I was wondering if some of you have run Pulse Tracker as a 4th black one-drop critter, and how did he do?
At first I didn't really consider his application, but actually he's only worse as a black Savannah Lions against toughness 2 creatures. And even then, he still got through 1 point and helped any other creatures hit face. There's no pain involved in playing him, either.
What do you think? I could use another good black one-drop.
Since the pool doesn't lend itself well for an aggro start, I chose to cut cards like Leech, Horror and Mutavault (the latter more to avoid compromosing the mana base actually). Stag and Viper didn't make the cut as they are not essential to the deck and have a difficult cost, at the upper regions of the curve Kodama and Silvos fell for much the same reasons (to my regrets).
We run the best green mana creatures and the best aggro creatures and it's worked out pretty well. The first group includes all one mana creatures (Birds, lawnmower, fyndhorn, noble, arbor) and the best 2 mana creatures (gemhide sliver, lotus cobra, rofellos), and I must say that alongside great stuff like tusker, harrow, kodama's reach and farseek (among others) this ramps nicely. As for 'best aggro', I think this is where many people end up with different interpretations of what exactly this entails. Most people agree that cards like Wild Mongrel, Tarmogoyf and the boas are great for aggro, but the 1-drops are a different matter. Personally, I don't like any of the green 1-drop aggro creatures enough to include them, and yet aggro decks with green in them have still been built and ended up as contenders. This has led me to believe that it's not necessary to include the green 1-drops, after all there's red and white (and to a lesser extent, black) to provide great 1-drops for a green/x aggro deck.
Great article Usman! What's your opinion on the new "Llanowar Elf" variant Arbor Elf? Has the cube finally reached the critical mass for 1 drop green accelerators?
You didn't ask me, but I'd include it even in a small cube. There must be a threshold for 1-cost green mana critters, but as far as I'm concerned that point hasn't been reached yet. Every deck that runs green wants a couple of these, and Arbor Elf is a pretty solid addition to the existing accelerators.
Your list is why red is so hard. Four XR burn spells 1-4 is perfectly valid. But they're so barely red spells. Also any reason why you left of rolling earthquake?
I am not Fredo, but I know why he didn't vote for it. We don't play with Portal spells in our Cube as he has the feeling they are not 'real' Magic cards.
Right on the money. If forced to include this fake card (:D) it'd probably rate around 10th because of the double red in the cost.
As for the X burn spells, they're pretty solidly red as far as I'm concerned. Even if they are easily splashed (which is exactly why they scored so well in my list), I wouldn't know in what other section they should appear.
Don't worry about it, welcome to the voting. The more the merrier!
I like your Scroll avatar. Looks really good and somehow different without the context of the card frame.
I run Farhaven Elf and Grinning Demon in my 570 cube, and they've both been good (but neither is essential). And one more Pulse Tracker query...
At first I didn't really consider his application, but actually he's only worse as a black Savannah Lions against toughness 2 creatures. And even then, he still got through 1 point and helped any other creatures hit face. There's no pain involved in playing him, either.
What do you think? I could use another good black one-drop.
Since the pool doesn't lend itself well for an aggro start, I chose to cut cards like Leech, Horror and Mutavault (the latter more to avoid compromosing the mana base actually). Stag and Viper didn't make the cut as they are not essential to the deck and have a difficult cost, at the upper regions of the curve Kodama and Silvos fell for much the same reasons (to my regrets).
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Bitterblossom
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Bloodghast
1 Naturalize
1 Eternal Witness
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Bane of the Living
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Whickerbough Elder
1 Nekrataal
1 Damnation
1 Genesis
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Wasteland
1 City of Brass
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Verdant Catacomb
1 Mox Emerald
5 Forest
6 Swamp
1 Mutavault
1 Skyshroud Elite
1 Dauthi Horror
1 Putrid Leech
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Ohran Viper
1 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Kodama of the North Tree
1 Silvos Rogue Elemental
1 Living Death
My bad. That would place it even higher.
You didn't ask me, but I'd include it even in a small cube. There must be a threshold for 1-cost green mana critters, but as far as I'm concerned that point hasn't been reached yet. Every deck that runs green wants a couple of these, and Arbor Elf is a pretty solid addition to the existing accelerators.
Right on the money. If forced to include this fake card (:D) it'd probably rate around 10th because of the double red in the cost.
As for the X burn spells, they're pretty solidly red as far as I'm concerned. Even if they are easily splashed (which is exactly why they scored so well in my list), I wouldn't know in what other section they should appear.
Top 20 Red:
2 Demonfire
3 Disintegrate
4 Fireball
5 Flametongue Kavu
6 Lightning Bolt
7 Chain Lightning
8 Earthquake
9 Wheel of Fortune
10 Siege Gang Commander
11 Chandra Nalaar
12 Char
13 Incinerate
14 Wildfire
15 Burst Lightning
16 Starstorm
17 Comet Storm
18 Avalanche Riders
19 Crater Hellion
20 Aftershock
It's pretty good, and you can interpret that as 'good enough to rank 9th in the 2010 Cube Power Rankings list for blue'.
If you have one, it really should find a home in your cube.
The OP is up to date - as always, constructive criticism is welcome.
I really don't get those crazy splash people. Why pass an awesome card in your own color for an off-color one?