Stealing this stolen idea from the traditional cube guys. Instead of doing every day, I'll try and do it... uh... every 2 days. That sounds fair.
So What I'll do is hit random on magiccards.info until I run into a card I think one of us may be cubing (or a card I see in the peasant aggregate list on cubetutor, or a card I think to run but never do).
Basically, it'll give us something to talk about whenever. And since they are random, we can feel free to talk smack about them.
I especially encourage newer posters to post here. This thread has some overlap with the evaluate everything thread but I know that it may be a bit scary to post in there if you aren't sure about your opinions.
It's great. I suppose at 360 I could see using Read the Bones and not this, and Read is a stronger card for control/midrange, but the two-mana option is much better for aggressive decks. I'm not 100% for playing it in my most hyperaggressive (ones with a bunch of Carnophage-type dudes) black decks, but it's still a card I use in the vast, vast majority of decks that reliably make black mana.
And at risk of stating the obvious, this is 1000000 times better than Sign in Blood. Flexible mana cost is way, way more important than the 1% of times you'll use it as a Fireball for two damage.
First, I think that this is a great idea. The Peasant Forum has relatively little to talk about when there is not a new set being released.
I run 540 with both this and Read the Bones, I don't see WoTC printing anything more efficient than this for a black card draw spell (anything more efficient would be OP). To echo _I0, it would be best in a midrange/control build, although I don't like it in B/U control. Blue tends to have better card draw, but I'll play Wisper if my pool is lacking a Mulldrifter,Deep Analysis or Treasure Cruise.
Yeah, definitely outclassed in UB by blue options, but Mardu control has been a good, solid archetype in my Cube lately. Or something close to Mardu; Boros/Orzhov/Rakdos, occasionally splashing blue as well. Those decks get card advantage from 2-for-1's like ETB creature effects and sweepers, but having access to actual card draw from this really helps put the deck together.
I like Night's whisper a lot, probably one of my more favorite black draw spells, but I made a decision to cut all sorcery/instant black draw spells since I have creatures that do the drawing for me (i.e. corpse augur and vulturous aven). I think if I were to add a draw card black spell back it it would be this card. Read the bones may be more powerful, but drawing 2 extra cards a turn earlier or having 1 extra mana can be meaningful in many situations.
I run Read the Bones, but I am not sure. Lately I have been drawn towards card draw and library manipulation at CMC2 to help set up that third land drop.
Drawing cards is my most favorite thing to do in magic so I really want to cube this, but I just can't find room for it at 360. Maybe if I didn't heavily push reanimator, maybe if I cut something else like Vulturous Aven, maybe if I just ran less 2for1's in black in general, but I just feel like adding it is too much over the Read the Bones I'm currently using. Totally great card and I'm pretty sure you'd be wrong not to use it if your #1 goal in cube design was power maximization.
I run Read the Bones over this, not only because I happen to have plenty of copies of it on hand, but also because I think the Scry 2 makes it almost impossible not to get two relevant cards. I'm curious how you guys rank Read the Bones and Scrying Sheets along with Scrying Sheets, which has a bit more setup cost but also has a much higher ceiling along with instant speed.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Great card and a staple at 360 imo. Read the Bones is probably on par with it... more powerful effect, but 1 mana more. I'd simply run both... which I do..
In the few drafts I've gotten in so far with my Peasant cube, no one's taken up the challenge of drafting and building a reanimator deck, which people started doing as soon as I added it to my rare cube so I'm actually wondering if the payoff is there for reanimator at Peasant. It's such a fun archetype when it comes together in my rare cube that I'm really hoping it's good enough for Peasant too.
The most irritating thing about all of the reanimation auras is the ridiculously confusing wording on them. When I have a newer player asking me during the draft "What does this card do?!?", 9 times out of 10 it's Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, or Necromancy. It doesn't really help that they use some outdated keywords like "bury" and "discard", but the Oracle text on them is somehow even more confusing. WoTC finally figured out what they were doing and just started making their reanimator cards into sorceries, but the more modern reanimation sorceries all cost 4+ , so if you want to support reanimation in a faster cube environment and want any kind of redundancy you're stuck with these obnoxiously worded relics.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Animate Dead is super good and I would play it in basically any black deck. Getting access to both players best dead creature is rarely a bad thing at 2 mana. It's also best in class for reanimator decks while being totally fair in any deck. Wouldn't splash for it though.
Animate dead is a fantastic card. I love reanimator and gy decks. I very much support reanimator and I will pick up all of the 1-2-3 mana cost reanimate spells. This one of course is a staple and should probably be in everyones cube even if reanimator is not supported.
Besides talking about the card, can people also add why they do or do not play the card and what decks they would play the card in.
So, like stated above I support reanimator and gy matters, so this card is an auto include as it is one of the best reanimate spells. I would play it like noob said, in pretty much any black deck.
