One thing I tend to do after the initial wave of card evaluations is revisit limited cards that are severely overperforming. By way of example, I remember Consecrated Sphinx and Pack Rat not being universally embraced by the community. So far - the two that catch my eye are Light up the Stage, Ethereal Absolution and Hydroid Krasis.
Has anyone been testing either or thinking of giving them a run after seeing how they're performing in limited and constructed?
I am totally with you on Light Up the Stage. That card is really good in Arena, and I'm going to give it a run in Cube. I think that card will be a bit like Faithless Looting; a card that seemed decent at first, and ripens with time. It's hard to factor in how valuable card advantage is in Red.
I think Ethereal Absolution and Krasis depend on your cube. They are both too much mana for me to bother testing with now.
I tried supporting Pod for a while, but it was just too hard to draft around. At the time, my cube was unpowered, and I think Pod was fast enough and had potential. The problem was that it was too hard to draft enough creatures at each spot in the curve that one would want to Pod up. It is fine to upgrade your creatures, attack with a 3-drop, pod it into a 4-drop, but unless you are generating value along the way, it's not that exciting.
Compared to other value engines that shine in unpowered cubes, like Recurring Nightmare, Survival of the Fittest, or Monarch cards, Pod never really shone. A couple people tried it to middling results and then I cut it.
I haven't cubed much these days, and powered my cube, so I don't anticipate Pod making a comeback soon. There are a few reasons Pod might be better these days like the recent influx of recursive black creatures. I also think Pod is better if your cube supports green aggro, which mine did not. Aggro creatures are generally good early and weak late, so Pod has a real use in upgrading them. Maybe in a couple of years black will have a real recursion and sacrifice theme and I'll give Pod another go. It's a fun, iconic card.
I think Prime Speaker is a fun card, and blue could be interesting in pod with untap effects like Pestermite. Pod cards add a "mini-game" of different-cmc-matters to draft, but the baseline power level of cube is so high that winning that mini-game doesn't have enough pay-off. At least that was my experience.
There is an implicit design thesis on this forum. We are designing our own limited format with the most iconic and powerful magic cards of all time.
One strength of this forum is the conformity to this design thesis. It means we can effectively collaborate because we are all generally working to achieve the same thing. I think this forum has had a big impact on cubing and what the average Magic player thinks it is. However, this shared vision also has negatives. I think cube should be "make your own draft format." There are some more original cubes here, but by and large, people here tend to see things in a more narrow way. As I said, that has pluses and minuses, but it's an important context for why one might get push back for suggesting cutting or adding a card.
I agree Oracle and Garruk at great green 4s. I should have clarified that I'm curious about green 4s that don't shine brightest in ramp would look like.
In my experience the best green decks just play a bunch of one and two drop accelerants and ramp into a turn 4 craterhoof or primus for immediate ggs.
That's why green sun zenith is so great because it gets both the rofellos or llanowar elf and the craterhoof.
4 or 5s like this or Master of the Wild Hunt are a little suboptimal because they dont win the game.
The more I think about it, the more I tend to agree with this. I wish green had another angle other than ramp, but the midrangey green creatures like Master of the Wild Hunt and Polukranos, World Eater under perform, especially in powered cube. I don't know what my dream green 4 or 5 would even look like.
I would love for there to be a RB aristocrats cube deck! I think we are getting there with the recursive 1-drops, but I don't think the sacrifice outlets are there for it to really hum.
I'm looking at Gutterbones, Spawn of Mayhem, Judith, and Biogenic Ooze. I guess Judith is the most exciting because I would like RB Sacrifice to be a thing, but I'm not sure Judith is enough juice for that.
I added 2x fetch lands and Titania to my cube a while ago. Double fetches enable a lot of cards that are good in constructed but struggled to find a spot in cube. Titania has never done anything too busted but I still think she's solid.
I think it's important for there to be enough white 1-drops in the draft to make white weenie possible to draft. For me, that's about 4-6 in a 360 card draft. I run 9 1-drops in white, including Mother of Runes, which is more than enough to hit my numbers.
As you can see from the thread, I tried supporting Fastbond a few years back. Eventually, the land specific pieces got cut from my cube, Fastbond included, but I've been thinking of adding it back. Giving red a Future Sight in Experimental Frenzy is the main reason. Fastbond has such potential I come back to it now and then.
I am totally with you on Light Up the Stage. That card is really good in Arena, and I'm going to give it a run in Cube. I think that card will be a bit like Faithless Looting; a card that seemed decent at first, and ripens with time. It's hard to factor in how valuable card advantage is in Red.
I think Ethereal Absolution and Krasis depend on your cube. They are both too much mana for me to bother testing with now.
Compared to other value engines that shine in unpowered cubes, like Recurring Nightmare, Survival of the Fittest, or Monarch cards, Pod never really shone. A couple people tried it to middling results and then I cut it.
I haven't cubed much these days, and powered my cube, so I don't anticipate Pod making a comeback soon. There are a few reasons Pod might be better these days like the recent influx of recursive black creatures. I also think Pod is better if your cube supports green aggro, which mine did not. Aggro creatures are generally good early and weak late, so Pod has a real use in upgrading them. Maybe in a couple of years black will have a real recursion and sacrifice theme and I'll give Pod another go. It's a fun, iconic card.
I think Prime Speaker is a fun card, and blue could be interesting in pod with untap effects like Pestermite. Pod cards add a "mini-game" of different-cmc-matters to draft, but the baseline power level of cube is so high that winning that mini-game doesn't have enough pay-off. At least that was my experience.
One strength of this forum is the conformity to this design thesis. It means we can effectively collaborate because we are all generally working to achieve the same thing. I think this forum has had a big impact on cubing and what the average Magic player thinks it is. However, this shared vision also has negatives. I think cube should be "make your own draft format." There are some more original cubes here, but by and large, people here tend to see things in a more narrow way. As I said, that has pluses and minuses, but it's an important context for why one might get push back for suggesting cutting or adding a card.
The more I think about it, the more I tend to agree with this. I wish green had another angle other than ramp, but the midrangey green creatures like Master of the Wild Hunt and Polukranos, World Eater under perform, especially in powered cube. I don't know what my dream green 4 or 5 would even look like.
Right now, I have Carrion Feeder, Flesh Carver, and Goblin Bombardment as the best sac outlets. I would love to see a playable Cabal Therapy or other discard card. I think disruptive creatures are fun additions to power cube.
Also would love to see some WB stax cards but doubtful wizards will print those.