man i wish they had lifted the bad on Stone forger Mystic on std she is not so OP without the hawks, also with ancient grudge back on the saddle swords and batterskull can be keep in check easy.
Why doesn't you white section include Kor haven. I just noticed that white in your cube now has no no basic unlike the rest of the colors.
As far as RG not being cohesive. I used to have the same problem. The reason is because I didn't include the G aggro deck. I mean I didnt include green one drop 2/1s and so on. I found that most Of the green hyper aggressive one drops are simply worse then every other color. So I cut them and made green big mana and midrange. I think this is where RG works the best. Midrange (efficient guys up the curve plus burn) and big mana. I know you don't want to include wildfire in your list, but RG wildfire is a strong archetype if your list is playing enough wildfire variants. That is just what I noticed about my own cube.
eidolon - Thanks for the information and the analysis! I really do not think Carnophage/Sarcomancy/Vampire Lacerator are where black wants to be; it can support control, reanimator, combo, and disruption easily without losing races with suicide creatures. It didn't come up this changelog but Kor Sanctifiers seems too slow and clunky, and even unreliable with the double white compared to the three 1W disenchants
I'm already brainstorming my next change list. Some of these might seem odd without context, but they all have a reason. It might even be a good reason!
I agree with Rant on there being some uncutable cards in your cuts, the ones I'm most curious to hear your reasoning for are: Balance, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Aether Adept, Time Spiral, Earthquake, Chain Lightning, Regrowth, Vorapede, and Llanowar/Fyndhorn Elves.
I agree with Rant on there being some uncutable cards in your cuts, the ones I'm most curious to hear your reasoning for are: Balance, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Aether Adept, Time Spiral, Earthquake, Chain Lightning, Regrowth, Vorapede, and Llanowar/Fyndhorn Elves.
Balance - I wanted to make room for Catastrophe without just adding yet another wrath effect; Balance is obviously a very powerful card, but also swingy and tempermental. I'd rather have the consistent redundancy of more wraths or armageddons than a random super blowout
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - Just as personal preference, I run two planeswalkers per color. Currently trying out Elspeth 5 instead of Elspeth 4 to get a feel for the card, but I don't have a strong reason against Gideon either
AEther Adept - A thread in Archetype Discussion inspired me to add Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki combo support. Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch are blue three drops, so that's one of the places I looked to cut, and cip -> tap seemed to overlap with cip -> bounce. I'm probably less impressed with Fettergeist and should put the Adept back in, but would like to test the spirit some more
Time Spiral - Another obviously powerful card. This one fell victim to wanting Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain in. Blue's a tight color, and the cut needed to come from somewhere
Earthquake - I've been hearing how Bonfire of the Damned is a $40 standard card. Red's also a tight color, so I replaced one of the X sweepers instead of running three of them.
Chain Lightning - I wanted to fit Searing Spear in, but couldn't find the room. My hypothesis is that the instant speed will be more valuable than the 1 extra mana but it could easily be the other way around.
Regrowth - Green still has the functionality with Eternal Witness, and players can easily get more than one use out of the creature. The one shot sorcery is a nice little utility spell, but I haven't found it doing enough actual work lately. I might try a Restock or Nostalgic Dreams effect in its place instead
Vorapede - Not only obviously strong, but good with the Birthing Pod I just added! I just needed a cut somewhere to try Somberwald Sage, and costing triple green did not help the insect.
Llanowar/Fyndhorn Elves - My green seems to have a few too many mono-green mana dorks, when one of the strengths should be running Forests/x and hitting your other colors as you need them with accelleration. (I would really like to have room for Avacyn's Pilgrim and Elves of Deep Shadow to help with this). This update also adds Stomping Ground/Temple garden specifically to help zoo creatures, so Arbor Elf seemed reasonable as a Llanowar with the possibility of getting more colors. Wild Growth and Fertile Ground are also in as minor enablers for the forest untapper.
Quote from "eidolon232" »
@360 you have a high density of cards that can deal a ton of damage out of nowhere, be it through Soulbond, equipments or the haste creatures. Kor Haven may not be as efficient as Maze of Ith when it comes down to stopping them or forcing your opponent to overextend into one of your mass removal spells, but it has the benefit of not taking up a spell slot, since it actively produces mana.
That's all true! On reflection if I wanted a white land it would likely be Windbrisk Heights, should be easy to activate with all the token support
"Suicide creatures" seems a bit harsh for a mere 1 damage during your upkeep that you in some cases don't even have to take.
Imo it is much easier to build a good black beatdown deck than trying to get the "combo reanimator" decks to work. Removing black as an aggro color significantly hurts aggro in general in your cube, since that way your only option is WR when you want to draft a good aggressive deck.
The modo cube shows that reanimator is really not that hard to assemble and very good when it works. I like in general the idea of stacking black with evasive dorks like Vampire Interloper and Dauthi Marauder, but "play isamarus with drawbacks and sprint" does not seem to work in most games
changes that I don't agree with: Cuts
Siege-Gang Commander - Splinter twin combo calls for two red 5 drops, and Thundermaw Hellkite just got a slot too.
Pillage - Apparently I've been slowly taking single-target LD from red until only Avalanche Riders is left. White has plenty of armageddons, green has its destroying noncreature permanents at a higher cmc, but there aren't any more stone rains. Lando does need a lot of slots to be a cohesive strategy, and using it as incidential disruption leaves it dead on later turns often.
Searing Blaze - Needing both RR and landfall makes this one pretty inconsistent. It's functionally a sorcery and too often stranded in hand
Call of the Herd - Certainly a solid card, but a vanilla 3/3 is kind of aenemic for green and two vanilla 3/3s for 7 isn't that great either. I do appreciate how it's a nice splashabe speed bump with card advantage but shrugs
Gavony Township - I just hate keeping track of the different number of tokens on all my creatures in paper. Also I wanted to add the g/r/w shocklands to help Wild Nacatl and his buddies and Stirring Wildwood is way better. (Next up would be Horizon Canopy)
Battlefield Forge - Sacred Foundry is probably a functional upgrade anyway
Caves of Koilos - Vault of the Archangel seemed interesting to give w/b tokens some extra power endgame. The color pair is exceptionally greedy, and some kind of fixing might be more important
Putrefy - Spiritmonger's a giant monster :roar:
Llanowar Wastes - I don't have a strong reason for Golgari Rot farm other than using it as a self-discard spell for reanimator
Worn Powerstone - Comes in tapped, only produces colorless, and only produces 2. Compares pretty unfavorably to Coalition Relic, and certainly to Grim Monolith
Tumble Magnet - Artifacts is another tight section! I'd kind of like to lose the Masticores (especially now that I no longer run squee), but other than them this seemed the least interesting
Adds
Entreat the Angels - Running Bonfire as the only miracle seemed lonely, an Air Elemental/Decree of Justice mashhup seems worth trying
Sneak Attack - Actually reanimator support; if you've got all these giant uncastable monsters, an extra enabler in your secondary color like Show and Tell or Channel or Sneak Attack can go a long way
Ghitu Encampment - Someone whose opinion I trust says manlands are at the very top of his pick order for monored on the modo cube, so here's one.
Birthing Pod - Haven't ever played with or against this card in a game of magic, but have heard good things and it seems interesting to build around while still being powerful incidentally
Rampant Growth/Fertile Ground - Looking for more redundancy in Farseek, Explore got the axe so am trying these. Maybe with both Cultivates and Sac-Tribe I don't need three slots here but oh well. Fertile Ground is also in for Arbor Elf, so Rampant would be the first to go
Nimbus Maze - I could use that slot as a land or a spell, but maze always being able to get the color you're missing seemed like great design. Drogskol Reaver could also go here, or even just Absorb back
Basalt Monolith - I wanted one more mana rock at 3 and it seemed fine to give grim monolith some redundancy
Balance - I wanted to make room for Catastrophe without just adding yet another wrath effect; Balance is obviously a very powerful card, but also swingy and tempermental. I'd rather have the consistent redundancy of more wraths or armageddons than a random super blowout
This is fair reasoning, when balance works it is far far more powerful, but it is admittedly less consistent that Catastrophe. Personally I'd find room for both by cutting a tapper as I think you have an overabundance of them.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - Just as personal preference, I run two planeswalkers per color. Currently trying out Elspeth 5 instead of Elspeth 4 to get a feel for the card, but I don't have a strong reason against Gideon either
Elspeth Knight-Errant is one of the 3-4 best white cards in the entire cube. Elspeth Tirel is a solid card but Elspeth, K-E and Gideon Jura are a lot better than her. If you want to test her fine, but I wouldn't ever cut Elspeth K-E as she is just that good. Maybe since it's on a test basis you could temporarily have 3 planeswalkers in white with the intent to cut back down to 2 once you figure out which ones you like. Also I'd give the new ajani a run before Elspeth Tirel, he seems like he might have the muscle to beat out Gideon or Elspeth K-E (both of whom are top 5 white cards in cube in my eyes).
AEther Adept - A thread in Archetype Discussion inspired me to add Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki combo support. Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch are blue three drops, so that's one of the places I looked to cut, and cip -> tap seemed to overlap with cip -> bounce. I'm probably less impressed with Fettergeist and should put the Adept back in, but would like to test the spirit some more
Fair reasoning, my response question is if you're looking at blue 3 drops how has Trinket Mage been for you? He was atrocious in my cube even when he could fetch Black Lotus, Sol Ring, and Moxen.
Time Spiral - Another obviously powerful card. This one fell victim to wanting Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain in. Blue's a tight color, and the cut needed to come from somewhere
Earthquake - I've been hearing how Bonfire of the Damned is a $40 standard card. Red's also a tight color, so I replaced one of the X sweepers instead of running three of them.
I think Bonfire and Earthquake are the 2 best red X spells, I'd cut Starstorm or any other one before them. Though I do like adding Bonfire it's been sick for us.
Chain Lightning - I wanted to fit Searing Spear in, but couldn't find the room. My hypothesis is that the instant speed will be more valuable than the 1 extra mana but it could easily be the other way around.
Regrowth - Green still has the functionality with Eternal Witness, and players can easily get more than one use out of the creature. The one shot sorcery is a nice little utility spell, but I haven't found it doing enough actual work lately. I might try a Restock or Nostalgic Dreams effect in its place instead
Fair enough I love the card but if it hasn't been doing enough then it hasn't been doing enough.
Vorapede - Not only obviously strong, but good with the Birthing Pod I just added! I just needed a cut somewhere to try Somberwald Sage, and costing triple green did not help the insect.
I think I'd cut the cheat Fatties into play package (Elvish Piper, Natural Order) before cutting good fatties, but you sill do have a decent threat density so...
Llanowar/Fyndhorn Elves - My green seems to have a few too many mono-green mana dorks, when one of the strengths should be running Forests/x and hitting your other colors as you need them with accelleration. (I would really like to have room for Avacyn's Pilgrim and Elves of Deep Shadow to help with this). This update also adds Stomping Ground/Temple garden specifically to help zoo creatures, so Arbor Elf seemed reasonable as a Llanowar with the possibility of getting more colors. Wild Growth and Fertile Ground are also in as minor enablers for the forest untapper.
I really don't like cutting ramp one drops at all I'd rather have them than turn 2 ramp everyday of the week. If you want to cut some ramp guys take a look at Scorned Villager or Oracle of Mul Daya instead or even Exploration. Playing a 3 drop turn 2 and 4 drop turn 3 is back breaking when cards are as powerful as they are in the cube.
The modo cube shows that reanimator is really not that hard to assemble and very good when it works. I like in general the idea of stacking black with evasive dorks like Vampire Interloper and Dauthi Marauder, but "play isamarus with drawbacks and sprint" does not seem to work in most games
While I support the removal of black aggro, I prefer making it a midrange color, that is all about value and EtB effects. Combo is so fragile in draft, though admittedly it is a thrill when it comes together.
Pillage - Apparently I've been slowly taking single-target LD from red until only Avalanche Riders is left. White has plenty of armageddons, green has its destroying noncreature permanents at a higher cmc, but there aren't any more stone rains. Lando does need a lot of slots to be a cohesive strategy, and using it as incidential disruption leaves it dead on later turns often.
Pillage hits troublesome artifacts, or screws over an opponent tripping on lands, with all the must answer artifacts out there I think Pillage's flexibility makes it worth a slot.
Putrefy - Spiritmonger's a giant monster :roar:
And Putrefy is a super flexible answer two of the most important card types.
Worn Powerstone - Comes in tapped, only produces colorless, and only produces 2. Compares pretty unfavorably to Coalition Relic, and certainly to Grim Monolith
Tumble Magnet - Artifacts is another tight section! I'd kind of like to lose the Masticores (especially now that I no longer run squee), but other than them this seemed the least interesting
I'd keep tumble magnet before most of the cards mentioned in Worn Powerstone's post, and that doesn't even get into creatures of which there are also a few I'd look at cutting.
Entreat the Angels - Running Bonfire as the only miracle seemed lonely, an Air Elemental/Decree of Justice mashhup seems worth trying
Good add, the card has been bonkers good for us!
Birthing Pod - Haven't ever played with or against this card in a game of magic, but have heard good things and it seems interesting to build around while still being powerful incidentally
A constructed card to me, I wouldn't play it in cube too many requirements to build around.
Basalt Monolith - I wanted one more mana rock at 3 and it seemed fine to give grim monolith some redundancy
I don't like it personally, but it's a divisive card in some groups so testing is probably in order.
I see a lot of advice telling me to cut things like Trinket Mage or Chaos Warp or Elvish Piper that are already out; updated the first post to be less confusing
I mostly agree with eidolon and Grapefruit. The changes you are making are going to lower the power of your cube. While there are many cards getting cut/coming in that I disagree with, I'll just discuss the few most important ones:
Balance: This card is widely regard as one of the top 3 white cards. It's insane. You could cut almost any card from the cube for this card and it would be a good move. That said, Catastrophe is a must. I'd cut Hokori, Dust Drinker or Entreat the Angels to keep Balance and Catastrophe. If you want to reduce your Wrath number, cut Parallax Wave.
