Leelue, I am still having trouble understanding Maw of the Obzedat's effectiveness. How is he so good, yet a card like Goldnight Commander not as highly touted... Maw is a 5 drop in a Guild section AND you have to sac a creature... where as Goodnight, just has to have a creature come into play, no? I mean at what amount of creatures and what power toughness does Maw become "good". 1, no, 2, no, 3, maybe? if they are 3/3's then +1 P/T isn't as effective as pumping a 1/1 twofold into a 2/2...
I don't know I just can't get my brain to understand his goodness.
a 3/3 body when you play him, no work (ever) required (he costs more obviously but 3/3 is a lot better than 2/2).
Lets you generate value the turn you play him relatively easily.
Saccing a creature isn't such a big deal in the deck that wants him (BW tokens/sac). In fact it's easily upside with othercards in that archetype. It's not too rare that your opponent is on like 5 and you just sac everything, triggertriggertrigger and win.
Maw makes combat math a nightmare and blanks a lot of removal (and will often be the highest priority card to remove at which point you still get to anthem for a turn).
He's one of the best "I'M AN ARCHETYPE, BUILD AROUND ME" cards in the (typical) peasant format which is helpful for signals and new players who don't know what to draft.
Maw only requires the board to be relatively even to run away with the game. Goldnight requires that you still have token generating cards to surpass Maw (and if you still have token generators in hand, that means you're getting less value out of the pumps anyway).
You can activate him on your opponents turn hassle free.
Like, I'm quite confident this is top2 BW cards. I wouldn't be upset at all if people called it the best. It's just that good. Put it in a deck (that's built to abuse it), play against it and learn a new definition of misery. You'll come round.
Real answer: It's your cube, do what you want. My hybrids aren't really balanced, but they're close and that's good enough for me. Somebody drafting your environment is never going to stop and ask "how do you classify Dryad Militant in your colour allocations?". They don't care. It's just one of those traps we cube designers love to fall into and try to make all the tiny (almost insignificant) details align.
As an aside and just my personal opinion, I don't really see Gruul Guildmage as anything other than mono-green. It has upside if you can burn your opponent out but I don't think that'd ever be my Plan-A.
If you end up with graveyard goodstuff more often than grave.dec, that's probably a symptom of the size of your cube more than a reflection on the value of those cards. Weaver is exactly the kind of engine the graveyard deck wants. Being good in generic midrange decks is what makes the card truly playable.
The thing about madness is that you don't want to be paying mana to discard the card. In the draft (and constructed) formats it appeared (Vintage Masters, Odyssey) you'd take all the Wild Mongrel's and Aquamoeba's you could find. The point is to reduce the cost of the card (not just give it flash) by discarding it so guys like Waterfront Bouncer run counter to that plan.
I'd play Nyx Weaver before Grisly Salvage and I'm not just saying that because I adore the card. It has a relevant defensive body which is exactly what a turtly deck like this wants. Unanswered, this guy will plop 10 cards (including dredgers!) into your yard in short order. Being able to cast Spider Spawning (or Gnaw to the Bone) 3 times is often back breaking.
Elves of deep shadow a 2. There's so many other dorks I'd play before this. I'm generally disinclined to play offcolour dorks anyway since there's plenty of GG and even GGG cards I want to ramp to.
It probably being blue's strongest combat trick and the opportunity to turn a trading combat into a 2for1 has got to be worth something. As does the tempo it can generate if you just need to slow your opponents board down for a turn. You also can't really get 2for1'd by trying to use it if you've got two guys.
Don't actually cut a colour though, that'd be crazy (but actually do it)!
Like, I'm quite confident this is top2 BW cards. I wouldn't be upset at all if people called it the best. It's just that good. Put it in a deck (that's built to abuse it), play against it and learn a new definition of misery. You'll come round.
As an aside and just my personal opinion, I don't really see Gruul Guildmage as anything other than mono-green. It has upside if you can burn your opponent out but I don't think that'd ever be my Plan-A.
Elvish Herder a 1, Skysweeper a 0.5.
All good otherwise.
A two sounds fair.
duh