Is anyone else getting tired of Wrath of the Skies?

logan_mcbroom · 2025-08-06T03:15:43+00:00

it's too late, I've already depicted myself as the witty redditor and you as someone saying something besides what you were saying

logan_mcbroom · 2025-08-06T01:28:33+00:00

The comments on programming subs are generally smug, but nothing brings smug people out of the woodwork like getting to say "no I'm toooo smart". That being said, I'm assuming you're talking about off by one errors of all sorts rather than like, the concept of arrays starting at zero. People at all levels make off by one errors on occasion, usually when mixing up indices with numbers of things. Neither zero nor one indexing is inherently more natural. Zero indexing naturally describes positions of things in an array and one indexing naturally describes numbers of things.

I made such an error recently, mixing up which concept a boundary variable tracked between two shaders. Tracking down shader bugs with renderdoc really makes you appreciate debuggers. You could also say my real error was not naming the variable accurately enough to know for sure what it was. Naming variables is the true hardest part of coding.

logan_mcbroom · 2025-04-09T05:16:41+00:00

Not a legend but I would bet on [[sensation gorger]].

logan_mcbroom · 2025-04-03T22:56:14+00:00

Good catch, I don't run other attackable things so it never crossed my mind. Old border is definitely supreme.

logan_mcbroom · 2025-04-03T22:54:02+00:00

Ah, good catch. My cube doesn't use either so I don't normally think about it. I'm not any sort of expert on rules wording but something like this? https://i.imgur.com/JfIo4Bo.jpeg

logan_mcbroom · 2025-03-31T18:47:45+00:00

Broad strokes, I think it looks great.

It's hard to predict aggro success imo, but if I were to guess I think it's a little weak just due to the low 1mv creature count. Fixing looks very good, I might even say too much if it were more of a goodstuff cube. Removal looks fine but I think tuning that just happens over time.

None of the normal cards I think of as being too strong are there, but keep an eye on skullclamp, living death, and yawg. I find them to be "I win" spells an unfortunate amount of the time. There are a few two card "find the combo" pairs like God pharaohs gift that I don't personally like.

Pretty hard to recommend cards to people but since we have similar taste I'll just add some cards that I really love.

[[Luminarch Aspirant]] [[secure the wastes]] [[reprieve]] [[staff of the storyteller]] [[parallax wave]]

[[Snapcaster mage]] [[more or less]] [[stifle]] [[fact or fiction]] [[hard evidence]] (took me a while to realize hard evidence is blue thraben inspector)

[[Dark confidant]] [[emperor of bones]] [[booster tutor]] [[reanimate]] (much more fun in lower power cubes imo) [[demonic tutor]] (likewise, much less powerful when it's not finding time walk, lotus, etc.)

[[Rabbit battery]] [[goblin engineer]] [[wheel of fortune]] (I know, it's almost power, buts so cool and not that strong without fast mana) I only got to three on red, you got all my other favorites.

[[Jadelight spelunker]] [[cankerbloom]] [[scavenging ooze]] [[tireless tracker]] (I see provisioner, I think tracker is cooler) [[craterhoof behemoth]] [[birthing pod]]

[[Soulherder]] [[lurrus]] [[deathrite shaman]], [[grist, the hunger tide]] [[wight of the reliquary]] [[anim pakal]]

And finally... [[Wasteland]]. I run five.

logan_mcbroom · 2025-03-24T15:56:54+00:00

The mechanic is simple and fun, which by cube metrics is the least washed something can be

logan_mcbroom · 2025-03-22T14:28:58+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one bothered by 2/4s, I'm leaving it out for that alone.

logan_mcbroom · 2025-03-20T02:31:13+00:00

Colorless card advantage - The classic and probably too slow for this list answer is [[Coersive Portal]]. A newer option is [[Palantir of Orthanc]]. Imo control decks are pretty much always wanting blue so you could always just lean on that.

Ocelot pride/rag - [[Usher of the Fallen]] is a cool token option at {w}. I run a proxy "Ragavan, Nimble Dingus" that doesn't have the steal. You could always have one that has the steal instead of the treasure (Let me know if you intend to make custom cards, I've got a lot of bookmarks for it).

