Personally I still run both Aerial Responder and Flickerwisp since they're different cards that do different things.
My issue is not with them being in direct competition with one another for the "3 drop flyer slot", it's that I am trying to wean myself down to only one 1CC card per color at maximum.
I know, that's why I said what I said. If these were all 2W cards I'd probably play Rumor Gatherer as well, but since I try to limit cc cost cards in the 2-3 mana range as well I rather play cards that do different things than what is basically a weaker Mentor of the Meek. If I only wanted to run one of them I'd agree with Calibretto and play Flickerwisp.
Because CC or 1CC (and even 2CC) cards usually can't be played on curve with peasant cube mana bases unless you play a mono color deck. It's a bit of a trap if you have a three drop that can't be played before turn 4-5 on average.
This issue is a large part of why I vastly increased my fixing lands over the last year to 63 of my 512 card cube (12.3%).
Jumping from a 9/8 mana base to a 8/7 mana base with 2 duals helps a lot in getting those 1CC cards cast on turn 3. Presuming you have your 1CC card in hand and need 2 white sources in your remaining 8 cards, having 10 sources instead of 9 gets you to 67.7% from 60.7%.
I know another solution to this problem is to limit the 1CC cards compared to 2C cards, but having 10 colored sources in your mana base makes it about as likely to cast a 1CC drop on turn 3 (67.7%) as having 9 colored sources lets you cast a 2CC card on turn 4 (68.4%), so the benefits show up all over the mana curve.
I understand each of you are embracing an advanced mana base by either playing duplicates or rare lands, but playing 16/405 fixing lands (4.0%) or 20/430 (4.7%) is definitely going to hinder playing 1CC cards more than anything else.
I am running rare lands, but none of them are 5 color fixers. They really don't print any.
And I really dislike running multiple groups of 2 color fixers (since gold cards are useless for nearly 90% of drafters). Maybe I could consider running the shocklands, but I'd have to think about it. I'll consider ponying up the 5 dollars for a fabled passage. But it honestly is just a side-grade to Ash Barrens, offering the most minute differences in evaluation.
Double cost cards of different colors also push each other out in the deckbuilding process. It's difficult to go Vampire nighthawk into Whirler rogue. And it's practically foolish to include nighthawk and Flickerwisp in almost all manabases. Fixers that only fix a single color at a time (like ash barrens) don't alleviate this problem as well as duals/true-5C-lands do either, in case you have to make the choice of which color you're getting before you see 4 lands.
So excluding all but the most beneficial/cool 1CC cards is helpful for more than one issue.
//
Also, malone, while you're running 3x as many lands as I am, half of the difference is made up by duals. I know you didn't state that your fixing is three times as good as mine. but I feel like it should be said that by having to dip into duals to get your fixing to where you'd like you've injected a lot of air into your draft to get there. Even the tricolor lands only fix for 30% of 2-color combinations.
You're already running functional reprints by including both the new gates and the thriving lands. Since you're willing to do so, I would strongly suggest just duplicating the stronger fixing lands on your own rather than waiting for wizards to print them for you. On top of guild aligned fixers being dead for most drafters, the fact that they are dead for most other drafters also lets people just let them wheel in the draft process and not properly prioritize them.
Unrelated, I think your math is off, malone, but your point still stands more or less.
I used this website (https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric) and I get 76% odds of getting the lands you want in both situations, oddly enough. I am pretty sure I took the average of having 9 sources in 10 and 11 samples, and the average of having 10 sources in 9 and 10 samples.
The idea that playing dual-colored lands is a problem is not reflected in other cubes. Some of that may be the quality of the rare lands available, but the summer 2022 Vintage cube is playing 4 duals per color pair and 61/540 (11.3%) fixing lands overall. wtwlf123's Vintage Cube has 7 duals per color pair and 86/540 (15.9%) fixing lands. The current MTG Arena cube runs 5 duals and 62/550 (11.3%) for fixing lands.
When I watch people stream the Holiday 2022 Vintage Cube, I see original duals wheel and Triomes as 3rd-to-last picks. Is this a problem? I do not believe so. I would rather a pack's late picks be fixing lands that are likely very valuable to someone as opposed to mono-colored spells which are mildly valuable to many.
This brings me to two points.
