Not talking about _____ here. This is a place to ask if people have experience with cards you are thinking about playing. I certainly have use for that right now, and I think others may also.
From that list, I've never tried any in peasant cube, but I have played some in other decks.
Spore Frog - I've considered it for my peasant cube, and I play it in both pauper and commander decks. The reason I haven't out it in my cube is I don't have enough ways to repeatedly recur it. An instant fog is surprising and can be worth the one-time effect. Spore Frog isn't surprising; it telegraphs the ability, so they can play around it. This makes it not quite worth playing for a single activation - you need a way to keep recurring it.
War Tax - I'd rather run Propaganda. True, War Tax can create a larger tax, but it requires extra mana each time. For just one turn equivalent to Propaganda, you have to pay twice as much - 2U for the enchantment and 2U for a single turn's effect. If I were to try a card along the lines of War Tax, I think War Cadence would be far more interesting.
Fade Away - Yes, it can be a blowout. But it also has a very low floor. I find it to be very situational. Also, if they have lethal on the board, this won't necessarily stop that, as they can sac any permanent (extra lands) and keep the creatures.
Rapacious One
By then, a 5/4 trample is too slow. We have Charging monstrosaur now.
Magma Burst
This card saw some play temporarily around here. But I misread the card really badly; I didn't realize you needed to split the damage. Probably too clunky.
Brimstone Mage
Personal favorite, but the investment takes too long if everyone has an efficient machine going.
Reincarnation
3 mana for a conditional zombify of your favorite dead creature is not a good rate.
Levitation
Not worth a card usually to do this. Especially since you will have creatures that don't get anything out of it.
Fade Away
Too much variance.
Stronghold Biologist
Turning lands into remove souls is a great idea. But I would imagine that it is built too fairly. Incredibly slow vs even a midrange deck with good pressure, and obviously it telegraphs your intentions.
War Tax
Paying a ton of mana to ask your opponent to pay mana sounds like losing. I guess, however, it could lock a game out in super ramp.
Sindbad
drawing 2 cards every 5 turns, that are only lands... no good.
Cloud of Faeries
A 1/1 flier for 1 is well known to be not a good card, and this one even misses the opportunity to attack on turn 2. It tries to make up for it by having cycling, but that's not enough.
Disruptive Student!
But it disrupts you by costing you a card. On the draw, your opponent doesn't start caring about this until their turn 5. Oof.
Coral Barrier
If the token was straight unblockable, it's still not good enough. 1 damage just isn't where you want to be for 3 mana.
Spore Frog
Unless you're recurring this 7 times, it's gotta be bad, right?
Ice Floe
Taking a stone rain to "kill a creature that attacked you this turn"... might not be the worst idea I've heard all day? If you play it in the middle of your board development, it's more like playing a 0 mana Melancholy on a creature that attacked you. Test this one.
Kabira Vindicator
Slower than..... me coming up with a PC joke for this card review.
I just cut Killer Bees, and I'm sad to do it. Anybody had luck with that card?
The small chance that you'll get more than Talrand's Invocation or Hordeling Outburst out of these enchantments isn't nearly worth the (high) risk that they'll be completely useless either because you can't afford to cast a 3/4 mana do nothing enchantment or because you are in top deck mode with no cards in hand. There are far more reliable cards as payoff for spells matter decks or as control finishers and both cards are too slow for aggressive decks.
Flood is situational and very colored mana hungry. If you have 4-6 blue mana and your opponent has no fliers it can be backbreaking, but cards like Icy Manipulator, Tumble Magnet or Pacification Array will almost always be better (and are colorless on top of that). If you want a finisher for aggressive decks play Sleep instead.
I think there are about twenty mana rocks that are better than Jeweled Amulet, so if you ever want more than that it may be a playable option.
For a long time I ran Skywise teachings as a wincon for grixis control that was hard to interact with, it wasn't great but it felt a role. In the last year saheeli and murmuring mystic is just better versions of that effect. Of the cards originally mentioned I think spore frog, if your cube is built around A LOT of creature recursion, or Reincarnation if you have a strong sac and reanimate theme, is the two cards closest to playable
I got a little testing in, and Flood and Jeweled Amulet both performed pretty well. Skywise Teachings rode the sideboard, and I'll probably end up cutting it unless it shapes up quick.
