I'm a Peasant Cube player, but I lurk and read in the Pauper Cube threads because I find it interesting and helpful given that my cube is almost half commons. I also personally run Tidal Wave as a pet card even though I know there are a lot of better options. But I have to say that the last ten pages or so have been horrible to read. I've even considered getting into the conversation a few times, and the following quote finally pushed me over the edge.
Magic is not an area where expertise is very relevant. It's easy to learn and easy to master... I'm only marginally worse at this game than veteran players who have been playing MtG for 20 years.
Look up the Dunning–Kruger Effect sometime - this is a classic example of it. It's only after you learn through experience that you begin to realize how little you know. I look back at how smart and smug I felt fifteen years ago and am embarrassed at the arguments I got into at the time because I didn't know as much as I thought. If you think there's not much of a difference between you and someone with more experience, you haven't played against any more experienced players.
I agree about Tidal Wave. It's not that it's the best card, or even the best blue removal. My argument is simply that it's a reasonably playable card.
I have played against experienced players.
As far as the Dunning-Kruger accusation goes, I could level the same accusation at someone offended that I had said that experience means little because they drafted more sets than I did or whatever. Since I don't value experience as regards MtG very much, I just see it as an ad hominem.
I've said this once or twice already, but when I top foured a Pauper 1k I told the streamers that interviewed me, "Better lucky than good."
So I don't really see why this statement is a big deal. To me it's just a statement of fact. I can top deck Gary just as well as anyone else.
If you have an unbalanced card pool, the way draft works inherently smooths that over and balances it somewhat because everyone works from the same pool of cards.
That's still not as desirable as having a card pool that's balanced to begin with, of course. But there are some axioms that people perceive as hard and fast rules when in reality there is no reason why you can't have a cube that has 27 white cards in it and 120 blue cards in it, for example. Many rules concerning cube construction are just arbitrary.
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Just because people find it insulting doesn't mean it's false.
As far as competitive Pauper goes, none of the decks are really that difficult to learn except for the One Land Spy deck. After a few practice games and a few nights at the LGS you can play most decks with an amount of competence that's just shy of someone who has been playing the deck for a long time.
My favorite deck is MBC. Half the time I win because I got lucky and drew Gary (Peace Be Upon Him) when I needed him.
Hell, half the decks require no thought at all, like Bogles or Burn. The only meaningful decision you make all game with Burn or Bogles are your mulligans.
You don't need 20 years experience to T1 Delver -> T2 hold 2 mana open for Counterspell. Like I said, this game is both easy to learn and easy to master. It's not an area where expertise is very valuable like chess, brain surgery, rocket science, playing an instrument, etc.
Yeah I have to agree with all of you here. I rarely post in this thread and mainly follow it to keep my cube up to date, but the last 10 or so pages (even without the posts Ulka deleted a while ago) have been just useless drivel from people who clearly can't evaluate cards even if their life were on the line (who even admitted that they haven't done a single draft a few pages ago) nor understand basic game concepts at all like tempo, synergy, interactions, combos, and other avenues to victory other than knuckledragging "Creatures: the Tappening" and thus I think they don't actually enjoy the game at all, so why should their opinions count towards anything? Ignore button is there for a reason.
1.) I don't see why I'm bad at card evaluation. My cube just isn't the top 360 Pauper legal cards mashed together, I like a lower power level. All that matters is that the cards are balanced enough compared to each other.
Furthermore, Tidal Wave is just a 3 mana blue kill spell against a lot of things, so even for a powered cube it seems playable. I don't see the issue with this one.
2.) Magic is not an area where expertise is very relevant. It's easy to learn and easy to master. It's even less relevant when you take someone else's cube as a start point and change from there.
So having never opened an actual pack for this game isn't relevant at all. I'm only marginally worse at this game than veteran players who have been playing MtG for 20 years.
Perhaps some context about Tidal Wave is necessary?
Currently in my cube, Big Dumb Green 4 mana 5/5's is the dominant deck. Tidal Wave matches up neatly with these and is also just a cool card.
Pacifisms do have some upsides. They eat enchantments like Rancor, Elephant Guide, Bestow creatures, and Totem Armor. And while perhaps often not as good as doom blades, I don't believe you that you wouldn't play Demonic Torment. The more removal, the better, right? Even if it's worse it's still worth playing in general.
