MTG Salvation

Now 360 cards, finally updated to M14!

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First thing that stands out: 95 blue cards as opposed to 80 of the others? Really?

Quote from Lanxal

First thing that stands out: 95 blue cards as opposed to 80 of the others? Really?

LOL... as if blue needed any more of a power boost.

You have your Saprazzan Skerry in your Cycling lands section.

Also, is Maze of Ith really a common?

Maze of ith was printed as a C1 in the Dark. Which means one Maze was on each common. Appose to something like Bog Imp which was printed as a C3. Maze of Ith is generally considered an Uncommon when rarity is a factor for formats like pauper.

Hmm... Well, it's too much of a headache to think about, so I don't think I'll count C1 cards as commons.

Hello everybody! Sorry about the 95 blue cards thing, that was just me editing the list after I posted it, because that was the easiest way round for me at the time.

And Lanxal, thanks for pointing that out. Will change the skerry.

Though you run Shu Cavalry your specs say you do NOT run Portal. I wish to make a common cube one day.

Oxidda Golem and Violet Pall are spelled incorrectly.

Seething Song isn't very good, I suggest Tarfire

Quote from xfollowthereaperx

Though you run Shu Cavalry your specs say you do NOT run Portal. I wish to make a common cube one day.

Oxidda Golem and Violet Pall are spelled incorrectly.

Seething Song isn't very good, I suggest Tarfire

Will change them then. Though I'm considering cutting the portal cards, as I can't find them.

Changed the golem, but I'm not even running Violet Pall. (?)
Will probably replace Seething Song, it hasn't been testing too well either. Not sure what with (don't want to run Tarfire as it is functionally shock here and I find functional reprints boring). Maybe Rites of Initiation? I have no idea how good that is.

Also, other pauper cubers: Gaea's Touch is pretty friggin amazing. It makes its own decks: lots of forests and lots of fat. Without drawing it, the deck can play reasonably well, with it in hand you can consistently hit 6+ mana turn 3. That's without the help of anything else.

Seeing the M11 spoiler is complete: I think I'll add the following

[CARD]Aether Adept
Sylvan Ranger
Chandra's Outrage
Liliana's Specter
Garruk's Companion
Scroll Thief
Act of Treason[/CARD]... maybe.

Also, having a long and hard think about Hornet Sting. Could be useful... but it's a really bad card.

Huh. Gaea's Touch, hmm? ...let's see.

After reading the group draft thread, I feel really silly for not having Viridian Longbow in here. Replacing Su Chi because I want to get rid of the commons that aren't actually really commons.

Good call. I was quite confused with Su-Chi in there, when I was reading the list.

Technically, it's been printed in a common run... But it's really not a common, and not intended to be. Will be getting rid of the rest ASAP. Actually, I'll change the lands right now...

Updated to be recent and be 360 cards, as I found that powerful boosters are much more fun to draft with! Let me know what you think, and what I've overlooked or rated too highly.

I'm thinking of reducing the size of my cube to something like 450. I really need to cut down some of the fat.

Yeah, I'd advise doing that. I found it pretty dissapointing getting a pack full of mediocre stuff for your P1P1, and finally deciding to pick the Expunge, or something. Haven't drafted with it yet, but it's seeming a lot better now. Cube is meant to be the format where you decide which card in a pack to windmill slam, because so many are good, right?

Though it's not all good, because I've been sort of forced to cut amazing cards due to the restrictive numbers of the sections. Halimar Depths, Spreading Seas and Granger Guildmage in particular will be missed. Depths is obviously great and the other two just steal games you have absolutely no right to win.

An update: Tell me what you think!

White: -1 Caravan Escort +1 Infantary Veteran
-1 Beacon Hawk +1 Fledgling Griffin (tested badly, by the way)
-1 Veteran Armorer +1 Youthful Knight
-1 Soltari Lancer +1 Thermal Glider
-1 Wispmare +1 Nightwind Glider
-1 Cage of Hands +1 Seal of Cleansing
-1 Holy Light +1 Order of the Golden Cricket
-1 Breath of Life +1 Blinding Beam

Overall, I'm hoping this is a strong aggro push, because white weenie needs a bit of a pushstart.

Blue:
-1 Prodigal Sorceror +1 Thalakos Scout (Testing)
-1 Skywatcher Adept +1 Shimmering Glasskite
-1 Trinket Mage +1 Halimar Wavewatch
-1 Serum Visions +1 Shoreline Ranger

Everything I added was some kind of control win-con, a spot which is very lacking currently.

Black:
-1 Carrion Feeder +1 Fume Spitter
-1 Nightscape Familiar +1 Nzeumi Cutthroat
-1 Mindstab Thrull +1 Ravenous Skirge
-1 Zombie Scavengers +1 Skittering Horror (It tested well, but was a midrange creature through and through. Not sure about this switch)
-1 Wrench Mind +1 Grim Harvest

Generally just upgrades to better cards, but this should also favor aggro to a small degree.


