A full list of results, with all cards that received votes and the number of lists a card appeared on, can be found on this Google spreadsheet. * Note - Even with one person only ranking 19 cards the sum should be 6509 with 31 voters. Two points appear to be missing. I've checked and rechecked the math to no avail. If someone finds the discrepancy let me know, but this error is minor enough that it shouldn't have much of an impact.
Before I get to the fun stuff a couple friendly reminders. If you can format your lists as I formatted the results--minus the averages (Spoiler tags, card tags, numbered, and complete) it is a tremendous help to me. Spoiler Tags help with bias, Card tags help because the card doesn't show if it is misspelled and I use the find function to compile votes so misspelling can cause me to miss a vote. Numbering helps me not to have to count up or down your list to assign the correct number of points and as always make sure you have 20 cards (1 list only had 19 cards).
Thanks to all 31 voters!
Trivia, Useless Ramblings, and Facts (TURF)
Cube Diversity! We had 62 different cards make the list. Compare that to 2016 where only 56 cards made the list despite more voters! The modifications to our voting criteria (2016's criteria was "contributes most effectively to game wins") combined with the increased diversity of options available continues to expand the number of cards we see named in this project.
So Close!Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite switched places from 2016. Brimaz came in and Elesh Norn became the 1st card out. The next two cards on the outside of the top 20 were Parallax Wave and Thalia, Heretic Cathar. Both have markedly improved since 2016 (Wave went from 31st to 22nd) and Thalia, Heretic Cathar went from 27th to 23rd).
I'm Still Standing - Balance once again tops the list. Balance and Swords to Plowshares were the only cards to receive votes from everyone. Armageddon continues to hold the second slot as well but....
Big Top 20 Movers (A Tale of Two Gideons) - Besides the big gains for spot removal, Monastery Mentor gained a whopping nine slots in the top 20 going from #18 in 2016 to 9th today, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar moved from #14 in 2016 to 8th today! Gideon Jura on the other hand went from #7 in 2016 to 17th today. Restoration Angel also fell from #12 in 2016 to 18th today.
Stay tuned for the Blue voting thread which should be up tomorrow night or Monday morning.
Thanks for doing this BlackWaltz3! I know it's a lot of work.
Reveillark and Elesh Norn being missing but Brimaz and Hero being on there feels wrong to me, but I understand why people vote that way, the former are swingier and less consistent.
I tend to agree that if you don't mind the monarch mechanic you should almost certainly be running the jailer. Banisher Priest that replaces itself and draws you additional cards over the course of the game the majority of the time is pretty dumb. I just don't want to run the monarch mechanic. "shrug"
Palace Jailer can be really powerful, but I've also been crushed by my own Jailer in the Monarch subgame, and when it works out poorly for you, it really feels bad. Despite it being good a lot more than when it's bad, I remember the times where it fails me a lot more. Probably unfair to gauge a card off of those situations, but when things in the Monarch game go poorly, you remember them. There are matchups/situations where Jailer's busted, but there's also ones where it's either quite risky or even actively bad. I like Jailer and I have no plan on cutting it, but it didn't make my Top 20 list this year. I give a slight edge to Custodi Lich as the best Monarch card in the cube, IMO, because it has a built-in mechanic that helps win the Monarch subgames if they start. I do think it's a fun and exciting mechanic though. Really cool cards.
Thanks to the voters and thank you to BlackWaltz3 (and anyone else involved in managing the project so far)! Looking forward to blue. It'll be interesting seeing the different choices from powered and unpowered cubers since blue is the most affected.
My highest ranked card that didn't make the top 20 was Elesh Norn. I had her at 11 and she was just outside. That said, I think the power level in white starts to become very similar after the top few cards. If I did this exercise in a week my list would look somewhat different, as I'm sure most of ours would.
Am bit suprised to not see Palace Jailer higher up. The card has been outstandingly good. I understand it can backfire, but for us that doesn't happen all that often. Usually you don't just slam it whenever, rather try to find a good window where you can defend the monarch for some time.
Am bit suprised to not see Palace Jailer higher up. The card has been outstandingly good. I understand it can backfire, but for us that doesn't happen all that often. Usually you don't just slam it whenever, rather try to find a good window where you can defend the monarch for some time.
