Usman's Cube Articles

Yo dawg I herd you like redundancy

So I didn’t realize it until Adam Styborski pointed it out, but about a year and a half ago, he did an article about redundancy on GatheringMagic… and I totally forgot about it when I did my most recent SCG article.  Is a redundant article about redundancy the most meta thing ever?

Speaking of which, I really need to update my common cube.  I haven’t even updated it with Innistrad!  So expect an update with those cards soon.  And Withdraw.  Oh man!  Also pumped to record a Third Power episode, the last time we did it was nearly 2 months ago.

Also to come, More blue changes where I’m finally happy with the intersection of compromise of blue tempo and “generic blue” for the thousandth time.  This time, I’m able to fit Timetwister, Into the Roil, Repeal and Standstill in my cube (and cuts for them were quite hard.)  Success!

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Had to cut some things, namely Thieving Magpie, which seems sacrilegious, namely to Norbert.

I want to see how cube is without it as I’ve been on the decline with it (although I think Lu Xun is great) as it feels relatively weak in the grand scheme of cube for 4 mana (and I’m not even going to use the whole ‘dies to removal’ argument as that’s just awful, but feel that blue’s other 4 mana spells pack a bigger punch.)  Speaking of which, even with the blue tempo push, I don’t have room for Opposition (which is sad because I think the card’s solid, but there’s just not much room for it, especially at the competition at 4 mana.)

2 responses to “Yo dawg I herd you like redundancy”

  1. theCubeMiser Avatar
    theCubeMiser

    I put in and removed Opposition earlier. I never really gave it a fair shot, but part of the issue is that it’s hard to justify it in blue (compared to say, Glare of Subdual in colors where it’s more likely to be used). On the other hand, I’ve been putting a few more token-enabling cards recently and there’s probably a point where Opposition will be great. Still, I think it might feel like a multicolor card rather than an actual blue card.

    Reply
  2. Jonnie Cain (@DelverofSecrets) Avatar
    Jonnie Cain (@DelverofSecrets)

    I’m finding it hard to justify Thieving Magpie as well. It feels so weak now. I feel that to be playable now it needs to have >2 power, or better evasion (like Lu Xun). I feel that I was keeping it in my 450 card cube because its Thieving Magpie, and how can you cut Thieving Magpie? It’s freaking Thieving Magpie!

    And now I am building a tribal cube that has a legitimate spot for Thieving Magpie, and I’m now pretty meh whatever, and probably gonna cut Thieving Magpie.

    Opposition has always felt too niche for me. The decks that generally want it aren’t blue and a whole load of stuff has to go right to get the blue deck that wants an Opposition.

    Reply

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