MTG Salvation

Awesome article as always! Only surprise was that Sea Gate Restoration ended up so low--I figured you were going to grade all of the mythic MDFC lands as stone cold 360 staples. Looks like only 3 or 4 are--which is still outrageous.

Can't wait to give the set a whirl. I think I might be the only person on the internet with a small cube that's excited to play Akoum Hellhound.

OMG, somehow I missed the Time Spiral Remastered announcement. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Cythare

I've always thought foil looks kinda dumb so I go out of my way to not foil my cube, but if these old bordered cards only come in foil, it's still worth it. I plan to upgrade every card possible.

Best part of spoiler season for me. Thanks for putting in all the work.

I know you usually do these after you've playtested the cards a fair bit--I assume you weren't able to do so this time around, right?

So, uh, is this card any good? It looks awful to me, but in the past couple weeks, across multiple platforms, I've heard it described as black's best aggro 1-drop.

That can't possibly be true, can it? People with experience with this card, can you chime in and tell me why I'm crazy for dismissing it?

Quote from wtwlf123 »

I'm currently playing all 10 in my cube, and would likely do that at any size for any cube. I'm hoping the entire mechanic gets a conspiracy-esque banning and get relegated to kitchen tables where it belongs. It's a miserable mechanic, IMO, and it's basically ruining every format it's a part of.

Thanks for sounding the alarm on these things. I made the decision not to run them largely because of your explanations. Quick question though: since companion is such a miserable mechanic, why haven't you excluded them from your cube?

Quote from wtwlf123 »

My focus was on cards I could live without. Making white more focussed on combo and archetype play has made it a lot more successful. So the first round of cuts go to cards that don't meet that description.

Interesting. Was white always less successful for your group, or did it start lagging behind when you increased the card count and started focusing on archetype play in the other colors? In other words, would you keep the white archetype cards if your cube went down to 540/450/360?

Also: just saw you cut Arc Lightning and Flames of the Firebrand. You were probably the biggest proponent of those dividable burn spells on these boards. Have you found them to be underperforming of late, or are they just cuts because you wanted more combo/archetype pieces?

Wow, interesting change! I'm surprised that you didn't re-add Deep Analysis. When I asked you about the cut a few months ago you said that it was the first card you were planning on putting back in. Did your, uh, analysis of the card change in the interim?

Anyway, I'm really interested in your changes to white. Would you mind walking me through your thinking on the cuts to Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Spectral Procession? Pretty surprised to see both on the block for you, considering they're in most smaller lists, including mine. (Imposing Sovereign, too, but much less so.)

Dang dude, I'm surprised you finally joined our hivemind and cut Deep Analysis. What prompted the change?

Also, I see you dropped Blast Zone and Voracious Hydra, two new-ish cards that were generally pretty well regarded around here when they first dropped. Why do you think they were underperforming?

Quote from BlackWaltz3 »

Quote from noshadowkick »

Fair enough. I was asking about what you said before the offending comment, but no worries.

I think the following reddit thread does a really good job at fully fleshing out what I've stated here if you want to go more in depth. The jist being that immediate value/resilience in the face of removal is important but so is impact if your opponent can't deal with it. The higher up the CMC chain you go the more impact you have to get in exchange for lacking some immediate value/resilience.

Link?

Thanks so much, BW! I dropped off the map for the last few rounds of voting, but I was paying attention throughout. I'm really grateful for all your hard work, and I agree that we got some fun, useful data.

And thanks everyone else who participated! It's been lots of fun.

Great as always! Thanks for all the hard work you put into these.