My general rule of thumb on the internet/texting/e-mail/etc is to assume everyone is speaking in a pleasant tone of voice and not assume anything that isn't blatant sarcasm/dickery/etc. is as such. Often the tone and intent between the reader and writer is off, so I just assume everyone is being nice and friendly until it's obviously not so
I run a lot of Cube drafts if any of you are interested, my name is Salmoilla on there, if you see me on shoot me a PM and ask if I'm running/about to run one.
I didn't know he said that and frankly, I don't pay attention to what any "pro" says about cube. I pay attention to what folks in this forum say; collectively we are the cube experts. I don't know that anyone on this forum really follows LSV, although I guess it's possible.
I ranked SDT so much lower than previously because 1) lots of swords got printed, 2) while I think it's a powerful effect, I'd rather p1p1 something really ridiculous. I'll take Winter Orb over Top every time.
Cheers,
rant
I'd be surprised if there wasn't a good portion of people on here who havn't at least seen the cube video--which I believe was posted in one of the sticky forums--where he states that SDT isn't that good. (point of reference) You may not pay attention to what pros say, but it's not out of the question to believe some people either took his word or subconsciously now follow what he says since he has a pretty good opinion about most arts of the game.
All that being said, this was a great year for artifacts with many staples printed that win games quicker that the SDT, so it does make sense that it dropped otherwise. The LSV thing is only a theory that could not be true.
I'm very surprized then, Clearly there are some very different players out there.
Of all the times I've stuck top on turn 1 I've lost less than 5 of those games. There are only 2 colorless cards I take over it.
Sol Ring
Library of Alexandira
Pack 1, pick 1 I'll take the top every time.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was directly related to LSV's claim that SDT isn't a good cube card, for reasons I disagree with and he hasn't really ever explained on camera. A lot of people take his word as gospel on everything, and while he does know a lot about the game Top is still a nutty card and he's not correct about this one IMO.
WG
1. Kitchen Finks
2. Mirari's Wake (some lists, it's #2, some lists don't have it...crazy!)
3. Quasali Pridemage
4. Loam Lion
5. Knight of the Reliquary
If your local cube switched from unpowered to powered would you stop playing with their cube? I need to know this before I decide to get power in the future!
I definitely would not stop, especially since it already has sol ring, mind twist and mana vault in it. Power is still a lot of fun.
Jace is oppressive because a lot of the time you "just win".
The swords are oppressive because your opponent pretty much MUST hit a shatter effect or loses. If your opponent is those two colors then it's gg right then and there. This is especially so for the ones printed in scars block.
I don't find this to be the case at all. Jace 3 is often not in the clear on an empty board, and you really can't drop him on a board facing a creature if you don't have any yourself or any creatures. Im more worried about Jace 2 than 3 every day of the week.
In terms of weapons, if you don't have guys on the battlefield, the swords are useless. Countless games have been won/lost because a guy has a sword but no one to wear it. There is enough removal in cube that a creature holding a sword shouldn't automatically mean "Game Over".
Power is fun, but it also can be annoying as all heck. I hate spending 8 million years drafting/making a deck only to have first game go black lotus-> 4 drop and the next game go T2 mind twist for my hand. (That happened last night. The total playing time was about 7 or 8 minutes after taking about an hour to setup draft, draft, and make the deck.) I know it's part of the game and I should expect it, but given the choice I'd take unpowered 9 times out of 10 as those broken openings aren't as common and the decks/games are more evenly matched.
Do early turn 1/2 blow outs happen every game? Of course not. But all it takes is a streak of insane openings to really turn you off, especially when unpowered is a viable and easily accessible option online.
1. Sol Ring
2. Black Lotus
3. Umezawa's Jitte
4. ABU Mox
5. Mana Crypt
6. Skull Clamp
7. Sword of Fire and Ice
8. Wurmcoil Engine
9. Mana Vault
10. Batterskull
11. Sword of Body and Mind
12. Sword of Light and Shadow
13. Tanglewire
14. Sword of Feast and Famine
15. Senesei's Diving Top
16. Mimic Vat
17. Winter Orb
18. Coalition Relic
19. Karn Liberated
20. Mox Diamond
Transform cards haven't been a single problem ever. I just can't help but feel people who complain about them are just doing so in order to complain. No one is possibly that lazy.
