Rakdos isn't even the section that you should be weighing. Since redcap and angrath aren't color heavy enough to really restrict their usage, all red and black decks should be part of the decision.
My Red is curve out aggro and my black is aristocraty :/... I mean I could also cut rakdos cackler but I like having two power 1 drops in both colours.
What does your Rakdos section look like, then? At 360 I'm running Rakdos Cackler, Murderous Redcap, and Bituminous Blast. Cackler helps me support aggro in both colors. Bit Blast is an honorary Grixis card, honestly, but does occasionally find itself in a midrange shell. It signposts that Rakdos isn't just an aggro color pair. Redcap would be my cut for Angrath if I were to include him, but I think I like what Redcap brings for both colors more than Angrath. A Golgari or Izzet deck would rather have Redcap in most cases where having a hybrid cost matters. And in actual Rakdos decks, it's not an embarrassing curve topper for aggro and fits great into Artistocrats shells. I think Angrath is good, but I don't feel he's as versatile as Redcap and not as many decks will want him.
If that question was directed at me, then redcap isnt in my rakdos section. I think it's inappropriate, for multiple reasons, to count it as a gold card when that serves to buff the other red and black guilds at rakdos' expense.
And yes, ultimately I agree with Cali that Redcap is excellent and fits in everything. I would run it over angrath, but thankfully I dont have to choose between them because of how many hybrids I can play around with now.
Leelue, I'm curious, I've been adopting a similar strategy for accounting for hybrids as you do in your cube, and I've been having trouble balancing my colors with the addition of WAR. Before the set, my hybrid section looked like this:
Which wasn't totally balanced (4W, 4U, 4B, 5R, 3G), but was close enough that I figured it was fine since I was relatively happy with each individual card.
Now with WAR, I'm trying to find space for:
They might not each ultimately make the cut, but I think they are all much more interesting cards than the other hybrids I'm running, and potentially powerful as well. But the color balance gets thrown even more out of whack when I slot them in - maybe in part because I'm more willing to cut some of the non-finks non-redcap hybrids more than I'm willing to cut the blue signets, but here's where my hybrid section is at now:
Which has the color balance at 5U, 3W, 3B, 6R, 3G, obviously tilted towards blue and red. But I just like the blue and red cards more? Maybe I'll end up cutting some of the walkers if they don't play well, but the other hybrid cards don't end up slotting that well to replace them anyway since a lot of them were red or blue also, especially when the walker I'm most certain will stay is Saheeli.
You don't really need to balance those hybrids, unless you want to. Nobody is actually going to notice during drafting if one color pair has one or two more cards available than others. Granted, it's not that easy to just let those things go (not sure if I would myself), but nothing bad is going to happen if you do just keep the cards because you like them.
So......... ultimately it doesnt matter all that much if you balance it perfectly. Like guitarspider said, nobody will ever notice if you add a new card with no replacement.
But nobody would ever notice if you drop an additional monoblue card in either. But it still seems wrong.
It's a lot like playing a 61 card deck in that way. There is a worst card to cut somewhere, right?
/
I havent really theorycrafted the effects of a heavily skewed hybrid section. Like, how much are boros/gruul/izzet/orzhov/golgari/dimir decks affected by having a dozen murderous redcaps replacing the six worst black and the six worst red cards? Those red and black guilds do go up in power, but the amount of gains they make is actually tempered by how many drafters you're competing with.
I.e. it's much easier to benefit from having a bunch extra playables when youre doing a sealed than it is when your monoblack murderous redcaps are being sniped by monored players at an 8-man.
So... it's complicated.
But ultimately, until power levels become a concern, you want to play more good cards instead of pack filler. So don't worry about skewing the hybrid section a little more.
Yeah I mean, I'm already sort of OK with having the slight imbalance, I guess I was just hoping I could have it both ways haha, like if y'all had any suggestions for hybrid/hybrid-ish cards I was overlooking that I could slot in to balance it a bit more.
Yeah I mean, I'm already sort of OK with having the slight imbalance, I guess I was just hoping I could have it both ways haha, like if y'all had any suggestions for hybrid/hybrid-ish cards I was overlooking that I could slot in to balance it a bit more.
The original Ravnica guildmage cycle has some very powerful cards, but they're a bit odd because the abilities each cost single-colored mana and are often of very different power levels
Azorius Guildmage is the best by far, but is used for its white ability about 95% of the time -- unlike, say, Dovin, it's almost unplayable in mono-U or Izzet, Simic etc.
My Red is curve out aggro and my black is aristocraty :/... I mean I could also cut rakdos cackler but I like having two power 1 drops in both colours.
play angrath and cackler as red cards, and redcap as a black card then. easy.
Revised (or older) Lightning Bolt reads like it hits planeswalkers
Just for you, I'm going to trawl through my 360 and see exactly how many cards are affected by this.
Let's see how many other cards there are besides Lightning Bolt before I totally freak out (though I suspect it's probably most red spells)...
But lightning bolt does hit planeswalkers...
I know, but it's not literally printed on the card (at least, not on the copy in my cube). Mine is set up for kids to play with, so I like the wording to be spot on. Call me picky...
-- unlike, say, Dovin, it's almost unplayable in mono-U or Izzet, Simic etc.