I'm still playing Reincarnation and Spore Frog, and I'm not interested in cutting them yet. Most of the cards I asked about didn't make it into the finished version.
Spore Frog is just going in to my kids' cube. It's always been a fave of mine.
Agreed with Leelue that Brimstone Mage is simply too slow. I've tried to play it in multiplayer and EDH, and it's been too slow there, so you can imagine how hard it is to switch on in Peasant.
But Leelue also doesn't like the fact that Cloud of Faeries is basically free... the best things in life are free!
Cloud of Faeries is what it is, and is easily dealt with, but playing baby Peregrine Drakes on Turn 2 is not terrible.
Now for my one.... Wildfire Elemental?
It's out of the red M20 planeswalker deck, and has barely rated a mention. This could be pretty good in a straight red deck full of damage and goblins...
I dont remember saying that I don't like cloud of faeries because it's free.
I do think that it is a terrible play. In most games, it is essentially suntail hawk except it misses a point of damage from the beginning.
Totally agree, really.
But I figure if someone's going to force me to play a 1/1 flier, I might as well not pay for it.
What would you run ahead of it, out of interest?
On the topic of Wildfire Elemental: Needs Trample. I actually have a casual Chandra's Spitfire deck planned, and that card can even be decent in Peasant thanks to the various spellslingers and other pingers you can run. But the evasion it has in the form of flying is really key to that.
Edit: Oh, wow - all your creatures? That is actually pretty interesting as a potential archetype support thing.
On the topic of Wildfire Elemental: Needs Trample. I actually have a casual Chandra's Spitfire deck planned, and that card can even be decent in Peasant thanks to the various spellslingers and other pingers you can run. But the evasion it has in the form of flying is really key to that.
Edit: Oh, wow - all your creatures? That is actually pretty interesting as a potential archetype support thing.
Yah, all your creatures. Agreed, I'd be totally just grabbing Chandra's Spitfire instead if it only buffed itself.
I'm trying to figure out if the fact it's not evasive by itself is made up for by the fact that it's going to buff your entire field, really.
My cube has Pyrohemia in it still, to boot... that could be.... evil?
Wildfire Elemental seems highly situational.
Chandra's Spitfire is already pretty situational (in my experience, there's not enough burn to trigger it super consistently), but the payoff packs a big punch. This card is asking even more of you.
1) Have a 4 mana 3/3 in play
2) Have at least 3 creatures out (to match the power-boost of spitfire)
3) Want to attack with basically an alpha strike (or you're missing a lot of the ability)
4) Have burn spells to lob at face
5) Have the power be actually relevant (buffing a 1/1 into a 3/1 does little against a 4/4)
Seems... bad. Also, are you planning to have an army of specifically high-toughness creatures out when you activate pyrohemia? Because otherwise I doubt it will work out well for you.
I have had some pretty impressive turns with Trueheart Twins on Magic Duels (anyone remember that..?). I could see the Elemental doing something similar and with even higher upside. Probably wants to go in a Rally the Peasants style deck. I like those kinds of decks, they kinda play like combo, where you sit there and try to craft that big turn where you trigger guttersnipe three times and attack for lethal "out of nowhere". UR spells plays similarly sometimes with Wee Dragonauts and variants.
Not sure about the actual Elemental though. If you have a go wide strategy, how much burn do you have to throw at your opponent..? Gets better with Searing Blood, Thermo-Alchemist, divisible burn...
Seems... bad. Also, are you planning to have an army of specifically high-toughness creatures out when you activate pyrohemia? Because otherwise I doubt it will work out well for you.
Indeed, that's my concern too - it will work well if you've got a large field to swing with...
... but then are you a) going to accidentally burn it off the table with Pyrohemia before you get anywhere? Or b) be stuck somewhere between building a red burn deck and a Goblin deck, and get neither right (i.e. draw all the Goblins and no damage, or vice-versa)?
