Whip is meh. It's a good way to grind out midrange mirrors, and the ability can be good against slower control decks, but it's a lot of mana, and the sorcery activation limitation hurts it.
I would love to see cascade back, because I like powerful effects that are "random" but reward good deck building to reduce the randomness. BBE is one of my favorite cards, and it's kind of a bummer that it's basically the only playable cascade card. I know it wont, though, because the constructed implications are too problematic (or it will get printed in commander decks on like 8 drops).
On whip - I remember testing this and it being fairly meh. The kind of decks that are very interested in getting big fatties out of the yard often can't take too much advantage of the lifelink the turn the whip comes down, and I found 8 mana before you get your first guy just way too expensive for grindy value decks. For the grindy Bx decks, recurring nightmare is just obviously miles better, and I also like mimic vat a lot more for taking over games, and I don't think I need a third card that's pretty similar.
That being said, if my cube went bigger (currently 465) I would certainly look to include this so the effect was more likely to show up in drafts. It's clearly the 3rd best of this effect.
I had Whip if my cube for a year or so. I really like the effect, and the life link played a critical role, but I had to cut it for being slow. This would be an awesome card if it only cost 3 instead of 4, but as it stands it's not quite good enough for smaller cubes. In a less powerful environment though that is more thematically built with life gain matters and re animator this is a key card for that cube.
Never played with Whip, don't think its very good. I'm not even a fan of Mimic Vat (much to the horror of my playgroup), and this is really just a much worse Vat.
Is it weird that I want more flash? It's ever green, but there's something I love about having versatile flash creatures. Bonus if they're big and green to punish control decks. I really wish Carnage Tyrant had flash, although it doesn't really need it.
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I like Whip. Black decks in my cube were hurting themselves way too much, and Whip, while not perfect, does a good enough job at offsetting that. Whip + Necropotence or Whip + Bitterblossom are really slick. The activated ability doesn't really let Whip slot in a dedicated Reanimator deck, but it does fit well in a hybrid aggro Reanimator deck. Oona's Prowler, Pack Rat and Liliana of the Veil are discard outlets that slot nicely into Black aggro, so those + Whip can let you pick up Griselbrand for a draw engine to supplement Necropotence.
I would side with amazing shatter. I think someone on here compared it to a red Disenchant, it swaps removing an enchantment for removing a creature. Its a pretty great magic card and finds it's way into a lot of red decks since it acts as creature removal for smaller creatures (or larger ones post-combat), wrecks large robots and all those other pesky artifacts.
I have the Titan cycle in my cube, Frost Titan has been fairly meh but there is something nice about having the full cycle in cube. I think with most cycles there is usually one or two that are un-cubable unless you really force them in.
I have all the swords, but only because I don't like the idea of having some random color hosers and not others. If I was going on pure power I would probably only run body and mind and fire and ice - mayyybe feast and famine. I think that's the only cycle I run that isn't land
I don't even run goyf so I can't even claim to run the whole "broken 2-drops" cycle =P
Is Abrade good enough for 450? I feel I don’t want to remove an ETB shatter nor a burn that can hit players and planeswalkers.
I would say it is, the flexibility is what does it for me and it is a change from the other "1R: Deal 3 damage" cards like Incinerate there are a lot of games where I would take the "destroy target artifact" mode of Abrade over "deal 3 damage to target player or planeswalker". It probably depends on what artifacts you run, but I know from my cube I am very happy to have a main deckable shatter effect, especially in Game 1 where I might otherwise have no answers.
I would suggest trying it out over whatever Incinerate variant you feel has the worst art. Out of curiosity, what is the ETB Shatter in red? Ingot Chewer?
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big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
Wow I had completely forgotten about that guy, does he see a lot of play in non powered cubes? I ended up cutting him years ago. I think I prefer things like Reckless Reveler, sure I have to sac the creature but it doesn't rot in my hand or feel bad to play it without a target.
Abrade is an awsomee card design for cube, I fire Imp / Vandal card would be a really good addition as well. FLexible cards like this really add to cubes since it opens up spots for cards in the cube, and in deck designing after the draft
abrade is awesome. its been maindecked 100% of the time since i have included it.
I run all of the titans. I tried all of the gearhulks but cut them all except torrential, noxious, and verdurous. also tried all of the confluences but cut them all except wretched, fiery and righteous. think thats all.