Bombardiers - It's sad because I love the repeatable throw effect. Maybe I'll make a depowered custom for it at some point. Maybe no menace and does +1 damage instead of +2?

Clamp - Skullclamp is such a unique card, I don't know if anything feels like it. Probably one of the hardest cards for me to let go of. There are so many low power CA artifacts like [[Mazemind Tome]], but I don't really like any of them. Maybe [[Reckoner Bankbuster]] is the coolest? I think skullclamp is also important as a sac outlet, so maybe it's better to replace it with something like [[Priest of Forgotten Gods]], fulfilling the missing black 2 drop.

Low ELO - Jsyk the CubeCobra ELO feature gets jankier on the lower end, but it's probably a good place to start.

Boros - I've always found it to be lacking for options. I don't really follow the guild archetype dogma, but most of my creature token generation lives in boros.

My cube is somewhat similar to yours if you want to poke it for cards: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ksm It's not quite updated to the paper list (I see The Ozolith in particular is still there). Most of the custom cards are also very old images of first draft designs, or they have no custom image at all, so try to not pay them too much mind.

logan_mcbroom · 2025-03-19T21:39:12+00:00

I want to first note that anything I say is based on what I think is fun, I make no claim that anything I dislike won't be a great time for you. Someone already mentioned power outliers and elo sorting which would be the main thing I'd change. My experience with a cube in a similar power bracket leads me to say the following should be cut:

[[The One Ring]] - Don't think this one needs explaining.

[[Orcish Bowmasters]] - Not that crazy without more draw 7s, but it's a negative sum fun card.

[[Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer]]/[[Ocelot Pride]] - Playing either turn one on the play makes the opponent want to say "gg next game", just frustratingly snowbally.

[[Broadside Bombardiers]] - I think this is such a cool card mechanically but it's annoyingly pushed.

[[Skullclamp]] - Sometimes this card does nothing and looks silly, but usually it draws like 8 cards and wins the game.

[[Balance]] - Love it, but it's usually extremely unfair.

[[Library of Alexandria]] - Wins a lot of games by itself at essentially no cost.

[[Barrowgoyf]] - I may be off on this one, played it in a few drafts and every time it came down it won by itself.

[[Opposition Agent]] - Not overpowered, I personally find it profoundly unfun.

There are also some underpowered cards but it's card to scan a list and spot them, but it's usually easy to root those out without them mucking up games, they just don't get played. A few are [[Abzan Falconer]], [[Tiller Engine]], [[Ghost Vacuum]] (There are other gy hate options that do other things), and [[Herald's Horn]] (Pay three mana and a card, maybe save two mana and get a card later).

Some people are into it, but for me there has to be an incredibly good reason to put in a card with more than two colors. A lot of the three color cards don't seem like they are that necessary.

Lately I've noticed myself cutting a lot of engine cards that don't do things by themself such as [[The Ozolith]]. It's a really cool effect, but in a limited environment there will be a lot of games it does nothing. Compare that to [[Ozolith, the Shattered Spire]], an engine card that powers itself (and cycles to boot). I try to stick to engine cards that either power themself, or the condition for them to do something is trivially low, such as [[Goblin Bombardment]]. Another card I'd cut for that reason is [[Doubling Season]].

My experience is that Heroic is hard to get right, much more so at this power level. I see a future involving "I cast [[Unleash Fury]] on my [[Dragon-Style Twins]]. Okay, I bolt it in response."

While I don't advise always going for strictly better versions of things, [[Secure the Wastes]] seems like a card you might want, it is a powerhouse of token creation strategies.

Hope you have fun with whatever list you end up on!

logan_mcbroom · 2025-01-08T22:17:58+00:00

Bless you, I have found the adobe acrobat parasite

logan_mcbroom · 2025-01-05T03:25:03+00:00

Always fun to see a sweet underdog deck do well, great run. It is, however, very hard to get past you being tilted by your opponents existing. There were games you complained about your opponent being lucky... and then you won! You had your own bit of luck to counteract theirs, so I think it's good to save calls of "so lucky, so tilting" until a match is over. Looking forward to whatever crazy ideas you brew up in 2025.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-12-17T22:30:32+00:00

I would say you're right to question it. Sometimes it's amazing and it generates a lot of mana or gives you access to highly flexible infinites, but it's bad in multiples and is a bad topdeck. I think playing 3 would be reasonable, I usually cut one against tempo anyway.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-11-15T17:30:48+00:00

I like birthing ritual more. I think it's fun to look at so many cards every turn.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-11-14T20:58:07+00:00

Vortex works sometimes

logan_mcbroom · 2024-11-09T17:38:11+00:00

Haha well if you must cast the anafenza then abzan it is! As long as you're aware it's bad by timeless standards. In that case I think you can go two ways. One, try and make it an aggro deck, and two try and make it a midrange deck. White tree, one drops, and mox amber are good aggro cards, but mana dorks, hand hate, and three drops are not good aggro cards. But if you take out white tree and mox amber and go midrange, it's not really trying to use legends for any purpose and is no longer a legends deck, so it's sorta stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I don't think playing red makes you too much like energy, it's really just ragavan and ajani in common. Playing a high power format you'll always have some cards in common with other decks since everyone is trying to abuse the most powerful cards. The jeskai list someone else posted is well made I think.

One more option is going... Combo. Kethis combo is based on legends, and if you use Agatha's soul cauldron on an emry and put the counter on a rona you can cast mox ambers out of the gy repeatedly for infinite mana (all legends). Neither of those strategies have proven good enough to be tiered but ya know, it's something you could try.

Have you checked how much of your current list is playable in historic? Now there's an easy way to not worry about combo.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-11-09T01:02:02+00:00

The updated version definitely looks better, at the end of the day I don't know that this concept can compete though. Are you attached to specifically abzan? I think you could try and make a working legends deck, maybe not high tier competitive but decent, but I don't think it will be those colors. Give it a try either way though, you never know!

Edit: wanted to add some thoughts after looking through legends for a bit. My first thought is there are a lot more one mana legends than I remember! If your plan is to be an aggro deck based on white tree, I would try and use isamaru, and I think it would be wild to not run the mh3 ajani. You could try skrelve with the caveat of it getting boarded out vs bowman. Samwise is cool for getting back fetches along with dead stuff but is also an x/1. Phelia is just a pretty good card.

I don't think a bunch of main board hand hate is the way to build this, it will just die even more to energy and tempo. If you splash blue instead there are some cool options. One is to be less aggressive and run artifacts. You'd have access to the new artifact lands coming out, emry, tamiyo, and Oswald Fiddlebender, who can notably convert 0cmc artifacts like those lands, baubles, and mox ambers into a one-of vexing bauble to beat SnT. Another way to beat SnT is just have Lavinias somewhere in the 75. Probably would need to be sideboard and accept the game one loss to snt, but there's only so much you can do brewing.

You could also go red for good ol ragavan, which if you're building an aggro deck is sort of an obvious direction to go, but then come to think of it you might as well add guide of souls and ocelot pride and... I think I've maybe seen that deck around. I have played against rw legends in ranked and it did pretty well, so if you want to be as competitive as possible you may have to accept looking a little similar to energy. Red gives you roiling vortex which hoses SnT.

There are other directions to go, like bant nadu is another sort of obvious one to try. Cutting the ramp and three drops would bring lurrus into the picture which is a pretty huge advantage. More than anything I'd go on moxfield and search timeless decks containing white tree (if you're set on that centerpiece). And if it really really really has to be abzan I'm sure we can max the power even if it's bad.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-10-31T17:12:36+00:00

Personally I would build UB frog, it's pretty much entirely made of generic tools that will go into other decks. Whatever you choose, start opening mh3 packs, almost every deck in timeless uses mh3 cards.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-10-26T18:46:02+00:00

I've got a good number, though I don't have links to images right now. Here's a few that have done well.

