MTG Salvation

Quote from leadfeather89 »

Quote from Narvuntien »

What's the difference between 2 and 3?

1

This one got me.

Speaking of bad taste in lands, I have to admit, these new lands coming out in Outlaws are kinda speaking to me. I liking how the symbol is being integrated into the art. I haven't been excited about basic lands since they ended the star foils.... Maybe there is a basic land overhaul coming up this set.

Quote from ArBoR4817 »

Apparently, Leelue has some trouble with his password and has no access to the forum. He asked me to say and I quote:
"That I don't know how long I'll be gone and that browndog's taste in lands is gutter trash.
Also that I am completely abandoning the boring, zero skill "spell's matter" deck in izzet."

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Basic lands. Star foils look so good. I do have some full art/extended border alters littered throughout each pile as well.

Quote from Leelue »

Finally going to experiment with 10 more rare fixing lands: Triomes, ex indatha triome.

I think you're in the wrong thread.

JK!

Cards I'm adding:

Bottle-Cap Blast -- This card is really interesting. It has great synergy in my Boros equipment decks, especially with the equipment creature cards like Hexgold Halberd and Barbed Spike. There are a multitude of utility artifacts, as well as artifact creatures, in my cube so improvising this for 1-2 shouldn't be that uncommon. Being able to hit face definitely makes it worth trying. Furthermore, I'm always looking at cards that have incidental artifact matter themes in Red, so this card does contribute to this plan.

Contaminated Drink -- Talk about a Dimir control game-ending play. Downshifted Mind Spring is an incredibly powerful effect in a control deck. This card can serve as the guild defining Jace's Ingenuity or Opportunity, and if not, just scale insanely well late game. I think rad counters are certainly a cool concept, but we'll see if it's intuitive when played out. Wish we had reminder text.

Young Deathclaws -- Golgari is a self-mill guild in my cube and this card is a decent threat while also providing some serious value to reward my milling. This effect is incredibly strong and I look forward to untapping with this guy (if my opponent ever lets me).

I'm with Leelue on the Rad counters. I don't feel like convoluting an already complex game.

This set is really underwhelming for me. There are some cool, powerful cards, but not a lot I'm interested in.

I stand by the fact that as I depowered and focused more on synergy, Bloodhunter Bat is as serviceable a card as he ever has been right now.

Because he's the hero Peasantville deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.

Drafted another one with my cube on Draftmancer this morning.

Boros equipment is so fun dude. I hope you end up making it work.

The reason why Cement Shoes is good is that it turns every attacker into a basically unblockable killing machine. You can still chump and possibly trade with a creature with Bonesplitter on it, but try blocking a creature with this bad boy on it and see what happens. You just need a reliable threat every turn. That's what makes Boros so strong. It turns every creature you cast into a serious threat. Grafted Wargear is another good example of this type of equipment. If you haven't seen this card in action yet, you will and it will be disgusting. Never underestimate a big toughness boost.

I can't weigh in on the Simic problem, but I cant absolutely give you my 2 cents about Boros equipment. Boros equipment is an archetype that I recently went full steam on with impressive results. It took playing the archetype incorrectly for me to figure out exactly how it functions and what makes it tick.

The best way to support Boros equipment is to focus on already good offensive/evasive creatures (creatures with first strike, double strike, trample, flying, menace) and boost their offensive capabilities even more with efficient and powerful equipment.

I see you run Goldhound, Coastline Marauders, Illuminator Virtuoso, Sunhome Stalwart.. cards like these are the creatures I'm playing in an equipment deck. Make sure you run enough of these types of creatures is step 1 in my opinion.

I wouldn't run any of your guild cards in a Boros deck. You don't win with a Boros equipment deck by making 1/1 tokens and then equipping them. In my experience, the Boros equipment deck is a midrangey deck that sets up already good attackers with strong equipment for relatively cheap. Give your Boros guild cards that pull you into the archetype fully. If I were you, I'd play Akiri, Fearless Voyager, Bruenor Battlehammer, and Bladehold War-whip. You will then have fully supported your guild with cards that reward/support equipment decks.

Another thing that makes your guild cards function insanely well is to play the creature equipment. This helps you run a higher density of equipment in your decks, while creating board presence, without taking a turn off to play an equipment. You should absolutely be running Hexgold Halberd (first strike and trample). I see you are running Barbed Spike already, so add 1 to red!

Step 2 is honoring the namesake of the archetype and running equipment. Cheap equipment and solid buffs are what you're looking for. A noticeable omission from your list that I have to say has been an allstar in my cube is Cement Shoes. Cheap cost, huuuuge buff, fair downside. You run Barrow-Blade which is amazing, Bonesplitter is good too. You run Grafted Wargear... that card is insanely broken, so that will get played for sure (I banned it from my cube). Also, I would add a colored equipment to both white and red. Hammer it home that you are supporting the archetype. Kor Halberd and Beamtown Beatstick are two equipment with very combat relevant text that are cheap and efficient.

Here is a Boros equipment deck from my cube that I drafted on Draftmancer. Just so you can see how I constructed it:

Powerful and/or evasive attackers, equipment creatures, cheap powerful equipment, some removal, and Flametongue Kavu because why wouldn't you!

It's really funny that you mention Ephemerating an evoked Mulldrifter. There was a couple year period in my cubing life where my strongest and most consistently winning decks were comprised of 4/5 color value decks. These decks would run every 2 for 1 creature or spell they could get a hold of, then flicker them and/or recur them. My playgroup actually refer to this period of the cube as "The Dark Ages" simply because those decks may be fun to play, but are incredibly frustrating to play against. Don't get me wrong, when you have an Azorius flicker deck vs a BUG flicker recursion deck mash into eachother, every decision matters and it's an insane battle of attrition. This can be fun, but the novelty wears off real quick when the aggressive decks literally can't win because they are getting outvalued by an Undying Evil on a Fire Imp or a Cloudshift on an evoked Shriekmaw.

Using a synergy based two-color archetypical strategy as a design benchmark for the cube really helped remedy this problem. Depowering removal spells (either removing 2 for 1 removal or increasing cmc), finding a balance on how many 2 for 1 creatures to run, and simply not running certain types of cards (reanimation and flicker) really allowed the players to play their cards and synergize with their guild's plan.

I've made a lot of deliberate decisions in the cube that have made the cube healthier. Like I said before, I'll make a post on this somewhere else, maybe even just on my thread.

My cube shares 182 cards. This really is a testament to how drastically my cube has changed over the years. With the shift to a more synergy, two-color based cube design, I found that a lot of the 2 for 1 value cards that most of the cubes still have are a major part of the missing cards for me. Conversely, some of my synergy cards are part of the cards that only my cube runs. My cube has gone through some serious overhauls, and is probably the healthiest (and consistent) its been in a long time.

I've developed some benchmarks of cube design along the way that have really helped me make cube decisions. I should probably make a big post about that soon. I think it would be interesting to share some things I've learned along the way, especially after having 300/400+ cubes under my belt over 12 years.

Also, I still think all of you who run Shocklands are heretics. ^^

Top end in green has gotten significantly worse in my cube. I think long past are the days where I can safely say that Pelakka Wurm is the slam dunk it used to be. The format has gotten too fast and synergistic to care about top end green. With that being said, I think I'm always on the lookout for versatile cycling creatures in the top end. Timberland Ancient is the best version for me as I think a big trampling threat is a better stat when it comes to a cycler.

I think when you cut some of the grindy value from peasant, top end gets a lot harder to play, so big cyclers are always on my radar.