Looking over people's lists and comments it seems for ramp lots of people are running mana dorks like Arbor Elf while staying away from non-creature sources of ramp like Harvest Season, with the exception of Druids' Repository since it works well with land stax cards like Winter Orb.
What about the Explore Dorks like Elvish Pioneer, Sakura-Tribe Scout, and Skyshroud Ranger? We have low land counts so they can't immediately give us value like a Llanowar Elves always can, but once we start drawing cards we always have extra lands to drop, and when we don't they are still creatures to attack with (assuming someone is open). Are they still good or have people moved away from them?
You guys make some great points. I believe there are two factors going on here, which you guys nailed but I'll reiterate.
1) 2-for-1's are too good. As mentioned, cards like Mulldrifter, Exclude, Control Magic, Skinrender, and Flametongue Kavu are just too efficient not to take. This isn't itself a problem, but these cards almost always favor midrange/control strategies, not aggro.
2) Removal is too good. Up until recently, design philosophy had cheap + effective + unconditional removal at uncommon/common: Mana Leak, Lightning Bolt, Doom Blade etc. Creatures, on the other hand, were often not great, and the good ones were regulated to Rare. This philosophy has changed only recently: removal has become more expensive and more situational, while creatures have gotten more efficient.
The problem comes when you just jam the best cards printed for peasant, the amount of absurd removal and 2-for-1's beats out anything that doesn't fit that category. How many 4cmc creatures can be effective in an environment where it can be consistently 1-for-1'd by a 1-2cmc removal, or 2-for-1'd by a 3cmc removal? Not enough of them, unfortunately.
If you care about balance, then, there's only two answers:
1) push hard for hyper-aggro decks that focus on 1 and 2cmc creatures max and hope they have enough to close out the game by turn 4 or 5.
2) cut back on the 2-for-1's and efficient removal.
I prefer #2. Admittedly, thinking about it now, my 540 cube did a crap job doing what I'm saying.
If you want to do more research on this topic, I HIGHLY recommend the Ars Arcanum series. Dude is smart and goes over the data to back up his claims. Here's his article on removal in drafts.
Here are some of his conclusions from the article:
- there are about 2.5 times as many creatures in any given limited environment than there are removal spells, that that number stays fairly constant. Each player will get about 9 removal spells on average per draft, but obviously they will not all be very good, and most decks will end up with around 3 to 5 of those spells. Removal is a scarce resource, which means that players are going to fight harder over it, and that it needs to be used more carefully.
- the CMC of removal has increased
- the toughness of creatures has increased, making burn removal overall less effective
- removal has gotten more restrictive in what it can actually kill
- the amount of 2-for-1's have SEVERELY decreased
All these things actually make for a better environment.
He also talked about what exactly made the favorite draft environments, like Ravnica block / ROE, so great. It really was because they were 1) slower draft environments 2) there weren't so many "bomb rares" that just win the game when played 3) removal could deal with most threats but at a cmc parity and not so much 2-for-1's. 2-for-1's were still incredibly important, but they weren't as backbreaking like Flametongue Kavu, instead being more like Steamcore Weird.
I hope some of you find this post interesting. It's something I preach but have yet to effectively carry out in my own Cube. That's the ideal I strive for, at least.
EDIT: Counting things that can tap down creatures like Gideon's Lawkeeper and bounce like Snap, my list currently is 20% creature removal, 14% of those being noncreatures and 6% being creatures.
I want to run cards like Flametongue Kavu. I think these cards are good for my cube because they're flashy and iconic. They are, essentially, the "rares" of the draft. But at the same time I'm going to cut down heavily on the overall efficiency of removal and 2-for-1's. Sure, I'll have Lightning Bolt, but I'm going to take out Chain Lightning. Fireball will be there, but no more Rolling Thunder (the better card too, but less iconic). Overall the 2-for-1's and removal should be higher cmc and more restrictive.
Yeah, Embodiment of Fury is the nuts. It's only below Flametongue Kavu and equal to the Giant, better/worse depending on when you drew it.
I'm about ready to submit my cube. My one worry is that, while moving to 540 cards, the amount of removal may have gotten too good. I'll have to mull it over for another day before finally sending it in.
