Bad JPEG file head, SOI marker not found: 0x89 0x50
Status = -1
Unable to extract some or all of the EXIF data, which may have been removed from the image file.
hmmm
You get two and a half internets for trying anything photo-forensics-ish
Also, what the heck is this guys crappy phone camera would be taking pictures in PNG instead of JPEG? (assuming the picture attached to the thread was exactly the same posted by the original poster)
EDIT: Put the picture through fotoforensics.com analysis tool and compared to another crappy phone picture I had laying around. Here are the results:
This is what the website has to say about the analysed picture: The red/blue patches are rainbowing. They are a tell-tail sign that an Adobe product was used on this picture. This is confirmed from the metadata: this picture was last saved with Adobe Photoshop 'Save-for-Web' (and not 'Save As') and the user selected a quality level of 60%.
(source: fotoforensics.com)
(Also, would be great if someone who actually understands more about photo forensics analysis checks this instead of me, who only reads about it once in a while)
How come this hasn't been unconfirmed yet? Seems like the worst fake I've seen in a while.
As for the picture, the blur doesn't seem like the kind of blur you get from taking a picture, but just a simple linear blur. There is no depth whatsoever in the cardboard and no wear on the card, only a simple drop shadow effect and what looks like a linear white gradient overlay to fake the lightning. The only way this is actually in the set is if someone saw the real card, couldn't take a picture and did a half-assed attempt at a picture with simple skewing and what seems to be a stock wood textured. I might be wrong, but I don't feel like going through photo forensics analysis right now to prove this is fake (whoever goes for it gains 5 internets).
Also, without even looking at the picture, the design is both uninspiring and non-Izzety. Would look less fake if it was actually a Weird Wizard or something. This is speculative on my part. Could very well be an uninspired design or something pushed by development to make UR more playable standard-wise.
EDIT: To whoever did this, if is reading the threads: Would look better with a very thin white plain drop shadow with very little falloff before rasterizing the layer to make the "true" shadow. The cardboard would actually have any depth.
I felt like my artifact section was too bloated and I'm cutting some rarely used artifacts to add more coloured cards. I'm also using this opportunity to switch a couple of other low-impact cards in my cube.
Cube changes:
Thinning artifact section: Razormane Masticore → Revoke Existence
Wanted more answers to noncreature permanents. War Priest of Thune and Kami of the Ancient Law were also considered. Karn, Silver Golem → Psionic Blast
Wanted a card that was better for aggro/tempo than for good in control. I saw Psionic Blast in a couple of other lists an thought I should give it a try. Triskelion → Faerie Macabre
Was thinking of adding any kind of sideboard card for this slot. Thought about discard and was between Cabal Therapy and Apetite for Brains, then I saw the faerie and imagined that more decks could want to have her than the discards. Wayfarer's Bauble → Hearth Kami
Wanted another artifact hate card. Was between Kami and Smash to Smithereens. I chose the Kami because it is more maindeckable. Also, Bauble is a painful cut, as I really enjoyed the card. Gilded Lotus → Viridian Zealot
You can never have enough answers for trouble permanents. There wasn't much contest for this spot. Nature's Claim was considered, but I feel Zealot will play better.
Other changes: Welkin Tern → Azure Mage
Not sure about this change. I wanted to keep this slot as an aggro 2-drop, but blue doesn't have many. I considered Coralhelm Commander but I don't have one right now. Azure helps Champion of the Parish and, if Voidmage Prodigy ends up going from test pool to main cube, Azure Mage only gets better. Sinkhole → Wrench Mind
It's weird but Sinkhole was very late picked and nobody seemed to want it maindeck. I believe Wrench Mind will be beloved by more decks than Sinkhole was, even if it is not a strictly better card. Magma Spray → Pillar of Flame
When I added Spray, I thought it could be a neat card for red control and also an ok sideboard card against annoyingrecurringcreatures that might give the deck some trouble. Turns out that being instant wasn't really impressive, plus, Pillar might take care of planeswalkers as well. Deathbridge Goliath → Obstinate Baloth
I believe that Baloth will be more beloved by blink decks and whenever the green player goes against aggro. Torrent of Souls → Olivia Voldaren
Torrent of Souls was to expensive for both Reanimator and as a finisher for aggro decks. Olivia seems like one of the few bomb-ish cards that doesn't force you directly into drafting control, so I want to see how she plays out. Terminate was also considered for this spot. Obzedat, Ghost Council → Gerrard's Verdict
Players were expressing some concer over Obzedat because it was way to hard to remove him. I didn't think it was that troubling, but BW and Esper already got plenty of good finishers and could go without this one. Verdict seems to be a staple that was missing from the cube, so in it goes. Unburial Rites and Angel of Despair were considered as well.
