I think Primeval Titan is borderline 360 cubable: it's probably the best green 6-drop, but the main problem is that it just doesn't stem the tide of an aggressive surge, unlike any of the other titans, unless you can find a Maze of Ith. It's great when it works and you can get even more ahead, but I wish there was more defensive ability on there.
I would run Smash over the Kami, just because I value instant-speed shenanigans quite a bit, and the 3 damage is significant. I agree that the Kami may be more consistent, but Smashing something just feels great, and don't you want your red section to feel great once in a while?
I don't like Fanatic or Kird Ape myself much either (for the same reasons as others), but Fire Imp and Arc Lightning always manage to do major work here.
Jeff, I'm with you on the LG and MTM. I like them both a lot, but I cut Lodestone a long time ago and have never missed it, and am on the verge of getting rid of MTM as well (even though I think it's the best Masticore). I just rarely end up playing them in my decks, even in a Winston format where presumably it'd be more difficult to pick up on-color 4-drops.
In any case, I'm confident that even if you don't want to cut both, you can at least cut one. I don't think that small cubes really need to run two 4-drop colorless aggro creatures.
Hoodwink, I'd cut Arena over Vapors. I like the splash of Vapors, and Arena is getting to be too slow and costly for smaller cubes, IMO. I talked about this with another cube builder yesterday, and he agreed with me on this. Vapors is immediate CA & value, Arena only gets you something good if you can drag the game out while finding a way to gain life. Another cut I would suggest is Tombstalker, especially if you plan on recurring a lot of your black creatures.
I think when people say non-interactive they don't mean that there is no way to interact with the card.
I think that they mean more that Jace 3 doesn't play along the same axes of interaction that the rest of the cube does. It doesn't interact with creatures, and it doesn't interact with life totals, and it doesn't interact with cards in hand. In that sense, there are no "direct" counters to Jace's effect except to cast a Time Spiral, whereas you can resurrect creatures, gain life, or draw additional cards to counteract the effect of other PWs.
The other way in which it is non-interactive is that there's really only one mode that's optimal most of the time, which makes it less interactive for the player casting him.
I don't think that many people are saying Jace is at Sol Ring level (just a couple of people). I think everyone acknowledges that he is a fairly strong finisher in the cube format, and I think the frustration is that he is a kind of finisher with which there are very few ways to interact. I think that counts for something, even if it's mainly psychological. It's the same reason I don't run Sigarda.
The last thing I want to say is that there aren't a whole heck of a lot of 5-drops in blue that'll close out the game for you if you drop it on turn 5 and aren't already significantly ahead. Treachery maybe, and Bribery if you can snag a big monster from them, but generally speaking you don't just drop your Mulldrifter or Meloku on turn 5 and expect them to win on the spot. In that particular sense, Jace is not that different.
So here's the thing. I have a number of blink enablers, but I feel like the number of blink targets are a bit low. Since your main blinkers are going to be 3-drops (Flickerwisp) and 4-drops (Restoration, Glimmerpoint Stag, Galepowder Mage), it's nice to have 2 or 3 drop ETB creatures to blink, but the number of creatures is pretty low. Here are the ones in my 360 + a few off the top of my head:
That's fine. I know this board is very down on Devil and the same critiques have come out over and over, though I wonder how much people have actually tested it. I played it yesterday on turn 1 and it was just fine, my opponent eventually conceded, specifically citing the 4 damage from the Devil. Obviously, I would play any 2/1 1-drops over it, but in some formats/cubes you simply don't have enough two-power 1-drops. I know that red aggro in my cube was struggling in Winston drafts, even though I had a very aggro build, until I started adding in a ton of one-drops like Waif, Stonewright, and Devil.
By the by, I played Stonewright again yesterday and it performed well once again.
In any case, both Devil and Abandon limit your options somewhat. Sure, Devil doesn't always do what you want but you can choose when to play it. If you have Abandon but no turn 1 play, that's far more suboptimal than playing Devil on turn 1.
Just going to comment on your blue for now (just one section at a time) since your list is a bit difficult to read without having it sorted by CMC.
Creaturewise, the ninjas, plaxmanta, faerie imposter, and husher all seem very week compared to the rest of the field. Why not try Coralhelm Commander? I got my face smashed in with it several times today, in a 360.
Blustersquall and Flusterstorm also seem very weak unless you're scrapping for counters, and even then I'd run Memory Lapse, Remand, and Arcane Denial over those. Time Spiral is another insane card that you're missing.
Just a heads up, I am recording a new episode of Joy of Cubing tonight, and I'll be covering this strategy. If there are any questions, or cards/areas you'd like me to cover, let me know!
Given that the archetype may be weaker in a smaller draft format (winston, sealed, 4-mans), would you still push the archetype, and if so, in what order would you add in the cards?
If you were running a very small list, e.g. 360, what "staples" or auto-includes would you be willing to remove in order to run this archetype?
At what level of support do you think that the strategy has become too all-in; i.e. it weakens the other theaters of Black too much?
On another note, for those who consider it a forfeit of the right to complain if one abstains from voting, what if there wasn't an option for what you wanted on the ballot? In other words, what if the choices were between Civil Union or Nothing for gay couples and you only believed in equal full Marriage? Would you still be barred from complaining if you didn't want to support choice you believed was unjust?
If you don't have a third alternative, such as a write-in vote, then yes, I think you have an obligation to vote for the choice which you think is most palatable AND (OR) take some concrete action or generate discourse as to why you do not believe that either of the two choices are the correct choices. I think that there's a false belief that silence indicates dissension, which is patently incorrect at least in this country (and probably in most). Virtually nobody will notice an abstention unless there is a big show about it, that's the plain truth. If Obama himself decided to abstain from the vote, I wouldn't notice unless there was a media story.
To the extent that the "right to complain" is tied in to the personal effort contributed towards rectifying that chance, I think that both deciding not to vote and abstaining from other participation does indeed limit your "right to complain." If only for the fact that we perpetuate a cultural norm which cherishes the ideal of individual action, and has disdain for the armchair bellyacher.
By the way, I finally set up my excel sheet such that it's a 30 second ctrl-c, ctrl-v, ctrl-h job into mtgs cube contents format. If anyone wants to take a look or wants the template, let me know.
I'm currently 3 cards over in the cube, partly because I added in cards for testing. I want to cut them from black and red since I added so many from RTR. Please suggest some cuts from those colors (not vexing devil, want to test still).
I think Primeval Titan is borderline 360 cubable: it's probably the best green 6-drop, but the main problem is that it just doesn't stem the tide of an aggressive surge, unlike any of the other titans, unless you can find a Maze of Ith. It's great when it works and you can get even more ahead, but I wish there was more defensive ability on there.
I would run Smash over the Kami, just because I value instant-speed shenanigans quite a bit, and the 3 damage is significant. I agree that the Kami may be more consistent, but Smashing something just feels great, and don't you want your red section to feel great once in a while?
I don't like Fanatic or Kird Ape myself much either (for the same reasons as others), but Fire Imp and Arc Lightning always manage to do major work here.
In any case, I'm confident that even if you don't want to cut both, you can at least cut one. I don't think that small cubes really need to run two 4-drop colorless aggro creatures.
I don't know that this card is even better than Spikeshot Elder, which is a monocolored card.
I think that they mean more that Jace 3 doesn't play along the same axes of interaction that the rest of the cube does. It doesn't interact with creatures, and it doesn't interact with life totals, and it doesn't interact with cards in hand. In that sense, there are no "direct" counters to Jace's effect except to cast a Time Spiral, whereas you can resurrect creatures, gain life, or draw additional cards to counteract the effect of other PWs.
The other way in which it is non-interactive is that there's really only one mode that's optimal most of the time, which makes it less interactive for the player casting him.
I don't think that many people are saying Jace is at Sol Ring level (just a couple of people). I think everyone acknowledges that he is a fairly strong finisher in the cube format, and I think the frustration is that he is a kind of finisher with which there are very few ways to interact. I think that counts for something, even if it's mainly psychological. It's the same reason I don't run Sigarda.
The last thing I want to say is that there aren't a whole heck of a lot of 5-drops in blue that'll close out the game for you if you drop it on turn 5 and aren't already significantly ahead. Treachery maybe, and Bribery if you can snag a big monster from them, but generally speaking you don't just drop your Mulldrifter or Meloku on turn 5 and expect them to win on the spot. In that particular sense, Jace is not that different.
W: Stoneforge Mystic, Lone Missionary, Wall of Omens, Blade Slicer
U: Aether Adept, Man-O-War
B:Geralf's Messenger (though you're unlikely to be able to blink it next turn)
R: Keldon Marauders, Fire Imp, Imperial Recruiter
G: Wall of Blossoms, Eternal Witness
Colorless: nothing
Multi: nothing
---
Are there more blink targets to add, especially in W or U, and especially in the 2-drop slot?
By the by, I played Stonewright again yesterday and it performed well once again.
In any case, both Devil and Abandon limit your options somewhat. Sure, Devil doesn't always do what you want but you can choose when to play it. If you have Abandon but no turn 1 play, that's far more suboptimal than playing Devil on turn 1.
Creaturewise, the ninjas, plaxmanta, faerie imposter, and husher all seem very week compared to the rest of the field. Why not try Coralhelm Commander? I got my face smashed in with it several times today, in a 360.
Blustersquall and Flusterstorm also seem very weak unless you're scrapping for counters, and even then I'd run Memory Lapse, Remand, and Arcane Denial over those. Time Spiral is another insane card that you're missing.
Given that the archetype may be weaker in a smaller draft format (winston, sealed, 4-mans), would you still push the archetype, and if so, in what order would you add in the cards?
If you were running a very small list, e.g. 360, what "staples" or auto-includes would you be willing to remove in order to run this archetype?
At what level of support do you think that the strategy has become too all-in; i.e. it weakens the other theaters of Black too much?
If you don't have a third alternative, such as a write-in vote, then yes, I think you have an obligation to vote for the choice which you think is most palatable AND (OR) take some concrete action or generate discourse as to why you do not believe that either of the two choices are the correct choices. I think that there's a false belief that silence indicates dissension, which is patently incorrect at least in this country (and probably in most). Virtually nobody will notice an abstention unless there is a big show about it, that's the plain truth. If Obama himself decided to abstain from the vote, I wouldn't notice unless there was a media story.
To the extent that the "right to complain" is tied in to the personal effort contributed towards rectifying that chance, I think that both deciding not to vote and abstaining from other participation does indeed limit your "right to complain." If only for the fact that we perpetuate a cultural norm which cherishes the ideal of individual action, and has disdain for the armchair bellyacher.