I am also curious about Edict's removal, as well as the removal of Ashborn Phoenix, since you seemed pretty high on it during preview season and it's performed pretty well for us. Is it just plain worse than even the worst of the Goblin Rabblemaster variants as far as red threes go?
Also, thanks for all you do for the cube community - I know I probably wouldn't have a power cube were it not for you.
I was in the same spot as you recently and ended up cutting Lightning Strike to get Bonecrusher Giant in when Eldraine dropped. If anyone has an opinion on what else I am currently running that I should cut to get the strike back in, I would be very open to suggestions. (cube link in my signature).
But that's what I did as a 540 power cube; I don't know if that helps you.
Is Underworld Breach worth it in a power cube that doesn't have rituals or storm support? Or would it be better served as something like Lightning Strike number three?
I personally like the one drop soul warden and soul's attendant best of those.
I like Clique better than Barrower but if your group is newer or less experiences players its easier to understand and use the Barrower than the Clique.
@rantipole Thank you very much for weighing in on my cut situation above. It helps to hear another opinion when deciding sometimes.
I have quite liked force of virtue but I think I agree it is the best cut for it. We've found Robber to be fine, but uninspiring. His attack clause is REALLY hard to make go off and he's mostly just been a 2/2 with Haste (and reach)
I'm trying to find a cut to try out the new Heliod, but it's tough because there isn't really a card like him in the cube right now (is he included as a creature? an Enchantment? etc). Would it make sense to try cutting Flickerwisp or Spectral Procession for him? Or Force of Virtue? Hard to tell if I am barking up the wrong tree, and it's extra tough since I am trying to find room for Shatter the Sky too...
What about replacing Skinrender with Eat to Extinction (assuming that's the one to cut over Nekraatal)? We've been getting a lot more planeswalkers as of late and some extra planeswalker removal would be nice.
No clue what to cut for the Phoenix... Warboss seems like the only option but Warboss has been good for us. Is cutting Robber of the Rich a mistake for curve reasons? We have so many red threes now (and I recently kind-of added another by cutting Lightning Strike for Bonecrusher Giant in ELD)
Cheers! Thanks for the insight. We've had a lot of success with paradise being untapped and providing any color for CC heavy decks (instead of being locked into one with terramorphic/evolving wilds), but we've also not been cubing for nearly as long and I will happily defer to your judgement. Thanks for helping me get it sorted out.
I can't explain how good this card has been for us. Its such a small investment to run for a card that ensures getting flooded is OK. It plays great with any kind of token-y archetypes (stax, aristocrats, anthem-beatdown) and it plays great with any kind of artifact deck shenanigans whatsoever (cheap for tinker, makes many artifacts if you need to go wide with artifact count, etc). Finally, it can even make fliers when the ground is stalled or for something like a moat/quake deck (serra has fun with this card). And it is great at buying time in slower decks as well - the ability to blank removal on your chump blocker by turning it into an untapped token in response, or to chump something and then do the same to not even be down a chump blocker, is really quite efficient.
The more I think about it, the more I think the cut for Lightning Greaves should be one of the Rainbow Lands. I did the math again, and as of Fabled Passage from Eldraine, I am running 11 rainbow lands on top of the 5 per guild for a total of 61/540 or ~11.3% of the cube. That seems like it is a touch on the high side. How do people rank the following 11 rainbow lands? I'll give my attempt at a ranking as well (my list is running Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator:
Mana Confluence
City of Brass
Reflecting Pool
Gemstone Mine
Prismatic Vista
Fabled Passage
Undiscovered Paradise
Grand Coliseum
Ash Barrens
Terramorphic Expanse & Evolving Wilds
If the bottom of this list is correct it means I should maybe cut one of the evolving wilds... which is just crazy to me since they are such good cards, but these last few months have given us some very good rainbow lands, so maybe that is right.
Cube Size: 540 Cards
Breakdown: 70 Each Color, 80 colorless, 110 guild
Standard or Theme Cube: Standard
Average # Players: Two - Four
How Often Drafted: Once a week or so.
Draft Type: Glimpse Draft
Card Selection
Powered Cards: Yes
Portal Cards: Yes
Duplicate Cards: No
Snow S Cards: No
Colorless C Cards: No
"Un-" Cards: No
Banned Cards: None (Everything vintage legal is fair game)
Cube Design
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard
Sideboards?: Yes
Even Color Balance: Yes
Perfect Creature/Non-Creature Balance: No
Gold Balance: Yes
Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold: Yes
Color Triggers as Gold: Yes
Perfectly Balanced CMC: No
Supported Archetypes:
Kiki Combo: UR
Persist Combo : GWB
Tempo: UGw
Aggro: RWBg
Control: UWBr
Midrange: GBw
Tokens/Anthems: RWb
Stax: Bwr
Blink/Bounce (ETB Abuse): WUx
Artifact Combo: URb
Reanimator: Bx
Loam/Lands Deck: Gr
Thieves (Leovold Draw-7): Ubg
Wildfire: Rw
Moat/Quake: RW
Spells Matter: Urw
Fatty Cheating (Oath/Sneak/Show): GRu
Super Ramp (Mirari's Wake): Gwu
Upheaval: Ux
Archetypes not supported:
Storm
Time Vault Combo
Very interested in general cube construction feedback! If you have any constructive criticism I'd love to hear it.