As always, any feedback on these changes is highly appreciated.
I play Stronghold, Lighthouse and Moorland Haunt. From these, Stronghold is definitely powerful, Lighthouse has yet to be activated in a game and Moorland Haunt has bee pretty good and I'm not cutting it from my cube anytime soon.
The reason I enjoy Moorland Haunt so much is that its not good in every deck and it punishes people that have greedy mana bases. Even though it is very specialized, UW tempo decks love the card and even some esper control decks with a mild amount of creatures can make use of it. The Haunt doesn't need to be activated more than twice to have a huge effect on the board.
After a couple of weeks and lots of drafts, I've made some changes to the Cube and the Test Pool. I didn't note down the winners and the archetypes that got drafted, but I can say that Esper Control had a pretty high win percentage.
As always, any feedback is appreciated.
Also, I hadn't had the time to upload my pictures since last update, so I'll see if I do it this week.
Test Pool results:
From my old test pool, The Abyss got cut pretty quickly. After a draft, I knew that it was too polarizing of a card. A few notes about the card:
Why was it around? The Abyss was around as a good card for the Pox/Stax decks and it happened to also helps control decks. Is it answerable? Yes, it is. With very few cards that usually don't align with the decks that The Abyss hurt the most (Aggro decks). Can it be played around once it enters the battlefield? Yes, if The Abyss arrives late and you have some board presence, you can try playing around it. If it comes online fast, either you answer it or you lose because you will play around it while your opponent keeps playing his game (usually making sure that you can't play around the enchantment). Is it easy to build a deck around it? If it comes early, it will reshape your draft around it. If it comes late, it will pass a couple of players until the next control player and that player will win the draft. Pretty much every single card that is great in hardcore control decks is also good with The Abyss, and even a couple of midrange cards are also good with it. Was it a fun card? No. The one thing it was fun at was that it made you win games. It shutted completely down a bunch of strategies that players liked to build play. It made matches take forever, where the only way to lose is that if you made some really stupid play.
So, with all of this in mind, The Abyss was completely cut from the cube. As everything else that goes away for being too powerful (Moat), it may be back if it seems that there are enough answers in the cube that are fast enough and that don't require anyone to go through too many loops to play.
Glorious Anthem was also on probation and was also cut. It didn't get played even though it wasn't a very late pick. There seems to be so many better options right now that the anthem became obsolete.
Crystal Shard (also on probation) started to get some love now, so it will stay for a while longer.
Blind Obedience wasn't played enough and didn't do much when played.
Goblin Settler (another probation card) was also cut. It just didn't do much and/or didn't do it fast enough. In every situation it was played, Goblin Ruinblaster would have been a better card, so it's getting replaced to see if Ruinblaster is any good.
Gyre Sage was really good and was played a every time. It was like a little Tarmogoyf that tapped for mana once in a while. It was cut from the pool so I can test Quirion Dryad in its place. Whichever is best might get a place in the cube, as Gyre Sage has gotten some fans among my players.
There is not enough data on the other cards in the test pool so far.
I'm particularly interested in seeing how Skyshroud Elite plays, as my players tend to value mana fixing pretty high and decks usually have about 4-9 nonbasics (with a few having way more than that)
Cube changes:
There was another card in the Test Pool that was added between anouncements: Natural Order has replaced The Abyss for the last batch of drafts and did really well. Yes, I didn't have NO in my Cube already. As I thought it would be, it has earned a spot in the cube. It has switched places with Eureka, that is now on probation.
I actually like Repeal more, even in tempo decks. I'd rather draw more gas than cause them to lose 1 life, and not being able to target noncreature permanents is a drag. And it's a lot better in control than Vapor Snag is.
I'd much rather run Silent Departure for a tempo bounce spell, because I can remove 2 blockers over the course of the game with it instead of 1. I think that would equate to more than one damage in the majority of games.
