As far as artifacts and lands to avoid, there's not much. I mean, as long as you guys have fun with the cards and the cube is an enjoyable experience, you're doing it right. I would caution against overdoing lands that enter the battlefield tapped though, if you want aggressive decks to be playable in more than one color.
Cheers, and happy cubing!
This made me rofl.
Moat is 10x Easier to recover from than Armageddon. Instead of needing to consecutively top-deck your entire landbase, all you need to do is cast Naturalize or play some flying creatures. Or burn out your opponent. Or play one of a hundred (or more) other cards in the cube that deal with Moat.
So does Moat. When your opponent has three flying creatures they're beating you down with, that's hardly an "appropriate" time for Moat.
.......
Is Moat good? Yes. Is it unbeatable? Not even close.
Are all the cards in the cube good? Yes. Are any of the cards unbeatable? No.
Why do people have such a problem using good cards in the cube? That's the point!
If it came between the Carnophage and a removal spell in my black control deck, the 'phage isn't going to cut it. Ever. I'm going to play something that's going to provide me with the same protection without the cost of life and the fragility of a 2 toughness creature.
If we had Bitterblossom and Bob in our draft pool, I'd want the Carnophage too... but we don't. We're playing a control-esque deck that the 'phage has no place in (IMO).
I love Carnophage as much as the next guy, but I don't think it's going to make the cut in this deck we're all drafting here.
We're going to test the cube as is for a while, but the next time an artifat needs to be replaced, we'll give the Amulet a whorl. (However, it won't be for the cards you mentioned, all of those cards are really strong... have you ever tried Null Brooch? It's an absolute beating).
He's always good. He has haste and he grows. It's THE 2-Drop for RR/x aggro, IMO.
It's also devastating when your creatures are destroyed. Does that mean you shouldn't play creatures? No. It's devastating when your opponent counters a spell and kills one of your creatures with Suffocating Blast... does that mean that you should never play a spell when you have a creature with <4 toughness on the board? Of course not. Anytime an opponent gets card advantage or tempo advantage in any way, it's "devastating". That doesn't mean that you shouldn't play good cards because the opponent may have a chance to capitalize from time to time.
The bounce-lands aren't any different from the example of playing 2 (or more) creatures to the board when you know your opponent has mass-removal spells. Even though they don't provide tempo advantage (or 'ramp') the bounce-lands are still great mana fixing cards, AND they allow you to reach your 4th mana with only 3 lands, etc... Outstanding.
EDIT: Also, who doesn't run Bitterblossom? Is it because it's on the banned list for being too good or something?
This is the same as saying: "I'm never going to play TWO creatures because if my opponent has a Wrath of God then it's gonna be a blowout!"
Playing more than one creature is okay, even if your opponent has Wrath of God in his deck, and playing bounce-lands is okay even if your opponent has a Wasteland in his deck.
Having your bounce-land destroyed and having your harrow countered are so far from auto-loses... I can't even begin to see where you're coming from. Does it hurt you? Sure. So does having your Savannah Lions Lightning Bolt'd. That doesn't mean you shouldn't include Savannah Lions in the cube. Every card in the game is about risk/reward. Having a high-risk/high-reward card isn't a bad thing. That's why Dark Confidant is good, that's why Fireblast is good. That's also why the bounce-lands are good.
Yes and No. It depends on the matchup. If I'm the aggro player against control, I don't care about my life total. If I'm an aggro player against another aggro deck, your life total is extremely important. If I'm a control deck... my life total is, again, important. We're playing a control deck. We can't afford to run too many cards that take our life away if we have an unfavorable matchup (like against RG aggro or something).
Trust me... I loved the Necropotence as much as anybody. Out of the 100+ drafts we've had, the Necro has only been played in 2 decks. Once in Mono Black when it was fantastic, and another time in BB/r when the BBB was so prohibitive that it wasn't played until like turn 7 or something. I wanted to keep it, but it never gor played, so it got the axe.
Dark Hatchling was another card I really wanted to keep. But, with the presence of Bone Shredder and Nekrataal, he was just underpowered. Now that the cube has been reduced in size, it was time to let him go.
Sneak Attack. Sometimes great, sometimes awful. It has been narrow for us here. Only drafted a few times. Without the presence of the Kamigawa dragons and stuff like Sundering Titan, the Sneak Attack just isn't as good in the "Classic Cube".
@ The_Grey_King:
We discussed the Quicksilver Amulet, and it would've made the cut prior to the reduction in size. Now that the cube's smaller, there's not enough room.
I'd stick to the ones that hit all of your creatures, not just the White ones...
But you don't. You don't need 9 mana. But, when you do have it, there isn't anything better to spend the mana on. The card advantage is so outrageous that you can't ignore it.