First, fixing should be treated like archetype specific cards, where you need a base level to support drafting color pairs. No one bats an eye if Village Rites wheels or Satyr Wayfinder is 3rd-to-last pick because sometimes no one is drafting that archetype. And even then, cube designers want archetype-specific that might wheel because that helps to make archetypes viable to draft.
Second, the Lucky Paper article from this July came to the interesting conclusion that in cubes ranging from 2% to 19% fixing lands, the average number of "unplayables" per drafter was consistently around 7 to 8. Of those 37 relevant cards per drafter, would you rather have 2 lands and 35 spells or 6 lands and 31 spells? People being able to cast their spells easier is way higher priority for me than offering up extra filler spells.
My math was run off the idea of having your 1CC card already in hand and then needing 2 of 10 colored sources within the next 8 cards of a 39 card library. I also ran similar math with having a 2CC card and needing 2 of 9 colored sources from the next 9 cards of a 39 card library.
You might be right about the math. I wasn't accounting for one of the cards "in hand" being the 3 drop in question. I was just figuring out the odds of having 2 lands of the right type out of X cards. I'll try to remember that moving forward.
That analogy of treating 2 color lands similarly to niche playables is interesting. Having the duals wheel around to the appropriate drafter, thereby increasing the likelihood that someone gets a playable in the last couple of picks isn't bad. But if I could choose between lands being gimmes that wheel into the laps of the right player and the lands being high-value targets that you have to prioritize, I'd choose the latter every time.
And look, I respect Wtwlf. But I would say he and a lot of people at this for a long time do a couple of things in a traditional way that could be improved.
I know that's what people do. I just think it's silly.
It's not like how we're waiting for them to explore the design space of uncommon planeswalkers, or for them to make more reanimation targets. It's taking advantage of the completely arbitrary fact that llanowar and fyndhorn have different lore. I almost categorically can't get behind doing things based on something that feels arbitrary.
If I was making the rules for commander or some other singleton format, I might have a hard time distinguishing what counts as "functionally" different. But wizards forces themselves to make those kinds of judgment calls all the time whenever they change a design to avoid violating their policy around the reserved list. So I know it's doable.
I have a completely random question
If you took a random card from the mid-to-late game, what would make the card better: Basic landcycling 1, or Cycling R? (Well, whatever the color is)
I have a completely random question
If you took a random card from the mid-to-late game, what would make the card better: Basic landcycling 1, or Cycling R? (Well, whatever the color is)
I think about this sort of thing a lot. How much better does savannah lions get if it has cycling 1 than if it had... say... haste.
Basic landcycling 1 would even out games more and if you had enough of these cards you could possibly play more colors, but cycling is always good even if you get land flooded or for whatever reason don't need that high cmc creature in the mid to late game. Hard to answer what would be better.
Since Savannah Lions is a pure aggro card I believe that haste would be better than cycling. Aggro decks can be streamlined enough in peasant cubes that a faster, more powerful one drop is better than a one drop that allows you to spend mana for something you don't really want to spend mana on if everything works as planned. There is a reason why Goblin Guide is a staple in Modern burn decks even though it has a pretty severe downside.
I have a completely random question
If you took a random card from the mid-to-late game, what would make the card better: Basic landcycling 1, or Cycling R? (Well, whatever the color is)
I think about this sort of thing a lot. How much better does savannah lions get if it has cycling 1 than if it had... say... haste.
Basic landcycling is fantastic and has the higher ceiling early game (guaranteeing your land drop and fixing your mana for the rest of the game), but I find its usefulness peters out the further you get into a game (on turn seven, a land is usually the last thing I need). Cycling is decent early, assuming you have the right color mana, but it just gets better as you advance into the mid-game and have resources to cycle and cast what you draw into.
You mentioned a 5- and 6-drop as your fringe playables, and my first response is "great, reanimate them!" I'm not sure which form of cycling I would rather have added to these cards, but either one would make them much better cards, in my opinion. Maybe I can't afford the mana cost, maybe the creature is less relevant than an answer I am digging for. But having essentially two modes, one for cheap and one not, makes them a better pick.
Savannah Lions is on the opposite end of the spectrum - it's super cheap, so dropping it early game with haste would be amazing (and can still be useful in a finishing alpha strike). Late game, though, its body is likely to become irrelevant, but so is basic landcycling - I believe this would be the worst combo. Regular cycling could be good, though - play it early or cycle it late to find something more relevant. I'm less into pure aggro myself, but I might side with haste here simply because sometimes you just cycle into a dud or a land.
