After doing my 2017 in review, and coming to the conclusion that the last year was good but uneventful, I set myself the task of finding something new and exciting for my cube. While my cube was in a sweet place, I felt I wanted it sweeter.
The first thing I did after I found the time for a Rivals of Ixalan update was add both a life gain matters and a vampire tribal theme. I went up to 600 to save myself the trouble of cutting too many cards I liked.
It lasted a day.
Only a handful of test drafts on CubeTutor after the update, I already started looking for alternatives. Why did this feel off? We were stoked to add both a new archetype and a new tribe. It's not like there aren't other narrow archetypes in the cube, nor are all the archetypes super duper powerful. Then it hit me. We just didn't like most of the cards it required to set up. No feeling of joy when seeing them in the cube. Just a lot of 'meh'. Instead of adding excitement and spice, I took excitement away!
Maybe it sounds obvious. After all, cubes are designed to reflect the personal preference of their owners. Still, I was caught off guard by how important it was for me to like individual cards. Even before I really got to play with them. To be fair, both the life gain archetype and the vampire tribe didn't look that powerful to begin with. But the same thing can be said about other archetypes that I tried and surprised me.
Not sure where I'm going with this, other than that I (re)discovered that I think 'I just (don't) like it' can be a valid argument to cut or run something in your cube. Regardless if it's a decision based on power level, format health, nostalgia or even art. There's a consensus that running Sol Ring in peasant cube is a bad idea because it's too powerful. But what if a playgroup just gets really excited to play with the iconic card? I remember reading somewhere that someone didn't include a (good) card because the art freaked him/her out.
I just added Ravenous Chupacabra to my cube over Bone Shredder. You'd think that most cube owners should have an easy time to make this switch. I did too, but only because I the word Chupacabra is fun and after I realized I was able to play with Bone Shredder in my friend's Urza block cube.
In the meantime, I finished a pretty huge update to my cube and am super excited to see it play out. Some of the cards are probably bad, but I don't care because they do something I like.
That's my favorite thing about cube. It can be all the things that you, personally, enjoy about Magic.
Posts tonen met het label Cube update. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Cube update. Alle posts tonen
maandag 5 februari 2018
dinsdag 9 januari 2018
2017 in review
Another year in the books. Let's look at what 2017 changed.
Using my CubeTutor change log as a guide, I'm going to reflect on the biggest changes 2017 brought to my cube. I'll close the article with the top card added from each of 2017's expansions.
February - Removed painlands
After about a year of inclusion, I didn't find the painlands to be worth breaking peasant for. Yes, they were good, but somehow the opposite of my expectation happened. I added them so aggro decks could have good manafixing without having to resort to EtB tapped lands. However, the painlands also enabled control decks to splash without slowing down their mana base. In a way, the painlands made aggro perform a little worse than before because control decks became more powerful overall.
February - Fleshed out double strike and +1/+1 counters
After adding another handful of cards for both archetypes, it looks like they're here to stay. Finally.
March - We finally get a true Anthem!
Glorious Anthem is one of those cards the peasant community seems to agree upon: this can safely be downgraded. Apparently, Wizards agreed. In a way. Still, it feels good to finally be able to include a true anthem in Gaea's Anthem. It might not be the real thing, yet, but it's close.
Also, almost but not really Mystic Snake: Mystic Genesis.
September - More spells matter, pants, red graveyard, reanimate, haste enablers
Like with double strike and +1/+1 counters, 2017 brought support for a couple more of our favorite archetypes.
Top cards from sets released in 2017
These are not necessarily the best cards in a vacuum, but my personal picks for most awesome for my cube.
Aether Revolt (Jan): Ridgescale Tusker
Modern Masters 2017 (Mar): Gaea's Anthem
Amonkhet (Apr): Scaled Behemoth
Hour of Devastation (Jul): Burning-Fist Minotaur
Iconic Masters (Nov): Mahamoti Djinn
Unstable (Dec): untested
Conclusion
2017 was a year of solidifying existing archetypes in my cube. After a couple big (archetype) overhauls in 2015 and 2016, the cube felt like it was in a very good place.
