Has anyone tested Anathemancer in a Marchesa build? I recently added Grenzo to my list, and replaced Warstorm Surge with the Anathemancer because the Surge has been a little too slow lately.
I figure the Anathemancer is playable albeit unexciting. If you ignore its Unearth (or treat it as an emergency button), it's a 3-mana, 2-power guy so you can get it out early (at least before Marchesa), has a ETB effect that can do some decent damage, and is a Wizard (synergy with Sage of Fables, Voidmage Prodigy, Riptide Laboratory).
I'll see how it does, but I'm wondering if anyone has already tested it and has results to save me some time.
I dunno. I like it for standard, but in cube it seems too slow for me.
I get the comparisons to Hellrider, but losing Haste is kind of a big deal as it pertains to functionality as a curve topper in aggro decks.
Yes, there will be times where you curve out perfectly and get an extra 3 damage and 3 life for a 6 point swing, and that's great. However, I think testing will eventually prove that a Hill Giant is too slow without haste for most powered cubes for this kind of deck. Additionally, it doesn't do anything to help the Smokestack / Pox deck because you want your threats to be A) recurrable and B) typically cost 2 or less mana since the point of the deck is to keep resources in the early stage of the game.
I could be wrong, but I look at this card as a solid addition to 540+ cubes while ultimately being too weak to bump anything out at a smaller size.
EDIT: All of the above is written with the understanding that it would be slotted into a Black section. If Mardu, I still think Butcher of the Horde is the better card.
Wildspeaker stands the test of time. If we put him in today's standard, he'll be so awesome. It also applies to limited and cube.
Garruk Wildspeaker is the gold premium of an all-round walker. That's what most walkers should be. He ramps, he creates creatures, he protects himself, he also wins the game. Not a dislikeable dude indeed.
Not to mention he comes down on the critical turn 4 (often earlier in Green decks), and is relevant at all stages of the game.
Yeah I like the random aspect of it. You can remove the nonbasics but a lot of them are better with a Worldknit since the effect adds "add a mana of any colour". Suddenly, your Mutavault is also a Birds of Paradise? Every fetch land taps for mana. I dunno, I get why you'd want to take them out so that each pool is "even" but I don't think it's such a big deal to just add a certain number of basics and go with it.
I think the best way is to just split basics evenly and then you accept the fact that Koth and Rofellos and Vedalken Shackles and etc. etc. get worse in the format. Just a different way of casually playing the cube.
Earlier today, myself and two friends wanted to play a 3-man FFA with my cube so we could just get right to playing. Sometimes, I like to play Wizard's Tower with chunks of the cube for these situations, but they wanted to do some deckbuilding to practice. We went with 75 card sealed pools, some of which contain Conspiracy cards which I run in my list. Mine happened to include Worldknit (along with Immediate Action and Brago's Favor). Just to clarify, the list is a fairly average 400ish cube that doesn't currently run Power 9 and also aimed at 1v1 play, not multiplayer.
As a joke, I originally looked at the card and said "Hah wouldn't that be funny?" to which my friend replied, "Yeah, wouldn't it?"
I ended up having something like 13 non-basic lands in the pool, and including the conspiracy cards, the deck size was 92 cards (I think), so it was quite the pile. After skimming my pool, I named Jace, the Mindsculptor with Brago's Favor (cause why not) and Grave Titan for [/card]Immediate Action[/card] for the suprise factor.
We ended up playing a fun, interactive game that I enjoyed moreso than had I built a "regular" sealed deck of 40 cards. I liked that my pool had an "EDH" feel to it and it was very swingy. My only disappointment was with how low the life totals were; I think next time we will try 30 life each.
Anyway, I guess I just wanted to share this story and recommend to anyone that ends up playing small multiplayer games with their cube that you could have everyone start the game with a Worldknit effect. In other words, just pick a predetermined number of cards from the cube as a pool (say, 50 cube cards for each person), add basic lands, and play.
Maybe this is too close to Wizard's Tower but I thought it was an idea worth sharing.
