Here are my "answers" to planeswalkers in my cube that don't involve attacking or dealing X damage to a player:

Pithing Needle
Phyrexian Revoker
Oblivion Ring
Maelstrom Pulse
Vindicate
Oblivion Stone
Vampire Hexmage

Additionally, although they're not in my cube, Beast Within and Mold Shambler both can destroy planeswalkers.

My cube is slightly different, though, as I have these planeswalkers:

Elspeth
Ajani Goldmane
Ajani Vengeant
Jace TMS
Jace Beleren
Liliana Vess
Chandra Nalaar
Garruk Wildspeaker

There are just about as many ways to get rid of a planeswalker as there are planeswalkers.

I've retooled my cube many times and the most recent one was to nerf multicolor control (overpowered, overplayed) and buff two-color aggro (underpowered, underplayed). Making aggro far more viable is one of the best ways to keep planeswalkers in check. I lost a game last night when I had 7 lands and Firebolt, Damnation, Grave Titan, and Ajani Vengeant in my hand. I played Grave Titan + Firebolt, as I didn't think that Ajani Vengeant shooting down a 2/2 would be enough to keep me alive at that point.

quote:

---

Originally posted by yakusoku:
Additionally, although they're not in my cube, Beast Within and Mold Shambler both can destroy planeswalkers.

---

Rootgrapple and Terastodon!

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoshSherman:
Rootgrapple and Terastodon!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by mtglover:
Personally, I found valakut decks to be more annoying than caw-blade decks so I'm puzzled as to why people would quit standard because of that deck.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoshSherman:
Rootgrapple and Terastodon!

---

Desert Twister, maybe?

quote:

---

Originally posted by daner:
You know, I'm glad you pointed that out. Off topic but is anyone else annoyed (if you happen to own/play with a cube) that awesome mass removal spells do not affect planeswalkers? I find I'm constantly sitting on Deed/Balance and just want to shoot myself when my opponent slaps down a planeswalker.

---

I concur. The creation of the Planeswalker card type turned several amazing cards into to just "Good" cards. The group I used to play with had a "block party" every month. Basically, bring any block deck and bash them into each other. So sometimes you would get Ice Age block playing Shards of Alara block and other kind of crazy permutation. The one trend that was starting to develop was that only control decks from other formats could beat most of the newer blocks that have planeswalkers and some of the crazy powerful cards that have been printed.

I think the one thing that Jace 2.0 highlights is the power creep that has been happening in magic. Power creep has been happening since day one but the abilities that cards now have. Is wizards going to print another "Kamigawa Block" to calm things down and readjust the power creep or what will the print to make sure that cards like Jace 2.0 don't hurt Magic?

quote:

---

Originally posted by revenger:
Personally, it explains why its We On The Crack (wotc). they get a standard card average price of $75 and what they do? ban it! boneheads i think. whats next wotc? they gonna ban all cards over $100? idiots imo. sheesh. only a couple months left for jace n e monthsn e ways...i think premature ej...errr premature banning. just my thoughts. Revenger

---

Lol, I love you vengie but you couldnt be more wrong. Price has nothing to do with why he was banned. Did you even read Aaron forsythe's explanation?

quote:

---

Originally posted by sys41o:
I concur. The creation of the Planeswalker card type turned several amazing cards into to just "Good" cards. The group I used to play with had a "block party" every month. Basically, bring any block deck and bash them into each other. So sometimes you would get Ice Age block playing Shards of Alara block and other kind of crazy permutation. The one trend that was starting to develop was that only control decks from other formats could beat most of the newer blocks that have planeswalkers and some of the crazy powerful cards that have been printed.

I think the one thing that Jace 2.0 highlights is the power creep that has been happening in magic. Power creep has been happening since day one but the abilities that cards now have. Is wizards going to print another "Kamigawa Block" to calm things down and readjust the power creep or what will the print to make sure that cards like Jace 2.0 don't hurt Magic?

Don't get me wrong. I think Jace 2.0 is very cool but R&D went a bit to far and didn't really consider the ramifications.

---

I agree with you that T2 is getting very powerful.

In the old days, Force of Nature was the green creature everyone wants and valuable then. Forward to 1998, Child of Gaea was a popular, improved, cheaper version Force of Nature and was still valuable.

quote:

---

Originally posted by revenger:
whats next wotc? they gonna ban all cards over $100?

---

Magically making Jace a $1 dollar card (putting 1 copy in each booster pack as a new kind of promo? haha) wouldn't have fixed standard. The value has nothing to do with it because of my example and the future it would bring.
Literally EVERY deck would have been Caw-Blade.

So thank god for the poor saps at my shop who can't scrape together 400 bucks for one deck and their tier 2 decks i can hang with.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MTDetermine:
In 2010, you have that Terra Stomper is better than both of them, no upkeep, uncounterable, and is only worth $1

---

Oh god, i remember Force of Nature being in the 'in' thing.
Even poor, poor Serra has been dethroned.
But lol at you and overvaluing Stomper by 90 cents XD

quote:

---

Originally posted by MTDetermine:
I agree with you that T2 is getting very powerful.

In the old days, Force of Nature was the green creature everyone wants and valuable then. Forward to 1998, Child of Gaea was a popular, improved, cheaper version Force of Nature and was still valuable.

In 2010, you have that Terra Stomper is better than both of them, no upkeep, uncounterable, and is only worth $1

---

Equating power creep of creatures to power creep of the game is like comparing... well, apples and oranges.

Scars block has done a good job of readjusting the power level that was rising since Lorwyn (brief tangent: If anything can be learned from Aaron's explanation and apology, it's that R&D needs to get its act together sooner and be less reluctant to ban problem cards. And I don't mean they should have banned jace sooner, I mean they should have done more to stop Faeries back in the day. Aaron mentions how basically the last 3 years of power creep were caused by trying to make an archetype powerful enough to unseat faeries, then another archetype powerful enough to unseat that, and so on. That's IMO their gravest sin).

If you want to talk about complexity creep, though, that's definitely occurring. And it's R&D's biggest concern atm (as well it should be).

quote:

---

Originally posted by Meddling Pimp:
Me too. I'm not looking forward to another Valakut meta.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by coasterdude84:
Invasion.

---

Oh those were the days....I so miss Masques/invasion block, and Invasion/Odyssey block. And 7th edition was a nice base set too.

quote:

---

Originally posted by dwiz:
Then play RDW and beat the crap out of it? Or are you not good enough to be able to play a linear aggro deck? Have you even playtested with the M12 cards against Valakut or are you just a lemming like everyone saying that Valakut will dominate?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by super324:
Oh those were the days....I so miss Masques/invasion block, and Invasion/Odyssey block. And 7th edition was a nice base set too.

---