I don't think multiple submissions would hurt but I caution against slapping just anything together and submitting it. I don't know how familiar the people reviewing the lists are, so it may hurt our cause if a poor peasant cube list is chosen and people have bad experiences with it -- if for some odd reason the peasant cube is the winner. I think we have a shot at being chosen as a finalist but I can't see it being chosen as the winner -- peasant isn't as flashy or simple to understand at a glance as some other cube ideas. I assume people are going to choose "Kitten Cube" or something.
Most Commander and Conspiracy cards are available online. They were either distributed through the online store or as special booster pack rewards for cube events. Special "draft" cards from Conspiracy are not available online, however. Curse of Predation is in, for example, but not Custodi Squire.
I'll submit my own thing. There are certain philosophies that I am adamant about (no random shutdown cards like Ghostly Prison, Protection from X, etc.) which may pose problems with collaborating. I'm happy to provide feedback on other submissions though and feel free to send feedback on my own list as well. I'll be hammering out the final submission over the next week.
WOTC staff have confirmed that having multiples of a card is okay. So having multiples of a land, or Squadron Hawk, should be fine. Stretching a 360 into "540" with duplicates would work in theory too, but clunky.
I don't think 540 is absolutely terrible but yeah it's not ideal. You can't get away with the more niche themes. You can also push themes that have a ton of support and are super general, like UW Skies and UR Spells.
It's also weird trying to strike a new balance for 540. It involves brand new playtesting time that we don't have. To pad Red, for example, I tossed in a lot more burn spells, but then the question is did I overdo it and will multiple people be too incentivized to splash Red for the burn? Will it makes creature strategies too weak? Hard to say without testing.
I've got a list that I'll be submitting in the next few days. This is the rough copy. It's a shame that it's 540 cards because that really stretches deck themes, but the more generic stuff still works.
Of note, special things I'm doing:
Including downshifted rares on MTGO, since this will be on MTGO
NOT including cards that were only uncommons due to the set not having rares (exception being City of Brass).
Adding 10 City of Brass so that aggressive decks can splash easier. So can other decks but it helps aggro the most.
Not including cards that have absurd win conditions, aka the "Pack Rats" of Peasant: Library, Sol Ring, Warhammer
Cards that randomly and utterly hose entire decks, like Ghostly Prison, or Protection from X stuff
Looking to build a water-themed deck around Quest for Ula's Temple. I general must be a Theros god: thinking Thassa, God of the Sea or Kruphix, God of Horizons. I'm leaning towards Thassa because her scry works well with triggering Quest, but maybe access to Green gives me better water cards?
Also are there any sweet combos or synergies that work in a water-themed deck? All I can see right now is casting big ol' fishies and swinging big, which is fine, but easily disruptable, so I'd like something stronger to fall back on.
EDIT: Also in these colors, how many ways can I tutor up Quest? I know of Dizzy Spell, anything else?
I want to make a deck devoted to breaking Pathbreaker Ibex. The idea is to make a clone army of the mighty goat and then swing for exponential levels of damage, thousands or even millions of damage!
Some friends and I are going to play Tribal EDH this coming week for a recording. The tribes chosen so far are Wizard, Zombies, and Demons. We're a pretty casual bunch so I'm not looking for the best tribes like Elves or Goblins but rather something unique that maybe the average EDH viewer hasn't seen before.
Any good recommendations? I was thinking maybe Snakes or Birds but I'd like to hear suggestions.
Hey folks. I've been in love with Pathbreaker Ibex since the card came out. I want to make a deck dedicated towards casting the goat, copying it, and swinging for ludicrous amounts of damage. I test the decks online and I'm wondering if I can break the MTGO client if we get a number high enough.
What are the best ways to copy/abuse this goat? We've got Rite of Replication of course, also make a giant army and turn them all into goats with Mirrorweave. What else can we do? What commander should lead the fun?
Mishra's Workshop is cut solely because I won't realistically ever spend $900+ for it. It's definitely a staple in the 100% most optimized list.
I'm pretty sure 49-51 mana sources is correct, so the lands/rocks should be fine. Not certain about the rest.
Also considering removing Fabricate. It either is an overcosted mana rock or a Stax card, not sure if the flexibility is worth the slot. I can also replace Dack Fayden and/or Faithless Looting for something like Izzet Charm, which is countermagic or cycling.
