Both Exhume and Dance are kind of inversely related: Exhume becomes is the best reanimation spell early game since it essentially has no drawback, but it becomes riskier as the game goes on. Dance of the Dead sets back your tempo, which can be crushing early game, but the drawback isn't as bad early game and your opponent might have something more useful to steal later on.
Unburial Rites always feels "fair" and I feel like I have to be in Esper to get the most of it since it's at its best when paired with Gifts Ungiven / Intuition.
A neat trick I learned from Vintage. With Sensei's Divining Top, Chandra's first +1 ability can be used as "1: Draw a card" once per turn. Nothing game breaking, but good to know.
I'm TEMPTED to re-visit this card. Tokens are on the rise and Chanda, Torch of Defiance has been revolutionary to Red, IME. Over the past 18 months we've gotten new anthems like Drana, Nissa, and Angel of Invention, token generators with P&K Nalaar, Nissa, and Angel of Invention, new Chandra and Regal Behemoth for ramp, vehicles that naturally fits with tokens. Anybody still rocking out with Tempt With Vengeance these days?
Kinda bummed I didn't get picked, I spent a lot of time and energy on that cube! Oh well, I'm proud of what I built and may actually proxy it one day.
As far as the submissions goes, there are some cool concepts, I voted for Pauper just because I think that has the most legs to stand on and would be the easiest to update in the future. As far as the actual contest goes, I knew it would end up as a popularity contest if some recognizable name was a finalist, and we have at least two of them.... I don't play MTGO, but I did want to be a finalist just for the prize, haha.
Also, all during Kaladesh spoiler season I was like "man, I really coulda used that for the Power Up Cube..."
Great card is great, it's ETB / attack trigger works really well with its firebreath ability, allowing him to close out games super fast. Inferno Titan will probably forever be the best red 6-drop creature for cube. I'm also jealous of his fiery beard.
My favorite giant cards outside of the titans would probably be Boonweaver Giant, that card is just DUMB in EDH: Boonweaver Giant + reusable sac outlet = instant win (assuming you have the right cards in your library and your opponents have no disruption).
But... wanted to air my opinion on the black voting. People are comically underrating entomb. I've seen no person rate in their top 20, which is absurd in my eyes.
The difference in power level between a reanimator deck that has entomb, and one that doesn't is night and day.
Reanimator is effectively a 3 peice combo deck that requires the following:
An expensive creature in your hand to be able to discard to your graveyard
A way to get the fatty from your hand into your graveyard
A reanimation spell
Entomb allows you to merge 2 of those steps into 1, tutoring for ANY creature in your deck (some decks require different threats) that's not in your hand for the cost of 1 mana.
There's no on color card that comes CLOSE to that. Speed and consistency is critical for combo decks, and entomb is both the fastest and the most consistent way to set up the combo (by a significant margin).
Very early in my duplicate cube I tested 2 copies of entomb (underrating its power), and it was IMMEDIATELY apparent how broken reanimator became when I did. Much more so than a second copy of animate dead/reanimate.
I also had the same thought when I was first browsing through everybody's vote (I do a lot of browsing / posting at work but don't do big posts like that since I'm on my phone).
I bought my Chandra at pre release, my buddy who doesn't play much opened one up and got him to go down a couple bucks. I don't mind too much, he's in a tough spot right now in life and I wanted to help him out a bit.
Recruiters are always fun, tutoring is powerful in singleton formats, especially in a color that doesn't have a lot of them. Imperial Recruiter only gets better over time as more powerful targets come along (ie. Angel of Invention). Vehicles also give utility creatures new things to do after they've done their job.
I don't mind white bordered cards, they add to the museum aspect of my cube and decrease the damage to my bank account. I like having old art / card frame with clean text. In fact, I just picked up a sixth edition Birds of Paradise and a Chronicles City of Brass from a LGS today for my cube. One day I'll splurge and pick up white bordered versions of Rolling Earthquake / Burning of Xinye, I'd much rather have the originals than the FTV versions.
White bordered eighth / ninth edition cards are wrong though.
Unburial Rites always feels "fair" and I feel like I have to be in Esper to get the most of it since it's at its best when paired with Gifts Ungiven / Intuition.
- Use Chandra's first +1 ability to cast to exile the top card of your library (your Top) and cast it from exile.
This lets you keep the card Chandra "draws" instead of being forced to use it right away. Also let you actually draw / play lands.
If you support big ramp decks and have a decent amount of 8+ mana spells
Dynamo > Lotus > Archive
If you don't have a lot of 8+ mana spells
Dynamo > Archive > Lotus
As far as the submissions goes, there are some cool concepts, I voted for Pauper just because I think that has the most legs to stand on and would be the easiest to update in the future. As far as the actual contest goes, I knew it would end up as a popularity contest if some recognizable name was a finalist, and we have at least two of them.... I don't play MTGO, but I did want to be a finalist just for the prize, haha.
Also, all during Kaladesh spoiler season I was like "man, I really coulda used that for the Power Up Cube..."
My favorite giant cards outside of the titans would probably be Boonweaver Giant, that card is just DUMB in EDH: Boonweaver Giant + reusable sac outlet = instant win (assuming you have the right cards in your library and your opponents have no disruption).
I also had the same thought when I was first browsing through everybody's vote (I do a lot of browsing / posting at work but don't do big posts like that since I'm on my phone).
02 Mind Twist
03 Demonic Tutor
04 Vampiric Tutor
05 Liliana of the Veil
06 Braids, Cabal Minion
07 Pack Rat
08 Entomb
09 Dark Confidant
10 Imperial Seal
11 Bitterblossom
12 Toxic Deluge
13 Damnation
14 Grave Titan
15 Shriekmaw
16 Thoughtseize
17 Nether Void
18 Languish
19 Ophiomancer
20 Griselbrand
I bought my Chandra at pre release, my buddy who doesn't play much opened one up and got him to go down a couple bucks. I don't mind too much, he's in a tough spot right now in life and I wanted to help him out a bit.
I don't mind white bordered cards, they add to the museum aspect of my cube and decrease the damage to my bank account. I like having old art / card frame with clean text. In fact, I just picked up a sixth edition Birds of Paradise and a Chronicles City of Brass from a LGS today for my cube. One day I'll splurge and pick up white bordered versions of Rolling Earthquake / Burning of Xinye, I'd much rather have the originals than the FTV versions.
White bordered eighth / ninth edition cards are wrong though.