I think generally Chandra's Spitfire will play better than Wildfire Elemental almost every time if what you care about is optimal card choice. Pyrohemia wise, Spitfire is better, since you can zap twice and attack for seven flying plus the two pyro damage. You have to have a pretty good army before Wildfire Elemental is actually better there, and frankly requiring two cards plus a good army is win-more.
If you have serious tokens going on, then the elemental really might be better. I'm personally always looking for the most synergistic card over the most powerful card, so I could see favoring the elemental to help improve a go-wide strategy, but if what you want is the best cards, Spitfire just has to be better. The floor is quite a bit higher, and the ceiling is frankly not much lower. But I've never been the guy who says "You need to play the BEST cards in your cube!"
Another argument for Spitfire is that good red flying cards at low CMC are hard to come by. Sad to say Spitfire just seems to win every comparison unless you are guaranteed some goblin tokens. But hey, I've never tried Wildfire Elemental, or even seen it before you mentioned it here.
Try the card!! You clearly want to. I'd be interested in hearing the results.
Speaking of results, I'm sadly probably gonna have to cut Reincarnation for being too situational. I really want green to be able to be part of the reanimator game, so I'm sad. It really seems like that makes sense in green's color pie... c'mon Wizards. Ice Floe on the other hand is working great. It shouldn't be thought of as a land though. It's colorless removal, and doesn't go in a land slot. The opponent can see it, but they don't have a choice but to walk into it. What are they gonna do? Not attack? That's still great for you.
Indeed, that's my concern too - it will work well if you've got a large field to swing with...
... but then are you a) going to accidentally burn it off the table with Pyrohemia before you get anywhere? Or b) be stuck somewhere between building a red burn deck and a Goblin deck, and get neither right (i.e. draw all the Goblins and no damage, or vice-versa)?
Honestly, if you want to trigger elemental in a token-friendly way, can't go wrong with the classic goblin bombardment. It's asking you to play tokens already, is good even without the elemental, and can be really explosive. Wait until they declare blocks and then blow them out.
I think generally Chandra's Spitfire will play better than Wildfire Elemental almost every time if what you care about is optimal card choice.
...
Try the card!! You clearly want to. I'd be interested in hearing the results.
Honestly, if you want to trigger elemental in a token-friendly way, can't go wrong with the classic goblin bombardment. It's asking you to play tokens already, is good even without the elemental, and can be really explosive. Wait until they declare blocks and then blow them out.
I actually thought I was running both Chandra's SpitfireandGoblin Bombardment already... but Spitfire is apparently not in the list. Suspect it's been in my Multiplayer cube at some point (because Spitfire + Earthquake = let's lose friends for the evening).
Bombardment is definitely there, and definitely behaves as you mention, Marth - I've seen it win a game in the last six months or so (which, considering how often the kids get the cube out for a proper tourney, is a pretty high marker).
Spitfire is likely the card I should be running, but maybe I'll try and lay hands on a Wildfire Elemental and see how it behaves before I go all the way down the Spitfire rabbit hole.
What is the general opinion on double color cost two drops in peasant? (ex. Strangleroot Geist)
I find they are often powerful aggro options that I want to include, but the mana just isn't reliable enough. Aggro decks want to be making plays on turn 1 and 2, so they can't just afford to play a tapped land on turn 1. From there on out it becomes rare that you can cast your Knight of Meadowgrains on turn 2.
Has anyone found a solution to this problem without reaching into rare lands?
Don't think there is a solution. You either play mono color or you don't treat the card as two drop while building your deck or you add rare lands/break the singleton rule to enable better mana fixing.
The biggest criteria I use for including CC creatures these days is whether I'm still fine playing them on turn 3. Typically, that means they provide enough value or utility to stay useful at most points in the game. And to answer your point, I don't think they're often aggro creatures.
In this case, Strangleroot Geist's haste helps make up for getting cast a turn later, and the two bodies, Skullclampable nature, and +1/+1 counter are all potentially relevant in evaluating whether you're ok dropping it a turn later.