Added the primary win con which I totally didn't realize: Fury of the Horde and Enter the Infinite. I outlined the win sequence in the original post.
Primary win con: Put Enter the Infinite on top of library a variety of ways. Swing with Narset and cast it, draw deck and put Omniscience on top. Play Fury of the Horde exiling any two red cards and swing again, casting Omniscience. Play out hand/deck. Cast Beacon of Tomorrows so it goes back on top of library so you never deck yourself (or Time Spiral).
We also have Eldrazi Conscription to significantly increase the clock and lets us safely attack into boards with big blockers.
What about the Explore Dorks like Elvish Pioneer, Sakura-Tribe Scout, and Skyshroud Ranger? We have low land counts so they can't immediately give us value like a Llanowar Elves always can, but once we start drawing cards we always have extra lands to drop, and when we don't they are still creatures to attack with (assuming someone is open). Are they still good or have people moved away from them?
1) 2-for-1's are too good. As mentioned, cards like Mulldrifter, Exclude, Control Magic, Skinrender, and Flametongue Kavu are just too efficient not to take. This isn't itself a problem, but these cards almost always favor midrange/control strategies, not aggro.
2) Removal is too good. Up until recently, design philosophy had cheap + effective + unconditional removal at uncommon/common: Mana Leak, Lightning Bolt, Doom Blade etc. Creatures, on the other hand, were often not great, and the good ones were regulated to Rare. This philosophy has changed only recently: removal has become more expensive and more situational, while creatures have gotten more efficient.
The problem comes when you just jam the best cards printed for peasant, the amount of absurd removal and 2-for-1's beats out anything that doesn't fit that category. How many 4cmc creatures can be effective in an environment where it can be consistently 1-for-1'd by a 1-2cmc removal, or 2-for-1'd by a 3cmc removal? Not enough of them, unfortunately.
If you care about balance, then, there's only two answers:
1) push hard for hyper-aggro decks that focus on 1 and 2cmc creatures max and hope they have enough to close out the game by turn 4 or 5.
2) cut back on the 2-for-1's and efficient removal.
I prefer #2. Admittedly, thinking about it now, my 540 cube did a crap job doing what I'm saying.
If you want to do more research on this topic, I HIGHLY recommend the Ars Arcanum series. Dude is smart and goes over the data to back up his claims. Here's his article on removal in drafts.
Here are some of his conclusions from the article:
- there are about 2.5 times as many creatures in any given limited environment than there are removal spells, that that number stays fairly constant. Each player will get about 9 removal spells on average per draft, but obviously they will not all be very good, and most decks will end up with around 3 to 5 of those spells. Removal is a scarce resource, which means that players are going to fight harder over it, and that it needs to be used more carefully.
- the CMC of removal has increased
- the toughness of creatures has increased, making burn removal overall less effective
- removal has gotten more restrictive in what it can actually kill
- the amount of 2-for-1's have SEVERELY decreased
All these things actually make for a better environment.
He also talked about what exactly made the favorite draft environments, like Ravnica block / ROE, so great. It really was because they were 1) slower draft environments 2) there weren't so many "bomb rares" that just win the game when played 3) removal could deal with most threats but at a cmc parity and not so much 2-for-1's. 2-for-1's were still incredibly important, but they weren't as backbreaking like Flametongue Kavu, instead being more like Steamcore Weird.
I hope some of you find this post interesting. It's something I preach but have yet to effectively carry out in my own Cube. That's the ideal I strive for, at least.
EDIT: Counting things that can tap down creatures like Gideon's Lawkeeper and bounce like Snap, my list currently is 20% creature removal, 14% of those being noncreatures and 6% being creatures.
I want to run cards like Flametongue Kavu. I think these cards are good for my cube because they're flashy and iconic. They are, essentially, the "rares" of the draft. But at the same time I'm going to cut down heavily on the overall efficiency of removal and 2-for-1's. Sure, I'll have Lightning Bolt, but I'm going to take out Chain Lightning. Fireball will be there, but no more Rolling Thunder (the better card too, but less iconic). Overall the 2-for-1's and removal should be higher cmc and more restrictive.
Curse of Predation is available online.
I'm about ready to submit my cube. My one worry is that, while moving to 540 cards, the amount of removal may have gotten too good. I'll have to mull it over for another day before finally sending it in.
I'll submit my own thing. There are certain philosophies that I am adamant about (no random shutdown cards like Ghostly Prison, Protection from X, etc.) which may pose problems with collaborating. I'm happy to provide feedback on other submissions though and feel free to send feedback on my own list as well. I'll be hammering out the final submission over the next week.
I don't think 540 is absolutely terrible but yeah it's not ideal. You can't get away with the more niche themes. You can also push themes that have a ton of support and are super general, like UW Skies and UR Spells.
It's also weird trying to strike a new balance for 540. It involves brand new playtesting time that we don't have. To pad Red, for example, I tossed in a lot more burn spells, but then the question is did I overdo it and will multiple people be too incentivized to splash Red for the burn? Will it makes creature strategies too weak? Hard to say without testing.
Of note, special things I'm doing:
Any feedback is appreciated of course!
Also are there any sweet combos or synergies that work in a water-themed deck? All I can see right now is casting big ol' fishies and swinging big, which is fine, but easily disruptable, so I'd like something stronger to fall back on.
EDIT: Also in these colors, how many ways can I tutor up Quest? I know of Dizzy Spell, anything else?
I have a couple ideas to do this already:
1) Lots of creatures + Pathbreaker Ibex + Mirrorweave, swing for thousands.
2) Pathbreaker Ibex + kick'd Rite of Replication, not sure how much this is but it's still a lot.
3) Put the goat on top of your library somehow, for example Brainstorm / Worldly Tutor / Sylvan Tutor. Play Deceiver of Form with a ton of creatures.
How else can I break this card? So far my 3 options require me to be in Bant but we could go 5-colors if needed!
Any good recommendations? I was thinking maybe Snakes or Birds but I'd like to hear suggestions.
What are the best ways to copy/abuse this goat? We've got Rite of Replication of course, also make a giant army and turn them all into goats with Mirrorweave. What else can we do? What commander should lead the fun?
Mishra's Workshop is cut solely because I won't realistically ever spend $900+ for it. It's definitely a staple in the 100% most optimized list.
I'm pretty sure 49-51 mana sources is correct, so the lands/rocks should be fine. Not certain about the rest.
Also considering removing Fabricate. It either is an overcosted mana rock or a Stax card, not sure if the flexibility is worth the slot. I can also replace Dack Fayden and/or Faithless Looting for something like Izzet Charm, which is countermagic or cycling.
Added the primary win con which I totally didn't realize: Fury of the Horde and Enter the Infinite. I outlined the win sequence in the original post.
Lands (34)
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cavern of Souls
1 City of Brass
1 City of Traitors
1 Command Tower
1 Flamekin Village
1 Flooded Strand
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mana Confluence
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
1 Tarnished Citadel
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
Removal (4)
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wear / Tear
1 Time Spiral
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
Ramp (17)
1 Azorius Signet
1 Boros Signet
1 Chrome Mox
1 Coalition Relic
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Grim Monolith
1 Izzet Signet
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Thran Dynamo
Tutor (7)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Draw/Cycle/Cantrip (5)
1 Dack Fayden
1 Mystic Remora
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Mind's Desire
Topdeck Manipulation (5)
1 Brainstorm
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Proteus Staff
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Beacon of Tomorrows
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Fury of the Horde
1 Part the Waterveil
1 Seize the Day
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Temporal Trespass
1 Time Stretch
1 Time Warp
1 Walk the Aeons
1 World at War
Haste (3)
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mass Hysteria
1 Need for Speed
Stax (7)
1 Armageddon
1 Cataclysm
1 Catastrophe
1 Static Orb
1 Torpor Orb
1 Winter Orb
Counters (6)
1 Counterspell
1 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Pact of Negation
1 Silence
1 Swan Song
Winning (3)
1 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Omniscience
Primary win con: Put Enter the Infinite on top of library a variety of ways. Swing with Narset and cast it, draw deck and put Omniscience on top. Play Fury of the Horde exiling any two red cards and swing again, casting Omniscience. Play out hand/deck. Cast Beacon of Tomorrows so it goes back on top of library so you never deck yourself (or Time Spiral).
We also have Eldrazi Conscription to significantly increase the clock and lets us safely attack into boards with big blockers.
Maybeboard:
I also love that Trinisphere gets its own specific mention