This thread amuses me. I have a powered cube, but it's all proxies, so zero value. I do however, have a peasant cube made of real cards (at a total cost of ~$300ish... I skipped all the absurd inclusions such as mana drain, library of alexandria, and imperial recruiter). Top 5 are probably, in no particular order:
Something like Nether Void or Moat would take a much larger hit. Something like Gaea's Cradle would probably be on par with FoW/Wasteland as far as drops go.
Even then the old ones wouldn't drop much. I mean, city of brass has 9 printings and there are a bazillion of them. You can get a playset for ten bucks. It sees pretty minimal use competitive formats. Oh, you want an Arabian Nights copy for your pimped-out EDH deck? That'll be $100, and by the way, it's a bit beat up.
Reprint Nether Void and new copies will be a hell of a lot cheaper than old ones, but the old ones won't drop much.
I also enjoy discussing about tweaking with splashes. As it has been said, BW itself has been largely covered in the other 70 pages. Whether BWr is better or not, this can only be answered by actually playing it. For the next month I will be trying the red splash and see the results for myself. The list I am playing is with 4 lilis -going with just 8 generators (plus sorin) seems weird, but I like to take a control stand on tokens.
There are a few things I am quite excited about a red splash. First, of course, is Lightning Bolt -another 1cmc removal will make our deck much more resilient in the first 3 turns. I'm also looking forward to the SB options. Being able to play Engineered explosives for 3 is definitely an improvement; and another SB card that I will be trying is Anger of the Gods. For the people who play Anger, is it hard to get RR on the third turn? Also, would you advice playing Graven Cairns?
I am also going for the red splash, though no lili. Just took this to a 3-1 finish at FNM at a fairly competitive shop. Opponents were on BW Death and Taxes, Dredge (bridge/gargadon variant), Merfolk, Naya Burn. Would have been 4-0, but I made a misplay that cost me game 3 vs. burn in the 4th round. Anyway:
Pretty happy with the deck overall, but there are some changes coming. Secure the wastes is definitely first on the chopping block, though I'll probably keep a singleton.
I'd be fine with it... more legal cards is better than fewer legal cards. That said, I wonder how much of a difference it would really make on prices... Anyone have print numbers on gold-border cards? Say force of will for example, would there even be enough to move prices? Eternal Masters barely moved FOW, though it did drop wasteland and jace, the mind sculptor a bit. I mean, if suddenly gold-border were legal, the price of gold-border FOW would increase dramatically overnight. Not quite to the same price as the "real" cards, but I bet it'd be within 20%. Unless there's an enormous number of them, prices wouldn't even be affected.
Collector's edition is even worse. If I recall correctly, there were exactly 10,000 CE sets printed. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the 350,000 revised duals and would less than double the total number of power nine cards. Nobody would benefit at all except those who happen to already own CE cards that were printed 20 years ago.
Another possible noble hierarch replacement is utopia sprawl. I plan on using it, partly for budget reasons, but also because it's harder to kill and enables some things dorks don't (turn 1 land, bird, turn 2 land, utopia sprawl on untapped land + loxodon, turn 3 land, rhino + path). You just have to make sure you pick the right color and run more forests.
I'd go sunpetal grove over canopy vista... IMO the fast lands are over-rated and I'd rather have check lands anyway. You can almost always play a shock or basic turn 1 and once you've done that, sunpetal grove is effectively savannah.
For voice, pridemage is reasonable. Also consider tidehollow sculler. I wouldn't run 4, but it has it's uses.
No bans. Unban sword of the meek... it might enable a fringe deck or two without pushing anything out. There's lots of people on the SFM hype train... I think it would be ok (like 85% sure) and white truly could use a boost, but I didn't vote for it as I'm kind of indifferent.
I'd be a bit surprised if SFM becomes unbanned, but I really don't think it would be bad for modern.
She's a pain in legacy because:
1) Brainstorm + ponder means she shows up turn 2 seemingly every game.
2) Force of will means your removal gets countered.
3) If Umezawa's Jitte connects EVEN ONCE, you can only lose a game against a combo or if you were already hopelessly behind.
Modern has none of that. Sure, you can grab batterskull, but it's risky. If stoneforge gets bolted, you're not casting it for at least 3 turns. Even if you slam batterskull, a 4/4 lifelink doesn't mean much when you're facing goyfs, tasigurs, anglers, rhinos, or any combo. There's plenty of artifact hate already in the format, some of it maindeck. And let's not forget you can just terminate the germ... Sure, the equipment is still there, but it costs 5 to equip and 8 to return and re-cast... you'll be dead by then.
