Was more trying to make my point about the weaker green mana dorks, which is off topic anyway.
I think we had a discussion that went into that direction in the Gilded Goose Thread. I've had the same feeling towards Dorks that tap for G and I feel Gilded Goosr to be the superior card. Anyways, off topic.
While not having played with a Cradle so far, I'd say it probably opens up more archetype support than the Village. I guess it depends on how the ramp deck is doing versus how midrange decks are doing in your cube right now.
I still really like Oblivion Ring and Banishing Light. Simply seemed to work out for me quite a lot. But I'm also one of my drafters focusing on Enchantment Removal the most, so most other drafters have little to no answers to my O-Rings.
Regarding Earthquake - I've actually been killed a lot by my Aggro opponent playing Earthquake for 7 when I considered myself safe in the late game, so I like to keep it in as a weird form of reach and also a very useful, albeit conditional sweeper.
Seems like a good time for a Necro, since the last year, starting with Zendikar Rising, has blessed us with amazing low CMC cards and that trend is now continuing with the adversary cycle of new Innistrad. For those in particular, they'd be a reasonable hit in the very late game where you can pay for the EtB "Kicker"
As a Mana dork, it might not be needed, but I like the card for everything else it brings to the table. When the time comes and another Hierarch is printed, I'm not sure whether I'll cut Gilded Goose or something like Llanowar Elves. I'm already at the number of 1CMC Mana Dorks I like, so I don't need to include another one and sacrifice such a versatile creature like the Goose for it.
That is one thing I always advocated about Gilded Goose. Many people seem to rank it rather low, while I personally rate it at about the same rate as Birds of Paradise. There are so many synergies with the card that combined make it an amazingly valuable cube card that I anticipate to play for many years!
For anyone still playing Black Sun's Zentith or Massacre Wurm (I know I have been playing those two for far too long) this seems like a better alternative to both.
Additionally, I included Dark Depths along with the tools necessary to make that work (see number 34. in the above link), which actually produces a fairly nice Abzan toolbox deck together with the Persist combo now and then.
A friend of mine established a Simic extra turns archetype in his cube with the basis being nonland permanent ramp together with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and extra turn spells, most notably Nexus of Fate.
The same friend also ran Approach of the Second Sun for some time and made it work, although traditional Control decks, where this card is best, don't really need it as an additional tool.
If it wasn't for the flavor text I think MA would easily win, however, the simplicity of the MH2 textbox is very appealing.
I am actually a huge fan of flavour-text on all cards. The increased immersion makes it a huge deal for me. The best example of this actually is Counterspell from Ice Age.
I don't really like the artwork, but the flavourtext is one of my favourites!
So in both regards I like the MA better than the MH2 version, even though both are sufficiently cool!:sunny:
Can you maybe elaborate on Order of Midnight? It never seemed overly appealing to me, but I have seen you speak up for it on several occasions and am intrigued.
This thing seems very hard to deal with - there's not many exile effects for an indestructible artifact in most cubes so this will have a lot of inevitability.
Notably, you would only need to keep the creature in check to which the artifact is attached. For creatures there exist a lot of exile effects.
With the abundance of EtB creatures these days, I'm actually happy when not every slot is filled with them. Will pass on this, since I also have enough copies of this effect with Eternal Witness, Regrowth and Bala Ged Recovery.
I think we had a discussion that went into that direction in the Gilded Goose Thread. I've had the same feeling towards Dorks that tap for G and I feel Gilded Goosr to be the superior card. Anyways, off topic.
Will take a closer look at my persist enablers and might just swap Grumgully, Good-Fortune Unicorn or Renata for Arlinn.
Regarding Earthquake - I've actually been killed a lot by my Aggro opponent playing Earthquake for 7 when I considered myself safe in the late game, so I like to keep it in as a weird form of reach and also a very useful, albeit conditional sweeper.
As a Mana dork, it might not be needed, but I like the card for everything else it brings to the table. When the time comes and another Hierarch is printed, I'm not sure whether I'll cut Gilded Goose or something like Llanowar Elves. I'm already at the number of 1CMC Mana Dorks I like, so I don't need to include another one and sacrifice such a versatile creature like the Goose for it.
See number 15. Melira Combo
Additionally, I included Dark Depths along with the tools necessary to make that work (see number 34. in the above link), which actually produces a fairly nice Abzan toolbox deck together with the Persist combo now and then.
A friend of mine established a Simic extra turns archetype in his cube with the basis being nonland permanent ramp together with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and extra turn spells, most notably Nexus of Fate.
The same friend also ran Approach of the Second Sun for some time and made it work, although traditional Control decks, where this card is best, don't really need it as an additional tool.
I am actually a huge fan of flavour-text on all cards. The increased immersion makes it a huge deal for me. The best example of this actually is Counterspell from Ice Age.
I don't really like the artwork, but the flavourtext is one of my favourites!
So in both regards I like the MA better than the MH2 version, even though both are sufficiently cool!:sunny:
Notably, you would only need to keep the creature in check to which the artifact is attached. For creatures there exist a lot of exile effects.