On the one hand, no big changes can be considered a good thing. We've found a good balance between power and archetypes, and there are enough different things to do without things feeling super hard to pull of.
On the other hand, no big changes means less fresh things to get really excited about. When deciding the top cards per set for 2017, from Amonkhet, Hour and Ixalan all the cards where solid but no showstoppers. I realize not every year can bring an Enchantress-level of excitement and overhaul to the cube, but I would've loved a little more spice.
This translated directly into less cube time. The past year, this resulted in a stint of playing more Commander, helping my friend build an Urza block cube (check it out on CubeTutor!) and drafting that a bunch of times, checking out Eternal card game.
I'm hoping 2018 lets me continue and solidify certain archetypes, while also bringing something new to fit in (Berserk has been included already). I'll also continue to look for hidden gems in older blocks, in the hope of finding something unexpectedly awesome.
Also, keep on coming with the downgrades.
Using my CubeTutor change log as a guide, I'm going to reflect on the biggest changes 2017 brought to my cube. I'll close the article with the top card added from each of 2017's expansions.
February - Removed painlands
After about a year of inclusion, I didn't find the painlands to be worth breaking peasant for. Yes, they were good, but somehow the opposite of my expectation happened. I added them so aggro decks could have good manafixing without having to resort to EtB tapped lands. However, the painlands also enabled control decks to splash without slowing down their mana base. In a way, the painlands made aggro perform a little worse than before because control decks became more powerful overall.
February - Fleshed out double strike and +1/+1 counters
After adding another handful of cards for both archetypes, it looks like they're here to stay. Finally.
March - We finally get a true Anthem!
Glorious Anthem is one of those cards the peasant community seems to agree upon: this can safely be downgraded. Apparently, Wizards agreed. In a way. Still, it feels good to finally be able to include a true anthem in Gaea's Anthem. It might not be the real thing, yet, but it's close.
Also, almost but not really Mystic Snake: Mystic Genesis.
September - More spells matter, pants, red graveyard, reanimate, haste enablers
Like with double strike and +1/+1 counters, 2017 brought support for a couple more of our favorite archetypes.
Top cards from sets released in 2017
These are not necessarily the best cards in a vacuum, but my personal picks for most awesome for my cube.
Aether Revolt (Jan): Ridgescale Tusker
Modern Masters 2017 (Mar): Gaea's Anthem
Amonkhet (Apr): Scaled Behemoth
Hour of Devastation (Jul): Burning-Fist Minotaur
Ixalan (Oct): Chart a Course
Commander 2017 (Aug): Heirloom BladeIconic Masters (Nov): Mahamoti Djinn
Unstable (Dec): untested
Conclusion
2017 was a year of solidifying existing archetypes in my cube. After a couple big (archetype) overhauls in 2015 and 2016, the cube felt like it was in a very good place.
On the one hand, no big changes can be considered a good thing. We've found a good balance between power and archetypes, and there are enough different things to do without things feeling super hard to pull of.
On the other hand, no big changes means less fresh things to get really excited about. When deciding the top cards per set for 2017, from Amonkhet, Hour and Ixalan all the cards where solid but no showstoppers. I realize not every year can bring an Enchantress-level of excitement and overhaul to the cube, but I would've loved a little more spice.
This translated directly into less cube time. The past year, this resulted in a stint of playing more Commander, helping my friend build an Urza block cube (check it out on CubeTutor!) and drafting that a bunch of times, checking out Eternal card game.
I'm hoping 2018 lets me continue and solidify certain archetypes, while also bringing something new to fit in (Berserk has been included already). I'll also continue to look for hidden gems in older blocks, in the hope of finding something unexpectedly awesome.
Also, keep on coming with the downgrades.
donderdag 5 januari 2017
2016 in review
With Aether Revolt almost upon is, I wanted to take a moment to look back at 2016.
Using my CubeTutor change log as a guide, I'm going to reflect on the biggest changes 2016 brought to my cube. I'll close the article with the top card added from each of 2016's expansions.
January - Added painlands
After complaining about peasant mana-fixing for a long time, I decided to bite the bullet and add better lands - and with them break the peasant rarity restriction - to my cube. While painlands are not the best rare lands available, I chose them because the power level 'feels' enough like peasant. Arbitrary, I know.
