- FunkyDragon
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Member for 14 years, 6 months, and 9 days
Last active Thu, Mar, 28 2024 10:16:00
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Feb 3, 2014FunkyDragon posted a message on Launch Giveaway!Angel of Despair may have recently been outclassed, but it will remain my favorite card - awesome art and a powerful ETB ability in colors than allow it to be recurred either by blinking or through reanimation, all stapled to a big flying body. What's not to love?Posted in: Announcements
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257 cards (63.5%) are in both my cube and the average cube.
148 cards (36.5%) that I run are in less than 15 cubes (and thus not in the average cube).
Cards I'm surprised didn't get more attention:
- Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant (13 cubes) - While not an auto-include in any one archetype, Lulu synergizes with several existing archetypes: +1/+1 counters, blink, flying. It's played even better than I hoped - in a draft just last week, my son had it in play with Mother of Runes, Poison Dart Frog, and Imperious Perfect (among others), and he dominated the board, negating my removal, cranking out multiple tokens each turn, all while growing his creatures and and applying lots of pressure (he kept getting triggers thanks to things like Springbloom Druid and the fact that I had to block in order to live).
- Loran's Escape (5 cubes) - Like Blacksmith's Skill (1 cube), this is a cheap, effective piece of interaction that can protect a creature or artifact for a single mana. I've never been disappointed to draw this.
- Vampire of the Dire Moon (7 cubes) - I know it's been out for several years, but I'm still amazed this doesn't get run more.
- Promising Vein (5 cubes) - Shire Terrace landed in 17 cubes, yet this near-functional reprint got nearly no attention at all. Maybe more people avoid functional reprints than I realized.
Changes I should acquire:
- I'm still running Deadly Brew, but perhaps I should consider switching to Rise of the Witch-King. I'll need to pick up another copy, as all of my current ones are in Commander decks.
- Confounding Riddle - I just never picked up a copy.
I did have problems opening from these links, but when I grabbed the URL, I was able to go directly. Seems strange to me that as we get more and better peasant options, more people choose to stretch beyond peasant into peasant+. I would be curious how much this was affected by expanding the list of cubes the data is drawn from. No judgment, though - cube is the format to do whatever you want. I've always been satisfied with the fixing at peasant level and will stick to it.
Assuming you are saccing creatures and not artifacts, Village Rites is the best, hands down, every day. Keeping one mana open is easy; keeping two may actually impact your plays. Creatures are going to die - your opponent is going to use removal - so trading a creature for cards for only one mana is a steal. After spending one mana, you may even have enough mana to cast something you draw into. And that doesn't even count aristocrats strategies.
Granted, the other two allow you to sac an artifact instead, but how many disposable artifacts are you running? I suppose a deck that creates a lot of treasure or clues might find that incidental, but my cube isn't heavy on either.
If I did run either of the second two, I'd certainly value the treasure over a map token in most instances.
There's also a cleaner, simpler beauty to "Sac a creature, draw two cards" over "spend more to also get a treasure or to get a map that lets you pay more to explore in order to either draw a land or get a +1/+1 counter on a creature." That last one just feels so busy without really telling you what you're paying to get. Agreed. The others offer more value for one extra mana (or two if you create and crack a map token), but the simple one mana Village Rites will always reign supreme for me (as well as its functional reprint Corrupted Conviction).
No, you played it wrong.
First, in a four player game, Etali's ETB will reveal four cards, not three. This includes its own caster.
Second, the ETB does not target at all - notice the lack of the word "target." Because it says "each player exiles" and not "target player exiles" or "any number of target players exile," Deflecting Swat has nothing to change. It would still affect all players, and the controller of the ETB would still reap all of the benefits.
Commissar Severina Raine and Mishra, Claimed by Gix become especially deadly in a deck that doubles triggers when joined by Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Hero of Bladehold, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Otharri, Suns' Glory, and Skyknight Vanguard.
Throw in a few more of the direct life drain/damage effects, and your swarm just burns out the opponents. (I'm a big fan of Unquenchable Fury).
I like the card. I just don't like the wording and worry it'll make drafters stumble if they haven't seen it before.
Otherwise, Basalt Monolith would work all on its own.
The auto-blog is annoying, but I wonder how many people just don't notice the checkbox for "Create Blog Post."
I try to remember, but sometimes I forget.
Maybe they add the cards as they acquire them? I know I don't update unless I've already acquired the card (though that usually means I buy them all in one order and then swap them all out when they arrive).
Or they just decided to try another card after they had already done the main changes. I know with LOTR, I thought I had added everything, then I decided to try one more card, and it got its own post.
I would ignore followers as a criteria for selecting cubes - I've never used that feature and don't know how relevant it is. I don't want to be a gatekeeper or elitist, but I kind of agree with n00b1n8r here. If the net is spread too far and includes too many cubes whose owners aren't part of the conversation here, it dilutes the stats as relating to actual MTGSalvation cubes. At the same time, I get that it opens us up to a broader conversation because it gets outside perspective and keeps us from becoming an echo chamber. Tough call, but I look forward to seeing the results either way. When making changes, there is a checkbox "Create Blog Post" that determines whether one is created or not. I generally try to uncheck it if I'm just upgrading art (like regular Abrade to full art promo Abrade that I just got my hands on) or adjusting card tags. But I keep it checked for actual Add/Remove card changes.
And I try to remember to label set posts, but I'm about 50/50 on that.
Delirium is fantastic against massive creatures and Blightsteel Colossus.
Batwing Brume and Rakdos Charm are great against swarms.
Inkshield turns a massive attack to your advantage.
Taunt from the Rampart is great for turning the entire table against itself.
Other cards that turn a wincon against its controller include:
Tainted Remedy makes short work of lifegain decks. False Cure can do some damage if there's one big instance of lifegain.
Haunting Wind and Magnetic Mine against artifact/treasure decks.
Acidic Soil, Ankh of Mishra, Price of Progress, Polluted Bonds, Treacherous Terrain, Zo-Zu the Punisher all punish ramp decks.
Netherborn Phalanx also punishes swarms.
Narset's Reversal can stop/copy a winning spell.
Dismiss into Dream shuts down voltron decks and similar targeting decks.
And other punishment cards:
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed punishes noncreature decks.
Burning-Tree Shaman, Harsh Mentor, Immolation Shaman all punish activated ability decks.