Swords are less risky because you can cast them, but they are SLOOOOOOOW! T2 mystic, T3 sword, T4 equip... assuming you've even got a dude to equip it to. And swords die to all the artifact hate pluse the ubiquitous abrupt decay.
Dredge is probably #1 by far. In the hands of an excellent pilot who knows how to play around force of will, both Storm and Ad Nauseum are also incredibly powerful game 1, but are easier to disrupt because counterspells are useful against them, while they are all but useless against dredge. I disagree with the others (oops all spells, spanish inquisition, and belcher). Those three decks are certainly the FASTEST decks in legacy and capable of winning turn 1 (or "turn 0" if they go first), but they are less consistent and more fragile than dredge, Storm, and Ad Nauseum.
1
1
1
Even then the old ones wouldn't drop much. I mean, city of brass has 9 printings and there are a bazillion of them. You can get a playset for ten bucks. It sees pretty minimal use competitive formats. Oh, you want an Arabian Nights copy for your pimped-out EDH deck? That'll be $100, and by the way, it's a bit beat up.
Reprint Nether Void and new copies will be a hell of a lot cheaper than old ones, but the old ones won't drop much.
1
I am also going for the red splash, though no lili. Just took this to a 3-1 finish at FNM at a fairly competitive shop. Opponents were on BW Death and Taxes, Dredge (bridge/gargadon variant), Merfolk, Naya Burn. Would have been 4-0, but I made a misplay that cost me game 3 vs. burn in the 4th round. Anyway:
4 spectral procession
3 bitterblossom
3 secure the wastes
4 intangible virtue
3 sorin, solemn visitor
3 inquisition of kozilek
3 thoughtseize
1 anguished unmaking
4 lightning bolt
2 lightning helix
3 concealed courtyard
2 godless shrine
2 shambling vent
4 marsh flats
4 arid mesa
1 swamp
1 vault of the archangel
1 blood crypt
1 sacred foundry
2 clifftop retreat
2 plains
Pretty happy with the deck overall, but there are some changes coming. Secure the wastes is definitely first on the chopping block, though I'll probably keep a singleton.
1
1
Collector's edition is even worse. If I recall correctly, there were exactly 10,000 CE sets printed. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the 350,000 revised duals and would less than double the total number of power nine cards. Nobody would benefit at all except those who happen to already own CE cards that were printed 20 years ago.
1
Another possible noble hierarch replacement is utopia sprawl. I plan on using it, partly for budget reasons, but also because it's harder to kill and enables some things dorks don't (turn 1 land, bird, turn 2 land, utopia sprawl on untapped land + loxodon, turn 3 land, rhino + path). You just have to make sure you pick the right color and run more forests.
There will never really be a verdant catacombs replacement, but you could run a different green fetch (wooded foothills). More risky but possibly viable budget replacements (I wouldn't run 4, but you could afford 1 or 2 of any of these) are ancient ziggurat, pillar of paruns, city of brass, and mana confluence.
If you can't afford abrupt decay, I'd just run something like doom blade/go for the throat/smother... most of the time you're gonna use it on a creature anyway.
I'd go sunpetal grove over canopy vista... IMO the fast lands are over-rated and I'd rather have check lands anyway. You can almost always play a shock or basic turn 1 and once you've done that, sunpetal grove is effectively savannah.
For voice, pridemage is reasonable. Also consider tidehollow sculler. I wouldn't run 4, but it has it's uses.
Wilt-leaf cavaliers seems reasonable.
Some other budget cards that are probably better than you might think include: Bant sureblade, naya hushblade, saffi eriksdotter, and watchwolf.
1
1
She's a pain in legacy because:
1) Brainstorm + ponder means she shows up turn 2 seemingly every game.
2) Force of will means your removal gets countered.
3) If Umezawa's Jitte connects EVEN ONCE, you can only lose a game against a combo or if you were already hopelessly behind.
Modern has none of that. Sure, you can grab batterskull, but it's risky. If stoneforge gets bolted, you're not casting it for at least 3 turns. Even if you slam batterskull, a 4/4 lifelink doesn't mean much when you're facing goyfs, tasigurs, anglers, rhinos, or any combo. There's plenty of artifact hate already in the format, some of it maindeck. And let's not forget you can just terminate the germ... Sure, the equipment is still there, but it costs 5 to equip and 8 to return and re-cast... you'll be dead by then.
Swords are less risky because you can cast them, but they are SLOOOOOOOW! T2 mystic, T3 sword, T4 equip... assuming you've even got a dude to equip it to. And swords die to all the artifact hate pluse the ubiquitous abrupt decay.
Mostly, it would help control.
1