In a world with snow basics (which have a different name from regular basics),
has anyone reconsidered Tainted Pact?
It's a powerful 2 mana instant speed Impulse / Demonic Tutor variant.
Especially in 3 color decks splitting their basics between snow and regular, or with a lot of fixing, it's liable to dig way deeper than Impulse could and you can always start acting more conservatively if you flip a basic you know has duplicates.
Card is really good if you play a lot of decks with low basic land counts (or allow free snow lands like the OP does). I lost far too many double-basic flips with it when I was playing it, and it's been long cut. It was basically relegated to 4- and 5-color control decks with few (if any) duplicate basics, and it got cut.
I agree with this when playing with it years ago. It was a black impulse that had downside.
But it's worth revisiting now for two reasons:
1. This year we got Nexus, Thassa's Oracle, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. Which finally puts playable lab-mans in the cube. I've been very happy with This, Demonic Consultation, Oath of Druids, Doom Whisperer, and some other ways to A + B combo here.
2. With the inclusion of Modal DFCs, it will be more common to have a lower number of basics, as this greatly increases the ASFAN of lands in my cube.
Add in that many decks can still play it as impulse that occassionaly reads "draw a basic", and I think it's a greet inclusion at 540+
Tainted Pact might be a bit misleading for new people, but roughly here is a translation on how it works in a cube environment.
1. Exile your top card. You can put it into your hand, if not, exile a second card.
2. Your first card goes to exile forever. You can decide if you want to put the second card into your hand or put it into exile.
... You can repeat this process as many times as you want ...
Since Cube is a singleton format, the remove two cards with the same name applies exclusively to basic lands. If you flip a basic swamp on the 3rd card, you decide to keep flipping and hit another basic swamp on the 7th card, the Tainted Pact effect is resolved and you will not get any cards.
The drawback of potentially not getting any cards could be mitigated almost entirely by playing Snow-Covered Basics and Basics; especially for 3-4 color control decks, its is very possible to construct your mana base with singleton basic and snow basics to essentially turn this card into an instant speed Demonic Tutor.
If you're cube supports Mystery Boaster Cards, there is a card called Yawgmoth's Testament - https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=476182 where EOT you can exile your entire library, or close to it then cast Yawgmoth's Testament. (This will require an LED or Lotus in your deck to be effective).
- NOTE: In order to exile your entire library, your deck will need to contain only singletons. Ideally, your deck should only contain 2 of each basic, one island and one swamp. BUT this is not a hard requirement. The inverter combo is often a slow combo, put inside a grindy control deck or as a second combo inside another combo deck. It is possible to play a deck with up to 3 Island and something like 1-2 Fetches/ Kodma's Reach to remove the islands or naturally draw one of the redundant islands before comboing.
A similar card is Demonic Consultation, where you can name a card you do not play in your deck in order to exile your entire library.
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My cube has free snow lands, in essence when building a deck with basics, you can use snow or non-snow lands.
My take on this card is its definitely strong in an environment with the Inverter Combo, Yawgmoth's Testament etc. The is also pretty good in an environment with a lot of potential for 4c control or 4c combo as a demonic tutor variant.
However, I would avoid playing this card if your cube does not allow free snow lands.
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
In a world with snow basics (which have a different name from regular basics),
has anyone reconsidered Tainted Pact?
It's a powerful 2 mana instant speed Impulse / Demonic Tutor variant.
Especially in 3 color decks splitting their basics between snow and regular, or with a lot of fixing, it's liable to dig way deeper than Impulse could and you can always start acting more conservatively if you flip a basic you know has duplicates.
360 card powered Chicago cube:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/e7r
2020 Numerical Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/817969-2020-numerical-cube-power-rankings
2018 CubeTutor Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/803301-cubetutor-power-rankings-2018-by-color-and-cmc
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!
But it's worth revisiting now for two reasons:
1. This year we got Nexus, Thassa's Oracle, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. Which finally puts playable lab-mans in the cube. I've been very happy with This, Demonic Consultation, Oath of Druids, Doom Whisperer, and some other ways to A + B combo here.
2. With the inclusion of Modal DFCs, it will be more common to have a lower number of basics, as this greatly increases the ASFAN of lands in my cube.
Add in that many decks can still play it as impulse that occassionaly reads "draw a basic", and I think it's a greet inclusion at 540+
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1. Exile your top card. You can put it into your hand, if not, exile a second card.
2. Your first card goes to exile forever. You can decide if you want to put the second card into your hand or put it into exile.
... You can repeat this process as many times as you want ...
Since Cube is a singleton format, the remove two cards with the same name applies exclusively to basic lands. If you flip a basic swamp on the 3rd card, you decide to keep flipping and hit another basic swamp on the 7th card, the Tainted Pact effect is resolved and you will not get any cards.
The drawback of potentially not getting any cards could be mitigated almost entirely by playing Snow-Covered Basics and Basics; especially for 3-4 color control decks, its is very possible to construct your mana base with singleton basic and snow basics to essentially turn this card into an instant speed Demonic Tutor.
This card also has an insane combo potential with Thassa's Oracle,Laboratory Maniac and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries to essentially exile your entire library and then win with one of these three cards.
If you're cube supports Mystery Boaster Cards, there is a card called Yawgmoth's Testament - https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=476182 where EOT you can exile your entire library, or close to it then cast Yawgmoth's Testament. (This will require an LED or Lotus in your deck to be effective).
- NOTE: In order to exile your entire library, your deck will need to contain only singletons. Ideally, your deck should only contain 2 of each basic, one island and one swamp. BUT this is not a hard requirement. The inverter combo is often a slow combo, put inside a grindy control deck or as a second combo inside another combo deck. It is possible to play a deck with up to 3 Island and something like 1-2 Fetches/ Kodma's Reach to remove the islands or naturally draw one of the redundant islands before comboing.
A similar card is Demonic Consultation, where you can name a card you do not play in your deck in order to exile your entire library.
------------------------------
My cube has free snow lands, in essence when building a deck with basics, you can use snow or non-snow lands.
My take on this card is its definitely strong in an environment with the Inverter Combo, Yawgmoth's Testament etc. The is also pretty good in an environment with a lot of potential for 4c control or 4c combo as a demonic tutor variant.
However, I would avoid playing this card if your cube does not allow free snow lands.
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