justify the land being in your Cube? I think it will just be a swamp too often.
This I think is the issue.
In high powered environments, games uncommonly come down to grinding with resources. It will come up sometimes, and it is worth drafting, but Is it worth a cube slot?
The slower and grindier the environment , the better a card like this becomes.
I see a trend: "I'd always play this in my deck, and I'd happily draft if, but I can't justify a cut."
Since this is such an issue, it makes a lot of sense to me to have a utility land slot in each color. In such a way, this isn't competing with all your black cards, just all the black lands. We can all agree that utility lands are good in decks and good in draft, so that seems like the logical solution. I've been doing it this way for a while, and I think I'm ready to go up to a double cycle of mono-colored lands.
But I guess people don't want to add five slots, or make five cuts to do this.
I see a trend: "I'd always play this in my deck, and I'd happily draft if, but I can't justify a cut."
Since this is such an issue, it makes a lot of sense to me to have a utility land slot in each color. In such a way, this isn't competing with all your black cards, just all the black lands. We can all agree that utility lands are good in decks and good in draft, so that seems like the logical solution. I've been doing it this way for a while, and I think I'm ready to go up to a double cycle of mono-colored lands.
But I guess people don't want to add five slots, or make five cuts to do this.
I think this is pretty reasonable solution. Unless your cube is all in on archetypes, the majority of decks should have more than enough playables. Lands contribute to the win% of a deck, more than a slightly better 23-24 card or a mediocore sideboard card.
So, while some lands can be low-impact and unexciting, they are part of an optimal drafting strategy. Assuming you aren't supporting so many utility lands that decks start to struggle for playables.
I personally feel that utility lands are part of the magic experience and enjoy supporting a handful, even if they aren't a bomb like Library/Strip mine. Tend to rotate them around and try new ones out. Wouldn't have found throne of the high city without doing that.
I see a trend: "I'd always play this in my deck, and I'd happily draft if, but I can't justify a cut."
Since this is such an issue, it makes a lot of sense to me to have a utility land slot in each color. In such a way, this isn't competing with all your black cards, just all the black lands. We can all agree that utility lands are good in decks and good in draft, so that seems like the logical solution. I've been doing it this way for a while, and I think I'm ready to go up to a double cycle of mono-colored lands.
But I guess people don't want to add five slots, or make five cuts to do this.
Unless you're increasing the total size of your cube, it's still competing with your black cards. You as the cube designer are making the choice to reserve a slot for this rather than using that slot for a black card... worse, you're reserving five slots across all colors to put in cards that might not have been good enough to include over what you're running now, just to justify adding this one. That seems worse.
The good news is, Black's land offerings for the cube beyond Volrath's Stronghold have always been lacking. This is probably more useful than Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth or any of the other competing options. So if you want it in, just cut a black card and be done with it.
I see a trend: "I'd always play this in my deck, and I'd happily draft if, but I can't justify a cut."
Since this is such an issue, it makes a lot of sense to me to have a utility land slot in each color. In such a way, this isn't competing with all your black cards, just all the black lands. We can all agree that utility lands are good in decks and good in draft, so that seems like the logical solution. I've been doing it this way for a while, and I think I'm ready to go up to a double cycle of mono-colored lands.
But I guess people don't want to add five slots, or make five cuts to do this.
I do have (approximately) a utility slot land in each color. While this cycle is cool, other than red, the slot is filled for the other colors with:
I can't imagine this is a stronger effect than Volrath's Stronghold in the average black deck, and since you probably don't want to dome yourself for a bunch in a control shell, I'd expect that these would often end up in roughly the same decks (with Lochthwain skewing more towards aggro to Stronghold's midrange shells). Ensuring a specific creature is drawn next turn should generally be stronger than a random card off the top of your library. The fact that this taps for Bhelps, but isn't enough to push it over Stronghold.
EDIT: I may have misunderstood if your suggestion is a separate utility land draft, in which case that's an experience I can't speak to - I like having players have to value their land picks in the context of other picks, and haven't tried a separate draft yet.
FWIW, I’d guess this land is better than volrath’s stronghold.
But I’ve always thought that card was a bit over rated.
The biggest kicker is that this land produces black, which is a world of difference than colourless in a heavy black deck. Tons of double and triple black cards that are good.
If volrath’s had the same ETB tapped without a swamp and produced black mana it would be clearly better.
I prefer stronghold. Black has better life loss/card draw already available and this one really punishes you if you aren't in madness mode.
Creature recursion strapped to a land - even if only to the top of your deck is better IMO.
I prefer stronghold. Black has better life loss/card draw already available and this one really punishes you if you aren't in madness mode.
Creature recursion strapped to a land - even if only to the top of your deck is better IMO.
I agree. Having a stronghold and chupacabra on the battlefield at the same time just beats so many decks. And that's even without a sac outlet
I run one colour alligned utility land per colour and Im thinking about testing over stronghold. Stronghold hasnt been doing much in my cube lately. Its currently the lowest ranked utility land in my cube with only a 44% main deck and 48% win percentage. I think this one is at least worth a test. plus it gets me closer to fully foiled modern frame so thats an added bonus!
I prefer stronghold. Black has better life loss/card draw already available and this one really punishes you if you aren't in madness mode.
Creature recursion strapped to a land - even if only to the top of your deck is better IMO.
Agreed. At the end of the game against a slow control deck both of these cards can shine. But I think it's best to guarantee drawing a threat when both the opponent and I are in topdeck mode than it is to draw a raw card in that scenario. Being able to guarantee that powerful/important creatures will always be available to be drawn is a good place to be. Plus, it's cheaper/less black intensive to activate, and always enters untapped.
For what it's worth, in about a quarter of black decks I play, I prefer a basic swamp to stronghold.
So it's hard to do a comparison of their relative abilities to get a sense which one is better.
"Castle of Locthwain"
Land
Castle of Locthwain enters the battlefield untapped, if you control a swamp.
T: Add B.
1BB, T: Draw a card, then you lose life equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Very low opportunity cost for some late-game flood insurance. Not always entering the battlefield tapped and tapping for colored mana is especially nice. The lifeloss can be quite steep, especially against aggro. I'm a bit skeptical, but I might give this a test.
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Low opportunity cost in a heavy black deck and a reasonably cheap activation cost to draw a card.
It should play out a lot like a seagate wreckage that can make black mana and you can have a card in hand to activate!
The best way to think about the loss of life penalty is, in matchups where the life loss matters the most (agro), you probably wouldn't have time to activate the ability anyways. In matchups where you have a lot of time, the lifeloss will matter the least and your want for drawing cards with your lands will be at a maximum.
I wish there were more sources of lifegain in black, and this is even more reason to try and support/draft cards that gain life.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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The life loss will matter, but when your hand is full of cards, you'd rather cast those cards than activate this ability anyway. This won't usually ping you for more than two.
Seems pretty sweet. This, Ifnir Deadlands, Bojuka Bog, Phyrexian Tower, and even Lake of the Dead. Black lands are great compared to other colors.
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You generally only want to be spending (effectively) 4 Mana to draw a card late in the game, but this card will win you a lot of late game topdeck wars. I don't think the life loss should matter at that point in the game.
I could see this slotting in over something like Phyrexian Arena l, although I'm not sure it's actually better than arena.
Probably a 540+ or 450+ card. I don't think this makes 360 lists.
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This I think is the issue.
In high powered environments, games uncommonly come down to grinding with resources. It will come up sometimes, and it is worth drafting, but Is it worth a cube slot?
The slower and grindier the environment , the better a card like this becomes.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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Since this is such an issue, it makes a lot of sense to me to have a utility land slot in each color. In such a way, this isn't competing with all your black cards, just all the black lands. We can all agree that utility lands are good in decks and good in draft, so that seems like the logical solution. I've been doing it this way for a while, and I think I'm ready to go up to a double cycle of mono-colored lands.
But I guess people don't want to add five slots, or make five cuts to do this.
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I think this is pretty reasonable solution. Unless your cube is all in on archetypes, the majority of decks should have more than enough playables. Lands contribute to the win% of a deck, more than a slightly better 23-24 card or a mediocore sideboard card.
So, while some lands can be low-impact and unexciting, they are part of an optimal drafting strategy. Assuming you aren't supporting so many utility lands that decks start to struggle for playables.
I personally feel that utility lands are part of the magic experience and enjoy supporting a handful, even if they aren't a bomb like Library/Strip mine. Tend to rotate them around and try new ones out. Wouldn't have found throne of the high city without doing that.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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Unless you're increasing the total size of your cube, it's still competing with your black cards. You as the cube designer are making the choice to reserve a slot for this rather than using that slot for a black card... worse, you're reserving five slots across all colors to put in cards that might not have been good enough to include over what you're running now, just to justify adding this one. That seems worse.
The good news is, Black's land offerings for the cube beyond Volrath's Stronghold have always been lacking. This is probably more useful than Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth or any of the other competing options. So if you want it in, just cut a black card and be done with it.
White: Kjeldoran Outpost
Blue: Academy Ruins/Tolarian Academy (and I'd also include other lands before Vantress)
Black: Volrath's Stronghold
Green: Treetop Village
I can't imagine this is a stronger effect than Volrath's Stronghold in the average black deck, and since you probably don't want to dome yourself for a bunch in a control shell, I'd expect that these would often end up in roughly the same decks (with Lochthwain skewing more towards aggro to Stronghold's midrange shells). Ensuring a specific creature is drawn next turn should generally be stronger than a random card off the top of your library. The fact that this taps for B helps, but isn't enough to push it over Stronghold.
EDIT: I may have misunderstood if your suggestion is a separate utility land draft, in which case that's an experience I can't speak to - I like having players have to value their land picks in the context of other picks, and haven't tried a separate draft yet.
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But I’ve always thought that card was a bit over rated.
The biggest kicker is that this land produces black, which is a world of difference than colourless in a heavy black deck. Tons of double and triple black cards that are good.
If volrath’s had the same ETB tapped without a swamp and produced black mana it would be clearly better.
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Creature recursion strapped to a land - even if only to the top of your deck is better IMO.
Agreed. At the end of the game against a slow control deck both of these cards can shine. But I think it's best to guarantee drawing a threat when both the opponent and I are in topdeck mode than it is to draw a raw card in that scenario. Being able to guarantee that powerful/important creatures will always be available to be drawn is a good place to be. Plus, it's cheaper/less black intensive to activate, and always enters untapped.
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So it's hard to do a comparison of their relative abilities to get a sense which one is better.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!