MTG Salvation

Quote from steve_man »

Theros Block cards now under $2
- Polukranos, World Eater
- Herald of Torment
- Pain Seer

Nice finds, I really appreciate the help with staying on top of prices. I'm adding Polukranos, Pain Seer, Ruinous Path, Sylvan Caryatid, and Herald of Torment (I don't see it in many users' lists right now, including yours or mine, but it seems like a worthy contender in a spot with deep competition). I'm especially surprised that Ruinous Path has fallen so far.

However, I'm not sold on Stormbreath Dragon as a cube staple, even if it does go below $2. I'd say it's a solid budget placeholder for Thundermaw Hellkite and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker (currently below $4), but I'd rather not recommend a placeholder that new cubers will likely want to replace with something that's currently in print.

So I was posting in another topic and I linked this as a resource and I noticed Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Phantom Centaur weren't on the list and if you wanted to go a bit deeper Deadbridge Goliath could also be included. While I realize these 3 aren't super popular includes they are all very serviceable while on a budget for a new cube.

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/656069-360-custom-our-combo-cube-dredge-storm-infect


Thats mine, I'd take a look at it, its in your budget and doesn't lack the power of pauper cubes

Quote from Tengu Drum »

So I was posting in another topic and I linked this as a resource and I noticed Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Phantom Centaur weren't on the list and if you wanted to go a bit deeper Deadbridge Goliath could also be included. While I realize these 3 aren't super popular includes they are all very serviceable while on a budget for a new cube.

An excellent question! I'm trying to keep this a list of cube staples that happen to cost $2 or less as opposed to a list of budget placeholders you'll just want to replace as soon as you have the money, but I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time deciding what should be considered a staple in the slot of green 4-drops. I'd agree that all of those green 4s are pretty solid, and are at the very least good placeholders. Depending on your design goals, any of them might even compete with the pricier Master of the Wild Hunt, Oracle of Mul Daya, or Vengevine. I'm also not necessarily sure I should even be running Woodland Wanderer instead of Surrak right now. I've posted a question in the Green 4-drops MCD thread to try to get some other perspectives.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for the heads up, Steve Man.

I'm finding a price of $1.89 TCG Mid for Needle Spires, so I'll go ahead and add it now. I'll be keeping an eye on the other two, but as long as Abzan stays popular in Standard I'm not going to hold my breath for Hissing Quagmire to go below $2.

I'm adding all of your suggestions, they all look like solid choices. I'm also keeping an eye on Captain's Claws. At $0.85 TCG Mid it's definitely cheap enough, but I'd like to see what people's testing results are like before I recommend it as a budget staple.

Other new additions:

Stratus Dancer seems to be holding up pretty nicely for a lot of cube owners, including me.
Bloodsoaked Champion - Looks like the threat of rotation's finally caught up with this
Tombstalker You'll have to pay a bit more to get this with the Futuresight frame, but the MMA reprint has steadily declined.
Burning of Xinye The FTV reprint has finally broken the $2 mark, I wish I could say the same for Rolling Earthquake!
Jungle Lion (green aggro is becoming popular that this green aggro staple belongs on the list)
Surrak, the Hunt Caller - Based on feedback in the Green 4-drops MCD thread
Phantom Centaur - Based on feedback in the Green 4-drops MCD thread
Evolutionary Leap - This has been below $2, and seems to be holding up quite nicely in plenty of cubes. You could use it as a budget replacement for Survival of the Fittest, but it also works just fine in addition to the other pieces of the RecSur archetype.

Cards worth keeping an eye on that are just over $2:

Armageddon
Dig Through Time
Braids, Cabal Minion
Mind Twist
Fiery Confluence
Song of the Dryads
Bloodbraid Elf
City of Brass

Cards that I'm cutting for going over $2:

Sun Titan
Shelldock Isle
Pia and Kiran Nalaar - An intro pack rare going for $5, this really surprised me.
Treetop Village
Rancor
Qasali Pridemage
Brushland
Karplusan Forest

If Surrak and Phantom Centaur are being added to the list, Captain's Claws is a fine card to throw on there.

I haven't really seen anything but theory-crafting on the Claws so far. Have you been getting good results so far?

They've been good enough. They're better against the 2cc equipment competition than Surrak and Centaur are against the other green 4-drops...

I'm glad to hear you're having good results with Captain's Claws. Your post in the SCD thread is the first positive review of the Claws I've seen yet, the only other one was in the SCD thread reporting mediocre performance in a bad matchup. I'm finding this card hard to evaluate without hearing more testing results, and I'm looking forward to trying it out in my own cube this weekend.

