It's concentrate in red for 1 mana cheaper, but you have to play everything or lose the cards. It's nice that it'll usually hit a land, which can be played for free. However, it sucks when you either get too many lands or flip any high mana card. I think it really needed to be 1R to be playable.
I don't really run sweepers in my cube so generating a lot of creatures is difficult for a defending player to deal with so it forces a lot more race scenarios.
That's the average game, including matchups with control or removal heavy builds? If a deck was trying to go into the long game, could it?
It might be a bit longer than that, I don't count every game but many games do end within the turn 6-9 range? Two control decks going against each other will go long. These matchups are rare though.
7 turn average?! I am so jealous. Many of my drafts involve someone drawing to death. I guess my aggro needs a facelift.
Might have exaggerated a little, but most games are played in under 10 turns. Aggro either wins in 5-7 turns or loses, and control drops some inevitable thing and wins off it turn 6ish. Midrange sits somewhere in between. There's a lot of power cards (like Skullclamp, Curse of Predation, Grafted Wargear, Shrine of Loyal Legions) that can usually take over the game if left alone.
If a sample decklist for your aggro is running mostly cmc 1-3 and a few curvetoppers at 4, you're probably at a good place for aggro as long as there isn't too many cheap removals or anti-aggro cards.
Do most games come down to who wins at top-decking? It seems like my average game length in cube is about 7 turns, which means 50% comes from your opening 7, and 50% of your cards come from top-decks. Thoughtpicker Witch just seems like one too many "if's" to me.
Just buy a second copy of each DFC you run and treat the extra one as a token. When somebody plays the sleeved card, you hand them the unsleeved/clear-sleeved DFC. While in play, just flip that one.
Albus and Rarox seem fine, even with Rarox at +2. Interesting designs.
Serraphist seems too weak. Both the + and - abilities are weak, and it feels like a 1-turn delay before wrath is fine on a 5cmc 'walker. It's choreographed after-all. Think of a better - ability, perhaps?
Seems like Koth is really powerful as just a split ball-lightning. Or if you can just control the board with his +1 in conjunction with whatever burn you have in your hand, before just going ham by using the -1 every turn. Spark Elementals are really good when they don't die at end of turn. I'd hazard to say that at peasant a 3/1 haste trample for 2R is almost good enough already. 2/1 tokens would make it a lot more acceptable, or forcing the tokens to attack at the very least. On a different note, I'm surprised Koth doesn't cost 1RR or something, do you want planeswalkers to be splashable?
Noryllos seems almost Garruk-level good. 2-mana and tutoring is solid. You might want him to suicide with a -3 if he immediately tutors for a creature? Either that or tutor and put on top of deck rather than in-hand.
Throw the mock-ups in the "Print this" thread and I'm sure you'll get some feedback.
The problem isn't designing it to be weak enough to be playable (Tibalt, for example) but rather strong enough without being broken. The + ability probably should not generate card advantage unless it's on an expensive walker, the - ability should not be worth the card in its entirety, and you'd probably design the ultimate not to auto-win the game.
To be fair, the decklist also has an Errant Ephemeron, and a ton of bounce so you'll be able to push through damage. If both players stall up hard, save protection for Azorius Guildmage and just win off its tap ability.
@Leelue: I think it's important that players who post decklists in this thread make at least a marginal effort to make the list representative of their actual opinions. The whole point of this thread is to learn about each other's deckbuilding styles and maybe improve at making builds out of each pool, right? That's predicated on trying to make a decent deck.
Seems like you're gonna have some mana issues, ALIK4, with that little fixing and so many UU and WW costs. I'd opt to keep white as my main color, while focusing more on blue cards with a single blue in their mana cost. I'd do the following swaps:
Into the Roil over Snap. You're not really a tempo deck, so the draw is more important than the mana savings.
Epochrasite over Frostburn Weird. This guy would love being blinked as early as Turn 3 to get a fast 4/4.
