With the full set spoiled, I thought it was time to list the potential includes for my cube. Oath of the Gatewatch looks like another great set for cube!
So here's my list (cards in brackets are 'maybe'-adds):
This is a strange and interesting set for cube. You could be adding well over twenty cards, or maybe just one or two. It all depends on what you're willing to experiment with.
Sylvan advocate (modern goyf?)
Captain's claws (equipment that produces carriers is very strong, shown by sword of body and mind)
There would be some nice <> cards, but i still think they are a trap. It's not worth it to stretch the manabase. We came a long way from removing most CC two drops and other colour heavy spells to smooth things out and prevent colour screw; and the <> mana seems a step backwards to me.
EDIT: i'm interested to hear about testing results of kalitas and chandra.
A very conservative series of inclusions for me, with renewed emphasis on high quality. Five amazing cards that fill their roles incredibly well, along with five tentative inclusions, mostly related to colorless:
Trying and Likely:
Needle Spires
Hissing Quagmire
Wandering Fumarole
Reality Smasher
Oath of Nissa
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Mirrorpool
Trying because they fit my style, but probably not for everyone
Crush of Tentacles
Reflector Mage
Dimensional Infiltrator
Bearer of Silence
Sea Gate Wreckage
Overall a fair bit of excitement for a small set. Not a ton in the 360 range, but many new ideas and options for certain archetypes. As someone who thought BfZ was highly underwhelming I was moderately pleased.
Very interesting set, considering it is a small set too. My 540 powered cube has a ton of cards to test, more than most large sets, which is super impressive. Of course, it remains to be seen, how well testing cards last. It will mainly hinge on how the colorless-only cards fair.
For those trying Ayli, what's the cut you plan to make?
Depending on where you classify things like lingering souls or unburial rites, I think Ayli could be in the number 3 slot after Sorin and Vindicate. With souls in the Orzhov section Ayli might be 4th. If I didn't have that much space I would have to pass.
Here's my planned update for Oath of the Gatewatch:
OUT > IN
WWW
No changes
UUU
No changes
BBB
Pain Seer > Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Cutting a filler card in one underserved CMC slot with what looks like a bomb in another underserved CMC slot.
RRR
No changes. I can't find a cut for Chandra, Flamecaller without cutting Splinter Twin combo, which I'm not ready to do yet. I'm open to alternative suggestions, though.
GGG
Birthing Pod > Sylvan Advocate This fantastic looking 2-drop that scales well into the late game and makes all the sweet new manlands look even better.
Warden of the First Tree > Oath of Nissa I'm taking the cubability of this card on faith right now, but I can see it being just useful enough in ramp and even midrange decks to test it.
12345
Meren of Clan Nel Toth > Captain's Claws Captain's Claws looks like a nice bit of equipment that adds more to token/anthem based aggro decks as well as a few other strategies that could always use some extra bodies to sacrifice.
WUBRG
Dragonlord Ojutai > Reflector Mage I'm an absolute sucker for a Man-o'-War variant, so I'm really excited to see a new version that's good enough for cube. It should play just as well in a control deck as the tempo decks I draft every chance I get.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim > Brutal Hordechief Ayli looks like a fantastic little package for just 2-mana. The body alone competes quite nicely with its counterparts at 2 in white and black, and another sac outlet is always useful. I'm not sure if the Vindicate ability will ever come online, but I'd happily test this card even if that ability weren't there.
Jori En, Ruin Diver > Fire // Ice Jori is definitely the most questionable card I'm willing to test from OGW, with a floor of Riot Devils and a ceiling that looks like it just might be somewhere in the neighborhood of Dark Confidant or Edric, Spymaster of Trest. It's the third point of toughness that has me willing to try this out over something like Guttersnipe or Phyrexian Rager, because it's a much better blocker for controlling decks to stonewall aggro with, and it can attack into scarier boards in more aggressive tempo-style Izzet decks. Also, unlike saboteurs like Thieving Magpie or Shadowmage Infiltrator Jori En can still stay back on defense while drawing cards. I think this creature has a lot of potential, but even if Jori doesn't perform I feel like I have little to lose by cutting Fire // Ice for a little while.
The cycle is complete! Manland duals have been such solid and interesting playables in the past, so I'm really excited to finally get rid of my last 3 painlands to try these badboys out.
CCC
I do not have any plans to add any of the new colorless cards to this cube. Since I am cutting my last three enemy painlands to make room for the new manlands and I am running Signets as the majority of my 2 CMC mana rocks there are only 10 manafacts and utility lands that product c in this cube, which is nowhere near enough for anyone to be able to create a reliable splash with. Since I only added ABU duals to my cube fairly recently, I spent a long time running this cube with a manabase that was far less than optimal with budget replacements. Now that I have the opportunity to make this manabase as close to optimal as I feel an unpowered cube this size can be, it would take a hell of an incentive to get me to start diluting it again with suboptimal lands in order to effectively splash a 6th color. I love where this manabase is at. Adding a C section might make more sense at larger cube sizes which need to run 5 or more cycles of duals, so running painlands or filters wouldn't be such a big deal, but I just don't think C makes sense for cubes smaller than 540.
Like most cube managers who aren't trying out C costs, my update is fairly small, but with the exception of Oath of Nissa I'm more excited to try out all of these cards than pretty much anything I added from BFZ.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Warden of the First Tree > Oath of Nissa I'm taking the cubability of this card on faith right now, but I can see it being just useful enough in ramp and even midrange decks to test it.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth > Captain's Claws Captain's Claws looks like a nice bit of equipment that adds more to token/anthem based aggro decks as well as a few other strategies that could always use some extra bodies to sacrifice.
Cutting Warden is all kinds of wrong. And this is coming from a guy who argued with half the forum that it wasn't a good card when it was originally spoiled. How wrong I was. I now think it's one of the best 1 drops available.
And Meren is an archetype all by itself. The claw looks like it's probably good and worth testing, but dear God please find another cut.
Pillage is definitely cuttable for the new Chandra.
Pillage is debatable at 450 but the card stock is up right now, and Chandra is a much different card. I have no problem with not playing Chandra but cuts that make more sense to me are a 2 or 4 drop creature(you seem over in both of these) and maybe an earthquake variant.
Cutting Warden is all kinds of wrong. And this is coming from a guy who argued with half the forum that it wasn't a good card when it was originally spoiled. How wrong I was. I now think it's one of the best 1 drops available.
Funny because I liked Warden immediately and now I'm finding myself cutting him with my OGW update as well. Really good card, though I think you can fill a 450 cube without any chaff at all nowadays. Choosing cuts is mostly a matter of choosing which direction you want to take your cube.
Warden is uncuttable IMO, but Meren is far from it. I like Meren, but the things she supports (stax / attrition / recurring nightmare, etc) are already more than well supported.
Yeah, Warden has been pretty stellar, and he finds himself into a lot of the GW/GB/Junk decks that I've seen if at all possible. Sometimes not being able to use green is awkward, but the high ceiling is worth that potentially low floor.
Cutting Warden is all kinds of wrong. And this is coming from a guy who argued with half the forum that it wasn't a good card when it was originally spoiled. How wrong I was. I now think it's one of the best 1 drops available.
Funny because I liked Warden immediately and now I'm finding myself cutting him with my OGW update as well. Really good card, though I think you can fill a 450 cube without any chaff at all nowadays. Choosing cuts is mostly a matter of choosing which direction you want to take your cube.
I certainly hear you. I had long planned on keeping my cube 360 until I completed my quest to get all the power and old cards but now I am at a full 450. I do have a little chaff in mine, but know I keep certain standards on the sideline because of it. I think Warden is still a lock, but I am currently benching Kird Ape. Arguements for or against either are reasonable.
We are probably getting close to having a rock solid 540, especially if you feel <> and morph are features you want.
For the cards that do contain C mana, I will keep my eyes open and track down the testing results here on MTG Salvation. I think that including those cards require a major reconfiguration of the cube and for now, I don't think it really worth it. So for that reason I'll stay put and seek for some positive results. If it finally seems to reward enough their players, I could then reconsider the inclusion of those C cards. On the other, I will brainstorm on the possibilty of readding Life // Death, Faerie Conclave and maybe Rude Awakening to go with Sylvan Advocate. The card is no doubt really good by its own but I want to see how it goes with more manlands and UEoT creature land spells. Seems like it could be really fun! And Life/Death has been on my radar since Apex Predator add. This Garruk is sweet but certainly not essential to the viability of the GB archetypes and now that we have Sylvan Advocate, maybe Life/Death could goes from good to great.
EDIT : I've also add Eldrazi Displacer to the white section because the card seems to performance better than expected. Explanations can be found on this thread at page 4.
I definitely appreciate the feedback on my choices for cuts. I don't want to derail this thread about OGW adds with discussion about my cuts, so I'm explaining my cuts in spoiler tags.
I know that Steve and wtwlf explicitly support green aggro, and I do not, so Warden of the First Tree doesn't really have a home as many decks in my drafts as it probably does in other cubes. It's also the only tri-brid card I'm not classifying as a guild card because my Selesnya and Golgari guild sections are a overpopulated, but I still wanted to try the card out. It's not seeing nearly enough play over any of my WG or BG gold or hybrid cards to justify a mono-green slot. Experiment One is the next choice for cuts for similar reasons, and while the ceiling is lower for E1, it's more versatile because it doesn't require a second color, and it sees enough play in midrange decks that want an early drop and even in aggro decks splashing green that I feel it's pulling its weight.
Also, I'm not convinced this swap is permanent.
Meren is also in an overpopulated guild with 4 gold cards plus Deathrite Shaman and Life // Death categorized as hybrids (I allow 2 per guild), even though both play more like gold cards. I really should cut a card from that guild for balance's sake. However, Meren's a cool card that actually overperformed in the drafts it got played in, and even though it's not as essential as any of the other 5 cards in that guild, the main reason I turned to a GB card was that I couldn't think of a colorless card to cut. However, I think I'm going to borrow an idea from wtwlf's changelog and cut Black Vise instead. I think I have enough 1-drops in the guilds I support aggro in, and that card tends to be misunderstood and therefore underdrafted by my players. The colorless section's tight, though. Next time I need to add a colorless card I'll probably need to cut something from my bloated Golgari section.
I'm happy to discuss the specifics of my cuts, especially if you have ideas for alternative cuts, but that should probably be done in my cube thread instead of here.
Sarkhan Vol --> Dragonlord Atarka
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth --> Tendo Ice Bridge
Atarka fills the role of the loss of Hellkite Overlord in a proposed swap later. Tendo Ice Bridge will be a solid option to help out the colorless costs on the new cards. Kozilek basically gets replaced by new Kozilek, which also happens later.
Actual OGW changes:
Silumgar Assassin --> Reaver Drone
Priest of the Blood Rite --> Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Assassin has been meh. I could see swapping something else out for this and putting a different morph in black, just to keep a morph present, but Assassin doesn't see much play and I worry that black morph options just aren't good enough. Priest is good when abused, but not great otherwise.
Tempt with Vengeance --> Chandra, Flamecaller
Tempt is the only cuttable card that will go into similar decks and I think Chandra will be more powerful overall.
Survivalist is actually fine, so I'm open to other cuts on that one if my group mentions it. Maybe Freyalise or Strangleroot Geist? I think Oath of Nissa will prove to be a green Sleight of Hand most of the time and will see more play than the tutor.
Honestly, I'd cut Dragonlord Ojutai for the Mage, but we've not tested him yet, so I don't want to do that. But I really want to play with the Mage and Sphere is good but redundant with so many solid mono white options that do the same thing. The lands are obvious swaps, I think.
Ring of Gix --> Captain's Claws
Ring doesn't see that much play. Claws seems good. Also open to other cuts here. Possibly Erratic Portal or Precursor Golem?
I don't like the idea of cutting a full on blue card or a true generic colorless card for the new eldrazi colorless mana cards. They act more like multicolor cards with their mana requirements, so I think their own section is needed for testing. We have five open slots from the loss of Vivids. As to the other five cuts, I'm not a huge fan of losing Grandmaster or Rhino, but I'm also not yet convinced these cards will be worth it. We'll give them a few drafts to shine and go from there.
I also think that if the colorless cards prove themselves worthy or if they tend to be harder to cast, we'll probably think about swapping some guild lands with pain lands and including other lands that can tap for both a colorless and any color (Mirrodin's Core, etc).