At the time, I wrote "If the change is minimal, I'll revert to the uncommon lands. If it's huge, I'll keep them for a while." Apparently, I've been playing with them for almost a year now, and I still like having them. That said, the addition of the painlands has had less impact than I thought it would. Yes, mana is better. I especially wanted to make manafixing better for aggro, but painlands also makes greedy control decks faster. I think I will actually change back to the uncommon lands for a while to see if I will miss the painlands.
January - Double strike/pants and +1/+1 counters overlap
Both archetypes have been in my cube before, and have been a favorite in my playgroup but narrow. A year ago something clicked when I realized that the 2 archetypes play well with each other, making them less narrow to support.
January - Tried storm again
Against better judgment, I tried supporting storm again in my cube. The archetype has always been a fan favorite in rare cubes, after all.
According to my change log I changed back on March 9th, but I think that I made the actual change earlier. Like, after 1 cube session.
Reminder to myself: don't try again unless something ridiculous comes along.
April - Tribal synergies
When Shadows over Innistrad came out, and with it 2 actual Vampire 'lords', I started experimenting with tribal in my cube. Tribes are a huge part of Magic's history, casual and competitive, and one of the things lacking from my cube. Peasant highlander is not an easy place to support tribal.
After Vampires (black), Goblins followed (black/red). We did have a lot of fun with both, but during the year most of the tribes that I went deeper into were reduced, simply because the pay-off was not big enough to warrant going deep.
However, smaller tribal synergies have become something I keep looking out for. Small support for tribes has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I've had with my cube the last year. Having cards that care about creature types adds a lot of depth to the draft. Suddenly, cards gain or lose value based on something that's not the actual game text.
May - Enchantress
Finally Wizards of the Coast decided to give me something I've wanted for a long long time: a peasant legal Enchantress. Instantly, I made a 50-card change to my cube to incorporate one of my favorite archetypes of all time.
I must say, for people wanting to go the distance and having the space to dedicate to it, the archetype has been a blast. Like with Tribal, it gives the drafters a card type to care about that's not 'creature' or 'spell'. With a Mesa Enchantress in my deck, I will be drafting Journey of Nowhere over Swords to Plowshares, whereas that would otherwise never be the case.
Sure, my cube's bigger than most so I have more room to experiment without having to remove too many proven cards, I have a double strike/pants archetype that also wants some auras, etc etc. But, running more enchantments is easier than you might think. Removal is not hard to find in enchantment form, for example, and you can just cube Fertile Ground over Rampant Growth.
June - Removed +1/+1 counters again
While the archetype was fun, it just wasn't there yet. I wanted it to be, but it kept falling just short of good enough.
September - MADNESS!
Like with storm, I decided to go against rational thought to see for myself if the archetype was worth pursuing. I was looking for an archetype to overlap green, blue and red and this was the best thing I could come up with.
Turns out, it was about as good as we all thought it would be. Not very. It required too many pieces, at exactly the right amounts in decks, at exactly the right moment in games, to be better than most general decks on those colors. Madness' timing can make for awkward and suboptimal plays at times.
I removed all the madness cards from my cube, but I did keep all the red discard outlets and most blue/green/red cards that do something from/with the graveyard. As a result, Red/X graveyard decks (along with B/R Reanimate) have become a thing and are surprisingly good.
Oktober - The return of +1/+1 counters, with a vengeance
Kaladesh came out, and with it a couple of more cards with +1/+1 counters. Apparently, these cards where exactly the thing to push the +1/+1 counter archetype into playable/good range. I'm stoked for the next set, as the archetype can only get better (maybe even bleed into blue and black this time around).
Oktober - Big red
Red is my favorite color. It's also the color I've been having most trouble with in my cube over the last couple of years.
It has had 2 big identities, almost from the inception of my cube: aggro/burn and spells matter. While both are great decks, red has been falling short when compared to other colors. It's not that red is seeing less play, not at all! Red's burn makes it a perfect supplement in multiple decks, and the number 1 aggressive color. But with the move to more different decks, fringe archetypes and overlapping synergies, the other colors just feel a lot deeper and versatile.