This maybe comes as an outdated question, but it is something I still haven't figured out. Is Sea Gate Oracle something like a peasant staple? I get it is cantrip on a body plus maybe a good roadblock (or it was when aggro didn't have so many cheap 3-power creatures). I'd like to know what's the current general opinion on it nowadays. Back in the day I cut it because I thought it was uninteresting but maybe I'm missing something.
I don't think it is a staple and I am not running it at 360, but I wouldn't find it odd to see in another 360 list. I think I cut it after Watcher for Tomorrow came out.
If I were to go to 450 it probably would be included.
Since Savannah Lions is a pure aggro card I believe that haste would be better than cycling. Aggro decks can be streamlined enough in peasant cubes that a faster, more powerful one drop is better than a one drop that allows you to spend mana for something you don't really want to spend mana on if everything works as planned.
But would a 2/1 with cycling make more decklists, even in our environment, since it has a role in more midrange decks?
I'm at 430 and it's always just on the outside looking in. But in consideration. Cloudkin seer and Sicarian infiltrator are tough competition. Even omenspeaker (Which I also don't run at the moment).
Speaking of Sicarian infiltrator, that card is actually insane, just in case someone hasn't tested it. I played it at 3, 5, 7, and 9 in one draft and was happy with it every time (especially at the higher numbers, obviously)
I find myself taking a serious look at de-powering my peasant cube even further (currently most of the 1-2 mana removal is de-powered).
In my testing, too many games come down to "bombs". Cards like battle screech, skinrender, staggershock and soulherder. These cards ask very little of you and offer extremely powerful effects.
I think if I want to give synergies a place to thrive and have archetypes that depend on a multitude of cards meshing well together, then I need to remove cards that offer the same magnitude of power as synergies, but packed into one card.
It's tough to cut such beloved cards, but I hope it will make room for some interesting archetype play.
This is something I kinda thought about in the past too. Specifically I cut all the unconditional removal that didn't ask for a steeper cost, such as Power Word Kill. I want all my black removal to have some target restriction or some higher price to pay for it. In the same fashion I also cut Swords to Plowshares. About Soulherder, I also thought about cutting it because it's either too fragile or too powerful. But since is the signpost card of a whole archetype I'm still letting it stay.
Something I did recently is axing aristocrats all together. I like the archetype a lot but if you get some pieces you just start interacting with your own board and pinging your opponent at the same time up to the point it gets non-interactive.
A long time ago, I made a commitment to have every card in my cube "feasibly" draftable over any other card by pack 3. That meant I had a lot of hard choices to make: If I include lightning bolt, how many other burn spells would honestly never compete with it? How many blue 5 drops (or 6 drops, even) get pushed out by Mind Control? How does a black 1 drop or a red 1 drop compete with Rakdos cackler? Etc
This process ended up getting rid of a lot of staples. (Control magic was replaced by binding grasp and domestication. Lightning bolt was kicked out, giving 2 drop burn spells an actual niche. Altogether, this made my cube extremely flat in power level.
To me, it's the best thing in the world, my cube. Synergies get to outshine individual cards. Decisions are much harder. Luck is less of a factor. The last time I drafted, "pack 3" came around and I was legitimately excited to see and first pick Grim initiate. Seeing such a mediocre card fill a crucial role and generate legitimate excitement out of me was really cool.
To a couple friends of mine, it actually makes things harder. Without clear "first picks", they get decision paralysis. Human weakness, I say.
When I started cubing, it was the novelty of playing with the best cards in magic that brought me in. Now that I'm as grizzled a veteran as it gets, I'm just interested in the deckbuilding and draft puzzle (while reducing the number of non-games, of course).
//
As for the exact cards mentioned, I still run all of them except skinrender. I could see why the two white cards are difficult to manage. White tokens has been strong for a really long time for me in particular, having won the few 6or8-man drafts I've managed to cobble together.
//
I also think I could see how aristocrats ends up playing solitaire. That's a good observation. I'll watch it.
Also, I've gotten a couple of DMs lately from posters and lurkers asking about their cubes or my cubes or whatnot.
