I run Channel in my Cube without fast mana. Some people eschew the card because they say it's too powerful for unpowered, but I've personally felt it's in the similar vein of Tinker, Natural Order, and Twist. Yeah, it can cheat out Emrakul and other colorless threats quickly, but it also cost double green which means you need to commit the color. You can't just pop this card in your deck somewhere in pack 3 and expect it work out for you smoothly if you haven't built around it. It's not as strong as Tinker. Tinker is still relevant when you're in top-deck mode because you usually have an artifact to trade up. Channel, on the other hand, sucks when you're in top-deck mode. Channel is a great card with variance. It's one of the few green cards that gets me excited to move into green. If you can stomach a Twist off Power 9 and a Crypt early game, then you shouldn't have any problems with Channel.
A "value" channel is most often what I see in my cube; pay 6 or so life and drop some artifacts and use them and remaining lands to drop a creature or two. The mana is available all turn at instant speed as well so you can get in some instants and activate abilities during your turn.
My cube is unpowered, and as long as I'm running colorless Eldrazi that put players on a 2-turn clock Channel will not see the light of my cube. It's rare that Tinker or Natural Order can be played any sooner than turn 3 without Power, and most green and artifact fatties will give opponents a 3 turn clock to find an answer. Turn 2 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger? That's a lot less interaction than I want in my cube games.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Channel is an absurd card if you support targets to cast with it. I think it's not talked about very much because people just kinda know/assume it's busted.
Channel is super dumb. Obscenely powerful but it is somewhat narrow. It might be the only way to get a T2 win without P9 (anyone have other ways they want to post)?
IMO, Channel is totally fine in an unpowered environment unless your playgroup has a serious aversion to that style of deck. It's been in my ~700 card unpowered cube since its inception like five years ago, and the fact that it occasionally creates complete blowouts is what makes it fun. Of course, it's also tougher to draft a consistent deck due to cube size in our case.
In my 720 unpowered cube the card is a ton of fun and absolutely earns its keep - the restrictions on deckbuilding given its manacost, the potential of a blowout if you drop something removable, and the limited number of targets for it mitigate its obvious power and make it a fun build-around-me like an all-in Reanimate strategy for Green.
Channel has been a bit of a feast / famine for me - it has its moments, but for every turn 2-3 Channel Emarkul/ Sundering Titan/ Kozilek, you have 1-2 scenarios of channel into Wurmcoil/ Primeval Titan / Avenger of Zendikar on turn 4 in desperation and 1-2 scenarios where channel sits in your hand because it lacks targets/ double green.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
goodbroken for casting cards with colored mana costs. It's a lot like a Show and Tell that only works for 3-7 cards in the cube.Super powerful for the interactions where it works, very hard to draft and build a deck around.
450 Unpowered Cube Cobra
A "value" channel is most often what I see in my cube; pay 6 or so life and drop some artifacts and use them and remaining lands to drop a creature or two. The mana is available all turn at instant speed as well so you can get in some instants and activate abilities during your turn.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
T1: Forest, Tinder Wall.
T2: Forest, Channel pay 19 life for mana, sac Tinder Wall for RR, , Fireball (or equivalent X spell) for 20.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
T1: Forest, Mox Diamond (pitch Mountain), Goblin Guide, Rancor ---> Attack for 4.
T2: Taiga (topdeck), Vines of Vastwood (w/ kicker), Berserk ---> Attack for 16.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Something I wrote back in 2013 on the subject:
Top cards played with Channel in my cube:
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i