1.) You guys are bad at evaluating cards. Everything that doesn't single handedly win you the game is deemed unplayable trash.
You Imply that but that is not the case. Most of the people here think Elite vanguard is a good card. Does it single handedly win you the game? No. Is it a dud because of it? No.
And If you think the people here are bad for evaluating cards why do you ask them? If you already think something is a reasonable card go ahead and test/play it, if you still want feedback then accept the feedback (You don't have to agree but why ask for feedback if nobody can change your mind on a card anyways)
This notion that this forum is only for powered cubes, and that powered cubes are the only balanced ones holds the community back.
Agreed, but nobody here is saying that powered cubes are the only balanced cubes.
Whereas my cube has some dud cards in it, powered cubes are basically, Everything that's not Pestilence% is a dud.
Again you imply that but nobody said that and even if they did that wouldn't be true, you have to draft a specific deck for pestilence to shine. And Pestilence is not "unbeatable" by any means.
So what you consider, a "tuned" Pauper cube is in reality just Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Evincar's Justice, Sprout Swarm, Guardian of the Guildpact, etc. + 340~ cards that are unplayable trash in comparison
No again you imply that that is the case but it is not ( the unplayable trash in comparison part). To most people here a tuned cube is a cube where you can draft multiple strategies that can be on even footing. Yes some cards are more powerful than others but Pestilence [or other cards you mentioned] should always be beatable in a tuned cube even without one of the other cards you mentioned. And for that the other cards are neccesary by either being good cards themselves or synergize well with the rest of your drafted cards.
3.) It's better to have 2 dud cards and 13 decent cards in each pack than it is to have 13 decent cards and 2 obnoxious bomb cards.
The Obnoxius part is your personal view on some of the cards and that is fine, but the more duds you play the more your decent cards become the
cards that you always draft and that always dominate games
thats why balance is neccesary.
multiple decent cards can beat the "bomb" cards. It's harder (however possible) to beat decent cards with duds. But then again having only decent cards or only duds is easier to balance.
All a dud card does is waste a draft pick. A bomb on the other hand utterly dominates the game. From a balance perspective, an individual dud has far less of an impact on cube balance than an individual bomb does.
I'd argue if its just one bomb vs. one dud balance wise both have litte impact. But from a "feels bad" perspective (which is subjective) I'd rather have my opponent draft that bomb than having to waste a pick, since in the games they still have to draw it and might not even win if they play it but a dud will most likely not even see the deck so the only impact it had was "somebody needed to draft this" instead of "somebody wanted to draft this".
Why wouldn't Elite Vanguard be considered unplayable trash? I've seen Duress, Frantic Search, Demonic Torment, and Peregrine Drake sans Ghostly Flicker called unplayable trash.
So why not? "elite vanguard is an X/1 it literally dies to everything i would not draft it your cube is 50% unplayable trash "
So I have the perception that everyone here besides Waymarsh is bad at card evaluation and since people accuse me of the same thing I don't see anything wrong with throwing it back.
*Shrugs* I guess in hopes of discussing cards I like? Which I'm not allowed to do apparently since many of the cards I like are not part of The One True Three-Hundred And Sixty.
My experience with cards like Pestilence is that you can draft like ***** and then in the last pack get a handful of power cards and pivot to black and magically have a super powerful deck. When Pestilence gets put onto the field, it gets pumped for 3 and everything dies a turn later. The original version of my cube before I started changing it was utterly dominated by Orzhov decks, and so was Adam Styborski's cube.
I don't see how you can balance Pestilence unless your cube was filled with parasitic artifact/enchantment removal.
The difference between Ninja of the Deep Hours or Rancor and the average other card in my cube is closer than the difference between a bomb like Pestilence and the average card in a "tuned" pauper cube, I'd argue.
I'd rather the person waste 1/45 of their picks than have 1/45 of their picks utterly dominate the game. Someone getting access to an overly powerful card is more of a feels bad for everyone else than it is to have to waste a pick on a dud card.
1.) You guys are bad at evaluating cards. Everything that doesn't single handedly win you the game is deemed unplayable trash.
Tidal Wave is a perfectly reasonable card.
2.) This notion that this forum is only for powered cubes, and that powered cubes are the only balanced ones holds the community back. I'd argue my cube has a more even power level than anyone's powered Pauper cube.
Whereas my cube has some dud cards in it, powered cubes are basically, Everything that's not Pestilence% is a dud.
