MTG Salvation

I run an artifact themed cube at 180, and as a result, especially with the somewhat slow and dragonic nature of my cube, fast mana is extremely important. I know this is about 2-drop rocks, so this is just to give you an idea: I actually had to cut Sol Ring for consistently blowing out every game where it was played prior to turn 3. That said, I don't have much use for 2-cmc mana rocks. The only 2-drop mana production cards in my cube are Everflowing Chalice and Plague Myr. I fully realize that the nature of my cube lends me something of a slanted view, but I really massively prefer 3-cmc mana rocks. I have tons of those. That said, I have been meaning to test Mind Stone and Gaurdian Statue both of which I think are great and hold value, even once you don't need the mana anymore, which to me is what marks a great mana rock and is part of the reason I really like the Keyrunes.

Darksteel Forge has a place and is in the cube. It is listed under miscellaneous in the artifact section. Very last card.

As for being balanced, I haven't ever seen it hit play, so I wouldn't know from that. In theory though, it should be fine because there are several removal cards that exile here.

I got some store credit playing tournaments at my LGS and put it toward some stuff the cube badly needed.

Out:

• Clone Shell
  
• Relic of Progenitus
  
• Lim-Dûl's Vault
  
• Rogue's Passage
  
• Chimeric Mass

In:

• Dross Scorpion
  
• Myr Retriever
  
• Academy Ruins
  
• Diabolic Vision
  
• Blinkmoth Nexus

The removed cards are a mixed bunch. Clone Shell is too expensive and the delay on its effect giving value is too long. Relic of Progenitus is just sitting in boards. Lim-Dûl's Vault was always a placeholder for Diabolic Vision. Rogue's Passage has been consistently underperforming. Chimeric Mass is just kinda meh.

Every card I added was a card on my original list that was too expensive or unavailable. I don't think most of them really need explaination, but if I'm wrong, feel free to post, asking.

I am sooooo happy about these additions.

Tuesday night I traded for some new stuff and only just got it into the cube. Here it is:

Out:

• Arcane Spyglass
  
• Gemini Engine
  
• Golem Artisan
  
• Vermiculous
  
• Mephitic Ooze
  
• Razor Hippogriff
  
• Skill Borrower
  
• Sludge Strider

In:

• Voltaic Key
  
• Thought Dissector
  
• Cromatic Lantern
  
• Murder
  
• Vault Skirge
  
• Angelic Curator
  
• Fabricate
  
• Ethersworn Adjudicator

For the outs, with the exception of Sludge Strider, every card on the list was sitting out every game and were being last picked continuously. None of them was making an impact. Sludge Strider was seeing play, though not much. It was really only good in the sacrifice deck, and I did play it there, but it never made much difference. It helped a little, but no real changes due to it.

The ins are cards that I hope will see more play. They are a mixed bag. I see two more aggro choices that should help that become a deck. I see two solid artifact-themed cards that should have been in from the start. More mana fixing never hurt, and removal with no restrictions is a big plus. As for Thought Dissector, I just love stealing things and no amount of telling me it is unreliable will make me stop.

Did a little more testing and found one thing that was never seeing play and one thing that was but sucked. Found replacements for them. Those went in. Also traded for more stuff that hasn't gone in yet but will soon.

-Suncrusher
-Myr Welder
+Bonehoard
+Darksteel Plate

Suncrusher has just been terrible. You never get the full Sunburst out of it. It has under-performed every time I've seen it played. Too much mana for too little value, which is saying something in this cube. Myr Welder was just not seeing play. I thought it might be interesting, but no one ever gets the cards to make it work.

As for the additions, I would like the equipment deck to be possible, and so these two generally good equipment pieces, I think will be good both in and out of that deck. In that vein, suggestions on equipment that would be good would be great.

Got myself a shiny new Tinker tonight! Gonna toss it in and see if it fits. May end up going the way of the Aura of Silence, but we shall see. Fabricate or Transmute Artifact may be better cards for this slot. May run all three at 360. Who knows? Not me!

-Filigree Sages
+Tinker

I realized that this list was way out of date and decided to move it up. More and more token focus goes into this every day. Dropped a lot of the recursion focus, and upped the combo aspects.

