For those of us with larger, or less powerful cubes, there are a lot of options available, and often times great cards go mostly unplayed. The purpose of this thread is to go by curve or theme, and discuss playable, or nearly playable cards in those slots.
I was pondering (as I looked at random cubes on Cubetutor) that the blue 1-drop creature slot is really barren in most cubes, consisting often of only one or two cards, while the other colors have much more robust sections. I understand that blue is quite a bit less aggressive than the other colors on average, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's got me wondering what other cards in that slot may be available.
The latter two are testing, and Salvage Drone is probably getting cut. I'm not sorely disappointed in those cards for the most part, but several are toward the lower end for my cube, especially in blue. I was wondering what other potentially cubeable cards may be out there.
Carrion Feeder is super underrated. I get that people have had a *****ty time with it and I'm not going to argue experiences here, but in my cube and others I've had mostly positive. It gets huge, and with all the black recursive creatures now it does even more work, in addition to blanking removal like a mother****er.
Ogre Battledriver has also impressed me considerably as of late. Its biggest knock is being a red 4--which is a real concern--but for larger cubes I would try to fit him because he's so much more fun than the next random aggressive red 4. Last night had an awesome game where I went Battledriver into Pia and Kiran Nalaar, and moments like that seem to happen more often than not. Yes he dies to removal, but variance is a thing and your opponent always having an answer is less of a concern when the window for that answer tends to be so small.
Master Transmuter is a card I like to support the Tinker deck. It can cheat in large artifacts, but the really cool thing about it is that in cube the large artifact creatures usually have good ETB effects (Sundering Titan, Myr Battlesphere, Duplicant, Precursor Golem), so this can grind out some serious advantage by triggering those ETBs every turn. It can also block for days by bouncing and returning itself until you draw something better to put into play.
my cube is full of lots of borderline cards haha. Ones i can think of off the top of my head. (not everybody will agree) also very dependent on the size of the cube.
I think there are lots of cards in here that can hold their own depending on the cube. some of them depend on the archetypes you include. I have tested many of these in the past and lots are still in my cube though aren't considered by many cubers today.
My players like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Prime Speaker Zegana, and they somehow keep performing well enough to stick around. I'm also still running Vorapede because it performed better than Silverheart back in the day and nothing printed since (aside from Thragtusk, which I'm running) is quite as resilient.
I was pondering (as I looked at random cubes on Cubetutor) that the blue 1-drop creature slot is really barren in most cubes, consisting often of only one or two cards, while the other colors have much more robust sections. I understand that blue is quite a bit less aggressive than the other colors on average, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's got me wondering what other cards in that slot may be available.
The most commonly played ones as far as I can tell are Enclave Cryptologist and Delver of Secrets. Based on experiences from my cube, I'd say that the main card that gets overlooked is Hedron Crab, which is an amazing clock without any mill support. Other than that, I play Cloudfin Raptor, Realmwright, Vortex Elemental, Stormscape Apprentice, Slither Blade and Salvage Drone.
The latter two are testing, and Salvage Drone is probably getting cut. I'm not sorely disappointed in those cards for the most part, but several are toward the lower end for my cube, especially in blue. I was wondering what other potentially cubeable cards may be out there.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Ogre Battledriver has also impressed me considerably as of late. Its biggest knock is being a red 4--which is a real concern--but for larger cubes I would try to fit him because he's so much more fun than the next random aggressive red 4. Last night had an awesome game where I went Battledriver into Pia and Kiran Nalaar, and moments like that seem to happen more often than not. Yes he dies to removal, but variance is a thing and your opponent always having an answer is less of a concern when the window for that answer tends to be so small.
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Raven's Crime with Gifts Ungiven and Life from the Loam this can be a build your own Mind Twist. Also nice for the reanimator deck.
Countryside Crusher Don't play anything that costs more than 3 in your burn deck, and you'll get a large creature that guarantees you draw business.
Also, I love Carrion Feeder a bunch.
[180 classic cube]
White:
doomed traveler
precinct captain
fiendslayer paladin
silverblade paladin
regal caracal
quarantine field
decree of justice
Blue:
Cloudfin Raptor
harbinger of the tides
docent of perfection
chasm skulker
propaganda
imprisoned in the moon
augur of bolas
future sight
Black:
scion of darkness
victim of night
tragic slip
skeletal scrying
sidisi, undead vizier
graveborn muse
geralf's messenger
Red:
borderland marauder
war-name aspirant
stoke the flames
ogre battledriver
krenko, mob boss
thunderbreak regent
stormbreath dragon
staggershock
Green:
gilt-leaf ambush
woodland wanderer
elvish piper
Gold:
Ojutai's Command
nightveil specter
firespout
brutal expulsion
aurelia, the warleader
aurelia's fury
Colourless:
cultivator's caravan
filigree familiar
epochrasite
darksteel ingot
thought vessel
Lands:
Hanweir Battlements
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
vault of the archangel
desolate lighthouse
kessig wolf run
crumbling vestige
I think there are lots of cards in here that can hold their own depending on the cube. some of them depend on the archetypes you include. I have tested many of these in the past and lots are still in my cube though aren't considered by many cubers today.
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