So here's my list (cards in brackets are 'maybe'-adds):
EDIT: Updated with cuts
CCC
Matter Reshaper
Reality Smasher --> Scuttling Doom Engine
(Captain's Claw) --> Signal Pest / Ankh of Mishra / Lightning Greaves
(Kozilek, the Great Distortion) --> Void Winnower
(Thought-Knot Seer) --> Icy Manipulator
WWW
Eldrazi Displacer --> Otherworldly Journey
Linvala, the Preserver --> Sunblast Angel
(Wall of Resurgence) --> Dictate of Heliod
UUU
Dimensional Infiltrator --> Evasive Action
(Oath of Jace)
BBB
Bearer of Silence --> Mardu Skullhunter
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet --> Corpse Augur
Reaver Drone --> Carrion Feeder / Despise
RRR
(Chandra, Flamecaller) --> Chandra, Pyromaster / Stoke the Flames / Tempt with Vengeance
(Goblin Dark-Dwellers) --> Dualcaster Mage
(Eldrazi Obligator) --> Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
GGG
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar --> Vines of Vastwood
Oath of Nissa --> Sylvan Tutor
Sylvan Advocate --> Scryb Ranger
(Vile Redeemer) --> Omnath, Locus of Mana
(World Breaker)
WUBRG
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim --> Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Reflector Mage --> Momentary Blink
(Jori En, Ruin Diver) --> Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind (Commander Module)
(Weapons Trainer)
Lands
Hissing Quagmire --> Golgari Rot Farm
Needle Spires --> Clifftop Retreat
Wandering Fumarole --> Izzet Boilerworks
(Mirrorpool) --> Palladium Myr
(Sea Gate Wreckage) --> Chromatic Lantern
Wastesx20
Other potential adds (Non-OGW)
Opt (if Jori En, Ruin Diver is added)
Boreal Druid
Blighted Woodland
Tendo Ice Bridge
Myriad Landscape
Wayfarer's Bauble
Hissing Quagmire
Needle Spires
Wandering Fumarole
Captain's Claw
Sylvan Advocate
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Oath of Nissa
And of those I'm only confidant in the three lands staying power.
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Cube Tutor
WWW
None
UUU
None
BBB
Reaver Drone
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
RRR
Chandra, Flamecaller
GGG
Sylvan Advocate
Oath of Nissa
Reflector Mage
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Hissing Quagmire
Wandering Fumarole
Needle Spires
123
Captain's Claws
New ✧✧✧ Section:
Eldrazi Displacer
Dimensional Infiltrator
Bearer of Silence
Eldrazi Obligator
Vile Redeemer
Thought-Knot Seer
Reality Smasher
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Mirrorpool
Sea Gate Wreckage
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Colorless
Thought-Knot Seer- C specific
Reality Smasher- C specific
Kozilek, The Great Distortion- C specific
Mirrorpool- C specific
Sea Gate Wreckage- C specific
White
Eldrazi Displacer- C specific
Linvala, the Presever
Blue
Crush of Tentacles (really curious if anyone else has testing info on this one)
Dimensional Infiltrator
Oath of Jace
Black
Bearer of Silence
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Red
Chandra, Flamecaller
Green
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Oath of Nissa
Sylvan Advocate
Multicolored
Reflector Mage
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Hissing Quagmire
Needle Spires
Wandering Fumarole
------------------
This is a strange and interesting set for cube. You could be adding well over twenty cards, or maybe just one or two. It all depends on what you're willing to experiment with.
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Sylvan advocate (modern goyf?)
Captain's claws (equipment that produces carriers is very strong, shown by sword of body and mind)
There would be some nice <> cards, but i still think they are a trap. It's not worth it to stretch the manabase. We came a long way from removing most CC two drops and other colour heavy spells to smooth things out and prevent colour screw; and the <> mana seems a step backwards to me.
EDIT: i'm interested to hear about testing results of kalitas and chandra.
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Modern: Sultai Death's Shadow
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/773885-sultai-deaths-shadow-bug-aggro]
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Definite:
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Sylvan Advocate
- Hissing Quagmire
- Needle Spires
- Wandering Fumarole
Maybe:My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Kalitas
Sylvan Advocate
Trying and Likely:
Needle Spires
Hissing Quagmire
Wandering Fumarole
Reality Smasher
Oath of Nissa
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Mirrorpool
Trying because they fit my style, but probably not for everyone
Crush of Tentacles
Reflector Mage
Dimensional Infiltrator
Bearer of Silence
Sea Gate Wreckage
Overall a fair bit of excitement for a small set. Not a ton in the 360 range, but many new ideas and options for certain archetypes. As someone who thought BfZ was highly underwhelming I was moderately pleased.
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Will test:
Eldrazi Displacer
Dimensional Infiltrator
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Bearer of Silence
Chandra, Flamecaller
Sylvan Advocate
Oath of Nissa
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Reflector Mage
Hissing Quagmire
Needle Spires
Wandering Fumarole
Captain's Claws
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Reality Smasher
Thought-Knot Seer
Matter Reshaper
Mirrorpool
Sea Gate Wreckage
Depending on where you classify things like lingering souls or unburial rites, I think Ayli could be in the number 3 slot after Sorin and Vindicate. With souls in the Orzhov section Ayli might be 4th. If I didn't have that much space I would have to pass.
For me, it was Unburial Rites, which was my 5th Orzhov card.
OUT > IN
WWW
No changes
UUU
No changes
BBB
Pain Seer > Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Cutting a filler card in one underserved CMC slot with what looks like a bomb in another underserved CMC slot.
RRR
No changes. I can't find a cut for Chandra, Flamecaller without cutting Splinter Twin combo, which I'm not ready to do yet. I'm open to alternative suggestions, though.
GGG
Birthing Pod > Sylvan Advocate This fantastic looking 2-drop that scales well into the late game and makes all the sweet new manlands look even better.
Warden of the First Tree > Oath of Nissa I'm taking the cubability of this card on faith right now, but I can see it being just useful enough in ramp and even midrange decks to test it.
12345
Meren of Clan Nel Toth > Captain's Claws Captain's Claws looks like a nice bit of equipment that adds more to token/anthem based aggro decks as well as a few other strategies that could always use some extra bodies to sacrifice.
WUBRG
Dragonlord Ojutai > Reflector Mage I'm an absolute sucker for a Man-o'-War variant, so I'm really excited to see a new version that's good enough for cube. It should play just as well in a control deck as the tempo decks I draft every chance I get.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim > Brutal Hordechief Ayli looks like a fantastic little package for just 2-mana. The body alone competes quite nicely with its counterparts at 2 in white and black, and another sac outlet is always useful. I'm not sure if the Vindicate ability will ever come online, but I'd happily test this card even if that ability weren't there.
Jori En, Ruin Diver > Fire // Ice Jori is definitely the most questionable card I'm willing to test from OGW, with a floor of Riot Devils and a ceiling that looks like it just might be somewhere in the neighborhood of Dark Confidant or Edric, Spymaster of Trest. It's the third point of toughness that has me willing to try this out over something like Guttersnipe or Phyrexian Rager, because it's a much better blocker for controlling decks to stonewall aggro with, and it can attack into scarier boards in more aggressive tempo-style Izzet decks. Also, unlike saboteurs like Thieving Magpie or Shadowmage Infiltrator Jori En can still stay back on defense while drawing cards. I think this creature has a lot of potential, but even if Jori doesn't perform I feel like I have little to lose by cutting Fire // Ice for a little while.
Land
Hissing Quagmire > Llanowar Wastes
Wandering Fumarole > Shivan Reef
Needle Spires > Battlefield Forge
The cycle is complete! Manland duals have been such solid and interesting playables in the past, so I'm really excited to finally get rid of my last 3 painlands to try these badboys out.
CCC
I do not have any plans to add any of the new colorless cards to this cube. Since I am cutting my last three enemy painlands to make room for the new manlands and I am running Signets as the majority of my 2 CMC mana rocks there are only 10 manafacts and utility lands that product c in this cube, which is nowhere near enough for anyone to be able to create a reliable splash with. Since I only added ABU duals to my cube fairly recently, I spent a long time running this cube with a manabase that was far less than optimal with budget replacements. Now that I have the opportunity to make this manabase as close to optimal as I feel an unpowered cube this size can be, it would take a hell of an incentive to get me to start diluting it again with suboptimal lands in order to effectively splash a 6th color. I love where this manabase is at. Adding a C section might make more sense at larger cube sizes which need to run 5 or more cycles of duals, so running painlands or filters wouldn't be such a big deal, but I just don't think C makes sense for cubes smaller than 540.
Like most cube managers who aren't trying out C costs, my update is fairly small, but with the exception of Oath of Nissa I'm more excited to try out all of these cards than pretty much anything I added from BFZ.
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Cutting Warden is all kinds of wrong. And this is coming from a guy who argued with half the forum that it wasn't a good card when it was originally spoiled. How wrong I was. I now think it's one of the best 1 drops available.
And Meren is an archetype all by itself. The claw looks like it's probably good and worth testing, but dear God please find another cut.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Pillage is debatable at 450 but the card stock is up right now, and Chandra is a much different card. I have no problem with not playing Chandra but cuts that make more sense to me are a 2 or 4 drop creature(you seem over in both of these) and maybe an earthquake variant.
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I certainly hear you. I had long planned on keeping my cube 360 until I completed my quest to get all the power and old cards but now I am at a full 450. I do have a little chaff in mine, but know I keep certain standards on the sideline because of it. I think Warden is still a lock, but I am currently benching Kird Ape. Arguements for or against either are reasonable.
We are probably getting close to having a rock solid 540, especially if you feel <> and morph are features you want.