How do you feel about running only one or two types of cards with different looking layouts (such as flip cards, level up cards, or transform cards)? Do you try to include at least one representative, avoid only including one for aesthetic purposes, or neither?
I have no interest in including Masterpiece Series cards. I think they look a little too samey at first glance, and especially in the case of Amonkhet Invocations, they can be hard to read. I don't mind other aesthetic differences.
Yeah, Treespeaker might be the best mana dork in cube, one could argue Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, and in mono green it is the better card, but in a deck that isn't heavy base green Tree speaker can be so good.
Joraga is the best mana dork and my 2nd favorite after Birds of Paradise. My friend whose only exposure to Magic is drafting with me says Joraga is his favorite card. But he also thinks Spear of Heliod is too overpowered.
I don't concern myself with card layout much. Artwork and readability (newer streamlined verbiage over older clunky verbiage) are the predominant factors when choosing a printing. Layout is more of a tiebreaker.
More flashback plz.
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On whip - I remember testing this and it being fairly meh. The kind of decks that are very interested in getting big fatties out of the yard often can't take too much advantage of the lifelink the turn the whip comes down, and I found 8 mana before you get your first guy just way too expensive for grindy value decks. For the grindy Bx decks, recurring nightmare is just obviously miles better, and I also like mimic vat a lot more for taking over games, and I don't think I need a third card that's pretty similar.
That being said, if my cube went bigger (currently 465) I would certainly look to include this so the effect was more likely to show up in drafts. It's clearly the 3rd best of this effect.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
Is it weird that I want more flash? It's ever green, but there's something I love about having versatile flash creatures. Bonus if they're big and green to punish control decks. I really wish Carnage Tyrant had flash, although it doesn't really need it.
Regular 450 unpowered cube (with some custom cards) - 450 Unpowered
[180 classic cube]
Abrade
Are there any complete, nonland cycles you are running in your cube?
I have the Titan cycle in my cube, Frost Titan has been fairly meh but there is something nice about having the full cycle in cube. I think with most cycles there is usually one or two that are un-cubable unless you really force them in.
I have all the swords, but only because I don't like the idea of having some random color hosers and not others. If I was going on pure power I would probably only run body and mind and fire and ice - mayyybe feast and famine. I think that's the only cycle I run that isn't land
I don't even run goyf so I can't even claim to run the whole "broken 2-drops" cycle =P
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I run the Swords of X&Y cycle and cant foresee them ever leaving my cube.
Cheers,
rant
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I think it is. I run it in 450 Powered. It will rarely lack a target. If you are running all the Incinerate clones, you could remove one of those.
Cheers,
rant
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I would say it is, the flexibility is what does it for me and it is a change from the other "1R: Deal 3 damage" cards like Incinerate there are a lot of games where I would take the "destroy target artifact" mode of Abrade over "deal 3 damage to target player or planeswalker". It probably depends on what artifacts you run, but I know from my cube I am very happy to have a main deckable shatter effect, especially in Game 1 where I might otherwise have no answers.
I would suggest trying it out over whatever Incinerate variant you feel has the worst art. Out of curiosity, what is the ETB Shatter in red? Ingot Chewer?
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Wow I had completely forgotten about that guy, does he see a lot of play in non powered cubes? I ended up cutting him years ago. I think I prefer things like Reckless Reveler, sure I have to sac the creature but it doesn't rot in my hand or feel bad to play it without a target.
I would love to see some kind of red reclamation sage
I would be interested in this Fire Imp/Manic Vandal mash-up
I run the Sword of X and Y cycle. Close call on the Titan cycle, but Frost Titan doesn't make the cut for me.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I run a cycle of Moxen. They’re pretty good...
I run all of the titans. I tried all of the gearhulks but cut them all except torrential, noxious, and verdurous. also tried all of the confluences but cut them all except wretched, fiery and righteous. think thats all.
I run the sword of X and Y cycle.
Joraga Treespeaker
How do you feel about running only one or two types of cards with different looking layouts (such as flip cards, level up cards, or transform cards)? Do you try to include at least one representative, avoid only including one for aesthetic purposes, or neither?
I have no interest in including Masterpiece Series cards. I think they look a little too samey at first glance, and especially in the case of Amonkhet Invocations, they can be hard to read. I don't mind other aesthetic differences.
[180 classic cube]
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I don't concern myself with card layout much. Artwork and readability (newer streamlined verbiage over older clunky verbiage) are the predominant factors when choosing a printing. Layout is more of a tiebreaker.