2016 has seen more than one change to red where I changed 15+ cards at a time. All the above archetypes? Red had something to with them at one point or another. With +1/+1 counters and an increasing focus on graveyard support, I felt I was getting there with red.
Coincidentally, we have been having fun with multiple control decks lately but they were usually of the board-control pillow-fort-y type. I wanted something like the classic U/W decks with Wrath of God. Or, even better, R/X WILDFIRE! Control decks with big splashy finishers like Cruel Ultimatum.
Flame Wave and Inferno got added to the cube, and while we didn't have a lot of chances to cube in the last months of the year, initial tests are positive. Slamming down Flame Wave feels great.
Top cards from sets released in 2016
These are not necessarily the best cards in a vacuum, but my personal picks for most awesome for my cube.
Oath of the Gatewatch (Jan): Relief Captain
Shadows over Innistrad (Apr): Vessel of Nascency
Eternal Masters (Jun): Mesa Enchantress
Eldritch Moon (Jul): Curious Homunculus
Commander 2016 (Nov): Ash Barrens
Conclusion
2016 was a pretty sweet year for my peasant cube. I've been moving into the archetype direction for a longer while, but 2016 felt like it started to show. The cube is in a great spot, with an enormous amount of playable archetypes, build-arounds and weird cards.
I really hope that 2017 can continue the trend af releasing awesome new cards and downgrading sweet older cards that give me and other peasant cubers more options than just power level.
Using my CubeTutor change log as a guide, I'm going to reflect on the biggest changes 2016 brought to my cube. I'll close the article with the top card added from each of 2016's expansions.
January - Added painlands
After complaining about peasant mana-fixing for a long time, I decided to bite the bullet and add better lands - and with them break the peasant rarity restriction - to my cube. While painlands are not the best rare lands available, I chose them because the power level 'feels' enough like peasant. Arbitrary, I know.
At the time, I wrote "If the change is minimal, I'll revert to the uncommon lands. If it's huge, I'll keep them for a while." Apparently, I've been playing with them for almost a year now, and I still like having them. That said, the addition of the painlands has had less impact than I thought it would. Yes, mana is better. I especially wanted to make manafixing better for aggro, but painlands also makes greedy control decks faster. I think I will actually change back to the uncommon lands for a while to see if I will miss the painlands.
January - Double strike/pants and +1/+1 counters overlap
Both archetypes have been in my cube before, and have been a favorite in my playgroup but narrow. A year ago something clicked when I realized that the 2 archetypes play well with each other, making them less narrow to support.
January - Tried storm again
Against better judgment, I tried supporting storm again in my cube. The archetype has always been a fan favorite in rare cubes, after all.
According to my change log I changed back on March 9th, but I think that I made the actual change earlier. Like, after 1 cube session.
Reminder to myself: don't try again unless something ridiculous comes along.
April - Tribal synergies
When Shadows over Innistrad came out, and with it 2 actual Vampire 'lords', I started experimenting with tribal in my cube. Tribes are a huge part of Magic's history, casual and competitive, and one of the things lacking from my cube. Peasant highlander is not an easy place to support tribal.
After Vampires (black), Goblins followed (black/red). We did have a lot of fun with both, but during the year most of the tribes that I went deeper into were reduced, simply because the pay-off was not big enough to warrant going deep.
However, smaller tribal synergies have become something I keep looking out for. Small support for tribes has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I've had with my cube the last year. Having cards that care about creature types adds a lot of depth to the draft. Suddenly, cards gain or lose value based on something that's not the actual game text.
May - Enchantress
Finally Wizards of the Coast decided to give me something I've wanted for a long long time: a peasant legal Enchantress. Instantly, I made a 50-card change to my cube to incorporate one of my favorite archetypes of all time.
I must say, for people wanting to go the distance and having the space to dedicate to it, the archetype has been a blast. Like with Tribal, it gives the drafters a card type to care about that's not 'creature' or 'spell'. With a Mesa Enchantress in my deck, I will be drafting Journey of Nowhere over Swords to Plowshares, whereas that would otherwise never be the case.
