I'm frequently having trouble consistently curving into 4 drops - I'm wondering if Temples are worth a second shot. I think a 1-drop is very important, but I don't think its reasonable to expect hands to 1 drop into 2 drop into 3 drop into 4 drop - I'm anticipating playing the temple on turns 2/3 to scry into your 4th land and not as your first land.
I've written an article about the Minimum Number of Enablers required to support each archetype - You can probably base your cube's original tribal support based a similar calculations and tune it from that point.
I'm still running it but its popularity has definitely been waning. other than repeating whats already been said I can only offer my stats.
After 49 drafts and 157 games it has a maindeck percentage of 51.02% and a win percentage of 56.05% ranking it 45th out of 50 cards in the white section of my 360 Unpowered list.
Not sure if I'm reading this right but ~90% of your white cards have a winning % greater than 56?
I really love your method of calculations and it gives me great insight into cube construction.
My cube/ deck construction are more based off heuristics with the number of filter effects, removal, counter spells etc. as well as gameplay theory from constructed - See section on Green/ White Archetypes.
Back to Bladehold. I guess my problem with bladehold has more to do with white aggro in general - its a strong archetype, but it lacks any scry, looting, discard etc. making it much more vulnerable to flooding/ not hitting required lands than other color combinations. Its also not as powerful as Palace Jailer, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Armageddon.
The problem I've found with this archetype is all its enablers are 3 CMC+ and requires either a green mana dork pairing or a white aggressive shell (UW tempo) in order to really function in a competitive environment.
There are edge cases where the drafter has several efficient removal spells/ Force of Will/ Solitude that the deck is quick enough.
I've noticed every single Flicker deck in Modern and Legacy has Aether Vial - Its a narrow card, but I'm more or less seeing it as a necessary enabler for this archetype.
I think Chandra, Torch of Defiance is the only auto include and everything else depends on which archetypes your cube supports - Welder, Big Red, Spells Matter, Polymorph.
There are 2 planeswalkers that have a slight chance of making it back into my cube:
- Koth of the Hammer - As stated above, this may come back into my cube if an extra set of fetches/ dual land fixing is added - This way the add red is stronger and can +3/4 on the following turn for big red archetypes
- Chandra, the Firebrand - I've noticed that the toughness of creatures in my cube have been trending downwards as the power level increase (They become more and more efficient). As a result, the 1 damage will be much more powerful - Similar to Liliana, the Last Hope/ Wreen and Six. The -2 is something that will likely also get stronger as more cards like Miracles, Delve, FireBlast become printed. Fireblast + Copy is a lot of damage
Zariel, Archduke of Avernus / Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker / Chandra, Pyromaster / Chandra, Flamecaller are all fine cards, but competition is just too stiff.
Koth was pushed out of my cube for my red Aristocrats/ Polymorph Package - in particular Purphorous, God of the Forge, Hazoret the Fervent and Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast.
The problem I've found is his -2 counts mountains. If it was "red sources", then this would be ideal for both aggressive decks, big red and polymorph.
I could see Koth make a comeback if there is another cycle of playable Dual Lands or playable fetch lands or the Triome + Mirage Cycles are complete.
Was just talking to the playgroup about this card, we think it looks great as aggressive decks can likely find use for this card once in a while, but more notably basically all the non-aggro red decks can seriously take advantage of an instant-speed double rummage when the burn isn't good (Reanimator, Artifact Ramp, Time Vault, Through the Breach combo, Izzet Control, etc). Card looks super sweet imo, and this hitting PWs really puts it over the edge. It's ust so versatile that I'm excited to draft with this, possible card disadvantage be damned.
I was on Mardu aggro the other day with a good deck, strong curve but it lacked draw (Dark Confidant, Skullclamp), Looting (Seasoned Pyromancer, Faithless Looting), Discard effects (Liliana of the Veil, Crypt Breaker) or any scry effects (Woe Strider/ Magma Jet) and was having difficulties with both hitting its 4th land drop + flooding.
This might not be the flashiest card in fair decks, but these type of effects can go a long way in decks that plays 17 lands + its curve ends at 17.
Show and Tell isn't a great Plan A IMO but I've found it as the safest of the backup plans:
- It is decent in Reanimator decks - Through the Breach can be a good plan B, but reanimator often does not have Eldrazi, it often needs the creature to stick around and doesn't curve into 5 CMC as well as Breach decks.
- It can be a ritual in storm decks to power out Thousand-Year/ Bolas Citadel/ Memory Jar etc. Its not the best ritual, but its can do a serviceable job if the deck is short on playables.
- It can be good in ramp decks - These decks would prefer Natural Order/ Channel but you cannot have everything.
- It can be decent in Polymoprh/ Oath decks.
- Not the best card in the Mindslaver/ Welder Daretti Archetype, but does a serviceable job.
