MTG Salvation

Now with Cubetutor! Zephyr's Cube

Eidolon's Cube List Comparison

The shadow creatures are left out on purpose? They are fantastic aggro cards that don't lose vlue even when the game goes longer than aggro likes.

The other thing that jumped into my eye is your land subsection in the colourless section. Some staples are missing. For comparison my colourless classified lands:

• 1 Ancient Tomb
  
• 1 City of Brass
  
• 1 Evolving Wilds
  
• 1 Gemstone Mine
  
• 1 Grand Coliseum
  
• 1 Library of Alexandria
  
• 1 Maze of Ith
  
• 1 Mishra's Factory
  
• 1 Mutavault
  
• 1 Rishadan Port
  
• 1 Strip Mine
  
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
  
• 1 Wasteland

If you want statistcal comparison data check eidolons cube comparison thread:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=414478

First of all, thanks for your thoughts, I've added the deck to Eidolon's stats thread and did some comparisons towards the end of deck-building.

I made a decision fairly early on to exclude shadow as a keyword. I preferred the knight-style 2 drops more than the shadow ones so it made me think of shadow as unblockable, cause I generally forget they can't block non-shadow, not that aggro decks are likely concerned with blocking.

If I expand the aggro support for white I'd prolly bring in the 2-drops along with the Soltari Champion.

I was aware that I'd missed out a lot of the powerful non-basic lands, I just kinda ran out of room for them. I could probably trim some of the bigger mana stones to make room.

Do you think the Vivid cycle is necessary or will it promote control too much?

Quote from Zephyr259

First of all, thanks for your thoughts, I've added the deck to Eidolon's stats thread and did some comparisons towards the end of deck-building.

I made a decision fairly early on to exclude shadow as a keyword. I preferred the knight-style 2 drops more than the shadow ones so it made me think of shadow as unblockable, cause I generally forget they can't block non-shadow, not that aggro decks are likely concerned with blocking.

If I expand the aggro support for white I'd prolly bring in the 2-drops along with the Soltari Champion.

I was aware that I'd missed out a lot of the powerful non-basic lands, I just kinda ran out of room for them. I could probably trim some of the bigger mana stones to make room.

Do you think the Vivid cycle is necessary or will it promote control too much?

I would fully support your decision to cut the vivids and some expensive mana rocks for more non-basic utility lands. Things like Strip Mine and Library of Alexandria are staples of the staples in powered cubes; definite must includes. The vivids are not needed at 360. The dual/fetch density is high enough for colour fixing in drafts. The expensive mana rocks don't ramp at meaningful points of the curve, unless you run some kind of dragon cube. 4 mana seems to be the magic number that most control decks need to reach asap (wrath and friends) to keep the game under control.

EDIT: If you play mostly sealed deck, a slightly higher number of colour fixing may be desired. This is the reason why my cube runs four fixers per guild at 360 instead of the usual three.

How does this sound?



Also decided to swap out Sigarda, Host of Herons for Qasali Pridemage as the angel is a fairly replaceable beat stick unless used against a black stax deck... The Pridemage is nice support for aggro/mid-range.

Looking good. Although Thawing Glaciers is too slow for the minimal advantage it can grind out. The others are definite must inclusions.

Fair enough on Thawing Glaciers, I'm used to it in EDH but I guess my cube will be a lot faster. Will change to terramorphic or maybe the colleseum.

colloseum > terramorphic expanse = evolving wilds. colloseum is a staple. The other two are replaceable and far away from staple status, although I like to max out on fetch lands (colour fixing, landfall, shuffle effects, deck thinning) and they fit into many decks. For a while I was even running some of the mirage fetch lands.

Coliseum it is then.

Regarding the Lantern, I also really like it but I feel the ramp from worn powerstone is more important in going from 3 to 6. Depending on how the cube plays it may go back in, but I think it's a reasonable cut to start with in a vacuum.

I've never been sold on the original masticore, I've heard it's awesome but I've never played with it and I actually have copies of the other 2 so decided to see how they perform first.

Did a test draft on tappedout.net against bots (I know it's not the best but only option atm) and I managed to force a reasonable R/w aggro deck, decided to see if I could as I'm not sure I have the critical density of 1 and 2 drops for aggro.