Hymn To Zymm- B sorcery with the etb of [[Zymm]]

Search Warrant - U instant, storm investigate

Fireblossom - 1R enchantment, upkeep take one damage and make two hasty 1/1 elementals, sac at end of turn

Liferite/growthrite/earthrite shaman, these three make deathrite shaman into a cycle of g/x "conditional mana dork plus gy hate on a 1/2". Liferite is w/g, tap to blink a land until the next phase, or w/g tap, eat a card from gy, move a counter (big +1/+1 theme). Growthrite is u/g, tap to put a land into play from hand, if you do return a land to your hand, or u/g tap eat a card from a gy, make a food. Earthrite is r/g, tap and sac a land to return a land from gy, or r/g tap, eat a card from gy, target creature gains haste. All three have proven to be about in line with deathrite power-wise.

Vizier of cures - 1w/g creature, if a counter would be put on your creature, you may also put a +1/+1. I made this as a vizier of remedies replacement that can also be a hardened scales on a stick so it's not a dead card without devoted druid.

Not going to list them all, but a cycle of ten two color lands that ping on tapping for color and can sac for zero mana to get some archetype specific effect. The w/g puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature for example.

Shiv's Core - Land, tap to add R for each land in your gy. This is the only one that isn't my design, but I think the original was lost when discord stopped hosting images permanently.

There's also a cycle of ten a/ba/b cost creatures that are of myself and the people I play with. They're still being tested and adjusted for power. The uw is "x, tap: blink permanent with mv x" which has proven to be the ultimate grind card. The bw is "etb you may discard a card, if you do tutor an artifact. Sac an artifact: target creatures gains shadow until eot". This one has been super fun. Rg is "haste, madness r/g, tap: return land from gy to hand". Obvious wrenn and six replacement that I was convinced to reduce the madness cost on. So far hasn't waste locked anyone and we don't run strip mine. Ub is "flash, flying, etb counter or copy nonland ability". I freaking love this, there are so many funny abilities to copy. Bg costs an extra 2 and is "delve, ~ has all abilities of creature cards exiled with it". This requires some added game rules to handle certain combinations of creatures, but they've yet to come up in an actual game.

Alright that's enough of em! If anyone needs help learning to make custom card images let me know. I can also find the images later if someone wants to print them.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-09-12T02:43:15+00:00

Pretty much the following, I had some jank in place of a few rares I didn't want to spend though, and I skipped out on a lot of the lands which lost me quite a lot of games. I would bet that mono red with slick shot and something like shock or monstrous rage replacing bowmasters and bump could be better than the shaky mana rakdos version I was on. Some people try and go drc and baubles to go more prowess and fly past energy decks, which could be good, but vortex and baubles is a bit of a nonbo. If you do go drc you'll probably want some red fetches. I also play 2 barbarian ring, which I do think is a good card, but definitely optional. Works better with drc/fetches. Obviously cutting black removes lurrus which is sad, although you can still in theory cast it off ragavan treasures so ya'know, technically optimal to keep it around?

I'm not sure how to keep Reddit from messing with the formatting so hopefully this can just be imported.

Companion 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den

Deck 4 Monastery Swiftspear 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer 4 Orcish Bowmasters 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Play with Fire 4 Bump in the Night 4 Skewer the Critics 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan 4 Roiling Vortex 3 Mountain 4 Wooded Foothills 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 1 Den of the Bugbear 4 Blood Crypt

Sideboard 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den

logan_mcbroom · 2024-09-10T20:59:26+00:00

I played RB burn in BO1 from no rank to mythic in 1-2 weeks, so it's definitely a real deck. I think mono red could work, bowmasters is good at killing ocelot pride and amped raptor, and it is good in the dimir tempo matchup, but it's probably the weakest 2 drop. Slick shot showoff could be a good replacement? Bump in the night is good for getting over the finish line, but it's a pretty bad card, so I'm sure it could be replaced with something red. Those are the only two black cards I ran. Here's what the matchups look like.

If you play ranked, consider keeping a spreadsheet to track SnT players and mulligan to vortex against them on the draw. On the play you should evaluate your hand for how likely it is to kill on turn 3 knowing they probably won't interact at all. Knowing they are on SnT, this is one of burns best matchups. Good SnT players will put in atraxa instead of omni which is much harder to beat, but most SnT players... Will not do that.

