Lol, the land system is one of the games best features. Yes you can lose to variance but in a card game it's not really possible to prevent that. It just happens that land problems look and feel worse than other rng issues you could face in the game. Lands add waaaaay more to the game in terms of strategic depth of deck design and gameplay than they take away from it.
Disagreed. It is possible to avoid and many modern games design away from this type of thing. Magic is unfortunately stuck with it, and there's really no good way to change that. The color wheel was a good design, but randomly losing the game to too many or too few lands is definitely a design flaw.
I still really like Flickerwisp. It's a great body for white, and the flicker is often worth value. _i0 detailed its many great uses. It's a 4 for me.
The new Faigrounds Warden is a 3 or better. I was never sold on the previous similar minions with their WW cost. I feel they're somewhere between 2-3 each? The Banisher Priest has 2 power but the Fiend Hunter has the quirky abuseable effect when combined with instant blinks.
Briarbridge Patrol is a card I wanted to be good enough to test out, but it just doesn't seem like it. It dies to common removal without getting you that clue, it's understatted so it can't even fight efficiently. If it was a 2/4, 2/5, or 3/4 those all would've been a nice stat allocation for this creature. It's a shame they didn't make it a bigger body with a more expensive cost.
Without additional clue support, Briarbridge Patrol has to survive three combats for you to gain its secondary effect. By that point, you have the mana to hardcast the creature anyways. If we discount this, a 4 mana 3/3 echo 2 draw a card just doesn't seem good enough.
I'm really excited to try Manaplasm. It sounds like a great card and the interaction with sweepers is a great bonus. Just curving out after gives you a gigantic beater. When combined with the mini "flash" theme I have in green, it can even play defense.
I mean I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but in practicality you're saving like.... one minute of players' reading/explaining time over the next 20 years of Cube usage by intentionally excluding Custodi Squire with that logic.
For sure. I run all these types of cards still. But I see it all the time - new players or infrequent players of the cube have a really hard time with the complexity of not just Custodi Squire, but all the other nonsense in the cube too. I often consider building a different cube that's significantly simpler on this front, but includes rares for my sanity so I can actually create the environment I want.
Yeah I "get" being uncomfortable with that but the payoff of playing a good card outweighs that for what I would call a reasonable thought
Funny that if we continue the thought from the other thread about creating a more wholesome, reduced RPS/autoplay type of gameplay, it's possible that this isn't the right prioritization. Reasonable thoughts might be more important after all.
Yeah, it definitely feels this way. Most of it just comes down to the match-up. I've been thinking this to myself: where should the gameplay be? The draft or during play? I'm of the opinion that both should matter, optimally, but the game is definitely way too skewed towards the draft right now. I'm likely going to build a new cube where it's gameplay first - possibly even change up the way it's drafted entirely.
I think it's more to the point that Custodi Squire's real text is "Flying. When Custodi Squire enters the battlefield, return an artifact, creature, or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand." All that voting stuff is nonsense text 99.8% of the time. It's not that the ability is hard to learn, it's just got a bunch of meaningless words on it that obfuscates how it plays. This part's more of a stretch, but it might even lead your players into thinking that the cube is for drafting multiplayer or that there are vote manipulation cards too.
I feel like our peasant cubes often contain misshapen cards that aren't meant for the format. Take for example Custodi Squire, Besmirch, Rite of the Raging Storm and Curse of Predation. Unlike the former 3 cards, the Monarch cards don't have extraneous trinket text when it comes to 1v1 games. Why would Monarch be any different?
Embodiment of fury hasnt seen much play in my cube. It's a bad rate on its own and with only one landfall its sorta meh.
You don't like Embodiment of Fury much? It's been at least solid if not spectacular in my cube. Compared to something like Bloodfray Giant, the elemental can pump out as much damage if not more. You can have it do something the turn it comes into play if curved onto your 5th land drop and it can still block if needed.
Clear Shot? You get blown out if they have removal but if you use it on a sturdy target you should be alright. It has the upside of occasionally getting you 2-for-1s of your own during combat.
Yep. 5 mana, not attached to a body, and multicolor which is probably 2 downsides too many. Really shows the power of two rarity levels compared to Brutal Hordechief.
Fortune's Favor looks testable to me. Instant speed, nets you 2 cards on average with selection and grave filling, and it's got some neat mindgames to it. It'd 100% be good enough with 5 cards instead of 4.
The new Faigrounds Warden is a 3 or better. I was never sold on the previous similar minions with their WW cost. I feel they're somewhere between 2-3 each? The Banisher Priest has 2 power but the Fiend Hunter has the quirky abuseable effect when combined with instant blinks.
Heliod's Pilgrim's primary use in my cube is to pickup cards such as Faith's Fetters, Control Magic, Animate Dead, Lust for War, or Curse of Predation. It being able to take some kind of buff aura like Rancor or Madcap Skills is entirely complementary.
Without additional clue support, Briarbridge Patrol has to survive three combats for you to gain its secondary effect. By that point, you have the mana to hardcast the creature anyways. If we discount this, a 4 mana 3/3 echo 2 draw a card just doesn't seem good enough.
For sure. I run all these types of cards still. But I see it all the time - new players or infrequent players of the cube have a really hard time with the complexity of not just Custodi Squire, but all the other nonsense in the cube too. I often consider building a different cube that's significantly simpler on this front, but includes rares for my sanity so I can actually create the environment I want.Funny that if we continue the thought from the other thread about creating a more wholesome, reduced RPS/autoplay type of gameplay, it's possible that this isn't the right prioritization. Reasonable thoughts might be more important after all.
Hey neat, I do the same! Which part of Jersey City? I'm by Grove St Station.
Campaign of Vengeance really wanted to either be 3cmc or come with a few tokens.