I had experiment one in for a while from the original version of the cube but as the power level went up it just didnt cut it anymore. still a great card design. i wouldnt blame anyone for running it if they are looking for something different from the typical green dorks.
I like the card, but green aggro is hard to support. I run him, and run aggro in green, but it is a bit controversial and it does affect other aspects of my green section. Hopefully they will print 1 or 2 more 1 drops in green that are simply more than just beaters to put it on par with with the white, red and black aggro creatures that you can pick from. I think the design space is a little more limited though in green though. Hopefully wizards can get creative though and figure something out.
While heavy green based beatdown style aggro doesn't happen often, heavy red or white aggro does and it often dips into green for support because it has some heavy hitters that can really help close out games. Experiment One is definitely one of those reasons to dip into green for those decks. I think it's great.
I don't have dedicated flex slots. Our testing varies depending on our cube schedule. If I am able to have all of our additions proxied up and ready to go, we'll often just toss them all into the cube without cutting anything for that night to see how they play. Other times it might be a few weeks after release before we can get a cube night in, so I rely on discussions with my group and opinions I see here to make cuts.
Hellrider is one of the best aggro curve-toppers available. The direct damage provides reach and PW damage, and the 3-toughness body can attack into lions/pikers/bears with impunity.
Hellrider is easily my favorite red four drop. I love RDW in cube and there's really not another curve topper that puts out the kind of damage that Hellrider does.
My favorite keyword is probably just haste, tbh. I love RDW and constantly being able to just play dudes and get in the red zone is great.
Hellrider is great and it'd take a ton to push it from cube.
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EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Knight is solid, but the WW cost is hard to justify when there are so many great 1W creatures to choose from.
I really like Mardu and Jeskai, and I probably play those two Wedges the most. Although, most of my reanimator decks are either Grixis, Sultai or Jund, so I play those a lot too. And Temur Oath/Sneak/Show shells. And Naya aggro. Bant, Esper and Abzan are probably my three least played 3-color combinations, but they still show up with regularity.
I concur, cheap cards that cost double of any color mana these days are hard to justify. Bloodghast and Rofellos, llanowar emissary are the only 2 drops that I run that are like this. even moving to the 3 drop slot, there are only a handful of creatures that I run which cost 1xx, and most of them are so over the top that they are worth running or are on the chumping block.
In terms of 3 colored decks, in constructed I like Grixis a lot, I naturally draft a lot of Bant or Jeskai and sometimes mardu
I ran it back in the early days of my cube. It was good on the draw and got a bunch worse on the play, it was nice if you fell behind on lands but only fetching plains was a pain (I guess it fetches the dual lands, but I wasn't running them.
CC on a 2 drop is just always such a pain if they need to come down early, it screws with your mana curve as you need the extra sources to make sure he comes down on time. The reward for getting playing him isn't even all that great; your standard 2/2 first striking knight that (hopefully) gets a land isn't a great floor.
I think CC 2 drops need to be nutso-busted or provide value much later into the game to be worth it for cube. There are just so many 1C that are great that it's hard to justify CC 2 drops.
My favorite wedge is Sultai or Jeskai. Sultai because adding counters/looting to my golgari reanimator decks is always fun and Jeskai because it can do a bit of everything (top tier removal, counters, burn) and sideboards well if I need change things up (e.g. changing from tempo to control).
KotWO is hard to justify these days. It's good but there are better cards with easier casting costs. I'd bring back Soltari Monk, Soltari Priest, and Precinct Captain before KotWO.
If I'm in three colors, it's usually going to be Sultai or Jund reanimator/RecSur or Grixis or Jeskai Wildfire control. I also love Abzan RecSur a lot but it doesn't come together as often.
I like this knight, and still run it, though its been on-and-off of the chopping block for a while now. Helping you recover if you fall behind on land drops is nice, as is speeding out two 2-drops on turn 3 and/or a 5-drop on turn 4. Certainly not the best white 2-drop, and WW can be limiting, but its an aggressive body with built-in card advantage and mana ramp.