Well, only if the blue aggro decks can get to enough mana to flashback the Departure or to cast the repeal. I haven't seen blue aggro decks in my cube that get to use that amout of mana to just another bouce, as they are usually casting a top-curve finisher (which is usually from the nonblue color of the deck).
Being instant and only a single U also makes Snag great at the end of your opponents turn without hurting your board development on your last turn.
Again, this is only my opinion based on this last two months that I had my cube built. My cube ends having lots of tempo decks with high low-mana threat count, a few high-mana finishers and lots of disruption/protection and Vapor Snag has shined a lot. If you don't feel like supporting blue aggro in your cube, there are lots of better cards for this slot.
I think all your points are valid and you got me interested in Dracogenius. I also only remembered that Dracogenius survived Wildfire after I posted. I might put him in my test pool for a while to see how it plays:rolleyes:
Could you go into why you like Vapor Snag? I just don't see it
I got it in my cube because I couldn't find my foil Repeal anywhere. I thought it wouldn't be as good as it only targets creatures, but I had a signed one that was so pretty that it had to put it in, at least until I found the lost Repeal. Then I saw it rolling on aggressive blue decks...
Snag gets rid of a blocker while it helps you race, and once you play it, your opponents have to play around your lone untapped islands for the rest of the match. I've seen games where the opponent became extra cautious with its life total against aggro decks just because it played Snag. Aggro decks are usually very fast in my cube, so that one point of damage starts to matter a lot around turn 5 (especially in aggro x aggro).
When I finally found my Repeal (was in a Commander deck after all), I felt like blue control decks had enough answers and aggressives ones could use a little push, so Vapor Snag stayed.
If you don't like aggressive blue decks, Snag is not for you. It's not a card for every cube and it is also hard to access how good it is until you played with it a couple of times. It has been best in UW as it is the color combination most likely to put a strong board presence by turn 3, but slow decks can also use it to buy an extra turn to stabilize if they didn't got to pick Into the Roil or Cyclonic Rift.
tl;dr version: It is a great aggro card that has some value in control.
Hey Rellik! I've taken a look at your list and I like a lot of your choices, specially with how aggressive your green seems to be, and the Aether Adept and Deceiver Exarch in your blue.
I'm just not sure about the following cards in you list: Psionic Blast
I know it is a removal spell, but it's much better in aggro decks and you don't seem to have a lot of support for U aggro. Has it been a good enough removal spell for you? Has it actually been used to close any games?
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
This might have been the one of the first cards I cut from my cube. It never seemed to do enough for its cost: It's costed as a control finisher but never helps you stabilize. I'm running Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief right now and it is the most ridiculous finisher that black control decks have right now. It doesn't play the same way as Ob, but if you think he's tumbling a bit to to the weak side, you should check her out!
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
I like the Firemind a lot more and I don't run it in my cube. Your UR control decks already have plenty of options as finishers. I think you can safely get rid of this.
Wolly Thoctar
Have you tried Realm Razer? Eons ago, when my cube had shard slots the Razer was a pretty potent card
Hide//Seek
I also had this one in my cube when it had shard slots but I'm curious to know how has this played out for you. It's an efficient answer card, but it might make your deck less efficient if you have to fix for it.
Guided Passage
Seems really underpowered and not a card that I would like to draft, specially needing 3 colors to cast it. Also, you already have Maelstrom Wanderer in this shard. Shouldn't Mimeoplasm be here?
Also, you mentioned in your original post that you draft with 10 people. Do you put them all together or you do two pods? Do they tend to pull too much for 3-coloured decks or have they been able to draft mono-coloured ones consistently? I'm asking this because you might try to cut some cards to add another cycle of guild lands if you want to support more 3-coloured ones (or cut most of your tri-coloured to)
About the Mental Misstep nonsense, i think MM might be a good fit for this cube, especially with the huge amount of 1cc agressive creatures for green, though I have tested the card and I think that there are better options:
• If the problem is that you want a counter, you are missing Memory Lapse.
• If you want answers to fast decks, you have two good options:
○ Like U aggro/tempo decks? Vapor Snap has been a huge role-player in my cube for these decks. You might give it a try.
○ Need to answer more stuff? There is Boomerang as well. Bounces anything and might even act as a pseudo-Sinkhole on the play.
