Depends on the cube I guess. Go For the Throat is the best of the three, and it's not close. Lili's Triumph used to be the best edict before Soul Shatter got printed. I'm not high on the MDFC, and as a spell Hagra is horrendous in any environment with planeswalkers. 99.9% of the time, it's a Go For the Throat that costs twice as much.
Depends on the cube I guess. Go For the Throat is the best of the three, and it's not close. Lili's Triumph used to be the best edict before Soul Shatter got printed. I'm not high on the MDFC, and as a spell Hagra is horrendous in any environment with planeswalkers. 99.9% of the time, it's a Go For the Throat that costs twice as much.
I haven't been too big on edict effects - i find they get blanked by tokens pretty easily. I'm not too sure about soul shatter, but thinking about it, it feels like its on the level of hero's downfall. The highest CMC is probably what you want to remove 90% of the time regardless. The single black allows the card to be splashed more easily and remove indestructible/ protection.
Hagra Mauling just feels like an incredibly bad rate for a removal spell.
The floor for 2 CMC terror condition removal is pretty high - its usually not incorrect to have 2-3 in your cube.
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I like the land spell best of those three. Answering something important for 4 is fine by me when it can salvage a hand by being a land, which is a big deal. I'd prioritise the planeswalker removals (Murderous Rider, Hero's Downfall) over Terrors quite a bit these days. I think Heartless Act is the only 'Terror' I run now.
I also like Hagra Mauling the most, for reasons that mirror Goodking. Smoothing the hand has been quite strong. On that note, while trying to sort out some cuts for additional MDFCs:
1. Accorder Paladin >> Ancestral Blade > Adorned Pouncer (difference isn't *that* huge for me between Paladin and Blade, but further than Blade and Pouncer)
2. Spikefield Hazard > Risk Factor > Staggershock. Staggershock can hit creatures and planeswalkers, but Risk Factor threatens a lot of damage/cards. Hazard functioning as a land will still make for stronger average hands, so it wins out to me.
3. Volcanic Hammer > Skewer the Critics > Staggershock. Being able to kill something with 3 toughness when you really need to seems stronger than being able to kill two 2-toughness things or killing one and then doming for 2. Hammer always costing 2 is likely better than Skewer sometimes costing 1, because I'll often want to use it to clear the way before attacks.
4. Pillar of Flame >= Wild Slash. This one is close for me, and I might change my mind on these. Instant speed is strong, but I expect that the exile will come up more often than the ferocious ability will.
Ok, I know I've asked a lot of dual land-based questions recently. I've mostly changed over from Temples/BFZ lands to pain lands and Pathway lands (where available). The only one I'm kinda dragging my feet on is Orzhov, which I've historically found to be more pip-intensive than other decks on average. Due to that, I still run Fetid Heath.
Thanks both of you! At some point I think I misread a response by wtwlf saying he preferred the pain lands to other lands in my cube in “most cases”, and took that to mean specifically the cards in my cube as opposed to an average theoretical cube that may run a different quantity of fixing. Caves was the least clean-cut of them, and one of two that I didn’t mention specifically at the time, so assumed that meant Caves was not worth including as much as the others.
Painlands still hold up so well. ETB untapped, can produce either mana T1 (unlike filter lands), don't always damage you unless needed (unlike Canopy lands), can swap colour for you (unlike Pathways), and can tap for colorless too if you support Eldrazi (unlike most duels).
Not saying they are better than the other cycles, just that they do an awful lot right. Personally Canopy lands are my favourite.
1 - Trostani Discordant > Yasharn, Implacable Earth > Eladamri's Call. I think Trostani's value depends highly on token quantity, but is overall the best unless you specifically support a landfall deck (in which case Yasharn probably moves up high enough in value. I'm not a huge fan of Eladamri's Call as a tutor taking up a guild slot.
2 - I think I prefer Char here for the ability to kill a 4-toughness creature, but I'm not excited by either.
3 - Not sure here. Conscripts is classic but w/o Kiki combo, Terror of the Peaks is pretty big game. If your opponent has removal for it, though, it is just a 5-mana Lava Spike, though. I'm not sure how many other hasty 5-drops you're running, but I'd probably consider Thundermaw Hellkite and/or Glorybringer before Terror?
4 - Supreme Verdict > Time Wipe. The average Azorius deck that wants a multicolored wrath in my drafts cares more about making sure the wrath resolves than saving a creature.