I'll echo what's already been said. Knight is fine, but nothing to get too excited about.
My personal most played tri color is probably Jund or Naya. I do venture into Grixis when I can piece together the classic Grixis 2-for-1 deck. Grixis is also a fun Wildfire shell, especially if you can top out with Bolas or something. Bant also sees quite a bit of play here, but I don't play it very often. Bant is a good Upheaval or Crystal Shard shell. Tri color decks are fun as long as you can make your manabase work.
Critical for the combo, obviously. Too red-intensive if you're just playing it for value.
I don't play 2-card combos that immediately win the game on the spot. I think it's important to ensure that sorcery-speed interaction is still valuable. I think it's important to enable powerful plays and synergies (Tinker/Reanimator/Etc) but I think it's critical that the defending player at least has an opportunity to untap and respond before losing the game. It allows for players looking for powerful Magic and players looking for interactive Magic to both get what they want, which I think is more important than polarizing the experience in one direction or the other.
I like the kiki package a lot. I'm pretty OK with the combo existing, and don't think it's really that oppressive or too feel-bad in a powered environment.
My cube is full of combos, with the rule that at least one part of the combo needs to cost at least 3cmc. I made an exception for Exhume, since reanimator takes a few turns to win after comboing off, and even if the reanimator player lives in Magical Christmas Land with turn 1 Dark Ritual + Entomb + Exhume, without Reanimate and Animate Dead for redundancy, that situation won't happen often, and there's still a decent number of answers to that when it does.
I've been very happy since adding Kiki-Jiki + Splinter Twin. The combo fits my 3cmc rule well, and has added another strong archetype to the cube for just a small number of pieces needing to be added. I love Kiki-Jiki's interactions with Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard, when you can cast a recruiter to find Kiki-Jiki, use Kiki-Jiki to copy the Recruiter, and use the copy to get Pestermite. Its just a really nice compact tutor package.
We've had Kiki in since pretty much the inception of my cube. Prior to infinite combos, Kiki was just a pet card that my friends enjoyed for the value plays. One of my friends loves it and has even splashed for it (yeah, splashed for the trip red card). By itself, without considering the infinite combo potential, I think Kiki is just a fun creature.
My cube does include the Kiki combo now, but only because it exists with other excellent cards like Resto and Conscripts. I don't purposely try to force it and I've only see it happen once or twice. As far as combo goes in general, I'm not a fan. I have the most fun playing Magic when the games are back and forth and full of interaction and each player is doing things and attacking and the game ends when one player is able to get the other to zero. I really despise games where I'm doing all of those things and my opponent is stalling and digging to find a combo and then wins on the spot. That's not to say I don't enjoy the occasional crazy turn one or two that happens in powered cubes. The decks that are capable of those plays don't normally rely on those early game blowouts to be successful, they just get lucky sometimes. Also, fwiw, if you play combo on MTGO, I am the guy that hits F6 while you make all the clicks.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I don't have dedicated flex slots. Our testing varies depending on our cube schedule. If I am able to have all of our additions proxied up and ready to go, we'll often just toss them all into the cube without cutting anything for that night to see how they play. Other times it might be a few weeks after release before we can get a cube night in, so I rely on discussions with my group and opinions I see here to make cuts.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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Hellrider
What is your favorite evergreen keyword?
Scry is evergreen now, right? It's probably Scry.
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My favorite keyword is probably just haste, tbh. I love RDW and constantly being able to just play dudes and get in the red zone is great.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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I think my favourite is Trample because it makes blocking choices more interesting. I also really like ninjitsu though.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Prowess prob my favorite, as it adds a lot of complexity in situations there otherwise wouldn't be.
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I think some neighbors complained. It was an outdoor wedding in a residential area. To be fair, the cops were telling us we needed to cut off at 10.
