I feel like this might be better than End-Raze Forerunners... it certainly feels stronger when you don't have a decent board built up. Thinking about testing.
If you are heavy on a blink archetype, this might be an include. Getting to cheat your relevant permanents into play and then flicker them into their true forms is powerful. Otherwise it's got the Vivien's Arkbow syndrome: you just spent a card on getting speculative value out of all your cards, which is fine in most Limited formats, but you're ALSO playing the best Magic cards ever. You usually want to just play them! That's why they're in the cube!
Best true naya card, cube playable.. but don't think it's good enough to warrant a spot unless you are intentionally supporting each shard/wedge casting cost combination.
I like how it fits with the 2 power theme and good with cards like fires of yaivmaya, or blink.. But those are lower powered strategies anyway.
It's still embarrassed by a lot of the more powerful things high powered cube decks ramp into and isn't better than the higher tier mono colored 5 drops (though it's certainly competitive when converting it to cmc).
Ha, I hadn't even considered the synergy with Alesha or Reveillark or the like... that's gross.
Powerful at the right times, but even in sellout aggro there are times where I don't want to discard my hand, and being forced to swing/discard every turn takes away that flexibility. Pass.
For people who dedicate a slot to each shard/wedge, this seems like a far better option than Realm Razer or Gahiji or any of the other candidates so far. 6/9 across two bodies for five mana isn't bad, and unmolested it swings for 10 the next turn.
But I don't intend to go back to those days with my own cube.
I'm happy to cube Shelldock because it makes decks without really costing a card slot; very few blue decks wouldn't trade a normal Island for it. But there are plenty of games where it shows up but has absolutely no impact, either because its condition is never reached or because it doesn't hit anything impactful enough to tuck. I definitely prefer Tolarian Academy and Academy Ruins to it.
As for Timetwister/Time Spiral, I don't know about the rest of you but my blue cube decks almost always have more cards in hand than my opponents'. Blue is not lacking for ways to generate card advantage and benefits from patient play. Are there shells where I want to wheel aggressively? Sure. But it doesn't come up often enough for me to justify the slot. Clearing my graveyard is also a negative. Even with Time Spiral giving me first chance at using what I draw, I've usually felt like I'm giving more to my opponent than I'm getting when playing these cards.
Fact or Fiction should be way higher though. I'd P1P1 it over a bunch of the cards that made the list.
I personally don't value Thalia too high because while she's very disruptive, a lot of my aggro decks 3 and 4-cmc cards are non-creature spells. She's one of those cards that while she always screws me over, I tend to not play her myself a lot because of the deck building constraint.
Interesting. I usually feel like Thalia's downside is rarely an issue for my aggro decks, while it often buys me an extra turn of damage production by stalling my opponent's next answer. Does she sometimes hold back my burn cards? Sure, but only for as long as she stays alive.
My aggro decks, the good ones anyway, rarely have more than eight or so noncreature spells in them. Sometimes she's inconvenient alongside creatures-that-are-really-spells like Lingering Souls or Spectral Procession, but I never see it as a reason to just not run her at all.
Just goes to show how many different ways there are to build a cube deck!
This is pretty legit, but space is an issue. I'm tempted to give this a spin over Aurelia. Aurelia is almost always competing with other four drops of similar power levels, but most Boros aggro decks are going to run as many twos as they can get their hands on.
The best comps here are probably Foresee/Tamiyo's Epiphany. Powerful as those cards are in limited, they're not exactly cube mainstays. This is better, but I'm not sure it's better enough to displace something that's on my list at 720. The discussion would probably start somewhere around Gifts Ungiven or Deep Analysis... and I think I like both of those a lot better.
1. Goblin Guide
2. Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3. Sulfuric Vortex
4. Wheel of Fortune
5. Sneak Attack
6. Goblin Rabblemaster
7. Lightning Bolt
8. Fiery Confluence
9. Young Pyromancer
10. Inferno Titan
11. Flametongue Kavu
12. Hellrider
13. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
14. Thundermaw Hellkite
15. Wildfire/Burning of Xinye
16. Goblin Welder
17. Siege-Gang Commander
18. Imperial Recruiter
19. Fireblast
20. Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
Ha, I hadn't even considered the synergy with Alesha or Reveillark or the like... that's gross.
But I don't intend to go back to those days with my own cube.
As for Timetwister/Time Spiral, I don't know about the rest of you but my blue cube decks almost always have more cards in hand than my opponents'. Blue is not lacking for ways to generate card advantage and benefits from patient play. Are there shells where I want to wheel aggressively? Sure. But it doesn't come up often enough for me to justify the slot. Clearing my graveyard is also a negative. Even with Time Spiral giving me first chance at using what I draw, I've usually felt like I'm giving more to my opponent than I'm getting when playing these cards.
Fact or Fiction should be way higher though. I'd P1P1 it over a bunch of the cards that made the list.
1. Recurring Nightmare
2. Mind Twist
3. Demonic Tutor
4. Bitterblossom
5. Liliana of the Veil
6. Hymn to Tourach
7. Toxic Deluge
8. Damnation
9. Thoughtseize
10. Griselbrand
11. Grave Titan
12. Ophiomancer
13. Vampiric Tutor
14. Reanimate
15. Living Death
16. Ravenous Chupacabra
17. Dark Confidant
18. Shriekmaw
19. Braids, Cabal Minion
20. Animate Dead
Interesting. I usually feel like Thalia's downside is rarely an issue for my aggro decks, while it often buys me an extra turn of damage production by stalling my opponent's next answer. Does she sometimes hold back my burn cards? Sure, but only for as long as she stays alive.
My aggro decks, the good ones anyway, rarely have more than eight or so noncreature spells in them. Sometimes she's inconvenient alongside creatures-that-are-really-spells like Lingering Souls or Spectral Procession, but I never see it as a reason to just not run her at all.
Just goes to show how many different ways there are to build a cube deck!
1. Ancestral Recall
2. Time Walk
3. Mana Drain
4. Tinker
5. Upheaval
6. True-Name Nemesis
7. Bribery
8. Jace, the Mind Sculptor
9. Snapcaster Mage
10. Treachery
11. Tolarian Academy
12. Consecrated Sphinx
13. Fact or Fiction
14. Dig Through Time
15. Vendilion Clique
16. Vedalken Shackles
17. Show and Tell
18. Opposition
19. Cyclonic Rift
20. Search for Azcanta
Are you sure we can't list 40?
1. Balance
2. Swords to Plowshares
3. Path to Exile
4. Stoneforge Mystic
5. Elspeth, Knight-Errant
6. Land Tax
7. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
8. Armageddon
9. Mother of Runes
10. Wrath of God
11. Restoration Angel
12. Monastery Mentor
13. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
14. Hero of Bladehold
15. Council's Judgment
16. Elspeth, Sun's Champion
17. Sun Titan
18. Moat
19. Brimaz, King of Oreskos
20. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite