Thoughts on Deadbridge Goliath vs Polukranos? My initial thoughts are that Deadbridge Goliath shores up the weaknesses of an expensive dumb beater (cheap/efficient removal, board wipe, counterspells) a bit better by providing value even when dying. Goliath also provides discard value (Survival of the Fittest, Fauna Shaman, Lotleth Troll). Both have clunky expensive abilities with ease of use leaning towards Polukranos. I like that the body size supports the Wildfire Deck, so I want to run at least one. Currently have both in my list, but haven't tested in quite a while.
Disk is better if you're the one with planeswalkers but Oblivion Stone is one of the few ways control decks can deal with an opponent's on board planeswalkers. This is keeping in mind planeswalkers taking up an increasingly larger percentage of cube slots. Cut one, none, or both?
I personally really like Turn / Burn. Feels a little more impactful than Fire / Ice and Turn can deal with some particularly pesky threats. I'm trying to move Izzet towards the bigger more impactful spells rather than cheaper stuff like Charm and Electrolyze. I currently run: Ral, Steam, Dracogenius and Turn / Burn.
I can't agree with cutting electrolyze but with that philosophy I like prophetic bolt over dracogenius.
Gubbe, I think you are unwilling to accept the idea that some people actually find cards like Baneslayer fun. While I am with you personally that cards like Karmic Guide are more fun and rewarding, many players find cards like Baneslayer just as enjoyable. You have argued that that line of thinking is "wrong", and I would say you have no right to dictate what style of play people should enjoy more. And in terms of power level, while KG might have the highest ceiling, it doesn't have the consistently high power level of cards like Baneslayer and Cloudgoat.
It's still not my point. Why should anything keep any other thing in check?
They don't have to, but the majority of cubers find a balanced format more FUN and that is the be all and end all of any argument you can throw at this topic. A control dominant cube would be despicable to mid range-prefering players and vice versa, and etc etc. In the end, the correct cube design is the one most fun to the most people who play your cube, which in most cases is a regular playgroup. For those of us who often play with new cubers and randoms, you don't want to make any assumptions to player preferences so a balanced cube caters to more preferences than an unbalanced one.
If you cut cards that don't do well on average, but can be insane at times, and you replace them with more 'consistent' cards that can't be insane, then you'll end up with an average cube imo. Instead, why not shape your cube in such a way where karmic guide will perform better on average, and thus be more powerful than a 'consistent' card could ever be...
It's not about you not liking it as much as me.
I'm with you high power-less consistent cards. Hell, I run Mindslaver in my cube. But this is not an attitude you can impose on everyone. For one, everybody's cube size and draft pods size will be different. At 540 we can have room for tons of build around me type cards while having enough consistent cards to flesh out decks. At smaller cube sizes the amount of room for these types of cards diminishes and you can only run so many of them - thus the differing opinion on the more fringe ones that people can't find room for. If a small cube is all inconsistent high power cards, you're gonna run into inconsistent cube drafts. This is especially true considering not everyone drafts in full pods of 8 all the time. If I'm a player that very often does 4 player drafts I'm not going to value putting cards in my cube that depend on seeing other certain cards to be good.
If you are pushing tokens I can't see Karmic Guide being better than Cloudgoat. They are both abusable in many of the same ways be it blink, mimic vat, or whatever. A few decks might get a stronger effect out of the KG, but Cloudgoat is going to support more archetypes. Namely tokens, opposition, pox, and probably more.
My point is how often are you going to need that extra damage in an aggro deck on turn five?
Unless you have 100% win rate with aggro decks, every game you lost you could have used the extra damage. Pretty much every game I lose with an aggro deck goes like this: they stabalize and the game is virtually over but they need turns to actually put me to 0. With this, those turns turn a virtual loss into a win. Red's 5 drops are actually pretty good so this is cube size dependent, but I don't think this card should be dismissed.
This is certainly not a versatile card, but neither are cards like sulfuric vortex and fireblast and basically all of red's early aggro. I think it'll close a significant chunk of games that thundermaw can't on the virtue of not being a creature. At 4 mana I think this would be an autoinclude for most cubes, at 5 I can see smaller cubes already being full up on their all-in aggro slots.
I've been building green to be the primary token supporting color for white so this is definitely worth a test. People considering this should also look to add or test Thelonite Hermit in addition to the Deranged Hermit most people are already running.
There is no way this is worse than lava axe. It's 1 damage less the turn you play it, but its 4 damage more every additional turn in addition to the no life gain. You're giving the enchantment to them at your end step so it's not like you have to wait to your next turn to get the damage in. They have 1 turn to answer it (much harder to answer than a creature) before it's dealt 8 damage, which should be enough for most aggro decks. And if not, against midrange decks your small dudes go into chump block mode to let this finish them off. And against control decks it provides a clock they probably can't race as long as you got even a pittance of damage through in the early game.
Witch Hunt
4R
Enchantment Rare
Players can't gain life.
At the beginning of your upkeep, Witch Hunt deals 4 damage to you.
At the beginning of your end step, target opponent chosen at random gains control of Witch Hunt.
Seems like a big ass sulfuric vortex
would bigger cube want this as a secondary option? it does cost a bit too much
I think this is likely an autoinclude for my cube. In decks that want this card your opponent will likely only have 1 turn to answer this before it kills them. In a heavy aggro deck it might even be a better curve topper than thundermaw hellkite.
I think you said it yourself OP, auras without built in protection are generally not cubeable. Also unless you're playing a block cube of some sort, triggering heroic is an insignificant upside. You're right about the art though. I own a foil one for the sole purpose of sitting around being pretty.
Disk is better if you're the one with planeswalkers but Oblivion Stone is one of the few ways control decks can deal with an opponent's on board planeswalkers. This is keeping in mind planeswalkers taking up an increasingly larger percentage of cube slots. Cut one, none, or both?
I can't agree with cutting electrolyze but with that philosophy I like prophetic bolt over dracogenius.
They don't have to, but the majority of cubers find a balanced format more FUN and that is the be all and end all of any argument you can throw at this topic. A control dominant cube would be despicable to mid range-prefering players and vice versa, and etc etc. In the end, the correct cube design is the one most fun to the most people who play your cube, which in most cases is a regular playgroup. For those of us who often play with new cubers and randoms, you don't want to make any assumptions to player preferences so a balanced cube caters to more preferences than an unbalanced one.
I'm with you high power-less consistent cards. Hell, I run Mindslaver in my cube. But this is not an attitude you can impose on everyone. For one, everybody's cube size and draft pods size will be different. At 540 we can have room for tons of build around me type cards while having enough consistent cards to flesh out decks. At smaller cube sizes the amount of room for these types of cards diminishes and you can only run so many of them - thus the differing opinion on the more fringe ones that people can't find room for. If a small cube is all inconsistent high power cards, you're gonna run into inconsistent cube drafts. This is especially true considering not everyone drafts in full pods of 8 all the time. If I'm a player that very often does 4 player drafts I'm not going to value putting cards in my cube that depend on seeing other certain cards to be good.
Unless you have 100% win rate with aggro decks, every game you lost you could have used the extra damage. Pretty much every game I lose with an aggro deck goes like this: they stabalize and the game is virtually over but they need turns to actually put me to 0. With this, those turns turn a virtual loss into a win. Red's 5 drops are actually pretty good so this is cube size dependent, but I don't think this card should be dismissed.
I think this is likely an autoinclude for my cube. In decks that want this card your opponent will likely only have 1 turn to answer this before it kills them. In a heavy aggro deck it might even be a better curve topper than thundermaw hellkite.