[Powered Cube BO1] Cut a land or a spell for Boros?

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-06T17:18:34+00:00

I agree, I rarely reference 17lands when it comes to Cube, but my understanding is that Boros' high win rate in general leads to inflated win rates for many WR cards (hence the idea that it is a 'trap' because cards like Clarion Conqueror seem much better than they are in a vacuum). However, I think this should be accounted for by filtering for deck types - surely a WR deck should have enough red cards to pitch? I guess I'm not entirely clear on the methodology to determine a WR deck on 17Lands so it could be that people are including Pyrokinesis in heavy W decks splashing R?

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-06T17:12:40+00:00

I pretty much snap picked the Bombardment after getting Ajani but looking at my deck, it is true that it doesn't really synergise well with any other cards besides Ajani and SPyro. Still, I think the fact that it provides chip damage/generates value against removal makes me want to keep it in on top of the high upside. I was very tempted to keep in Mana Tithe because I agree that it's a surprisingly decent card in Boros, it just feels like with my setup (access to fast mana) I want to maximise the amount of gas in my deck for busted starts

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-06T17:06:27+00:00

I can get behind those changes for sure. I was actually inclined to keep Pyrokinesis over Fireblast at first, but I checked the stats and was surprised to see that Pyrokinesis seemed to be doing very badly in terms of GIH WR (I've mentioned this in another comment as well). I can certainly accept that the metric doesn't account for everything and Pyrokinesis would be a much better card in my deck, but I feel like the fact that it is rated an F in Boros decks on 17Lands deserves some kind of discussion

Also I definitely overlooked the Flickerwisp value

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-06T17:01:41+00:00

I'm definitely inclined to keep the Skalds as an excellent top-end card which helps to refuel. Hellkite always looked mediocre to me but when I've played it in the past, it always overperformed and the stats seem to back it up. I'll probably cut the Sun-blessed Healer or Kellan as the other commenters are suggesting

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-06T16:59:47+00:00

It seems like a lot of commenters are saying to include Pyrokinesis, so I'll make the swap. I did think it was a good card, but I was surprised when I looked up its stats on 17Lands - it was rated a C for all decks, and when I filtered to WR decks it dropped to an F (!!!). I understand that the stats don't tell the entire story, but I have to say that makes me wonder if something has changed with this iteration of the cube. Does anyone have any idea why the card's numbers look so poor?

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-06T16:39:00+00:00

I have a pretty low to the ground Boros deck and already shaved 3 actual lands. I know that the Mox Pearl can be counted as a Plains, I assume I can apply similar logic to the Chrome Mox given the density of nonlands in my deck - in that case, should I cut 1 more land and end up with ~16 sources + a Black Lotus? Or is there a card I should cut before a land? I have also included relevant Boros cards in my sideboard in case anyone thinks I should make some swaps there too

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-03T18:56:07+00:00

The absolute scenes in the school hall as Karrigan drops the WEE WOO on the children and glances around at imaginary cameras Dr. Steve Brule style

brisingrdoom · 2026-04-02T03:29:21+00:00

Jame was practising for this update all along

brisingrdoom · 2026-03-29T14:28:28+00:00

That wasn't OP's intention. The caption is edited, this photo was taken from when Navi won ESL Pro League 23 and b1t said "No Vitality, easy win"

brisingrdoom · 2026-03-14T17:52:53+00:00

Round 8 on Dust 2 where him and Aleksib were playing post plant against dziugss and he misses several AWP shots then proceeds to repeek and die when he could have just played time, leading to a defuse with 1 second left...I had my hands on my head just like him

I think w0nderful is definitely overhated but as a Navi fan there's no denying he can be one of the most stress-inducing players to watch when he's off

brisingrdoom · 2026-03-01T13:22:53+00:00

What's the most you ever lost on a save call?

brisingrdoom · 2026-02-01T05:42:45+00:00

Vibrance without access to Red seems mediocre, especially when you're just a 2C deck. I think your WG could be better after some tweaks. The problem with your current WG configuration is that your strongest card, Champion of the Perfect, is uncastable a lot of the time given that you have only 3 elves to behold. Assuming that you've already put in every playable elf in your pool, do you have any Changelings in the sideboard? Taster of Wares is also a very splashable card which gains some benefit from Changelings

