I lurk around this cube forum alot but I never post here. Its probably the most updated cube related forum on the net, so thanks to everyone who posts here.
I'm curious what cards are in your cube that you didn't expect much from but turned out to be very valuable in the cube.
I know Crystal Shard was a card I completely under-rated and couldn't figure out why it was in everyones list. After playing with it I realize its an all-star. Does your cube contain any card that you didn't explect much from that turned out to be really good? Are there cards you've come accross and love that no one else has realized is good in cube?
I haven't posted my cube on here because it's constantly being updated, but a few cards that I haven't seen many people include are:
Incendiary Command: You'll never have nothing to do with this. Usually, it's a fireblast to the dome + a wasteland, which is fine by me. Sometimes, it'll clear the board and kill a land, and maybe even get rid of a mana-flooded hand and draw you a few spells.
Mindless Automaton: This is somewhat of a pet card for me, but it's proved to be very solid in a variety of controllish decks. It's also solid if you have some reanimation spells and it's playable card selection in any color, which is very nice if you're GW or the like.
Mindless Automaton: This is somewhat of a pet card for me, but it's proved to be very solid in a variety of controllish decks. It's also solid if you have some reanimation spells ...
Apex just said how this card was not good enough in his Cube in my Cube Choices thread. Hmm. Maybe I'll try it out. It looked like good support for reanimation and madness themes.
My pick is Deadwood Treefolk. I put this in figuring recursion is good, but I didn't think it would be the all-star it has been. I recently saw it do some broken stuff with Kiki-Jiki and Avalanche Riders!
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is one of my favorite black cards ever, strong evasive beats, recursion, he does it all.
Stalking Stones is amazing and is a relatively "cheap" wincon for control, and provides mana otherwise. It's "cheap" compared to Urza's Factory which costs 8 to make a token (counting the factory itself as a mana) as opposed to 6 for the cost to make the Stones a beater. I also have Mouth of Ronom as all basics in my cube are snow (for Mouth and Skred) and it's colorless removal that goes in pretty much anything.
Garza's Assassin is a personal favorite as it's a 2/2 recurrable Seal of Doom (with no mana needed to recur it.)
Preacher and Old Man of the Sea. Both can dominate a board position if not dealt with for stealing creatures, and they can attack on an empty board (granted, the Old Man is much better at attacking) if need be.
Smash to Smithereens - I'm not usually a fan of one-for-one straight-up artifact/enchantment removal that are dead cards on their own, but the fact that it can hit to the dome when hitting a mox/signet. I'm more of a fan of cards like Pillage and Viashino Heretic that can do stuff if your opponent doesn't play artifacts, but then again, in cube, that's a rarity.
Knollspine Invocation is a card that I like a lot, although it can't pitch lands like Stormbind it can throw other stuff for removal.
Erratic Portal is a card that doesn't get enough love, especially given how strong Crystal Shard is, as it's a colorless version of the Shard for other colors.
Ward of Bones has been really interesting, but then again, I've only had a small sample size with it. Combines wonderfully with bouncelands, white's Pacifism-style effects, hosing signets/mana fixers and weenie hordes. It costs a ton, but I think it's reasonably costed.
Great replies, completely in the spirit of what I was trying to do with this.
As for my cube there has been a card I stumbled accross and almost didn't add. It has become a very huge draft target, and I don't see anyone else running it. Phyrexian Reclamation. I passed up adding it when searching through animate spells a few times becuase I figured if it didn't put a creature in play it wouldnt be worth it. This enchantment however is an awesome engine for comes into play effects, especialy evoke and echo. It almost immediately effects game state giving you an endge early game with a 1cc. Late game it doesn't lose relevance allowing you to recur dead fat. I would say this cards strongest point however is getting multiple uses out of comes into/leaves play effects.
Usman : at worst ? Ghost-lit Raider is just 4 damage to a creature using an activated abiltiy, that's what's good about the card. At worst it's a 2/1 for 2R. and the card WAS in my cube, I play other stuff now.
I never expected Gifts Given to be the most broken card to have in your deck. Recurring Nightmare turned out to be way above my expectations.
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"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
Academy Ruins has been a realy beating in my cube of late- most people tend to pick up one piece of artifact removal to side in if they see a nasty target for it, so once that's used up it's often not difficult to recur something unpleasant if you have the board remotely stabilised.
Love the idea of Phyrexian Reclamation- I'd never even seen that card but it looks dangerous!
