I'm having a bit of trouble cutting that last card from my deck. Could you who've been playing the deck more than me be so kind to help a fellow dredger out? I'm taking this deck to a tournament this Sunday, hoping to get as far as I can.
You can cut a land. 20 lands is all you need to almost always have 2 mana by turn 2 (source). You can get your 3rd land by dredging loam/dakmor or on the draws provided by Looting or Tormenting Voice.
You can also cut Vengeful Pharaoh to the sideboard. You already play Darkblast and Haunted Dead to provide some defense. I would only play a maximum 2 out of 3 these cards. Darkblast and Haunted Dead are better in meta with a lot of small attackers like elves, infect and affinity. Vengeful Pharaoh is better against big attackers like Grixis and Jund.
Instead of Vengeful Pharaoh, the 3rd Life from the Loam or 4th Tormenting Voice seems much better.
chochky, your EDH system seems fine as long as you play decks with many color (and thus not many basics to remove), otherwise you will need to sacrifice many cards to cast most of your stuff. If you go down from 40 to 30 lands, it helps remove mana flood quite a bit, but at only 20-10 lands you might start to get color-screwed quite a bit.
Also, you need to watch out for bounce/graveyard shenanigans since you don't replace the cards. Making the original card unusable for the rest of the game seems key to avoid unintended effects (though it might be interesting to discover these).
While I'm at it, I tried out the original Magic2.0 idea and I discovered it makes the decks that rely on combo/synergy much better. For instance, UW Heroic where you need to draw a good balance of creatures and spells to target them is much more forgiving when you can balance your hand by turning some into land drops. The consistency is also miles better when you turn a 60 cards deck into a 36 cards one, and still quite noticeable when you add the sideboard to that (51 cards).
That means you really can't turn a normal deck into a Magic 2.0 one without great imbalance. 2.0 really needs other deck building rules like 60 cards, no sideboard, maximum 3 copies of each card.
That makes the format much harder to try and test out.
Hybrid cards in general can fit in multiple colors, so I just put them in the color they fit the most, or distribute them evenly if there are multiple. If there are about 10-20 hybrid cards , I put 2-4 of them in each color. It's not a big deal if the colors have 2-3 cards of imbalance, gameplay-wise.
But these monocolor cards with 2 off-color activation are special. Technically, you need to play these colors to get the full effect, but if your cube has enough mana fixing, it's safe enough to assume the player will have access to that mana eventually. Worst case, these are mostly ok creatures, so the abilities are just gravy. That means the color requirement is mostly the mana cost. Mono-color represents that better then sticking them in sultai or 33% golgari/33% dimir/33% simic
MaRo specified that a block (KTK included) should not have more than 12 mechanics, 5 clan mechanics (delve, prowess, ferocious, raid, outlast)+ 5 alternate clan mechanics (dash, bolster & 3 more)+morph+manifest = 12.
So this has to be either manifest or morph, not a brand new morph. And supposedly not manifest since is supposed to be protomorph.
They might also just break their "rule" (it's really more of a guideline for them) to make it easier.
Awe, nostalgia and acknowledgement: Cards that carry a big legacy like Ancestral Recall, Emrakul or Jace, the Mind Sculptor add something positive to a cube. When you open a pack and open a fabled card like that, it improves your experience. That is something to consider in the balance, especially with experienced players who never played vintage.
Budget: For many, a cube is also a collection, so it is acceptable for them to get some cards no matter the cost, or even pimp all their cards. If budget is an issue though, there is nothing wrong to using substitutes. If you really don't want to spend much but carve expensive cards, you can always proxy.
Variance: Some cards can add a lot of variance when played. Games will be decided on some very good draws. This can ease newer players (who will not lose all the time), but experienced ones who want a test of skill might not like it.
Non-interactivity: Hexproof, shroud, spells that cannot be countered or interacted with often lead to frustration and make the players feel too much out of control.
All cards need to be considered with many lenses when building a cube. Some players want to experience the very best cards of all time (something you cannot do often), kind of like watching fireworks or visiting the Louvre. Some want a cube they can replay indefinitely and learn to master, people who would be inclined to play chess or Go.
