I’m not convinced it all balances out in the end, but I’m gonna have to think about it a lot more before I can tell for sure (when I’m feeling normal).
It just seems like creating more consistency in your deck functionality is a superior advantage. All those colors with the best natural advantage (aka U and G) need to do is pair up with a complementary color(s) to cover their blind spots.
I'm more convinced that it balances out than I am that blue and green's advantages are so lopsided that the fixing in the cube needs to be corrected. I haven't seen any evidence over the 10+ years of cubing to suggest that's the case.
It's only an "advantage" because the rest of the cube is balanced. If blue and green had less fixing to compensate, and you rely on that Ponder and Birds as "mana fixers" and you either don't draw them or they get answered, you're at a huge disadvantage. And it's no longer an advantage at that point at all.
You can't rely on those abilities enough in this format to warp your manabase because of them. If you did, you'd be at a huge disadvantage when they don't pan out. Card selection/draw is one of blue's advantages. Mana ramp/fixing is one of green's. If you negated those advantages by removing other tools from those colors, that would create an imbalance, not correct an imbalance.
Ok got it, got it, got it. Sorry! I drifted a little bit without spelling out my path of trajectory:
When I said “I can get behind that” I meant “Ok, what you say makes sense, I’ll stop trying to warp my mana fixing #’s to try to balance things (which just makes things more unstable for those guilds getting lands cut)”
But then I went on a tangent thinking about each color’s natural advantages and how it is so unfair that blue and green get to have more consistent decks, etc.
I think it's unfair that my green decks can't Thoughtseize my opponent's best card out of their hand, and that my blue decks can't Bolt my opponent's Thalias.
I just think plucking a card out of someone’s hand and killing a thing are not on the same power level as manipulating your library and drawing cards or accelerating your mana whilst fixing it. Various ban lists also support my position.
Again, constructed and limited aren't the same. The way 4x Brainstorm 4x Ponder influence an all fetch/dual manabase isn't the same thing as how having 2 cantrips in a 40-card 10/8 manabase limited deck does. Different colors bring different advantages to the table, and those advantages can be balanced without attacking certain colors' access to fixing.
I was curious how people treated this card in relation to manabases and color requirements. When deckbuilding with Land Tax and trying to calculate the color requirements to cast your spells, how much is Land Tax worth?
A single white mana, just like every other 1-cmc white spell.
Was this an attempt to troll me by the way in a veiled manner?! Because I thought it was really funny!!
Where are people on land tax nowadays? Always feel conflicted about this card. It's generally a non-starter on the play and perfect fixing and land-drop consistency when on the draw. As the bar for cube real-estate keeps going up, is this still working for you?
I'm still high on it, but that might also be a function of white being a relatively weaker color.
When it works it's great. Either I'm on the draw or my deck tried to mana screw me, and it feels great to have. If I'm on the play, and drawing land anyhow, then it can feel awkward/do nothing. As much as possible if I'm running it I just choose to be on the draw. My opponents have yet to say no to going first.
I saw it work well in a friend's Cube and re-added it to mine. It proceeded to do nothing, and my players yelled at me for re-adding it. So for better or worse, it's now back on the sidelines.
I played it in a deck with Ledger Shredder last night and it was absolutely disgusting in value.
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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
It just seems like creating more consistency in your deck functionality is a superior advantage. All those colors with the best natural advantage (aka U and G) need to do is pair up with a complementary color(s) to cover their blind spots.
It's only an "advantage" because the rest of the cube is balanced. If blue and green had less fixing to compensate, and you rely on that Ponder and Birds as "mana fixers" and you either don't draw them or they get answered, you're at a huge disadvantage. And it's no longer an advantage at that point at all.
You can't rely on those abilities enough in this format to warp your manabase because of them. If you did, you'd be at a huge disadvantage when they don't pan out. Card selection/draw is one of blue's advantages. Mana ramp/fixing is one of green's. If you negated those advantages by removing other tools from those colors, that would create an imbalance, not correct an imbalance.
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 45th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from ONE!
When I said “I can get behind that” I meant “Ok, what you say makes sense, I’ll stop trying to warp my mana fixing #’s to try to balance things (which just makes things more unstable for those guilds getting lands cut)”
But then I went on a tangent thinking about each color’s natural advantages and how it is so unfair that blue and green get to have more consistent decks, etc.
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 45th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from ONE!
I just think plucking a card out of someone’s hand and killing a thing are not on the same power level as manipulating your library and drawing cards or accelerating your mana whilst fixing it. Various ban lists also support my position.
My 540 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 45th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from ONE!
Was this an attempt to troll me by the way in a veiled manner?! Because I thought it was really funny!!
When it works it's great. Either I'm on the draw or my deck tried to mana screw me, and it feels great to have. If I'm on the play, and drawing land anyhow, then it can feel awkward/do nothing. As much as possible if I'm running it I just choose to be on the draw. My opponents have yet to say no to going first.
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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
Why ledger shredder? Is there some synergy I'm missing?
Ah, fair enough. Thought I was missing something else above and beyond the looting.
Definitly a good use for those spare lands.