- Ulka
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May 28, 2019Ulka posted a message on The End of an EraAnd as a reminder, We are currently working on the site for the community to follow to. We will be releasing more detains as we approach the release date.Posted in: Articles
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May 1, 2019Ulka posted a message on Treasure Cruisin' Amulet's EndThe prices were as of when the article was written, which due to some delays in publishing was around a month ago. Updated prices can be found on the link below the decklist.Posted in: Articles
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Here are the cards at the top of the list for me that I hope get downshifted for a commander deck or a modern horizons shift.
Masticore (If only, I know its Reserved List)
Ruin grinder
Duplicant
Manor Gargoyle
Perennial Behemoth
Scuttling Doom Engine
Staff of Nin
I figured I'd breakdown my thoughts on each card first more individually.
Channel: Known for abusing colorless mana this card is often part of combos either by using fireballs to nuke someone out or by allowing a player to create a colorless creature army with Eldrazi and artifact creatures.
Tinker: This is known for being one of the most abusable artifact cheating tutors in the game. Typically used to sneak out huge artifacts that warp the game in other formats in cube it often seems to enable cheating out large artifact creatures.
I know for me with both of these focusing around top end artifacts I adjusted my cube's reanimator targets to have more of these floating around the cube as they enable 3 strategies. My current list includes the following for each of these as payoffs that are known to win the game.
1 Demonfire
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Bane of Bala Ged
1 Sandstone Oracle
1 Sphinx of the Guildpact
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 God-Pharaoh's Statue
1 Angel of the Ruins
1 Mirrorshell Crab
1 Sphinx of the Guildpact
1 God-Pharaoh's Statue
While both are short of major payoffs more exist that I currently am not running such as Walking Skyscrapper or Triskelion. So I leave you with this, do you run either of these cards, if you don't what would make you to want to run them and are there any downshifts like Wizards made with angel of the ruins that would make you consider them?
Additionally are there any other cards that fit this style of cheating the curve that you have shifted your cubes for in the past or hope to in the future (reanimator aside).
Alabaster Host Intercessor > Angel of the Ruins: I like to have 1 land cycling of each in my cube as it makes a balance and this is the only one that has felt truly weaker than the rest. Now this is tied for best option with the troll as it enables reanimator and is Tinkerable.
Electrostatic Infantry > Cunning Coyote: UR spells matters already has a lot of cards in red and the coyote seems like a lot of fun.
Sarcomancy > Forsaken Miner: a swap that feels good. I'm sad to see a card that has been present in my cube to support black aggro since the beginning is leaving but miner is just too good.
The Rack > Lavaspur Boots: an odd swap but the rack has had some lost power in recent years with how efficient things are in the cube. Long past are the days that control could just keep players witling away with the rack. Boots just makes things go faster and honesty this is the most testing of my changes made.
Goldhound > Reckless Lackey: one has haste while one doesn't. The evasion was solid but lacky also has first strike and can use it a bit easier when suited up plus the chip damage from haste is huge.
Lu Xun, Scholar General > Slickshot Lockpicker: the general had been a card I loved in tempo decks as a way to keep up card advantage but budget snapcaster seems more balance to what my players often what to play.
Basalt Monolith > Spinewoods Armadillo: an odd swap but I didnt realize that when I readded mutagenic growth I didn't move it to colorless like I planned.
I'm still looking at if I'm going to make a swap for Aloe Alchemist, nurturing Pixie, and Rambling Possum but I haven't made any decisions yet.
Multicolored Spells: 60
Dual, Tri, and Fetch Lands: 30
Rainbow Lands: 8
Multicolored Percentage: 12.5%
Multicolored Percentage (With dual and tri Lands): 20.8%
I know I'm much higher on this than most cubes for two reasons. My drafts love two things: Drafting 3+ color decks and prefer that Gold cards be the last picked cards often. The first is pretty simple to explain, my drafter I draft with love Khans and Alara Drafts and love making multicolored drafts a thing so I support thier endeavors as much as able without eliminating mono or dual colors decks.
The second point is more complicated but it has become something that my drafters have noted that they like how powerful multicolored cards are in peasant but often like to use the gold cards that exist in the last 4 picks to help dictate what color pairs might be open in the draft. While its not a perfect signal my drafters love it and who am I to snub thier fun.
Farhaven Elf > Aftermath Analyst: a cut I had been delaying making due to my altered version of the elf but I love playing Strip Mine control in cubes and this allows for that to exist easier.
Spiritmonger > Insidious Roots: I love the Monger but it came to Peasant a tad too late and the roots allows for the reintroduction of Tortured Existence to the cube which is an all-time favorite of myself and a few of my drafters.
two-handed Axe > Demand Answers: Card often failed to make lists but was a key card in the Gruul Kiln Fiend blitz deck but i haven't had anyone draft that in several drafts.
Ominous Seas > Novice Inspector: I moved where [card]Judge's Familiar was located as I realized my hybrids were out of balance and so this got added as I needed a white card and I love inspector already in the cube.
Environmental Sciences > Escape Tunnel: I kept Sciences as a way to help fix mana in multicolored decks but this also works for that without being a spell.
1. Artisan of Kozilek
2. Sphinx of the guildpact
3. Meteor Golem
4. Clay Golem
5. Walking Skyscrapper
I play Tinker in my cube and it's often a key deck in drafts so Sphinx and Meteor often rank higher by my drafters but Artisan and Bane of Bala Ged are the top two reanimator targets in colorless.
The combo of Witherbloom and Chain of Smog I fully understand is a preference. I'm more so just surprised I'm the only one running it. That said I do run 6 gold slots for my cube so I do have more space for it.
So In my examinations of my cube vs the average some cool things showed up for me. I have 16 unique cards compared to everyone else in my list. Some of them are kind of boggling that I'm the only one playing them and others I fully understand why I'm the only one.
I find kind of crazy others aren't running are Channel and xiahou Dun, the one-eyed but most of mine here are either me just not letting go of nostalgia or just not liking the replacement that others replaced them with. The chain of smog combo is one I think its one that feels weird no one else is running it but I understand it feels out of place in the color combo often but I was surprised I was the only one running it.
Overall 70% of my cubes cards are share but its cool to see while the number is high I still have so many outliers in a 460 sized cube.
It actually was downshifted in the Italian/french Renaissance set.
Here is the ranking I have on the ones I run:
Inquisition of Kozilek
Hymn to Tourach
Deep-cavern Bat
Duress
Kitesail Freebooter
Hypnotic Specter
Go Blank
Chain of Smog
Notes: IoK only ranks higher than Hymn because of the potential of disruption on turn 1.