Boomerang out for anything. Take your pick of the aforementioned Wing Splicer or for Feudkiller's Verdict. The Verdict will almost certainly be an amazing game-finisher in this deck, and you have the Propaganda/Ghostly Prison to get you there.
Muzzio's Preparations on any persist guy is an infinite-dude, which instantly becomes good game when you have a free sac outlet. Even when paired with any other creature, that creature becomes hugely above the curve. I'll take a 3/4 Kird Ape.
Not taking up a card slot in your deck is powerful. The argument that you won't draw that specific card isn't great, because if you draft any other card to put in your deck you might not draw that specific card either.
Plus, just playing the game normally in your Golgari deck will fill your graveyard. It's not like you have to go out of your way to make that happen. If you happen to have no creatures in your graveyard, you're probably in a pretty good place? Spider Spawning becomes cost efficient at 4+ spiders.
It might be a bit longer than that, I don't count every game but many games do end within the turn 6-9 range? Two control decks going against each other will go long. These matchups are rare though.Might have exaggerated a little, but most games are played in under 10 turns. Aggro either wins in 5-7 turns or loses, and control drops some inevitable thing and wins off it turn 6ish. Midrange sits somewhere in between. There's a lot of power cards (like Skullclamp, Curse of Predation, Grafted Wargear, Shrine of Loyal Legions) that can usually take over the game if left alone.
If a sample decklist for your aggro is running mostly cmc 1-3 and a few curvetoppers at 4, you're probably at a good place for aggro as long as there isn't too many cheap removals or anti-aggro cards.
I like a lot of the "build-around-mes" and I think you should definitely include them.
For Orzhov, try Evershrike or Debtor's Knell? Or maybe Orzhov Pontiff if you're really pushing token-aggro in WB?
Serraphist seems too weak. Both the + and - abilities are weak, and it feels like a 1-turn delay before wrath is fine on a 5cmc 'walker. It's choreographed after-all. Think of a better - ability, perhaps?
Seems like Koth is really powerful as just a split ball-lightning. Or if you can just control the board with his +1 in conjunction with whatever burn you have in your hand, before just going ham by using the -1 every turn. Spark Elementals are really good when they don't die at end of turn. I'd hazard to say that at peasant a 3/1 haste trample for 2R is almost good enough already. 2/1 tokens would make it a lot more acceptable, or forcing the tokens to attack at the very least. On a different note, I'm surprised Koth doesn't cost 1RR or something, do you want planeswalkers to be splashable?
Noryllos seems almost Garruk-level good. 2-mana and tutoring is solid. You might want him to suicide with a -3 if he immediately tutors for a creature? Either that or tutor and put on top of deck rather than in-hand.
The problem isn't designing it to be weak enough to be playable (Tibalt, for example) but rather strong enough without being broken. The + ability probably should not generate card advantage unless it's on an expensive walker, the - ability should not be worth the card in its entirety, and you'd probably design the ultimate not to auto-win the game.
@Leelue: I think it's important that players who post decklists in this thread make at least a marginal effort to make the list representative of their actual opinions. The whole point of this thread is to learn about each other's deckbuilding styles and maybe improve at making builds out of each pool, right? That's predicated on trying to make a decent deck.
- Brago's Favor allows you to improve your curve. Dauth Horror as a 1-drop? Flametongue Kavu as a 3-cost? Heck I can even play Grafted Wargear with two mana if that's what I want.
- Muzzio's Preparations on any persist guy is an infinite-dude, which instantly becomes good game when you have a free sac outlet. Even when paired with any other creature, that creature becomes hugely above the curve. I'll take a 3/4 Kird Ape.
- Immediate Action turns any 2-power 1-drop into Goblin Guide.
Not taking up a card slot in your deck is powerful. The argument that you won't draw that specific card isn't great, because if you draft any other card to put in your deck you might not draw that specific card either.