I know that not everyone runs Surrak or Phantom Centaur, but from the feedback I got on the green 4-drop MCD thread it looked like enough people are choosing to run them over some of the more expensive staples like Master of the Wild Hunt, Oracle of Mul Daya, and Vengevine that I think they merit inclusion on this list. My takeaway from the MCD thread was that plenty of people are happy with Surrak if they're supporting the Fires deck, and a lot of people cut Phantom Centaur because of distaste for a creature with protection from a single color and not because it wasn't powerful enough. Deadbridge Goliath, however, just doesn't seem to cut it against the competition even considering price. I'd recommend all five of the green 4-drops I've listed over Deadbridge Goliath unless you really need an extra 5/5 beater in that slot or have a cube going deep on graveyard mechanics.

For what it's worth, I'd say Surrak and Phantom Centaur fall more on the side of "close enough to be worth a serious look as budget alternatives" than "staples".

For what it's worth, I'd say Surrak and Phantom Centaur fall more on the side of "close enough to be worth a serious look as budget alternatives" than "staples".

That's probably where the Claws are too. So if those two green dudes are making this list, Claws is a comparable card comparatively speaking.

I think Sylvan Advocate got potential to rise, so if anyone want to get him, waiting might not be the best idea.

The ship has definitely sailed for Sylvan Advocate as a budget card, it's at almost $5 now.

Dig Through Time, however, has cracked the $2 mark. With rotation looming for it in Standard and a ban in Modern I don't see it going anywhere but down, but it's one of the best draw spells available for Cube.

Awesome, affordable fixing is a beautiful thing. Thanks for the heads up.

I've also added Stirring Wildwood. It doesn't make the tightest lists because of Horizon Canopy, but it's definitely the 5th best Selesnya land and it's only a buck.

Thanks for the heads up, I've added it. I don't run Warden, so it had slipped off my radar. We should be seeing some more post-rotation bargains from KTK and FRF soon, I may even be able to finally add a planeswalker to this list soon. SOI also has quite a few great cards that probably won't cost much.

Unfortunately, I've had to trim quite a few of the pain lands from the list recently, they've been spiking quite a bit recently, especially in allied colors. I still maintain, though, that they're the best choice for budget fixing available.

Snuff Out's not offbeat at all, it's a staple I should have added a long time ago, thanks for letting me know!

Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit is good and cheap.

I know you're not the first person to really like WW Anafenza in their cube. I think it's more a victim of tight competition and its color intensive mana cost than it is underpowered. The nice thing about white 2-drops is that there is a great variety of options without many clear staples, so it's not too hard to customize it. For example, I run Precinct Captain and Consul's Lieutenant as my only WW 2-drops because I push the token/anthem deck in white.

Gigantoplasm is a card that I've been running for some time as a decent (and really $$cheap) clone effect. It is probably geting cut soon but it's been alright, and I would certainly consider it if I was just starting to cube. A lot of the cards normally in that slot are really pricy, like JMTS and and Cryptic Command.

You're right, blue 4s are a really rough spot if you're cubing on a budget, most of the staples there are expensive. If you're not already running them, some low-budget blue wonders I've really liked that cost 4 are Dungeon Geists, Whirler Rogue, and Jace, Architect of Thought. Repulse, Exclude, and Complicate are also great placeholders for Cryptic Command. They may not bring as many options, but they cost 1 less and they're way less color-intensive. Dismiss is also basically half a Cryptic Command but for less than $0.50.

Avacyn's Pilgrim and Boreal Druid are extra mana elves if you need 'em.

I ran the Pilgrim for a pretty long time before I got a hold of a copy of Noble Hierarch. Other cheap options if you need redundancy in this spot are Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl. They can't carry equipment, but they tap for mana almost like elves with haste!

AntiPox, I won't be adding any of these suggestions besides Snuff Out to the main list on this thread because I don't think any of them really qualify as cube staples that can be bought for cheap, they're more budget placeholders - cards that you'll probably replace once you get the card you really want for that spot. However, you're not the first person to post suggestions for budget placeholders here, and that's probably because there aren't any other active threads about budget cubing on this forum right now, but there's clearly a demand for it. I'm going to start a separate thread with my suggestions for budget placeholders. Stay tuned.

I've somehow missed this thread every time I've visited this forum for the past few months.

Anyways, I went ahead and pinned it per multiple requests/mentions of it in the thread.

I agree, Steve Man, and I've added all 3 uncommons to the list. They're clear upgrades over existing staples. Hopefully once prerelease hype dies down a bit we'll be able to add Falkenrath Gorger, Asylum Visitor, and some other SOI cards.

Tireless Tracker also looks promising, and it's only $2 right now. It probably needs more testing before it can be considered a cube staple, but it and Pale Rider of Trostad won't set your wallet back much if you're looking to test something new.

Also, thanks to Cythare for pinning this post. I'm glad the community has found this helpful!