MTG Salvation

Thanks, PyreDream! I was starting to make my own list last night (looking only through Instants and Sorcery, was going to do auras later) and to say the least, my list was fairly different.

I agree with wtwlf123 that Mutagenic Growth is essentially colorless. I would count it and Apostle's Blessing as colorless.

I know for white, Shelter, Valorous Stance, and Embolden were in my white section.
In blue, I had Distortion Strike and Crypsis.
In black, I had two tricks that regenerate creatures, they're both newer. Virulent Swipe as also there. Hatred was not on my list, but I'd reconsider that. At the time I told myself it was too expensive to be a "trick."
Red's was pretty different. I had Dynacharge, Weapon Surge, Reckless Charge (which is really relatively powerful, I think) and, I think Titan's Strength.

Though looking at this list, I was coming up with pump spells rather than tricks in some cases. So it makes sense that I considered sorcery where you didn't. (And that's my bad.)

Depending on the size of my cube, I'll probably strive for a few tricks and a few pump spells (a la Rancor and Reckless Charge).

Having a few more lists to compare to would be helpful.

I still count Growth as a green card; it's definitely better when you can choose to pay for it or cast it for free. But the fact that you can play it without untapped green mana is awesome.

I remember in the SCD that people gave Impact Resonance a brutal review, but I still stand by it as an all-star "combat trick" in my cube. It often wipes the field no matter who has the big creatures. The most recent use was to demolish someone's board after a pumped Chameleon Colossus was chumped by a 1/1. No, it won't help too much if your opponent has a big guy and you have absolutely no blockers (well, it'll probably turn into Avenging Arrow), but in just about every other situation, it's marginally good to full-on Plague Wind.

Quote from crszovc »

Thanks, PyreDream! I was starting to make my own list last night (looking only through Instants and Sorcery, was going to do auras later) and to say the least, my list was fairly different.

I know for white, Shelter, Valorous Stance, and Embolden were in my white section.
In blue, I had Distortion Strike and Crypsis.
In black, I had two tricks that regenerate creatures, they're both newer. Virulent Swipe as also there. Hatred was not on my list, but I'd reconsider that. At the time I told myself it was too expensive to be a "trick."
Red's was pretty different. I had Dynacharge, Weapon Surge, Reckless Charge (which is really relatively powerful, I think) and, I think Titan's Strength.

Though looking at this list, I was coming up with pump spells rather than tricks in some cases. So it makes sense that I considered sorcery where you didn't. (And that's my bad.)

Depending on the size of my cube, I'll probably strive for a few tricks and a few pump spells (a la Rancor and Reckless Charge).

Sorcery-speed effects like Distortion Strike are too loose to qualify as tricks. They're almost like anti-tricks - inviting your opponent to show his trick in response. That's why I discounted most of those effects, in fact the only one I included was Tower Above because it served as decent creature removal in green when I still ran it So I gave preference to cheap, flexible tricks, especially in black, where I dislike the deathtouch + regenerate tricks the design people are pushing. Hatred is expensive, but black just has a dearth of quality tricks. This one has the potential for "oops, I win" situations.

Crypsis seems like a worse version of every white trick ever. While that's not necessarily bad in itself if blue wants the same effect, the other blue tricks like Mizzium Skin and Triton Tactics can benefit more of your team, giving a bigger upside to heroes in Tactics' case.

I missedValorous Stance, which should probably be in the top 3 of white because of its flexibility as well. Shelter is kind of a pauper staple and definitely worth trying out as it replaces itself. I think Embolden is just a tiny bit too expensive for what it does, although there could be a big upside with multiple heroes. If you're looking for another damage-prevention trick, consider Dawn Charm too.

All in all, I think black is kind of a wash, and blue is not great either. White and green are fantastic heroic enablers, while red is solidly middle of the road. If you want to push heroic, you could try sculpting an archetype in those three colors instead of including subpar cards in the weaker heroic colors. Even including an uneven number of enablers per color could work out

I would like to suggest Boon of Erebos as well. One can also consider a corner case card in Undying Evil. I feel it's super underrated. It's black's blink.

We've been thinking about Mutagenic Growth over the last couple of sets, which works wonders with Prowess dudes, so it's good to hear some other groups have had good results with it. We'll be testing that soon. Virulent Swipe is a good one I hadn't considered, allowing your creature to trade up and then hitting for 2 more next turn is neat.

