Thanks for the reply, and the kind words! Sorry about the long delay, I just saw the comment now.
As far as artifacts and lands to avoid, there's not much. I mean, as long as you guys have fun with the cards and the cube is an enjoyable experience, you're doing it right. I would caution against overdoing lands that enter the battlefield tapped though, if you want aggressive decks to be playable in more than one color.
Cheers, and happy cubing!
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Jan 25, 2019wtwlf123 posted a message on Cube Design PhilosophyIt's always good to get comments on 9-year-old articles! Glad you enjoyed it.Posted in: Articles
Land is not included when determining your ACMC. But other cards, like Force of Will, might beb considered a 5 if you use their printed costs, but are actually a 0 in practice. Make sure you adjust your CMCs to what their expected costs are when calculating things. And all cards that are truly variable can get factored in as true X's, which neither help nor hurt your curve.
Cheers, and happy cubing! - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I've never been so... taken back by a comment before.
Have you ever played with this creature? It's amazing. It's white card advantage that is really synergistic with a bunch of other creatures in the cube. It's the end of the curve for any aggro deck that can support a card with only one white in it's casting cost. It's both a creature and a spell. It's also a 4-Power flying finisher for 5. If they kill it, you're getting card advantage off of it. It's disgusting.
Will I include card draw if I draft it? Of course! It's always good. However, you can make a competitive UG control deck without it. So long as you've got bounce/counter for blue and Utility/CIP Creatures for green.
Wheel of Fortune is overrated?
Scroll Rack is bad?
Ponder better than Brainstorm?
Academy Ruins isn't a must?
Loam is bad?
Desolation Angel is never played?
Stupor is overcosted?
Palinchron has never once resolved?
I'm so... confused.
That's not true at all. There are plenty of times where the archetype is playable with little to no draw. You use your green creatures with CIP abilities to generate your card advantage and you play bounce and counter for blue. In that deck, the Coatl would be bad as well.
Absorb
Azorius Guildmage
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Kiss of the Amesha
Teferi's Moat
Now that Wall of Denial is an option, I'd probably either cut the Guildmage or the Kiss, whichever has been weaker for you in your cube.
When you're only using 5 UG cards, what do you suggest cutting for him then? Because I can think of at least ten UG cards I'd rather have in the cube in front of this guy, let alone cutting one of the better five for him.
Yes. It's 10x better than Zombify.
We're talking about UG... other than two, or maybe three bounce effects... what removal are you referring to? That's one of this creatures greatest drawbacks is that UG doesn't have the removal to support a creature without evasion. Thus, he needs flying, trample, islandwalk, etc...
a) You don't agree that Kird Ape is better in RG then the Coatl is in UG?
b) Sure Kird Ape is narrow. But it's a much better narrow card than the Coatl is. Kird Ape is only narrow because of the requirement for a forest. Even if you can play the Coatl, he's not actually good unless he's in the perfect deck for him. Thus, he's more narrow than the Ape ALL the time.
c) Yes they will. Every creature that ends up making the cut in any UG deck I play will have at least one of the abilities I listed as a minimum reqirement for creature quality in UG. I won't EVER play a 2-color creature that's a sub par vanilla beater in it's archetype.
d) I agree that Kird Ape is great. I completely disagree that Coatl is good.
And that's the end of this discussion for me. You're more than welcome to play creatures that aren't even a good fit in the only archetype they're playable in, but I wouldn't suggest it.
For example: Ashenmoor Gouger is good because it's red/black. If they printed a blue creature that did this same thing, it'd be bad, because that's not what blue needs, and that's not what blue does. The Coatl is fine... in limited. When you include him in the cube, it's NOT what UG needs because that's not what UG does. That's the problem with him. He'd be better as a UR creature. But as a UG creature, I think he's well below the playability bar, especially when most cubes are limited to only 5 UG cards or so. The Coatl would NEVER be one of the five UG cards for the cube... at least for me and my playgroup.
Wow... okay.
I completely disagree with both points.
The Coatl is more narrow than the Kird Ape. The Ape is better in RG than the Coatl is is UG. The Ape is better in RG/x than the Coatl is in UG/x. The Ape is better in R/gx than the Coatl is in U/gx. So on and so forth.
You're trying to convince me that awesome cards like Kird Ape are narrow and cube-worthy, so this new dude (also narrow) must be cube-worthy too. The thing is, I don't think the Coatl is cube worthy, and it's narrowness is only one of the reasons why. My other post about this guy (the one that discussed what I want from my UG creatures for that archetype) explains WHY I don't want this... thing in my deck.
1. No evasion. I don't want just a big, dumb, green/blue idiot. In that archetype, I need something that can bypass my opponent's creatures, because other than bounce, the archetype is light on removal.
2. No protection. If the card isn't going to have evasion to protect itself in combat, it should have shroud, protection, or some other way to defend itself.
3. No CIP ability. It doesn't draw me a card or counter a spell when it comes into play.
4. No board impact. In addition to not doing any of the things that I really want out of my UG creatures, it doesn't impact the board when it comes into play. It doesn't impact the board if it stays in play. It doesn't generate card advantage. That makes it a bad blue/x card.
5. It's narrow. Not as important as the other four criteria, but still... the card needs some other form of permanant draw to boost itself or it's just a really bad Vinelasher Kudzu/Quirion Dryad. When not combined with other cards that make it better, it's really sub par.
To sum it up. Kird Ape = Good, Coatl = Bad.
That's why I don't like him. I think there is much better UG out there...