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WWWWW
Eldrazi Displacer
UUUUU
None
BBBBB
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Reaver Drone (Maybe ; The drawback could just be too bad in order to run it in a 540)
RRRRR
Chandra, Flamecaller (Don't know if it will last, but certainly interesting for big red decks)
GGGGG
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar (Have already tested the card. Absolutly insane potential in some decks)
Oath of Nissa
Sylvan Advocate
WUBRG
Reflector Mage (Great add for Tempo shell)
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim (Nide add for the 2-drop black slot)
Needle Spires
Wandering Fumarole
Hissing Quagmire
For the cards that do contain C mana, I will keep my eyes open and track down the testing results here on MTG Salvation. I think that including those cards require a major reconfiguration of the cube and for now, I don't think it really worth it. So for that reason I'll stay put and seek for some positive results. If it finally seems to reward enough their players, I could then reconsider the inclusion of those C cards. On the other, I will brainstorm on the possibilty of readding Life // Death, Faerie Conclave and maybe Rude Awakening to go with Sylvan Advocate. The card is no doubt really good by its own but I want to see how it goes with more manlands and UEoT creature land spells. Seems like it could be really fun! And Life/Death has been on my radar since Apex Predator add. This Garruk is sweet but certainly not essential to the viability of the GB archetypes and now that we have Sylvan Advocate, maybe Life/Death could goes from good to great.
EDIT : I've also add Eldrazi Displacer to the white section because the card seems to performance better than expected. Explanations can be found on this thread at page 4.
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Also, I'm not convinced this swap is permanent.
I'm happy to discuss the specifics of my cuts, especially if you have ideas for alternative cuts, but that should probably be done in my cube thread instead of here.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Non-OGW changes:
Sarkhan Vol --> Dragonlord Atarka
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth --> Tendo Ice Bridge
Atarka fills the role of the loss of Hellkite Overlord in a proposed swap later. Tendo Ice Bridge will be a solid option to help out the colorless costs on the new cards. Kozilek basically gets replaced by new Kozilek, which also happens later.
Actual OGW changes:
Silumgar Assassin --> Reaver Drone
Priest of the Blood Rite --> Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Assassin has been meh. I could see swapping something else out for this and putting a different morph in black, just to keep a morph present, but Assassin doesn't see much play and I worry that black morph options just aren't good enough. Priest is good when abused, but not great otherwise.
Tempt with Vengeance --> Chandra, Flamecaller
Tempt is the only cuttable card that will go into similar decks and I think Chandra will be more powerful overall.
Ainok Survivalist --> Sylvan Advocate
Sylvan Tutor --> Oath of Nissa
Survivalist is actually fine, so I'm open to other cuts on that one if my group mentions it. Maybe Freyalise or Strangleroot Geist? I think Oath of Nissa will prove to be a green Sleight of Hand most of the time and will see more play than the tutor.
Detention Sphere --> Reflector Mage
Twilight Mire --> Hissing Quagmire
Sulfur Falls --> Wandering Fumarole
Clifftop Retreat --> Needle Spires
Honestly, I'd cut Dragonlord Ojutai for the Mage, but we've not tested him yet, so I don't want to do that. But I really want to play with the Mage and Sphere is good but redundant with so many solid mono white options that do the same thing. The lands are obvious swaps, I think.
Ring of Gix --> Captain's Claws
Ring doesn't see that much play. Claws seems good. Also open to other cuts here. Possibly Erratic Portal or Precursor Golem?
Hellkite Overlord --> Eldrazi Displacer
Brutal Hordechief --> Dimensional Infiltrator
Rattleclaw Mystic --> Bearer of Silence
Soulfire Grandmaster --> Eldrazi Obligator
Siege Rhino --> Vile Redeemer
Nothing --> Thought-Knot Seer
Nothing --> Reality Smasher
Nothing --> Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Nothing --> Mirrorpool
Nothing --> Sea Gate Wreckage
I don't like the idea of cutting a full on blue card or a true generic colorless card for the new eldrazi colorless mana cards. They act more like multicolor cards with their mana requirements, so I think their own section is needed for testing. We have five open slots from the loss of Vivids. As to the other five cuts, I'm not a huge fan of losing Grandmaster or Rhino, but I'm also not yet convinced these cards will be worth it. We'll give them a few drafts to shine and go from there.
I also think that if the colorless cards prove themselves worthy or if they tend to be harder to cast, we'll probably think about swapping some guild lands with pain lands and including other lands that can tap for both a colorless and any color (Mirrodin's Core, etc).
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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