Hellrider is awesome. I can't see ever cutting it.
I really like Trample a lot. If it was still evergreen, I'd probably go with protection.
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Knight of the White Orchid
What is your favorite shard or wedge to play?
I really like Mardu and Jeskai, and I probably play those two Wedges the most. Although, most of my reanimator decks are either Grixis, Sultai or Jund, so I play those a lot too. And Temur Oath/Sneak/Show shells. And Naya aggro. Bant, Esper and Abzan are probably my three least played 3-color combinations, but they still show up with regularity.
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
In terms of 3 colored decks, in constructed I like Grixis a lot, I naturally draft a lot of Bant or Jeskai and sometimes mardu
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
CC on a 2 drop is just always such a pain if they need to come down early, it screws with your mana curve as you need the extra sources to make sure he comes down on time. The reward for getting playing him isn't even all that great; your standard 2/2 first striking knight that (hopefully) gets a land isn't a great floor.
I think CC 2 drops need to be nutso-busted or provide value much later into the game to be worth it for cube. There are just so many 1C that are great that it's hard to justify CC 2 drops.
My favorite wedge is Sultai or Jeskai. Sultai because adding counters/looting to my golgari reanimator decks is always fun and Jeskai because it can do a bit of everything (top tier removal, counters, burn) and sideboards well if I need change things up (e.g. changing from tempo to control).
If I'm in three colors, it's usually going to be Sultai or Jund reanimator/RecSur or Grixis or Jeskai Wildfire control. I also love Abzan RecSur a lot but it doesn't come together as often.
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CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
[180 classic cube]
My personal most played tri color is probably Jund or Naya. I do venture into Grixis when I can piece together the classic Grixis 2-for-1 deck. Grixis is also a fun Wildfire shell, especially if you can top out with Bolas or something. Bant also sees quite a bit of play here, but I don't play it very often. Bant is a good Upheaval or Crystal Shard shell. Tri color decks are fun as long as you can make your manabase work.
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Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
How heavily do you support combo decks in your cube? Do you enjoy playing with/against combo decks?
I like Kiki-Jiki in concept but it's never been in my list
I support combo to some extent. Tinker, reanimation, Oath of Druids/Eureka/Natural Order.
I like playing against combo more than with it, because it forces me to have drafted proactive answers.
Here's my cube! Give it a draft!
I don't play 2-card combos that immediately win the game on the spot. I think it's important to ensure that sorcery-speed interaction is still valuable. I think it's important to enable powerful plays and synergies (Tinker/Reanimator/Etc) but I think it's critical that the defending player at least has an opportunity to untap and respond before losing the game. It allows for players looking for powerful Magic and players looking for interactive Magic to both get what they want, which I think is more important than polarizing the experience in one direction or the other.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
I've been very happy since adding Kiki-Jiki + Splinter Twin. The combo fits my 3cmc rule well, and has added another strong archetype to the cube for just a small number of pieces needing to be added. I love Kiki-Jiki's interactions with Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard, when you can cast a recruiter to find Kiki-Jiki, use Kiki-Jiki to copy the Recruiter, and use the copy to get Pestermite. Its just a really nice compact tutor package.
[180 classic cube]
My cube does include the Kiki combo now, but only because it exists with other excellent cards like Resto and Conscripts. I don't purposely try to force it and I've only see it happen once or twice. As far as combo goes in general, I'm not a fan. I have the most fun playing Magic when the games are back and forth and full of interaction and each player is doing things and attacking and the game ends when one player is able to get the other to zero. I really despise games where I'm doing all of those things and my opponent is stalling and digging to find a combo and then wins on the spot. That's not to say I don't enjoy the occasional crazy turn one or two that happens in powered cubes. The decks that are capable of those plays don't normally rely on those early game blowouts to be successful, they just get lucky sometimes. Also, fwiw, if you play combo on MTGO, I am the guy that hits F6 while you make all the clicks.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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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.