Given that both our cubes are most similar to wtwfl123's and we have a good support suite for aggro, I risk saying that the turn you buy with the bounce is almost always enough to buy you the game (given that you have more cards to support your game plan, of course) against the aggressive deck. I say that because most games with my cube are a tight race.
This weekend I couldn't get enough players for a draft table, so I gathered a couple of friends and we played about 12 winston drafts. We used a pool of 50 cards for each player and there were plenty of different decks made. I only remember who won on the first draft but I'll note below the archetypes that got played.
The one draft I remember (3-players winston draft): WUR Battle Cry (had both Heros, Accorder's Palladin, lots of cheap creatures, removal and a sword) GWU Bant Wake Control BG Reanimator
Other interesting archetypes that got drafted: UW Control GWU Bant Ramp UBR Bolas Control UBR Flyers Aggro-Control BRG Jund Beatdown RGW Naya Beatdown RGW Naya Planeswalkers RGW Zoo
And a couple of WBRG Beatdown decks
(Yeah, Winston draft gets players to make lots of 3-colored decks)
Well, after all of this drafting, I got more feedback on my test pool cards and made some changes in my test pool:
Beast Within Beast Within was picked pretty late and remained most of the time on sideboards. Players seems to like it, but nobody plays it. Maybe I can bring it back someday and see if people like it better then.
Mental Misstep and Traitorous Instict
Both had a huge main deck percentage and always did a little, but that liitle wasn't always enough. Even though Misstep could be played in virtually any deck, only blue decks picked it, and Traitorous Instict was always at its worse a 4-mana 4-damage spell(which wasn't bad for the decks it fits). I like both cards, but I want to let them out for a while to test new cards.
Gyre Sage
Not that great of a powerhouse but becomes a 3/4 very easily. The mana ability was irrelevant every time it was played, but it is a neat card. I will keep it for a while longer and maybe test Quirion Dryad later in it's place to see if it is still a good cube card.
Champion of the Parish, Fettergeist, Despise, Chandra, the Firebrand, Deathrite Shaman and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.
Each one of those cards were great role players (huge props to Fettergeist most of all) and were good enough that they went main. One interesting thing to note is that Nicol Bolas got cut from the test pool just after the first Grixis control deck based around him because it was already sure it would be main cubed.
¹ = Card is now on probation
² = Card was on the test pool
³ = Card was on the watch list
From the cards that got replaced, one was in my watchlist for not doing enough (Zuran Orb), one I had already mentioned that could be replaced(Putrefy) and the other 4 cards are now in probation, which means that they have been taken to the test pool to better access their usefulness in the cube.
From the probation cards, Glorious Anthem and Crystal Shard seem to be severely underdrafted and almost never maindecked. They are now in the test pool to see if people like them enough to put them to good use.
Goblin Settler is a card that I never saw played before. Maybe it was never even in the draftable boosters. I know it looks good, but I want to put him into the test pool to access how good it really is and what strategies make it shine. After a while, I want to do some AB testing by putting Goblin Ruinblaster in his place to see if +1/+0 and haste makes up for not targeting basics and not being a good blink target.
The Abyss is a card that is extremely powerful and may have warped every game it was played. To be honest, I have never seen this card land in a deck that doesn't have either Bitterblossom or Moat (sometimes both before Moat got cutted). I want to see if this is actually that degenerate of a card and if so, I may cut it for something else. Personally, I like the card and would like for it to stay, but lets see how the cube handles this guy first.
About the two filter lands that got into the cube, I was planning to cut Bad River as UB tempo didn't like it very much when his lands got into play tapped (and UB hardly got the Bad River as there seems to be always someone else in B or U). I was between Sunken Ruins and Drowned Catacomb for the slot, but curving Counterspell into Geralf's Messenger seemed more interesting and the filter got the spot. Since Geralf is a great card in BW aggro as well and there are plenty of interesting cards for aggro that costs WW, Fetid Heath found it's place into the cube as well.
With all of the changes, the Test Pool had to be refactored. This is my current test pool now:
• New cards have just been added to the test pool for some testing.
• Probation cards were in the cube and are now being tested for their real impact in drafts and deckbuilding.
• Cards noted as great have a good chance to find a place in the main cube.
I am aware that a couple of these cards most likely won't last very long (namely, Blind Obedience and Gyre Sage) but they seem fun enough to try for a while.
As always, any kind of feedback is appreciated, specially on post formatting and text length (these posts are becoming unintentionally huge). This thread needs more posts not written by me
Also, I'l see if I update the pictures sometime this week...
