I encourage my opponents to do as much damage as they can to noncreature permanents I control, so I consider the "permanents" clause pure downside. (But seriously, damage can only be dealt to creatures, and has no effect on noncreature permanents.)
As for negating / dealing more damage: it requires 3 mana to get the same effect and doesn't get better until you pay 4 mana. That's just too expensive.
Personally I'm a huge fan of Urborg. I actually exclude Dark Ritual for color pie reasons--following current R&D philosophy, I keep red as the fast mana / ritual color. (It's too bad, of course, that there's no red version of ritual that's worth playing.)
The problem with Yawg Will is that it's best used with dark ritual and strip mine (I also don't run strip mine). I do like the card, though.
I strongly agree with the above sentiment of including a Pox archetype if you want another black archetype; I personally enjoy enabling a BUG dredge deck as well, and I try to include plenty of hand destruction if people want to go that route (in both black and Rakdos).
Azorius Guildmage -- used to be a staple, less popular these days. Manamorphose -- Actually one of the best cards in Magic, and is a nice enabler both for combo and for multicolor aggro. Balefire Liege -- Gives red decks tremendous reach, and is a decent lord for token decks, which tend to be W or R Selesnya Guildmage -- Also good in token decks, and honestly a difficult to deal with card in straight GW beatdown. Life // Death -- Good in both forms, though typically in different decks. Deus of Calamity I'm trying to include an All-In Red archetype as a deck that's similar to Storm but slightly different. A 6/6 trampler for 5 with massive upside is also good in G or GR midrange. Also goes well in Wildfire-type decks if you can get the colored mana, and in Sneak Attack.
Usually a 2/1 on turn 2, though only on offense. Could be a 3/1 on occasion (or, in the case of Siege-Gang-commander, a 5/1), but will be a 1/1 sometimes as well. Compared to Kruin Striker, this is smaller but cheaper (and only triggers on red creatures.)
I was at 6 life and had Chandra the Firebrand, Phyrexian Arena, 6 cards in hand and a couple land. I -2 Chandra and cast Dreadbore targeting the Boa and Troll. He regens both. I then cast Firestorm discarding 4 so I can kill his three guys and dome him for 4. In response he discards his ENTIRE hand (4 creatures!!) to make troll a 6/5 and lives.
He untaps and attacks for lethal. I was shellshocked and we still talk about it.
That said: I LOVE Firestorm- it is so uniquely powerful that I couldn't believe I wasn't playing it before.
Looking at this, the correct play from the start (not knowing what's in his hand) was to -2 Chandra on the Firestorm. It gets you 4 extra damage, and you save a Dreadbore.
And in this particular situation, you could have used that saved dreadbore on his Troll, and won.
This and other forthcoming Cipher cards, in addition to a steadily growing Bant enchantment section and the general nuttiness of some equipment keep pushing me towards including Invisible Stalker.
I think he's a very strong play, and certainly worthy of inclusion.
I'm not running him, however, because I recently went on a redundancy-cutting binge; it was him or Spiketail Hatchling, and there were a lot fewer blue two drops that I wanted to run than three drops. The hatchling made it over the drakeling.
Consider Mesmeric Orb due to its pure power level, and its combination with a variety of blue tempo plays. Remand, Memory Lapse, Aether Adept, etc. give a huge cards-milled advantage to the Orb player.
Sewer Nemesis is one of a very few cards that gets better with a partially milled out opponent, and I'd recommend it on those grounds alone. The fact that it is a very good card in general makes it even more includable.
Also consider adding cards that enable both a mill archetype and a dredge archetype.
5 mana on turn 2 is something I can get behind in any size or power of cube (think Plow Under, Stunted Growth, Baneslayer, Tezzeret, Siege-Gang Commander, etc. etc)
Tinkering on turn 2 instead of 3 is something I can get behind in any size or power of cube.
I have picked Mana Vault over Moxen and been quite happy about it, though I do think it's almost always worse than Lotus / Sol Ring. I would never include it in an unpowered list.
They sure are. But 6 drops on T3 aren't what unpowered cubes are aiming for. If you want the kinds of plays Mana Vault provides, you want to be playing a powered cube.
I disagree strongly with this. An early titan is something I regularly aim for and win with in unpowered lists, even if I don't hit it until turn 4 or 5. A turn earlier is even better, I think?
EDIT: misread wetwaffle's meaning. Agree strongly that if you want to have titans on turn 3 in your cube, you probably shouldn't be playing an unpowered cube, and Mana Vault makes that possible. If you want to play an unpowered cube, you don't want Mana Vault. Much of the time, it's a colorless Black Lotus.
Also note this thread about black zombie tribal.
Without other zombies he's just a 2/1 that can't block for B, which is not particularly great even in Bx aggro, though there are definitely worse cards that see play.
As for negating / dealing more damage: it requires 3 mana to get the same effect and doesn't get better until you pay 4 mana. That's just too expensive.
Thanks to goof-grabs and morons, there are likely no such cards.
The problem with Yawg Will is that it's best used with dark ritual and strip mine (I also don't run strip mine). I do like the card, though.
I strongly agree with the above sentiment of including a Pox archetype if you want another black archetype; I personally enjoy enabling a BUG dredge deck as well, and I try to include plenty of hand destruction if people want to go that route (in both black and Rakdos).
Azorius Guildmage -- used to be a staple, less popular these days.
Manamorphose -- Actually one of the best cards in Magic, and is a nice enabler both for combo and for multicolor aggro.
Balefire Liege -- Gives red decks tremendous reach, and is a decent lord for token decks, which tend to be W or R
Selesnya Guildmage -- Also good in token decks, and honestly a difficult to deal with card in straight GW beatdown.
Life // Death -- Good in both forms, though typically in different decks.
Deus of Calamity I'm trying to include an All-In Red archetype as a deck that's similar to Storm but slightly different. A 6/6 trampler for 5 with massive upside is also good in G or GR midrange. Also goes well in Wildfire-type decks if you can get the colored mana, and in Sneak Attack.
Usually a 2/1 on turn 2, though only on offense. Could be a 3/1 on occasion (or, in the case of Siege-Gang-commander, a 5/1), but will be a 1/1 sometimes as well. Compared to Kruin Striker, this is smaller but cheaper (and only triggers on red creatures.)
Thoughts?
Image leeching replaced.
—Lanxal
Looking at this, the correct play from the start (not knowing what's in his hand) was to -2 Chandra on the Firestorm. It gets you 4 extra damage, and you save a Dreadbore.
And in this particular situation, you could have used that saved dreadbore on his Troll, and won.
(Hint: give them something big)
I'm not running him, however, because I recently went on a redundancy-cutting binge; it was him or Spiketail Hatchling, and there were a lot fewer blue two drops that I wanted to run than three drops. The hatchling made it over the drakeling.
Consider Mesmeric Orb due to its pure power level, and its combination with a variety of blue tempo plays. Remand, Memory Lapse, Aether Adept, etc. give a huge cards-milled advantage to the Orb player.
Sewer Nemesis is one of a very few cards that gets better with a partially milled out opponent, and I'd recommend it on those grounds alone. The fact that it is a very good card in general makes it even more includable.
Also consider adding cards that enable both a mill archetype and a dredge archetype.
Tinkering on turn 2 instead of 3 is something I can get behind in any size or power of cube.
I have picked Mana Vault over Moxen and been quite happy about it, though I do think it's almost always worse than Lotus / Sol Ring. I would never include it in an unpowered list.
I disagree strongly with this. An early titan is something I regularly aim for and win with in unpowered lists, even if I don't hit it until turn 4 or 5. A turn earlier is even better, I think?
EDIT: misread wetwaffle's meaning. Agree strongly that if you want to have titans on turn 3 in your cube, you probably shouldn't be playing an unpowered cube, and Mana Vault makes that possible. If you want to play an unpowered cube, you don't want Mana Vault. Much of the time, it's a colorless Black Lotus.
Without other zombies he's just a 2/1 that can't block for B, which is not particularly great even in Bx aggro, though there are definitely worse cards that see play.