-Predatory Nightstalker and Wei Assassins have been awesome for everyone around here, often picked 1st-3rd in most drafts. Imagine Shriekmaw with an edict instead. It can't be evoked and doesn't have evasion, but usually an Edict is better than a Terror.
-Betrayal of Flesh wins so many games. It's like Mannequin in that it is an instant speed reanimation spell, but it also kills ANY creature (which is extremely rare for Black spells). When combined, it's such a tempo swing that the sac three lands is often irrelevant since you just won the game most likely. It's very splashable as well.
-Sun Ce, Young Commander is very solid as well. A 3/3 Man-O-War that is nearly unblockable is very, very good.
-Rimefeather Owl: If you play with Snow, this guy WILL be the biggest guy in play. He's been over 20/20 on multiple occasions, and it's always funny when drafting the Cube with new people for the first time since it doesn't really process in peoples heads when the first see it (and will often go very, very late as a result). After losing in a single swing it usually clicks though, lol....
-Call of the Skybreaker: Only had this card for a short time, but it's definitely made an impact. Once you hit land number 7 you just turn the lands you draw into dragons. Hmmm, I can either draw a business spell or make a Dragon.....I like my options!
-Jeska, Warrior Adept: Not really sure why, but she's just been a solid role player. She can swing into anything X/3 or below with haste, can ping X/1's out, and can kill any X/4's without trading on defense. Just a very solid red creature that I don't see enough people trying out.
I like this thread though, as some of the cards people have mentioned are very interesting and I'll have to give them a shot (hopefully tonight!).
This should be a good place to read if you are trying to fix areas of your cube. Here are some of my top Dark Horse picks from this thread and the mirror thread going on on wizards condensed into one post to help cube builders.
It always seems to provide defense against large fatties (particularly Calciderm), and often the tokens go lethal with stuff like Overrun, Furystoke Giant, etc.
I know he's a bomb in lorwyn drafts, but I really didn't expect him to make the transition to cubing well. However, he's a big evasive beater for white weenie in the late game, a good way to control to stem the bleeding, and an evasive finisher for the late game. He all but voids Wrath effects if you drop him the turn after a wrath, and is, essentially, 6 power for 5 mana. Much better than I expected.
Green needed some kind of finisher that wasn't just a big beatstick, and I tried a few things. I tried giving green all the shroud creatures (worked out really well, by the way), and I tried giving it things like Jugan, Timbermare, Verdant Force, but they were all too vulnerable to removal to make them good enough. Green based midrange and control were suffering because of the lack of good win cons (no Kokusho, yosei, morphling, etc.) However, I decided to try this out thinking that it was, at worst, 4 power for 5, and at best, 8 power for 5, and that's ignoring flashback. This thing is amazing. When don't control matches go until you have threshold? this is almost always going to net you 8 power of creatures, plus a flashback in case they wrath.
Blazing Specter is surprisngly good. The discard effect isn't random, which is bad. However, Haste more than makes up for this. No one is expecting to have to deal with discarding a card every turn out of nowhere. This has a huge target on its head, and you really can't lose with it. Either they waste a removal spell on your 2/2, or they discard a card every turn. Either way, you win.
You'll never have nothing to do with this. Usually, it's a fireblast to the dome + a wasteland, which is fine by me. Sometimes, it'll clear the board and kill a land, and maybe even get rid of a mana-flooded hand and draw you a few spells.
This is somewhat of a pet card for me, but it's proved to be very solid in a variety of controllish decks. It's also solid if you have some reanimation spells and it's playable card selection in any color, which is very nice if you're GW or the like.
I put this in figuring recursion is good, but I didn't think it would be the all-star it has been. I recently saw it do some broken stuff with Kiki-Jiki and Avalanche Riders!
is amazing and is a relatively "cheap" wincon for control, and provides mana otherwise. It's "cheap" compared to Urza's Factory which costs 8 to make a token (counting the factory itself as a mana) as opposed to 6 for the cost to make the Stones a beater.
Both can dominate a board position if not dealt with for stealing creatures, and they can attack on an empty board (granted, the Old Man is much better at attacking) if need be.
This enchantment is an awesome engine for comes into play effects, especialy evoke and echo. It almost immediately effects game state giving you an endge early game with a 1cc. Late game it doesn't lose relevance allowing you to recur dead fat. I would say this cards strongest point however is getting multiple uses out of comes into/leaves play effects.
often picked 1st-3rd in most drafts. Imagine Shriekmaw with an edict instead. It can't be evoked and doesn't have evasion, but usually an Edict is better than a Terror.