-AA
This. IMO any writing that isn't in the standard Magic font looks really bad on a card, seems like the card doesn't belong and it's just sloppy in contrast to the crispness of the original text.
That list isn't managed by me. It looks to be a very old 500 card list of mine. But it hasn't been updated, and it's not a list I'd recommend anymore.
It's been a year since it was updated, which I noticed after the draft. Still fun, though. On the 360 there: do you keep the list up to date for other people to draft, or do you use tappedout.net yourself to draft online/test out the cube?
I need to revise my top 20 list to include squee now.
These are the cards that I think have problematic classifications:
Hybrid cards (e.g. Kitchen Finks)
Kicker Cards (e.g. Dismantling Blow, Thornscape Battlemage)
Phyrexian Mana (e.g. Porcelain Legionaire, Phyrexian Metamorph, Dismember, Moltensteel Dragon)
Cards that want another mana (e.g. Kird Ape, Crystal Shard, Vedalken Shackles)
Sunburst (e.g. Engineered Explosives)
Cards you don't necessarily cast (e.g. Bloodghast, Squee)
Split Cards (e.g. Fire // Ice)
Lands that have a coloured activation (e.g. Volrath's Stronghold, Treetop Village)
Colourless Cards (e.g. Karn)
For most of those it seems pretty straight forward where they go. Hybrid cards are both color, kicker cards with off-colored costs aren't used in most non-pauper/peasant cubes, I don't think you'd play a split card without potentially using the other half as each side is subpar without the option of the other, you pay color for the phyrexian mana if you don't want to pay the life (which happens often enough), bloodghast and squee (for the most part) don't rely on other colors to cast/use, and I believe the op says that the lands are going to go into their own section.
If we are getting technical, the biggest issues are the ones that want another mana as only having a red border as a required classification requirement screws things up. Also, I think you can make the exception for Karn, as he is the only colorless card that isn't an artifact a majority of cubes would run.
So whenever I draft powered cubes on cockatrice/tappedout.net, I use your 360, and it's really good--everyone who plays enjoys it, and there's minimal "WHY IS CARD X IN HERE" complaining during the draft. The only issue I have with a 360 is drafting and playing can get a little monotonous if you're always doing 8-man drafts. I saw you have a 500 card cube on there (http://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/wtwlf123s-500-card-powered-cube/) but it's run by someone else it seems. Do you know who that is, are they on these forums, and if they plan to update it at all?
My general rule of thumb on the internet/texting/e-mail/etc is to assume everyone is speaking in a pleasant tone of voice and not assume anything that isn't blatant sarcasm/dickery/etc. is as such. Often the tone and intent between the reader and writer is off, so I just assume everyone is being nice and friendly until it's obviously not so
I'd be surprised if there wasn't a good portion of people on here who havn't at least seen the cube video--which I believe was posted in one of the sticky forums--where he states that SDT isn't that good. (point of reference) You may not pay attention to what pros say, but it's not out of the question to believe some people either took his word or subconsciously now follow what he says since he has a pretty good opinion about most arts of the game.
All that being said, this was a great year for artifacts with many staples printed that win games quicker that the SDT, so it does make sense that it dropped otherwise. The LSV thing is only a theory that could not be true.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was directly related to LSV's claim that SDT isn't a good cube card, for reasons I disagree with and he hasn't really ever explained on camera. A lot of people take his word as gospel on everything, and while he does know a lot about the game Top is still a nutty card and he's not correct about this one IMO.
