EDH really depends on your group. It's great if people build decks that can win, but still have some personality. If the power level is too high, it becomes arduous.
Ah, fair enough. I assumed decks that want Stoke want it because they're going to use the convoke mode, so aren't necessarily going for Ghost-Lit Raider at full price, whereas a grindier deck would. But maybe that's wrong.
I've had Arc Mage (seems more similar than Stoke the Flames) in the cube for a short while some years ago, he was alright but clunky. Ghost-Lit Raider looks better than that, so I've no doubt it can work for a lot of people. Guess there are a lot of cards out there like that: you can play them if you want to, but even if you don't run all the most powerful cards you don't need to go there.
Still, I'm happy I tried Arc Mage, even if it's not a card I'd actively recommend. Sometimes it's worth trying these cards just to see how they feel. At worst you'll decide it's not what you were looking for, at best you've found a card that makes your cube more fun. No downside really. Just run them and see where it goes if you're tempted.
I guess it depends on what you mean by breaking draft, but a card that ensures you'll be two mana ahead is going to create massively uneven playing fields for your games. Playing Sol Ring is kind of like stacking your deck in that regard. Sounds to me like the fact that you couldn't use that extra mana often was more to do with your deck and less with the fact that being two mana ahead is fine.
It's not hard to create the potential for a red/black sweeper deck. So I'd say it's actually the green half of cards like Savage Twister that doesn't work. Sweepers and Green don't go together well and Green doesn't offer much for control decks in general either.
And while the last few years has been a bit weird in terms of peasant cube in that C/U removal has been poor for example, retail limited formats have generally been good. There are some exceptions of course, but if you pick the best from the best and look at cross synergies, there could definitely be something there.
I totally agree. If anything, playing something like these limited formats without the bomb rares sounds great to me.
I'm not redefining color balance. I'm contending that when you claim a "real difference" it's in fact not. In terms of the draft, it's a nominal difference, not a real one. Why make the draft the central reference point? Because color balance only exists to ensure that the draft goes well. There's no point to balancing your colors otherwise.
You were also claiming "hybdrid cards are healthy for the format, but not as guild cards". I find that kind of absolute claim baffling and not helpful for anyone, hence the reminder that what we're talking about is a cube with no actual hard rules beyond "make it fun". You're not violating the fundamental laws of physics or human decency if you're a couple of cards off. Even how much we're actually off if we run a hybdrid in a gold slot is a matter for debate. None of your players is ever going to notice on their own if you suddenly start running 61 white cards and 59 blue ones. So have fun debating it, but don't worry too much about it.
Again, color balance is a good idea and you should stick to it in principle, sure. Again, if ~your~ cube has to be completely balanced in a way you find appealing for you to be happy, sure, go for it. Make yourself happy. But I'd prefer we didn't pretend it's going to be a tragedy if anyone else is off by a couple of cards. It's not. It's only as important as you want to make it for yourself when you're building your cube.
People like to debate hybrid classification a lot, but it honestly doesn't make a practical difference wether one color effectively has one card more or less. Nobody's ever going to notice while drafting, as long as it's just a couple of cards. So claiming stuff like "treating them the same as guild cards doesn't work in terms of color balance" is a bit pointless. Yes, your color balance will be off in a theoretical sense, but it won't make a practical difference. If you need to have your colors balanced in a theoretical sense, go ahead and classify however you want. Theorycrafting can be fun after all. But if you only care about the impact on draft, don't bother with work that doesn't change your draft experience: just treat hybrids as guild cards and be done with it. If you feel like that curtails your gold cards, add one card slot per guild and fill it with hybrids where you want, the rest can just be additional gold cards.
With topics like these, it's really important to remember that your cube is your cube, you can't really do anything wrong as long as drafting it is still fun.
Thaks for the explanations. Still, I do not understand it. A card like Prismatic Vista just adds to the fun imho.
Most important word in bold. People have different tastes. You can understand why people would go down the peasant path without wanting to go there yourself.
By restricting yourself to C/U you also have to get creative. Sometimes you won't have the exact card you'd want (say lands), so you figure out how to make it work anyway. The power level overall is also much more even compared to rares, so there are not that many default inclusions and each new set gives you lots of new options (many of which you'll end up with anyway if you draft, so you get to repurpose those cards instead of shoving them into a box and never looking at them again). There are also fewer people creating peasant/pauper lists, another reason the lists are less standardized overall.
You can learn about it here. It's pretty neat!
Still, I'm happy I tried Arc Mage, even if it's not a card I'd actively recommend. Sometimes it's worth trying these cards just to see how they feel. At worst you'll decide it's not what you were looking for, at best you've found a card that makes your cube more fun. No downside really. Just run them and see where it goes if you're tempted.
I totally agree. If anything, playing something like these limited formats without the bomb rares sounds great to me.
You were also claiming "hybdrid cards are healthy for the format, but not as guild cards". I find that kind of absolute claim baffling and not helpful for anyone, hence the reminder that what we're talking about is a cube with no actual hard rules beyond "make it fun". You're not violating the fundamental laws of physics or human decency if you're a couple of cards off. Even how much we're actually off if we run a hybdrid in a gold slot is a matter for debate. None of your players is ever going to notice on their own if you suddenly start running 61 white cards and 59 blue ones. So have fun debating it, but don't worry too much about it.
Again, color balance is a good idea and you should stick to it in principle, sure. Again, if ~your~ cube has to be completely balanced in a way you find appealing for you to be happy, sure, go for it. Make yourself happy. But I'd prefer we didn't pretend it's going to be a tragedy if anyone else is off by a couple of cards. It's not. It's only as important as you want to make it for yourself when you're building your cube.
With topics like these, it's really important to remember that your cube is your cube, you can't really do anything wrong as long as drafting it is still fun.
Most important word in bold. People have different tastes. You can understand why people would go down the peasant path without wanting to go there yourself.