I was flipping through some cards I have that have fallen into disuse. There I found one of my favorite old theme decks: the Time Spiral fungus deck. I loved that deck and played it all the time when it came out. I was flipping through it and found Thelon of Havenwood. I saw the word Legendary on him and suddenly I had an EDH deck in mind. Now to be fair it is a silly theme deck, but still. Fun to play. Without further stalling-I mean ado, here it is:


The green here is mostly for beatdown, token generation, and aggro, with black for support and card advantage.

This deck has a few stand-outs. The most surprising was Sprout Storm. This is amazingly good at spitting out an ever-growing army of saprolings. Convoke and buyback make an awesome pair. Other surprising ones were the contagion pair, with proliferate as an amazing mechanic that this deck could use more of, and Night Dealings, which is an amazing reusable tutor. Some more obvious powerhouses are Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, and Skull Clamp.

Some cards on the cutting board are Lurking Predators, Vraska the Unseen, Dual Nature, and Disciple of Bolas. Also all the Thallids that don't make saprolings. Those just suck. Predators is just no good here. I don't have enough targets that need to be cheated out. Vraska is mostly a 5-mana Vindicate. Dual Nature is something I have big dreams for, but never seem to want to play when I have it. Disciple has many of the same problems that Predators does. Not enough big stuff to sac to it. It's always meh.

I want to get a Craterhoof Behemoth as a finisher for this. It could also use some non-basic lands. Other suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm not sure about Rogue's Passage. The card can be amazing late game. Making Sundering Titan, Darksteel Colossus, or any endgame beater unblockable can help secure victory.

I do definately want to add Blinkmoth Nexus though.

I thought posting a pack to hear peoples picks might be interesting to try after seeing some others give it a go. Here are the cards:

• Alloy Myr
  
• Trading Post
  
• Myr Welder
  
• Seat of the Synod
  
• Vedalken Engineer
  
• Indomitable Archangel
  
• Metallurgeon
  
• Wurmcoil Engine
  
• Arcbound Crusher
  
• Otherworld Atlas
  
• Steel Hellkite
  
• Karn, Silver Golem
  
• Tezzeret the Seeker
  
• Sundering Titan
  
• Venser, the Sojourner

I want to at least test Tinker in here, but I haven't gotten ahold of one yet. Even if it is too good, I my give Fabricate or something similar a go.

I want both nexuses in here, but haven't been able to get ahold of blinkmoth yet. When I increase the size, infect as an archetype may see some support, in which case it will be better. I need to check what artifact creatures have infect.

The balance is definately off, but it hasn't been a problem yet. I may fix it and I may not, depending on whether it gets to be one.

Did some testing at my LGS tonight. One thing that was immediately apparent is that Aura of Silence is far too good here. It is an unbeatable turn 3 drop. You answer it right away or you lose. Just too powerful. Sundering Titan might see the same fate soon, but not just yet. As it is, I saw very viable decks in the form of ramping into beaters, control, to some extent, and just a beatdown kind of a build. It is geared for later game, but the early is fast enough that it doesn't drag. Had a lot of fun. If anyone could toss me a list of good cube artifacts or glaring omissions, I would be very appreciative.

-Aura of Silence
+Akroma's Vengeance

I decided that, as the only counter in the cube, Counterspell was really out of place. I cut it for Deadeye Navigator, who, after a quick count, I realized synergizes really well with some fourth of the cube.

-Counterspell
+Deadeye Navigator

This is the first draft of my first attempt of at ever creating a cube. I went for this theme, because in general I love artifacts and I went for three colors cause my group already has a one-color and two-color cube. It seemed like the next logical step. That aside, any recommendations and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I have one. I'm putting together an Esper colors cube themed on artifacts. The current WU section is as follows:

• Hanna, Ship's Navigator
  
• Protomatter Powder
  
• Momentary Blink
  
• Azorius Guildmage
  
• Ayesha Tanaka
  
• Fieldmist Borderpost

I have two questions. Which two of Filigree Angel, Archon of the Triumvirate, and Venser, the Sojourner do I add? Do I cut the Borderpost for Azorius Chancery?