1. Bloodbraid Elf
2. Kird Ape
3. Boggart Ram-Gang
4. Stormbind
5. Sarkhan Vol
UW
1. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
2. Wall of Denial
3. Azorius Guildmage
4. Venser, the Sojourner
5. Geist of Saint Traft
UG
1. Simic Sky Swallower
2. Trygon Predator
3. Mystic Snake
4. Edric, Spymaster of Trest
5. Temporal Spring
BW
1. Vindicate
2. Stillmoon Cavileer
3. Mortify
4. Gerrard's Verdict
5. Desolation Angel
UB
1. Psychatog
2. Shadowmage Infiltrator
3. Oona, Queen of the Fae
4. Recoil
5. Nemesis of Reason
BR
1. Terminate
2. Murderous Redcap
3. Butimous Blast
4. Blightning
5. Olivia Voldaren
RW
1. Ajani Vengeant
2. Figure of Destiny
3. Lightning Helix
4. Goblin Trenches
5. Duergar Hedge-Mage
BG
1. Pernicious Deed
2. Maelstrom Pulse
3. Putrefy
4. Putrid Leach
5. Spiritmonger
WG
1. Kitchen Finks
2. Mirari's Wake (some lists, it's #2, some lists don't have it...crazy!)
3. Quasali Pridemage
4. Loam Lion
5. Knight of the Reliquary
UR
1. Electrolyze
2. Fire//Ice
3. Prophetic Bolt
4. Gelectrode
5. Jilt
I definitely would not stop, especially since it already has sol ring, mind twist and mana vault in it. Power is still a lot of fun.
I don't find this to be the case at all. Jace 3 is often not in the clear on an empty board, and you really can't drop him on a board facing a creature if you don't have any yourself or any creatures. Im more worried about Jace 2 than 3 every day of the week.
In terms of weapons, if you don't have guys on the battlefield, the swords are useless. Countless games have been won/lost because a guy has a sword but no one to wear it. There is enough removal in cube that a creature holding a sword shouldn't automatically mean "Game Over".
Do early turn 1/2 blow outs happen every game? Of course not. But all it takes is a streak of insane openings to really turn you off, especially when unpowered is a viable and easily accessible option online.
2. Black Lotus
3. Umezawa's Jitte
4. ABU Mox
5. Mana Crypt
6. Skull Clamp
7. Sword of Fire and Ice
8. Wurmcoil Engine
9. Mana Vault
10. Batterskull
11. Sword of Body and Mind
12. Sword of Light and Shadow
13. Tanglewire
14. Sword of Feast and Famine
15. Senesei's Diving Top
16. Mimic Vat
17. Winter Orb
18. Coalition Relic
19. Karn Liberated
20. Mox Diamond
This. IMO any writing that isn't in the standard Magic font looks really bad on a card, seems like the card doesn't belong and it's just sloppy in contrast to the crispness of the original text.
Cool, thanks. It's appreciated.
It's been a year since it was updated, which I noticed after the draft. Still fun, though. On the 360 there: do you keep the list up to date for other people to draft, or do you use tappedout.net yourself to draft online/test out the cube?
For most of those it seems pretty straight forward where they go. Hybrid cards are both color, kicker cards with off-colored costs aren't used in most non-pauper/peasant cubes, I don't think you'd play a split card without potentially using the other half as each side is subpar without the option of the other, you pay color for the phyrexian mana if you don't want to pay the life (which happens often enough), bloodghast and squee (for the most part) don't rely on other colors to cast/use, and I believe the op says that the lands are going to go into their own section.
If we are getting technical, the biggest issues are the ones that want another mana as only having a red border as a required classification requirement screws things up. Also, I think you can make the exception for Karn, as he is the only colorless card that isn't an artifact a majority of cubes would run.
2. Flametongue Kavu
3. Goblin Guide
4. Lightning Bolt
5. Wheel of Fortune
6. Chain Lightning
7. Koth of the Hammer
8. Avalanche Riders
9. Siege-Gang Commander
10. Char (Thanks!)
11. Hero of Oxid Ridge
12. Pillage
13. Fireblast
14. Wildfire
15. Grim Lavamancer
16. Hell's Thunder
17. Firebolt
18. Chandra, the Firebrand
19. Inferno Titan
20. Chandra's Phoenix