Others I've thought about at some point: Nether Shadow - would be an interesting choice if you don't care about graveyard-order-matters cards. Skullclampable, binnable and sac-able, but not a very good beater. More of a Squee, Goblin Nabob card. Knight of the Kitchen Sink - cool if you run silver borders. Phalanx Leader - the CC is fine since he's generally the last guy you want to play, but you really want Theros-like levels of support for him to matter. Goblin Wardriver - similar to above since you're usually ok running him out turn 3 or later to pump the rest of the team, but is generally worse than Consul's Lieutenant. Kalonian Tusker - meh. Like I said, you want more than stats, you want some kind of utility so that your play isn't obsolete past turn 3. Leonin Relic-Warder - again fine, since it functions like a removal spell, you don't need to drop it on curve. Undead Augur - again, good as the last guy you drop in the decks that want him. Vampire Hexmage - has more value as a planeswalker removal spell in peasant now, so less need to drop it on curve. Warrior en-Kor - used to be cool as the guy who could redirect all the damage towards your pro-color guys like White Knight or Paladin en-Vec, but protection from color is on its way out of cubes.
Well, running this hypergeometric calcluator, there's a 65%/73% (play vs draw) chance of drawing two sources by turn two with 10 lands of the chosen color. That's not exactly reat, but it's still on average over two thirds of the time. Those odds become 72%/79% (play vs draw) if with 11 sources. 11 sounds like a lot but it really might not be if your deck doesn't have any 1 drops of the opposite color, no 1CC three drops, and no 2CC four drops.
If you only need one source of the other color, running 6 vs 7 lands only affects your odds by about 5.5%. So if hitting that strangleroot geist and.... yavimaya elder in your deck are top priorities, you can probably get away with shortchanging the second color in your deck more than you expected.
And of course, if you have even one city of brass then everything's a little easier.
Also, running 18 lands even in aggro is probably underrated, to be honest. Adding one more land probably doesn't change the experience of flooding by too much, but the difference between missing the best play on any given turn is especially bad. Perhaps it makes sense to do if you have something like several one drops, a WW, and 1WW card to play
Hi all, I'm new to Peasant (just put my cube together this year), and am planning my first large update. There are several cards in white that I would love to hear some experienced thoughts on!
Oppressive Rays and Sky Tether are a couple of 1 mana removal spells that come with downsides. Rays seems like it could be good in an aggressive deck that can close things out before your opponent can start spending mana on freeing their creature. Tether looks strong in flying and control archetypes.
Angelic Renewal is an onboard effect, but it is fairly cheap and you get control over when to pop it.
Niblis of the Urn fits into white weenie and flying archetypes, but I've never played with it so I'm unsure if its too fragile to be effective.
Oppressive Rays is good early-game removal in pauper. I know some paupers have success with Slow Motion and Rays has a similar play pattern. The issue is that there is so much unconditional removal available, especially at peasant with O-Ring effects, that it falls way down in the playable tiers. I think it could find success in very low-economy cubes (where every mana counts) instead of dragon cubes, where games play out in slower battlecruiser style. As you said, it's interesting because it provides aggro-only removal (maybe to balance out control-only removal like Condemn?)
Sky Tether is super stinky. Don't play it unless you're intentionally trying to avoid quality removal like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile. A generic tapper like Goldmeadow Harrier seems better as a catch-all card, unless you're really all in on the flying theme - and I just don't think that's necessary.
Niblis of the Urn is a second-but-worse Topplegeist, which seems to do ok around here. I'm not a fan of Flying Men with marginal upside (and Niblis is worse than that), but stuff like Spectral Sailor is going some ways to give me hope for future designs.
Here are some I'm curious about:
Rapacious One
Magma Burst
Brimstone Mage
Reincarnation
Levitation
Fade Away (this can be a blowout, right?)
Stronghold Biologist
War Tax
Sindbad
Cloud of Faeries
Disruptive Student!
Coral Barrier
Thassa's Ire
Spore Frog
Ice Floe
Kabira Vindicator
If you have experience with just one or two of these, I'd like to hear your opinions. I'm sure I'll be coming up with more to ask about.
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Spore Frog - I've considered it for my peasant cube, and I play it in both pauper and commander decks. The reason I haven't out it in my cube is I don't have enough ways to repeatedly recur it. An instant fog is surprising and can be worth the one-time effect. Spore Frog isn't surprising; it telegraphs the ability, so they can play around it. This makes it not quite worth playing for a single activation - you need a way to keep recurring it.
War Tax - I'd rather run Propaganda. True, War Tax can create a larger tax, but it requires extra mana each time. For just one turn equivalent to Propaganda, you have to pay twice as much - 2U for the enchantment and 2U for a single turn's effect. If I were to try a card along the lines of War Tax, I think War Cadence would be far more interesting.
Fade Away - Yes, it can be a blowout. But it also has a very low floor. I find it to be very situational. Also, if they have lethal on the board, this won't necessarily stop that, as they can sac any permanent (extra lands) and keep the creatures.
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Rapacious One
By then, a 5/4 trample is too slow. We have Charging monstrosaur now.
Magma Burst
This card saw some play temporarily around here. But I misread the card really badly; I didn't realize you needed to split the damage. Probably too clunky.
Brimstone Mage
Personal favorite, but the investment takes too long if everyone has an efficient machine going.
Reincarnation
3 mana for a conditional zombify of your favorite dead creature is not a good rate.
Levitation
Not worth a card usually to do this. Especially since you will have creatures that don't get anything out of it.
Fade Away
Too much variance.
Stronghold Biologist
Turning lands into remove souls is a great idea. But I would imagine that it is built too fairly. Incredibly slow vs even a midrange deck with good pressure, and obviously it telegraphs your intentions.
War Tax
Paying a ton of mana to ask your opponent to pay mana sounds like losing. I guess, however, it could lock a game out in super ramp.
Sindbad
drawing 2 cards every 5 turns, that are only lands... no good.
Cloud of Faeries
A 1/1 flier for 1 is well known to be not a good card, and this one even misses the opportunity to attack on turn 2. It tries to make up for it by having cycling, but that's not enough.
Disruptive Student!
But it disrupts you by costing you a card. On the draw, your opponent doesn't start caring about this until their turn 5. Oof.
Coral Barrier
If the token was straight unblockable, it's still not good enough. 1 damage just isn't where you want to be for 3 mana.
Thassa's Ire
Icy manipulator.
Spore Frog
Unless you're recurring this 7 times, it's gotta be bad, right?
Ice Floe
Taking a stone rain to "kill a creature that attacked you this turn"... might not be the worst idea I've heard all day? If you play it in the middle of your board development, it's more like playing a 0 mana Melancholy on a creature that attacked you. Test this one.
Kabira Vindicator
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Has anyone tried Flood? That card has been very good in my main cube. It's a lot better than Thassa's Ire.
What about Jeweled Amulet?
I just cut Killer Bees, and I'm sad to do it. Anybody had luck with that card?
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The small chance that you'll get more than Talrand's Invocation or Hordeling Outburst out of these enchantments isn't nearly worth the (high) risk that they'll be completely useless either because you can't afford to cast a 3/4 mana do nothing enchantment or because you are in top deck mode with no cards in hand. There are far more reliable cards as payoff for spells matter decks or as control finishers and both cards are too slow for aggressive decks.
Flood is situational and very colored mana hungry. If you have 4-6 blue mana and your opponent has no fliers it can be backbreaking, but cards like Icy Manipulator, Tumble Magnet or Pacification Array will almost always be better (and are colorless on top of that). If you want a finisher for aggressive decks play Sleep instead.
I think there are about twenty mana rocks that are better than Jeweled Amulet, so if you ever want more than that it may be a playable option.
Killer Bees isn't even very playable in old school, in cube it's just unbelievably bad. White has Aerial Responder, black has Vampire Nighthawk and green has...Killer Bees?
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I'm still playing Reincarnation and Spore Frog, and I'm not interested in cutting them yet. Most of the cards I asked about didn't make it into the finished version.