I run Harm's Way and Divine Deflection in my cube and both see a good amount of play.

Quote from Bolas, the Mindsculptor »

I would like to suggest Boon of Erebos as well. One can also consider a corner case card in Undying Evil. I feel it's super underrated. It's black's blink.

We ran Undying Evil for a long time, but it just didn't do enough to ever make it into the final 40. Even for a reactive card, this was just way too situational. Most good reactive cards you can use on offense as well, sort of. Aggressively countering or using kill spells on their blockers can get you ahead in the tempo game, but this card is just dead. There are times when the card would be amazing, but you have to have it in your hand at that exact moment. I'd usually rather have just a straight up reanimation spell instead.

Quote from guyincorporated »

I run Harm's Way and Divine Deflection in my cube and both see a good amount of play.

We only today just cut Divine Deflection (for Secure the Wastes), and I was really sad to see it go. That card is never not a blowout. I wish we had room for both of them, they're both great interactive cards.

Has any consideration been given to Become Immense recently? I'm considering giving it a test run given how good Delve cards have proven to be (especially when you only run one or two in a deck). Has a lot of "oops I win" factor to it.

A combat trick that I ran a long time ago and that hasn't been mentioned here yet is Stonewood Invocation. Yes, 4 mana is a lot for a combat trick, but the combination of having split second and giving shroud means that unlike most of these cards, the use of Invocation is removal-proof. And counter-proof. Also, +5/+5 is quite a hefty boost.

Become Immense is neither removal- nor counter-proof, but the stat boost is even bigger and it can easily cost just 1 or 2 mana at the point where you use it. Definitely worth considering.

Why was Colossus pumped before blockers?

-AA

Digging this thread up again to discuss a few combat trick spells that haven't been mentioned yet in this thread.
Did anyone try out Temur Battle Rage (or Double Cleave) in cube? In a aggressive midrange deck or prowess-based spells matter, I could see these cards create a win out of nowhere.

I've been thinking sbout trying Invigorate along with Mutagenic Growth. Plenty's already been said in this thread about Mutagenic Growth, and it's definitely better, but +4/+4 for 0 mana serms like it would be incredibly hard to play around. Anyone tried it?

It was good as a combat trick, but not as good as a pump spell because it doesn't increase your clock as much.

Briarhorn Elemental is not incredible by any means, but it's not the worst and plays better than it looks.

I also liked using Flash creatures as combat tricks -- Briarhorn, Boon Satyr, Great Oak Guardian, Wolfir Avenger. However, I've since removed all those creatures from the cube, unfortunately. The green 3cc spot is quite tight, and there's little space to keep combat tricks in the cube. However, I run Berserk just because I have one.

And yes, Archangel Avacyn is sick as a combat trick.

I was only thinking about this morning. After playing a bunch of Shadows limited/sealed, a format where the removal is bad/rare/mainly sorcery speed so combat tricks go way up in value and was wondering how any of that could translate over to Cube. Removal is pretty fantastic in most Cubes which makes combat tricks less likely to hit and therefore less desirable. I have thought about powering down the removal and included some top combat tricks from all colours to see how this changes the game play at all. Does it make combat more exciting or am I watering down a format that doesn't need combat tricks to be exciting/complex and varied? I have plenty of Flash creatures, instant burn/removal, creatures with ETB effects, Planeswalkers etc. During a draft, will a Titan's Strength even be picked up early enough and will it make the 23/24/25?

I have settled on this for me and my playgroup. We will be happy having variance in the sets that Wizards produce and really enjoy drafting the sets with bad removal/great combat tricks and vice versa, however Cube is Cube. Removal is great, combat tricks will end up being less so.

Regardless, I enjoy following the development and thought processes and watching people trying to change and improve their own formats to suit themselves and their play groups.

The trick suite has definitely improved as of late. Become Immense + Berserk has been a popular draw into green aggro strategies. Atarka's Command and Dromoka's Command are underrated options for RG and GW respectively. Most importantly, Avacyn, the new morphs, and prowess creatures do wonders for complicating math without warping your cube around them. There are also a bunch of new fringe options; I'd like to remind everyone that as a defensive combat trick, Arachnogenesis is pretty sick.