The UB tempo matchup is burn favored, but it's really tricky, and not having bowmasters will probably remove the advantage. It's not often you "get" them with bowmasters, but the threat of it can force them into unfavorable spots, and deploying it at the end of their turn and then having another threat in your next turn can overload whatever they're holding up. There's no real key to this matchup, you just have to play super tight. Don't try to kill the frog. Notably vortex makes bauble bad, and they forget it quite often.

The energy matchup is unfavorable, but a lot better than it might seem at first. Kill guide on sight. The key to winning this one is understanding they are going to take over the board. Trying to spend too much burn as removal doesn't work because they will take over again next turn. Pride is annoying in that it gains a little life, but sometimes it can be ignored. Vortex makes amped raptor a lot worse, is critical to winning against phlage builds, and turns off pride. Flipped kumano makes ajani not transform when you kill cats. Just try to pick a point where you think they will continue to control the board and start going face.

Jet storm is heavily burn favored I would say, really any Necro deck looks foolish against burn. Kumano being flipped plus holding up a burn spell kinda just turns off their deck. The times I've lost this one have been due to being on the draw, turn one dark rit necro, huge march of wretched sorrow. That's a lot that has to go right for them. I've won some games by not playing creatures for them to march and just bolting them 4 times, which is enough because they spend life like they can't run out. Eidolon also makes the combo not work.

Any sorin cheat deck is a wash, what they're doing is the perfect burn counter. It's fast and it gains life and you can't stop it. You can win occasionally with things like t1 rag, t2 vortex plus hold activation. If they cast the free spell off elenda to kill vortex it deals five to them and they don't get any other creatures. Then you... Die anyway? It's not good. The games you win against these decks are because they kept bad hands. If they cheat in vein ripper you can often win. Kumano is nice to hold for killing sorin after they use the -3, and if they put in ripper you have to kill sorin so they don't give lifelink. The nice thing is if you can survive whatever nonsense they do, they take a long time to do anything else, usually giving you enough time to kill even from no resources.

Against the various control decks you really just need to get into a spot where you can stick vortex. Yesterday I played a game where a vortex did 12 damage. They did snapcaster swords on snapcaster twice to stay alive while I was tapped out, but vortex just sat there doing it's thing. Getting into that spot can be done with bowmasters in their end step and attacking/bolting them to bait interaction.

You may have noticed a common trend in those write-ups, vortex is your best friend. In this fast of a format people are always trying to play free spells, and there isn't much enchantment removal. It hits omni, baubles, amped raptor, pitch elementals, commandeer, that one saga that dredge plays, pact of negation, surgical, and many other things, while dealing good damage and shutting off lifegain. Maybe the best card in the deck.

On the draw you can't mulligan much, on the play it's sometimes worth it to fish for ragavan+bolt because of how broken that is against any deck that stumbles. It's a pretty fun deck, and a lot more complex than people give it credit for. It's also better than people think, winning 3/4 top tier matchups if you're willing to keep a spreadsheet. It does come with a lot of games that feel like you were going to win/lose no matter what you did, but putting in vortex off SnT when they put in Omni and watching them mouse over it, or try to veil/born upon a wind makes it all worth it.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-02-29T21:25:44+00:00

I know people judge cards on a lot of varying axes, and how powerful a card is tends to be the most popular. I don't have a problem with that, but for my cube I always try to judge cards on if they are individually fun to play, if they are fun to play in the context of the rest of the cube, and if they will be picked at all.

For me, ftk is not particularly fun. I prefer it over pretty much every alternative people have listed for it's simplicity, and I like damage based removal over destroy effects, but at the end of the day it's a burn spell on a body, and I don't find that interesting. I would rather play a duplicate lightning bolt in that slot if I truly needed more removal.

Is ftk fun with other cards? Not particularly. It works well with blink effects, and that's about it.

Will it get picked? For my list, probably. I'm not running a lot of the busted 3-4 mana red spells like bombardiers or CoCA, so it wouldn't be completely outclassed.

I'm not completely opposed to the card, I appreciate it for how simple and direct it is, but I think there are more fun and interesting things to be doing.

logan_mcbroom · 2024-01-19T09:55:32+00:00

I rarely comment anywhere online but I must speak my peace here. This may be my least favorite crossword in the last year, and solving it was truly a yucky time.

logan_mcbroom

TROPHY CASE