I figured I should say to anyone who reads this: I am always open for being asked any questions. I might not be as plugged in as I was a half decade ago, but I love talking about this stuff to anyone, even if we've never spoken before.
I wish all archetypes could be equally hated. Or loved, but the former better reflects the mindset of the vocal portion of the player base. My 540ish Peasant Cube on Cubetutor
Is Boros Equipment finally ready to be a real thing? This is not my cube but using as a middle ground to this thought exercise, Top 400 2022 Average Peasant Cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1zmcd
Cards already played in the top 400 from the 2022 Average Peasant Cube that
are explicit enablers or interacts well with the equipment that comes with tokens:
Following up from my previous post, I've taken a look at reworking my cube from the ground up to be more fun.
My points of focus include:
- Broad and more loosely supported archetypes, typically present across 3 colors each rather than a single color pair
- Ensuring multicolor cards actually feel powerful and special. The cards should push you towards specific synergies/strategies rather than just being "strong card in these two colors"
- A continued deemphasis on removal
- Removal of "bomb" cards that are overcentralizing and swingy
- Fun 1.5 color cards that encourage color bleed without making mana-bases too difficult.
I haven't had a chance to test this new list, but I'm excited to.
I'm not dead! I just rarely post on here anymore. I still cube and my cube is up to date.
I had to swing into the forums and tell you that we drafted my cube on Friday and I got rofl stomped by Cement Shoes and Frenzied Fugue. That was a two card combo I didn't even expect. I also got Lust for War'd to death. These 3 cards are incredibly fun, so I recommend them to all of you!
Hope everyone is doing well and that Leelue isn't ripping you a new one too hard.
Not sure if this is worth a separate topic but Shadows over Innistrad Remastered, a arena only set has some interesting downshifts if you consider online only rarity changes:
After watching the Pro Tour Phyrexia I just want to come here and sell you Hidden Strings for peasant. Specially for untapping lands.
What's the expected play pattern for this? Cast it, tap down the blocker + untap one of the lands spent to cast it, attack and... untap the other land spent to cast this and... Idk? Zero mana tap a guy or two at sorcery speed is worse than snap, and I'm not exactly sure how to exploit the upside regularly.
Unrelated
What makes a card better:
Basic landcycling that costs a single color
or
specific landcycling (like forestcycling) that costs a single colorless?
What makes a card better:
Basic landcycling that costs a single color
or
specific landcycling (like forestcycling) that costs a single colorless?
I would imagine colourless but specific cycling is more preferable. If I'm UG and I've drawn only blue lands, 1 helps me fix for that missing forest. If it cost G it wouldn't help me at all. So colour-costing landcycling would help decks with several colours, but there would still be times the ability couldn't be activated. E.g. if I were playing Gxx, that coloured green cycler would more often help me get my splash lands, but I prefer the first type of consistency.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I wish all archetypes could be equally hated. Or loved, but the former better reflects the mindset of the vocal portion of the player base. My 540ish Peasant Cube on Cubetutor
If I'm UG and I've drawn only blue lands, 1 helps me fix for that missing forest. If it cost G it wouldn't help me at all.
But the same situation would be solved if you had a blue card with U basic landcycling.
And you'd have the inverted problem if you had two forests and a card with forestcyling.
I... think that the two choices are... equal? Maybe?
This issue is a large part of why I vastly increased my fixing lands over the last year to 63 of my 512 card cube (12.3%).
Jumping from a 9/8 mana base to a 8/7 mana base with 2 duals helps a lot in getting those 1CC cards cast on turn 3. Presuming you have your 1CC card in hand and need 2 white sources in your remaining 8 cards, having 10 sources instead of 9 gets you to 67.7% from 60.7%.
I know another solution to this problem is to limit the 1CC cards compared to 2C cards, but having 10 colored sources in your mana base makes it about as likely to cast a 1CC drop on turn 3 (67.7%) as having 9 colored sources lets you cast a 2CC card on turn 4 (68.4%), so the benefits show up all over the mana curve.
I understand each of you are embracing an advanced mana base by either playing duplicates or rare lands, but playing 16/405 fixing lands (4.0%) or 20/430 (4.7%) is definitely going to hinder playing 1CC cards more than anything else.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
And I really dislike running multiple groups of 2 color fixers (since gold cards are useless for nearly 90% of drafters). Maybe I could consider running the shocklands, but I'd have to think about it. I'll consider ponying up the 5 dollars for a fabled passage. But it honestly is just a side-grade to Ash Barrens, offering the most minute differences in evaluation.