It's like Mannequin in that it is an instant speed reanimation spell, but it also kills ANY creature (which is extremely rare for Black spells). When combined, it's such a tempo swing that the sac three lands is often irrelevant since you just won the game most likely. It's very splashable as well.
If you play with Snow, this guy WILL be the biggest guy in play. He's been over 20/20 on multiple occasions, and it's always funny when drafting the Cube with new people for the first time since it doesn't really process in peoples heads when the first see it (and will often go very, very late as a result). After losing in a single swing it usually clicks though, lol....
Only had this card for a short time, but it's definitely made an impact. Once you hit land number 7 you just turn the lands you draw into dragons. Hmmm, I can either draw a business spell or make a Dragon.....I like my options!
Not really sure why, but she's just been a solid role player. She can swing into anything X/3 or below with haste, can ping X/1's out, and can kill any X/4's without trading on defense. Just a very solid red creature that I don't see enough people trying out.
I agree with Grizzly Fate whose name could also be Grizzly Fat, that card is amazing.
Yeah, I wasn't running it but I plan to try it out. Alot of cards were not added to my cube becuase I never valued them as solid cards in constructed magic. My views on alot of cards has changed since I began cubing at the begining of this year. I hope this thread helps to shed light on cards and strategies the community may have overlooked.
I'm looking at my Cube trying to figure out some obscure cards, but I really don't see many! I guess my suggestion to people would be to try out cards like Blast from the Past and some of the P3K cards...a lot of have neat effects that are unavailable in regular MtG (like rolling earthquake, horsemanship, etc) and they also add a touch of pimp!
All Suns' Dawn has to be one of my all time favourite dark horse. It consistently gets 2-3 cards back for 5 mana, particularly with all of the new hybrid mana cards running around. That's pretty ridiculous.
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Good point about ASD. That is one of the first cards I think of for other highlander formats, but with all the hybrid that def seems more appealing now.
Another card that I wasn't sure of that has certainly earned its keep is Shaman en-Kor. This guy is really tough for red to get rid of until he's the only creature left on the board. He is mana-intensive but allows you to keep your critters on the board in the face of other creatures and burn.
I've been meaning to work All Sun's Dawn into my Cube. It looks really tasty and is probably better than Regrowth.
Someone wrote "Green Yawgmoth's Will" on an All Suns' Dawn and that's pretty much true. Especially with hybrid and splashy decks, it's nutty. It hasn't replaced Regrowth, Hag Hedge-Mage or Eternal Witness but I see those cards more as a sniper rifle whereas the Dawn is more akin to a grenade. Great cards, they're all in mine, they just serve different purposes. The Shaman looks to be really interesting, I'll give it a shot as well. I've not used many of the Kor creatures but I used Outrider En-Kor and it was a beast, at least in TSP limited.
That is true about Ghost-Lit Raider. I may replace it with Fire Imp, the little FtK, doing 2 instead of 4 to a creature. Granted, its body isn't anywhere near as insane, but it gets the job done of hitting something for 2 and beating for 2 after.
Two cards that red brings to the table that people often forget about are, Fissure and Aftershock. These are solid red removal. I have been running Aftershock for a while now and really like it. I was only recently reminded of Fissure's existence and was suprised that it was an instant. I remember playing with this card years ago when i first started playing magic, but completely forgot about it till now.
Fissure is VERY good, although I think there were also 2 more variants in sorcery.
Aftershock is nice. . didn't know about that one, I may have to find some room for it.
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"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
Mirror Entity was a surprise game winner for me. I know it is a good card, but combined with Teferi in a control deck, he can be pretty nuts.
Gifts Given. I realize that it is a good card, but that understanding changes the first time you play it. NUTS!
Recurring Nightmare. I have always heard how good this card is but didn't truly understand until I played with it for the first time. Wow.
Sneak Attack. Again, another card I had never played before until cubing. Untap with this and win. Had this in the same deck as Recurring Nightmare. Yeah. I won pretty easily.
Grand Arbiter, Augustin IV. Absolutely nuts in the right deck. My friend had this in the same deck as Teferi, Mirror Entity, and a ton of counterspells. Yeah, he won easily too.
Mirari's Wake. In a deck that can abuse it, but not rely on it, and win. Seriously good card here.
Trygon Predator. Exceptionally good at killing Artifacts and Enchantments and almost feels like a waste to remove it. Great card here.
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Currently playing: EDH: Whatever 99 BWG cards I feel like playing from my cube.