So what you consider, a "tuned" Pauper cube is in reality just Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Evincar's Justice, Sprout Swarm, Guardian of the Guildpact, etc. + 340~ cards that are unplayable trash in comparison.
That's a large reason why Adam Styborski's cube sucks. Everything in his cube is fair and vanilla except for the handful of black and white bomb cards and Sprout Swarm.
3.) It's better to have 2 dud cards and 13 decent cards in each pack than it is to have 13 decent cards and 2 obnoxious bomb cards. Why is having cards that you always draft and that always dominate games considered good cube design?
All a dud card does is waste a draft pick. A bomb on the other hand utterly dominates the game. From a balance perspective, an individual dud has far less of an impact on cube balance than an individual bomb does.
It looks super thematic, fun, the art on it is metal, and it seems fairly powerful. It would function like a blue removal spell except it wouldn't just be another blue Pacifism.
you shouldnt be too picky when it comes to foil bend. first, most foils will bend at some point and its easy to flaten them. just put them between some books or plain stuff and put a heavy weight on top. after a week they are flat for a while.
Sometimes I have a little luck with flattening foils. My promo Seeker of the Way came almost in a dang circle it was so bad. If flattened out over the course of a few months.
My Treetop Village, Faerie Conclave, and signed Doomed Traveler however (just to name a few) have not gotten any where close to playable. The two lands have been in a smashed box with those pellet thingies for over a year.
Buuut, that's a different cube.
I actively bend mine opposite the curl first and then put them in tight compressed storage. That seems to help more than just compressing them. Eventually they get flat or flat enough to where they're not marked.
Since it's a cube, marked cards don't really mean that much. If you've memorized which 30% of my cards are doubled sleeved and which aren't and you can tell, then you've earned your right to cheat I guess.
The newer the foil, the thinner and cheaper the card stock is, so the more they curl. ******* Ravnica Allegiance foils were pack fresh curled it seemed.
Older foils don't curl as much but they've been around longer and are more rigid, so when they do curl they seem to curl more obstinately.
Unless it's severe, it can be fixed eventually. As long as it's not one of those cards that has become warped into a concave or convex shape that pops whenever pressure is applied to it. I don't know what can be done about those.
Does anyone else play the Bestow Enchantment Aura creatures in their cubes? I'm think about putting all of the Pauper legal ones in my cube since the mechanic is cool and none of them are duds/overpowered.
Nimbus Naiad is always a solid pick in my cube, as is the green one that gives +2/+2 and Reach.
I play some of them already and shied away from the lifegain and deathtouch ones because of Crypt Rats, but now that I no longer have Crypt Rats in my cube those seem fine, and I may as well play all 10 of them.
Been busy assembling the Pauper Cube that is going to be given away at the charity event. Just wanted to swing in with an update:
197 Collected! I am officially over half way! I found another 27 cards in a box today. I have 2 more boxes and then going to ask the rest of my playgroup to rummage through what they have.
I am debating on if I want to pull out a ton of cards that are in my Peasant Cube that aren't foiled yet. I could pull them out and replace them in the next month or so with foils. That would bump my numbers significantly. We shall see. I am VERY particular with which foils are in there and the quality of them (specific sets if multiples and NM with NO foil bend) so it could really mess up my c/ube for a while...
Have you considered turning in a decklist to an LGS? That should get you most of the way there.
I've started blinging out my cube too.
All of the cheap ones have been foiled, now it's on to the more expensive stuff like the Signets, rancor, unearth, etc.
I even made some trades at my FLGS to get a foil Gush and foil Queer Ranger.
Apprentice Wizard always seems cooler than he is. Two mana ramp is real, but it's also a higher risk proposition. I don't think Wizard soaking up a removal spell is actually all that helpful for a ramp deck, either, since he basically just "turns on" a lot of lower-impact removal spells that might otherwise be dead cards. It's not a bad test, though- I could definitely see myself running the guy.
EDIT: It's not a perfect comparison, but I think the cards he's most comparable to are uncommons like Fyndhorn Elder or Gyre Engineer. It's worse than either of those, but it also has less competition as a Blue ramp card. Would you want to run either of those cards if they were common? I lean no, but I could see the answer being yes. I think the fact that we would probably play Overgrowth if given the choice speaks to where this guy stands.