I've never found Show and Tell to be the MVP in any deck, but I've found it to be a consistent enabler to help smooth out these various archetypes. I would never recommend any drafter to have Show and Tell as their Plan A but have it as their Plan B in these various deck is they're short on enablers (which 60-80% of the time they would appreciate some redundancy).
I would be super happy if we can have some haste enablers.
I like 3-4 Temples in my 9th cycle land lands, but my play group riots.
I've found aggressive decks are very different from 5 years ago and are relying more on 3-4 drops - Rabblemaster variants/ Palace Jailer, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Armageddon, Hazoret the Fervent etc.
I'm frequently having trouble consistently curving into 4 drops - I'm wondering if Temples are worth a second shot. I think a 1-drop is very important, but I don't think its reasonable to expect hands to 1 drop into 2 drop into 3 drop into 4 drop - I'm anticipating playing the temple on turns 2/3 to scry into your 4th land and not as your first land.
What do other people think?
I've written an article about the Minimum Number of Enablers required to support each archetype - You can probably base your cube's original tribal support based a similar calculations and tune it from that point.
I believe its based off the average of the mainboard percentage + win rate.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jKhQ35Ekhiko8W-rG6AAC_rkQmSjf-yBn11TeRbe0rQ/edit#gid=0
I really love your method of calculations and it gives me great insight into cube construction.
My cube/ deck construction are more based off heuristics with the number of filter effects, removal, counter spells etc. as well as gameplay theory from constructed - See section on Green/ White Archetypes.
Back to Bladehold. I guess my problem with bladehold has more to do with white aggro in general - its a strong archetype, but it lacks any scry, looting, discard etc. making it much more vulnerable to flooding/ not hitting required lands than other color combinations. Its also not as powerful as Palace Jailer, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Armageddon.
There are edge cases where the drafter has several efficient removal spells/ Force of Will/ Solitude that the deck is quick enough.
I've noticed every single Flicker deck in Modern and Legacy has Aether Vial - Its a narrow card, but I'm more or less seeing it as a necessary enabler for this archetype.
There are 2 planeswalkers that have a slight chance of making it back into my cube:
- Koth of the Hammer - As stated above, this may come back into my cube if an extra set of fetches/ dual land fixing is added - This way the add red is stronger and can +3/4 on the following turn for big red archetypes
- Chandra, the Firebrand - I've noticed that the toughness of creatures in my cube have been trending downwards as the power level increase (They become more and more efficient). As a result, the 1 damage will be much more powerful - Similar to Liliana, the Last Hope/ Wreen and Six. The -2 is something that will likely also get stronger as more cards like Miracles, Delve, FireBlast become printed. Fireblast + Copy is a lot of damage
Zariel, Archduke of Avernus / Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker / Chandra, Pyromaster / Chandra, Flamecaller are all fine cards, but competition is just too stiff.
The problem I've found is his -2 counts mountains. If it was "red sources", then this would be ideal for both aggressive decks, big red and polymorph.
I could see Koth make a comeback if there is another cycle of playable Dual Lands or playable fetch lands or the Triome + Mirage Cycles are complete.
I was on Mardu aggro the other day with a good deck, strong curve but it lacked draw (Dark Confidant, Skullclamp), Looting (Seasoned Pyromancer, Faithless Looting), Discard effects (Liliana of the Veil, Crypt Breaker) or any scry effects (Woe Strider/ Magma Jet) and was having difficulties with both hitting its 4th land drop + flooding.
This might not be the flashiest card in fair decks, but these type of effects can go a long way in decks that plays 17 lands + its curve ends at 17.
- It is decent in Reanimator decks - Through the Breach can be a good plan B, but reanimator often does not have Eldrazi, it often needs the creature to stick around and doesn't curve into 5 CMC as well as Breach decks.
- It can be a ritual in storm decks to power out Thousand-Year/ Bolas Citadel/ Memory Jar etc. Its not the best ritual, but its can do a serviceable job if the deck is short on playables.
- It can be good in ramp decks - These decks would prefer Natural Order/ Channel but you cannot have everything.
- It can be decent in Polymoprh/ Oath decks.
- Not the best card in the Mindslaver/ Welder Daretti Archetype, but does a serviceable job.
I've never found Show and Tell to be the MVP in any deck, but I've found it to be a consistent enabler to help smooth out these various archetypes. I would never recommend any drafter to have Show and Tell as their Plan A but have it as their Plan B in these various deck is they're short on enablers (which 60-80% of the time they would appreciate some redundancy).
This is a card that really hasn't been working out for me. This might be the only card left in my cube that doesn't pass the Vindicate test.
I still see a lot of people running her - Does she work>
I'm wondering if Jeskai Ascendancy can be a fine addition to the cube.
Phoenix of Ash, Laelia, the Blade Reforged and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death were all great, but something needed to go.