Parallax Wave. Another card we cut a long time ago that we just seeded into this weekend's drafts. I'm almost tempted to say that it's worth cutting Day of Judgement for. It's really good in both aggro and control. Even in blink decks. Seriously criminally excluded.
I don't have Moat or Ravages of War so I run Parallax Wave, and I must agree that it is pretty awesome. It's one of those cards that you look at and say "Fading 5? They'll just be back in a couple turns...what's the point?" Well, in practice, sometimes you only need ONE turn, let alone several, of unimpeded attacks to win. In addition, you can play it in the Blink deck alongside some ETB dudes and just run the show.
It's not "optimal" by any means, but I run Rattleclaw in Green alongside Generator Servant in Red to help fuel a RG midrange deck. The Servant is admittedly not as good as something more reliable like Borderland Marauder or Ash Zealot, but it helps shake up the archetypes a little, and both in the same deck can create some explosive turns!
So my friend has been bitten by the cube bug after playing mine with me a few times, and is interested in building his own.
He wants to build one that is no larger than 360 cards, is centered around 3-colours, and wants to have no white cards (because it is his least favourite colour and why not). He also wants to make it designed for multiplayer.
The reason I'm posting this thread is to see if you knowledgeable folks have any advice or "do's and don'ts" for this kind of thing.
Is a cube with zero white cards even feasible? What are the implications of cutting out a colour like this? Is it even harder to do when focusing on a multicolour theme? IS HE CRAZY??
Let me know what your thoughts are! I'm hoping to get him started on this project and I know a lot of you on this forum have better experience with this kind of thing than I do.
I think by virtue of being a creature, Masticore will be more useful for your cube than the Portal. In addition, the discard ability is more synergistic with the graveyard decks, so it's a pretty clear choice for me. That said, I run both in my list and am happy to see Portal as a flexible utility artifact that helps support Blink decks and taxes the opponent (essentially forces them to play around it and keep 1 open).
1. Rolling Earthquake (hits everything)
2. Earthquake (can be one-sided if you're the one with all the Fliers)
3. Bonfire (its power lies largely in the Miracle, so it can be inconsistent)
Far/Away or Duskmantle Seer as my fourth Dimir card? I can never seem to get the Seer to work and I'm wondering if this is a fine swap or if I should keep the Seer around for the tempo deck.
This won't be the most popular answer, I'm sure, but why not cut Psychatog and run both Far/Away and Duskmantle Seer?
The mention of Tattermunge earlier has me thinking about giving him another shot. We ran him several years ago, but his must attack clause was brutal. This was also in the days of all the CC first strike knights being in the cube and back when we had less of an understanding of how to properly support aggro. So Tattermunge Maniac vs Kird Ape? What's the verdict?
I like Tog too much to cut it in favour of that spell when I'm already on the fence about the Seer.
As for the Gruul 1 drop, I think the Maniac's flexibility in terms of supporting green and red aggro gives it the thumbs up for me. The times where the "always attacks" clause is an issue comes up less often for me than not having a Forest to turn on Kird Ape.
Far/Away or Duskmantle Seer as my fourth Dimir card? I can never seem to get the Seer to work and I'm wondering if this is a fine swap or if I should keep the Seer around for the tempo deck.
My favourite card is probably Muscle Sliver. I've always had a soft spot for Slivers since opening one. I started with Tempest when I was in Grade 7. This was back when we had Jinxed Idol in a game and thought that once someone had it, they had it forever ("it says permanently!") I've learned a lot about Magic since then, and like a lot of others have taken a few "breaks" from the game along the way, but I've always gravitated to that pre-8th border and the lovely art style of Tempest. Any time I see a Muscle Sliver, I can't help but smile and remember why I got hooked on Magic in the first place.
I figure the Anathemancer is playable albeit unexciting. If you ignore its Unearth (or treat it as an emergency button), it's a 3-mana, 2-power guy so you can get it out early (at least before Marchesa), has a ETB effect that can do some decent damage, and is a Wizard (synergy with Sage of Fables, Voidmage Prodigy, Riptide Laboratory).