Double cost cards of different colors also push each other out in the deckbuilding process. It's difficult to go Vampire nighthawk into Whirler rogue. And it's practically foolish to include nighthawk and Flickerwisp in almost all manabases. Fixers that only fix a single color at a time (like ash barrens) don't alleviate this problem as well as duals/true-5C-lands do either, in case you have to make the choice of which color you're getting before you see 4 lands.
So excluding all but the most beneficial/cool 1CC cards is helpful for more than one issue.
//
Also, malone, while you're running 3x as many lands as I am, half of the difference is made up by duals. I know you didn't state that your fixing is three times as good as mine. but I feel like it should be said that by having to dip into duals to get your fixing to where you'd like you've injected a lot of air into your draft to get there. Even the tricolor lands only fix for 30% of 2-color combinations.
You're already running functional reprints by including both the new gates and the thriving lands. Since you're willing to do so, I would strongly suggest just duplicating the stronger fixing lands on your own rather than waiting for wizards to print them for you. On top of guild aligned fixers being dead for most drafters, the fact that they are dead for most other drafters also lets people just let them wheel in the draft process and not properly prioritize them.
Unrelated, I think your math is off, malone, but your point still stands more or less.
I used this website (https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric) and I get 76% odds of getting the lands you want in both situations, oddly enough. I am pretty sure I took the average of having 9 sources in 10 and 11 samples, and the average of having 10 sources in 9 and 10 samples.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
When I watch people stream the Holiday 2022 Vintage Cube, I see original duals wheel and Triomes as 3rd-to-last picks. Is this a problem? I do not believe so. I would rather a pack's late picks be fixing lands that are likely very valuable to someone as opposed to mono-colored spells which are mildly valuable to many.
This brings me to two points.
First, fixing should be treated like archetype specific cards, where you need a base level to support drafting color pairs. No one bats an eye if Village Rites wheels or Satyr Wayfinder is 3rd-to-last pick because sometimes no one is drafting that archetype. And even then, cube designers want archetype-specific that might wheel because that helps to make archetypes viable to draft.
Second, the Lucky Paper article from this July came to the interesting conclusion that in cubes ranging from 2% to 19% fixing lands, the average number of "unplayables" per drafter was consistently around 7 to 8. Of those 37 relevant cards per drafter, would you rather have 2 lands and 35 spells or 6 lands and 31 spells? People being able to cast their spells easier is way higher priority for me than offering up extra filler spells.
Also, running "functional reprints" is how people work in singleton formats. People are going to run Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves and Elvish Mystic or Banishing Light/Oblivion Ring.
My math was run off the idea of having your 1CC card already in hand and then needing 2 of 10 colored sources within the next 8 cards of a 39 card library. I also ran similar math with having a 2CC card and needing 2 of 9 colored sources from the next 9 cards of a 39 card library.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
That analogy of treating 2 color lands similarly to niche playables is interesting. Having the duals wheel around to the appropriate drafter, thereby increasing the likelihood that someone gets a playable in the last couple of picks isn't bad. But if I could choose between lands being gimmes that wheel into the laps of the right player and the lands being high-value targets that you have to prioritize, I'd choose the latter every time.
And look, I respect Wtwlf. But I would say he and a lot of people at this for a long time do a couple of things in a traditional way that could be improved.
I know that's what people do. I just think it's silly.
It's not like how we're waiting for them to explore the design space of uncommon planeswalkers, or for them to make more reanimation targets. It's taking advantage of the completely arbitrary fact that llanowar and fyndhorn have different lore. I almost categorically can't get behind doing things based on something that feels arbitrary.
If I was making the rules for commander or some other singleton format, I might have a hard time distinguishing what counts as "functionally" different. But wizards forces themselves to make those kinds of judgment calls all the time whenever they change a design to avoid violating their policy around the reserved list. So I know it's doable.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
If you took a random card from the mid-to-late game, what would make the card better: Basic landcycling 1, or Cycling R? (Well, whatever the color is)
Stapled to a card just on the fringe of playability like... Indrik stomphowler or Sentinel of the eternal watch
I think about this sort of thing a lot. How much worse is savannah lions if it has cycling 1 than if it had... say... haste.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Basic landcycling 1 would even out games more and if you had enough of these cards you could possibly play more colors, but cycling is always good even if you get land flooded or for whatever reason don't need that high cmc creature in the mid to late game. Hard to answer what would be better.