A common point of debate is the Swords of x and y or Jitte. While people know their power and want to wield them, they bring a lot of variance (and non-interactivity for Swords in many cases). You just gotta know what makes your playgroup the most happy. For many playgroups, I'd guess people would like trying the big toys at first, but with enough plays people could like a more balanced and engaging experience. And the beauty of a cube is that you do whatever you want about it.
Also, when powerful new cards are printed, you should most often include them and replace lesser, older versions. The reasoning is that you will almost always include card in your cube that are both very good and also very fun, stuff like Fact or Fiction or planeswalkers. At this point, the solution to make the power level flatter is either to cut these fun cards or to make the other cards just as good as them.
I'm about 100% positive that DTK will allows us to use manifested non-creature spells. That's just the logical follow-up to Manifest.
Option 1: Put Morph on non-creature permanents (like Zooetic Cavern). But, unless they change the keyword to something else (and they don't need to), that won't feel like a big enough change.
Option 2: Put a Morph-like mechanic on non-permanent spells. Spellmorph 1R "You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face-up anytime for it's Spellmorph cost. When you do, exile it. You may cast this card without paying it's mana cost. That's radical and long-winded, but it reflects the big change that happened.
Zen reprints in Dragons would indeed be in the flavor of the time-travel before and after.
There is one "problem" though: It looks like the dragons are allied colors, which doesn't fit with enemy fetchlands. However, it fits that the KTK fetches are allied colors lands, with allied colors dragons bones on them.
Maybe the Dragons lands will pay homage to the fallen Khans? Something wedge-color. I guess enemy fetches kinda fits the bill. Sultai: Verdant Catacombs, Mardu: Arid Mesa, Temur: Misty Rainforest, Abzan: March Flats, Jeskai: Scalding Tarn.
I don't think these can be lands in FRF packs though. If they have the Dragons symbol, they would not be legal, and Wizards wants packs to only contain cards people can use. If they are legal, there will be a very small supply available (less then 1 per box), which is a big problem too.
b) Spend maybe around $8-1000 (probably less if you're savvy/have a big collection) and have a Modern deck that will last you as long as you play Magic (Bar any cards being banned)
IMO the only Modern cards one should see as stable investments, are the ones that are a.) very unlikely to be banned and b.) very unlikely to be made obsolete by anything imaginable for Standard. This is a short list and is headed by fetchlands and shocklands. I can't imagine WotC printing anything stronger than them (because it would wreck Standard), nor can I imagine WotC banning them. So I say if you want a stable Modern investment, invest in mana bases.
There are quite a lot of cards that are safe investments for maybe the next 5 years in modern. Every staple like Snapcaster Mage, Thoughseize, Bolt, Path, Birds, Finks, Goblin Guide. Most of the cards have no risk of being banned and are simply good staples in decks of that color.
This has almost always been true, but more then ever, Modern is the cheapest format to play over several years, especially if you settle on decks without Goyf/Clique/Bob (and even then it's easy to sell out).
People saying "never under 15$" need to understand there is an hard ceiling to how expensive a cycle of rare can be.
Wizards prints on demand. A box costs about 70-80$ for shops to open. There are on average 3 fetches per box(and if you open 10+ boxes you WILL get 3, this is not the lottery).
Besides the 3 fetches, you will get rares/mythics, foils and common/uncommon. You can expect to get back at least 5$ for the co/unco, 10$ for the foils and 20$ for the rares/mythics (again, that might not be 100% for a single box, but on average it holds true) That's 35$ of your investment gained back.
80 to 70$ -35$ = 45 to 35$ to make back on fetches. That's 15$ per fetch maximum, using conservative values.
It's simple, even if the demand for fetches is ENORMOUS, that just means more boxes will be opened. I've never seen my LGS out of stock for a new set, at least not after the first 2 weeks. After the Game Day, all fetches will be in the 10-15$ range, unless the set is so bad that fetches are the only card worth something (and it doesn't look like it so far)
My call: Modern Masters 2, with a different name because it will be different this time. The set will contain entirely NEW cards designed specifically for the Modern format, and will have an unlimited supply. The "TBD" Grand Prix will be limited of the new Modern set.
That makes sense. Aaron said in an interview that they decided against Modern Pro Tours because they consider the format stale. Outside of banlist changes and printing lots of new good cards in standard, the only way to shake up modern is something like that. They have been know to do this in Legacy already. Printing for Modern is jumping through a few loops but it's something that will happen next June or later.
Any standard green ramp deck should include Soul of Zendikar. Don't let people tell you otherwise.
It's true that a 6/6 Reach and putting 3/3 Beasts is nothing too impressive for a Soul but since SoZ is green you'll often have a ton of mana to produce 2-3 beasts per turn. It is much better then Arbor Colosus and I'm a huge colossus fan. Put colossus in the sideboard for matchups where low removal and speedbumps that cost 5 matter.
With Elixir and Aetherling rotating out, this card will see play in control decks. It does the same thing as Vraska the Unseen: Tick up a few times and ultimate. Except this kind of walker is much better in blue.
It will have a role in standard in blue control decks but no one will want this card once it rotates. It's really bad and it's only saved by being the win-con and engine that fits the most.
You don't really need any of these cards to make the deck work, though. There's alternatives to the fetches and Hierarch and you only need one Linvala; Chords don't have any replacement at all, let alone a budget one, so it was the big barrier to building a starter version of the deck where the Evolving Wilds/Avacyn's Pilgrims could be replaced later.
Damn right, I started to buy this deck the last few weeks expecting Chords reprint. Now I just need fetches in the fall to be optimal. Hierarch will have to wait.
You can cut a land. 20 lands is all you need to almost always have 2 mana by turn 2 (source). You can get your 3rd land by dredging loam/dakmor or on the draws provided by Looting or Tormenting Voice.
You can also cut Vengeful Pharaoh to the sideboard. You already play Darkblast and Haunted Dead to provide some defense. I would only play a maximum 2 out of 3 these cards. Darkblast and Haunted Dead are better in meta with a lot of small attackers like elves, infect and affinity. Vengeful Pharaoh is better against big attackers like Grixis and Jund.
Instead of Vengeful Pharaoh, the 3rd Life from the Loam or 4th Tormenting Voice seems much better.
Also, you need to watch out for bounce/graveyard shenanigans since you don't replace the cards. Making the original card unusable for the rest of the game seems key to avoid unintended effects (though it might be interesting to discover these).
While I'm at it, I tried out the original Magic2.0 idea and I discovered it makes the decks that rely on combo/synergy much better. For instance, UW Heroic where you need to draw a good balance of creatures and spells to target them is much more forgiving when you can balance your hand by turning some into land drops. The consistency is also miles better when you turn a 60 cards deck into a 36 cards one, and still quite noticeable when you add the sideboard to that (51 cards).
That means you really can't turn a normal deck into a Magic 2.0 one without great imbalance. 2.0 really needs other deck building rules like 60 cards, no sideboard, maximum 3 copies of each card.
That makes the format much harder to try and test out.
But these monocolor cards with 2 off-color activation are special. Technically, you need to play these colors to get the full effect, but if your cube has enough mana fixing, it's safe enough to assume the player will have access to that mana eventually. Worst case, these are mostly ok creatures, so the abilities are just gravy. That means the color requirement is mostly the mana cost. Mono-color represents that better then sticking them in sultai or 33% golgari/33% dimir/33% simic
They might also just break their "rule" (it's really more of a guideline for them) to make it easier.
Budget: For many, a cube is also a collection, so it is acceptable for them to get some cards no matter the cost, or even pimp all their cards. If budget is an issue though, there is nothing wrong to using substitutes. If you really don't want to spend much but carve expensive cards, you can always proxy.
Variance: Some cards can add a lot of variance when played. Games will be decided on some very good draws. This can ease newer players (who will not lose all the time), but experienced ones who want a test of skill might not like it.
Non-interactivity: Hexproof, shroud, spells that cannot be countered or interacted with often lead to frustration and make the players feel too much out of control.
All cards need to be considered with many lenses when building a cube. Some players want to experience the very best cards of all time (something you cannot do often), kind of like watching fireworks or visiting the Louvre. Some want a cube they can replay indefinitely and learn to master, people who would be inclined to play chess or Go.