Time Spiral: One of blue's best cards; I'd run this at even the smallest cube sizes. Cut Show and Tell for it.
Regrowth: This does not look at good as it is. It's a copy of the best spell you played or the spell you played that you desparately need to play again: Wrath, Dismember, Disenchant, etc., etc. Green can certainly use two of these effects and I think it's one of green's top 20 cards. You have a lot of fat you can cut in green, but I'd probably cut Tooth and Nail or Harmonize for this.
I also really think cutting the mana elves is a mistake.
Wonderful changes! My only dislike is the loss of Molten-Tail Masticore. I'd rate that the 2nd-3rd best artifact creature in the cube and the best artifact creature for aggro decks. It's way better than Cathodion. I would consider Cathodion just about uncubeable actually.
Agreed with rantipole that Garruk should stay, as none of the other quoted cards are anywhere near good enough for 360. Entreat the Angels is definitely 360 playable if you are OK with the mechanic. Lastly, I would not cut Lightning Greaves. Giving your whole team haste and protecting your best creature at any given time is worth a one-time 2 mana investment. There are a lot of very, very cuttable options that you can lose, too: Jinxed Choker is perhaps the most egregious example in the list, but Eldrazi Monument, Pristine Talisman, Ratchet Bomb, Everflowing Chalice, Ulamog, Cathodian, Oblivion Stone, Coldsteel Heart, Epochrasite, Gilded Lotus and Thran Dynamo aren't <450 material for me. Get MTM, the two missing swords and Greaves back in there. As well as Grand Coliseum, which does more for fixing than all those mana rocks.
with my latest update, there were some archetypes I wanted to directly test, so my brother and I just took turns building decks
First I built legacy zoo; 9 fetch/dual/shock lands, other manlands/nonbasics, all the kird ape variants, swords/path/lightning bolt/chain lightning. Lotus Cobra ended up being sometimes useful but usually lackluster. Ajani, caller of the pride was insane, I won more than one game out of nowhere by putting rancor and grafted wargear on a guy and flying over with double strike. It never got to be cats o' clock, if he didn't get removed he just won the game. The mana was a little sketchy even with all the nonbasic fixing possible, so maybe drafted zoo decks will look to be W/r/g or something and have a main color that's then supported. Also great were the various manlands and specially slayers' stronghold. They let me develop my board and then suddenly jam all in by spending my mana on a stronger attack phase.
My brother built a Tinker/Show and Tell thing with all the artifact and black creature bombs. We learned that a turn three Sundering Titan or Griselbrand is good, surprising no one. Phyrexian Revoker also did some serious work (plus having artifact two drops is key with tinker). Massacre Wurm and its triple black cost was in danger of being cut, but it completely blew out the tokens deck from an unwinnable board position in hilarious and memorable fashion. He also ran a singleton Reanimate that always wanted to be an Animate Dead or even the recently cut Diabolic Servitude. These kinds of decks that look to do blatantly unfair things are enjoyable to have around and add another dimension to the game. I've had a lot of success with the "giant monsters and enablers for every color", and u/b was supposed to b one of the best combinations for it. Oh also I want to add another 2 mana rock, maybe Guardian Idol?
Then I built U/R/g Splinter Twin. If we're going to test unfair things, then how about the infinite combo. I initially planned on going instant-speed counterburn, but switched into mostly sorcery-speed creatures so my combo pieces could be just generally good when they weren't going infinite. Man-o'-War was one of the best cards and made me miss the recently cut AEther Adept. Birthing Pod was way better than expected; I just made sure to include a couple value creatures at 4 and 5 plus something impressive (Inferno Titan) to end up with. One game I had an empty board with it out and just went Mystic Snake, untap, Pestermite, pod the snake for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Because both the blue enablers have flash you can hide them in your hand until the turn you're ready to go off, so the combo is very resilient.
Arc Lightning and its twin were very underwhelming most of the time, not generating card advantage even if they were able to kill a creature for a 3 mana sorcery. Bonfire of the Damned was likewise mediocre, even with Branstorm and Ponder and Sensei's Divining Top with extra fetchlands. It just wasn't relible enough and ended up being just a four mana wrath when it did work. Maye in a more endgame/mana oriented deck casting it for XXR would be reasonable, and maybe in a more agressive deck that uses the combat step casting it off the rip would be better. Garruk Relentless often didn't have a good target but his Master of the Wild Hunt mode was fine. Kiki-Jiki's triple red wants the deck to be more red than it otherwise might be, so the counterburn style with a heavy emphasis on the burn could pull off the archetype quite well.
My brother responded with a w/b tokens deck that made a lot of creatues. Honor of the Pure was off a lot, but the effect is so powerful when it is on tha it gets to keep its spot. Guul Draz Assassin shined, he felt kind of like a planeswalker. The opponent has to throw answers against even the threat of its "ultimate" (killing a 4/4 every turn is decent) o itgets away and takes over the game. Elspeth Tirel did some work, but so far I agree with the assessment that she's not as strong as Elspeth, Knight Errant. There are so many life payment cards that it's nice having any kind of lifegain effect around.
Wonderful changes! My only dislike is the loss of Molten-Tail Masticore. I'd rate that the 2nd-3rd best artifact creature in the cube and the best artifact creature for aggro decks. It's way better than Cathodion. I would consider Cathodion just about uncubeable actually.
Cathodion's just to give decks that want a 3-drop a reliable one. I mean sometimes he's Great Sable Stag without the double green. I personally don't like the masticores for being too all-in, but that same quality makes them good discard enablers. Molten tail might find his way back in, razormane might go, but the original is probably sidelined forever.
I only run two planeswalkers in each color, and wanted to test relentless (I already know the primal hunter is great). For what it's worth, I value Wildspeaker highest. Anyway he was okay; although depending on him as combo support didn't work out. The decks that had good targets could easily do 1-2 damage if it seemed necessary.
I dunno how you don't like green double fireball, it's one of ramp's best tools for actually closing out a game if it ends up serious threat-light. Tooth and Nail does some heavy lifting for the "X/g giant monsters" archetype and it doesn't even need to be in a red or blue deck to instantly win. Avenger of Zendikar isn't irreplaceable but it seems one of the best fatties right now. Harmonize could go, but it is good in stompy decks to refuel with (ideally after turn four) and the semi-combo decks to dig.
Agreed with rantipole that Garruk should stay, as none of the other quoted cards are anywhere near good enough for 360. Entreat the Angels is definitely 360 playable if you are OK with the mechanic. Lastly, I would not cut Lightning Greaves. Giving your whole team haste and protecting your best creature at any given time is worth a one-time 2 mana investment. There are a lot of very, very cuttable options that you can lose, too: Jinxed Choker is perhaps the most egregious example in the list, but Eldrazi Monument, Pristine Talisman, Ratchet Bomb, Everflowing Chalice, Ulamog, Cathodian, Oblivion Stone, Coldsteel Heart, Epochrasite, Gilded Lotus and Thran Dynamo aren't <450 material for me. Get MTM, the two missing swords and Greaves back in there. As well as Grand Coliseum, which does more for fixing than all those mana rocks.
Also, where are the Shocklands?
I don't agree with a lot of this, especially the idea that selecting cuts is simply generating a list of cards that don't pass an arbitrary threshold. Entreat's fine, but an X tokens effect isn't strictly necessary and bonfire may not stay in either. Yeah I like lightning greaves's effect a lot, but I've had plenty of games where it improved my board position slightly then did nothing as I ran out of actual gas. It could find its way back in. Calling Jinxed Choker egregious is egregious itself, "Sulfuric Vortex anything up to g/w can play" is a great card.
Eldrazi Monument is primarily a w/b card but is a fine curve topper for aggro. Sac a creature means you're replacing your least useful threats with the ones you draw next instead of the masticores' discarding a card and sacrificing your future plays for what's on the board already. Pristine Talisman plays much better than it looks, the lifegain is significant and redundancy in mana rocks is something I'm trying to consciously push without signets. Everflowing Chalice is one of the best, as a Mind Stone/Sissay's Ring. I'm surprised you would cut Ratchet Bomb but not Powder Keg. Both are an important tool for any control deck looking to neutralize early plays.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is in because we wanted to try one Eldrazi, and the indestructibility seemed best so the super-monster survives more things if it actually gets in. I also enjoy the conflict between being one of the best things to Sneak Attack, Show and Tell, Channel, or Tooth and Nail, but impossible to Tinker or Reanimate. Having decks that do unfair things is desireable; not like moxen let you get ahead at no cost or thought, but an actual gameplan that revolves around it with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Oblivion Stone is great removal that even hits planeswalkers, I definitely like it better than All Is Dust and sometimes more than Nevinyrral's Disk. They both hit on turn five, but the disk will always need a turn to go off. Coldsteel Heart is one of the few mana rocks that combine cheapness, fixing, and actual acceleration. Epochrasite is great, mostly in tinker blue, but also as an aggro card. You play a 1/1 the opponent doesn't really want to kill, maybe give him some pants, and when he does die he rebuies in as a significant free hasted threat to help push through. Gilded Lotus is unimpressive so far but also support for the giant monsters archetype (it both accelerates you into them and fixes for anything you need, even off color). Have you ever played Upheaval with Thran Dynamo? It's also fine in any kind of ramp deck, especially if you've got some good 7s like Myr Battlesphere. With the swords, there's just a lot of 3 mana equipment in there already and these three seem the most likely not to blank on the triggers. Grand Coliseum is strictly worse than City of Ass! If anything I'd add Gemstone Mine to help the aggro decks rather than another cipt land.
The shocklands got cut in one of my very early cube iterations. I felt that at 360 the fetch-shock-I'm-conley-woods minigame was happening too much. Having only the actual fetches and duals made it significant when the synergy happened but didn't lead to just grabbing any color of either and matching them up in deckbuilding. Then I supported a bunch of Kird Apes in r/w/g so gave specifically them shocks to play that game.
Cathodion's just to give decks that want a 3-drop a reliable one. I mean sometimes he's Great Sable Stag without the double green.
At 360, I wouldn't make a deck that would run this without multiple sac outlets. It's very narrow.
I personally don't like the masticores for being too all-in, but that same quality makes them good discard enablers. Molten tail might find his way back in, razormane might go, but the original is probably sidelined forever.
MTM is the best oneand probably the only one worth playing at 360.I would play all three at anything larger
I only run two planeswalkers in each color, and wanted to test relentless (I already know the primal hunter is great). For what it's worth, I value Wildspeaker highest. Anyway he was okay; although depending on him as combo support didn't work out. The decks that had good targets could easily do 1-2 damage if it seemed necessary.
I dunno how you don't like green double fireball, it's one of ramp's best tools for actually closing out a game if it ends up serious threat-light. Tooth and Nail does some heavy lifting for the "X/g giant monsters" archetype and it doesn't even need to be in a red or blue deck to instantly win. Avenger of Zendikar isn't irreplaceable but it seems one of the best fatties right now. Harmonize could go, but it is good in stompy decks to refuel with (ideally after turn four) and the semi-combo decks to dig.
You seem to be falling prey to the 'I can't cut this card because it's good and X and Y'! You can make an argument for any card, but it's a matter of analysing by exclusion - are the cards I'm NOT playing likely to add more than what I'm currently using? I'm not even going near Rude Awakening - you can use a forum search tool for that one - I'll just say that I would much rather use all of green's ETB creatures to get my card advantage rather than very subpar things like Harmonize. I have played all of these in my cube at some point, other than the Avenger. He is an OK fatty, but works against ramp and reanimation rather than with it. Woodfall Primus, Hornet Queen and Terastodon are the top three.
I don't agree with a lot of this, especially the idea that selecting cuts is simply generating a list of cards that don't pass an arbitrary threshold.
Well, it is. There's a reason some cards don't see play below a certain size. Some don't fit the owners' personal inclinations, some just aren't good enough.The less slots you have to fill, the more judiciousone has to be, which necessarily leads to a list of cards for contention. I didn't have time to explain why each and every one of those was, in my opinion, cuttable; we have the SCDs and MCDs for that.
Entreat's fine, but an X tokens effect isn't strictly necessary and bonfire may not stay in either.
Neither are neccessary by any means, but they're both decent and IMO better than some of the other stuff staying in.They're not uncuttable like Balance or Regrowth, for example.
Calling Jinxed Choker egregious is egregious itself, "Sulfuric Vortex anything up to g/w can play" is a great card.
Lol... I'm glad you thought so. It's an OK card. It has the potential to backfire much, much more easily than Vortex, is easier to remove, and can whiff against lifegain and mana ramp. It didn't last long in my cube... at 450.
Eldrazi Monument is primarily a w/b card but is a fine curve topper for aggro. Sac a creature means you're replacing your least useful threats with the ones you draw next instead of the masticores' discarding a card and sacrificing your future plays for what's on the board already.
I like it more than most on here as a curve topper for aggro, but I ended up always preferring to run safer 5CMC creatures; those are ideal if I'm under the cosh with only a single creature on the board, whereas the Monument is suicidal. It's a better midrange/tokens card, if you support that archetype.
Pristine Talisman plays much better than it looks, the lifegain is significant and redundancy in mana rocks is something I'm trying to consciously push without signets. Everflowing Chalice is one of the best, as a Mind Stone/Sissay's Ring.
I didn't check if you're unpowered or powered. If you're unpowered, Chalice, Talisman (and Coldsteel Heart below) are great.
I'm surprised you would cut Ratchet Bomb but not Powder Keg. Both are an important tool for any control deck looking to neutralize early plays.
Nope, Ratchet Bomb is better (I'd play neither, or maybe Ratchet Bomb at 360) They are potentially useful tools, but slow and unneccessary ones. My aggro decks tend to pack serious artifact kill MD. An aggro deck will inflict serious damage in the time it takes to charge these cards, or destroy it pretty quick with a Manic Vandal. Again, they are playable and decent cards, but at this level, cards shouldn't be merely decent.
Fair enough. Sneak Attack is the most viable option of these for archetype support. I'd run if I did more than 2 person drafts regularly. Oblivion Stone is great removal that even hits planeswalkers, I definitely like it better than All Is Dust and sometimes more than Nevinyrral's Disk.