I'm thinking of adding Train of Thought to my cube. I'm going to add all of the common Bestow creatures to my cube since I like the mechanic a lot, and those tend to have pricey bestow costs. The blue monarch card is like 6 mana. Even something like Phantom Monster or non-evoke Mulldrifter are pricey. It seems reasonable.
One would run ramp in green but in my cube blue has some pricey spells too. People draft it in my cube despite them having nothing to ramp into. For a while I had Nature's Lore in my cube because the Portal printing of it has good art and my friends would always draft it even though it did nothing really.
So I don't really see an issue with Apprentice Wizard being underplayed in my cube, especially considering big dumb Simic beaters has been an all-star deck as of late.
I don't even think Rebirth was all that strong in Scars of Mirrodin block? There are lots of reasons that this could be true that don't necessarily mean it's bad, but I think it speaks to just how many artifacts it takes (especially low impact artifacts that you don't mind sacrificing) for it to be good. I also don't think that the decision to sacrifice either of those cards for 3 goblins will be correct a large portion of the time. Hordeling Outburst seems clearly better, and I even think getting 2 Goblins and keeping your mana/board presence is a better rate (which you have at least three cards that give you two gobos for 2 with no frills).
I don't know that I'd play Rebirth without at least 6 artifacts. The rate just isn't very good in the presence of so many potential token makers to take on the risk of it sitting worthless in your hand. It feels like a draft-around card with an extremely low ceiling and an extremely low floor outside of a specialized environment which I don't think you have produced or would want to produce.
Yeah, I suppose you're right. Drafting an entire deck just to get an (arguably) good rate on 3 Goblin tokens seems kind of eh. Not that it would be a bad card when you do draft that deck, but unless you have that specific deck it's a dead card the rest of the time.
I need more spots for bestow creatures anyways, so this will be swapped for one.
The GX creatures are kind of interesting, since they're always a little overpriced but fit at any point on the curve. Go ahead and try them, they might actually be a good fit for your Cube's power level and I do actually really like how they play. They're kind of one mana off from being good- Endless One was excellent by just removing the G, but is an example of what the best version of this effect is for us. (BTW, put me down as hoping for Endless One in a future Masters set as a downshift?) But they're a bit slow at any cost for regular Cubes.
Oh, that would be real cool. That's one thing that Pauper doesn't much of, payoffs for ramp. There is a mono-green LD deck in Pauper that's actually kind of tier 1 but the way it operates is rather degenerate, it will ramp and simultaneously play land destruction spells (many of which ramp you in addition to destroying a land) and then play a turn 3-4 Ulamog's Crusher while you have no way to respond. But there is no payoff for playing fair with ramp like Colossal Dreadmaw.
I'm surprised that there are more 1 mana 2/2's or 2 mana 3/3's in the game (well, in Pauper at least) than there are 5 mana 7/7's or 8 mana 12/12's or whatever. I don't understand why one is rewarded for putting nothing into their creatures, but punished with at/below curve expensive creatures. When I'm putting 7 mana into a creature, can't I get an 8/8, maybe 9/9 with Trample at least?
Would that just make ramp decks too stupid? You make 1/3rd of your deck land, 1/3rd ramp, and 1/3rd undercosted big boys and then your opponent can't do anything?
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Anyways, what about instead of the Cloudpost/Tron plan, you put Sisay's Ring, Ur Golem's Eye, and Kozilek's Channeler and maybe the aforementioned Apprentice Wizard in your cube and supported big mana that way?
Apprentice Wizard is worse then signets, dies to every removal spell, and would not be very useful. Kuldotha Rebirth is a cool card but what artifacts would you be ok sacrificing for three 1/1's? I would say it's unplayable unless you build a very heavy artifact cube.
generally under cost creatures will be better then X Creature mana sinks with no protection. would you pay 3 for a 2/2 with no abilities over a borderland ranger or centaur courser? They do scale with your mana but not enough for it to be worth it.
If the wizard eats a removal spell, isn't that a good thing? That's a different question if you run sweepers in your cube of course.
Yeah, you're right about the 4 mana 5/5's. A 4 mana 5/5 is already good enough, and the chance of a 9 mana 8/8 or whatever isn't as good as slapping down a 5/5 on turn 3-4 and getting 10 damage in.
Maybe I'll cut something else from green in order to add the XG creatures, idk. They are interesting.