I'll see how it does, but I'm wondering if anyone has already tested it and has results to save me some time.
I get the comparisons to Hellrider, but losing Haste is kind of a big deal as it pertains to functionality as a curve topper in aggro decks.
Yes, there will be times where you curve out perfectly and get an extra 3 damage and 3 life for a 6 point swing, and that's great. However, I think testing will eventually prove that a Hill Giant is too slow without haste for most powered cubes for this kind of deck. Additionally, it doesn't do anything to help the Smokestack / Pox deck because you want your threats to be A) recurrable and B) typically cost 2 or less mana since the point of the deck is to keep resources in the early stage of the game.
I could be wrong, but I look at this card as a solid addition to 540+ cubes while ultimately being too weak to bump anything out at a smaller size.
EDIT: All of the above is written with the understanding that it would be slotted into a Black section. If Mardu, I still think Butcher of the Horde is the better card.
Not to mention he comes down on the critical turn 4 (often earlier in Green decks), and is relevant at all stages of the game.
I think the best way is to just split basics evenly and then you accept the fact that Koth and Rofellos and Vedalken Shackles and etc. etc. get worse in the format. Just a different way of casually playing the cube.
Edit: And relevant creature type for Champion of the Parish.
As a joke, I originally looked at the card and said "Hah wouldn't that be funny?" to which my friend replied, "Yeah, wouldn't it?"
I ended up having something like 13 non-basic lands in the pool, and including the conspiracy cards, the deck size was 92 cards (I think), so it was quite the pile. After skimming my pool, I named Jace, the Mindsculptor with Brago's Favor (cause why not) and Grave Titan for [/card]Immediate Action[/card] for the suprise factor.
We ended up playing a fun, interactive game that I enjoyed moreso than had I built a "regular" sealed deck of 40 cards. I liked that my pool had an "EDH" feel to it and it was very swingy. My only disappointment was with how low the life totals were; I think next time we will try 30 life each.
Anyway, I guess I just wanted to share this story and recommend to anyone that ends up playing small multiplayer games with their cube that you could have everyone start the game with a Worldknit effect. In other words, just pick a predetermined number of cards from the cube as a pool (say, 50 cube cards for each person), add basic lands, and play.
Maybe this is too close to Wizard's Tower but I thought it was an idea worth sharing.
I don't have Moat or Ravages of War so I run Parallax Wave, and I must agree that it is pretty awesome. It's one of those cards that you look at and say "Fading 5? They'll just be back in a couple turns...what's the point?" Well, in practice, sometimes you only need ONE turn, let alone several, of unimpeded attacks to win. In addition, you can play it in the Blink deck alongside some ETB dudes and just run the show.
Definitely a great cube card!
So my friend has been bitten by the cube bug after playing mine with me a few times, and is interested in building his own.
He wants to build one that is no larger than 360 cards, is centered around 3-colours, and wants to have no white cards (because it is his least favourite colour and why not). He also wants to make it designed for multiplayer.
The reason I'm posting this thread is to see if you knowledgeable folks have any advice or "do's and don'ts" for this kind of thing.
Is a cube with zero white cards even feasible? What are the implications of cutting out a colour like this? Is it even harder to do when focusing on a multicolour theme? IS HE CRAZY??
Let me know what your thoughts are! I'm hoping to get him started on this project and I know a lot of you on this forum have better experience with this kind of thing than I do.
Thanks!
1. Rolling Earthquake (hits everything)
2. Earthquake (can be one-sided if you're the one with all the Fliers)
3. Bonfire (its power lies largely in the Miracle, so it can be inconsistent)
I like Tog too much to cut it in favour of that spell when I'm already on the fence about the Seer.
As for the Gruul 1 drop, I think the Maniac's flexibility in terms of supporting green and red aggro gives it the thumbs up for me. The times where the "always attacks" clause is an issue comes up less often for me than not having a Forest to turn on Kird Ape.