Disk > Stone >> Dust, in general. Sometimes Stone is better, depending on how developed your mana and board are.One of these should be fine at 360 cards, I'd pick the Disk but YMMV.
Epochrasite is great, mostly in tinker blue, but also as an aggro card. You play a 1/1 the opponent doesn't really want to kill, maybe give him some pants, and when he does die he rebuies in as a significant free hasted threat to help push through.
I don't want a 2 mana 1/1 in aggro that might come back in 4/5 turns' time as a 4/4. That goes to my unplayable stack most of the time, so it's superfluous for sure. I'd rather snap up any one mana artifact for Tinker deck. And yes, I played him for about a year in my 720. He didn't do anything there, and I'm not sure his interactions are powerful enough to warrant keeping him.
Gilded Lotus is unimpressive so far but also support for the giant monsters archetype (it both accelerates you into them and fixes for anything you need, even off color). Have you ever played Upheaval with Thran Dynamo?
I have! But outside of Magical Christmas Land, Upheaval generally wins the game in combination with most cards. Since people realised that cubes shouldn't be a 1:1:1 ratio of aggro/control/midrange, most have too low a curve to warrant playing these cards. If you're running some sort of 'big mana' archetype (as evidenced by Tooth and Nail and a crapton of fatties), I would still lose Gilded Lotus and keep Dynamo. Once you're up to that sort of mana, colour shouldn't be an issue.
With the swords, there's just a lot of 3 mana equipment in there already and these three seem the most likely not to blank on the triggers.
None of them really blank on the triggers. I think 5 is fine at this level, honestly. These + Grafted Wargear seems like a clog at 3CMC, but in reality the cards (other than Wargear) are not often played on curve and they form an important part of aggro decks.
Gemstone Mine is another fine choice. Coliseum is worse than City of Ass, so if you're running the latter, you could ignore it and use the Gemstone Mine instead. Actually, I'd definitely cut Reflecting Pool for it anyway, which is not the card it is in constructed, and is also questionable for aggro. You shouldn't be running that many CCC cards of different colours in a single deck that you actually rely on drawing this card.
The shocklands got cut in one of my very early cube iterations. I felt that at 360 the fetch-shock-I'm-conley-woods minigame was happening too much. Having only the actual fetches and duals made it significant when the synergy happened but didn't lead to just grabbing any color of either and matching them up in deckbuilding. Then I supported a bunch of Kird Apes in r/w/g so gave specifically them shocks to play that game.
Doesn't make sense to me, but if that's what your groups went for, fine - it just leapt out at me that I couldn't see any Shocks in the list
I personally don't like the masticores for being too all-in, but that same quality makes them good discard enablers. Molten tail might find his way back in, razormane might go, but the original is probably sidelined forever.
Totally agree with Goodking here. MTM is a fantastic creature for aggro and creature-heavy midrange. I run all 3 at 500 and I'd run MTM and original at anything smaller.
I only run two planeswalkers in each color, and wanted to test relentless (I already know the primal hunter is great). For what it's worth, I value Wildspeaker highest.
I agree Wildspeaker is best and Relentless is close. I don't like arbitrary caps on card types, but a lot of cubists seem to.
I dunno how you don't like green double fireball, it's one of ramp's best tools for actually closing out a game if it ends up serious threat-light.
I'm not clear on which card you are talking about. If it's Rude Awakening, I ran it in my cube for a long time. It was too slow and it is less effective if you ramp into it with creatures. If aggro is healthy and competitive, cards like this are not very viable. Also, it wasn't always a guaranteed kill and for that much mana it should be. Last, it can't be reanimated, blinked, Sneak Attacked, etc.
Tooth and Nail does some heavy lifting for the "X/g giant monsters" archetype and it doesn't even need to be in a red or blue deck to instantly win.
This was also too slow for my cube and didn't always do enough. I'd rather just get to 6 mana and drop Thornling or 7 mana and drop Hornet Queen. Those cards can also be used in reanimator and Sneak Attack decks.
Avenger of Zendikar isn't irreplaceable but it seems one of the best fatties right now.
I don't agree with a lot of this, especially the idea that selecting cuts is simply generating a list of cards that don't pass an arbitrary threshold.
And I think some cards just can't compete at the smaller sizes. Every card you include excludes other cards. So by saying "I wouldn't run this at X size" I'm saying that card would just exclude other better stuff and there is no room for it. Nothing's totally cut and dried, but some cards just aren't good enough for smaller cubes unless they fit some particular theme or archetype that cubist is pushing. For example, I acknowlegde that Putrid Leech is a stronger card than Life // Death but I choose to run the latter because I'm really pushing reanimator.
Eldrazi Monument is primarily a w/b card but is a fine curve topper for aggro. Sac a creature means you're replacing your least useful threats with the ones you draw next instead of the masticores' discarding a card and sacrificing your future plays for what's on the board already.
If I hit a run of lands, my Masticore is still good. If I hit a run of lands, my Monument will start to suck. I think Monument is OK, but I'd never run it at 360 unless I was pushing tokens super hard. I don't run it at 500.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is in because we wanted to try one Eldrazi, and the indestructibility seemed best so the super-monster survives more things if it actually gets in. I also enjoy the conflict between being one of the best things to Sneak Attack, Show and Tell, Channel, or Tooth and Nail, but impossible to Tinker or Reanimate. Having decks that do unfair things is desireable; not like moxen let you get ahead at no cost or thought, but an actual gameplan that revolves around it with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Whereas I hate having cards that are likely to never get cast. I also hate that his ability isn't an ETB abilty. That makes him less great with those tricks (except Channel). I don't like any of the Eldrazi, but I understand wanting to run one. I might run Artisan of Kozilek over Ulamog.
If you run City of Ass, you don't need Coliseum. If not, than Coliseum is great. Heck, it's great if you do run CoA. I like Gemstone Mine a lot too. It's a great 5-C land for aggro or a deck that plays tricks with lands. I run all but CoA at 500 (I utterly hate Un- cards).
The shocklands got cut in one of my very early cube iterations. I felt that at 360 the fetch-shock-I'm-conley-woods minigame was happening too much. Having only the actual fetches and duals made it significant when the synergy happened but didn't lead to just grabbing any color of either and matching them up in deckbuilding. Then I supported a bunch of Kird Apes in r/w/g so gave specifically them shocks to play that game.
Also doesn't make sense to me. At 360, I'd still run shock, dual, fetch. They are the best fixers arounds.
crossposting a thing. I read all the responses, even though I didn't respond back; thanks, as always
Words about R2R cards. The tags don't work yet, spoiler's here
Angel of Serenity - Probably the best giant white monster after Elesh Norn. 5 power and flying is enough, she comes with triple Journey to Nowhere with upside, and incidentally knocks creatures out of graveyards. I don't think my cube needs more than Norn and Sun Titan, but can't fault anyone else for including this
Fencing Ace - Kind of weak, on reflection; Boros Swiftblade was never backbreaking even in a deck that had the mana and pump. Another solid card that probably won't make it into tighter lists.
Precinct Captain - Protection is kind of an obnoxious ability; White Knight either invalidates half their deck or has a blank line of text. This guy keeps the combat stats but gains a great saboteur that plays into tolken-making and general aggression. Probably the best generic WW guy other than Knight of Meadowgrain
Cyclonic Rift - Looks most like a Into the Roil variant, where the expensive version is a blowout instead of a cheaper cantrip. Deserves testing at least
Pack Rat - I've been hearing a lot of great things about this card. It basically lets you to go in with various amounts on the rats plan; either turn a couple pieces of chaff into bodies when you don't have anything better to do or dump all your resources into an army that only dies to wrath. Also it's a discard outlet that's good on its own merits!
Ash Zealot - A way better RR haster than anyone expected, obvious include.
Guttersnipe - A Zo-Zu, the Punisher variant, you get a grey ogre that shocks them for things that are going to happen in the game anyway. Seems like it supports any kind of red burn deck or the spell-based counterburn in particular.
Mizzium Mortars - The Volcanic Hammer that could. I suspect the triple red is a huge hindrance, and Flame Slash would be more useful as a creature-only burn spell anyway. I way overhyped this when it first got spoiled.
Worldspine Wurm - It's an Eldrazi you Natural Order for instead of Channel. Probably not something the cube really needs, but he sure looks fun.
Abrupt Decay - Maelstrom Pulse redundancy, and sure it's a good card, but probably doesn't make it into a g/b section after this set
Armada Wurm - This is competing with Sigarda, and the angel is just too good of a stupid noninteractive game ender. Might make it in because of the art anyway
Azorius Charm - Mainly a Time Ebb, the lifelink is great for racing, and cycling means it's never dead. This seems a reasonable if not powerful card to have in your limited deck.
Detention Sphere - Obviously a slightly harder to cast Oblivion Ring, this seems to be getting some attention not because it's great in a vacuum; but because it deals with tokens and planeswalkers, two of the hardest things for U/W to manage. It's functional but not flashy, if Geist of Saint Traft or Grand Arbiter Augustin IV stop working out this would be a good choice to turn to.
Dreadbore - Surprise, it's another Terminate. I'm thinking about cutting some expensive card advantage removal and adding both these efficient answers
Dreg Mangler - b/g aggro can be an archetype, and this sure is a card for it
Goblin Electromancer - Doesn't seem super powerful, but is a body and acceleration for the spell-based deck. The only problem with the spell-based deck is that a solitary 2/2 without any protection gets hit with all the removal that would otherwise be useless. Worth testing
Golgari Charm - This seemed the most maindeckable charm; mostly used for the removal, and the two incidentals probably come up often. Probably not powerful enough compared with other golgari stuff
Hypersonic Dragon - show me ur dragon collection. I dunno it's a flying haste guy whatever. I'm still running old Niv-Mizzet, this guild desperately needed playables.
Izzet Charm - Seems like a reasonable upgrade to Fire//Ice. I've noticed with Fire and the Arc Lightnings that the damage split for solid card advantage doesn't really come up anymore. This keeps most of the functionality of Fire, replaces the cycling of Ice wih a filter, and adds a counterspell. These are things that this card does, I am enjoying myself.
Jarad's Orders - You're casting this card for the Entomb, but it also tutors for anything that would be helpful next turn. Also probably good with Karmic Guide? Something 2 think about.
Lotleth Troll - At the intersection of offense, defense and incidental discard is this guy. He probably does something any g/b deck would want to do, and comes down to start working early. I've heard of people adding Basking Rootwalla along with this guy and being pleasantly surprised by the results
Loxodon Smiter - This is the 4/4 for 3, no counters no discard. It's probably not better than the 3/3 gain 3 life guy but is efficient enough to be worth a look.
Rakdos Ragemutt - Notable only for the lifelink in R/B, which is always worth a look. Black traditionally likes to pay life heavily Bitterblossoms or Dark COnfidants or w/e, and the Tendrils of Corruption type effects that fueled that in constructed are largely absent here. But it's a 3/3 for 5, definitely not actually good enough when Falkenrath Aristocrat is a thing.
Supreme Verdict - Paraphrasing someone else, this is "a Day of Judgment u/w can actually wheel. Like the non-detaining Detention Sphere, this would have to knock out a more unique effect in order to run more of a staple effect
Vraska the Unseen - This thing seems really good, also badly needs a Vriska version photoshopped/altered. It's even moreMaelstrom Pulse redundancy, with a very useful defensive ability that can draw a ton of heat off you. If g/b wants to win through attrition, this is an easy way to gain an advantage.
Deathrite Shaman - Probably much better in constructed/multiples, is worth looking at for a variety of utility + graveyard hosing. Probably best in cubes that support Life From the Loam/Crucible of Worlds, so it can more or less reliably accelerate.
Rakdos Shred-Freak - This is the RR haste guy we were excited about before Ash Zealot was spoiled, got kind of outshined there. He's probably still fine but I won't be making room for him.
Chromatic Lantern - I'll be testing this in place of Gilded Lotus as an artifact accelerant/mana fixer. We may never see the likes of Coalition Relic again, but this one's almost as useful
Volatile Rig - Probably not very good but seems neat as a curve-topper in aggro. Although it seems likely he gets blocked by a 1/1 and then blows up your team. On the other hand you did just do 7 + whatever else got through, so an all-in Ball Lightning variant?
Anything I missed/overrated? None of the guildmages or keyrunes stood out, although with some play they might prove useful
Nearheath Pilgrim - Precinct Captain
The soulbond mechanic has played a lot more like an aura than an equipment; kind of slow and not worth the card unless you're getting a powerful effect. I'm sure he's still fine in like aggro mirrors, but there's always Lone Missionary as a consistent version
Loam Lion - Dryad Militant
Loam Lion heads back to the g/w section to be classified as a gold card. Dryad Militant and Kitchen Finks each grab a space in green or white.
Flickerwisp - Lingering Souls
I'm loath to cut this guy because blink support and he can do a bunch of random interesting things, but the double W is a thing and he hasn't been playing strong recently. The idea with souls is you can play it in a monowhite deck with maybe one or two black sources just in case, and it mirrors Unburial Rites
Elspeth Tirel - Elspeth, Knight Errant
This testing went about as predicted, original elspeth is much stronger. There were too many clunky turns with Tirel where you couldn't play her or she'd die, or you had to +2 for life when it wasn't helping you win
Parallax Wave - Angelic Destiny
Wave really is a fun card, but falls victim to being yet another wrath variant. Destiny is mostly a buff to g/w. The aura beat me more than once on the modo cube, so want to try it out
Deceiver Exarch - AEther Adept
We tried the kiki-jiki combo, and it won some games. Doesn't seem like something my small cube really needs, would rather have the slots for core effects.
Pestermite - Cyclonic Rift
Originally I was going to replace Into the Roil with this, but having a small amount of redundancy there seems better.
Brainstorm - Opposition
Probably the most powerful (compared to Ponder and Preordain), but also the most likely to do nothing because your draft deck doesn't have a shuffle effect handy. Opposition wants Phantasmal Bear in the pool, but we'll see.
Putrid Imp - Pack Rat
Aggressive decks didn't want it for being too small, reanimator decks didn't even want it for not being impactful enough. This should solve both those problems!
Gloom Surgeon - Reassembling Skeleton
the surgeon was easily handled with anything other than combat damage, and was a goblin piker anyway. Skeleton aims to be a more meaningful persistent threat, and does silly things with Smokestack
Sorin Markov - Liliana of the Dark Realms
I like a lot of what Sorin does; the lifegain, the mindslaver effect, and the consistent removal are all especially good things. Black already has enough expensive/heavy black creatures, and an expensive + heavy black planeswalker might not be as good of a thing as a cheaper planeswalker that helps enable those creatures
Exhume - Unburial Rites
"Reanimator" as an archetype isn't about the blazing fast all-in starts that Putrid Imp and Exhume would suggest. It's about evoking a Shriekmaw on t2 or connecting with a Looter il-Kor t3 and sneaking ahead on the normal gameplan. This exchange also makes me want to put Gifts Ungiven back in badly
Arc Lightning - Arc Trail
These cards were incredibly disappointing! Any of being an instant or costing less or dealing one more damage would have let them get cast for value, but most of the time they kill one guy and maybe do a point of bonus damage. For this slot I'm trying the "costing less" option, but we'll see if even that's good enough
Flames of the Firebrand - Fire Imp
And instead of dealing 2 damage and 1 damage, this card deals 2 damage and is a 2/1. I'd noticed that there weren't really any good creatures for the theoretical r/x control deck, and this guy seems reasonable for that too
Bonfire of the Damned - Ash Zealot
The Zealot is coming in no matter what. Bonfire got miracled to great effect a couple times and was even reasonable hardcast for 1 or 2, living up to expectations. It just wasn't that much fun though; even with brainstorm and top and etc it wasn't even close to consistent or reliable. I'd really like some kind of x-spell that only hit the opponent's guys without miracle overcosting it
Kird Ape - Rakdos Cackler
Ape goes in g/r, lazy goblin goes in R. Black isn't primarily an aggro color but can play support, so the idea of a red card that also black can cast if it's in that deck works out pretty well.
Brimstone Volley - Flame Javelin
This card gets stranded in hand a lot more than expected. 3 damage can be done for 1 or 2 mana pretty consistently, and having to enable morbid first is a hurdle if you just want to clear a blocker. Spectral Procession has been performing better than expected, so this might be similar
Firebolt - Flame Slash
Best in grinding grixis control decks, most decks can do any number of more powerful things with five mana than flashback firebolt. Flame Slash stays as turn one removal (and is another gift for that r/x control deck), but can consistently punch through most creatures for just R the whole game
Lotus Cobra - Tarmogoyf
Similar to black, green is intended as a secondary aggro color. The cobra was too inconsistent (although it did allow some incredibly powerful starts), so goyf is coming in as a big vanilla doofus
Strangleroot Geist - Brushstrider
I suspect geist is being undervalued in my playgroup, but an aggressive gg card doesn't have too much of a home. I suspect Brushstrider will be scared out of attacking by 1/1s a lot, but with some equipment or just on an empty board he seems scary
Call of the Herd - Viridian Shaman
It's kind of unfortunate that the color with all these one mana accelerant creatures doesn't have great 3-drops. T2 Eternal Witness doesn't do very much, and most of the other options are variations on Trained Armadon. Shaman can give card advantage in a different, more immediate way than call. I feel like I should have the monkeys in too
Chameleon Colossus - Deadbridge Goliath
Protection is not a terribly interesting effect in cube; it either does nothing, making your creatures less efficient, or blanks huge swaths of the opponent's strategy. And when it does incidentally show up it tends to hose black, noted current worst color. A 5/5 for 4 is very efficient, and the golgari ability ironically helps my selesnya color identity (small creatures and then pants to keep them relevant)
Avenger of Zendikar - Hornet Queen
Avenger is less consistent, not as good when powered out early, and is about as annoying to keep track of on paper as Gavony Township. I think the queen will do good work.
Garruk Relentless - Garruk, Primal Hunter
The fight ability didn't always come up profitably right away, so he mostly looked like a splashable 4 mana wolf factory. Decks that included him for the tutor had a tough time making it fire. That's not bad, but the primal version is just much stronger
Rude Awakening - Worldspine Wurm
The wurm made it in by request. I suppose he'll get Natural Ordered out some game and punch really hard. It's just an eldrazi otherwise. Cut a less-abusive super-ramp spell
Deranged Hermit - Leatherback Baloth
5 seemed a little crowded, and Leatherback sure is a strong 3 drop. This is kind of a random swap but w/e
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - Supreme Verdict
Arbiter's always been on the fence, and he gets knocked out by a wrath. If I was white (and wanted wraths already), this card would definitely pull me towards blue
Adarkar Wastes - Detention Sphere
My guild sections are flexible with lands/spells, and here's another copy of a core white effect.
Baleful Strix - Dimir Signet
I personally think the strix is better, but the signet probably makes it into many more maindecks. Also I'd like to up the number of 2 mana rocks, and a few signets are a good way to do that.
Bituminous Blast - Dreadbore
Trading card advantage for consistency. This whole section went from supporting the grindy r/b attrition style to the fast R/b disruption style, but an unconditional answer that can be played t2 and up is also great for the control decks
Olivia Voldaren - Falkenrath Aristocrat
This card definitely pulls me into a black splash for red, and can do fine work as a quick control finisher as well (especially if backed by w/b's token army). Olivia was powerful but kind of slow and reliant on untapping with her
Boggart Ram-Gang - Kird Ape
Needed room for kird ape to return to the gruul section, and Flinthoof Boar has been very impressive for fitting into a curve as a 2 or 3 drop
Lingering Souls - Orzhov Signet
Same here, although I'm sure this slot won't last come gatecrash. Acceleration and fixing for w/b is a rare but useful effect for now
Life//Death - Lotleth Troll
Supporting reanimator not with a more expensive reanimate, but with an enabler that can have some pretty strong board position
Lightning Helix - Ajani Vengeant
Apparently ajani is one of the most-run cards? I must be missing something with this guy
Cathodion - Sword of War and Peace
The idea was to give every color a 3 drop (the ability is neutral), but every color can already field better than a vanilla 3/3 at 2C. All five swords are in now, I'll see how obnoxious they get
Powder Keg - Engineered Explosives
EE keeps the token-killing functionality of keg and bomb, but can also quickly scale up to 1 or 2 if necessary. It's not very difficult to hit 3-4 colors just by including some miscellaneous off-color duals.
Icy Manipulator - Crucible of Worlds
We all have fond memories of Icy, but the card was too slow and resource-intensive for a lot of DOTP 2013 games. Crucible probably comes in or out in a pair with LFTL
Ancient Tomb - Gemstone Mine
Tomb just wasn't getting maindecked, Mine is useful as a land that guarantees an aggro deck the right color for its one drop. It could easily have been reflecting pool cut instead, and then tomb cut anyway for City of Traitors to go along with crucible
There are a lot of questionable changes here, but the biggest ??????? moments I had were getting in Leatherback Baloth (at the expense of the hermit, no less) and cutting Garruk Relentless (which I rated as my favorite green card).
I think cutting Parallax Wave is a a huge mistake. I'd cube it in a 180-card cube. It's a one-sided Wrath effect that nevertheless finds a home in aggro, midrange, or control. It's also bonkers with citp effects, in which white abounds.
There are a lot of questionable changes here, but the biggest ??????? moments I had were getting in Leatherback Baloth (at the expense of the hermit, no less) and cutting Garruk Relentless (which I rated as my favorite green card).
Yeah, the leatherback baloth one probably isn't defensible on pure power level. It's a combination of smaller things; my playgroup mostly disliking echo, Hornet Queen coming in with its own similar effect, wanting to keep tokens in w/b and out of g/w, trimming the clogged 5 slot for a more valuable 3, giving green a reward for going heavy-color, and giving green a 3 it's actually excited to play turn two after an elf. I think it'll better help craft the environment I want, but if it sits in sideboards can easily be cut again
In my experience, Garruk Relentless's punch ability was very inconsistent at finding targets, relegating him to a wolf factory most of the time. He's pretty good at this job, but his 5 mana version that powers up by making 3/3 is just splashier and more fun. (I run two planeswalkers per color)
Really don't like this cut at all, but if soulbond isn't your thing, then go for it.
It hasn't been impressing me, no. I'm not too happy about this switch either, because it's trading a 1W guy for a WW. Someone else I know is cutting Knight of Meadowgrain for the captain, but I think the lifegain or relic-warder's tuck are better.
I think cutting Parallax Wave is a a huge mistake. I'd cube it in a 180-card cube. It's a one-sided Wrath effect that nevertheless finds a home in aggro, midrange, or control. It's also bonkers with citp effects, in which white abounds.
All these things are true! There's not really a ton left to cut in white though. Silverblade Paladin, if I don't like soulbond after all. Mana Tithe, although it's such a hilarious blowout. Balance if I don't like its swinginess, catastrophe to trim a wrath. At first glance those are the only real options, and Wave seems the most expendable.
It's too bad though, Temporary Solution with wake and tide and stifle in old extended was one hell of a deck.
I'd try to find another cut for 'goyf, personally. Something like Oracle of Mul Daya.
That's kind of funny, it was the other way around; I wanted a replacement for Lotus Cobra and decided on goyf. I found the Cobra quickly invalidated in combat, which made him want to stick back and not lose his mana ability. But his mana ability was also sketchy, the aggro decks he was best in stalling on land soon enough. I'm open to the idea of having mis-evaluated him though
If you're going to support green aggro (and it seems like you want to, given that you're keeping Loam Lion and Kird Ape) Geist is a must include.
I'm trying to support it as a secondary color, so R/g or W/g aggro decks can pick up some filler for the curve, some acceleration, and a rancor or a survival or even a plow under. CC aggro guys in a deck that's really only making a small to moderate splash don't get played on curve as much as ideal. I agree geist is a great card, but think a 1C aggressive creature would do better for the decks it's intended in
Again, if you're supporting green aggro, CotH is a snap include.
Is it really though? Is spending two relatively early turns making a pair of vanilla 3/3s a powerful play? I see card advantage on all green's other creatures through etb triggers, or being exceptionally hard to kill, or recuring itself/others. CotH seems best if you're planning on going long, chewing up two creatures or removal spells while you stall until the later stages of the game
Even with all that it's still one of the most reasonable 3 drops and perfectly splashable, so I'd be fine reversing this switch
I dislike a lot of these changes, especially the green ones. If I'm in green, I'd never be excited to run Leatherback Baloth. It's just a beatstick with a prohibitive cost. I'd much rather have Lotus Cobra, Strangleroot Geist, Call of the Herd (that's exciting to play t3), or Viridian Shaman. I think Deranged Hermit is green's best 5-drop and probably in its top 10 cards. There are ways to break the echo effect (Recurring Nightmare, Mimic Vat, etc.).
Like most auras, Angelic Destiny sets you up for card disadvantage. I mean, it's one of the better auras to run but I'd rather just keep Parallax Wave or add in another creature.
Lingering Souls should be WB and Flickerwisp is a great card. I love Arc Lightning and its clone; I'd run them in almost any red deck.
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Loam Lion
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Exalted Angel
1 Blade Splicer
1 Mirror Entity
1 Soltari Champion
1 Flickerwisp
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Spectral Procession
1 Restoration Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Disenchant
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Armageddon
1 Ravages of War
1 Day of Judgment
1 Parallax Wave
1 Wrath of God
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Catastrophe
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Coralhelm Commander
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Man-o'-War
1 Pestermite
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Wake Thrasher
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Brainstorm
1 Force Spike
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Daze
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Leak
1 Counterspell
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Compulsive Research
1 Show and Tell
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Forbid
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of WIll
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Treachery
1 Upheaval
1 Condescend
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Gravecrawler
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Putrid Imp
1 Bitterblossom
1 Dark Confidant
1 Gloom Surgeon
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Bloodghast
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bane of the Living
1 Bone Shredder
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Griselbrand
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Imperial Seal
1 Innocent Blood
1 Reanimate
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Exhume
1 Go for the Throat
1 Necromancy
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Nether Void
1 Barter in Blood
1 Damnation
1 Sorin Markov
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Profane Command
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Kird Ape
1 Stonewright
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Lightning Mauler
1 Plated Geopede
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ember Hauler
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Manic Vandal
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Zo-Zu, the Punisher
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hellrider
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
1 Chain Lightning
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Searing Spear
1 Arc Lightning
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Char
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Pillage
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Sneak Attack
1 Splinter Twin
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Earthquake
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Devoted Druid
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Call of the Herd
1 Eternal Witness
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Genesis
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Rancor
1 Farseek
1 Regrowth
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Channel
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Birthing Pod
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Natural Order
1 Plow Under
1 Rude Awakening
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Treetop Village
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Baleful Strix
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Graven Cairns
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Stomping Ground
1 Raging Ravine
1 Flinthoof Boar
1 Boggart Ram-Gang
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Temple Garden
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Fetid Heath
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Fire // Ice
1 Electrolyze
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Twilight Mire
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Life//Death
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Lightning Helix
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Viashino Slaughtermaster
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Epochrasite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Spellskite
1 Cathodion
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Batterskull
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Mox Diamond
1 Bonesplitter
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Grim Monolith
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Winter Orb
1 Coalition Relic
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Tangle Wire
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Smokestack
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Karn Liberated
1 City of Ass
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Volcanic Island
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Tropical Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
Older Iterations
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Loam Lion
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Exalted Angel
1 Blade Splicer
1 Mirror Entity
1 Soltari Champion
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Spectral Procession
1 Restoration Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Disenchant
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Armageddon
1 Ravages of War
1 Day of Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Parallax Wave
1 Wrath of God
1 Martial Coup
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Wingcrafter
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Coralhelm Commander
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1 Fettergeist
1 Man-o'-War
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Wake Thrasher
1 Æther Adept
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Force Spike
1 Daze
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Leak
1 Counterspell
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Compulsive Research
1 Show and Tell
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Dissipate
1 Forbid
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of Will
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Treachery
1 Time Spiral
1 Upheaval
1 Condescend
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Gravecrawler
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Bitterblossom
1 Dark Confidant
1 Gloom Surgeon
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Bloodghast
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bane of the Living
1 Zombie Cutthroat
1 Bone Shredder
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Griselbrand
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Innocent Blood
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Exhume
1 Go for the Throat
1 Corpse Dance
1 Necromancy
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Nether Void
1 Barter in Blood
1 Damnation
1 Sorin Markov
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Profane Command
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Kird Ape
1 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Stonewright
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Lightning Mauler
1 Plated Geopede
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ember Hauler
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Slith Firewalker
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Manic Vandal
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Zo-Zu the Punisher
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hellrider
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
1 Chain Lightning
1 Faithless Looting
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Searing Blaze
1 Arc Lightning
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Char
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Pillage
1 Pulse of the Forge
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Devil's Play
1 Earthquake
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Devoted Druid
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Call of the Herd
1 Eternal Witness
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Genesis
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Vorapede
1 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Terastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Explore
1 Farseek
1 Regrowth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Channel
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Natural Order
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Rude Awakening
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Treetop Village
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Absorb
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Undermine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Graven Cairns
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Raging Ravine
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Flinthoof Boar
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Gavony Township
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Fetid Heath
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Fire // Ice
1 Electrolyze
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Twilight Mire
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Putrefy
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Goblin Legionnaire
1 Lightning Helix
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Batterskull
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Bonesplitter
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Winter Orb
1 Coalition Relic
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Tangle Wire
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Smokestack
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Karn Liberated
1 City of Ass
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Volcanic Island
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Tropical Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Gideon's Lawkeeper
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Shrine of Loyal Legions
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Cloistered Youth
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Loyal Cathar
1 Whipcorder
1 Exalted Angel
1 Blade Splicer
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Mirror Entity
1 Soltari Champion
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Pianna, Nomad Captain
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Increasing Devotion
1 Sun Titan
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Armageddon
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Ravages of War
1 Day of Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Wrath of God
1 Gideon Jura
1 Rout
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Spellskite
1 Gilded Drake
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1 Willbender
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Man-o'-War
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Trinket Mage
1 Wake Thrasher
1 Æther Adept
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Force Spike
1 Mana Leak
1 Memory Lapse
1 Remand
1 Counterspell
1 Crystal Shard
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Psionic Blast
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Forbid
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Cryptic Command
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Treachery
1 Capsize
1 Time Spiral
1 Upheaval
1 Condescend
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Hex Parasite
1 Carnophage
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Gravecrawler
1 Sarcomancy
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Bitterblossom
1 Dark Confidant
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bane of the Living
1 Zombie Cutthroat
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Skinrender
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Dismember
1 Booster Tutor
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
1 Night's Whisper
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Stupor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Nether Void
1 Barter in Blood
1 Damnation
1 Sorin Markov
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Profane Command
1 Barren Moor
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Reckless Waif
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Dwarven Blastminer
1 Plated Geopede
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ember Hauler
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Fire Imp
1 Manic Vandal
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Zo-Zu the Punisher
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hellrider
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
1 Chain Lightning
1 Faithless Looting
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Pyroclasm
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Searing Blaze
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Chaos Warp
1 Char
1 Molten Rain
1 Pillage
1 Slagstorm
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Devil's Play
1 Starstorm
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scorned Villager
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Eternal Witness
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Elvish Piper
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Genesis
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Thornling
1 Vorapede
1 Primeval Titan
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Terastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Exploration
1 Rancor
1 Farseek
1 Life from the Loam
1 Naturalize
1 Rampant Growth
1 Regrowth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Beast Within
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Natural Order
1 Primal Command
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Overrun
1 Rude Awakening
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Treetop Village
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Volcanic Island
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Tropical Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Raging Ravine
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Fetid Heath
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Twilight Mire
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Wall of Denial
1 Momentary Blink
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Terminate
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Graven Cairns
1 Kird Ape
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Gavony Township
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Fire // Ice
1 Izzet Signet
1 Electrolyze
1 Prophetic Bolt
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Putrefy
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Brion Stoutarm
1 Lightning Helix
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Epochrasite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Cathodion
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Batterskull
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Æther Vial
1 Black Vise
1 Bonesplitter
1 Brittle Effigy
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 The Rack
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Winter Orb
1 Coalition Relic
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Ring of Gix
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Tangle Wire
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Erratic Portal
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Smokestack
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Karn Liberated
1 City of Ass
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Zoetic Cavern
1 Maze of Ith
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Loam Lion
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Exalted Angel
1 Blade Splicer
1 Mirror Entity
1 Soltari Champion
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Spectral Procession
1 Restoration Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Disenchant
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Armageddon
1 Ravages of War
1 Day of Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Parallax Wave
1 Wrath of God
1 Martial Coup
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Wingcrafter
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Coralhelm Commander
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1 Fettergeist
1 Man-o'-War
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Wake Thrasher
1 Æther Adept
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Force Spike
1 Daze
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Leak
1 Counterspell
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Compulsive Research
1 Show and Tell
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Dissipate
1 Forbid
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of Will
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Treachery
1 Time Spiral
1 Upheaval
1 Condescend
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Gravecrawler
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Bitterblossom
1 Dark Confidant
1 Gloom Surgeon
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Bloodghast
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bane of the Living
1 Zombie Cutthroat
1 Bone Shredder
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Griselbrand
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Innocent Blood
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Exhume
1 Go for the Throat
1 Corpse Dance
1 Necromancy
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Nether Void
1 Barter in Blood
1 Damnation
1 Sorin Markov
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Profane Command
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Frenzied Goblin
1 Kird Ape
1 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Stonewright
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Lightning Mauler
1 Plated Geopede
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ember Hauler
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Slith Firewalker
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Manic Vandal
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Zo-Zu the Punisher
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hellrider
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
1 Chain Lightning
1 Faithless Looting
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Searing Blaze
1 Arc Lightning
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Char
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Pillage
1 Pulse of the Forge
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Devil's Play
1 Earthquake
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Devoted Druid
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Call of the Herd
1 Eternal Witness
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Genesis
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Vorapede
1 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Terastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Explore
1 Farseek
1 Regrowth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Channel
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Natural Order
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Rude Awakening
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Treetop Village
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Absorb
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Undermine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Graven Cairns
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Raging Ravine
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Flinthoof Boar
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Gavony Township
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Fetid Heath
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Fire // Ice
1 Electrolyze
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Twilight Mire
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Putrefy
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Goblin Legionnaire
1 Lightning Helix
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Epochrasite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Batterskull
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Bonesplitter
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Winter Orb
1 Coalition Relic
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Tangle Wire
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Smokestack
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Karn Liberated
1 City of Ass
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Volcanic Island
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Tropical Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
Eidolon, where was that site that formatted a decklist properly for here? Once I find it I'll edit this decklist
I'm happy with most of the identities for mono and color pairs, but am having trouble with g/r being cohesive and/or good
As far as RG not being cohesive. I used to have the same problem. The reason is because I didn't include the G aggro deck. I mean I didnt include green one drop 2/1s and so on. I found that most Of the green hyper aggressive one drops are simply worse then every other color. So I cut them and made green big mana and midrange. I think this is where RG works the best. Midrange (efficient guys up the curve plus burn) and big mana. I know you don't want to include wildfire in your list, but RG wildfire is a strong archetype if your list is playing enough wildfire variants. That is just what I noticed about my own cube.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
Hello!
zombieBaxter - No particular reason, I just don't think Kor Haven or Kjeldoran Outpost are that strong.
eidolon - Thanks for the information and the analysis! I really do not think Carnophage/Sarcomancy/Vampire Lacerator are where black wants to be; it can support control, reanimator, combo, and disruption easily without losing races with suicide creatures. It didn't come up this changelog but Kor Sanctifiers seems too slow and clunky, and even unreliable with the double white compared to the three 1W disenchants
I'm already brainstorming my next change list. Some of these might seem odd without context, but they all have a reason. It might even be a good reason!
1 Balance
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 AEther Adept
1 Dissipate
1 Wingcrafter
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1 Time Spiral
1 Zombie Cutthroat
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Pillage
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Faithless Looting
1 Searing Blaze
1 Earthquake
1 Chain Lightning
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Explore
1 Call of the Herd
1 Regrowth
1 Vorapede
1 Absorb
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Gavony Township
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Putrefy
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Tumble Magnet
Adds
1 Catastrophe
1 Flickerwisp
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Pestermite
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Imperial Seal
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Splinter Twin
1 Sneak Attack
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Searing Spear
1 Birthing Pod
1 Arbor Elf
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Rampant Growth
1 Wild Growth
1 Fertile Ground
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Nimbus Maze
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Spiritmonger
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Grim Monolith
1 Basalt Monolith
Proposed new list
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Loam Lion
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Exalted Angel
1 Blade Splicer
1 Mirror Entity
1 Soltari Champion
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Flickerwisp
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Spectral Procession
1 Restoration Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Disenchant
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Armageddon
1 Ravages of War
1 Day of Judgment
1 Parallax Wave
1 Wrath of God
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Catastrophe
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Coralhelm Commander
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Fettergeist
1 Man-o'-War
1 Pestermite
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Wake Thrasher
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Brainstorm
1 Force Spike
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Daze
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Leak
1 Counterspell
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Compulsive Research
1 Show and Tell
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Forbid
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of WIll
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Treachery
1 Upheaval
1 Condescend
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Gravecrawler
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Bitterblossom
1 Dark Confidant
1 Gloom Surgeon
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Bloodghast
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bane of the Living
1 Bone Shredder
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Griselbrand
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Imperial Seal
1 Innocent Blood
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Exhume
1 Go for the Throat
1 Corpse Dance
1 Necromancy
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Nether Void
1 Barter in Blood
1 Damnation
1 Sorin Markov
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Profane Command
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Frenzied Goblin
1 Kird Ape
1 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Stonewright
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Lightning Mauler
1 Plated Geopede
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ember Hauler
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Slith Firewalker
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Manic Vandal
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Zo-Zu, the Punisher
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hellrider
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Searing Spear
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Arc Lightning
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Char
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Pulse of the Forge
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Sneak Attack
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Splinter Twin
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Devil's Play
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Devoted Druid
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Genesis
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Terastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Wild Growth
1 Farseek
1 Fertile Ground
1 Rampant Growth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Channel
1 Birthing Pod
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Natural Order
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Rude Awakening
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Treetop Village
1 Nimbus Maze
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Undermine
1 Graven Cairns
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Stomping Ground
1 Raging Ravine
1 Flinthoof Boar
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Temple Garden
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Fetid Heath
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Fire // Ice
1 Electrolyze
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Twilight Mire
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Spiritmonger
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Goblin Legionnaire
1 Lightning Helix
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Epochrasite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Batterskull
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Bonesplitter
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Grim Monolith
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Winter Orb
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Coalition Relic
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Tangle Wire
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Smokestack
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Karn Liberated
1 City of Ass
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Volcanic Island
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Tropical Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
I like both of those lands but I probably wouldn't run them at 360 either.
I'm dying to hear your reasoning on those cuts because at least a dozen of those cards are uncuttable IMO.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Balance - I wanted to make room for Catastrophe without just adding yet another wrath effect; Balance is obviously a very powerful card, but also swingy and tempermental. I'd rather have the consistent redundancy of more wraths or armageddons than a random super blowout
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - Just as personal preference, I run two planeswalkers per color. Currently trying out Elspeth 5 instead of Elspeth 4 to get a feel for the card, but I don't have a strong reason against Gideon either
AEther Adept - A thread in Archetype Discussion inspired me to add Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki combo support. Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch are blue three drops, so that's one of the places I looked to cut, and cip -> tap seemed to overlap with cip -> bounce. I'm probably less impressed with Fettergeist and should put the Adept back in, but would like to test the spirit some more
Time Spiral - Another obviously powerful card. This one fell victim to wanting Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain in. Blue's a tight color, and the cut needed to come from somewhere
Earthquake - I've been hearing how Bonfire of the Damned is a $40 standard card. Red's also a tight color, so I replaced one of the X sweepers instead of running three of them.
Chain Lightning - I wanted to fit Searing Spear in, but couldn't find the room. My hypothesis is that the instant speed will be more valuable than the 1 extra mana but it could easily be the other way around.
Regrowth - Green still has the functionality with Eternal Witness, and players can easily get more than one use out of the creature. The one shot sorcery is a nice little utility spell, but I haven't found it doing enough actual work lately. I might try a Restock or Nostalgic Dreams effect in its place instead
Vorapede - Not only obviously strong, but good with the Birthing Pod I just added! I just needed a cut somewhere to try Somberwald Sage, and costing triple green did not help the insect.
Llanowar/Fyndhorn Elves - My green seems to have a few too many mono-green mana dorks, when one of the strengths should be running Forests/x and hitting your other colors as you need them with accelleration. (I would really like to have room for Avacyn's Pilgrim and Elves of Deep Shadow to help with this). This update also adds Stomping Ground/Temple garden specifically to help zoo creatures, so Arbor Elf seemed reasonable as a Llanowar with the possibility of getting more colors. Wild Growth and Fertile Ground are also in as minor enablers for the forest untapper.
That's all true! On reflection if I wanted a white land it would likely be Windbrisk Heights, should be easy to activate with all the token support
The modo cube shows that reanimator is really not that hard to assemble and very good when it works. I like in general the idea of stacking black with evasive dorks like Vampire Interloper and Dauthi Marauder, but "play isamarus with drawbacks and sprint" does not seem to work in most games
Siege-Gang Commander - Splinter twin combo calls for two red 5 drops, and Thundermaw Hellkite just got a slot too.
Pillage - Apparently I've been slowly taking single-target LD from red until only Avalanche Riders is left. White has plenty of armageddons, green has its destroying noncreature permanents at a higher cmc, but there aren't any more stone rains. Lando does need a lot of slots to be a cohesive strategy, and using it as incidential disruption leaves it dead on later turns often.
Searing Blaze - Needing both RR and landfall makes this one pretty inconsistent. It's functionally a sorcery and too often stranded in hand
Call of the Herd - Certainly a solid card, but a vanilla 3/3 is kind of aenemic for green and two vanilla 3/3s for 7 isn't that great either. I do appreciate how it's a nice splashabe speed bump with card advantage but shrugs
Gavony Township - I just hate keeping track of the different number of tokens on all my creatures in paper. Also I wanted to add the g/r/w shocklands to help Wild Nacatl and his buddies and Stirring Wildwood is way better. (Next up would be Horizon Canopy)
Battlefield Forge - Sacred Foundry is probably a functional upgrade anyway
Caves of Koilos - Vault of the Archangel seemed interesting to give w/b tokens some extra power endgame. The color pair is exceptionally greedy, and some kind of fixing might be more important
Putrefy - Spiritmonger's a giant monster :roar:
Llanowar Wastes - I don't have a strong reason for Golgari Rot farm other than using it as a self-discard spell for reanimator
Worn Powerstone - Comes in tapped, only produces colorless, and only produces 2. Compares pretty unfavorably to Coalition Relic, and certainly to Grim Monolith
Tumble Magnet - Artifacts is another tight section! I'd kind of like to lose the Masticores (especially now that I no longer run squee), but other than them this seemed the least interesting
Entreat the Angels - Running Bonfire as the only miracle seemed lonely, an Air Elemental/Decree of Justice mashhup seems worth trying
Sneak Attack - Actually reanimator support; if you've got all these giant uncastable monsters, an extra enabler in your secondary color like Show and Tell or Channel or Sneak Attack can go a long way
Ghitu Encampment - Someone whose opinion I trust says manlands are at the very top of his pick order for monored on the modo cube, so here's one.
Birthing Pod - Haven't ever played with or against this card in a game of magic, but have heard good things and it seems interesting to build around while still being powerful incidentally
Rampant Growth/Fertile Ground - Looking for more redundancy in Farseek, Explore got the axe so am trying these. Maybe with both Cultivates and Sac-Tribe I don't need three slots here but oh well. Fertile Ground is also in for Arbor Elf, so Rampant would be the first to go
Nimbus Maze - I could use that slot as a land or a spell, but maze always being able to get the color you're missing seemed like great design. Drogskol Reaver could also go here, or even just Absorb back
Basalt Monolith - I wanted one more mana rock at 3 and it seemed fine to give grim monolith some redundancy
Thanks again for looking at this, everyone!
Cheers,
rant
This is fair reasoning, when balance works it is far far more powerful, but it is admittedly less consistent that Catastrophe. Personally I'd find room for both by cutting a tapper as I think you have an overabundance of them.
Elspeth Knight-Errant is one of the 3-4 best white cards in the entire cube. Elspeth Tirel is a solid card but Elspeth, K-E and Gideon Jura are a lot better than her. If you want to test her fine, but I wouldn't ever cut Elspeth K-E as she is just that good. Maybe since it's on a test basis you could temporarily have 3 planeswalkers in white with the intent to cut back down to 2 once you figure out which ones you like. Also I'd give the new ajani a run before Elspeth Tirel, he seems like he might have the muscle to beat out Gideon or Elspeth K-E (both of whom are top 5 white cards in cube in my eyes).
Fair reasoning, my response question is if you're looking at blue 3 drops how has Trinket Mage been for you? He was atrocious in my cube even when he could fetch Black Lotus, Sol Ring, and Moxen.
In just instants and sorceries I would cut all of these before any of the 4 cards listed here: Tezzeret's Gambit, Psionic Blast, Thirst for Knowledge, Forbid, and Capsize.
I think Bonfire and Earthquake are the 2 best red X spells, I'd cut Starstorm or any other one before them. Though I do like adding Bonfire it's been sick for us.
Red is tight but I'd narrow it's focus before cutting efficient staples, so I'd cut something like Pyroclasm, Chaos Warp, Volcanic Fallout, or Slagstorm first.
Fair enough I love the card but if it hasn't been doing enough then it hasn't been doing enough.
I think I'd cut the cheat Fatties into play package (Elvish Piper, Natural Order) before cutting good fatties, but you sill do have a decent threat density so...
I really don't like cutting ramp one drops at all I'd rather have them than turn 2 ramp everyday of the week. If you want to cut some ramp guys take a look at Scorned Villager or Oracle of Mul Daya instead or even Exploration. Playing a 3 drop turn 2 and 4 drop turn 3 is back breaking when cards are as powerful as they are in the cube.
While I support the removal of black aggro, I prefer making it a midrange color, that is all about value and EtB effects. Combo is so fragile in draft, though admittedly it is a thrill when it comes together.
Pillage hits troublesome artifacts, or screws over an opponent tripping on lands, with all the must answer artifacts out there I think Pillage's flexibility makes it worth a slot.
And Putrefy is a super flexible answer two of the most important card types.
I could see cutting Worn Powerstone as artifacts is tight but there are a few I'd cut before it, Brittle Effigy, AEther Vial, The Rack, Oblivion Stone, Eldrazi Monument, and especially Quicksilver Amulet spring to mind glancing at your list.
I'd keep tumble magnet before most of the cards mentioned in Worn Powerstone's post, and that doesn't even get into creatures of which there are also a few I'd look at cutting.
Good add, the card has been bonkers good for us!
A constructed card to me, I wouldn't play it in cube too many requirements to build around.
I don't like it personally, but it's a divisive card in some groups so testing is probably in order.
Balance: This card is widely regard as one of the top 3 white cards. It's insane. You could cut almost any card from the cube for this card and it would be a good move. That said, Catastrophe is a must. I'd cut Hokori, Dust Drinker or Entreat the Angels to keep Balance and Catastrophe. If you want to reduce your Wrath number, cut Parallax Wave.
Time Spiral: One of blue's best cards; I'd run this at even the smallest cube sizes. Cut Show and Tell for it.
Regrowth: This does not look at good as it is. It's a copy of the best spell you played or the spell you played that you desparately need to play again: Wrath, Dismember, Disenchant, etc., etc. Green can certainly use two of these effects and I think it's one of green's top 20 cards. You have a lot of fat you can cut in green, but I'd probably cut Tooth and Nail or Harmonize for this.
I also really think cutting the mana elves is a mistake.
Earthquake: It's red best sweeper and finisher in one card (barring Rolling Earthquake). I'd cut Bonfire of the Damned for it, but you could cut Devil's Play.
Also, Chain Lightning is better than Brimstone Volley, Smash to Smithereens, or--most especially--Slith Firewalker.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Loam Lion
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Exalted Angel
1 Blade Splicer
1 Mirror Entity
1 Soltari Champion
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Flickerwisp
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Spectral Procession
1 Restoration Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Disenchant
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Armageddon
1 Ravages of War
1 Day of Judgment
1 Parallax Wave
1 Wrath of God
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Catastrophe
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Coralhelm Commander
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Fettergeist
1 Man-o'-War
1 Pestermite
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Wake Thrasher
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Brainstorm
1 Force Spike
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Daze
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Leak
1 Counterspell
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Compulsive Research
1 Show and Tell
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Forbid
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of Will
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Treachery
1 Upheaval
1 Condescend
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Gravecrawler
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Bitterblossom
1 Dark Confidant
1 Gloom Surgeon
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Bloodghast
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bane of the Living
1 Bone Shredder
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Griselbrand
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Imperial Seal
1 Innocent Blood
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Exhume
1 Go for the Throat
1 Corpse Dance
1 Necromancy
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Nether Void
1 Barter in Blood
1 Damnation
1 Sorin Markov
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Profane Command
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Frenzied Goblin
1 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Stonewright
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Lightning Mauler
1 Plated Geopede
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ember Hauler
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Slith Firewalker
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Manic Vandal
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Zo-Zu the Punisher
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hellrider
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Searing Spear
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Arc Lightning
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Char
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Pulse of the Forge
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Sneak Attack
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Splinter Twin
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Devil's Play
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Devoted Druid
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Genesis
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Terastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Wild Growth
1 Farseek
1 Fertile Ground
1 Rampant Growth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Channel
1 Birthing Pod
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Natural Order
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Rude Awakening
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Treetop Village
1 Nimbus Maze
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Undermine
1 Graven Cairns
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Stomping Ground
1 Raging Ravine
1 Flinthoof Boar
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Temple Garden
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Fetid Heath
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Fire // Ice
1 Electrolyze
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Twilight Mire
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Spiritmonger
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Goblin Legionnaire
1 Lightning Helix
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Batterskull
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Bonesplitter
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Grim Monolith
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Winter Orb
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Coalition Relic
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Tangle Wire
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Smokestack
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Karn Liberated
1 City of Ass
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Volcanic Island
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Tropical Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
Fiend Hunter -> Balance
Entreat the Angels -> Noble Hierarch
Fettergeist -> Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Sheoldred, Whispering One -> Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Diabolic Servitude -> Reanimate
Corpse Dance -> Putrid Imp
Slith Firewalker -> Viashino Slaughtermaster
Pulse of the Forge -> Chain Lightning
Devil's Play -> Earthquake
Smash to Smithereens -> Pillage
Arbor Elf -> Llanowar Elves
Wild Growth -> Fyndhorn Elves
Ulvenwald Tracker -> Rancor
Somberwald Sage -> Call of the Herd
Terastodon -> Plow Under
Garruk, Primal Hunter -> Garruk Relentless
Fertile Ground -> Regrowth
Rampant Growth -> Lotus Cobra
Noble Hierarch -> Wolfir Silverheart
Nimbus Maze -> Adarkar Wastes
Undermine -> Baleful Strix
Tin Street Hooligan -> Boggart Ram-Gang
Stirring Wildwood -> Horizon Canopy
Vault of the Archangel -> Caves of Koilos
Spiritmonger -> Life//Death
Goblin Legionnaire -> Battlefield Forge
Molten-Tail Masticore -> Cathodion
Lightning Greaves - Mox Diamond
Basalt Monolith -> Pristine Talisman
I end up with this list.
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Loam Lion
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Exalted Angel
1 Blade Splicer
1 Mirror Entity
1 Soltari Champion
1 Flickerwisp
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Spectral Procession
1 Restoration Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Disenchant
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Armageddon
1 Ravages of War
1 Day of Judgment
1 Parallax Wave
1 Wrath of God
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Catastrophe
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Coralhelm Commander
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Man-o'-War
1 Pestermite
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Wake Thrasher
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Brainstorm
1 Force Spike
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Daze
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Leak
1 Counterspell
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Compulsive Research
1 Show and Tell
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Forbid
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of WIll
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Treachery
1 Upheaval
1 Condescend
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Gravecrawler
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Putrid Imp
1 Bitterblossom
1 Dark Confidant
1 Gloom Surgeon
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Bloodghast
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bane of the Living
1 Bone Shredder
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Griselbrand
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Imperial Seal
1 Innocent Blood
1 Reanimate
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Exhume
1 Go for the Throat
1 Necromancy
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Nether Void
1 Barter in Blood
1 Damnation
1 Sorin Markov
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Profane Command
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Kird Ape
1 Stonewright
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Lightning Mauler
1 Plated Geopede
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ember Hauler
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Manic Vandal
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Zo-Zu, the Punisher
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hellrider
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
1 Chain Lightning
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Searing Spear
1 Arc Lightning
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Char
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Pillage
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Sneak Attack
1 Splinter Twin
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Earthquake
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Devoted Druid
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Call of the Herd
1 Eternal Witness
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vengevine
1 Genesis
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Rancor
1 Farseek
1 Regrowth
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Channel
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Birthing Pod
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Natural Order
1 Plow Under
1 Rude Awakening
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Treetop Village
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Baleful Strix
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Graven Cairns
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Stomping Ground
1 Raging Ravine
1 Flinthoof Boar
1 Boggart Ram-Gang
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Temple Garden
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Fetid Heath
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Fire // Ice
1 Electrolyze
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Twilight Mire
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Life//Death
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Lightning Helix
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Viashino Slaughtermaster
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Epochrasite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Spellskite
1 Cathodion
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Batterskull
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Mox Diamond
1 Bonesplitter
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Grim Monolith
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Winter Orb
1 Coalition Relic
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Tangle Wire
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Smokestack
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Karn Liberated
1 City of Ass
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Volcanic Island
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Tropical Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
Also, I think Garruk, Primal Hunter should stay in over Avenger of Zendikar, Harmonize, Rude Awakening, or Tooth and Nail, with Rude Awakening being my most preferred cut.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Also, where are the Shocklands?
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
First I built legacy zoo; 9 fetch/dual/shock lands, other manlands/nonbasics, all the kird ape variants, swords/path/lightning bolt/chain lightning. Lotus Cobra ended up being sometimes useful but usually lackluster. Ajani, caller of the pride was insane, I won more than one game out of nowhere by putting rancor and grafted wargear on a guy and flying over with double strike. It never got to be cats o' clock, if he didn't get removed he just won the game. The mana was a little sketchy even with all the nonbasic fixing possible, so maybe drafted zoo decks will look to be W/r/g or something and have a main color that's then supported. Also great were the various manlands and specially slayers' stronghold. They let me develop my board and then suddenly jam all in by spending my mana on a stronger attack phase.
My brother built a Tinker/Show and Tell thing with all the artifact and black creature bombs. We learned that a turn three Sundering Titan or Griselbrand is good, surprising no one. Phyrexian Revoker also did some serious work (plus having artifact two drops is key with tinker). Massacre Wurm and its triple black cost was in danger of being cut, but it completely blew out the tokens deck from an unwinnable board position in hilarious and memorable fashion. He also ran a singleton Reanimate that always wanted to be an Animate Dead or even the recently cut Diabolic Servitude. These kinds of decks that look to do blatantly unfair things are enjoyable to have around and add another dimension to the game. I've had a lot of success with the "giant monsters and enablers for every color", and u/b was supposed to b one of the best combinations for it. Oh also I want to add another 2 mana rock, maybe Guardian Idol?
