All the tribal discussions made me reconsider Rebels. I like them, but the only playable tutor is Amrou Scout and the good targets are really limited. One rebel is really interesting, no matter with tutor or without, Zealot il-Vec. A white Prodigal Pyromancer. Very unique.
I made great experiences with Cabal Torturer, because black got a lot of hard removal spells, but only so few things, to deal effectively with all the X/1 stuff, that is not really worth a hard removal. White got a lot of hard removal aswell, I wonder if the Zealot couldn't be of big interest.
If you're going to play rebels, I'd certainly play all of the tutors. They're all fine, and given that you don't want to use them in combat for the first couple of turns, Blightspeaker and Defiant Falcon are commonly actually better than the scout.
I'd play zealot if and only if I was playing rebels, to me it's really just worse than a colourshifted tim, but as a tutorable target it's really useful. Ditto about Rathi Trapper - I dislike this kind of tapper to no end in general, but being able to tutor it up makes it a lot stronger. Still, there's only the zealot, the trapper, Blade of the Sixth Pride and Aven Riftwatcher as good targets, with Amrou Seekers and/or Thermal/Nightwind gliders being where you'd have to reach for playables. Nevertheless, I think it's definitely possible to support the archetype.
In my experience, 3 colour ramp decks never have a problem with double costs because so much of the ramp is fixing. The number of sources is very commonly greater for a 3colour ramp deck than a 2 colour non-ramp deck. I'd only stick away from Hiers as it's generally not very good.
I ran Trinket Mage for a while when I first put my cube together, partly out of love for the card in general. Sometimes you draft it with Bonesplitter and you look like a pro when you fetch the axe up. Too often, however, you'd draft him but couldn't get any 1 drop artifacts (or just had one in your deck, which means you have a 50% chance of drawing it before you see the mage), making him a bad bear.
It's actually even higher - if you draw both in the first 9/10 cards it doesn't matter the order as you won't have played the trinket mage yet.
but packs starting in alara only have 14 playable cards? 1 rare 3 uncommon 10 common and 1 basic land. So if you want to be true to real magic, draft 14
We usually do 5 packs of 9 because we almost always only have 4 people available. Makes the packs a more appropriate length of wheels and still gives the same amount of cards. 15 card packs in 4 mans are super awkward.
I preferred it when normal limited was with 15 packs too.
I don't really think that removal is even necessary for a pauper deck at all. I don't mean that removal spells can't be good, but it's not like in regular limited where 6-cost removal spells are high picks. In a lot of green decks, I'd rather have a dude than arachnus web even if I don't have a single other piece of removal.
My main problem with the web was not the restriction, really, but the way that it falls off if the creature grows, which is really not a hard thing to do in pauper. I think that card is pretty uncubable, and wildsize is easily better.
I like Basilica Guards, but Basilica Screecher is critical and Syndicate Enforcer seems not playable to me. The guards simply fit into the Extort plan. Play defensive and win through life advantage, but the Enforcer definitly doesn't fit into that plan and the Screecher neither.
Actually I like Evolve way more of the new abilites. I had a UG deck, not far ago with all 3 playables of them. Simply the curve of Cloudfin Raptor, Shambleshark, Crocanura and then a Nessian Courser to trigger all of them. That deck was absolutly nuts.
Basilica screecher is a lot better than the guards, it's not actually very close. Being able to get in for 1 extra each turn and especially costing 1 less is very important.
People where telling me, that I'm underrating Moment's Peace. What are the opinions about it. I mean Fog is simply bad, because it's terribly situative and nearly always card disadvantage, but from Embolden many people already know, how strong flashback can be, even if the effect may not seem that good and is maybe overcosted, while preventing damage splittet up is definitly way more useful than Fog-like effects.