On the subject of world championship cards, I'm now running one of them in my cube that I altered (it's not an amazing alter, but at least it gets rid of the gold borders.
This is what I did to my Wasteland as well
The golden borders are even uglier than the white ones, but if you can get rid of them, you get great looking proxies.
Also, $8 for a WC FoW is a very good price. I couldn't find any below $10 on ebay.
You get two and a half internets for trying anything photo-forensics-ish
Also, what the heck is this guys crappy phone camera would be taking pictures in PNG instead of JPEG? (assuming the picture attached to the thread was exactly the same posted by the original poster)
EDIT: Put the picture through fotoforensics.com analysis tool and compared to another crappy phone picture I had laying around. Here are the results:
Melek picture: http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=c584703bc1bbfdb34a84ae5c6b3fcdc0f5e69e37.167715
Control Picture: http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=e9bb622093299ff06af126663bef61795046de3d.110194
(this was jpg, so I converted it to png as well)
Control Picture PNG: http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=0db8f94f8615ee7df91945f1b6e34f873cee93e4.1247153
This is what the website has to say about the analysed picture:
The red/blue patches are rainbowing. They are a tell-tail sign that an Adobe product was used on this picture. This is confirmed from the metadata: this picture was last saved with Adobe Photoshop 'Save-for-Web' (and not 'Save As') and the user selected a quality level of 60%.
(source: fotoforensics.com)
(Also, would be great if someone who actually understands more about photo forensics analysis checks this instead of me, who only reads about it once in a while)
As for the picture, the blur doesn't seem like the kind of blur you get from taking a picture, but just a simple linear blur. There is no depth whatsoever in the cardboard and no wear on the card, only a simple drop shadow effect and what looks like a linear white gradient overlay to fake the lightning. The only way this is actually in the set is if someone saw the real card, couldn't take a picture and did a half-assed attempt at a picture with simple skewing and what seems to be a stock wood textured. I might be wrong, but I don't feel like going through photo forensics analysis right now to prove this is fake (whoever goes for it gains 5 internets).
Also, without even looking at the picture, the design is both uninspiring and non-Izzety. Would look less fake if it was actually a Weird Wizard or something. This is speculative on my part. Could very well be an uninspired design or something pushed by development to make UR more playable standard-wise.
EDIT: To whoever did this, if is reading the threads: Would look better with a very thin white plain drop shadow with very little falloff before rasterizing the layer to make the "true" shadow. The cardboard would actually have any depth.
Looks fantastic
How long did it took to finish?
I have all three frames for each old dual.
Cube changes:
Thinning artifact section:
Razormane Masticore → Revoke Existence
Wanted more answers to noncreature permanents. War Priest of Thune and Kami of the Ancient Law were also considered.
Karn, Silver Golem → Psionic Blast
Wanted a card that was better for aggro/tempo than for good in control. I saw Psionic Blast in a couple of other lists an thought I should give it a try.
Triskelion → Faerie Macabre
Was thinking of adding any kind of sideboard card for this slot. Thought about discard and was between Cabal Therapy and Apetite for Brains, then I saw the faerie and imagined that more decks could want to have her than the discards.
Wayfarer's Bauble → Hearth Kami
Wanted another artifact hate card. Was between Kami and Smash to Smithereens. I chose the Kami because it is more maindeckable. Also, Bauble is a painful cut, as I really enjoyed the card.
Gilded Lotus → Viridian Zealot
You can never have enough answers for trouble permanents. There wasn't much contest for this spot. Nature's Claim was considered, but I feel Zealot will play better.
Other changes:
Welkin Tern → Azure Mage
Not sure about this change. I wanted to keep this slot as an aggro 2-drop, but blue doesn't have many. I considered Coralhelm Commander but I don't have one right now. Azure helps Champion of the Parish and, if Voidmage Prodigy ends up going from test pool to main cube, Azure Mage only gets better.
Sinkhole → Wrench Mind
It's weird but Sinkhole was very late picked and nobody seemed to want it maindeck. I believe Wrench Mind will be beloved by more decks than Sinkhole was, even if it is not a strictly better card.
Magma Spray → Pillar of Flame
When I added Spray, I thought it could be a neat card for red control and also an ok sideboard card against annoying recurring creatures that might give the deck some trouble. Turns out that being instant wasn't really impressive, plus, Pillar might take care of planeswalkers as well.
Deathbridge Goliath → Obstinate Baloth
I believe that Baloth will be more beloved by blink decks and whenever the green player goes against aggro.
Torrent of Souls → Olivia Voldaren
Torrent of Souls was to expensive for both Reanimator and as a finisher for aggro decks. Olivia seems like one of the few bomb-ish cards that doesn't force you directly into drafting control, so I want to see how she plays out. Terminate was also considered for this spot.
Obzedat, Ghost Council → Gerrard's Verdict
Players were expressing some concer over Obzedat because it was way to hard to remove him. I didn't think it was that troubling, but BW and Esper already got plenty of good finishers and could go without this one. Verdict seems to be a staple that was missing from the cube, so in it goes. Unburial Rites and Angel of Despair were considered as well.
As always, any feedback on these changes is highly appreciated.
If multiplayer is a thing, I'd go with the spider.
If the ramp/wildfire decks constantly get Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam, Borborygmos is your guy.
You can also try Deus of Calamity in that spot. Much harder to cast, but arrives just before Wildfire, survives it and keeps breaking lands.
Really enjoyed this one. The mist effect near the type box is pretty neat. Did you use any different technique to achieve this texture?
The reason I enjoy Moorland Haunt so much is that its not good in every deck and it punishes people that have greedy mana bases. Even though it is very specialized, UW tempo decks love the card and even some esper control decks with a mild amount of creatures can make use of it. The Haunt doesn't need to be activated more than twice to have a huge effect on the board.
And yeah, Zegana is an artist proof card
As always, any feedback is appreciated.
Also, I hadn't had the time to upload my pictures since last update, so I'll see if I do it this week.
Test Pool results:
From my old test pool, The Abyss got cut pretty quickly. After a draft, I knew that it was too polarizing of a card. A few notes about the card:
So, with all of this in mind, The Abyss was completely cut from the cube. As everything else that goes away for being too powerful (Moat), it may be back if it seems that there are enough answers in the cube that are fast enough and that don't require anyone to go through too many loops to play.
Glorious Anthem was also on probation and was also cut. It didn't get played even though it wasn't a very late pick. There seems to be so many better options right now that the anthem became obsolete.
Crystal Shard (also on probation) started to get some love now, so it will stay for a while longer.
Blind Obedience wasn't played enough and didn't do much when played.
Goblin Settler (another probation card) was also cut. It just didn't do much and/or didn't do it fast enough. In every situation it was played, Goblin Ruinblaster would have been a better card, so it's getting replaced to see if Ruinblaster is any good.
Gyre Sage was really good and was played a every time. It was like a little Tarmogoyf that tapped for mana once in a while. It was cut from the pool so I can test Quirion Dryad in its place. Whichever is best might get a place in the cube, as Gyre Sage has gotten some fans among my players.
There is not enough data on the other cards in the test pool so far.
Current test pool is now the following:
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Crystal Shard (probation; great)
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Goblin Ruinblaster (new)
1 Skyshroud Elite (new)
1 Quirion Dryad (new)
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Eureka (probation)
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius (new)]
I'm particularly interested in seeing how Skyshroud Elite plays, as my players tend to value mana fixing pretty high and decks usually have about 4-9 nonbasics (with a few having way more than that)
Cube changes:
There was another card in the Test Pool that was added between anouncements: Natural Order has replaced The Abyss for the last batch of drafts and did really well. Yes, I didn't have NO in my Cube already. As I thought it would be, it has earned a spot in the cube. It has switched places with Eureka, that is now on probation.
Well, only if the blue aggro decks can get to enough mana to flashback the Departure or to cast the repeal. I haven't seen blue aggro decks in my cube that get to use that amout of mana to just another bouce, as they are usually casting a top-curve finisher (which is usually from the nonblue color of the deck).
Being instant and only a single U also makes Snag great at the end of your opponents turn without hurting your board development on your last turn.
Again, this is only my opinion based on this last two months that I had my cube built. My cube ends having lots of tempo decks with high low-mana threat count, a few high-mana finishers and lots of disruption/protection and Vapor Snag has shined a lot. If you don't feel like supporting blue aggro in your cube, there are lots of better cards for this slot.
I'm also ok with having Vapor Snag to support aggro in blue because I already have Cyclonic Rift, Into the Roil, Capsize, Cryptic Command and Venser, Shaper Savant as generalist bounce cards and they have been enough to handle noncreature permanents so far.
I would also like to invite you guys to give some feedback on my cube, since that thread looks like Forever Alone Cube Thread
I got it in my cube because I couldn't find my foil Repeal anywhere. I thought it wouldn't be as good as it only targets creatures, but I had a signed one that was so pretty that it had to put it in, at least until I found the lost Repeal. Then I saw it rolling on aggressive blue decks...
Snag gets rid of a blocker while it helps you race, and once you play it, your opponents have to play around your lone untapped islands for the rest of the match. I've seen games where the opponent became extra cautious with its life total against aggro decks just because it played Snag. Aggro decks are usually very fast in my cube, so that one point of damage starts to matter a lot around turn 5 (especially in aggro x aggro).
When I finally found my Repeal (was in a Commander deck after all), I felt like blue control decks had enough answers and aggressives ones could use a little push, so Vapor Snag stayed.
If you don't like aggressive blue decks, Snag is not for you. It's not a card for every cube and it is also hard to access how good it is until you played with it a couple of times. It has been best in UW as it is the color combination most likely to put a strong board presence by turn 3, but slow decks can also use it to buy an extra turn to stabilize if they didn't got to pick Into the Roil or Cyclonic Rift.
tl;dr version: It is a great aggro card that has some value in control.
I'm just not sure about the following cards in you list:
Psionic Blast
I know it is a removal spell, but it's much better in aggro decks and you don't seem to have a lot of support for U aggro. Has it been a good enough removal spell for you? Has it actually been used to close any games?
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
This might have been the one of the first cards I cut from my cube. It never seemed to do enough for its cost: It's costed as a control finisher but never helps you stabilize. I'm running Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief right now and it is the most ridiculous finisher that black control decks have right now. It doesn't play the same way as Ob, but if you think he's tumbling a bit to to the weak side, you should check her out!
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
I like the Firemind a lot more and I don't run it in my cube. Your UR control decks already have plenty of options as finishers. I think you can safely get rid of this.
Wolly Thoctar
Have you tried Realm Razer? Eons ago, when my cube had shard slots the Razer was a pretty potent card
Hide//Seek
I also had this one in my cube when it had shard slots but I'm curious to know how has this played out for you. It's an efficient answer card, but it might make your deck less efficient if you have to fix for it.
Guided Passage
Seems really underpowered and not a card that I would like to draft, specially needing 3 colors to cast it. Also, you already have Maelstrom Wanderer in this shard. Shouldn't Mimeoplasm be here?
Also, you mentioned in your original post that you draft with 10 people. Do you put them all together or you do two pods? Do they tend to pull too much for 3-coloured decks or have they been able to draft mono-coloured ones consistently? I'm asking this because you might try to cut some cards to add another cycle of guild lands if you want to support more 3-coloured ones (or cut most of your tri-coloured to)
About the Mental Misstep nonsense, i think MM might be a good fit for this cube, especially with the huge amount of 1cc agressive creatures for green, though I have tested the card and I think that there are better options:
• If the problem is that you want a counter, you are missing Memory Lapse.
• If you want answers to fast decks, you have two good options:
○ Like U aggro/tempo decks? Vapor Snap has been a huge role-player in my cube for these decks. You might give it a try.
○ Need to answer more stuff? There is Boomerang as well. Bounces anything and might even act as a pseudo-Sinkhole on the play.
Given that both our cubes are most similar to wtwfl123's and we have a good support suite for aggro, I risk saying that the turn you buy with the bounce is almost always enough to buy you the game (given that you have more cards to support your game plan, of course) against the aggressive deck. I say that because most games with my cube are a tight race.
The one draft I remember (3-players winston draft):
WUR Battle Cry (had both Heros, Accorder's Palladin, lots of cheap creatures, removal and a sword)
GWU Bant Wake Control
BG Reanimator
Other interesting archetypes that got drafted:
UW Control
GWU Bant Ramp
UBR Bolas Control
UBR Flyers Aggro-Control
BRG Jund Beatdown
RGW Naya Beatdown
RGW Naya Planeswalkers
RGW Zoo
And a couple of WBRG Beatdown decks
(Yeah, Winston draft gets players to make lots of 3-colored decks)
Well, after all of this drafting, I got more feedback on my test pool cards and made some changes in my test pool:
Beast Within
Beast Within was picked pretty late and remained most of the time on sideboards. Players seems to like it, but nobody plays it. Maybe I can bring it back someday and see if people like it better then.
Mental Misstep and Traitorous Instict
Both had a huge main deck percentage and always did a little, but that liitle wasn't always enough. Even though Misstep could be played in virtually any deck, only blue decks picked it, and Traitorous Instict was always at its worse a 4-mana 4-damage spell(which wasn't bad for the decks it fits). I like both cards, but I want to let them out for a while to test new cards.
Gyre Sage
Not that great of a powerhouse but becomes a 3/4 very easily. The mana ability was irrelevant every time it was played, but it is a neat card. I will keep it for a while longer and maybe test Quirion Dryad later in it's place to see if it is still a good cube card.
Champion of the Parish, Fettergeist, Despise, Chandra, the Firebrand, Deathrite Shaman and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.
Each one of those cards were great role players (huge props to Fettergeist most of all) and were good enough that they went main. One interesting thing to note is that Nicol Bolas got cut from the test pool just after the first Grixis control deck based around him because it was already sure it would be main cubed.
So, on to the cube changes:
-Glorious Anthem¹ → +Champion of the Parish²
-Crystal Shard¹ → +Fettergeist²
-The Abyss¹ → Despise²
-Goblin Settler¹ → Chandra, the Firebrand²
-Zuran Orb³ → Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker²
-Bad River → Sunken Ruins
-Caves of Koilos → +Fetid Heath
-Putrefy → +Deathrite Shaman²
¹ = Card is now on probation
² = Card was on the test pool
³ = Card was on the watch list
From the cards that got replaced, one was in my watchlist for not doing enough (Zuran Orb), one I had already mentioned that could be replaced(Putrefy) and the other 4 cards are now in probation, which means that they have been taken to the test pool to better access their usefulness in the cube.
From the probation cards, Glorious Anthem and Crystal Shard seem to be severely underdrafted and almost never maindecked. They are now in the test pool to see if people like them enough to put them to good use.
Goblin Settler is a card that I never saw played before. Maybe it was never even in the draftable boosters. I know it looks good, but I want to put him into the test pool to access how good it really is and what strategies make it shine. After a while, I want to do some AB testing by putting Goblin Ruinblaster in his place to see if +1/+0 and haste makes up for not targeting basics and not being a good blink target.
The Abyss is a card that is extremely powerful and may have warped every game it was played. To be honest, I have never seen this card land in a deck that doesn't have either Bitterblossom or Moat (sometimes both before Moat got cutted). I want to see if this is actually that degenerate of a card and if so, I may cut it for something else. Personally, I like the card and would like for it to stay, but lets see how the cube handles this guy first.
About the two filter lands that got into the cube, I was planning to cut Bad River as UB tempo didn't like it very much when his lands got into play tapped (and UB hardly got the Bad River as there seems to be always someone else in B or U). I was between Sunken Ruins and Drowned Catacomb for the slot, but curving Counterspell into Geralf's Messenger seemed more interesting and the filter got the spot. Since Geralf is a great card in BW aggro as well and there are plenty of interesting cards for aggro that costs WW, Fetid Heath found it's place into the cube as well.
With all of the changes, the Test Pool had to be refactored. This is my current test pool now:
1 Glorious Anthem (probation)
1 Angelic Destiny (new)
1 Voidmage Prodigy (new)
1 Crystal Shard (probation)
1 Crypt Ghast (new)
1 The Abyss (probation)
1 Goblin Settler (probation)
1 Gyre Sage
1 Wolfir Silverheart (new)
• New cards have just been added to the test pool for some testing.
• Probation cards were in the cube and are now being tested for their real impact in drafts and deckbuilding.
• Cards noted as great have a good chance to find a place in the main cube.
As always, any kind of feedback is appreciated, specially on post formatting and text length (these posts are becoming unintentionally huge). This thread needs more posts not written by me
Also, I'l see if I update the pictures sometime this week...
This is what I did to my Wasteland as well
The golden borders are even uglier than the white ones, but if you can get rid of them, you get great looking proxies.
Also, $8 for a WC FoW is a very good price. I couldn't find any below $10 on ebay.