Large update to OP cube list after some testing to make it more reliable for 2 player drafts. Comments welcome, most common draft format will be Trunkers' Grid Draft, which is really cool.

Thanks for your input Eidolon, I'm finding that I'm still doing a fair bit of tweaks to get things how I want.

Something I'm having issue with is that most often I'm doing a 2-person grid draft with my wife and neither of us seem to favour the full on aggro strategy so those cards feel slightly wasted as often just get left behind or end up in sideboards. I think they will play better when I manage to get a bunch of friends round to draft and I know supporting aggro is important so I'm still just feeling things out.

Well I'm updating this thread for my move to 450 powered, but I can't find a way to edit my title. I'm sure it's possible as others do it to highlight changes after a set etc.

Help please?

Well the endless tinkering continues. Was considering adding the Splinter Twin combo into my cube for a bit of a change. Got a bit of play in the blue section for the additions but I'm struggling with what to cut in red.

I want to add Splinter Twin, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Imperial Recruiter with the recruiter not being essential but I want to try him oout and he aids the combo.

I feel that I could probably cut Destructive Force and Devil's Play but I'm not sure what else or if they are correct cuts. Having 3 "wildfires" has been pretty fun. Jaya hasn't really turned up much and doesn't get much love on these forums but she's one of my few pet cards in the cube and I'd like to keep her around for more testing.

Thanks for any thoughts you can offer.

I'd run Imperial Recruiter anyway--Splinter Twin combo or not. My suggested cuts are Jaya Ballard, Task Mage; Destructive Force; and either Chandra, the Firebrand or Devil's Play.

Cheers,
rant

Quote from eidolon232

Cut Faithless Looting + Sneak Attack, since these cards don't fit into what red is trying to do in this cube. After the inclusion of 2 additional finishers, my cut #3 would be Devil's Play.

Thanks for the advice guys, gave me some good things to think about. Something I'm curious about though is the comment above by Eidolon. You say that those cards aren't what red's trying to do in my cube but I'm slightly unclear why this is the case.

I guess due to the focus on aggro red doesn't have many good targets for sneak attack, but does this matter when it could get targets from a supplementary colour? Or does the isolated effect in red mean the cards rarely gonna be used? It's a recent addition and hasn't turned up in play yet.

I figured faithless looting would be a decent card in an aggro deck which could loot away excess lands for more action, although I guess my last aggro deck was so land light that it wouldn't ever have the lands available to loot.

In theory I don't have an issue dropping these two cards, which I didn't realise until you suggested them (thanks), however, one side effect would be that red would no longer have anything to support a reanimator deck, is this likely to be a problem? We've only had on true combo reanimator deck and it was grixis, with faithless looting being a really strong card, even Jaya was there too but wasn't drawn. I have recently been toying with adding Firestorm to further support red aided reanimator.

Thanks for the thoughts once again.

Thanks for the explanation Eidolon, that makes a fair bit of sense to me now. Gonna cut the looting for sure, will prolly also cut sneak attack as reading over the SCD for it made me realise how narrow it is in my cube now that I've reduced the super ramp stuff.

Time for some updates with some proper information for once.
Format I'm using is: Out ---> In

White
I wanted to give the ranger a try and white had almost as many 6cc+ creatures as green which felt a bit odd. Angel of Serenity was the weakest of the bunch (at least while I'm still testing Sunblast Angel), Ranger comes in for one of the more fringe "anthem" effects to help give a decent late game target for the Ranger. Lone missionary is a nice role player in a few deck as well has having a decent EtB effect for blinking.

Angel of Serenity ---> Ranger of Eos
Pianna, Nomad Captain ---> Weathered Wayfarer
---> Lone Missionary

Blue
From reading over the blue tempo threads I've decided that Commander and Student are rather narrow and these roles are better served by whatever colour blue is paired with. Kira may come back but I'd like her for my EDH cube at the moment. Isle and S&T were fairly high variance cards for us, I like the land but no one would touch S&T. :-( Cards brought in are for supporting Kiki-Jiki/Splinter Twin combos, blink and reanimator.

Coralhelm Commander ---> Perstermite
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner ---> Deceiver Exarch
Sakashima's Student ---> Waterfront Bouncer
Shelldock Isle ---> Sea-Gate Oracle
Show and Tell ---> Crystal Shard
---> Thirst for Knowledge

Black
After looking at almost a dozen cards only one change was made here, Traitor was the worse of the self-recurring cards and Entomb is perfect for signalling that reanimator is supported. I am slightly concerned that I may be one or two fatties short for supporting reanimator (and sneak attack in red).

Nether Traitor ---> Entomb
---> Murderous Redcap

Red
As mentioned in blue, Kiki-Jiki and Splinter twin have come in to try out some combo fun. Recruiter helps tutor the peaces as well as being fairly nuts in a blink deck. Cutting the 7 mana "wildfire" was fairly obvious, devil's play is weaker with the reduction in super ramp and smash was the third cut when I really struggled to find one. (Eidolon: I ended up changing my mind as sneak attack and looting help red support reanimator, I'm open to suggestions to help them "match" the rest of my red section if you still feel they don't.)

Destructive Force ---> Imperial Recruiter
Devil's Play ---> Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Smash to Smithereens ---> Splinter Twin
---> Rakdos Cackler

I'm going to have to try and force red aggro with as many of the land destruction spells as I can as although I know why they are important, having never seen them in action makes them stick out a bit as 3 isolated effects in the whole cube.

Green
I've decided to try and support green aggro by dialing back on the super ramp since that didn't seem to be doing very well and we've started to enjoy having a couple of good aggro decks in each draft.

Awakening Zone ---> Wolfbitten Captive
Beast Within ---> Wild Nacatl
Chameleon Colossus ---> Wild Mongrel
Channel ---> Wild Dogs
Devoted Druid ---> Wall of Roots
Eureka ---> Rancor
Gaea's Cradle ---> Jungle Lion
Indrik Stomphowler ---> Uktabi Orangutan
Oracle of Mul Daya ---> Experiment One
Somberwald Sage ---> Spawnwrithe
Troll Ascetic ---> Wolfir Avenger
---> Kitchen Finks

Guild
I've felt that there's plenty artifact mana in my cube to support the arifact deck and as such I've cut the WU and UB talismen along with the UR signet since I try to have the cards in my guild pull drafters into their colours and the mana rocks were support only and sometimes pilfered by other decks. Moorland Haunt is currently a placeholder, also thinking about Sphinx's Revelation in that spot but want to see what we get in Dragon's Maze first. Likewise my Rakdos section is now fair high CMC with Olivia, Aristocrat and Bit Blast, will probably end up cutting 1 or both of the 5 drops. Pernicious Deed was my cut from Golgari since I think it'll be more valuable in my EDH cube. I've cut all custom cards from the cube so although the enemy man-lands were fun they have been cut for the eventide filters as they are my favorite cycle of non-basics, even if they are not subjectively "best" for each guild.

Talisman of Progress ---> Moorland Haunt
Talisman of Dominance ---> Psychatog
Murderous Redcap ---> Falkenrath Aristocrat
Rakdos Cackler ---> Bituminous Blast
Domri Rade ---> Kird Ape
Kitchen Finks ---> Loam Lion
Creekwood Liege ---> Deathrite Shaman
Pernicious Deed ---> Life / Death
Izzet Signet ---> Fire / Ice
Enemy Man-Land x 5 ---> Eventide Filter-Lands x 5

Colourless
Simple enough here, the Eldrazi were fun in thoery but were rarely ever picked, I think I managed to hardcast Kozilek once and that was it. Workshop was a bit too swingy for us and Karn is the cut to test the full set of masticores.

Karn, Silver Golem ---> Razormane Masticore
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth ---> Masticore
Mishra's Workshop ---> Icy Manipulator
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre ---> Porcelain Legionnaire

My experiment with the custom lands was fun but in the end they were a bit odd and due to their high activation costs only grindy mid-range or control decks were interested in them. These 10 cuts allowed me to bring back in the five 5-colour fixing lands to my colourless section and add 1 card to each mono-colour.

