I *love* Savra, but she's hard to support. If you open her early you can try to force it, not get the pieces you need, and be down a pick. If you open her late and you don't happen to have the pieces, she's a dead card.
It's not like combo pieces in powered cubes that are good on their own, because 4 mana for a 2/2 doesn't cut the mustard even in Ravnica.
And then once you get the deck built, she still takes a lot of time/effort to set up the engine.
Sarva got the axe from my old rav sim too. There's just an embarrassment of riches in golgari's rares, between the 3 sets that supported the guild (Rav, RtR, and DGM).
You had a chance to try out the Chant a few times yet? I'm tempted to make space for it in my cube, but I'm also wondering about what support cards need to go with it.
After checking out this cube and Naturax's, I'm curious why neither runs Savra? I find her to be excellent creature control against my playgroup.
I agree with what others posted. Savra used to be in the list, but it quickly got cut after being outclassed by almost everything at the 4cc slot. She would only go into 1 specific deck if you were lucky enough to get enough sacrifice effects. And even then, drawing and keeping those sacrifice effects on the board was 1 too many hoops to jump through for her to be good.
You had a chance to try out the Chant a few times yet? I'm tempted to make space for it in my cube, but I'm also wondering about what support cards need to go with it.
I really like it so far, mostly because I like pushing the reanimator theme. It's obviously vulnerable if paired against the mill deck, but it's all part of the game. (It's also another noncreature target for Obzedat's Aid to go along with Debtors' Knell for the Junk Reanimator deck.)
The main support card is the one I posted above: Loaming Shaman.
It's anti-mill, it lets you filter your graveyard, and even simply recycling your precious reanimator cards always feels worth it.
I've also recently added Blazing Archon just for another fat target. Not sure if he's too good or not yet. Seems fine. I wanted another reanimator target, but I also wanted some more support for the slow, planeswalker control decks to really lock down the game.
Apologies for the necro bump, but with Guilds of Ravnica about to be released, I just wanted to post some early thoughts before the first set in this 3rd Ravnica Block is released:
Mentor - This is going to be the 5th Ravnica mechanic featuring +1/+1 counters, following Bloodthirst, Graft, Scavenge, and Evolve. Plenty of supporting cards between the previous 2 Ravnica Blocks that support +1/+1 counter strategies, including Doubling Season.
Guildgates - Extremely happy with continued guildgate support in Guilds of Ravnica. My current cube has 4x of every guildgate (and zero shocklands). I see no reason to change this set up when my updated cube is complete. And I will probably add 4x Gateway Plaza as an 11th 4x gate.
Masterpiece Planeswalkers - I'm ready to go all-in on the new mythic/masterpiece planeswalkers that have been announced and will be released in early October. And when I say all-in that on the new walkers, this includes letting the old walkers go. Jace, Architect of Thought, Vraska the Unseen, Domri Rade, Gideon, Champion of Justice, and Ral Zarek are all fine cards, but none of them are essential to the cube, mechanically speaking. I like the idea of having consistent full-art masterpiece walkers and if 8 more walkers are introduced in the next set, I'll be looking to make some cuts anyway. Love the masterpieces for this cube.
Token Clone - I hope they print another card somewhere in the block that has a similar effect to Followed Footsteps, Stolen Identity, and Progenitor Mimic where a creature clone token is created. This effect is very fun with paired with the Populate Selesnya mechanic. Add in Doubling Season for double the fun.
Speculation: Given that Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast are part of the set, I'm speculating that artifacts will be a major theme in the 3rd Guilds of Ravnica set. Possibly a return of colored artifacts.
Anyway, I'll post updates to this thread as the new sets are released. (And I'll update the images that are no longer loading in the OP.) I'm really happy Wizards of the Coast decided to return to return to Ravnica. I already have a complete set of Guilds of Ravnica pre-ordered and will buy a set of masterpiece walkers day 1. Please click link in my signature if you want to test draft my current Ravnica + Return to Ravnica Cube.
I received my Guilds of Ravnica set in the mail a couple days ago. I was able to grab a Mythic Edition box at MSRP and that should be arriving next week. Also, I pre-ordered a set of Ravnica Guild Kits which come out of November 2nd. I really like their selection of legendary creatures and I've decided to ONLY use legendary creatures with the new legendary creature border. This also means I'll have 32 of each incredible looking Ravnica-styled basic lands for the cube. And each guild kit comes with 5 double-sided tokens. For me, this was an instant pre-order.
I'm condensing the guild card count to 20 per guild and after the 3rd set is released, I'm likely going to increase the mono-colored cards to 30 per color. Here are my 20 card lists for Selesnya, Dimir, Izzet, Golgari, and Boros:
Boros is all about early drop backed up with direct damage + life gain spells.
Except for Mirko Vosk and Consuming Aberration (which can mill opponents on their own), there is finally a large enough Dimir card pool to drop the mill cards from the cube. It was just never good enough when a major theme of the cube in general are reanimator and other graveyard strategies.
The undergrowth mechanic looks great for Golgari. It looks like you can draft a value based graveyard deck instead of simply a big stuff + reanimator spells.
I packed Izzet with cards that care about instant & sorcery spells. WotC was clearly pushing this hard in Return to Ravnica and Guilds of Ravnica (more than original Ravnica). There may be changes to this in the future, but I'm going with it for now.
Selesnya easily is the guild with the highest density of quality cards among the first 5 guilds. I feel like I could have easily gone up to 30 cards while others like Dimir and Izzet were a struggle to reach 20.
More Notes:
I'm still choosing NOT to include any shocklands. With 4x guildgates and cards that care about guildgate, I find guildgates are just better picks.
Like I said at the top, I'm really happy with which legendaries they decided to include in the Guild Kits. Every legendary will have the new border. They look great and it works well with Price of Fame, Bounty Agent, and multiple clone effects.
Depending on what happens with the 3rd set, I'm planning on these card counts:
200 guild cards (20 per guild)
150 mono-colored cards (30 per color)
40 guildgates
10 other (Maze's End, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, a few tri-colored split cards, etc.)
------------------------------
400 TOTAL
It's not like combo pieces in powered cubes that are good on their own, because 4 mana for a 2/2 doesn't cut the mustard even in Ravnica.
And then once you get the deck built, she still takes a lot of time/effort to set up the engine.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
I agree with what others posted. Savra used to be in the list, but it quickly got cut after being outclassed by almost everything at the 4cc slot. She would only go into 1 specific deck if you were lucky enough to get enough sacrifice effects. And even then, drawing and keeping those sacrifice effects on the board was 1 too many hoops to jump through for her to be good.
I really like it so far, mostly because I like pushing the reanimator theme. It's obviously vulnerable if paired against the mill deck, but it's all part of the game. (It's also another noncreature target for Obzedat's Aid to go along with Debtors' Knell for the Junk Reanimator deck.)
The main support card is the one I posted above: Loaming Shaman.
It's anti-mill, it lets you filter your graveyard, and even simply recycling your precious reanimator cards always feels worth it.
I've also recently added Blazing Archon just for another fat target. Not sure if he's too good or not yet. Seems fine. I wanted another reanimator target, but I also wanted some more support for the slow, planeswalker control decks to really lock down the game.
Thread | Draft
Apologies for the necro bump, but with Guilds of Ravnica about to be released, I just wanted to post some early thoughts before the first set in this 3rd Ravnica Block is released:
Speculation: Given that Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast are part of the set, I'm speculating that artifacts will be a major theme in the 3rd Guilds of Ravnica set. Possibly a return of colored artifacts.
Anyway, I'll post updates to this thread as the new sets are released. (And I'll update the images that are no longer loading in the OP.) I'm really happy Wizards of the Coast decided to return to return to Ravnica. I already have a complete set of Guilds of Ravnica pre-ordered and will buy a set of masterpiece walkers day 1. Please click link in my signature if you want to test draft my current Ravnica + Return to Ravnica Cube.
Thread | Draft
I'm condensing the guild card count to 20 per guild and after the 3rd set is released, I'm likely going to increase the mono-colored cards to 30 per color. Here are my 20 card lists for Selesnya, Dimir, Izzet, Golgari, and Boros:
1 Boros Guildmage
1 Swiftblade Vindicator
1 Boros Reckoner
1 Skyknight Legionnaire
1 Tajic, Legion's Edge
1 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
1 Firemane Avenger
1 Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Razia, Boros Archangel
1 Boros Charm
1 Lightning Helix
1 Arrows of Justice
1 Warleader's Helix
1 Integrity // Intervention
Sorcery
1 Deafening Clarion
1 Assemble the Legion
Artifact
1 Boros Signet
1 Boros Locket
1 Sunforger
1 Dimir Guildmage
1 Dimir Infiltrator
1 House Guildmage
1 Lazav, the Multifarious
1 Nightveil Specter
1 Whisper Agent
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
1 Nightveil Predator
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
1 Dimir Charm
1 Clutch of the Undercity
1 Far // Away
Sorcery
1 Consult the Necrosages
1 Notion Rain
1 Call of the Nightwing
1 Connive // Concoct
1 Dimir Signet
1 Dimir Locket
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
Creature
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Glowspore Shaman
1 Golgari Guildmage
1 Korozda Guildmage
1 Pitiless Gorgon
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Corpsejack Menace
1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
1 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed
1 Sisters of Stone Death
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Grisly Salvage
1 Putrefy
Sorcery
1 Vigor Mortis
Enchantment
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Golgari Signet
1 Golgari Locket
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
Creature
1 Frostburn Weird
1 Izzet Guildmage
1 Piston-Fist Cyclops
1 Wee Dragonauts
1 Crackling Drake
1 Tibor and Lumia
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Izzet Charm
1 Electrolyze
1 Ionize
1 Hypothesizzle
1 Thoughtflare
1 Turn // Burn
1 Expansion // Explosion
1 Thousand-Year Storm
Artifact
1 Izzet Signet
1 Izzet Locket
1 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
1 Selesnya Evangel
1 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Trostani Discordant
1 Armada Wurm
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Trostani's Summoner
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Advent of the Wurm
1 March of the Multitudes
1 Assure // Assemble
Sorcery
1 Call of the Conclave
Enchantment
1 Unflinching Courage
1 Collective Blessing
1 Selesnya Signet
Land
1 Grove of the Guardian
Notes:
More Notes:
Depending on what happens with the 3rd set, I'm planning on these card counts:
200 guild cards (20 per guild)
150 mono-colored cards (30 per color)
40 guildgates
10 other (Maze's End, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, a few tri-colored split cards, etc.)
------------------------------
400 TOTAL
Thread | Draft