The reason Fog isn't good is not because of the card disadvantage. Don't think so much about card advantage when evaluating cards - that way very powerful cards like Armadillo Cloak and Black Lotus seem like bad cards, when they totally are not. Sometimes you have to throw away a card for something, and depending what it is, it's often worth it. Moment's Peace is very good because, with the extra time, many of the slower green decks can get into a dominating position against aggro/tempo/faster midrange decks. It's super important to stop damage early from the red decks, as this is the card that often means that they can't ever burn you out because you never get to a low enough life total.
While evaluating I found Henchfiend of Ukor, that seems very strong to me. Hybrid Shades are way better than mono colored shades (Frostburn Weird) and a 3 power and haste for cc4 is also solid. It seems very flexible to me, beeing able to attack for 3 with 4 mana, for 4 with 5 mana, for 5 with 6 mana and so on, just the turn it enters the battlefield and the Echo costs are acceptable. Opinions?
While lots of those cards are very cool, Shadow Guildmage is far and away better than all of the other sweet options. Having that effect available so early is really key - they can't get any value at all from mana elves, looters or their own pingers, and lategame it still dominates combat math.
Hey, Roots is a cool card. It's obviously not amazing, but green being able to deal with any creature is a pretty big deal, and Arachnus Web wasn't very good at that. Admittedly, part of the reason was because it was expensive, but not being able to be blown out by equipment and pump spells is nice.
I don't like Dirge because it's black, and because the cycling hardly does anything. The effect I like the most out of all of them is probably Ruthless Invasion, being kind-of colourless, but I cut it for not performing. Unlike normal limited it's more than possible to clear the board if you've drafted the right deck, and against that kind of control deck falter effects do almost nothing.
War Cry is interesting, and hard to evaluate. I don't think it's very good though, because with these effects you really want to kill in one turn, and there's a pretty big problem when you don't - they can just attack back without fear of blocking. It's interesting though, as it cantrips and can possibly be used earlier in the game to deal smaller amounts of damage before their blocks and counterattacks become good.
Nevertheless, it does seem worse than Repel the Darkness, which didn't last long in my cube. If it was red though, it may have.
My favourite of these is Spiketail Drakeling. It's one of the only creatures you can play at any time of the game without having to take care to keep mana for counters ready. It's a 2/2 flying beater with a "Seal-Effect". It can slow your opponent a lot, while still beating him in the air.
Pestermite is staple. Flash, 2 power, flying and a nice etb-effect, that has a synergy with flash for just 2U makes this creature a little powerhouse.
The third spot is a little bit problematic. I like all of them nearly the same and they are close to the power level of the 3/1 fliers. Wormfang Drake is huge, but sometimes problematic. Still as huge as Shoreline Ranger for half of the mana. Shaper Parasite is a blue spot removal attached to a solid body. It's the blue pendant of Ghitu Slinger/Skirk Marauder, but for blue and with a better body. Fathom Seer is Gush attached to an unexciting body, but still a body. Stealer of Secrets is a card I like a lot, while I know it's not the strongest one. It's great for tempo decks with a lot of bounce and tapping and with 2 power it can't be blocked by everything like Scroll Thief.
Spiketail Drakeling was terrible here, but maybe that's not representative. Here people just played normally into it, an if you used the ability to counter a 2 or 3 drop, your loss. It's slightly problematic when you're trying to resolve spells that cost 4 or more, but only a few of those are actually powerful in this format.
Yep, fanatic is definitely better than seal of fire. It's kind of hard to make that comparison, but the fact is that you DO have to run a number of 1 drops in red to make aggro even close to viable. It's not really true that 1 drops aren't needed - sure, they're not needed often in normal limited, but are always extremely powerful when they're worth a card (wingcrafter, mana elves, infantry veteran, Goblin Fireslinger - only in that format).
You need to put on as much pressure as possible in the early game in an aggro deck, and that's really not possible without 1 drops. You want to deal damage as quickly as humanly possible and Fanatic can both apply this early pressure and be a still-relevant seal effect late into the game. It's not uncommon for fanatic to deal 3 damage and have the ping still available - sometimes a lot more. There's a reason it's a staple in rare cubes.
