I've never been a fan of Trinket Mage in cube. I've tried it a couple of times thinking about how awesome it'd be to play a 2/2 and fetch up a Lotus. I didn't really think about the challenges that come with it, though. First you have to draft Trinket Mage alongside at least one, but hopefully more 0-1 cc artifacts. Second you have to draw Trinket Mage during your game before you draw your 0-1 cc artifact(s). The problem being that these artifacts tend to get snatched up super quick during the draft, so the likelihood that you see multiples is low. And then, even though it feels super awesome to start your game by playing any of those 0-1 cc options, playing Trinket Mage with no targets left in your deck feels super bad. These challenges just presented themselves too many times for my tastes, so I was happy to replace him.
There are many better variants of Clone out there, and this is one of the best ones. While Clone itself is probably not good enough for most cubes, does the artifact synergies available to Metamorph make it good enough for inclusion? It seems good for an artifact deck, but blue is pretty stacked.
Is there anything that robots don't currently do that you'd like to see them able to do?
It's less the artifact synergies and more so that it costs 3 and 2 life--that's really valuable--but being able to copy artifacts is also really really strong.
While Victimize provides more value than most other reanimation spells, it also requires more setup, needing you to have two creatures in your graveyard and a creature in play to use it. Because of this, Victimize is more suited to a midrange-value reanimation deck than a discard-combo reanimation deck.
Have you ever built a Rube Goldberg-esque machine? Was it successful?
Victimize can be a really powerful spell, but it can be hard to set up. There are so many situations where I only have 1 target in my graveyard and can't cast Victimize that I ultimately just prefer the playable single-target reanimation spells. If it were "up to two target creature cards" instead, I'd likely be cubing it.
I can't imagine not cubing with Victimize these days, it's such a fun and splashy card. I like cards that make you work for them but still fit into a lot of archetypes and strategies.
Too many hoops to jump through and there are so many good reanimation spells that I would run before this. Unless you're running at least a 720+ cube I wouldn't strongly consider this.
It's like one shot recurring Nightmare but something closer to a mini Living Death. And just like LD, you need a little bit of setup for this. I don't run it in cube as I prefer the straightforward reanimation spells. For larger cubes, 720 maybe?
I think Copter is great. It's an efficient, evasive threat, it dodges sorcery-speed removal, the looting helps provide card advantage as well as supporting graveyard strategies, it's colorless, so it can go in any deck. The list of upsides is quite high. I have seen it taken offline by a timely wrath, though, so having to rely on you having other creatures to do anything is a downside.
Copter is really good. Every aggressive deck wants it, but I especially love it in black where you may be able to turn the loot into a reanimator setup, or some card advantage by discarding things like Gravecrawler. But I value it highly anytime I'm drafting aggro. I think Copter is up there with some of the better equipment like the Swords and Jitte. It's a weaker effect, but at a better cost. I like the design of vehicles, but Copter is the only one I've really felt has a sticking place in cube so far, and I doubt we'll see another like it anytime soon, if ever.
In general Vehicles vs. Equipment, I think I prefer equipment since if I have the mana to cast and equip, I don't need to wait for summoning sickness to wear off, and I can equip to any creature, where Vehicles might not always work with tokens, and you don't have a similar line of "equip Spellskite and start attacking" when in desperation mode.
I find it to be a better utility card than an aggro one. It's fantastic in decks that are using the graveyard as a resource; especially when you have cards like the Recruiter(s) and Blade Splicer and stuff. Cards that produce a random 1-power body that's otherwise unimpressive can be severely powered-up by ther Copter.
Bone Shredder's greatest asset is the fact that it kills itself so you can reuse it with reanimation. Unfortunately, the fact it kills itself is also it's greatest weakness, and I don't currently run it because of that.
To those of us that have been playing for a while, what card were you most surprised to see power-creeped out of your cube?
Bone Shredder is a fine card, but with the Chupacabra available now in addition to all the other good 187 creatures (and a big influx of decent 3cc creature options) I think the time has passed for the Shredder.
If I were to include a cycle of tri-colored cards, Tamiyo would probably be my Bant representative (I consider Noble Heirarch to be a green card). Assuming we were to run her, though, her ability to ice two nonland permanents can go a long way towards getting the game under control, and her +1 is better at 'doing nothing' than Vraska the Unseen is. Still, I feel that she either ticks down twice to help stabilize when you're behind or at parity, or is just win-more when you're ahead ticking up to her ult (which is also win-more). I haven't seen her do much else, and so I'm not sure what to think of her.
