If it hits a decent % of creatures, then I'd think about including it if I was still running either of those cards. It is way off my radar though (I have only two non-land cards from each guild in my 360).
Well, Mystic Genesis looks pretty fun, but not something I can cram into my cube... I can't even make room for Mystic Snake. Should find a home in some large cubes.
Crypt Ghast seems similarly powerful — should find slots in larger cubes as an interesting ramp enabling guy, but no room for him in lists that are tight.
This is an interesting walker, but I don't think I can find a spot for it. I'm all for 3-mana walkers, but they need to have a little more splash than this to get included. Helping midrange decks handle aggro isn't something that I EVER have to dedicate cards to.
I suppose I should have posted a bit more about what has been going on and what that update represents;
I haven't been updating my cube on MTGS (shame on me) through various tests and I'm planning an expansion to 400ish cards, which has involved a lot of testing of sub360 cards across various drafts.
I was about to cube with a group who I haven't gotten a chance to in a long time, and they wanted both an updated list and a changelog of what I was bringing. My cube had some of my update already adjusted, and some other cards that people wanted to test out in. What that changelog was is a 'snapshot' of a transient point in time. I know that quite a few of the changes are suboptimal and some critical cards got cut. This was mainly just to inform my group what was in the box. After going to all the trouble to update the OP and the changelog, I figured I'd run it through Eidolons comparison too. This is not where my cube is today, nor where I plan for it to be in two weeks. The really good cards that I cut — yeah, they are going to be in the 'final' version of the update. I can't cut Imperial Seal for good (no way!). It was just the black card on top of the stack when I wanted to get Clique in for testing.
On another note, Yeva is already cut. Card has done nothing across 5 drafts. Has anyone really had success with her? I found that situations where she is 'awesome' are usually situations where you have a 187, which is already card advantage and rarely did she help anyone 'win' other than attacking.
Aristocrat has been really cool, and it plays well with a lot of black's new toys. Do you mean in general
I mean in general, but not just on paper what he does. I'm more interested in what sort of decks pick it up, how highly it is drafted, and what kinds of situations does it really shine in.
A mistery is whether 0 is a natural number or not. In the USA people say it is, everywhere else it's not.
The mathematics community where I went to High School and College (Ohio) considered 0 to not be a natural number. I was involved in a lot of math contests and competitions throughout my education and the definitions of natural numbers, whole numbers, and integers was important.
I want magus of the stack. Although I think that something that didn't cost 4 mana would make me way happier.
1WW or 1BB for a 1/1 magus of the stack would be awesome. The 4 drop slot is just so crowded that its hard for anything to get in anymore.
I want your opinion on the philosophy I'm going to use for the updates to my Ravnica cube:
360 singleton cube, Ravnica & Return to Ravnica blocks only, with the following restrictions:
* All ten guilds are evenly represented, each split evenly between both blocks.
* All shock lands, bounce lands, guildgates, signets, keyrunes, guildmages, and charms included.
* No "I win" cards (Avatar of Discord, Master Warcraft, Predatory Focus, etc.), except burn.
* No mana fixing (Farseek, Pillar of the Paruns, etc.) except Birds of Paradise.
* No creatures that are impossible to deal with (Simic Sky Swallower).
* No split cards.
The goal here being to maximize fun and reward drafting archetypes (tokens, mill, etc.) over goodcard.dec.
My thoughts on those rules;
1. OK, but even split is an unnecessary restriction. I'd play whatever the cards lend themselves to.
2. All is pretty harsh as a restriction, as some of those are pretty terrible
3. I don't see any of those cards as "I win" type cards. All MW and PF do is break creature stalemates, and AoD is just an efficient P/C ratio creature with an extremely severe drawback. I don't know what else constitutes an "I-Win" card, but I can't imagine that if these examples aren't allowed, then most games will just be creature stalemates broken by whoever has the biggest flyer.
4. Hurts green tremendously.
5. Simic Sky Swallower costs 7 mana. 7 mana spells put you into positions to win the game, why shouldn't 7 mana creatures?
7. Arbitrary, but it is your cube, so do what you want.
I think you are handcuffing yourself too much considering the size of the cardpool. Two blocks where you outlaw a significant percentage of cards and mandate inclusion of sub-par cards is going to cause some serious balance issues that can't be fixed because there aren't any more cards available to balance out the imbalance.
There are few cards that are as hilariously game-ending as Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. If your cube is large enough to support Tricolor stuff, he is well worth inclusion.
If you wanted to include it.
5 Card Section
Simic Sky Swallower
Trygon Predator
Breeding Pool
Misty Rainforest
Tropical Island
I do have a Mystic Snake hiding in my cube box. I expect to expand to 450 or so in the next 12 months, which could potentially land M. Snake back in.
Crypt Ghast seems similarly powerful — should find slots in larger cubes as an interesting ramp enabling guy, but no room for him in lists that are tight.
I haven't been updating my cube on MTGS (shame on me) through various tests and I'm planning an expansion to 400ish cards, which has involved a lot of testing of sub360 cards across various drafts.
I was about to cube with a group who I haven't gotten a chance to in a long time, and they wanted both an updated list and a changelog of what I was bringing. My cube had some of my update already adjusted, and some other cards that people wanted to test out in. What that changelog was is a 'snapshot' of a transient point in time. I know that quite a few of the changes are suboptimal and some critical cards got cut. This was mainly just to inform my group what was in the box. After going to all the trouble to update the OP and the changelog, I figured I'd run it through Eidolons comparison too. This is not where my cube is today, nor where I plan for it to be in two weeks. The really good cards that I cut — yeah, they are going to be in the 'final' version of the update. I can't cut Imperial Seal for good (no way!). It was just the black card on top of the stack when I wanted to get Clique in for testing.
On another note, Yeva is already cut. Card has done nothing across 5 drafts. Has anyone really had success with her? I found that situations where she is 'awesome' are usually situations where you have a 187, which is already card advantage and rarely did she help anyone 'win' other than attacking.
I mean in general, but not just on paper what he does. I'm more interested in what sort of decks pick it up, how highly it is drafted, and what kinds of situations does it really shine in.
Also — I really like the direction your cube has taken since I last dug into your list.
IN;
Its amazing what a difference 1 makes to a card like that.
The mathematics community where I went to High School and College (Ohio) considered 0 to not be a natural number. I was involved in a lot of math contests and competitions throughout my education and the definitions of natural numbers, whole numbers, and integers was important.
I want magus of the stack. Although I think that something that didn't cost 4 mana would make me way happier.
1WW or 1BB for a 1/1 magus of the stack would be awesome. The 4 drop slot is just so crowded that its hard for anything to get in anymore.
My thoughts on those rules;
1. OK, but even split is an unnecessary restriction. I'd play whatever the cards lend themselves to.
2. All is pretty harsh as a restriction, as some of those are pretty terrible
3. I don't see any of those cards as "I win" type cards. All MW and PF do is break creature stalemates, and AoD is just an efficient P/C ratio creature with an extremely severe drawback. I don't know what else constitutes an "I-Win" card, but I can't imagine that if these examples aren't allowed, then most games will just be creature stalemates broken by whoever has the biggest flyer.
4. Hurts green tremendously.
5. Simic Sky Swallower costs 7 mana. 7 mana spells put you into positions to win the game, why shouldn't 7 mana creatures?
7. Arbitrary, but it is your cube, so do what you want.
I think you are handcuffing yourself too much considering the size of the cardpool. Two blocks where you outlaw a significant percentage of cards and mandate inclusion of sub-par cards is going to cause some serious balance issues that can't be fixed because there aren't any more cards available to balance out the imbalance.