I had Aftershock in mine but I ended up taking it out, but likely, should go back in. It's almost a Vindicate for red and it's an outright destroy effect for lands.
I haven't seen much love for Desolation Angel and that card is an absolute house, complete with brick and mortar. Usually, once it drops, it's game over fast as you not only have a 5/4 flying beater but you armageddoned the board. Unless the opponent has a Swords to Plowshares, Temporal Isolation or a Diabolic Edict type of effect, they are doomed.
I'm curious what cards are in your cube that you didn't expect much from but turned out to be very valuable in the cube.
I know Crystal Shard was a card I completely under-rated and couldn't figure out why it was in everyones list. After playing with it I realize its an all-star. Does your cube contain any card that you didn't explect much from that turned out to be really good? Are there cards you've come accross and love that no one else has realized is good in cube?
Incendiary Command: You'll never have nothing to do with this. Usually, it's a fireblast to the dome + a wasteland, which is fine by me. Sometimes, it'll clear the board and kill a land, and maybe even get rid of a mana-flooded hand and draw you a few spells.
Mindless Automaton: This is somewhat of a pet card for me, but it's proved to be very solid in a variety of controllish decks. It's also solid if you have some reanimation spells and it's playable card selection in any color, which is very nice if you're GW or the like.
Apex just said how this card was not good enough in his Cube in my Cube Choices thread. Hmm. Maybe I'll try it out. It looked like good support for reanimation and madness themes.
My pick is Deadwood Treefolk. I put this in figuring recursion is good, but I didn't think it would be the all-star it has been. I recently saw it do some broken stuff with Kiki-Jiki and Avalanche Riders!
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is one of my favorite black cards ever, strong evasive beats, recursion, he does it all.
Stalking Stones is amazing and is a relatively "cheap" wincon for control, and provides mana otherwise. It's "cheap" compared to Urza's Factory which costs 8 to make a token (counting the factory itself as a mana) as opposed to 6 for the cost to make the Stones a beater. I also have Mouth of Ronom as all basics in my cube are snow (for Mouth and Skred) and it's colorless removal that goes in pretty much anything.
Garza's Assassin is a personal favorite as it's a 2/2 recurrable Seal of Doom (with no mana needed to recur it.)
Preacher and Old Man of the Sea. Both can dominate a board position if not dealt with for stealing creatures, and they can attack on an empty board (granted, the Old Man is much better at attacking) if need be.
Smash to Smithereens - I'm not usually a fan of one-for-one straight-up artifact/enchantment removal that are dead cards on their own, but the fact that it can hit to the dome when hitting a mox/signet. I'm more of a fan of cards like Pillage and Viashino Heretic that can do stuff if your opponent doesn't play artifacts, but then again, in cube, that's a rarity.
Knollspine Invocation is a card that I like a lot, although it can't pitch lands like Stormbind it can throw other stuff for removal.
Erratic Portal is a card that doesn't get enough love, especially given how strong Crystal Shard is, as it's a colorless version of the Shard for other colors.
Ward of Bones has been really interesting, but then again, I've only had a small sample size with it. Combines wonderfully with bouncelands, white's Pacifism-style effects, hosing signets/mana fixers and weenie hordes. It costs a ton, but I think it's reasonably costed.
Frenetic Efreet, Glen Elendra Archmage and Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon" are favorites but I haven't yet made room for them.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
As for my cube there has been a card I stumbled accross and almost didn't add. It has become a very huge draft target, and I don't see anyone else running it. Phyrexian Reclamation. I passed up adding it when searching through animate spells a few times becuase I figured if it didn't put a creature in play it wouldnt be worth it. This enchantment however is an awesome engine for comes into play effects, especialy evoke and echo. It almost immediately effects game state giving you an endge early game with a 1cc. Late game it doesn't lose relevance allowing you to recur dead fat. I would say this cards strongest point however is getting multiple uses out of comes into/leaves play effects.
A friend was going to put Crackdown in his cube but decided not too because it was too good. Quite nutty for some obscure Masques uncommon.
I haven't seen much love for Ghost-Lit Raider but I like it a lot. At worst, it's 3R to deal 4 to a creature, which is never bad.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I never expected Gifts Given to be the most broken card to have in your deck. Recurring Nightmare turned out to be way above my expectations.
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
My
540> 360 Powered CubeLove the idea of Phyrexian Reclamation- I'd never even seen that card but it looks dangerous!