Please elaborate. I've not played with Dovin, Hand of Control, but I really like the looks of it. What makes you say it's unplayable in these combinations? I recently drafted a mono-blue deck in my cube, and I feel like Dovin would be great in it.
-- unlike, say, Dovin, it's almost unplayable in mono-U or Izzet, Simic etc.
Please elaborate. I've not played with Dovin, Hand of Control, but I really like the looks of it. What makes you say it's unplayable in these combinations? I recently drafted a mono-blue deck in my cube, and I feel like Dovin would be great in it.
Not to speak for _i0, but I believe this was referring to Azorius Guildmage, which is a hybrid card that's almost exclusively playable in it's respective colors. Dovin, on the other hand, is a hybrid card that's playable in a multitude of color pairs. At 360 I only have room for three guild cards. I chose Dovin as my third card (behind Migratory Route and Reflector Mage) because my group tends to lean more toward playing UW control decks rather than UW midrange (Soulherder) or UW Flyers (Empyrean Eagle).
Revised (or older) Lightning Bolt reads like it hits planeswalkers
i0, I promised I was actually going to go and see how many cards in my cube got stuffed up by the templating before I totally freaked out about adding planeswalkers.
Well, it's taken me six months, but...
There are fifteen cards in my cube that won't read like they can hit planeswalkers. Of these, I believe about twelve of them are not available in any sort of printing that says "any target".
Looking at the planeswalkers I would want to add, there were really only two potential home-runs - Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter and Jaya, Venerated Firemage. In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle to bork 12-15 cards up just to fit two more into the cube. Maybe once decent uncommon planeswalkers hit a critical mass for me...
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And yes, ultimately I agree with Cali that Redcap is excellent and fits in everything. I would run it over angrath, but thankfully I dont have to choose between them because of how many hybrids I can play around with now.
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
Which wasn't totally balanced (4W, 4U, 4B, 5R, 3G), but was close enough that I figured it was fine since I was relatively happy with each individual card.
Now with WAR, I'm trying to find space for:
They might not each ultimately make the cut, but I think they are all much more interesting cards than the other hybrids I'm running, and potentially powerful as well. But the color balance gets thrown even more out of whack when I slot them in - maybe in part because I'm more willing to cut some of the non-finks non-redcap hybrids more than I'm willing to cut the blue signets, but here's where my hybrid section is at now:
Which has the color balance at 5U, 3W, 3B, 6R, 3G, obviously tilted towards blue and red. But I just like the blue and red cards more? Maybe I'll end up cutting some of the walkers if they don't play well, but the other hybrid cards don't end up slotting that well to replace them anyway since a lot of them were red or blue also, especially when the walker I'm most certain will stay is Saheeli.
But nobody would ever notice if you drop an additional monoblue card in either. But it still seems wrong.
It's a lot like playing a 61 card deck in that way. There is a worst card to cut somewhere, right?
/
I havent really theorycrafted the effects of a heavily skewed hybrid section. Like, how much are boros/gruul/izzet/orzhov/golgari/dimir decks affected by having a dozen murderous redcaps replacing the six worst black and the six worst red cards? Those red and black guilds do go up in power, but the amount of gains they make is actually tempered by how many drafters you're competing with.
I.e. it's much easier to benefit from having a bunch extra playables when youre doing a sealed than it is when your monoblack murderous redcaps are being sniped by monored players at an 8-man.
So... it's complicated.
But ultimately, until power levels become a concern, you want to play more good cards instead of pack filler. So don't worry about skewing the hybrid section a little more.
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 added Snakeform to even out my hybrid section
Azorius Guildmage is the best by far, but is used for its white ability about 95% of the time -- unlike, say, Dovin, it's almost unplayable in mono-U or Izzet, Simic etc.
I also play Gruul Guildmage (mostly green), Rakdos Guildmage (mostly black), and Dimir Guildmage (mostly blue)
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
play angrath and cackler as red cards, and redcap as a black card then. easy.
I know, but it's not literally printed on the card (at least, not on the copy in my cube). Mine is set up for kids to play with, so I like the wording to be spot on. Call me picky...
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Please elaborate. I've not played with Dovin, Hand of Control, but I really like the looks of it. What makes you say it's unplayable in these combinations? I recently drafted a mono-blue deck in my cube, and I feel like Dovin would be great in it.
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Not to speak for _i0, but I believe this was referring to Azorius Guildmage, which is a hybrid card that's almost exclusively playable in it's respective colors. Dovin, on the other hand, is a hybrid card that's playable in a multitude of color pairs. At 360 I only have room for three guild cards. I chose Dovin as my third card (behind Migratory Route and Reflector Mage) because my group tends to lean more toward playing UW control decks rather than UW midrange (Soulherder) or UW Flyers (Empyrean Eagle).
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i0, I promised I was actually going to go and see how many cards in my cube got stuffed up by the templating before I totally freaked out about adding planeswalkers.
Well, it's taken me six months, but...
There are fifteen cards in my cube that won't read like they can hit planeswalkers. Of these, I believe about twelve of them are not available in any sort of printing that says "any target".
Looking at the planeswalkers I would want to add, there were really only two potential home-runs - Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter and Jaya, Venerated Firemage. In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle to bork 12-15 cards up just to fit two more into the cube. Maybe once decent uncommon planeswalkers hit a critical mass for me...
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor