MTG Salvation

This card is power. It presents the same clock as Goblin Rabblemaster, while also being a more difficult card type to remove. Also it replaces itself. Casting this turn 2 off a Birds of Paradise or Noble Hierarch is ridiculous. If you've ever been milled out by Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, consider this mills 3 times faster. Also it replaces itself. Card is unbelievable.

I'm surprised people seem to be low on this card. I think it looks great and will be testing it.

Primal Command > Stunted Growth

Standard is Type 2, yes. The most budget fairly competitive deck right now is the Cycling deck. The deck is mostly commons and uncommons.

Super budget cycling:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=27778&d=420479&f=ST

Upgraded cycling:
https://aetherhub.com/Deck/boros---yore-lurrus-cycle

As for Blue/Black. Rogues are doing very well, though more expensive than Cycling.

Aggro version:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=27822&d=420781&f=ST

Control version:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=27811&d=420680&f=ST

If trying to go stompy green, Lovestruck Beast and Rhonas the Indomitable might be considerations. Green's got a few good beatdown creatures at 4cmc and 5cmc, but it's a little shallow at 3cmc outside of Kazandu Mammoth and Tireless Tracker. I'll second steve_man's suggestion of Jadelight Ranger. That card's always impressed me everytime I've played it.

Fire/Ice, Body/Mind, Wargear, Heirloom Blade, Feast/Famine. Fire/Ice is the best. I think Wargear, Heirloom and Body/Mind are all pretty close. It drops off a bit after that. The 3 asmallcat listed are the only 3 I run in my 360, though I could see swapping Jitte and Skullclamp in my list for 2 more if powering down.


Crib Swap vs. Kabira Takedown

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy vs. Ancestral Vision

Pyroclasm vs. Cinderclasm

Until Lotus Cobra is banned, I don't see Spikefield Hazard's playrate going down in Standard. There's a lot of important X/1s in standard: Cobra, Edgewall Innkeeper, various Rogues. No experience with it in cube, though.

I think Sleight is better overall.

-They are relatively equal if both cards are bad (Sleight maybe gets the edge here because you keep the best worst card rather than card #2)
-Opt is better if both cards are good
-They are the same if top card is bad, second is good
-Sleight is better if top card is good, second is bad

I think point 4 beats out point 2

Quote from tylorlilley »

I have a 540 Powered Cube (that supports persist combo) and am looking to find room for Tangeled Floralhedron. It seems to make sense that I cut a different green two drop ramp creature. Rate/Order the following:

Wall of Roots
Devoted Druid
Tangeled Floralhedron
Sylvan Advocate
Sakura-Tribe Elder

My current plan is the run the first three on that list, plus Lotus Cobra and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary. Does that sound right?

I'm watching Tangled Floralhedron, as well. I'm not sure where exactly it fits into the ranking, but I do think Sakura-tribe Elder is the best one on the list, I wouldn't cut that one.

I like SGC, but I cut it from my 360, and I feel my cube's better for it. The only 5cmcs I run in red now are Kiki and Conscripts.

Goblin Engineer is a different type of card, so I'm going to exclude that from my ranking, but

Harsh Mentor > War-name > Ire Shaman > Keldon

I've added Shatterskull Smashing to my list of inclusions, and will be keeping an eye on the other MDFCs.

Quote from tylorlilley »

I'm still interested to hear what people think about Jinxed Idol vs Spawning Pit as well.

I've never played either of those, but I feel like if you're running either of those cards, it's in order to support Aristocrats and Persist combo archetypes. If that's the case, I'd pick Spawning Pit, as being able to sacrifice over multiple turns is more important than the 2 damage per turn if the opponent keeps the Idol. If those are not archetypes you're supporting, I guess Idol is the better card for aggro against creature-light control, but I'm not super impressed by that.

Quote from d0rsal »

@ Jamis, since scavenging ooze & tireless tracker are different cmc, i'm assuming that ur flexible w/ ur cuts, so why not drop mardu woe-reaper & add wall of omens, that way you could cut wall of blossoms. same wall, different name, so you dont lose the effect, & that would give you room to add kazandu mammoth...

on a side note, just curious, but why isamaru, hound of konda & not kytheon, hero of akros

Tracker, Ooze, and Mammoth take up a similar role in my mind - they're low-costed green creatures that beat down with minor upsides. Tracker can investigate, Ooze can be gravehate and lifegain, Mammoth can be a land, but I think the same deck that would play one, would play any of them. Woe-reaper and Wall of Omens aren't the same in my mind. The white weenie player would be much less happy to have a Wall of Omens instead of a Woe-reaper. I could still see cutting Wall of Blossoms for the Mammoth instead, though.

Kytheon and JVP are two cards that are good enough to be in my cube, but are kind of left-over exclusions from when the cube was slightly lower power. I don't want players to have to split so much attention fighting multiple onboard planeswalkers. The power level in the cube has increased, and because of that I've recently doubled the amount of Planeswalkers in the cube, because I felt decks could now handle that. It's possible Kytheon could have slotted in during that update, too. Part of me also wishes there were playable black, red and green flip walkers, too though. But that's a lesser concern; I already run several incomplete cycles. Kytheon will likely be in one day, but it's not been a priority to make the swap.

White
Luminarch Aspirant

Blue
Jace, Mirror Mage

Black
Skyclave Shade
Nighthawk Scavenger

I'm also watching Kazandu Mammoth. I think it's likely to make it in, but the cut would either be Scavenging Ooze or Tireless Tracker, and I'm not 100% which of the three is the right cut yet.