3/1 fliers are definitely stronger than 2/3s. Yeah, they're worse at ground combat (not strictly though, as they have inferior trading abilities - but most of what a flying 3 drop is trying to do is get in
Whether Chapel Geist is stronger than the drake is not really a question that cube owners need to ask - I'd probably say that geist has a very slight edge, but could be wrong. Reality is, the 2/3 alternative is Cloud elemental and that's not close to as good as the drake because the blocking capabilities are taken away by its inability to block.
If you're going to play rebels, I'd certainly play all of the tutors. They're all fine, and given that you don't want to use them in combat for the first couple of turns, Blightspeaker and Defiant Falcon are commonly actually better than the scout.
I'd play zealot if and only if I was playing rebels, to me it's really just worse than a colourshifted tim, but as a tutorable target it's really useful. Ditto about Rathi Trapper - I dislike this kind of tapper to no end in general, but being able to tutor it up makes it a lot stronger. Still, there's only the zealot, the trapper, Blade of the Sixth Pride and Aven Riftwatcher as good targets, with Amrou Seekers and/or Thermal/Nightwind gliders being where you'd have to reach for playables. Nevertheless, I think it's definitely possible to support the archetype.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
It's actually even higher - if you draw both in the first 9/10 cards it doesn't matter the order as you won't have played the trinket mage yet.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I preferred it when normal limited was with 15 packs too.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Basilica screecher is a lot better than the guards, it's not actually very close. Being able to get in for 1 extra each turn and especially costing 1 less is very important.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
The reason Fog isn't good is not because of the card disadvantage. Don't think so much about card advantage when evaluating cards - that way very powerful cards like Armadillo Cloak and Black Lotus seem like bad cards, when they totally are not. Sometimes you have to throw away a card for something, and depending what it is, it's often worth it. Moment's Peace is very good because, with the extra time, many of the slower green decks can get into a dominating position against aggro/tempo/faster midrange decks. It's super important to stop damage early from the red decks, as this is the card that often means that they can't ever burn you out because you never get to a low enough life total.
While lots of those cards are very cool, Shadow Guildmage is far and away better than all of the other sweet options. Having that effect available so early is really key - they can't get any value at all from mana elves, looters or their own pingers, and lategame it still dominates combat math.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
War Cry is interesting, and hard to evaluate. I don't think it's very good though, because with these effects you really want to kill in one turn, and there's a pretty big problem when you don't - they can just attack back without fear of blocking. It's interesting though, as it cantrips and can possibly be used earlier in the game to deal smaller amounts of damage before their blocks and counterattacks become good.
Nevertheless, it does seem worse than Repel the Darkness, which didn't last long in my cube. If it was red though, it may have.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Spiketail Drakeling was terrible here, but maybe that's not representative. Here people just played normally into it, an if you used the ability to counter a 2 or 3 drop, your loss. It's slightly problematic when you're trying to resolve spells that cost 4 or more, but only a few of those are actually powerful in this format.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
You need to put on as much pressure as possible in the early game in an aggro deck, and that's really not possible without 1 drops. You want to deal damage as quickly as humanly possible and Fanatic can both apply this early pressure and be a still-relevant seal effect late into the game. It's not uncommon for fanatic to deal 3 damage and have the ping still available - sometimes a lot more. There's a reason it's a staple in rare cubes.
3/1 fliers are definitely stronger than 2/3s. Yeah, they're worse at ground combat (not strictly though, as they have inferior trading abilities - but most of what a flying 3 drop is trying to do is get in
Whether Chapel Geist is stronger than the drake is not really a question that cube owners need to ask - I'd probably say that geist has a very slight edge, but could be wrong. Reality is, the 2/3 alternative is Cloud elemental and that's not close to as good as the drake because the blocking capabilities are taken away by its inability to block.
Draft it on Cubetutor!