Custom Lands x 10
---> City of Brass
---> Gemstone Mine
---> Grand Coliseum
---> Thawing Glaciers
---> Undiscovered Paradise
---> +1 card per mono-colour section

Thanks for reading.

p.s. Do people prefer having all cards tagged to magiccards.info? I've noticed that people aren't as strict with it here as in the Commander forums.

Some decklists and brief game comments for folks who are interested. Fairly standard aggro vs control from a 2-player tenchester draft (which has become our usual format).


My wife beat me 3-2 with the aggro deck, didn't realised she had only 14 land until I broke the decks up for this. Most games were similar, she floods the board with a bunch of 2 power 1 drops and either smashes my face in or gets slowed down enough by my 3 drops that I can stabilise. My advice was to draft the white removal pretty high since my previous aggro decks have had no answer to a big creature other than 2-for-1-ing myself with combat damage and a burn spell. Worked pretty well as she managed to clear out my blockers most games and I think my turn-3 Man-o'-War was Arc Trailed in every game.

Awesome moments: I drop a risky Bitterblossom while at around 10 life to fully stabilise and hopefully provide a win-con, I forget the exact response but some combination of removal and pump manages to smash me down to 3 life and a post combat Sulfuric Vortex seals the deal thanks to the blossom.

My fun plays were planning my turn, brainstorming with Jace (amazed how relevant a 4-mana unsummon + gain 2 life can be) into I think both Bone Shredder and Phyrexian Metamorph while at 7 mana. I even got to trade both off when she decided to swing into them in her turn so didn't have to pay echo. Oh and top decking Earthquake off Library with 3 mana remaining to wrath her board leaving me with 2 faeries and a bitterblossom, I lost that game in the end though. :-(

In the first 2 or 3 games I was running Mana Leak and Condescend but between bad timing and her always hitting her first 3 - 4 mana drops on time I cut them for Reassembling Skeleon and Frost Titan to provide an extra early blocker and a finisher, would people agree with these changes? I often see pro's cutting counterspells vs aggro are they just always bad?

Thanks for reading, I appreciate any comments you may have, including ways of improving my draft reports.

Once again, Out ---> In

This section of ten cards was a cut back in my gold sections, I was running 1 more card per guild than the average cube and it was starting to show as the gold cards were often passed early in a draft to keep the players more open. Also my gold philosophy is to run cards that will draw someone into these colours, although most guilds have 1 card which is more of a reward for being in those colours.

Most of these cards were fairly easy cuts since they are often labeled as 5th best and below when discussed. Moorland Haunt was always just a placeholder, my group has never taken to the Tog and the naya aggro dudes don't seem necessary for those decks to work.

Moorland Haunt ---> Land Tax
Psychatog ---> Angel of Serenity
Olivia Voldaren ---> Treachery
Kird Ape ---> Inkwell Leviathan
Loam Lion ---> Blood Scrivener
Unburial Rites ---> Griselbrand
Life / Death ---> Smash to Smithereens
Simic Charm ---> Devil's Play
Desolate Lighthouse ---> Oracle of Mul Daya
Aurelia's Fury ---> Thornling

Next was a bit of a shake up in blue and some tweaks elsewhere.

Frost Titan ---> Morphling
Keiga, the Tide Star ---> Aetherling
Thirst for Knowledge ---> Consecrated Sphinx
Gifts Ungiven ---> Desertion

Decided that I'd like a change of finishers to try something new and the shapeshifter-lings get some good feedback (although morphling seems to be love it or hate it). Gifts has been in and out of the cube more times than I can count by this point, amazing in a dedicated reanimator deck (less now that I've cut Unburial Rites) but the "value" gifts never appealed to people, it's best use I've seen was being pitched to Force of Will to counter my turn 3 Tinkers.

Wild Nacatl ---> Basking Rootwalla
Wild Mongrel ---> Scavenging Ooze
Bituminous Blast ---> Spike Jester
Maelstrom Pulse ---> Pernicious Deed
Simic Sky Swallower ---> Prime Speaker Zegana
Fire / Ice ---> Ral Zarek
Mortarpod ---> Engineered Explosives
Spellskite ---> Chrome Mox
Sphinx of the Steel Wind ---> Guardian Idol

Not too much to say on the last few cards, most are just to have a change or to better reinforce what i want a guild to be doing. Added two more mana rocks as they can be a bit hard to get when I manage to get a good number of drafters.

I made these changes a few weeks ago now but only had 1 draft since then due to work and life being busy. Looking at the changes now I'm not sure why I added Basking Rootwalla over Wolfbitten Captive. Anyone got an opinion on that comparison?

Mostly good but there's a lot I don't like as well.

I'll mention 'tog should not get cut but let's move on.

I think Kird Ape is absolutely necessary if you want Rg aggro to be a thing and even if you don't it's fine in midrange. I rate it the second best Gruul card.

I know a lot of cubists cut Gifts Ungiven but I still don't get why. It's totally solid and always gives value. Desertion costs too much; it's really difficult to leave 5 mana open.

I agree you should be running Scavenging Ooze but not at the price of Wild Mongrel or Wild Nacatl. Those cards are really, really good.

Why would you cut Maelstrom Pulse? And I like Sky Swallower much more than Zegana. Aside from the other reasons, it's a much better Natural Order and reanimation target.

Cheers,
rant

First of all, thanks for the comments, I always appreciate people taking the time to discuss my cube.

After responding I'm realising that I may be coming over a bit negative to your comments but I'm just explaining why I've cut cards. I'm very open to being convinced why I may be wrong.

Quote from rantipole

Mostly good but there's a lot I don't like as well.

I'll mention 'tog should not get cut but let's move on.

From what I've read the forums seem to be a bit split on 'tog, I've ran him and cut him and ran him again to aid reanimator and he never sees play, doesn't even get drafted very often. As such i don't really have much experience with him but it just looks like he'll only be really big once. In the end with 4 slots in my cube I like Tezz 2 to support the artifact deck (pet deck of mine), Baleful Strix is just solid value and is an artifact, Finkel and Duskmantle Seer are just much more appealing my me and my group.

I may slip 'tog into my multicolour cube and see if that helps show why he's so good.

Quote from rantipole

I think Kird Ape is absolutely necessary if you want Rg aggro to be a thing and even if you don't it's fine in midrange. I rate it the second best Gruul card.

Again the 3 Naya "land matters" 1-drops seem to have their lovers and haters here, I have ~10 1-drop aggro dudes split between red and green which feels like it's enough. If this proves to not be the case then the Ape will likely return. Would you'd drop Kessig Wolf Run for the Ape? Not a lot of folks play the land but I like offering the spell-lands where possible.

Quote from rantipole

I know a lot of cubists cut Gifts Ungiven but I still don't get why. It's totally solid and always gives value. Desertion costs too much; it's really difficult to leave 5 mana open.

It's just proved unpopular with my group, people draft it then look at it during deckbuilding and can't see what kinda pile would be good as often when you use it for a specific card then that card just ends up in the yard and building a pile to give you a specific card regardless of what the opponent chooses is actually pretty tricky. I've read some good things about Desertion so I thought I'd give it a try, I may well end up too difficult to keep the mana up but worth a test.

Quote from rantipole

I agree you should be running Scavenging Ooze but not at the price of Wild Mongrel or Wild Nacatl. Those cards are really, really good.

Wild Nacatl has the same pros and cons as Kird Ape in my view so it's cut for the time being to see if its necessary. Mongrel doesn't do enough in my opinion, discarding a card for +1/+1 isn't worth it unless you're exploiting the graveyard and although this mean your 2-drop can trade up etc the cost in cards just makes it unappealing in my view.

Quote from rantipole

Why would you cut Maelstrom Pulse? And I like Sky Swallower much more than Zegana. Aside from the other reasons, it's a much better Natural Order and reanimation target.

The Golgari guild could simply be 4 cards reading "destroy non-creature permanent" which would be pretty boring so Lotleth Troll and Deathrite Shaman give a bit of variety to the guild. I felt that Deed should stay being an effective wrath so choice game down to Pulse and Vraska. Pulse is likely to be a 1-for-1 in my cube as tokens are varied and often trade off quickly, Vraska's WCS is a 1-for-1 that gains 2 life and she can be a whole lot better so I decided to keep her around for a bit more testing.