I'd sac a Signet or Bonesplitter for 3 Goblins. My concern isn't losing the artifact, my concern is that you may not have enough artifacts in order for it to be playable. Assuming you're okay with losing the artifact, how many do you need? 3-4?
Whatever that number is, that means it's likely a good idea to gobble up a bunch of Signets for it. And extra mana also helps with Rolling Thunder, Fireball, and Disintegrate. So I think there is a deck where Kuldotha fits, it just potentially requires you to draft a bunch of extra cards with it.
How many artifacts does it require to for Kuldotha Rebirth to be playable?
And what would you rather have, a value 5/5 like Imperiosaur or an XG like Slime Molding or Ivy Elemental? The original version of my cube had more ramp and more big expensive creatures. I replaced some of the ramp and made a bunch of the remaining creatures into above curve 5/5's. But these X creatures are fairly interesting. It gives more of an incentive to ramp and gives you something to do with the 8 basic lands you have out in the late game.
You may have your own opinion yes, but you can't say bombs are bad for cube then run bomb cards likerancorin your cube and tell us our cubes are not fun because we run all good cards. you do run a broken card combo in phantom nomadorphantom tiger and any sort of pump enchantment or artifact, they become indestructible and "unfun" in your words.
you do have interesting cards the rest of us don't run, that doesn't make your cube bad just different. I do really like the push for goblin tribal in goblin caves and goblin shrine seem fun but probably to slow, I don't know I've never tried tribal in cube.
try to be more understanding of where we are coming from and be more accepting and grateful for advice, we play and test every card in our cubes and know when things under perform, we know when certain archetypes need help or when others need nerfing, this all comes back to experience and balance. we are building different cubes then you so that makes it harder to give advice, I would say you are an "unpowered" cube which is what you are going for I think.
Please stop being confrontational and we can all get along.
Rancor and something like Ninja of the Deep Hours are things that you always draft, but don't always win you the game.
So they're sort of bombs I guess? I've never really thought of them as such, they're just good creatures/better bonesplitter.
The Phantom cards I acknowledge could be broken. I think the way they work is interesting though, so I put them in. They haven't gotten out of hand yet.
I agree about Tidal Wave. It's not that it's the best card, or even the best blue removal. My argument is simply that it's a reasonably playable card.
I have played against experienced players.
As far as the Dunning-Kruger accusation goes, I could level the same accusation at someone offended that I had said that experience means little because they drafted more sets than I did or whatever. Since I don't value experience as regards MtG very much, I just see it as an ad hominem.
I've said this once or twice already, but when I top foured a Pauper 1k I told the streamers that interviewed me, "Better lucky than good."
So I don't really see why this statement is a big deal. To me it's just a statement of fact. I can top deck Gary just as well as anyone else.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
That's still not as desirable as having a card pool that's balanced to begin with, of course. But there are some axioms that people perceive as hard and fast rules when in reality there is no reason why you can't have a cube that has 27 white cards in it and 120 blue cards in it, for example. Many rules concerning cube construction are just arbitrary.
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Just because people find it insulting doesn't mean it's false.
As far as competitive Pauper goes, none of the decks are really that difficult to learn except for the One Land Spy deck. After a few practice games and a few nights at the LGS you can play most decks with an amount of competence that's just shy of someone who has been playing the deck for a long time.
My favorite deck is MBC. Half the time I win because I got lucky and drew Gary (Peace Be Upon Him) when I needed him.
Hell, half the decks require no thought at all, like Bogles or Burn. The only meaningful decision you make all game with Burn or Bogles are your mulligans.
You don't need 20 years experience to T1 Delver -> T2 hold 2 mana open for Counterspell. Like I said, this game is both easy to learn and easy to master. It's not an area where expertise is very valuable like chess, brain surgery, rocket science, playing an instrument, etc.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
1.) I don't see why I'm bad at card evaluation. My cube just isn't the top 360 Pauper legal cards mashed together, I like a lower power level. All that matters is that the cards are balanced enough compared to each other.
Furthermore, Tidal Wave is just a 3 mana blue kill spell against a lot of things, so even for a powered cube it seems playable. I don't see the issue with this one.
2.) Magic is not an area where expertise is very relevant. It's easy to learn and easy to master. It's even less relevant when you take someone else's cube as a start point and change from there.
So having never opened an actual pack for this game isn't relevant at all. I'm only marginally worse at this game than veteran players who have been playing MtG for 20 years.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
Currently in my cube, Big Dumb Green 4 mana 5/5's is the dominant deck. Tidal Wave matches up neatly with these and is also just a cool card.