Red:
-1 Vitian Stinger +1 Goblin Bushwhacker
-1 Goblin Arsonist +1 Bloodfire Dwarf
-1 Emrakul's Hatcher +1 Goblin Shortutter
-1 Chandra's Outrage +1 Fire Ambush (Getting rid of the functional reprint thing, to a degree)

Another aggro push

Green:
-1 Elvish Visionary +1 Nest Invader
-1 Sacred Wolf +1 Hungry Spriggan (way underwhelming. Their creatures just neuter it)
-1 Joreal's Centaur +1 Thornweld Archer (It wasn't a bad card, but was in an odd position that it was good at attacking in a midrange/control deck, but not at blocking.)
-1 Ondu Giant +1 Wild Leotau (The ramp really is rather irrelevant, Leotau is decent)
-1 Mold Shambler +1 Kavu Primarch (Three toughness is just too much of a downside)
-1 Fertile Ground +1 Naturalise

Artifact:
-1 Chromatic Star +1 Prophetic Prism
-1 Horizon Spellbomb +1 Phyrexian War Beast

Nice changes overall, methinks. Nothing I'd dispute. I do have comments, though, on Caravan Escort and Fledgling Griffin. The Escort seems nice, but really, it's a bad mana sink in the early game and by the late game, it's just too much mana for not even action. I'm keeping it in my cube, but just a thought.

Fledgling Griffin, I have to agree. It's just a really awkward topdeck. I'll be cutting it for Order of the Golden Cricket soon.

Quote from Lanxal

Nice changes overall, methinks. Nothing I'd dispute. I do have comments, though, on Caravan Escort and Fledgling Griffin. The Escort seems nice, but really, it's a bad mana sink in the early game and by the late game, it's just too much mana for not even action. I'm keeping it in my cube, but just a thought.

Fledgling Griffin, I have to agree. It's just a really awkward topdeck. I'll be cutting it for Order of the Golden Cricket soon.

I liked Escort to a degree, thought it looked terrible on paper but played okay. Still, the one drop section has moved on to bigger and better things, it won't be missed.

Fledgling Griffin and Golden Cricket both seem similar in power level, Griffin will be best when you're still dropping dudes, Golden Cricket is only valuable when you've finished the initial swarm. I'm running both as an aggro push now, and I think that that's probably right as they both seem very decent.

? means that I'm not so sure about the change and the new cards might come back out.

Order of the Golden Cricket -> Leonin Skyhunter (Fledgling Griffin may end up being the cut, but probably not)
Dawnglare Invoker -> Loxodon Partisan (?)

Fathom Seer -> Dreamscape Artist. I've never been one to think that Seer was bad. It's not, IMO, too slow because it slows the game down with its body, and it gives pretty brutal card advantage. But blue is deadly tight and artist is meant to be pretty good so the cut had to be a similar kind of card.
Serum Visions -> Windrider Eel I like both cards, sorting out balance/curve issues.

Exhume -> Undertaker. Even if Undertaker isn't good, it's better than Exhume, which has been pretty terrible, sadly. Just no good support.

Dragon Fodder -> Spin Engine. The increase in the curve is not too bad as there have been some pretty breakneck aggro decks simply because playing the higher CMCs was not profitable. Step in the right direction?

Cackling Flames -> Chandra's Outrage
Sonic Burst -> Disintegrate
Reckless Abandon -> Lava Burst

Aggro burn for anything burn. The controllish burn is always picked really high and it was getting a bit tiresome. These are all fine in aggro, too. I don't actually think 5 X burn is too much as it is all REALLY GOOD.

Quirion Ranger -> Viridian Emissarry. That's probably too many two drops, but since Emissary might be the worst (Thornweald? Ledgewalker??) I cut a card that stopped being good in my cube a while ago.

Citanul Woodreaders -> Tangle Husk
Acorn Harvest -> Spore Cloud
Hopefully a change to give green slower decks better support. Still unsure of Spore Cloud's power, it gets underdrafted here (it's in for some card or other I don't own yet) because its power hasn't been proven. Viscous cycle

Wayfarer's Bauble -> Flayer Husk (?) Bauble is actually very good, by the way.
Armillary Sphere -> Kitesail
Darksteel Ingot -> Copper Carapace (??)

All good changes, except for the last one (in my opinion). I just don't like Carapace.

You have Ulamog's Crusher as Umalog's Crusher.

Oops

I don't like carapace very much either but think that it may make it because the +2/+2 is so backbreaking. But most likely not and it's just a test.

See, this is why I need some system for testing. Maybe a testing zone. I'm not entirely sure. (about 6 of the changes are just tests! :eek:)

That's true. Tell us how it stacks up.

Maybe. Although there's nothing wrong with using changes for tests.

Sure. Hopefully doing a few drafts this weekend, I haven't been able to draft for ages.

It's always annoying, though, to go through the same "isn't this card bad?" thing again and again

Anyway,
-1 Lonely Sandbar +1 Halimar Depths
Simply superior in the control colour, IMO
+1 Ronom Hulk, +1 Cultivate
I counted the green cards as they seemed to be less than 55. There were 53. I like both cards.

Both changes look very reasonable.