I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned this: Talismans are better than Signets in land destruction strategies, especially in unpowered cubes. In powered it probably doesn't make as much of a difference as you have the Moxen, Sol Ring and Mana Crypt to pick for Wildfire or similar archetypes, but in unpowered, a bunch of signets without a land equals no mana. Also, very marginal, but Tezzeret the Seeker works better with Talismans as well, if you want to support the artifact deck. I've been running the full Signet cycle since it just felt more appropriate especially as I drafted with new people, but I'll probably make the swap to Talismans now. If the life loss turns out to be too cumbersome, I can always swap back.
Slightly off topic, but are Talismans/Signets better than the other generic 2-drop mana rocks? I'm not running any of them right now, but I am running Mind Stone, Coldsteel Heart, Everflowing Chalice, and Sphere of the Suns. At 360, it seems really difficult to find space for 10 2-drop mana rocks. Am I making a mistake?
IMHO, the Talismans are pretty much the best 2 CMC mana rocks in limited. Signets are a close second, and everything else follows (with Mind Stone being the best of the rest). In a 360 cube though I don't know if I'd be able to fit all 10 and your solution seems fine.
I've never really considered including any guild mana rocks in my cube previously, because I didn't like how much stronger signets felt in some guilds than others, and didn't like that the talismans were an incomplete cycle. The printing of these means that I'm going to be looking to add the Talisman cycle in (which also means that I need to find 2 cuts in each color to make room )
I've never really considered including any guild mana rocks in my cube previously, because I didn't like how much stronger signets felt in some guilds than others, and didn't like that the talismans were an incomplete cycle. The printing of these means that I'm going to be looking to add the Talisman cycle in (which also means that I need to find 2 cuts in each color to make room )
Those all seem like cut-able cards to me, so I think you are on the right track. I have a special place in my heart for Chaos Warp and I imagine others would say the same about Waterfront Bouncer, but in reality neither one is probably crucial.
Slightly off topic, but are Talismans/Signets better than the other generic 2-drop mana rocks? I'm not running any of them right now, but I am running Mind Stone, Coldsteel Heart, Everflowing Chalice, and Sphere of the Suns. At 360, it seems really difficult to find space for 10 2-drop mana rocks. Am I making a mistake?
At 360 I prefer the generic 2 mana cards. You can always argue both ways, but I think at 350, running 10 of them is 2 many for most cube designs.
Mind Stone and maybe Coldsteel Heart are probably the only generic mana rocks that I think consider better than a Talisman/Signet. I mean, 2cc ramp that provides two relevant colors of mana for your deck is just good. But that only applies to Signets/Talisman when both of the colors of mana are valuable. If only one color is useful to your deck, I think there's a dramatic drop in value, and they become a lot closer to (or fall behind) the other generic stones.
I had cut the signets and was running a lot of worse 2 mana rock options as I was seeing a drop in successful agro decks not putting enough pressure fast enough when an opponent was casting 4 and 5 drops early. I recently added a few of the Talisman into my cube as worse signets against agro since if you want colored mana out of them you have to ping and that life is relevant in the agro match up. I've really liked the tension that brings to that match up. I'll be cubing with more, maybe even the full cycle when these come out for sure.
Slightly off topic, but are Talismans/Signets better than the other generic 2-drop mana rocks? I'm not running any of them right now, but I am running Mind Stone, Coldsteel Heart, Everflowing Chalice, and Sphere of the Suns. At 360, it seems really difficult to find space for 10 2-drop mana rocks. Am I making a mistake?
I agree, except our group values Everflowing Chalice very highly. We will be cutting Prismatic Lens and MAYBE Guardian Idol in this update. We do not run Fellwar Stone.
Figured I'd solicit thoughts on the following cuts:
White: Glory-Bound Initiate, Journey to Nowhere
Blue: Waterfront Bouncer, Gifts Ungiven
Black: Xathrid Necromancer, Ritual of Soot
Red: Glorybringer, Chaos Warp
Green: Manglehorn, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
For reference, my cube is unpowered.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Those all seem like cut-able cards to me, so I think you are on the right track. I have a special place in my heart for Chaos Warp and I imagine others would say the same about Waterfront Bouncer, but in reality neither one is probably crucial.
At 360 I prefer the generic 2 mana cards. You can always argue both ways, but I think at 350, running 10 of them is 2 many for most cube designs.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
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!
I think Mind Stone and Coldsteel Heart are better, Everflowing Chalice worse (and is a lot better if you have cards like Trinket Mage that have synergy with it) and Sphere much worse.
Other stones that are worse than Talismans:
Fellwar Stone
Guardian Idol
Prismatic Lens
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022