Pacifisms do have some upsides. They eat enchantments like Rancor, Elephant Guide, Bestow creatures, and Totem Armor. And while perhaps often not as good as doom blades, I don't believe you that you wouldn't play Demonic Torment. The more removal, the better, right? Even if it's worse it's still worth playing in general.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
Why wouldn't Elite Vanguard be considered unplayable trash? I've seen Duress, Frantic Search, Demonic Torment, and Peregrine Drake sans Ghostly Flicker called unplayable trash.
So why not? "elite vanguard is an X/1 it literally dies to everything i would not draft it your cube is 50% unplayable trash "
So I have the perception that everyone here besides Waymarsh is bad at card evaluation and since people accuse me of the same thing I don't see anything wrong with throwing it back.
*Shrugs* I guess in hopes of discussing cards I like? Which I'm not allowed to do apparently since many of the cards I like are not part of The One True Three-Hundred And Sixty.
My experience with cards like Pestilence is that you can draft like ***** and then in the last pack get a handful of power cards and pivot to black and magically have a super powerful deck. When Pestilence gets put onto the field, it gets pumped for 3 and everything dies a turn later. The original version of my cube before I started changing it was utterly dominated by Orzhov decks, and so was Adam Styborski's cube.
I don't see how you can balance Pestilence unless your cube was filled with parasitic artifact/enchantment removal.
The difference between Ninja of the Deep Hours or Rancor and the average other card in my cube is closer than the difference between a bomb like Pestilence and the average card in a "tuned" pauper cube, I'd argue.
I'd rather the person waste 1/45 of their picks than have 1/45 of their picks utterly dominate the game. Someone getting access to an overly powerful card is more of a feels bad for everyone else than it is to have to waste a pick on a dud card.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
Tidal Wave is a perfectly reasonable card.
2.) This notion that this forum is only for powered cubes, and that powered cubes are the only balanced ones holds the community back. I'd argue my cube has a more even power level than anyone's powered Pauper cube.
Whereas my cube has some dud cards in it, powered cubes are basically, Everything that's not Pestilence% is a dud.
So what you consider, a "tuned" Pauper cube is in reality just Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Evincar's Justice, Sprout Swarm, Guardian of the Guildpact, etc. + 340~ cards that are unplayable trash in comparison.
That's a large reason why Adam Styborski's cube sucks. Everything in his cube is fair and vanilla except for the handful of black and white bomb cards and Sprout Swarm.
3.) It's better to have 2 dud cards and 13 decent cards in each pack than it is to have 13 decent cards and 2 obnoxious bomb cards. Why is having cards that you always draft and that always dominate games considered good cube design?
All a dud card does is waste a draft pick. A bomb on the other hand utterly dominates the game. From a balance perspective, an individual dud has far less of an impact on cube balance than an individual bomb does.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
It looks super thematic, fun, the art on it is metal, and it seems fairly powerful. It would function like a blue removal spell except it wouldn't just be another blue Pacifism.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
Or those, "I don't care, it's staying in" cards?
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
I actively bend mine opposite the curl first and then put them in tight compressed storage. That seems to help more than just compressing them. Eventually they get flat or flat enough to where they're not marked.
Since it's a cube, marked cards don't really mean that much. If you've memorized which 30% of my cards are doubled sleeved and which aren't and you can tell, then you've earned your right to cheat I guess.
The newer the foil, the thinner and cheaper the card stock is, so the more they curl. ******* Ravnica Allegiance foils were pack fresh curled it seemed.
Older foils don't curl as much but they've been around longer and are more rigid, so when they do curl they seem to curl more obstinately.
Unless it's severe, it can be fixed eventually. As long as it's not one of those cards that has become warped into a concave or convex shape that pops whenever pressure is applied to it. I don't know what can be done about those.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
Nimbus Naiad is always a solid pick in my cube, as is the green one that gives +2/+2 and Reach.
I play some of them already and shied away from the lifegain and deathtouch ones because of Crypt Rats, but now that I no longer have Crypt Rats in my cube those seem fine, and I may as well play all 10 of them.
They would also have the benefit of encouraging more Splice Onto Arcane, since Wear Away, Terashi's Grasp, and Rending Vines are in my cube.
Bestow is generally pricey, so they incentivize ramp a little more too.