I didn't rank Palace Jailer. I don't run it. I don't run the Monarch mechanic. Similarly, I didn't rank Moat. If anything, Moat is the card that "deserves" to be higher. I don't doubt that both cards are good. But when we vote on blue next, I won't be ranking Ancestral Recall. Others are doing the same. It's important to consider this when analyzing the data.
Right. The results here aren't intended to be gospel truth, but they are informational and fun. I for one, did not appreciate how highly spot creature removal was valued by the community. Swords before wrath was a genuine shock to me! Also, might need to pick Mentor a bit higher when drafting and see if I'm not undervaluing it.
Thalia is ranked waaay to low as far as I'm concerned, but thanks for doing this BlackWalz3! It's certainly a great reference point as to what cards others are getting millage out of.
I personally don't value Thalia too high because while she's very disruptive, a lot of my aggro decks 3 and 4-cmc cards are non-creature spells. She's one of those cards that while she always screws me over, I tend to not play her myself a lot because of the deck building constraint.
I personally don't value Thalia too high because while she's very disruptive, a lot of my aggro decks 3 and 4-cmc cards are non-creature spells. She's one of those cards that while she always screws me over, I tend to not play her myself a lot because of the deck building constraint.
Interesting. I usually feel like Thalia's downside is rarely an issue for my aggro decks, while it often buys me an extra turn of damage production by stalling my opponent's next answer. Does she sometimes hold back my burn cards? Sure, but only for as long as she stays alive.
My aggro decks, the good ones anyway, rarely have more than eight or so noncreature spells in them. Sometimes she's inconvenient alongside creatures-that-are-really-spells like Lingering Souls or Spectral Procession, but I never see it as a reason to just not run her at all.
Just goes to show how many different ways there are to build a cube deck!
Thalia's easily the #1 white card for me. The tax hurts control and combo so much, and a 2 power first strike is great against aggro. Thalia is the reason I would go into mono-white or splash white in a Survival of the Fittest deck. She plays great with Strip Mine and other resource denial. I generally don't mind making my spot removal and equipment cost more when I'm hurting my opponent more.
Wow, where was Thalia last year? She's almost always one of my signposts that I can go into W/x aggro.
Couldn't say as we haven't done this project since 2016. Thalia was 26th in 2016--she was somewhat new then though. She has climbed quite a bit!
I like Thalia. Taxing creatures are better the lower on the curve they come down. This is partly why Vryn Wingmare is so much worse (IMO).
@Jamis: I think it's interesting that you said this is great against aggro. I tend to associate aggro with creature heavy decks unless it is a r/w variant that also runs a lot of burn. My mindset has been that this is great FOR aggro since it has 2 power and a relevant combat ability and taxes all of their spot removal/wraths. It didn't make my list because I've found the ability can be a bit too double-edged for my liking even if it generally favors me--also sometimes its just hard to appreciate the impact of a tax ability because it does its work quietly more often than not.
I'd include Thalia in an aggro deck or creature-based midrange deck as a tool against control and spell-based combo, but I also feel that white aggro is the aggro deck that beats the other aggro decks and Thalia is one of the reasons it does. There are 158 creatures in my cube. Of those, 101 have 2 or less toughness, so Thalia threatens black and red's small creatures very well. Thalia's not the only reason white fairs well in aggro mirrors, Brimaz and Hero of Bladehold also account for alot of it, but Thalia comes down early and does a good job on defense or offense.
2. Armageddon 15.38
3. Swords to Plowshares 14.52
4. Elspeth, Knight-Errant 14.03
5. Wrath of God 12.87
6. Path to Exile 10.84
7. Stoneforge Mystic 10.23
8. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 9.87
9. Monastery Mentor 9.1
10. Mother of Runes 8.97
11. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 7.9
12. Palace Jailer 7.26
13. Moat 7.23
14. Land Tax 6.94
15. Elspeth, Sun's Champion 6.87
16. Council's Judgment 6.39
17. Gideon Jura 6.35
18. Restoration Angel 5.1
19. Hero of Bladehold 3.42
20. Brimaz, King of Oreskos 2.65
A full list of results, with all cards that received votes and the number of lists a card appeared on, can be found on this Google spreadsheet.
* Note - Even with one person only ranking 19 cards the sum should be 6509 with 31 voters. Two points appear to be missing. I've checked and rechecked the math to no avail. If someone finds the discrepancy let me know, but this error is minor enough that it shouldn't have much of an impact.