Then I built U/R/g Splinter Twin. If we're going to test unfair things, then how about the infinite combo. I initially planned on going instant-speed counterburn, but switched into mostly sorcery-speed creatures so my combo pieces could be just generally good when they weren't going infinite. Man-o'-War was one of the best cards and made me miss the recently cut AEther Adept. Birthing Pod was way better than expected; I just made sure to include a couple value creatures at 4 and 5 plus something impressive (Inferno Titan) to end up with. One game I had an empty board with it out and just went Mystic Snake, untap, Pestermite, pod the snake for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Because both the blue enablers have flash you can hide them in your hand until the turn you're ready to go off, so the combo is very resilient.
Arc Lightning and its twin were very underwhelming most of the time, not generating card advantage even if they were able to kill a creature for a 3 mana sorcery. Bonfire of the Damned was likewise mediocre, even with Branstorm and Ponder and Sensei's Divining Top with extra fetchlands. It just wasn't relible enough and ended up being just a four mana wrath when it did work. Maye in a more endgame/mana oriented deck casting it for XXR would be reasonable, and maybe in a more agressive deck that uses the combat step casting it off the rip would be better. Garruk Relentless often didn't have a good target but his Master of the Wild Hunt mode was fine. Kiki-Jiki's triple red wants the deck to be more red than it otherwise might be, so the counterburn style with a heavy emphasis on the burn could pull off the archetype quite well.
My brother responded with a w/b tokens deck that made a lot of creatues. Honor of the Pure was off a lot, but the effect is so powerful when it is on tha it gets to keep its spot. Guul Draz Assassin shined, he felt kind of like a planeswalker. The opponent has to throw answers against even the threat of its "ultimate" (killing a 4/4 every turn is decent) o itgets away and takes over the game. Elspeth Tirel did some work, but so far I agree with the assessment that she's not as strong as Elspeth, Knight Errant. There are so many life payment cards that it's nice having any kind of lifegain effect around.
Cathodion's just to give decks that want a 3-drop a reliable one. I mean sometimes he's Great Sable Stag without the double green. I personally don't like the masticores for being too all-in, but that same quality makes them good discard enablers. Molten tail might find his way back in, razormane might go, but the original is probably sidelined forever.
I only run two planeswalkers in each color, and wanted to test relentless (I already know the primal hunter is great). For what it's worth, I value Wildspeaker highest. Anyway he was okay; although depending on him as combo support didn't work out. The decks that had good targets could easily do 1-2 damage if it seemed necessary.
I dunno how you don't like green double fireball, it's one of ramp's best tools for actually closing out a game if it ends up serious threat-light. Tooth and Nail does some heavy lifting for the "X/g giant monsters" archetype and it doesn't even need to be in a red or blue deck to instantly win. Avenger of Zendikar isn't irreplaceable but it seems one of the best fatties right now. Harmonize could go, but it is good in stompy decks to refuel with (ideally after turn four) and the semi-combo decks to dig.
I don't agree with a lot of this, especially the idea that selecting cuts is simply generating a list of cards that don't pass an arbitrary threshold. Entreat's fine, but an X tokens effect isn't strictly necessary and bonfire may not stay in either. Yeah I like lightning greaves's effect a lot, but I've had plenty of games where it improved my board position slightly then did nothing as I ran out of actual gas. It could find its way back in. Calling Jinxed Choker egregious is egregious itself, "Sulfuric Vortex anything up to g/w can play" is a great card.
Eldrazi Monument is primarily a w/b card but is a fine curve topper for aggro. Sac a creature means you're replacing your least useful threats with the ones you draw next instead of the masticores' discarding a card and sacrificing your future plays for what's on the board already. Pristine Talisman plays much better than it looks, the lifegain is significant and redundancy in mana rocks is something I'm trying to consciously push without signets. Everflowing Chalice is one of the best, as a Mind Stone/Sissay's Ring. I'm surprised you would cut Ratchet Bomb but not Powder Keg. Both are an important tool for any control deck looking to neutralize early plays.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is in because we wanted to try one Eldrazi, and the indestructibility seemed best so the super-monster survives more things if it actually gets in. I also enjoy the conflict between being one of the best things to Sneak Attack, Show and Tell, Channel, or Tooth and Nail, but impossible to Tinker or Reanimate. Having decks that do unfair things is desireable; not like moxen let you get ahead at no cost or thought, but an actual gameplan that revolves around it with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Oblivion Stone is great removal that even hits planeswalkers, I definitely like it better than All Is Dust and sometimes more than Nevinyrral's Disk. They both hit on turn five, but the disk will always need a turn to go off. Coldsteel Heart is one of the few mana rocks that combine cheapness, fixing, and actual acceleration. Epochrasite is great, mostly in tinker blue, but also as an aggro card. You play a 1/1 the opponent doesn't really want to kill, maybe give him some pants, and when he does die he rebuies in as a significant free hasted threat to help push through. Gilded Lotus is unimpressive so far but also support for the giant monsters archetype (it both accelerates you into them and fixes for anything you need, even off color). Have you ever played Upheaval with Thran Dynamo? It's also fine in any kind of ramp deck, especially if you've got some good 7s like Myr Battlesphere. With the swords, there's just a lot of 3 mana equipment in there already and these three seem the most likely not to blank on the triggers. Grand Coliseum is strictly worse than City of Ass! If anything I'd add Gemstone Mine to help the aggro decks rather than another cipt land.
The shocklands got cut in one of my very early cube iterations. I felt that at 360 the fetch-shock-I'm-conley-woods minigame was happening too much. Having only the actual fetches and duals made it significant when the synergy happened but didn't lead to just grabbing any color of either and matching them up in deckbuilding. Then I supported a bunch of Kird Apes in r/w/g so gave specifically them shocks to play that game.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
And without the protections or noncounter clause. And most cubes have cut GSS. Every color has better 3-drops.
Totally agree with Goodking here. MTM is a fantastic creature for aggro and creature-heavy midrange. I run all 3 at 500 and I'd run MTM and original at anything smaller.
I agree Wildspeaker is best and Relentless is close. I don't like arbitrary caps on card types, but a lot of cubists seem to.
I'm not clear on which card you are talking about. If it's Rude Awakening, I ran it in my cube for a long time. It was too slow and it is less effective if you ramp into it with creatures. If aggro is healthy and competitive, cards like this are not very viable. Also, it wasn't always a guaranteed kill and for that much mana it should be. Last, it can't be reanimated, blinked, Sneak Attacked, etc.
This was also too slow for my cube and didn't always do enough. I'd rather just get to 6 mana and drop Thornling or 7 mana and drop Hornet Queen. Those cards can also be used in reanimator and Sneak Attack decks.
I prefer Woodfall Primus, Hornet Queen, Primeval Titan, Terastodon, and probably Pelakka Wurm.
I found Harmonize to be unnecessary. Green gets great card advantage from its creatures, plus Sylvan Library, Survival, and similar.
And I think some cards just can't compete at the smaller sizes. Every card you include excludes other cards. So by saying "I wouldn't run this at X size" I'm saying that card would just exclude other better stuff and there is no room for it. Nothing's totally cut and dried, but some cards just aren't good enough for smaller cubes unless they fit some particular theme or archetype that cubist is pushing. For example, I acknowlegde that Putrid Leech is a stronger card than Life // Death but I choose to run the latter because I'm really pushing reanimator.
If I hit a run of lands, my Masticore is still good. If I hit a run of lands, my Monument will start to suck. I think Monument is OK, but I'd never run it at 360 unless I was pushing tokens super hard. I don't run it at 500.
I think both are expendable at 360, especially in an unpowered cube.
Whereas I hate having cards that are likely to never get cast. I also hate that his ability isn't an ETB abilty. That makes him less great with those tricks (except Channel). I don't like any of the Eldrazi, but I understand wanting to run one. I might run Artisan of Kozilek over Ulamog.
Agree with Goodking on the order of these three cards. At 360, I'd only run Nevvie's for sure.
I'd only want this card in a blink deck or a control deck that was hard up for an early roadblock. I'd never draft it in aggro.
If you run City of Ass, you don't need Coliseum. If not, than Coliseum is great. Heck, it's great if you do run CoA. I like Gemstone Mine a lot too. It's a great 5-C land for aggro or a deck that plays tricks with lands. I run all but CoA at 500 (I utterly hate Un- cards).
Also doesn't make sense to me. At 360, I'd still run shock, dual, fetch. They are the best fixers arounds.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Words about R2R cards. The tags don't work yet, spoiler's here
Fencing Ace - Kind of weak, on reflection; Boros Swiftblade was never backbreaking even in a deck that had the mana and pump. Another solid card that probably won't make it into tighter lists.
Precinct Captain - Protection is kind of an obnoxious ability; White Knight either invalidates half their deck or has a blank line of text. This guy keeps the combat stats but gains a great saboteur that plays into tolken-making and general aggression. Probably the best generic WW guy other than Knight of Meadowgrain
Cyclonic Rift - Looks most like a Into the Roil variant, where the expensive version is a blowout instead of a cheaper cantrip. Deserves testing at least
Pack Rat - I've been hearing a lot of great things about this card. It basically lets you to go in with various amounts on the rats plan; either turn a couple pieces of chaff into bodies when you don't have anything better to do or dump all your resources into an army that only dies to wrath. Also it's a discard outlet that's good on its own merits!
Ash Zealot - A way better RR haster than anyone expected, obvious include.
Guttersnipe - A Zo-Zu, the Punisher variant, you get a grey ogre that shocks them for things that are going to happen in the game anyway. Seems like it supports any kind of red burn deck or the spell-based counterburn in particular.
Mizzium Mortars - The Volcanic Hammer that could. I suspect the triple red is a huge hindrance, and Flame Slash would be more useful as a creature-only burn spell anyway. I way overhyped this when it first got spoiled.
Deadbridge Goliath - Just what we needed, more fat 2GG cards. I think this one edges out Chameleon Colossus? He's no Thrun, but maybe better than Vengevine
Worldspine Wurm - It's an Eldrazi you Natural Order for instead of Channel. Probably not something the cube really needs, but he sure looks fun.
Abrupt Decay - Maelstrom Pulse redundancy, and sure it's a good card, but probably doesn't make it into a g/b section after this set
Armada Wurm - This is competing with Sigarda, and the angel is just too good of a stupid noninteractive game ender. Might make it in because of the art anyway
Azorius Charm - Mainly a Time Ebb, the lifelink is great for racing, and cycling means it's never dead. This seems a reasonable if not powerful card to have in your limited deck.
Detention Sphere - Obviously a slightly harder to cast Oblivion Ring, this seems to be getting some attention not because it's great in a vacuum; but because it deals with tokens and planeswalkers, two of the hardest things for U/W to manage. It's functional but not flashy, if Geist of Saint Traft or Grand Arbiter Augustin IV stop working out this would be a good choice to turn to.
Dreadbore - Surprise, it's another Terminate. I'm thinking about cutting some expensive card advantage removal and adding both these efficient answers
Dreg Mangler - b/g aggro can be an archetype, and this sure is a card for it
Goblin Electromancer - Doesn't seem super powerful, but is a body and acceleration for the spell-based deck. The only problem with the spell-based deck is that a solitary 2/2 without any protection gets hit with all the removal that would otherwise be useless. Worth testing
Golgari Charm - This seemed the most maindeckable charm; mostly used for the removal, and the two incidentals probably come up often. Probably not powerful enough compared with other golgari stuff
Hypersonic Dragon - show me ur dragon collection. I dunno it's a flying haste guy whatever. I'm still running old Niv-Mizzet, this guild desperately needed playables.
Izzet Charm - Seems like a reasonable upgrade to Fire//Ice. I've noticed with Fire and the Arc Lightnings that the damage split for solid card advantage doesn't really come up anymore. This keeps most of the functionality of Fire, replaces the cycling of Ice wih a filter, and adds a counterspell. These are things that this card does, I am enjoying myself.
Jarad's Orders - You're casting this card for the Entomb, but it also tutors for anything that would be helpful next turn. Also probably good with Karmic Guide? Something 2 think about.
Lotleth Troll - At the intersection of offense, defense and incidental discard is this guy. He probably does something any g/b deck would want to do, and comes down to start working early. I've heard of people adding Basking Rootwalla along with this guy and being pleasantly surprised by the results
Loxodon Smiter - This is the 4/4 for 3, no counters no discard. It's probably not better than the 3/3 gain 3 life guy but is efficient enough to be worth a look.
Rakdos Ragemutt - Notable only for the lifelink in R/B, which is always worth a look. Black traditionally likes to pay life heavily Bitterblossoms or Dark COnfidants or w/e, and the Tendrils of Corruption type effects that fueled that in constructed are largely absent here. But it's a 3/3 for 5, definitely not actually good enough when Falkenrath Aristocrat is a thing.
Supreme Verdict - Paraphrasing someone else, this is "a Day of Judgment u/w can actually wheel. Like the non-detaining Detention Sphere, this would have to knock out a more unique effect in order to run more of a staple effect
Vraska the Unseen - This thing seems really good, also badly needs a Vriska version photoshopped/altered. It's even more Maelstrom Pulse redundancy, with a very useful defensive ability that can draw a ton of heat off you. If g/b wants to win through attrition, this is an easy way to gain an advantage.
Deathrite Shaman - Probably much better in constructed/multiples, is worth looking at for a variety of utility + graveyard hosing. Probably best in cubes that support Life From the Loam/Crucible of Worlds, so it can more or less reliably accelerate.
Dryad Militant - Oh look it's better than Savannah Lions sure
Rakdos Cackler - And I'm willing to call this one better than Jackal Pup
Rakdos Shred-Freak - This is the RR haste guy we were excited about before Ash Zealot was spoiled, got kind of outshined there. He's probably still fine but I won't be making room for him.
Chromatic Lantern - I'll be testing this in place of Gilded Lotus as an artifact accelerant/mana fixer. We may never see the likes of Coalition Relic again, but this one's almost as useful
Volatile Rig - Probably not very good but seems neat as a curve-topper in aggro. Although it seems likely he gets blocked by a 1/1 and then blows up your team. On the other hand you did just do 7 + whatever else got through, so an all-in Ball Lightning variant?
Nearheath Pilgrim - Precinct Captain
The soulbond mechanic has played a lot more like an aura than an equipment; kind of slow and not worth the card unless you're getting a powerful effect. I'm sure he's still fine in like aggro mirrors, but there's always Lone Missionary as a consistent version
Loam Lion - Dryad Militant
Loam Lion heads back to the g/w section to be classified as a gold card. Dryad Militant and Kitchen Finks each grab a space in green or white.
