- Visserdrix
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Member for 7 years, 9 months, and 17 days
Last active Tue, Apr, 16 2024 22:33:22
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steve_man posted a message on This or That discussion.Deathtouch / Reach are nice but are usually never the reason to run anything, IMO. The only green cards I play with deathtouch are Acidic Slime, Hornet Queen, and Garruk Relentless and Noose Constrictor is my only creature with reach.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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Salmo posted a message on [[MCD]] Stax Effects (Smokestack and Braids)BW Mean Girls lol Im for itPosted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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MikePemulis posted a message on [[MCD]] Stax Effects (Smokestack and Braids)Recruiter of the Guard is great with Braids. Tutor Braids and sac fodder. I love it in a deck with Braids and both Thalias. My group calls it BW Mean Girls.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion
New Thalia is good in the archetype too.
Token producers sort of go both ways in that they're good for stax but also heartbreakingly good against it. Still, T2 Sinkhole into T3 Hanweir Garrison into T4 Braids should be enough against all but the fastest token decks. -
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MikePemulis posted a message on This or That discussion.I'm staring down the same problem when my Damnation arrives. I'll be at 450 soon and am thinking I want to play 3 black sweepers. Obviously Deluge and Damnation are best, but I'm almost thinking I'll run Expertise over Languish just because Expertise has huge upside.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion
Here's what Languish hits that Expertise doesn't in my cube: Brimaz, Restoration Angel, Hero of Bladehold, Spellskite, Meloku, Kalitas, and Courser of Kruphix. It seems like 5 toughness matters a lot more in cube than 4 does, and Languish misses all the 5 toughness ones anyway. Sure, you say, but Languish approximates Wildfire and maybe helps that deck, but BR Wildfire is rare anyway and helping out that deck and missing the seven creatures I listed above doesn't seem like as big a game as getting a free spell stapled to the sweeper. It probably hurts the matchup against W-based aggro most, but black has enough spot removal to make up for it, I hope?
Plus I hate the dumb alligator art on Languish anyway.
@visserdrix My numbers probably don't apply to your cube, since your aggro support seems less extensive, while you have more midrange stuff happening than I do. There might be a huge difference in Expertise and Languish in your cube. -
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steve_man posted a message on This or That discussion.Toxic Deluge ≥ Damnation > Languish > Yahenni's Expertise in my book.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion
At 375 you probably don't need more than Deluge / Damnation. I think all 4 is more than enough in my 540 at the moment. -
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wtwlf123 posted a message on Random Cube Card of the Day ThreadFumarole's great. It gets in for 4 when the coast is clear, and can block beasts on defense. And even on most contested boards, it force the opponent to dedicate a bear to block it to avoid taking 4. That's a nice amount of combat utility to have strapped to a fixing land.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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Metamind posted a message on Random Cube Card of the Day ThreadI recently added Elvish Visionary. Still no results, but the rationale is there is a high demand for cheap green creatures that provide value outside of their body. Decks with Natural Order want to maximize the amount of low drop green creatures, Gaea's Cradle loves them, you want something to pitch to Survival of the Fittest and just another body for Craterhoof Behemoth and Garruk ultimates is handy. You can always dump Visionary into the board with no care about mass removals. Just playing it turn two to block and be able to get it back the turn after with Eternal Witness is nice.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion
Even better in B/G. It is a painless sac fodder for braids and skullclamp, cheap value target for Meren and Heretical Healer and is even a good target for Recurring Nightmare. Just having an early blocker against aggro or a body to hold equipment is often highly useful, as seen with Thraben Inspector. -
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steve_man posted a message on [AER][CUBE] Walking BallistaSynergy? All I need is mana.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion -
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Goodking posted a message on Oppressive Cards for Unpowered CubeOur take on some of the cards mentioned (for unpowered cube):Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion
Fast mana in general is basically power as far as we are concerned. Mana Vault, Crypt, Ring, etc. Monolith was OK, because it comes down later and gives you an actual possibility of answering it. We are presently running everything, but were running an environment without fast mana better than Monolith for a couple of years. Library gets even better in that environment and would suggest avoiding it.
Wurmcoil Engine: Easy to answer, but carries a lot of near-guaranteed value. If your group isn't OK with that, Thragtusk falls foul too. If you are running Tinker, there are bigger and more degenerate targets.
Jace the Mind Sculptor: Fairer when it's not being powered out. Top-shelf card, but something is always going to be, right?
Swords: Not a problem in our estimation. Not only do they require five mana in two installments, and a creature to equip to, AND hitting a player to get the effect - plus with instant speed removal you can get blown out in combat, so there is an element of risk. We are generally packing good levels of artifact removal, but an unpowered cube could do that too. Protections can be an issue for some colours, but answering the artifact itself, sweeping, discarding etc. kept them comfortably in check regardless of whether our cube was powered/unpowered or in-between. They aren't at all problem cards IMO. Unlike...
Umezawa's Jitte: Four mana to equip and swing is a lot different than five, and it also only needs to connect to a creature OR player. Jitte is unreasonably impactful in most games it comes down, and gives a smaller window in which to answer it, compared to the Swords. Would avoid.
Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond: Both fine, I would play Chrome Mox is not running 'broken' fast mana, and Diamond is fine and fair either way.
True-Name Nemesis: There are answers to this guy, but we cut him for being so very boring, and not feeling blue in the slightest. Flavour and feel are important to us, so he got the boot. I would suggest he's probably too strong for a lot of folks on an objective level, too.
Bribery: Objectively, probably fine. Keeps some broken decks honest. But the card brought feel-bad and logistical issues, since you get to spend a bunch of time memorizing the opponent's deck. Overall, felt too much like an Un-card without the entertainment value of an Un-card. Unpopular opinion, but whatever.
Treachery: Kind of strong, but not significantly better than other theft options since you don't have the means to abuse the untap other than possibly just playing another spell in the same turn, which seems like a pretty fair cube play. Also a nice answer to the big fatties.
Arcane Savant: I can understand the issues, but I would rather put the Upheaval in my deck and attach something off-colour to the Savant, which is usually what happens. He's been strong but fair here. Depends what you are running as targets, though. You could always run a gentlemen's/ladies' agreement about not attaching bounce/Upheavals to him for repeated recursion, I guess.
Moat: B/R does really struggle with it besides discard, but we're fine with that. YMMV.
Nether Void/Armageddon/Ravages of War: If control can have game-enders, why not aggro? These require set-up and curving out, and seem like fair pay-off. Not a problem IMO.
Balance: I can see this being cut for fun/power reasons. Personally, I love it.
Recurring Nightmare: More of a puzzle piece than inherently totally degenerate. I think it's fine in unpowered. Again, top-tier, but there will always be top tier cards.
Mind Twist: I consider this degenerate with fast mana, but actually it was fine in unpowered/semi-powered. A big Hymn to Tourach is fine and dandy on T3-4; on T1, not so much.
Karn Liberated: Not even close to oppressive, was cut here for not doing enough.
Eldrazi in general: They kind of balance themselves by the obscene costs, so an aggro deck can chew your face off before you get close to 12 mana. In the cheaty deck, they are good dedicate targets. Probably fair and worth it to run one or two. I used to be very much against Eldrazi as they are so niche; you can't Tinker, Natural Order, Reanimate (the old ones) them, but there are enough ways to use them to warrant running one or two, and it's nice for those decks to have an exclusive pick available. Emrakul, the Promised End is my favourite one by some distance.
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wtwlf123 posted a message on [AER][CUBE] Walking BallistaThis creature has been awesome in testing.Posted in: Cube Card and Archetype Discussion - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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