Sublime Epiphany - Force Spike > opposite ends of the mana curve, but I found my playgroup never mains force spike
Seasoned Hallowblade - Thalia, Heretic Cathar > Thalia always seems to be one mana too expensive
Radha, Heart of Keld - Arlinn Kord > a soft swap; i'm waiting for better gruul cards to come to refine my gruul package
Elder Gargaroth - Biogenic Ooze > Comparable swap, biogenic i kept in as a mana sink, but green has gotten a few these days. Gargaroth seems bigger and more flexible
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage - Exclusion Mage > almost direct upgrade
Waker of Waves - Impulse > testing
Ghostly Pilferer - Gifts Ungiven > Gifts also never seemed to be played with my group; Pilferer largely seems to function cheaper in the reanimator deck
Great card is great, but blue 3 creatures are stacked. Especially considering noncreatures take up far more of blue than any other color.
My current ranking:
1. True-Name nemesis
2. Vendillion Clique
3. Brazen Borrower
4. Nadir Kraken
5. Barrin
6. Man-o_war
7. Sea Gate Oracle
But in my 360, I don't have much blink, and I am already running rift/borrower/cryptic/ confluence
I'd cut Sea Gate Oracle. Barrin sounds good! the Second U will occasionally be relevant i think, but Barrin plays well in tempo decks and Crystal Shard grindy games. Including somewhere!
Seems so-so - i think the card disadvantage on cast hurts - counterspell, removal, all bad news. If it was ETB, you'd get a window to ping a pw down for lots of mana, but as is, it's a reactive spell that has to meet conditions to do it's job. The body is fine, protection helps against the attacking PWs, 3 mana is
a lot for indestructible. Can't be Oko'd?
Heartless Act
Lutri, the Spellchaser
Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
Fiend Artisan
Shark Typhoon
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Zirda, the Dawnmaker
Kogla, the Titan Ape
Luminous Broodmoth
Ethereal Forager
I like the lands in theory, but coming into play tapped requires significant upside to overcome; I'm not certain access to three colors is worth it yet. I'm actively trying to disincentivize my playgroup from 5 color durdle goodstuff, so adding tricolor lands would be a step in the wrong direction.
It's weird that the ability turns itself off after one or two uses. In Armageddon decks, where access to more land is useful, this won't help because you'll likely have more lands.
For green ramp/aggro, I'd still prefer an undercosted beater. If i need a resilient anti-control threat, I think Thrun or Carnage Tyrant fill that slot fine. As protection, it seems only so-so. Your main threat has to survive a whole turn before you can have 4 mana open to flash in a hexproof counter. Otherwise, you have 8+ mana available in one turn, at which point, I imagine you should be winning already.
Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
3GG
Legendary Planeswalker - Vivien
You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast creature spells from the top of your library.
[+1]: Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token. Put your choice of a vigilance counter, a reach counter, or a trample counter on it.
[-2]: When you cast your next creature spell this turn, search your library for a creature card with lesser converted mana cost, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
-----
If you have a larger cube and still play Garruk, Primal Hunter, this is a possible swap. Future Sight type effects are always seem to be just not quite good enough. Stapled onto a planeswalker though may help. The +1 is comparable - if even better since you make your Beast situationally better. The -2 suffers from the mercenary issue where you're chaining downwards. Still for green, chaining downward may be fine as you spit out more mana elfs or utility creatures and build to a fat Craterhoof.
I was going to ask what persist creatures are cubed aside from Kitchen Finks, then I remember Murderous Redcap is an option and the reliable Woodfall Primus. That said, I'd have to include repeatable sac outlets in the cube in order for Mothra to make sense. Could be fun for some folks!
Not an autoinclude, but a solid card depending on how your green shapes up. There is a downside to this card though - Inkwell Leviathan will be smacking you in the face for the full 7 with this guy out!
Definitely an option over Growth Spiral. I do think 5 cards in the yard are hard to get to for (my cube) decks for escaping until mid-late game. I like that this is a reasonable reanimation target without costing > 8.
Sad to hear this. This was my go-to forum for Cube discussion, Truth be told, forums are best place for in-depth discussion, and I hope we can collectively land in the same place - I find reddit, twitter, discord to be mediocre places for multiple ongoing discussions.
Sublime Epiphany - Force Spike > opposite ends of the mana curve, but I found my playgroup never mains force spike
Seasoned Hallowblade - Thalia, Heretic Cathar > Thalia always seems to be one mana too expensive
Radha, Heart of Keld - Arlinn Kord > a soft swap; i'm waiting for better gruul cards to come to refine my gruul package
Elder Gargaroth - Biogenic Ooze > Comparable swap, biogenic i kept in as a mana sink, but green has gotten a few these days. Gargaroth seems bigger and more flexible
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage - Exclusion Mage > almost direct upgrade
Waker of Waves - Impulse > testing
Ghostly Pilferer - Gifts Ungiven > Gifts also never seemed to be played with my group; Pilferer largely seems to function cheaper in the reanimator deck
I'd cut Sea Gate Oracle. Barrin sounds good! the Second U will occasionally be relevant i think, but Barrin plays well in tempo decks and Crystal Shard grindy games. Including somewhere!
Good call-out! It does seem like some hoops to get through to kill a planeswalker though.
Against aggro, i think it just dies quickly? Does it buy enough time or soak up enough dmg to be worth 4 mana, a loot and a phase?
Against control, it may not do enough? Digging a lot helps, but the abilities don't seem to add up to a wincon alone.
a lot for indestructible. Can't be Oko'd?
Includes, grouped into likelihood to stay
Heartless Act
Lutri, the Spellchaser
Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
Fiend Artisan
Shark Typhoon
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Zirda, the Dawnmaker
Kogla, the Titan Ape
Luminous Broodmoth
Ethereal Forager
I like the lands in theory, but coming into play tapped requires significant upside to overcome; I'm not certain access to three colors is worth it yet. I'm actively trying to disincentivize my playgroup from 5 color durdle goodstuff, so adding tricolor lands would be a step in the wrong direction.
Oof, I wasn't paying attn to the activation cost. 2 is a lot more than one, especially in red decks. Pass here
Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
3GG
Legendary Planeswalker - Vivien
You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast creature spells from the top of your library.
[+1]: Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token. Put your choice of a vigilance counter, a reach counter, or a trample counter on it.
[-2]: When you cast your next creature spell this turn, search your library for a creature card with lesser converted mana cost, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
-----
If you have a larger cube and still play Garruk, Primal Hunter, this is a possible swap. Future Sight type effects are always seem to be just not quite good enough. Stapled onto a planeswalker though may help. The +1 is comparable - if even better since you make your Beast situationally better. The -2 suffers from the mercenary issue where you're chaining downwards. Still for green, chaining downward may be fine as you spit out more mana elfs or utility creatures and build to a fat Craterhoof.