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Agreed with Leelue that Brimstone Mage is simply too slow. I've tried to play it in multiplayer and EDH, and it's been too slow there, so you can imagine how hard it is to switch on in Peasant.
But Leelue also doesn't like the fact that Cloud of Faeries is basically free... the best things in life are free!
Cloud of Faeries is what it is, and is easily dealt with, but playing baby Peregrine Drakes on Turn 2 is not terrible.
Now for my one.... Wildfire Elemental?
It's out of the red M20 planeswalker deck, and has barely rated a mention. This could be pretty good in a straight red deck full of damage and goblins...
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I do think that it is a terrible play. In most games, it is essentially suntail hawk except it misses a point of damage from the beginning.
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Totally agree, really.
But I figure if someone's going to force me to play a 1/1 flier, I might as well not pay for it.
What would you run ahead of it, out of interest?
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Edit: Oh, wow - all your creatures? That is actually pretty interesting as a potential archetype support thing.
EDIT: sorry fixed the cardnames
Yah, all your creatures. Agreed, I'd be totally just grabbing Chandra's Spitfire instead if it only buffed itself.
I'm trying to figure out if the fact it's not evasive by itself is made up for by the fact that it's going to buff your entire field, really.
My cube has Pyrohemia in it still, to boot... that could be.... evil?
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Chandra's Spitfire is already pretty situational (in my experience, there's not enough burn to trigger it super consistently), but the payoff packs a big punch. This card is asking even more of you.
1) Have a 4 mana 3/3 in play
2) Have at least 3 creatures out (to match the power-boost of spitfire)
3) Want to attack with basically an alpha strike (or you're missing a lot of the ability)
4) Have burn spells to lob at face
5) Have the power be actually relevant (buffing a 1/1 into a 3/1 does little against a 4/4)
Seems... bad. Also, are you planning to have an army of specifically high-toughness creatures out when you activate pyrohemia? Because otherwise I doubt it will work out well for you.
Not sure about the actual Elemental though. If you have a go wide strategy, how much burn do you have to throw at your opponent..? Gets better with Searing Blood, Thermo-Alchemist, divisible burn...
Worth a discussion at least.
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Indeed, that's my concern too - it will work well if you've got a large field to swing with...
... but then are you a) going to accidentally burn it off the table with Pyrohemia before you get anywhere? Or b) be stuck somewhere between building a red burn deck and a Goblin deck, and get neither right (i.e. draw all the Goblins and no damage, or vice-versa)?
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If you have serious tokens going on, then the elemental really might be better. I'm personally always looking for the most synergistic card over the most powerful card, so I could see favoring the elemental to help improve a go-wide strategy, but if what you want is the best cards, Spitfire just has to be better. The floor is quite a bit higher, and the ceiling is frankly not much lower. But I've never been the guy who says "You need to play the BEST cards in your cube!"
Another argument for Spitfire is that good red flying cards at low CMC are hard to come by. Sad to say Spitfire just seems to win every comparison unless you are guaranteed some goblin tokens. But hey, I've never tried Wildfire Elemental, or even seen it before you mentioned it here.
Try the card!! You clearly want to. I'd be interested in hearing the results.
Speaking of results, I'm sadly probably gonna have to cut Reincarnation for being too situational. I really want green to be able to be part of the reanimator game, so I'm sad. It really seems like that makes sense in green's color pie... c'mon Wizards. Ice Floe on the other hand is working great. It shouldn't be thought of as a land though. It's colorless removal, and doesn't go in a land slot. The opponent can see it, but they don't have a choice but to walk into it. What are they gonna do? Not attack? That's still great for you.
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Honestly, if you want to trigger elemental in a token-friendly way, can't go wrong with the classic goblin bombardment. It's asking you to play tokens already, is good even without the elemental, and can be really explosive. Wait until they declare blocks and then blow them out.
I actually thought I was running both Chandra's Spitfire and Goblin Bombardment already... but Spitfire is apparently not in the list. Suspect it's been in my Multiplayer cube at some point (because Spitfire + Earthquake = let's lose friends for the evening).