Since Savannah Lions is a pure aggro card I believe that haste would be better than cycling. Aggro decks can be streamlined enough in peasant cubes that a faster, more powerful one drop is better than a one drop that allows you to spend mana for something you don't really want to spend mana on if everything works as planned. There is a reason why Goblin Guide is a staple in Modern burn decks even though it has a pretty severe downside.
My Old School Battlebox
My Premodern Battlebox
You mentioned a 5- and 6-drop as your fringe playables, and my first response is "great, reanimate them!" I'm not sure which form of cycling I would rather have added to these cards, but either one would make them much better cards, in my opinion. Maybe I can't afford the mana cost, maybe the creature is less relevant than an answer I am digging for. But having essentially two modes, one for cheap and one not, makes them a better pick.
Savannah Lions is on the opposite end of the spectrum - it's super cheap, so dropping it early game with haste would be amazing (and can still be useful in a finishing alpha strike). Late game, though, its body is likely to become irrelevant, but so is basic landcycling - I believe this would be the worst combo. Regular cycling could be good, though - play it early or cycle it late to find something more relevant. I'm less into pure aggro myself, but I might side with haste here simply because sometimes you just cycle into a dud or a land.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
(360, Peasant, Unpowered)
If I were to go to 450 it probably would be included.
My C/Ube on Cube Cobra
But would a 2/1 with cycling make more decklists, even in our environment, since it has a role in more midrange decks?
I'm at 430 and it's always just on the outside looking in. But in consideration. Cloudkin seer and Sicarian infiltrator are tough competition. Even omenspeaker (Which I also don't run at the moment).
Speaking of Sicarian infiltrator, that card is actually insane, just in case someone hasn't tested it. I played it at 3, 5, 7, and 9 in one draft and was happy with it every time (especially at the higher numbers, obviously)
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
In my testing, too many games come down to "bombs". Cards like battle screech, skinrender, staggershock and soulherder. These cards ask very little of you and offer extremely powerful effects.
I think if I want to give synergies a place to thrive and have archetypes that depend on a multitude of cards meshing well together, then I need to remove cards that offer the same magnitude of power as synergies, but packed into one card.
It's tough to cut such beloved cards, but I hope it will make room for some interesting archetype play.
Something I did recently is axing aristocrats all together. I like the archetype a lot but if you get some pieces you just start interacting with your own board and pinging your opponent at the same time up to the point it gets non-interactive.
(360, Peasant, Unpowered)
This process ended up getting rid of a lot of staples. (Control magic was replaced by binding grasp and domestication. Lightning bolt was kicked out, giving 2 drop burn spells an actual niche. Altogether, this made my cube extremely flat in power level.
To me, it's the best thing in the world, my cube. Synergies get to outshine individual cards. Decisions are much harder. Luck is less of a factor. The last time I drafted, "pack 3" came around and I was legitimately excited to see and first pick Grim initiate. Seeing such a mediocre card fill a crucial role and generate legitimate excitement out of me was really cool.
To a couple friends of mine, it actually makes things harder. Without clear "first picks", they get decision paralysis. Human weakness, I say.
When I started cubing, it was the novelty of playing with the best cards in magic that brought me in. Now that I'm as grizzled a veteran as it gets, I'm just interested in the deckbuilding and draft puzzle (while reducing the number of non-games, of course).
//
As for the exact cards mentioned, I still run all of them except skinrender. I could see why the two white cards are difficult to manage. White tokens has been strong for a really long time for me in particular, having won the few 6or8-man drafts I've managed to cobble together.
//
I also think I could see how aristocrats ends up playing solitaire. That's a good observation. I'll watch it.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I figured I should say to anyone who reads this: I am always open for being asked any questions. I might not be as plugged in as I was a half decade ago, but I love talking about this stuff to anyone, even if we've never spoken before.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I cast Peek... resolves?
My 540ish Peasant Cube on Cubetutor
Cards already played in the top 400 from the 2022 Average Peasant Cube that
are explicit enablers or interacts well with the equipment that comes with tokens:
Barbed Spike, Citizen's Crowbar, Greatsword of Tyr, Gryff's Boon, Seeker of the Way,
Kor Skyfisher, Flickerwisp, Mentor of the Meek, Glimmerpoint Stag, Intangible Virtue, Prava of the Steel Legion.