I guess with the increase in pump enchantments I'll have to reevaluate Phantom Nomad and Phantom Tiger.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
Have you considered turning in a decklist to an LGS? That should get you most of the way there.
I've started blinging out my cube too.
All of the cheap ones have been foiled, now it's on to the more expensive stuff like the Signets, rancor, unearth, etc.
I even made some trades at my FLGS to get a foil Gush and foil Queer Ranger.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
I'm thinking of adding Train of Thought to my cube. I'm going to add all of the common Bestow creatures to my cube since I like the mechanic a lot, and those tend to have pricey bestow costs. The blue monarch card is like 6 mana. Even something like Phantom Monster or non-evoke Mulldrifter are pricey. It seems reasonable.
One would run ramp in green but in my cube blue has some pricey spells too. People draft it in my cube despite them having nothing to ramp into. For a while I had Nature's Lore in my cube because the Portal printing of it has good art and my friends would always draft it even though it did nothing really.
So I don't really see an issue with Apprentice Wizard being underplayed in my cube, especially considering big dumb Simic beaters has been an all-star deck as of late.
Yeah, I suppose you're right. Drafting an entire deck just to get an (arguably) good rate on 3 Goblin tokens seems kind of eh. Not that it would be a bad card when you do draft that deck, but unless you have that specific deck it's a dead card the rest of the time.
I need more spots for bestow creatures anyways, so this will be swapped for one.
Oh, that would be real cool. That's one thing that Pauper doesn't much of, payoffs for ramp. There is a mono-green LD deck in Pauper that's actually kind of tier 1 but the way it operates is rather degenerate, it will ramp and simultaneously play land destruction spells (many of which ramp you in addition to destroying a land) and then play a turn 3-4 Ulamog's Crusher while you have no way to respond. But there is no payoff for playing fair with ramp like Colossal Dreadmaw.
I'm surprised that there are more 1 mana 2/2's or 2 mana 3/3's in the game (well, in Pauper at least) than there are 5 mana 7/7's or 8 mana 12/12's or whatever. I don't understand why one is rewarded for putting nothing into their creatures, but punished with at/below curve expensive creatures. When I'm putting 7 mana into a creature, can't I get an 8/8, maybe 9/9 with Trample at least?
Would that just make ramp decks too stupid? You make 1/3rd of your deck land, 1/3rd ramp, and 1/3rd undercosted big boys and then your opponent can't do anything?
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Anyways, what about instead of the Cloudpost/Tron plan, you put Sisay's Ring, Ur Golem's Eye, and Kozilek's Channeler and maybe the aforementioned Apprentice Wizard in your cube and supported big mana that way?
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
If the wizard eats a removal spell, isn't that a good thing? That's a different question if you run sweepers in your cube of course.
Yeah, you're right about the 4 mana 5/5's. A 4 mana 5/5 is already good enough, and the chance of a 9 mana 8/8 or whatever isn't as good as slapping down a 5/5 on turn 3-4 and getting 10 damage in.
Maybe I'll cut something else from green in order to add the XG creatures, idk. They are interesting.
I'd sac a Signet or Bonesplitter for 3 Goblins. My concern isn't losing the artifact, my concern is that you may not have enough artifacts in order for it to be playable. Assuming you're okay with losing the artifact, how many do you need? 3-4?
Whatever that number is, that means it's likely a good idea to gobble up a bunch of Signets for it. And extra mana also helps with Rolling Thunder, Fireball, and Disintegrate. So I think there is a deck where Kuldotha fits, it just potentially requires you to draft a bunch of extra cards with it.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
How many artifacts does it require to for Kuldotha Rebirth to be playable?
And what would you rather have, a value 5/5 like Imperiosaur or an XG like Slime Molding or Ivy Elemental? The original version of my cube had more ramp and more big expensive creatures. I replaced some of the ramp and made a bunch of the remaining creatures into above curve 5/5's. But these X creatures are fairly interesting. It gives more of an incentive to ramp and gives you something to do with the 8 basic lands you have out in the late game.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
Rancor and something like Ninja of the Deep Hours are things that you always draft, but don't always win you the game.
So they're sort of bombs I guess? I've never really thought of them as such, they're just good creatures/better bonesplitter.
The Phantom cards I acknowledge could be broken. I think the way they work is interesting though, so I put them in. They haven't gotten out of hand yet.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.