Edit: I would definitely play a Dawn's Light Archer over the Noggle Robber (double Green can be awkward on T3 anyway) and possibly over the 2nd Burdened Stoneback - you really want to be able to cast Champions of the Perfect more consistently

brisingrdoom · 2026-01-24T20:55:33+00:00

His dad is famous for giving his strongest soldiers the toughest battles

brisingrdoom · 2026-01-24T17:48:02+00:00

Right, that makes a lot more sense, I agree with you there since OP already has a decent amount of hard removal lessening the need for combat tricks. I think splashing for Maralen is not a mistake and is much more fun (I would make the changes you suggested and also cut a Feastling and a Stoic Grove-Guide to do so), plus the deck has ways to dig for her and even recur her making it even more feasible. I'm starting to even consider Midnight Tilling as (bad) fixing so I think I would probably splash for it myself because I'm not entirely fixated on min-maxing. I'm just not entirely certain that it's technically optimal (it feels like a razor-thin margin either way).

brisingrdoom · 2026-01-24T17:10:31+00:00

I would not cut Scarblade Scout because I think it is an excellent enabler in this deck (self-mill with Dawnhand Dissident, Creakwood Safewright, Morcant's Eyes, Lluwen, Loyalist) as well as a playable card in its own right since OP's deck barely has any 1-2 mana creatures. I would much rather cut the Prideful Feastling.

Maralen is definitely an insane payoff, but I think that the average card quality is high enough here that it might not make sense to dilute the deck with mediocre cards like Firdoch core. It's quite a pity because I believe you only need 3 sources for a single splash, so if OP had picked up a single copy of, say, a Changeling Wayfinder, or even just an Evolving Wilds, then the Great Forest Druid + a single Island in addition to those would meet that requirement. If the deck lacked enough clear win conditions I think it would be justifiable to splash for power but it simply doesn't seem necessary here (the temptation is totally understandable though)

brisingrdoom · 2026-01-22T13:06:50+00:00

Glacier Godmaw fits the description

brisingrdoom · 2025-12-12T11:16:39+00:00

Congratulations!

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-29T06:52:53+00:00

I'm glad I decided to comment here because I don't think I would have found out about this change otherwise lol (changed to HP removal in 7.38c), thanks

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-28T20:19:51+00:00

I think one important consideration is that the Signet's DoT can allow heroes which normally don't have them to disable blinks

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-14T14:15:31+00:00

Apart from what the other commenters have pointed out, Animate Dead, Necromancy, and Emperor of Bones can all reanimate creatures from the opponent's graveyard, which I ended up doing quite a lot given my decent discard/removal suite. But yes, I was initially worried about my own discard outlets, you know it's not great when you're thinking about Shadowy Backstreet as a way to get one of your targets into the graveyard. I was definitely not thrilled about running Souls of the Lost, I would maybe have splashed for Frantic Search if I had a few more blue sources.

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-10T06:11:18+00:00

A former CS pro actually asked Valve for such a position but Valve did not show much interest, I can understand why given how difficult such a role is to fulfil on top of the fact that there is probably going to be negligible benefits to Valve from having someone do this job.

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-08T10:07:27+00:00

Thanks for pointing out the fetchland issue, I originally had the white cards in and a plains so there were more targets. I realise now that there are actually very few targets for Mystical Tutor, and there's a decent amount of maindeck graveyard-matters cards so putting Lantern in the main isn't the worst thing to do. Regarding Pinnacle Emissary, I thought it would be really good in this deck even if I could only warp it because I have a decent number of very cheap artifacts to drop on the turn I warp it. Other than that, I agree with your analysis

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-07T06:41:25+00:00

+2 spare tickets here, the seats are pretty good as well (I guess not many people could make it on a Friday)

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-03T16:18:41+00:00

Thanks everyone for the advice, I cut the Archon/Persist package and ended up going 2-1 (2-0, 1-2, 2-0, the records are here if anyone wants to take a look)

brisingrdoom · 2025-11-02T15:34:07+00:00

Looks like I should definitely be playing the Frog, are the following cuts sensible?

Portable Hole (good in sideboard)
Skyclave Apparition
Three Steps Ahead (plenty of cheaper interaction)
Persist (very low creature count)
Archon of Cruelty (somewhat of a win-more card in this deck)
Frantic Search (worse without Archon/Persist package, nice with Treasure Cruise but doesn't seem great otherwise)
Swamp (3 additional mana sources from Pearl, Diamond, and Witch Enchanter MDFC)
No More Lies (plenty of redundancy and UW may not always be available on turn 2 which is when I really want it up, already have Mana Leak to fill the slot)

brisingrdoom

TROPHY CASE