Rabbit Battery,Dragon's Rage Channeler, Monastery Swiftspear, Heartfire Immolator, Anax, Hardened in the Forge, Gut, True Soul Zealot (card's busted either way but it's cool that interacts well)
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
Bonesplitter, Trusty Machete, Lightning Greaves, Mask of Memory, Mortarpod, Grafted Wargear, Heirloom Blade, Loxodon Warhammer
Now cards that could fit in with this support and their respective replacement in the top 400 Average Peasant Cube:
Danitha Capashen, Paragon > Mage's Attendant also interacting with Ossification
Ancestral Blade > Accorder Paladin
Plate Armor >Oketra's Monument probably a hot take
Hexgold Hoverwings > Master Splicer blink has already all the support it needs. The equipment itself giving flying and the +1/+0 for other creatures are probably enough to be a 3/2 flying for four.
Fireblade Charger > Frenzied Goblin
Simian Sling > Twinferno Izzet is already plenty supported
Hexgold Halberd > Stormblood Berserker
Barbed Batterfist > Rimrock Knight
Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith > Goblin Heelcutter
Valduk, Keeper of the Flame > Guttersnipe. Valduk starts being a real threat with X equipments and auras in the cube and Izzet is already plenty supported
Not going to suggest explicit swaps for gold cards since everybody have different numbers in their gold sections.
Baird, Argivian Recruiter
Reyav, Master Smith
Bladehold War-Whip
Bruenor Battlehammer I don't care that the rules says this don't interacts with Reconfigure, yes it does end of storie.
Nahiri, Storm of Stone
Batterbone i do think more people should play this, good enough equipment and a great way to keep green players into the game
What's funny is I can't tell if you're kidding or if you're serious. We've "known each other" for so long either is possible
Asking to peek at our secrets? How rude! But I guess we all walk into a mental misstep from time to time. I forgive you.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
My points of focus include:
- Broad and more loosely supported archetypes, typically present across 3 colors each rather than a single color pair
- Ensuring multicolor cards actually feel powerful and special. The cards should push you towards specific synergies/strategies rather than just being "strong card in these two colors"
- A continued deemphasis on removal
- Removal of "bomb" cards that are overcentralizing and swingy
- Fun 1.5 color cards that encourage color bleed without making mana-bases too difficult.
I haven't had a chance to test this new list, but I'm excited to.
Cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/mimikyube
(360, Peasant, Unpowered)
I'm not dead! I just rarely post on here anymore. I still cube and my cube is up to date.
I had to swing into the forums and tell you that we drafted my cube on Friday and I got rofl stomped by Cement Shoes and Frenzied Fugue. That was a two card combo I didn't even expect. I also got Lust for War'd to death. These 3 cards are incredibly fun, so I recommend them to all of you!
Hope everyone is doing well and that Leelue isn't ripping you a new one too hard.
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
My C/Ube on Cube Cobra
What's the expected play pattern for this? Cast it, tap down the blocker + untap one of the lands spent to cast it, attack and... untap the other land spent to cast this and... Idk? Zero mana tap a guy or two at sorcery speed is worse than snap, and I'm not exactly sure how to exploit the upside regularly.
I've gone soft in my old age, I think. For shame.
Has anyone else tried cement shoes?
I'm happy to have Imprisoned in the moon and Stromkirk occultist\
//
Unrelated
What makes a card better:
Basic landcycling that costs a single color
or
specific landcycling (like forestcycling) that costs a single colorless?
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I would imagine colourless but specific cycling is more preferable. If I'm UG and I've drawn only blue lands, 1 helps me fix for that missing forest. If it cost G it wouldn't help me at all. So colour-costing landcycling would help decks with several colours, but there would still be times the ability couldn't be activated. E.g. if I were playing Gxx, that coloured green cycler would more often help me get my splash lands, but I prefer the first type of consistency.
My 540ish Peasant Cube on Cubetutor
But the same situation would be solved if you had a blue card with U basic landcycling.
And you'd have the inverted problem if you had two forests and a card with forestcyling.
I... think that the two choices are... equal? Maybe?
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article