Sure, my cube's bigger than most so I have more room to experiment without having to remove too many proven cards, I have a double strike/pants archetype that also wants some auras, etc etc. But, running more enchantments is easier than you might think. Removal is not hard to find in enchantment form, for example, and you can just cube Fertile Ground over Rampant Growth.
June - Removed +1/+1 counters again
While the archetype was fun, it just wasn't there yet. I wanted it to be, but it kept falling just short of good enough.
September - MADNESS!
Like with storm, I decided to go against rational thought to see for myself if the archetype was worth pursuing. I was looking for an archetype to overlap green, blue and red and this was the best thing I could come up with.
Turns out, it was about as good as we all thought it would be. Not very. It required too many pieces, at exactly the right amounts in decks, at exactly the right moment in games, to be better than most general decks on those colors. Madness' timing can make for awkward and suboptimal plays at times.
I removed all the madness cards from my cube, but I did keep all the red discard outlets and most blue/green/red cards that do something from/with the graveyard. As a result, Red/X graveyard decks (along with B/R Reanimate) have become a thing and are surprisingly good.
Oktober - The return of +1/+1 counters, with a vengeance
Kaladesh came out, and with it a couple of more cards with +1/+1 counters. Apparently, these cards where exactly the thing to push the +1/+1 counter archetype into playable/good range. I'm stoked for the next set, as the archetype can only get better (maybe even bleed into blue and black this time around).
Oktober - Big red
Red is my favorite color. It's also the color I've been having most trouble with in my cube over the last couple of years.
It has had 2 big identities, almost from the inception of my cube: aggro/burn and spells matter. While both are great decks, red has been falling short when compared to other colors. It's not that red is seeing less play, not at all! Red's burn makes it a perfect supplement in multiple decks, and the number 1 aggressive color. But with the move to more different decks, fringe archetypes and overlapping synergies, the other colors just feel a lot deeper and versatile.
2016 has seen more than one change to red where I changed 15+ cards at a time. All the above archetypes? Red had something to with them at one point or another. With +1/+1 counters and an increasing focus on graveyard support, I felt I was getting there with red.
Coincidentally, we have been having fun with multiple control decks lately but they were usually of the board-control pillow-fort-y type. I wanted something like the classic U/W decks with Wrath of God. Or, even better, R/X WILDFIRE! Control decks with big splashy finishers like Cruel Ultimatum.
Flame Wave and Inferno got added to the cube, and while we didn't have a lot of chances to cube in the last months of the year, initial tests are positive. Slamming down Flame Wave feels great.
Top cards from sets released in 2016
These are not necessarily the best cards in a vacuum, but my personal picks for most awesome for my cube.
Oath of the Gatewatch (Jan): Relief Captain
Shadows over Innistrad (Apr): Vessel of Nascency
Eternal Masters (Jun): Mesa Enchantress
Eldritch Moon (Jul): Curious Homunculus
Kaladesh (Sep): Armorcraft Judge
Conspiracy (Aug): ManaplasmCommander 2016 (Nov): Ash Barrens
Conclusion
2016 was a pretty sweet year for my peasant cube. I've been moving into the archetype direction for a longer while, but 2016 felt like it started to show. The cube is in a great spot, with an enormous amount of playable archetypes, build-arounds and weird cards.
I really hope that 2017 can continue the trend af releasing awesome new cards and downgrading sweet older cards that give me and other peasant cubers more options than just power level.
dinsdag 8 november 2016
Cube update November 8, 2016
Time for an update to the cube! I'm making a whopping 35 changes, so let's get into them.
Draft the new changes on CubeTutor!
White
Out: Cloistered Youth, Sandsteppe Outcast, Wall of Resurgence, Intangible Virtue
In: Palace Jailer, Orzhov Advokist, Swell of Courage, Soltari Visionary
Cloistered Youth is good, but I think I have enough 2-drops for the decks that want them and the others are just better. Outcast/Wall are fine, but I needed the room. Virtue is the biggest cut, for me at least. My last Stats and Numbers article showed that the number of token creation was on the low side to support Virtue.
Advokist and Swell both support +1/+1 counters, with Swell also filling the role of team-wide pump for the token decks that still exist.
Palace Jailer is a card I've been wanting to try out, but haven't gotten around to. Should be fun with blink, and as card draw engine behind Ghostly Prisons and such.
Soltari should fit right into the white part of different pump archetypes while also giving a bit more enchantment hate.
Blue
Out: Vexing Scuttler, Seal of Removal, Narcolepsy, Singing Bell Strike
In: Archeomancer, Thought Scour, Snap, Deranged Assistant
While I like Wretched Gryff enough, Vexing Scuttler is just worse than Archaeomancer in a cube with both the blue double-blink effects. I also wanted to cut a couple of the blue enchantments for some instants after the Stats and Numbers article showed that support for Isochron Scepter was a little thin.
Snap (slightly) fills the gap that's left by cutting 3 blue removal spells. Time will tell if I need more (and if I will miss the enchantments). Thought Scour is not necessarily the best card to put on a Scepter, but it does draw cards, can mill your opponent out if need be and goes very well into UB, UR and/or UG graveyard-style decks.
Deranged Assistant is a fun little card that is sneakily quite good in any blue deck that wants to accelerate, but (again) pushes a little more into the direction of the graveyard in blue. Hopefully this also gives UR a different feeling deck than 'spells matter'.
Black
Out: Havoc Demon, Festering Goblin, Indulgent Aristocrat, Blood-Chin Rager
In: Harsh Scrutiny, Phyrexian Reclamation, Orc Sureshot, Sinuous Vermin
These cuts where quite easy. Havoc Demon, Festering Goblin and Blood-Chin are decent, but unexciting. Indulgent Aristocrat just never really worked out very well.
I finally got around to buying an Orc Sureshot to give (mainly BW) creature/token decks another tool.
Reclamation is a nod towards grinder decks (GB), while also being an enchantment for the BG or BW enchantment decks.
Vermin and Harsh Scrutiny are just good cards I want to try out.
Red
Out: Seal of Fire, Madcap Skills, Boggart Ram-Gang, Sparksmith, Rolling Thunder, Besmirch, Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption
In: Brute Force, Titan's Strength, Dynacharge, Slith Firewalker, Swirling Sandstorm, Frenzied Fugue, Cathartic Reunion, Genju of the Spires
Red got another big update. Somehow red seems to be the hardest to pin down archetype-wise, as I've been having trouble with R in combination with G, U and B. I'm not just accepting RU as spells matter and both RB and RG as different variations of aggro, even though that's red's comfort zone. Especially since red is my favorite color.
Over the last month or so, I've been trying a push for red as the 4th graveyard color (discard/draw), give it a big part of the +1/+1 counter pie and lastly: big red (sweeper) control. This gives me the following interesting archetypes: BR Reanimate, UR combo (Psychic Spiral or Sphinx's Tutelage) using the graveyard for value, RG +1/+1 counters, RG flashback/graveyard, and big control decks in all 3 combinations. This should explain most of the inclusions.
RW has tokens (Dynacharge) and double strike (the single target pump) as main archetypes. All 3 of the spells also work well in more aggressive RU spells decks without resorting to burn.
The cuts are basically cards that did their job without being very special.
Besmirch goes out for the new Frenzied Fugue, which looks like a very good card.
Green
Out: Kessig Prowler, Kozilek's Predator, Somberwald Stag, Predator's Howl, Overrun, Gaea's Embrace
In: Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, Harvester Troll, Masked Admirers, Golgari Brownscale, Incremental Growth, Strangleroot Geist
Like white, cuts from green are getting very hard. Most of the cards serve a very specific goal or are just very good overall. The token cards where the easiest to cut because by cutting Intangible Virtue there's nothing that cares about the actual card-type 'token' and GB sacrifice wasn't really getting played. Overrun and Embrace got cut for cards with +1/+1 counters. That leaves Kessig Prowler and Somberwald Stag as overall very powerful cards, but with no real synergy where I want it.
After noticing that green's +1/+1 counter support could use some extra cards, I put some more in while still trying to buff other archetypes. Pit-Skulk (WG/UG pump), Harvester Troll (sacrifice), Growth (swarm), Geist (sacrifice). The Admirers and Brownscale come back for another run to buff all the graveyard decks with green.
Note to myself: be careful not to cut too many enchantments to support other stuff.