What do you need to see in tri-colored cards to consider trying them in your cube?
Tamiyo would not be my Bant choice, no matter how I classified Noble.
Generally for 3-color cards, I want them to be as flexible as possible, and look for cards that play more like guild cards, or ones that are typically cheated into play to circumvent their mana costa. Typically they should be big, splashable and hugely impactful in order to justify their inclusion.
Tamiyo would not be my Bant choice, no matter how I classified Noble.
Generally for 3-color cards, I want them to be as flexible as possible, and look for cards that play more like guild cards, or ones that are typically cheated into play to circumvent their mana costa. Typically they should be big, splashable and hugely impactful in order to justify their inclusion.
Even if I didn't count noble as bant (I do), I agree. I think I'd run bant charm (since it's still good late game) and Rafiq over Tamiyo. I imagine there's probably some card with a bant color identity I'm missing too.
I ran Bant Tamiyo for about half a year, because I openend one and wanted to try her out. She did not impress any of us. I've since given the Bant slot back to Roon of the Hidden Realm, who sees lots of play, because Bant/Azorius blink is popular archetype.
I run a card for each shard/wedge, because I like my color symmetry too much. They are meant as bombs a player would want to splash, if he's already in two of the colors (or to cheat into play). It works for us, but I'll admit, that's probably only because my cube is slower/weaker than the average non-pauper/peasant cube (even though the power creep has been real this last year).
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Would a 3D printer count as a trinket? It's like the 'infinite wishes' answer for this question
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MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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Phyrexian Metamorph
There are many better variants of Clone out there, and this is one of the best ones. While Clone itself is probably not good enough for most cubes, does the artifact synergies available to Metamorph make it good enough for inclusion? It seems good for an artifact deck, but blue is pretty stacked.
Is there anything that robots don't currently do that you'd like to see them able to do?
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Cheers
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Victimize
While Victimize provides more value than most other reanimation spells, it also requires more setup, needing you to have two creatures in your graveyard and a creature in play to use it. Because of this, Victimize is more suited to a midrange-value reanimation deck than a discard-combo reanimation deck.
Have you ever built a Rube Goldberg-esque machine? Was it successful?
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Smuggler's Copter
I think Copter is great. It's an efficient, evasive threat, it dodges sorcery-speed removal, the looting helps provide card advantage as well as supporting graveyard strategies, it's colorless, so it can go in any deck. The list of upsides is quite high. I have seen it taken offline by a timely wrath, though, so having to rely on you having other creatures to do anything is a downside.
In general, do you prefer vehicles or equipment?
In general Vehicles vs. Equipment, I think I prefer equipment since if I have the mana to cast and equip, I don't need to wait for summoning sickness to wear off, and I can equip to any creature, where Vehicles might not always work with tokens, and you don't have a similar line of "equip Spellskite and start attacking" when in desperation mode.
[180 classic cube]
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Bone Shredder
Bone Shredder's greatest asset is the fact that it kills itself so you can reuse it with reanimation. Unfortunately, the fact it kills itself is also it's greatest weakness, and I don't currently run it because of that.
To those of us that have been playing for a while, what card were you most surprised to see power-creeped out of your cube?
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Tamiyo, Field Researcher
If I were to include a cycle of tri-colored cards, Tamiyo would probably be my Bant representative (I consider Noble Heirarch to be a green card). Assuming we were to run her, though, her ability to ice two nonland permanents can go a long way towards getting the game under control, and her +1 is better at 'doing nothing' than Vraska the Unseen is. Still, I feel that she either ticks down twice to help stabilize when you're behind or at parity, or is just win-more when you're ahead ticking up to her ult (which is also win-more). I haven't seen her do much else, and so I'm not sure what to think of her.
What do you need to see in tri-colored cards to consider trying them in your cube?
Generally for 3-color cards, I want them to be as flexible as possible, and look for cards that play more like guild cards, or ones that are typically cheated into play to circumvent their mana costa. Typically they should be big, splashable and hugely impactful in order to justify their inclusion.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Even if I didn't count noble as bant (I do), I agree. I think I'd run bant charm (since it's still good late game) and Rafiq over Tamiyo. I imagine there's probably some card with a bant color identity I'm missing too.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I run a card for each shard/wedge, because I like my color symmetry too much. They are meant as bombs a player would want to splash, if he's already in two of the colors (or to cheat into play). It works for us, but I'll admit, that's probably only because my cube is slower/weaker than the average non-pauper/peasant cube (even though the power creep has been real this last year).