
How meaningful are these stats?
When looking at cube stats people always say:
"this data means nothing, you would need a way bigger sample size."
I'm not claiming these stats are bullet proof, but I challenge you that they are more accurate at showing trends than you might think. The consistency in the data certainly surprised me.
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We can examine this by looking at functional reprints and near identical cards in the cube list.
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After 106 drafts and over 600 games of data Fyndhorn Elves and Llanowar Elves have almost the exact same rating. with only a .14% difference.
Fyndhorn Elves: 68.95%
Llanowar Elves: 69.09%
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The Black Doom Blade variants are all within .43% of each other even after being in the cube for very different amounts of time.
Cast Down: 72.51%
Heartless Act: 72.18%
Go for the Throat: 72.61%
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"But these cards are probably being played in the same decks a lot of the time so it makes sense that they have similar numbers."
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Luckily we have Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond which have 0 colour restrictions limiting which decks they are played in and still only have a .9% difference.
Mox Diamond: 76.38%
Chrome Mox: 75.48%
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Fabled Passage and Prismatic Vista, another non-colour alligned pair, are also nearly identical:
Fabled Passage: 78.49%
Mana Confluence: 78.28%
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Looking at all the functional reprints and near identical cards in the cube, the average difference in rating is 1.04%. I feel this is a marginal enough percentage of error to draw conclusions about general trends.