Before I get to the fun stuff a couple friendly reminders. If you can format your lists as I formatted the results--minus the averages (Spoiler tags, card tags, numbered, and complete) it is a tremendous help to me. Spoiler Tags help with bias, Card tags help because the card doesn't show if it is misspelled and I use the find function to compile votes so misspelling can cause me to miss a vote. Numbering helps me not to have to count up or down your list to assign the correct number of points and as always make sure you have 20 cards (1 list only had 19 cards).
Thanks to all 31 voters!
Trivia, Useless Ramblings, and Facts (TURF)
Cube Diversity! We had 62 different cards make the list. Compare that to 2016 where only 56 cards made the list despite more voters! The modifications to our voting criteria (2016's criteria was "contributes most effectively to game wins") combined with the increased diversity of options available continues to expand the number of cards we see named in this project.
So Close! Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite switched places from 2016. Brimaz came in and Elesh Norn became the 1st card out. The next two cards on the outside of the top 20 were Parallax Wave and Thalia, Heretic Cathar. Both have markedly improved since 2016 (Wave went from 31st to 22nd) and Thalia, Heretic Cathar went from 27th to 23rd).
I'm Still Standing - Balance once again tops the list. Balance and Swords to Plowshares were the only cards to receive votes from everyone. Armageddon continues to hold the second slot as well but....
That's the Spot! - Swords to Plowshares jumped from 6th to 3rd surpassing Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Wrath of God! Path to Exile also moved up from 9th in 2016 to 6th. Spot removal...so hot right now!
New Arrivals - Please welcome Brimaz, King of Oreskos (#20), Palace Jailer (#12), and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (#11) to our top 20!
And Departures - Reveillark (#17 in 2016) plummeted to 25th and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite was edged out to 21st from 20th in 2016.
Big Top 20 Movers (A Tale of Two Gideons) - Besides the big gains for spot removal, Monastery Mentor gained a whopping nine slots in the top 20 going from #18 in 2016 to 9th today, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar moved from #14 in 2016 to 8th today! Gideon Jura on the other hand went from #7 in 2016 to 17th today. Restoration Angel also fell from #12 in 2016 to 18th today.
Stay tuned for the Blue voting thread which should be up tomorrow night or Monday morning.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Reveillark and Elesh Norn being missing but Brimaz and Hero being on there feels wrong to me, but I understand why people vote that way, the former are swingier and less consistent.
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!
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!
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
My highest ranked card that didn't make the top 20 was Elesh Norn. I had her at 11 and she was just outside. That said, I think the power level in white starts to become very similar after the top few cards. If I did this exercise in a week my list would look somewhat different, as I'm sure most of ours would.
I didn't rank Palace Jailer. I don't run it. I don't run the Monarch mechanic. Similarly, I didn't rank Moat. If anything, Moat is the card that "deserves" to be higher. I don't doubt that both cards are good. But when we vote on blue next, I won't be ranking Ancestral Recall. Others are doing the same. It's important to consider this when analyzing the data.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
Interesting. I usually feel like Thalia's downside is rarely an issue for my aggro decks, while it often buys me an extra turn of damage production by stalling my opponent's next answer. Does she sometimes hold back my burn cards? Sure, but only for as long as she stays alive.
My aggro decks, the good ones anyway, rarely have more than eight or so noncreature spells in them. Sometimes she's inconvenient alongside creatures-that-are-really-spells like Lingering Souls or Spectral Procession, but I never see it as a reason to just not run her at all.
Just goes to show how many different ways there are to build a cube deck!
[180 classic cube]
Couldn't say as we haven't done this project since 2016. Thalia was 26th in 2016--she was somewhat new then though. She has climbed quite a bit!
I like Thalia. Taxing creatures are better the lower on the curve they come down. This is partly why Vryn Wingmare is so much worse (IMO).
@Jamis: I think it's interesting that you said this is great against aggro. I tend to associate aggro with creature heavy decks unless it is a r/w variant that also runs a lot of burn. My mindset has been that this is great FOR aggro since it has 2 power and a relevant combat ability and taxes all of their spot removal/wraths. It didn't make my list because I've found the ability can be a bit too double-edged for my liking even if it generally favors me--also sometimes its just hard to appreciate the impact of a tax ability because it does its work quietly more often than not.
[180 classic cube]