Tokyo Draft: A Cube Report
Adventures in Shandalar
-Betrayal of Flesh wins so many games. It's like Mannequin in that it is an instant speed reanimation spell, but it also kills ANY creature (which is extremely rare for Black spells). When combined, it's such a tempo swing that the sac three lands is often irrelevant since you just won the game most likely. It's very splashable as well.
-Sun Ce, Young Commander is very solid as well. A 3/3 Man-O-War that is nearly unblockable is very, very good.
-Rimefeather Owl: If you play with Snow, this guy WILL be the biggest guy in play. He's been over 20/20 on multiple occasions, and it's always funny when drafting the Cube with new people for the first time since it doesn't really process in peoples heads when the first see it (and will often go very, very late as a result). After losing in a single swing it usually clicks though, lol....
-Call of the Skybreaker: Only had this card for a short time, but it's definitely made an impact. Once you hit land number 7 you just turn the lands you draw into dragons. Hmmm, I can either draw a business spell or make a Dragon.....I like my options!
-Jeska, Warrior Adept: Not really sure why, but she's just been a solid role player. She can swing into anything X/3 or below with haste, can ping X/1's out, and can kill any X/4's without trading on defense. Just a very solid red creature that I don't see enough people trying out.
I like this thread though, as some of the cards people have mentioned are very interesting and I'll have to give them a shot (hopefully tonight!).
(list not current)
My Cube Google Docs Spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AibgWfz0ukmOdDNhOHlucjcxUi1wVy00NDhLbDUtUlE&hl=en_US#gid=8
(list is always current)
Kher Keep
and I agree with Grizzly Fate whose name could also be Grizzly Fat, that card is amazing.
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
My
540> 360 Powered CubeThank you. I was trying to figure out what the tag was here.
Yeah, I wasn't running it but I plan to try it out. Alot of cards were not added to my cube becuase I never valued them as solid cards in constructed magic. My views on alot of cards has changed since I began cubing at the begining of this year. I hope this thread helps to shed light on cards and strategies the community may have overlooked.
-AA
I use descriptive language. Assume that I'm being nice and respectful. (I'll tell you when I'm not.)
My Cube: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/9029
Check out my pauper cube!
and thanks to PurpleD @ [<--- Left Play Design <---] for making this awesome banner!
Limited is awesome, join us at [Limited]!
-AA
I use descriptive language. Assume that I'm being nice and respectful. (I'll tell you when I'm not.)
My Cube: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/9029
I've been meaning to work All Sun's Dawn into my Cube. It looks really tasty and is probably better than Regrowth.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
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Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
-AA
I use descriptive language. Assume that I'm being nice and respectful. (I'll tell you when I'm not.)
My Cube: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/9029
Very true. That's why I said "probably." I'm undecided but leaning toward ASD.
Cheers,
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My Cube
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Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
That is true about Ghost-Lit Raider. I may replace it with Fire Imp, the little FtK, doing 2 instead of 4 to a creature. Granted, its body isn't anywhere near as insane, but it gets the job done of hitting something for 2 and beating for 2 after.
I'm also thinking of putting Ghost Quarter in mine as it hurts bouncelands and gets rid of lands like Library of Alexandria, Maze of Ith, Thawing Glaciers and others.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
Aftershock is nice. . didn't know about that one, I may have to find some room for it.
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
My
540> 360 Powered CubeGifts Given. I realize that it is a good card, but that understanding changes the first time you play it. NUTS!
Recurring Nightmare. I have always heard how good this card is but didn't truly understand until I played with it for the first time. Wow.
Sneak Attack. Again, another card I had never played before until cubing. Untap with this and win. Had this in the same deck as Recurring Nightmare. Yeah. I won pretty easily.
Grand Arbiter, Augustin IV. Absolutely nuts in the right deck. My friend had this in the same deck as Teferi, Mirror Entity, and a ton of counterspells. Yeah, he won easily too.
Mirari's Wake. In a deck that can abuse it, but not rely on it, and win. Seriously good card here.
Trygon Predator. Exceptionally good at killing Artifacts and Enchantments and almost feels like a waste to remove it. Great card here.
EDH: Whatever 99 BWG cards I feel like playing from my cube.
Legacy: MUC, MBStax, Zoo/Goyf Sligh, Esperzoa (8SeaDrake.dec), WhiteWeenie
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I haven't seen much love for Desolation Angel and that card is an absolute house, complete with brick and mortar. Usually, once it drops, it's game over fast as you not only have a 5/4 flying beater but you armageddoned the board. Unless the opponent has a Swords to Plowshares, Temporal Isolation or a Diabolic Edict type of effect, they are doomed.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)