I'd like to hear people's thoughts on Thorn in cube. Specifically, why it doesn't really get tried in most cubes. Thorn's symmetry, unlike its compatriot Sphere of Resistance, is relatively easy to break by just playing a deck with a high creature count. I've run it for a while in my 720 card, unpowered cube, and it regularly earns a start in Mono-W Death & Taxes style builds as well as Selesnya Hatebears builds. Additionally, I don't really support the Stax archetype atm, but I know many cubes do, and it would certainly be good there too. Worth noting of course is that similar cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Vryn Wingmare, Lodestone Golem, etc... do see play. Thalia in particular seems like a white staple nowadays.
So, like I said, I'd appreciate any thoughts on if it is cubeable, and if not, why not. Or maybe just that particular playgroups don't like that type of card (i.e. they see it as "unfun"), so they just don't run it because of personal preference.
I think you'd have to be going very deep on the taxation theme to want this card as it doesn't help develop your board the way the creatures with this kind of effect do. OG Thalia's great in creature-heavy decks that want to delay the opponent's removal, of course, and Lodestone Golem sees a decent amount of play in powered cubes (although I've had some success with it in my unpowered as well) where artifact-centric decks that also break the symmetry while also adding a Juggernaut to the board.
Long story short, I'd add Thalia, Lodestone Golem, and Vryn Wingmare to my cube in that order before I even considered Thorn of Amethyst.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I added this card originally to further push Stax and the artifact deck, but became very impressed at how much it helped push the mostly-all-creatures/Survival of the Fittest deck. Having redundancy with Thalia is great, and having them both in play at the same time can be backbreaking. I think Vryn Wingmare is the better card, but white's 3s are packed and I can't see making room for the pegasus in 360, where I found it fairly easy to fit in an artifact.
I found the taxing effect without the body to be too matchup dependent. Sometimes it's great. Other times, your opponent curves out with creatures and Thorn is a dumpster fire. Thalia is an Elvish Archers and Lodestone's a Juggernaut. So even when the disruption isn't at its peak, the card at least does something for you. Same can't be said for Thorn. That's pretty important.
That being said, in a combo-centric environment where hatebears is one of the only red zone decks that's playable, Thorn is probably a great card.
Thorn of Amethyst
I'd like to hear people's thoughts on Thorn in cube. Specifically, why it doesn't really get tried in most cubes. Thorn's symmetry, unlike its compatriot Sphere of Resistance, is relatively easy to break by just playing a deck with a high creature count. I've run it for a while in my 720 card, unpowered cube, and it regularly earns a start in Mono-W Death & Taxes style builds as well as Selesnya Hatebears builds. Additionally, I don't really support the Stax archetype atm, but I know many cubes do, and it would certainly be good there too. Worth noting of course is that similar cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Vryn Wingmare, Lodestone Golem, etc... do see play. Thalia in particular seems like a white staple nowadays.
So, like I said, I'd appreciate any thoughts on if it is cubeable, and if not, why not. Or maybe just that particular playgroups don't like that type of card (i.e. they see it as "unfun"), so they just don't run it because of personal preference.
Long story short, I'd add Thalia, Lodestone Golem, and Vryn Wingmare to my cube in that order before I even considered Thorn of Amethyst.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
[180 classic cube]
That being said, in a combo-centric environment where hatebears is one of the only red zone decks that's playable, Thorn is probably a great card.
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!