The swap for Zegana was mosty because I think she's really cool and wanted a bit of a change. It's highly likely that she'll move out into one of my other cubes after some testing (she's prolly the best simic general for EDH cube).

Thanks again for the thoughts, please feel free to propose some counterpoints to my views above as I'm always tweaking my list and know that some of my choices are different from the forum's "norm."

Quote from Zephyr259

First of all, thanks for the comments, I always appreciate people taking the time to discuss my cube.

After responding I'm realising that I may be coming over a bit negative to your comments but I'm just explaining why I've cut cards. I'm very open to being convinced why I may be wrong.

Oh it's fine. Don't worry about. I have the same thought when I'm giving feedback. I hate to say bad things about the changes a fellow cubist put so much time into.

Quote from Zephyr259

From what I've read the forums seem to be a bit split on 'tog, I've ran him and cut him and ran him again to aid reanimator and he never sees play, doesn't even get drafted very often. As such i don't really have much experience with him but it just looks like he'll only be really big once. In the end with 4 slots in my cube I like Tezz 2 to support the artifact deck (pet deck of mine), Baleful Strix is just solid value and is an artifact, Finkel and Duskmantle Seer are just much more appealing my me and my group.

There is a split on 'tog, but I think it's awesome. I think it's the first or second best Dimir card. The thing about him is you don't need him to be really big. You need your opponent to not know how big you are willing to make him. Also, combo him with Upheaval or something similar for insanity. I'd run it over Strix.

Quote from Zephyr259

Again the 3 Naya "land matters" 1-drops seem to have their lovers and haters here, I have ~10 1-drop aggro dudes split between red and green which feels like it's enough. If this proves to not be the case then the Ape will likely return. Would you'd drop Kessig Wolf Run for the Ape? Not a lot of folks play the land but I like offering the spell-lands where possible.

Yes, I'd definitely run Kird Ape over Wolf-Run. I haven't run the numbers on how many 1-drops you need, but Kird Ape is one of the better ones. There are very, very few creatures that attack as a 2/3 on turn 2.

Quote from Zephyr259

It's just proved unpopular with my group, people draft it then look at it during deckbuilding and can't see what kinda pile would be good as often when you use it for a specific card then that card just ends up in the yard and building a pile to give you a specific card regardless of what the opponent chooses is actually pretty tricky. I've read some good things about Desertion so I thought I'd give it a try, I may well end up too difficult to keep the mana up but worth a test.

Does your group never use Gifts for raw card advantage? Just get your four best cards and let your opponent struggle to figure out what you really wanted. Or to pitch a fatty or two for reanimation? I ran Desertion and it was really disappointing. I hope it fares better for you.

Quote from Zephyr259

Wild Nacatl has the same pros and cons as Kird Ape in my view so it's cut for the time being to see if its necessary. Mongrel doesn't do enough in my opinion, discarding a card for +1/+1 isn't worth it unless you're exploiting the graveyard and although this mean your 2-drop can trade up etc the cost in cards just makes it unappealing in my view.

What I said for Kird Ape applies to Nacatl, only there's a small chance it can swing for 3 on turn 2. In my opinion, Mongrel does so much for 2 mana. As long as you have cards in hand, combat math is difficult for your opponent. He teams up nicely with Squee, Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, and others. He's an awesome reanimation enabler. His color changing ability can be surprising relevant (see Swords of X and Y).

Quote from Zephyr259

I felt that Deed should stay being an effective wrath so choice game down to Pulse and Vraska. Pulse is likely to be a 1-for-1 in my cube as tokens are varied and often trade off quickly, Vraska's WCS is a 1-for-1 that gains 2 life and she can be a whole lot better so I decided to keep her around for a bit more testing.

Pulse is far better than Vraska. You are forgetting that Pulse kills whatever you need dead two turns earlier than Vraska. Pulse is almost a Vindicate. Do you think there are too many Vindicates in cube?

