Don't be afraid to run parts of cycles in order to support the different goals of the color pairs. For instance, for the more aggro pairs, the painlands are a good choice, but for the slower color pairs, you'd be better off with something else (Lorwyn filters, Temples, or Ravnica bouncelands, to name a few). Similarly, for the aggro pairs that want untapped lands on turn 1, the M10 lands aren't that great. Mixing it up a bit will let the color pairs do what they want to do better.
They won't print legendary duals. The free strip mine aspect of the legendary rule is gone, yeah, but there's still the issue of drawing dead cards. That's fine on some utility land like Academy Ruins or Eye of Ugin, but basic color fixing isn't the sort of thing that you want limited that hard.
It wouldn't be nearly as bad in Commander, I guess, but Command Tower shows they've got ways to fix mana in this format without printing a ton of duals that are just going to get grabbed up by legacy players.
I disagree with this. I think legendary dual lands are certainly within the realm of possibility with the new legend rule. The first one you play is free, the second one isn't a complete disaster (since you do get to keep one of the two now) and you don't have the awkward mirror match possibility. I'd be a bit surprised if legendary duals were printed, but I wouldn't be *shocked*, and Theros is a logical place to do it. Yes, Legacy players are going to grab them up, both in addition to the current duals or just to replace them because they're expensive. But the print run of a new set is so huge compared to Revised that even that pressure isn't going to affect the price that much.
It's still very possible, though Wizards has gone on record for saying that they'd never reprint it.
The quote about it was that R&D would have to get hit by a bus before they'd reprint it, but I assume that meant in a tournament-legal set. I mean, at this point they'd have to get hit by a bus before they'd reprint JTMS too, but here it is.
I think the presence of Gilded Lotus means that this set is going to be a lot harder to predict. Would anyone at all have guessed Gilded Lotus for this set if it weren't already spoiled?
Blueslayer sphinx 3uu
Creature- sphinx
Flying, shroud
When blueslayer sphinx attacks draw a card.
5/5
Shouldfeel pushed, but not broken like bsa and friends.
I hate hexproof.
It's getting close to the point that putting together a Modern Masters draft sim cube (minus the mythics, which shouldn't matter too much if you're trying to simulate how it plays for limited) might be cheaper than buying a box.
Given what has been spoiled already, I'm getting the impression that MM is almost designed to be the opposite of that. It's Cube (I mean, look at the list of stuff spoiled so far), but in actual packs instead of the traditional 1-of Cube.
If I ever build a pauper cube I think I'll find the least pimp version of every card, to maintain the "pauper" image.
I have considered building the World's Ugliest Cube. All white-bordered cards (preferably played and dirty) and Portal, with a sampling of Drew Tucker specials.
I'd have to go scouring the mothership. I'm pretty sure it was a Champions-era MaRo article.
Way, way, ludicrously too good.
Lost is strictly better than Unsummon, which is already better than you could get on a split card (see Far//Away, where it costs 1U). Afraid is an instant discard effect, which is a nono due to the ability to lock people out of draws.
All he probably needs to do is make both sides sorceries. Lost might still need to be 1U though.
I have people flip an unsleeved card instead of the (sleeved) Orb. The main reason is that any sort of sleeve makes the Orb a lot heavier. To get the 'real' (and more random) effect of Orb, you should either use an unsleeved card (either the Orb or something else) or force people to drop the card from higher than 1 foot.
Probably still not printable. Random discard is just so powerful.
Mind Shatter was printed and made very little impact.
I also think Hooligans is printable, if only because Wizards doesn't worry about Eternal formats when they print cards, generally speaking. It wouldn't do much in Standard or Modern other than be a safety-valve sideboard answer, so it'd probably see print.
It is quite common. Actually, I think border-only alters for modern-bordered cards are harder to find than old-bordered ones. Or at least I can't recall any modern card that I saw painted like this...
Whenever I see old-border extensions, they paint over everything but the name, mana cost and text box - almost never do they actually leave the card frame on there.
Got rid of the last two white-bordered ones in my cube
Yeah, technically, the Orb is still white-bordered
You know, despite being a somewhat obvious thing to do, I think that Winter Orb is the first old-frame border extension that I've seen done that way (or maybe it's common and i just haven't noticed?). Nice.
I run a very powerful unpowered cube. The reason it's unpowered is only because I don't want any 1st picks that are hot-you-over-the-head obvious, like Jitte or SoFaI or Moxen, but everything short of that is fair game.
I've had my eyes on Contract from Below for a while now, but since its arguably better than even Ancestral, I've been hesitant. Do any of you play with it? Do you use its ante rule, and in what way? Is it really just too powerful for cube?
If you play it as printed, or even close, it's absurdly broken. How often do you lose a game where you draw 7 for B? If you win the game, it's 7 cards with no drawback whatsoever.
It would be impractable/-possible to do a proper randomization of the whole cube before each draft; it's a lot of shuffling.
This is something to consider.
I wonder how much of this preference comes from how people keep their cubes in between drafts. I like to fiddle with mine, so it's sorted by color most of the time, and doing the semi-color-balanced packs is worth the five minutes it takes to make them. If you tend to leave your cube unsorted, random is obviously much faster.
I disagree with this. I think legendary dual lands are certainly within the realm of possibility with the new legend rule. The first one you play is free, the second one isn't a complete disaster (since you do get to keep one of the two now) and you don't have the awkward mirror match possibility. I'd be a bit surprised if legendary duals were printed, but I wouldn't be *shocked*, and Theros is a logical place to do it. Yes, Legacy players are going to grab them up, both in addition to the current duals or just to replace them because they're expensive. But the print run of a new set is so huge compared to Revised that even that pressure isn't going to affect the price that much.
This guy is insane. You play this t2 on the play, you (in a general sense) just cast a Sinkhole with a 2/1 attached.
The quote about it was that R&D would have to get hit by a bus before they'd reprint it, but I assume that meant in a tournament-legal set. I mean, at this point they'd have to get hit by a bus before they'd reprint JTMS too, but here it is.
I think the presence of Gilded Lotus means that this set is going to be a lot harder to predict. Would anyone at all have guessed Gilded Lotus for this set if it weren't already spoiled?
I'd play this even if it didn't have shroud.
Are you running Harm's Way?
Given what has been spoiled already, I'm getting the impression that MM is almost designed to be the opposite of that. It's Cube (I mean, look at the list of stuff spoiled so far), but in actual packs instead of the traditional 1-of Cube.
I have considered building the World's Ugliest Cube. All white-bordered cards (preferably played and dirty) and Portal, with a sampling of Drew Tucker specials.
All he probably needs to do is make both sides sorceries. Lost might still need to be 1U though.
Mind Shatter was printed and made very little impact.
I also think Hooligans is printable, if only because Wizards doesn't worry about Eternal formats when they print cards, generally speaking. It wouldn't do much in Standard or Modern other than be a safety-valve sideboard answer, so it'd probably see print.
Whenever I see old-border extensions, they paint over everything but the name, mana cost and text box - almost never do they actually leave the card frame on there.
You know, despite being a somewhat obvious thing to do, I think that Winter Orb is the first old-frame border extension that I've seen done that way (or maybe it's common and i just haven't noticed?). Nice.
If you play it as printed, or even close, it's absurdly broken. How often do you lose a game where you draw 7 for B? If you win the game, it's 7 cards with no drawback whatsoever.
This is something to consider.
I wonder how much of this preference comes from how people keep their cubes in between drafts. I like to fiddle with mine, so it's sorted by color most of the time, and doing the semi-color-balanced packs is worth the five minutes it takes to make them. If you tend to leave your cube unsorted, random is obviously much faster.