5 - Thief of Sanity > Thought Erasure. It leads to more exciting games (at least for you) and the effect isn't easily replicable. Thought Erasure is too close to other hand disruption effects to excite me enough for a guild slot.
Depends on the cube I guess. Go For the Throat is the best of the three, and it's not close. Lili's Triumph used to be the best edict before Soul Shatter got printed. I'm not high on the MDFC, and as a spell Hagra is horrendous in any environment with planeswalkers. 99.9% of the time, it's a Go For the Throat that costs twice as much.
I haven't been too big on edict effects - i find they get blanked by tokens pretty easily. I'm not too sure about soul shatter, but thinking about it, it feels like its on the level of hero's downfall. The highest CMC is probably what you want to remove 90% of the time regardless. The single black allows the card to be splashed more easily and remove indestructible/ protection.
Hagra Mauling just feels like an incredibly bad rate for a removal spell.
The floor for 2 CMC terror condition removal is pretty high - its usually not incorrect to have 2-3 in your cube.
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1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
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On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Valakut Awakening v Light Up the Stage
Spikefield Hazard v Shrine of Burning Rage v Stromkirk Noble
I'm also trying to find room for Skyclave Cleric and maybe Umara Wizard and Blackbloom Rogue, but am not sure about those ones yet.
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On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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2 - Risk Factor vs Spikefield Hazard vs Staggershock ? What order?
3 - Skewer the Critics vs Volcanic Hammer vs Staggershock ? What order ?
4 - Pillar of Flame vs Wild Slash ?
2 - Hazard >> Staggershock >> Factor
3 - Hammer > Staggershock > Skewer
4 - Slash ≥ Pillar
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2. Spikefield Hazard > Risk Factor > Staggershock. Staggershock can hit creatures and planeswalkers, but Risk Factor threatens a lot of damage/cards. Hazard functioning as a land will still make for stronger average hands, so it wins out to me.
3. Volcanic Hammer > Skewer the Critics > Staggershock. Being able to kill something with 3 toughness when you really need to seems stronger than being able to kill two 2-toughness things or killing one and then doming for 2. Hammer always costing 2 is likely better than Skewer sometimes costing 1, because I'll often want to use it to clear the way before attacks.
4. Pillar of Flame >= Wild Slash. This one is close for me, and I might change my mind on these. Instant speed is strong, but I expect that the exile will come up more often than the ferocious ability will.
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Voracious Greatshark
Frost Titan
Aetherling
Prognostic Sphinx
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Stormwing entity
Dungeon Geists
Thanx very much.
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I'd probably say Meloku the Clouded Mirror > Aetherling > Prognostic Sphinx > Dungeon Geists >= Stormwing Entity > Frost Titan >= Voracious Gearshark? I'm iffy below Prognostic Sphinx.
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All hail Voracious Gearshark
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Fetid Heath v Caves of Koilos
Rest of the Orzhov lands are the usual suspects: ABUR, fetch, shock, manland; plus pathway and canopy.
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/\ /\ /\
This.
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Not saying they are better than the other cycles, just that they do an awful lot right. Personally Canopy lands are my favourite.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Wall of Roots > Tangled Florahedron
Cheers,
rant
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2 - Char vs Staggershock ?
3 - Terror of the Peaks vs Zealous Conscripts ? (I don't run Kiki combo)
4 - Time Wipe vs Supreme Verdict ?
5 - Thief of Sanity vs Thought Erasure ?
Triumph is the only remaining edict effect outside of LOTV and Rankle.
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2 - I think I prefer Char here for the ability to kill a 4-toughness creature, but I'm not excited by either.
3 - Not sure here. Conscripts is classic but w/o Kiki combo, Terror of the Peaks is pretty big game. If your opponent has removal for it, though, it is just a 5-mana Lava Spike, though. I'm not sure how many other hasty 5-drops you're running, but I'd probably consider Thundermaw Hellkite and/or Glorybringer before Terror?
4 - Supreme Verdict > Time Wipe. The average Azorius deck that wants a multicolored wrath in my drafts cares more about making sure the wrath resolves than saving a creature.
5 - Thief of Sanity > Thought Erasure. It leads to more exciting games (at least for you) and the effect isn't easily replicable. Thought Erasure is too close to other hand disruption effects to excite me enough for a guild slot.
I'd probably cut Cast Down from this list. I think it's the least exciting of the various Doom Blade variants you're currently running.
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Those Selesnya cards are all pretty low on my list for the guild. I run a 465 card cube and none of them are close to making the cut.
Cheers,
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