MTG Salvation

You just probably don't need two of that effect, even at 720.

Quote from Salmo »

You just probably don't need two of that effect, even at 720.

Well, you can make that argument for a lot of cards. In 720 it means one will show up each 8-man draft on average.

I rather want 2 of this effect than any of the 9+ cards, that I personally never would include in a 720 cube.

But well, the great thing about cube is that each one is different due to the varied opinion of Cube creators.

@Bonda: Ya, I don't think I'd have room for even one Pelakka Wurm at 720 ...better yet 2 of 'em. But I'm glad you like the card. I hope it works out well for you guys.

@Barkley: Um... That's aggro's entire purpose. If it's not good at beating control, you shouldn't support it in the cube, since that's pretty much all it's there for... Outside of having it try and race combo decks in combo-centric cubes I suppose. Aggro > Control > Midrange > Aggro

There are aggro decks in eternal formats that can keep control decks in check. And even in tight powered cubes, aggro should be a clear favorite against control decks in the format. If aggro isn't favored against control, your metagame isn't going to be remotely healthy. What's the incentive to support/draft aggro if it doesn't have any favorable matchups?

Quote from wtwlf123 »

There are aggro decks in eternal formats that can keep control decks in check.

Just stopping by to point out that a white weenie hate bears deck won the legacy GP in Vegas and came close to winning the Modern event as well.

Aggro won't always beat control, but it should be heavily favored, especially if it's well supported in the cube and the drafter built the deck well. Mono red is the aggro deck that I have the most success with in cube, but I've been able to do well with aggro decks in basically every color combo. That's honestly thanks to what I've learned from posting on these boards for the past 10 years, and wtwlf in particular, about how to properly support the different theaters in cube so it's not just a dragon-fest.

It's also important to note that most of the blue decks in Vintage aren't actually control decks. The Mana Drain shells into multiple Sphinx/Jace shells just aren't tier 1 anymore, and most of the blue decks are tempo shells centered around Mentor and/or Pyromancer.

Control decks in cube tend to be more traditional draw-go style control decks loaded with card advantage, sweepers and finishers. A lot of players playing cube confuse control with a ramp archetype; loading up their slower decks with 1-for-1 removal spells and mana rocks, which functionally converts them into midrange decks. True control is where you want to be in order to get an advantage against midrange shells and mid-speed archetype decks. But the "control" decks I see people play on MTGO are loaded to the brim with mana rocks, and those aren't really control decks. They're ramp decks, which play a lot more like midrange. It gives the deck basically a coinflip matchup vs aggro, but it hemorrhages its landslide matchup advantage against midrange decks as a cost.

So aggro > control > midrange > aggro ...but those lines can be blurred with high-speed combo decks, tempo shells and converting/confusing control's identity with mana acceleration.

It's because the rest of my deck is fundamentally engineered to beat control. So if I had to decide between an aggro card that's good when it's naturally good anyways or an aggro card that has additional value in my bad matchups, I'll play the one that's useful in my bad matchups. Since I'm equally as likely to run into either one.

How do you feel about the Scarab God compared to Forbidden Alchemy? Alchemy is pretty good but it's really unexciting and people don't like drafting it, even though its solid.

I like The Scarab God quite a bit more than Forbidden Alchemy.

I'm not sure about Ramunap Excavator myself. 360 has gotten rather ridiculous. I might still try to shove it in though because more support for land decks is better.

It's been a really awesome card for me so far.

Quote from calibretto »

Quote from wtwlf123 »

There are aggro decks in eternal formats that can keep control decks in check.

Just stopping by to point out that a white weenie hate bears deck won the legacy GP in Vegas and came close to winning the Modern event as well.

Aggro won't always beat control, but it should be heavily favored, especially if it's well supported in the cube and the drafter built the deck well. Mono red is the aggro deck that I have the most success with in cube, but I've been able to do well with aggro decks in basically every color combo. That's honestly thanks to what I've learned from posting on these boards for the past 10 years, and wtwlf in particular, about how to properly support the different theaters in cube so it's not just a dragon-fest.

That was my deck that won the legacy GP. Very few decks are ever "aggro" or "control". In every single match of magic, there will be a player who should be playing the control role from the start and a player who should be playing the aggro role from the start. It is a matter of context. This "white weenie" deck is more often than not a control deck than an aggro deck. It does things that you cannot expect to replicate in cube very often.

Understanding who the beatdown is supposed to be in each matchup can take some experience to figure out. But one of the nice things about the cube, is being able to follow a true aggro/midrange/control paradigm is much simpler than it is in constructed.

Congrats on the GP win!