On the card, I think it's a staple, and probably the first reanimation effect I would add to a cube.
On the archetype, I also feel as if the value isn't quite there for "combo-reanimator". The awesome plays of reanimating something huge early isn't worth going all-in on I feel. I had the opportunity the other day in a UB deck where I had taken Necromancy and Animate dead elary, but I ended up passing Pelakka Wurm and putting Ulamog's Crusher in the sideboard, instead opting for a controlling deck with incidental self-mill and graveyard value as more of a value play.
About the wording: It may be that Eternal Masters has reanimator as an arhcetype, in which case some of these could get printed with Oracle wording.
The Graveborn version already has "proper" wording, but that just makes it drastically harder to read for most people compared to Beta or Revised or 4th.
I never thought of Animate dead as a staple, to be fair. huh.
I could understand if someone were to ask me for my opinion of a card like, uh, eternal witness or something. I guess there is a ceiling where the conversation may be "is this card too busted" but I'll try to avoid cards that are too obvious. Like Man o war.
Here's one I see every once in a while Trinket Mage
I really want to like this card, but the targets are far too few. I suppose if you still run Skullclamp or Sol ring it might be okay, but you aren't even guaranteed to draft those cards as they're top picks. So aside from those targets, the most popular ones would be Bonesplitter, Signets, Trusty Machete, Sylvok Lifestaff, Chronomaton (?). I'm not sure what other targets there are to warrant the inclusion of this card.
So What I'll do is hit random on magiccards.info until I run into a card I think one of us may be cubing (or a card I see in the peasant aggregate list on cubetutor, or a card I think to run but never do).
Basically, it'll give us something to talk about whenever. And since they are random, we can feel free to talk smack about them.
I especially encourage newer posters to post here. This thread has some overlap with the evaluate everything thread but I know that it may be a bit scary to post in there if you aren't sure about your opinions.
First card:
Night's whisper
Second Card
Animate Dead
I'm always vacillating on my opinion of this card. so it's a good place to start.
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
And at risk of stating the obvious, this is 1000000 times better than Sign in Blood. Flexible mana cost is way, way more important than the 1% of times you'll use it as a Fireball for two damage.
How many people run read the bones
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 run 540 with both this and Read the Bones, I don't see WoTC printing anything more efficient than this for a black card draw spell (anything more efficient would be OP). To echo _I0, it would be best in a midrange/control build, although I don't like it in B/U control. Blue tends to have better card draw, but I'll play Wisper if my pool is lacking a Mulldrifter,Deep Analysis or Treasure Cruise.
My 180 Peasant Cube on Cubetutor
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 run Read the Bones, but I am not sure. Lately I have been drawn towards card draw and library manipulation at CMC2 to help set up that third land drop.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
?
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Great card and a staple at 360 imo. Read the Bones is probably on par with it... more powerful effect, but 1 mana more. I'd simply run both... which I do..
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
Animate dead
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
The most irritating thing about all of the reanimation auras is the ridiculously confusing wording on them. When I have a newer player asking me during the draft "What does this card do?!?", 9 times out of 10 it's Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, or Necromancy. It doesn't really help that they use some outdated keywords like "bury" and "discard", but the Oracle text on them is somehow even more confusing. WoTC finally figured out what they were doing and just started making their reanimator cards into sorceries, but the more modern reanimation sorceries all cost 4+ , so if you want to support reanimation in a faster cube environment and want any kind of redundancy you're stuck with these obnoxiously worded relics.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Can we talk about... like... Dance of the Dead instead?
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Besides talking about the card, can people also add why they do or do not play the card and what decks they would play the card in.
So, like stated above I support reanimator and gy matters, so this card is an auto include as it is one of the best reanimate spells. I would play it like noob said, in pretty much any black deck.
My 180 Peasant Cube on Cubetutor
On the card, I think it's a staple, and probably the first reanimation effect I would add to a cube.
On the archetype, I also feel as if the value isn't quite there for "combo-reanimator". The awesome plays of reanimating something huge early isn't worth going all-in on I feel. I had the opportunity the other day in a UB deck where I had taken Necromancy and Animate dead elary, but I ended up passing Pelakka Wurm and putting Ulamog's Crusher in the sideboard, instead opting for a controlling deck with incidental self-mill and graveyard value as more of a value play.
About the wording: It may be that Eternal Masters has reanimator as an arhcetype, in which case some of these could get printed with Oracle wording.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
I could understand if someone were to ask me for my opinion of a card like, uh, eternal witness or something. I guess there is a ceiling where the conversation may be "is this card too busted" but I'll try to avoid cards that are too obvious. Like Man o war.
Here's one I see every once in a while
Trinket Mage
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
450 Unpowered Cube Cobra