Cheers,
rant

Quote from rantipole

There is a split on 'tog, but I think it's awesome. I think it's the first or second best Dimir card. The thing about him is you don't need him to be really big. You need your opponent to not know how big you are willing to make him. Also, combo him with Upheaval or something similar for insanity. I'd run it over Strix.

In my opinion, Mongrel does so much for 2 mana. As long as you have cards in hand, combat math is difficult for your opponent. He teams up nicely with Squee, Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, and others. He's an awesome reanimation enabler. His color changing ability can be surprising relevant (see Swords of X and Y).

Both these cards have similar "trade cards for a pump" ability. Mongrel may well come back in when I cut some of the cuter test cards at 3cc, i.e. Spawnwrithe. What I may do is build a test deck which includes 'tog and see how it plays out, Strix is just pure value that very few blue/black decks would turn down but in the end it is replaceable.

Quote from rantipole

Yes, I'd definitely run Kird Ape over Wolf-Run. I haven't run the numbers on how many 1-drops you need, but Kird Ape is one of the better ones. There are very, very few creatures that attack as a 2/3 on turn 2.

What I said for Kird Ape applies to Nacatl, only there's a small chance it can swing for 3 on turn 2.

I've ran wtwlf123's "aggro maths" on my cube (keep meaning to add it into the OP. Kird Ape and Loam Lion only contribute a small amount to the maths since they only fit in 1 deck out of the 4 possible 2-colour aggro combinations. The maths says I'm currently running enough to support aggro when half my cube or more is being drafted.

To be honest, I think you are probably right in saying I should cut the Wolf Run, it's been in since the start and I don't think it's done much at all. Good in theory but hasn't seemed to pan out.

If I do bring the Ape back in Nacatl will probably follow. Do you have any thoughts on Loam Lion?

Quote from rantipole

Does your group never use Gifts for raw card advantage? Just get your four best cards and let your opponent struggle to figure out what you really wanted. Or to pitch a fatty or two for reanimation? I ran Desertion and it was really disappointing. I hope it fares better for you.

I've noticed this weird effects a few times, you can start with a fine card then add a narrow or odd ability at which point the card becomes all about the ability and people forget that the card was already good enough and that the ability is just gravy.

A card that is effectively a double demonic tutor at instant speed is pretty good, I think we're focusing too much on the graveyard interactions. I tend to thick of tutors as ways to find answers (maybe due to playing a lot of EDH in the past?) so pro-active use of Gifts doesn't tend to occur to me. Looking at it this way it is really good. Desertion may well get shuffled over to my EDH cube soon.

Quote from rantipole

Pulse is far better than Vraska. You are forgetting that Pulse kills whatever you need dead two turns earlier than Vraska. Pulse is almost a Vindicate. Do you think there are too many Vindicates in cube?

Fair point, I'm probably just getting drawn in by the shiny card type here. Making this swap would free Vraska up for EDH of Gold cube too.

Funny how when you build a cube it looks fine, then after playtesting you find all these glitches and sub-par cards. After 2 or 3 iterations you end up with a solid core with kinda amorphous "edges" where a bunch of cards are "good enough" and the choice of which to include is what gives your cube its own flavour.

Thanks for the thoughts and discussion.

Fir draft after trying out Rant's suggestions above and my wife hit me with a Gifts Ungiven for Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Phantasmal Image, Sower of Temptation, Lingering Souls. I was a stompy Naya deck with some big guys out that I couldn't deal with if stolen or copied so had to give her Jace and Souls... :-( Fortunately, Jace didn't draw her into much helpful and I drew Flames of the Firebrand to help with the spirits.

Quote from Zephyr259

Fir draft after trying out Rant's suggestions above and my wife hit me with a Gifts Ungiven for Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Phantasmal Image, Sower of Temptation, Lingering Souls. I was a stompy Naya deck with some big guys out that I couldn't deal with if stolen or copied so had to give her Jace and Souls... :-( Fortunately, Jace didn't draw her into much helpful and I drew Flames of the Firebrand to help with the spirits.

Sick. That's why I love Gifts. I once Gift'ed for Academy Ruins, Volrath's Stronghold, Razormane Masticore, and Ring of Gix. That was fun. Gifting for three nasty lands and Crucible/Loam can be fun too.

Cheers,
rant