A common point of debate is the Swords of x and y or Jitte. While people know their power and want to wield them, they bring a lot of variance (and non-interactivity for Swords in many cases). You just gotta know what makes your playgroup the most happy. For many playgroups, I'd guess people would like trying the big toys at first, but with enough plays people could like a more balanced and engaging experience. And the beauty of a cube is that you do whatever you want about it.
Also, when powerful new cards are printed, you should most often include them and replace lesser, older versions. The reasoning is that you will almost always include card in your cube that are both very good and also very fun, stuff like Fact or Fiction or planeswalkers. At this point, the solution to make the power level flatter is either to cut these fun cards or to make the other cards just as good as them.
Option 1: Put Morph on non-creature permanents (like Zooetic Cavern). But, unless they change the keyword to something else (and they don't need to), that won't feel like a big enough change.
Option 2: Put a Morph-like mechanic on non-permanent spells. Spellmorph 1R "You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face-up anytime for it's Spellmorph cost. When you do, exile it. You may cast this card without paying it's mana cost. That's radical and long-winded, but it reflects the big change that happened.
There is one "problem" though: It looks like the dragons are allied colors, which doesn't fit with enemy fetchlands. However, it fits that the KTK fetches are allied colors lands, with allied colors dragons bones on them.
Maybe the Dragons lands will pay homage to the fallen Khans? Something wedge-color. I guess enemy fetches kinda fits the bill. Sultai: Verdant Catacombs, Mardu: Arid Mesa, Temur: Misty Rainforest, Abzan: March Flats, Jeskai: Scalding Tarn.
I don't think these can be lands in FRF packs though. If they have the Dragons symbol, they would not be legal, and Wizards wants packs to only contain cards people can use. If they are legal, there will be a very small supply available (less then 1 per box), which is a big problem too.
There are quite a lot of cards that are safe investments for maybe the next 5 years in modern. Every staple like Snapcaster Mage, Thoughseize, Bolt, Path, Birds, Finks, Goblin Guide. Most of the cards have no risk of being banned and are simply good staples in decks of that color.
This has almost always been true, but more then ever, Modern is the cheapest format to play over several years, especially if you settle on decks without Goyf/Clique/Bob (and even then it's easy to sell out).
Wizards prints on demand. A box costs about 70-80$ for shops to open. There are on average 3 fetches per box(and if you open 10+ boxes you WILL get 3, this is not the lottery).
Besides the 3 fetches, you will get rares/mythics, foils and common/uncommon. You can expect to get back at least 5$ for the co/unco, 10$ for the foils and 20$ for the rares/mythics (again, that might not be 100% for a single box, but on average it holds true) That's 35$ of your investment gained back.
80 to 70$ -35$ = 45 to 35$ to make back on fetches. That's 15$ per fetch maximum, using conservative values.
It's simple, even if the demand for fetches is ENORMOUS, that just means more boxes will be opened. I've never seen my LGS out of stock for a new set, at least not after the first 2 weeks. After the Game Day, all fetches will be in the 10-15$ range, unless the set is so bad that fetches are the only card worth something (and it doesn't look like it so far)
Otherwise it's just "lol, these are expensive now. that means we can charge more"
That makes sense. Aaron said in an interview that they decided against Modern Pro Tours because they consider the format stale. Outside of banlist changes and printing lots of new good cards in standard, the only way to shake up modern is something like that. They have been know to do this in Legacy already. Printing for Modern is jumping through a few loops but it's something that will happen next June or later.
It's true that a 6/6 Reach and putting 3/3 Beasts is nothing too impressive for a Soul but since SoZ is green you'll often have a ton of mana to produce 2-3 beasts per turn. It is much better then Arbor Colosus and I'm a huge colossus fan. Put colossus in the sideboard for matchups where low removal and speedbumps that cost 5 matter.
It will have a role in standard in blue control decks but no one will want this card once it rotates. It's really bad and it's only saved by being the win-con and engine that fits the most.
Damn right, I started to buy this deck the last few weeks expecting Chords reprint. Now I just need fetches in the fall to be optimal. Hierarch will have to wait.