I have been very happy in the few games I've gotten to draft this card so far. For reference, I am 540 powered cube, and I don't and didn't run Oath of Nissa.
Casting this for free is really, really good. Its pretty easy to cast it turn 2 after your first/second card draw to dig really deep and help ensure your gameplan comes together. If you want my anecdotal evidence, here it is:
I played it in a green based Sneak/Show deck, where it functioned to either dig for a mana dork/land of the missing color early when I had my combo pieces in hand, or to dig for a fatty to cheat in when I had mana and the cheat cards but no fatty. It was really great there, even as a late topdeck where it essentially turned my topdeck into a dig 5 deep for another fatty.
The other deck I had it in was a low to the ground simic tempo deck. Here it also did an amazing job of digging early for that Edric or that Hexdrinker that I really want to play on curve, or being a great topdeck even late where I can look at the top 5 and get the best bit of gas from among them to keep applying the pressure.
Any deck where you want (even if its just want, and not need) a key piece to have that ideal curve out and that piece is a creature or land (pretty easy if you are in green to meet that requirement). And in power cube that comes up a lot; it just raises the chances for you to get that ideal opening quite a bit, and in cube the difference between the ceiling of what your deck can do and what it does on average can sometimes be very high. It's nice to have something that helps close that gap in green.
Thanks for the feedback folks. Sounds like I should keep it in my 540. Some players were suggesting it was a little too slow... perhaps I will try to make a point of drafting it and proving them wrong.
How does [[Icy Manipulator]] stack up in the current cube meta? What about [[Crystal Shard]]/[[Erratic Portal]]? I feel like they've been a little too slow to shine at their 3/4 mana investments for nothing the turn they are played. Would you cut Icy or the Portal for [[Lightning Greaves]]? I've been trying to get the greaves back in to give the sneak/show/reanimate combos a bit more support.
I do not run [[Scroll Rack]] either, but I do run [[Treasure Map]]. Is that correct?
How do we feel about Catastrophe in 2019? I'm finding the cube environment has gotten quite a bit faster in the last few years, to the point where a six-mana wrath is often too little, too late. I like that it adds more redundancy to the wildfire archetype though, albeit in a different and less one-sided way.
How has Kykar held up since his inclusion? I opted to go with Soulfire Grand Master as my Jeskai card and was interested to know if the folks that tried Kykar found him underwhelming or better than expected?
Also, thanks for all you do for the cube community - I know I probably wouldn't have a power cube were it not for you.
But that's what I did as a 540 power cube; I don't know if that helps you.
I like Clique better than Barrower but if your group is newer or less experiences players its easier to understand and use the Barrower than the Clique.
@rantipole Thank you very much for weighing in on my cut situation above. It helps to hear another opinion when deciding sometimes.
I have quite liked force of virtue but I think I agree it is the best cut for it. We've found Robber to be fine, but uninspiring. His attack clause is REALLY hard to make go off and he's mostly just been a 2/2 with Haste (and reach)
What about replacing Skinrender with Eat to Extinction (assuming that's the one to cut over Nekraatal)? We've been getting a lot more planeswalkers as of late and some extra planeswalker removal would be nice.
Should I be slotting in Woe Rider over Vampire Nighthawk or Mardu Strikeleader?
No clue what to cut for the Phoenix... Warboss seems like the only option but Warboss has been good for us. Is cutting Robber of the Rich a mistake for curve reasons? We have so many red threes now (and I recently kind-of added another by cutting Lightning Strike for Bonecrusher Giant in ELD)
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/power-cube
Basic Cube Info:
Basic Info
Cube Size: 540 Cards
Breakdown: 70 Each Color, 80 colorless, 110 guild
Standard or Theme Cube: Standard
Average # Players: Two - Four
How Often Drafted: Once a week or so.
Draft Type: Glimpse Draft
Card Selection
Cube Design
Storm
Time Vault Combo
Very interested in general cube construction feedback! If you have any constructive criticism I'd love to hear it.
Casting this for free is really, really good. Its pretty easy to cast it turn 2 after your first/second card draw to dig really deep and help ensure your gameplan comes together. If you want my anecdotal evidence, here it is:
I played it in a green based Sneak/Show deck, where it functioned to either dig for a mana dork/land of the missing color early when I had my combo pieces in hand, or to dig for a fatty to cheat in when I had mana and the cheat cards but no fatty. It was really great there, even as a late topdeck where it essentially turned my topdeck into a dig 5 deep for another fatty.
The other deck I had it in was a low to the ground simic tempo deck. Here it also did an amazing job of digging early for that Edric or that Hexdrinker that I really want to play on curve, or being a great topdeck even late where I can look at the top 5 and get the best bit of gas from among them to keep applying the pressure.
Any deck where you want (even if its just want, and not need) a key piece to have that ideal curve out and that piece is a creature or land (pretty easy if you are in green to meet that requirement). And in power cube that comes up a lot; it just raises the chances for you to get that ideal opening quite a bit, and in cube the difference between the ceiling of what your deck can do and what it does on average can sometimes be very high. It's nice to have something that helps close that gap in green.
I do not run [[Scroll Rack]] either, but I do run [[Treasure Map]]. Is that correct?