Flickerwisp - Lingering Souls
I'm loath to cut this guy because blink support and he can do a bunch of random interesting things, but the double W is a thing and he hasn't been playing strong recently. The idea with souls is you can play it in a monowhite deck with maybe one or two black sources just in case, and it mirrors Unburial Rites
Elspeth Tirel - Elspeth, Knight Errant
This testing went about as predicted, original elspeth is much stronger. There were too many clunky turns with Tirel where you couldn't play her or she'd die, or you had to +2 for life when it wasn't helping you win
Parallax Wave - Angelic Destiny
Wave really is a fun card, but falls victim to being yet another wrath variant. Destiny is mostly a buff to g/w. The aura beat me more than once on the modo cube, so want to try it out
Deceiver Exarch - AEther Adept
We tried the kiki-jiki combo, and it won some games. Doesn't seem like something my small cube really needs, would rather have the slots for core effects.
Pestermite - Cyclonic Rift
Originally I was going to replace Into the Roil with this, but having a small amount of redundancy there seems better.
Brainstorm - Opposition
Probably the most powerful (compared to Ponder and Preordain), but also the most likely to do nothing because your draft deck doesn't have a shuffle effect handy. Opposition wants Phantasmal Bear in the pool, but we'll see.
Putrid Imp - Pack Rat
Aggressive decks didn't want it for being too small, reanimator decks didn't even want it for not being impactful enough. This should solve both those problems!
Gloom Surgeon - Reassembling Skeleton
the surgeon was easily handled with anything other than combat damage, and was a goblin piker anyway. Skeleton aims to be a more meaningful persistent threat, and does silly things with Smokestack
Sorin Markov - Liliana of the Dark Realms
I like a lot of what Sorin does; the lifegain, the mindslaver effect, and the consistent removal are all especially good things. Black already has enough expensive/heavy black creatures, and an expensive + heavy black planeswalker might not be as good of a thing as a cheaper planeswalker that helps enable those creatures
Exhume - Unburial Rites
"Reanimator" as an archetype isn't about the blazing fast all-in starts that Putrid Imp and Exhume would suggest. It's about evoking a Shriekmaw on t2 or connecting with a Looter il-Kor t3 and sneaking ahead on the normal gameplan. This exchange also makes me want to put Gifts Ungiven back in badly
Imperial Seal - Murderous Redcap
Redcap moved from r/b over to black to balance red's Rakdos Cackler. It was kinda hard finding a cut here, but I took the strictly worse Vampiric Tutor. I suppose Dismember could have found its way over to colorless instead
Arc Lightning - Arc Trail
These cards were incredibly disappointing! Any of being an instant or costing less or dealing one more damage would have let them get cast for value, but most of the time they kill one guy and maybe do a point of bonus damage. For this slot I'm trying the "costing less" option, but we'll see if even that's good enough
Flames of the Firebrand - Fire Imp
And instead of dealing 2 damage and 1 damage, this card deals 2 damage and is a 2/1. I'd noticed that there weren't really any good creatures for the theoretical r/x control deck, and this guy seems reasonable for that too
Bonfire of the Damned - Ash Zealot
The Zealot is coming in no matter what. Bonfire got miracled to great effect a couple times and was even reasonable hardcast for 1 or 2, living up to expectations. It just wasn't that much fun though; even with brainstorm and top and etc it wasn't even close to consistent or reliable. I'd really like some kind of x-spell that only hit the opponent's guys without miracle overcosting it
Kird Ape - Rakdos Cackler
Ape goes in g/r, lazy goblin goes in R. Black isn't primarily an aggro color but can play support, so the idea of a red card that also black can cast if it's in that deck works out pretty well.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Squee, Goblin Nabob
He's starting to combo with more and more things just by accident, and is always fun to play
Splinter Twin - Guttersnipe
Goodbye infinite combo, hello Zo-Zu, the Punisher lookalike
Brimstone Volley - Flame Javelin
This card gets stranded in hand a lot more than expected. 3 damage can be done for 1 or 2 mana pretty consistently, and having to enable morbid first is a hurdle if you just want to clear a blocker. Spectral Procession has been performing better than expected, so this might be similar
Firebolt - Flame Slash
Best in grinding grixis control decks, most decks can do any number of more powerful things with five mana than flashback firebolt. Flame Slash stays as turn one removal (and is another gift for that r/x control deck), but can consistently punch through most creatures for just R the whole game
Lotus Cobra - Tarmogoyf
Similar to black, green is intended as a secondary aggro color. The cobra was too inconsistent (although it did allow some incredibly powerful starts), so goyf is coming in as a big vanilla doofus
Strangleroot Geist - Brushstrider
I suspect geist is being undervalued in my playgroup, but an aggressive gg card doesn't have too much of a home. I suspect Brushstrider will be scared out of attacking by 1/1s a lot, but with some equipment or just on an empty board he seems scary
Call of the Herd - Viridian Shaman
It's kind of unfortunate that the color with all these one mana accelerant creatures doesn't have great 3-drops. T2 Eternal Witness doesn't do very much, and most of the other options are variations on Trained Armadon. Shaman can give card advantage in a different, more immediate way than call. I feel like I should have the monkeys in too
Great Sable Stag - Kitchen Finks
These are its last days. Better to gain some life. Better to persist as an Alpha Myr
Chameleon Colossus - Deadbridge Goliath
Protection is not a terribly interesting effect in cube; it either does nothing, making your creatures less efficient, or blanks huge swaths of the opponent's strategy. And when it does incidentally show up it tends to hose black, noted current worst color. A 5/5 for 4 is very efficient, and the golgari ability ironically helps my selesnya color identity (small creatures and then pants to keep them relevant)
Avenger of Zendikar - Hornet Queen
Avenger is less consistent, not as good when powered out early, and is about as annoying to keep track of on paper as Gavony Township. I think the queen will do good work.
Garruk Relentless - Garruk, Primal Hunter
The fight ability didn't always come up profitably right away, so he mostly looked like a splashable 4 mana wolf factory. Decks that included him for the tutor had a tough time making it fire. That's not bad, but the primal version is just much stronger
Rude Awakening - Worldspine Wurm
The wurm made it in by request. I suppose he'll get Natural Ordered out some game and punch really hard. It's just an eldrazi otherwise. Cut a less-abusive super-ramp spell
Deranged Hermit - Leatherback Baloth
5 seemed a little crowded, and Leatherback sure is a strong 3 drop. This is kind of a random swap but w/e
Channel - Life From the Loam
One build around me card for another. Channel has always been incredible or underwhelming, LFTL and Crucible of Worlds might help out the kind of discarding that Squee, Goblin Nabob came back in for. On that note, maybe Waterfront Bouncer could find a home in blue again
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - Supreme Verdict
Arbiter's always been on the fence, and he gets knocked out by a wrath. If I was white (and wanted wraths already), this card would definitely pull me towards blue
Adarkar Wastes - Detention Sphere
My guild sections are flexible with lands/spells, and here's another copy of a core white effect.
Baleful Strix - Dimir Signet
I personally think the strix is better, but the signet probably makes it into many more maindecks. Also I'd like to up the number of 2 mana rocks, and a few signets are a good way to do that.
Bituminous Blast - Dreadbore
Trading card advantage for consistency. This whole section went from supporting the grindy r/b attrition style to the fast R/b disruption style, but an unconditional answer that can be played t2 and up is also great for the control decks
Murderous Redcap - Terminate
Redcap headed over to black, more cheap unconditional answers in r/b
Olivia Voldaren - Falkenrath Aristocrat
This card definitely pulls me into a black splash for red, and can do fine work as a quick control finisher as well (especially if backed by w/b's token army). Olivia was powerful but kind of slow and reliant on untapping with her
Boggart Ram-Gang - Kird Ape
Needed room for kird ape to return to the gruul section, and Flinthoof Boar has been very impressive for fitting into a curve as a 2 or 3 drop
Kitchen Finks - Loam Lion
Just classification stuff
Lingering Souls - Orzhov Signet
Same here, although I'm sure this slot won't last come gatecrash. Acceleration and fixing for w/b is a rare but useful effect for now
Fire//Ice - Izzet Charm
Desolate Lighthouse - Izzet Signet
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind - Hypersonic Dragon
I dunno, the new Izzet guild didn't do much exciting. It'll be a shame to lose fire as a secret red card
Golgari Rot Farm - Vraska the Unseen
Not actually convinced that this card does enough, but it is Maelstrom Pulse stapled to a planeswalker and that's cool enough to test
Life//Death - Lotleth Troll
Supporting reanimator not with a more expensive reanimate, but with an enabler that can have some pretty strong board position
Lightning Helix - Ajani Vengeant
Apparently ajani is one of the most-run cards? I must be missing something with this guy
Viashino Slaughtermaster - Rakdos Shred-Freak
There's just no good jund card. The bad ash zealot made it in too!
Cathodion - Sword of War and Peace
The idea was to give every color a 3 drop (the ability is neutral), but every color can already field better than a vanilla 3/3 at 2C. All five swords are in now, I'll see how obnoxious they get
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Artisan of Kozilek
To make up for Worldspine Wurm, the eldrazi becomes an easier to hardcast or reanimate creature. But this one's just another artifact creature that can't be tinkered, so what's the point? If this slot is to reward Sneak Attack and Show and Tell and Tooth and Nail, shouldn't it just be Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Progenitus?
Powder Keg - Engineered Explosives
EE keeps the token-killing functionality of keg and bomb, but can also quickly scale up to 1 or 2 if necessary. It's not very difficult to hit 3-4 colors just by including some miscellaneous off-color duals.
Ratchet Bomb - Lightning Greaves
It's almost over! Horray!
Eldrazi Monument - Sword of Light and Shadow
A less all-in five drop
Gilded Lotus - Chromatic Lantern
Keeps the mana-fixing idea, and at a much more reasonable cost
Icy Manipulator - Crucible of Worlds
We all have fond memories of Icy, but the card was too slow and resource-intensive for a lot of DOTP 2013 games. Crucible probably comes in or out in a pair with LFTL
Ancient Tomb - Gemstone Mine
Tomb just wasn't getting maindecked, Mine is useful as a land that guarantees an aggro deck the right color for its one drop. It could easily have been reflecting pool cut instead, and then tomb cut anyway for City of Traitors to go along with crucible
Really don't like this cut at all, but if soulbond isn't your thing, then go for it.
Parallax Wave - Angelic Destiny
I think cutting Parallax Wave is a a huge mistake. I'd cube it in a 180-card cube. It's a one-sided Wrath effect that nevertheless finds a home in aggro, midrange, or control. It's also bonkers with citp effects, in which white abounds.
Lotus Cobra - Tarmogoyf
I'd try to find another cut for 'goyf, personally. Something like Oracle of Mul Daya.
Strangleroot Geist - Brushstrider
If you're going to support green aggro (and it seems like you want to, given that you're keeping Loam Lion and Kird Ape) Geist is a must include.
Call of the Herd - Viridian Shaman
Again, if you're supporting green aggro, CotH is a snap include.
Icy Manipulator - Crucible of Worlds
I'd try to find room for both of these, particularly as you're adding in more swords.
Those are what stood out to me, beyond what Power Conduit said. The other changes seem good.
My Cube on Cube Tutor
Yeah, the leatherback baloth one probably isn't defensible on pure power level. It's a combination of smaller things; my playgroup mostly disliking echo, Hornet Queen coming in with its own similar effect, wanting to keep tokens in w/b and out of g/w, trimming the clogged 5 slot for a more valuable 3, giving green a reward for going heavy-color, and giving green a 3 it's actually excited to play turn two after an elf. I think it'll better help craft the environment I want, but if it sits in sideboards can easily be cut again
In my experience, Garruk Relentless's punch ability was very inconsistent at finding targets, relegating him to a wolf factory most of the time. He's pretty good at this job, but his 5 mana version that powers up by making 3/3 is just splashier and more fun. (I run two planeswalkers per color)
It hasn't been impressing me, no. I'm not too happy about this switch either, because it's trading a 1W guy for a WW. Someone else I know is cutting Knight of Meadowgrain for the captain, but I think the lifegain or relic-warder's tuck are better.
All these things are true! There's not really a ton left to cut in white though. Silverblade Paladin, if I don't like soulbond after all. Mana Tithe, although it's such a hilarious blowout. Balance if I don't like its swinginess, catastrophe to trim a wrath. At first glance those are the only real options, and Wave seems the most expendable.
It's too bad though, Temporary Solution with wake and tide and stifle in old extended was one hell of a deck.
That's kind of funny, it was the other way around; I wanted a replacement for Lotus Cobra and decided on goyf. I found the Cobra quickly invalidated in combat, which made him want to stick back and not lose his mana ability. But his mana ability was also sketchy, the aggro decks he was best in stalling on land soon enough. I'm open to the idea of having mis-evaluated him though
I'm trying to support it as a secondary color, so R/g or W/g aggro decks can pick up some filler for the curve, some acceleration, and a rancor or a survival or even a plow under. CC aggro guys in a deck that's really only making a small to moderate splash don't get played on curve as much as ideal. I agree geist is a great card, but think a 1C aggressive creature would do better for the decks it's intended in
Is it really though? Is spending two relatively early turns making a pair of vanilla 3/3s a powerful play? I see card advantage on all green's other creatures through etb triggers, or being exceptionally hard to kill, or recuring itself/others. CotH seems best if you're planning on going long, chewing up two creatures or removal spells while you stall until the later stages of the game
Even with all that it's still one of the most reasonable 3 drops and perfectly splashable, so I'd be fine reversing this switch
That's a really good point, I might try to get Tumble Magnet back in too
Like most auras, Angelic Destiny sets you up for card disadvantage. I mean, it's one of the better auras to run but I'd rather just keep Parallax Wave or add in another creature.
Lingering Souls should be WB and Flickerwisp is a great card. I love Arc Lightning and its clone; I'd run them in almost any red deck.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963