Gold
Out: Momentary Blink, Spike Jester, Catacomb Sifter, Lashweed Lurker, Rally the Peasants, Weapons Trainer, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
In: Migratory Route, Terminate, Nyx Weaver, Ongoing Investigation, Lightning Helix, Sunhome Guildmage, Juniper Order Ranger
Blink isn't really seeing play a lot, I want to try out the new card and I like the other cards better.
Jester got cut for another bland card. This goes a little against my guild card philosophy of not wanting to have cards the color doesn't already do. However, I want some more premium Isochron Scepter targets and there's nothing I want to run in Rakdos at the moment anyway.
Same goes for Helix. Rally was seeing less play lately, so I thought I'd try some other pump in white and red. Weapons Trainer is a fun build-around, but after thinking about it I think I want the more reliable creature/pump.
Vitu-Ghazi didn't really do much, and Juniper is very powerful in the right deck. It also gives me the Juniper+persister+sac-outlet left-field combo potential.
Lurker was meh, and Investigation was not bad when I had it before. I like that it can be a tool for UG enchantments, UG graveyard, and U/x swarm.
Catacomb Sifter is great in a vacuum, but the GB sac deck didn't come up often enough. Nyx Weaver is similar in application, but supports the GB enchantment deck some more.
Colorless
Out: Serrated Arrows, Gathan Raiders
In: Snare Thopter, Ash Barrens
Arrows doesn't get played here, even though I like it. Raiders was included to give non-blue graveyard decks a way to get stuff in the graveyard, but I think we've gotten enough green and red discard outlets lately.
Thopter looks sweet as both an aggro curve-topper and not a bad target for assorted pump. Ash Barrens is the new sliced bread.
Draft the new changes on CubeTutor!
White
Out: Cloistered Youth, Sandsteppe Outcast, Wall of Resurgence, Intangible Virtue
In: Palace Jailer, Orzhov Advokist, Swell of Courage, Soltari Visionary
Cloistered Youth is good, but I think I have enough 2-drops for the decks that want them and the others are just better. Outcast/Wall are fine, but I needed the room. Virtue is the biggest cut, for me at least. My last Stats and Numbers article showed that the number of token creation was on the low side to support Virtue.
Advokist and Swell both support +1/+1 counters, with Swell also filling the role of team-wide pump for the token decks that still exist.
Palace Jailer is a card I've been wanting to try out, but haven't gotten around to. Should be fun with blink, and as card draw engine behind Ghostly Prisons and such.
Soltari should fit right into the white part of different pump archetypes while also giving a bit more enchantment hate.
Blue
Out: Vexing Scuttler, Seal of Removal, Narcolepsy, Singing Bell Strike
In: Archeomancer, Thought Scour, Snap, Deranged Assistant
While I like Wretched Gryff enough, Vexing Scuttler is just worse than Archaeomancer in a cube with both the blue double-blink effects. I also wanted to cut a couple of the blue enchantments for some instants after the Stats and Numbers article showed that support for Isochron Scepter was a little thin.
Snap (slightly) fills the gap that's left by cutting 3 blue removal spells. Time will tell if I need more (and if I will miss the enchantments). Thought Scour is not necessarily the best card to put on a Scepter, but it does draw cards, can mill your opponent out if need be and goes very well into UB, UR and/or UG graveyard-style decks.
Deranged Assistant is a fun little card that is sneakily quite good in any blue deck that wants to accelerate, but (again) pushes a little more into the direction of the graveyard in blue. Hopefully this also gives UR a different feeling deck than 'spells matter'.
Black
Out: Havoc Demon, Festering Goblin, Indulgent Aristocrat, Blood-Chin Rager
In: Harsh Scrutiny, Phyrexian Reclamation, Orc Sureshot, Sinuous Vermin
These cuts where quite easy. Havoc Demon, Festering Goblin and Blood-Chin are decent, but unexciting. Indulgent Aristocrat just never really worked out very well.
I finally got around to buying an Orc Sureshot to give (mainly BW) creature/token decks another tool.
Reclamation is a nod towards grinder decks (GB), while also being an enchantment for the BG or BW enchantment decks.
Vermin and Harsh Scrutiny are just good cards I want to try out.
Red
Out: Seal of Fire, Madcap Skills, Boggart Ram-Gang, Sparksmith, Rolling Thunder, Besmirch, Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption
In: Brute Force, Titan's Strength, Dynacharge, Slith Firewalker, Swirling Sandstorm, Frenzied Fugue, Cathartic Reunion, Genju of the Spires
Red got another big update. Somehow red seems to be the hardest to pin down archetype-wise, as I've been having trouble with R in combination with G, U and B. I'm not just accepting RU as spells matter and both RB and RG as different variations of aggro, even though that's red's comfort zone. Especially since red is my favorite color.
Over the last month or so, I've been trying a push for red as the 4th graveyard color (discard/draw), give it a big part of the +1/+1 counter pie and lastly: big red (sweeper) control. This gives me the following interesting archetypes: BR Reanimate, UR combo (Psychic Spiral or Sphinx's Tutelage) using the graveyard for value, RG +1/+1 counters, RG flashback/graveyard, and big control decks in all 3 combinations. This should explain most of the inclusions.
RW has tokens (Dynacharge) and double strike (the single target pump) as main archetypes. All 3 of the spells also work well in more aggressive RU spells decks without resorting to burn.
The cuts are basically cards that did their job without being very special.
Besmirch goes out for the new Frenzied Fugue, which looks like a very good card.
Green
Out: Kessig Prowler, Kozilek's Predator, Somberwald Stag, Predator's Howl, Overrun, Gaea's Embrace
In: Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, Harvester Troll, Masked Admirers, Golgari Brownscale, Incremental Growth, Strangleroot Geist
Like white, cuts from green are getting very hard. Most of the cards serve a very specific goal or are just very good overall. The token cards where the easiest to cut because by cutting Intangible Virtue there's nothing that cares about the actual card-type 'token' and GB sacrifice wasn't really getting played. Overrun and Embrace got cut for cards with +1/+1 counters. That leaves Kessig Prowler and Somberwald Stag as overall very powerful cards, but with no real synergy where I want it.
After noticing that green's +1/+1 counter support could use some extra cards, I put some more in while still trying to buff other archetypes. Pit-Skulk (WG/UG pump), Harvester Troll (sacrifice), Growth (swarm), Geist (sacrifice). The Admirers and Brownscale come back for another run to buff all the graveyard decks with green.
Note to myself: be careful not to cut too many enchantments to support other stuff.
Gold
Out: Momentary Blink, Spike Jester, Catacomb Sifter, Lashweed Lurker, Rally the Peasants, Weapons Trainer, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
In: Migratory Route, Terminate, Nyx Weaver, Ongoing Investigation, Lightning Helix, Sunhome Guildmage, Juniper Order Ranger
Blink isn't really seeing play a lot, I want to try out the new card and I like the other cards better.
Jester got cut for another bland card. This goes a little against my guild card philosophy of not wanting to have cards the color doesn't already do. However, I want some more premium Isochron Scepter targets and there's nothing I want to run in Rakdos at the moment anyway.
Same goes for Helix. Rally was seeing less play lately, so I thought I'd try some other pump in white and red. Weapons Trainer is a fun build-around, but after thinking about it I think I want the more reliable creature/pump.
Vitu-Ghazi didn't really do much, and Juniper is very powerful in the right deck. It also gives me the Juniper+persister+sac-outlet left-field combo potential.
Lurker was meh, and Investigation was not bad when I had it before. I like that it can be a tool for UG enchantments, UG graveyard, and U/x swarm.
Catacomb Sifter is great in a vacuum, but the GB sac deck didn't come up often enough. Nyx Weaver is similar in application, but supports the GB enchantment deck some more.
Colorless
Out: Serrated Arrows, Gathan Raiders
In: Snare Thopter, Ash Barrens
Arrows doesn't get played here, even though I like it. Raiders was included to give non-blue graveyard decks a way to get stuff in the graveyard, but I think we've gotten enough green and red discard outlets lately.
Thopter looks sweet as both an aggro curve-topper and not a bad target for assorted pump. Ash Barrens is the new sliced bread.
Abonneren op:
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