Bombardment is definitely there, and definitely behaves as you mention, Marth - I've seen it win a game in the last six months or so (which, considering how often the kids get the cube out for a proper tourney, is a pretty high marker).
Spitfire is likely the card I should be running, but maybe I'll try and lay hands on a Wildfire Elemental and see how it behaves before I go all the way down the Spitfire rabbit hole.
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I find they are often powerful aggro options that I want to include, but the mana just isn't reliable enough. Aggro decks want to be making plays on turn 1 and 2, so they can't just afford to play a tapped land on turn 1. From there on out it becomes rare that you can cast your Knight of Meadowgrains on turn 2.
Has anyone found a solution to this problem without reaching into rare lands?
My Old School Battlebox
My Premodern Battlebox
In this case, Strangleroot Geist's haste helps make up for getting cast a turn later, and the two bodies, Skullclampable nature, and +1/+1 counter are all potentially relevant in evaluating whether you're ok dropping it a turn later.
I currently have Consul's Lieutenant, Knight of Meadowgrain, Merfolk Trickster, Gifted Aetherborn, Barkhide Troll and Strangleroot Geist as my 6 CC drops. Of those, the only one I consider an aggro drop is Consul's Lieutenant, as the others are all fine in midrange. Merfolk Trickster plays more like a combat trick or removal, where the CC cost is less important.
Others I've thought about at some point:
Nether Shadow - would be an interesting choice if you don't care about graveyard-order-matters cards. Skullclampable, binnable and sac-able, but not a very good beater. More of a Squee, Goblin Nabob card.
Knight of the Kitchen Sink - cool if you run silver borders.
Phalanx Leader - the CC is fine since he's generally the last guy you want to play, but you really want Theros-like levels of support for him to matter.
Goblin Wardriver - similar to above since you're usually ok running him out turn 3 or later to pump the rest of the team, but is generally worse than Consul's Lieutenant.
Kalonian Tusker - meh. Like I said, you want more than stats, you want some kind of utility so that your play isn't obsolete past turn 3.
Leonin Relic-Warder - again fine, since it functions like a removal spell, you don't need to drop it on curve.
Undead Augur - again, good as the last guy you drop in the decks that want him.
Vampire Hexmage - has more value as a planeswalker removal spell in peasant now, so less need to drop it on curve.
Warrior en-Kor - used to be cool as the guy who could redirect all the damage towards your pro-color guys like White Knight or Paladin en-Vec, but protection from color is on its way out of cubes.
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
If you only need one source of the other color, running 6 vs 7 lands only affects your odds by about 5.5%. So if hitting that strangleroot geist and.... yavimaya elder in your deck are top priorities, you can probably get away with shortchanging the second color in your deck more than you expected.
And of course, if you have even one city of brass then everything's a little easier.
Also, running 18 lands even in aggro is probably underrated, to be honest. Adding one more land probably doesn't change the experience of flooding by too much, but the difference between missing the best play on any given turn is especially bad. Perhaps it makes sense to do if you have something like several one drops, a WW, and 1WW card to play
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Oppressive Rays and Sky Tether are a couple of 1 mana removal spells that come with downsides. Rays seems like it could be good in an aggressive deck that can close things out before your opponent can start spending mana on freeing their creature. Tether looks strong in flying and control archetypes.
Angelic Renewal is an onboard effect, but it is fairly cheap and you get control over when to pop it.
Niblis of the Urn fits into white weenie and flying archetypes, but I've never played with it so I'm unsure if its too fragile to be effective.
Sky Tether is super stinky. Don't play it unless you're intentionally trying to avoid quality removal like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile. A generic tapper like Goldmeadow Harrier seems better as a catch-all card, unless you're really all in on the flying theme - and I just don't think that's necessary.
Niblis of the Urn is a second-but-worse Topplegeist, which seems to do ok around here. I'm not a fan of Flying Men with marginal upside (and Niblis is worse than that), but stuff like Spectral Sailor is going some ways to give me hope for future designs.
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge