The value of cheap removal has gone up tremendously and the number of targets for even weak removal like this has gone up a bit too
legendofa on 1.Sacrifice - 2.Exploit Persist - 3.Profit - 4.Win 3 years ago What are your thoughts on First Day of Class as an instant-speed persist combo enabler
Oh, and when it comes to defenders buying you time to build up to when you can establish dominance via combo or control, nothing is better than these guys because they give you a card to keep digging to find that needed mana, combo piece, or removal
Cards with Escalate have multiple modal effects, one of these effects is activated when the card is played, and additional effects can be activated by paying an increased cost
Added Droid Programmer
Additionally, 720-card cubes are much more difficult to build and balance, which is why I'll always recommend starting with the 360-card minimum if you've never built a cube before